Tag Archives: sin

Random thoughts, quick comments

I wish sometimes that I could be more gracious about some things, more “understanding”, yea I get it, people have different opinions. Why is it that simply because one random person has a “different” opinion and it all of a sudden becomes valid? Just watching NBC news. A commentator makes the observation in terms of “assisted suicide”, that Dr Jack Kevorkian scared people, but now they have a spokesman who is young, attractive, articulate and as of today dead. Brittany Maynard had brain cancer and chose to commit suicide and she chose to do it in the public spotlight to raise the discussion on “assisted suicide”. It’s as if it’s OK, it’s an act to be applauded, one thing’s for sure Ms Maynard is no longer the spokesperson. How does someone put someone on a pedestal has affirmed quitting, death doesn’t accomplish a thing, except to make a martyr. How do you make a martyr out of someone who chose death rather than have it imposed on them? Ms Maynard was used by a group of people with a death agenda, who are still otherwise alive and planning the next step of their agenda.

Lauren Hill has a brain tumor. Lauren is a freshman at Ohio State University and just played her first NCAA basketball game. God bless her, she’s still out there trying, she’s still living. She’s young, attractive, probably articulate, but yea, she’s not getting the kind of press from the culture of death that Ms Maynard got. I readily found the information on Ms Maynard, took a lot more work on Ms Hill. Ya some people will try to shut me up by saying that you don’t know. I have to say one thing, I hope I will be as tough as a nineteen year old woman. I have given it some thought and I feel very strongly that while I had time to live there is so much that could be done. Death was never God’s will, we were not made to die, we were made to live. It’s only through our sin and selfishness that we bring on death. Why compound the sin and waste what time God has given men? While we live we have the opportunity to live for God and our fellow man, to do good works and reach those who the Holy Spirit moves us to reach. Death is never the answer, only in life can we make a difference. Ms Hill will be an inspiration for many playing basketball. Ms Maynard will be an inspiration being dead?

Pastor Jim Driskell

October 18, 2014

Couple of milestones, first I neglected to observe my 3,000th view, I know for a lot of “real” bloggers, you get that in a month. Took me a year, but I really appreciate the support of those who check out my blogs.

Second, my first reader from the Russian Federation, that is sooooo cool, it’s great to see you, it would be great to hear from you. God bless and please let me know what you think, which of course goes for anyone who checks out my blogs. Good, bad or indifferent, I really do appreciate the time some folks take to read and comment and it really does help me.

God bless and I hope we can be great blog buddies.

Ciao bella Italia. I just had a reader from Italy. I never really thought about it, but since I started doing this blog, I’ve had…

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Repentance, Confession,

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Confession in the Lutheran Church is a sorta/kinda sacrament. Dr Luther never really tried to decide on it one way or the other, but whether it’s a sacrament per se, it is still a vitally important part of every worship. Every Lutheran worship begins with corporate confession and absolution. Lutherans also encourage individual confession. I must admit that at the beginning of my fifth year of ministry, I have not had a lot of participation, frankly hardly any, but I will faithfully be available for confession. I schedule every Thursday at 5:30, you don’t have to be Lutheran either.

My first experience with individual confession was at Seminary where the Seminary Chaplain held weekly confession. I found it to be a great way to come before the Lord, His minister, and face the sins that I’ve been committing. Through His minister I am assured of my forgiveness and the knowledge that my sins shouldn’t hinder my life and keep me focused on keeping on the track of the plan He has for me. I would point out that in the individual confession liturgy it’s not necessary to enumerate each sin, you can, but I think that until there is high level of trust and comfort between the confessor and the one hearing the confession. Even if you don’t enumerate the sin, the assurance of God’s minister in front of you telling you you’re forgiven and absolving you strengthens and encourages you.

One thing I do want to remind the reader, confession is not the only part, there’s also repentance. I have heard people get this arrogant attitude “I don’t confess my sins to any man!” Yea sounds all self-righteous and all about me, but it’s arrogant, we are told to confess our sins to each other: James 5:16- “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” Hmmm, not to God, but to each other, why?
Now Rev’s Blackaby and I might disagree a little here, or this might be hair splitting, but James tells us to “confess” to each other, not to the Father. Why? When we confess we are telling someone who does not know anything about our act, we may be confessing to them for forgiveness, or to a brother or pastor, who we trust, very much, who can give us the assurance we need. We don’t confess to the Father, we repent to the Father. In the sense of: “Father I know you know my sin and I am raising it up to you in heartfelt repentance and asking for your forgiveness.”

I do like their discussion on prayer; “Significantly, James linked confession with prayer. Your prayers will be hindered if you hold on to unconfessed sin. When James promised that the ‘effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much,’ he did so in the context of confession. If you wish to have a powerful prayer life, you must regularly confess your sin. Only when there are no obstacles separating you from God and others will your prayers be effective.” (Henry and Richard Blackaby “Experiencing God Day by Day” p 272). God hears the prayer of the Christian believer. But I do think that sin inhibits us and since our sin is taking us out of God’s plan, His will, that it does tend to nullify our prayers, like any sin in a relationship, sin does tend to strain and even put a kink in the relationship. I’m not saying that God is going to ignore your prayers out of spite, or it somehow overrides the fact that we are completely righteous in Christ, but I am saying that the Holy Spirit is working in us and it seems logical that our sin can disrupt and derail that work, so we are simply not in God’s will and our prayers aren’t in accordance with His will. “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13) When we ask in His Name, we ask according to His will, tough to do if we aren’t acting in His will.
“Confession is not a sign of weakness; it is evidence of your refusal to allow sin to remain in your life.”(Ibid) I may disagree to the extent that we will always have sin, but to the extent of asking God for help to overcome the sin at issue, and to move on in His will I would agree. It certainly is a consideration that when I go back to prayer and really haven’t dealt with a sin that will be hanging over my head and be something of a barrier. The sooner God absolves me sometimes through His minister, the sooner He can begin His work and I can move in my life according to His will.

We are called to confess and repent, when we do, we know we are focused on God’s will, we know that we are forgiven and in God’s will, reminded of our forgiveness through Christ. Blackaby suggest that “if you want to have a powerful prayer life, you must regularly confess your sin.” That may be a little legalistic, but I think regular confession would certainly enhance and make your prayer life more meaningful and certainly enhance all aspects of your life in Jesus. But we are told to confess and repent and when we obey is there any doubt we grow in Christian life and maturity?

Our brains designed by God to be receptive to Him, our sin messes up that design.

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I’ve seen a lot has been written lately on the unique design of the brain. That the case could be made that the human brain was designed by God to be receptive to God’s guiding. The point is also made that the human brain is very elastic, very malleable. This means that the brain was made one way and intended by God for His guidance. Because the brain is so elastic, though, it is very subject to being changed from its intended purpose and to our human thoughts and deeds. Meaning, by our sin, by our lusts, obsessions, hatreds, substance abuse, lack of exercise, poor diet, anger, bitterness, we change our brains to be very different from what God intended them to be.

The research I’ve seen has shown that damage to the brain either physical or psychic can impact the brain very negatively. The “prefrontal regions” of the human brain is responsible for what is referred to as the “executive functions of the brain”. This part of the human brain is vastly different than any other animal brain. As Gary Sibcy PhD points out: “Spirituality is not some separate part of our functioning, but refers to how well all the different components work together in a synchronized and coherent fashion. Just as the term ‘team’ is about how well all the players work together, spirituality is about how well our thinking, feeling, behaving, relating, communicating and problem-solving operate in relation to others and God. Jesus’ life itself represents a living example of perfect harmony across all these domains.” (Christian Counseling Today Vol 20 No 3 p 42)

One thing that does come out in the research is that this part of the brain is rather vulnerable, subject to physical trauma and also psychic trauma (issues like bullying, sexual abuse, trauma, stress etc). I know that there are people who have been affected this way and have become bitter and anger, often against God and those who try to help them. But, it does seem to me, albeit my lay mind, that the elasticity of the brain can be used to shape the brain back to being receptive to God and away from anger and bitterness. Seems to me, that secular ways of dealing with this simply reinforces the anger and bitterness, trying to find a way to justify the anger and bitterness and resentfulness against Christians who are trying to help someone by adjusting their brain away from the bitterness and toward the love, care, compassion of Christ and Christians.

Well this doesn’t seem to play well into the secular. It frankly seems that the secular is much more interested in justifying the anger, justifying striking back and dispensing with any hope that they can come back into a healthy relationship with others.

Anyway, the prefrontal regions regulate/coordinate the higher functions of the brain. The claim seems to be that when the brain is operating properly, when we are allowing God to guide the Executive functions, instead of what people usually do and resort to the use of the lower functions of the brain. Sibcy writes: “…the prefrontal region … plays a critical role in spirituality because it provides the underlying biological platform that supports a wide number of neurocognitive processes and allows us to achieve ‘maturity in Christ’.

I’m not going to camp on this or bet the house, but it seems logical; God operates the higher functions of the human brain, we take our brain to the lower functions. It’s not to say someone is “smarter” because, I believe, there are other parts of the brain more engaged in just pure intelligence. But it seems that we are allowing God to manage and coordinate the brain when we rely on Him to guide us by our prefrontal regions and that does give us maturity, emotional depth, warmth, patience, humility etc. I’m sure you know someone who is quite brilliant but has little ability to effectively coordinate their brain between their brilliance and having emotional depth, empathy, humility etc., a great example is Sheldon the off the chart brilliant astro-physicist on the television program “Big Bang Theory”.

Again, I am a lay person, but for some reason, lately, I’ve been reading some very deep material in the elasticity of the brain. This is a rather new development in science and a factor that isn’t taken into account in secular psychological treatment. It seems as if secular treatment allows the mind to be hardened into the trauma by repeating the trauma, establishing who is the victim and villan and allowing the patient to be divided and enabled in their trauma, instead of trying to use the plasticity of the brain in order to overcome and move beyond the trauma.

As Christians we have to continue to pray and encourage those who are dealing with trauma, but we also need to challenge them to grow in maturity. We need to encourage them to trust healing in the Holy Spirit who, I have no doubt, will influence the patient, as He does with all of us, through the higher/executive functions of the brain. Through our encouragement and prayer I have no doubt that we are helping this person to use these executive functions in order to coordinate all the parts of the brain to rest and trust in God and follow His leading. It frankly seems that the secular says, “no you have to do everything by yourself, continually relive the trauma and let your brain harden into the bitterness and resentment of your trauma and you can simply sit and stew in your anger at the world and God.” We are called to a higher solution. God’s love, compassion, comfort, healing works through the prefrontal parts and heals, the world appeals to the lower parts of the brain and allows bitterness and anger to build. Obviously we are called to encourage, pray, include in community and turn from anger and bitterness to God in Christ.

Questions can often only be answered by doing and not fussing.

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Having been a still, relatively, recent seminary graduate, Master of Divinity (2010 – Concordia Seminary St Louis, Mo.), I think I can comment with some authority on Henry Blackaby’s comment”…merely ‘talking about the Christian pilgrimage is not sufficient. We must actually set out on the journey! We can spend many hours debating and discussing issues related to the Chritian life, but this means little if we never actually step out and follow Christ!” (“Experiencing God day by day” p 24). Yea and amen, it doesn’t just apply to seminary students, although it seemed as if too many thought that ministry was all about sitting around thinking great thoughts and then on Sunday morning coming down to dispense their great wisdom. Yea, well neither one applies to anyone that I met, and I think that after 4 years of actual ministry (my anniversary was this past August), I think I can say with some authority that I didn’t meet any students that had many, if any great thoughts.
The same can be said for many who have spent years, decades in the church. Sure we are to study Scripture, right up until they are throwing dirt on our face, but as Blackaby writes “Christianity is not a set of teachings to understand. It is a Person to follow. As he walked with Jesus, Andrew watched Jesus heal the sick, teach God’s wisdom, and demonstrate God’s power. Andrew not only learned ‘about’ God; he actually experienced Him!”
OK, point taken Christianity is about being a disciple, unless you are in unusual circumstances, discipling means being taught by another person and teaching another person, at the same time. While also continuing to study and be encouraged by Scripture.
I disagree that “Christianity is not a set of teachings to understand…” Yea, it really is, you always have Jesus and He will disciple you, but there may be unusual times when you just have Scripture and no one to disciple, be discipled by. Certainly we turn in prayer to God and are guided by the Holy Spirit. But point taken, bottom line being a Christian is being in relation with Jesus.
In that discipling relationship there will no doubt be questions. Certainly it is our nature to have our questions answered before we start out. In the Coast Guard you had these guys who had to have every question answered before they got underway, generally they just got shoved out the door. You can stand around talking it to death or you can get underway, get on scene, and you will get answers and rely on your training, experience and greater minds at the station to address the situation. In the meantime, yapping about it at the station and instead of getting there produces very little.
In my Christian walk it has been uncanny how many times the answers have come while I was in the process. Sometimes they wouldn’t come until after you were settled in the lane you were guided to travel and realize that the only way those questions could have been answered was to actually follow the Holy Spirit’s leading and play it out. I’ve had many experiences of looking back and thinking “ohhhh, that’s how that was supposed to be, that’s so cool, I would have never have thought that.” Like it or not, the Holy Spirit is going to do it much better than you and in a way that often just leaves you in awe. “I would never have done it that way.”
Despite what you think, you are not entitled to answers to everything, often the whole point is for you to get underway and the answers come. Your growth comes in being guided by the Spirit, getting answers on the way and it’s the only way it could have happened.
Many think that they have a “choice”, well yea, the right way (God’s way) or the wrong way (your way). Some people like to go to God with an attitude of; “You answer all my questions, give me your pitch and then I”ll think it over and get back to you.” As if God’s Son is some kind of vacuum cleaner salesman.
Blackaby suggests that Jesus might say, ‘Put on your shoes, step out onto the road and follow Me.’ As you walk daily with Him, Jesus will answer your questions, and you will discover far more than you even knew to ask.”
Get off your high horse, listen, quit quibbling. There are no better offers and when you really submit yourself to God and trust in His Word instead of listening to your own, often, pompous nonsense, you will find that you really do understand, and that you aren’t even close to really understanding. That you realize you don’t need to know everything. You can trust Jesus and His Lordship and you can get on with what you need to do.

Wired by God, for God

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Interesting how you can hear of the Higgs-Boson particle (yeah, I know what?). The so-called God particle from a year ago, published all over until reporters and editors found out what it really meant, then not so much yada-yada.
But when genuine scientific findings are made confirming over and over how, not only are we designed, but how the entire universe is designed, well that doesn’t get any newspaper ink.
Case in point, the recent “Leadership Journal” (Summer 2014) which goes into detail as to how our brains can be or are wired to be receptive to God.

Leadership Journal develops this rather extensively and it goes into some heavy detail, which I will attempt to lighten. I’m going to do a few blogs on this so that I can digest it betterand hopefully spew it out to you somewhat intelligentyl . I would like to add that if you are in ministry or any kind of lay leadership you really should get Leadership Journal it’s just an outstanding publication.

John Ortberg points out that our brains are wired so that “mostly our behavior does not consist of a series of conscious choices. Mostly, our behavior is governed by habit.” (p 21)
We usually think in terms of “bad habits”, which we all have much too much of. Ortberg points out: “Habits are enormously freeing. They are what allows my body to be driving my car while my mind is planning next week’s sermon.” Yea, right, texting on my phone, shaving, applying makeup, eating a big sloppy burger (not my imagination, I’ve seen each in real life). Point is, there is so much we do in life that doesn’t require us having to make a deliberate action, much of what we do is habit and happens because of conditioning.
“But sin gets into our habits. “…what Paul meant when he talked about sin being ‘in our members.’ He was talking about human beings as embodied creatures – sin is in the habitual patterns that govern what our hands reach to and where our eyes look and words our mouths say. Habits are in our neural pathways. And sin gets in our habits. So sin gets in our neurons.” (p 21)

Quoting St Paul “…there is nothing good in our sinful nature.” Ya, I know a little harsh, but let’s face it, we have developed a lot of bad habits. “Paul is a brilliant student of human life who knows that evil, deceit, arrogance, greed, envy and racism have become ‘second nature’ to us all.” Harsh? Ya, but true. Even our best qualities when you hold them up to the perfection of our God, then ya, our “bad” habits are much more obvious and our good habits, at best, ho hum.

Ortberg notes that our willpower is just not going to cut it. Let’s face it, we try to do it alone and usually we are back to the races. “…acquiring new habits through which we can receive power from God to do what to do what willpower never could.”

Ortberg’s next line is compelling because there has been a long standing belief that the physical really doesn’t affect the spiritual. The physical is certainly about the mind. Is there really any doubt that when we abuse our body it affects our mind. I doubt that anyone would seriously question that physical abuse, bad diet, drugs, lack of exercise, affects the mind, certainly affects the chemical composition of the mind. Couldn’t the physical/mental attributes of the mind, if they are abused, affect our spiritual outlook? Trying to separate the physical/mental/spiritual is just a false paradigm. As Ortberg notes: ” Neuroscience has helped to show the error of any spirituality that divorces our spiritual life from our bodies.”

I say AMEN! There are many belief systems that try to make it just about the spirit, that the body is just a husk. POPPYCOCK. Gnosticism, an heretical Christian belief tries to make the material evil, the spiritual, as it were, good. That when the spiritual separates from the physical then it will be hunky-dorey. That attitude has infused itself through orthodox Christianity. the image of spirit beings sitting on clouds in heaven. Certainly physical beings can’t sit on clouds, but the question is; is heaven the end? Eastern religions believe that once we get it right, we leave the evil of the bodily and the material world and then (yippee, skippee), we become some sort of ethereal being and then drop into the ocean of all ethereal beings where our ethereality (no I doubt seriously that’s a real word) merges us with the universe. Again, yippee, skippee.

Why the gratuitous sarcasm? God created the material and He pronounced it good. This also includes our body which He intended to be perfect, incorruptible and eternal. Where else could it have come from? Unless the rapture happens tomorrow, our body will give out and we will, in the spiritual, be in the presence of the Lord. But again, is that the end? No! Not by a long shot. At the final judgment we will all be restored to physical bodies, those who are in Christ, the “Lamb’s Book of Life” will proceed from the judgment to the New Jerusalem. The New Jerusalem will be the world as God had intended. No doubt, it will be much like the world that we left, but it will be restored to perfection, it will be familiar but it will be restored to a perfection that we can’t imagine. Certainly we will be restored to our physical bodies, again, the way they were intended to be before we messed them up with our sin. These bodies will be strong, healthy, immune to injury or damage. We were made by God to be both physical/mental/spiritual and we will be restored to eternity perfectly in all aspects of our being.

In the meantime we will continue to discuss how the physical/mental changes our spiritual outlook as we continue to affect the mental by our habits old and bad or new and good. OK, at least hopefully.

A “draft for the ages”? Certainly eternal consequences.

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I’m sure you’ve heard the “big news” by now, the first openly homosexual man to be drafted by an NFL team was drafted by the St Louis Rams. I was watching the NFL channel coverage of the draft and you would think a cure for cancer, or getting rid of ref’s entirely and having entire games called by video had just happened. There are about 1,700 players in the NFL at any one time. The NFL has been around since the 1920’s, (albeit with far fewer teams), so conservatively somewhere around 100,000 men have played in the NFL and one of them is finally homosexual. Listening to the coverage you’d think that because Michael Sam is homosexual that this is somehow as Sporting News called it, “A Draft for the ages”. Huh? Not too hyperbolic?

A little context and a lot of this is coming out of the Boston sports station that I’ve listened to for years and no, these guys are actually pretty liberal. But they did have some context. The guy was drafted 249th, way down. By a team that is in desperate need of any kind of notoriety, the St Louis Rams. It seems clear there were better players, but hey, despite the fact that there have been tens of thousands in the NFL, and no doubt some were homosexual, does tend to undermine the argument of the number of homosexual men in the population, significantly less then the guesstimated 10% that the liberal media likes to throw around. One of the guys commented that this guy will probably be playing arena football in a couple of years and it will be an “oh yeah, he was the guy back in the 2014 draft.” They also made an interesting comparison to the Tim Tebow drama of a couple of seasons ago. This is a guy who turned around the Denver Broncos and got them into the playoffs. What happened to a guy who has done so much good humanitarian service in the Name of the Savior? The Patriots gave him a shot. A team with the best winning percentage of this century, three Super Bowls, a team with integrity. A coach Bill Belicheck who uses that lame red flag as sparingly as any coach in the league. (May his tribe increase, I want to watch football, not a bunch of legalists fussing about the latest rule changes and video checks. Play football, get on with it and quit whining) Well frankly the NFL is by far the whiningest sport in professional sports. Anyway a team stacked with talent, always in the hunt, but always looking for guys with integrity. They couldn’t keep Tebow, but the whole scenario is, I don’t know, odd?

Interestingly enough in my devotional reading today Henry Blackaby writes on this very subject. Do we coddle people in their sins? No! Do we love them? Do we care for them, do we keep trying to reach them for real life in Christ? Absolutely! Hey, we are all sinners, we all have our issues, but as Blackaby writes: “You are not acting in true friendship if you condone disobedience or even if you look the other way.” Amen brother! Now of course I will probably end up taking heat for this, but for the life of me, help me, explain why it is somehow commendable that we are supposed to be dancing in the streets because a guy who will probably never be on an NFL roster and sleeps with another guy who was drafted 249th. Have we really gotten this messed up as a society?

We have no business telling someone that their sin is just skippity do da and you just go ahead and do whatever you want. Sam is 24 years old, actually a little aged for a NFL draftee, but still, let’s face it a kid. Someone who has a long way to go in life. Where do we adults come off encouraging this guy in his lifestyle? “Jesus never gave relief to people who were under conviction… Jesus brought no comfort to him [Zaccheus] as he dealt with his sin (Luke 19: 1-10)… Neither did Jesus excuse disbelief. We never find Jesus saying, ‘Well, that’s all right. I know I’m asking you to believe a lot and that’s not easy.” This nonsense that Jesus was the Great Enabler, is just that nonsense! Did Jesus give love and compassion? Absolutely! He is always helping us in our sin, we are always sinning. But when our lifestyle is just basically “I don’t care what God wants or doesn’t want, I only care what I want and that’s what I going to do!” This bizarre idea that Jesus is supposed to tell someone “that’s ok, it’s not your fault, you’re a victim or subject to your genetics, blah, blah and whatever you need to do, well that’s just ok (Oprah style)” is just not faithful to Scripture and is just not what we want for a society. Haven’t we seen enough in a society that says I don’t care what’s good, bad or indifferent to anyone else, I’m going to do what I want to do and how it damages anyone else (including me) well too bad. These are the same people that are going to expect a government agency (read the taxpayer) and yes, even more bizarrely, the church to swoop in and pick up the pieces after the inevitable crash and burn.

“Don’t ever try to ease the discomfort of someone whom the Holy Spirit is making uncomfortable! Be careful not to communicate to your friends that you find their lack of faith acceptable … or being comfortable with sin.” That just makes so much sense, the Holy Spirit is pushing on someone to really look at their life as a whole, outside of Jesus, and their sin. Trying to get someone to really realize how far they are lost in their sin and some nice gooey “Christian” in true Oprah style tells them: “…don’t you worry baby, it will be alright, you’re not a bad person, don’t let people tell you, you do what makes you happy…” Ok, that might help their self-esteem, but it’s the same old idolatry. Our feeling good about ourself is more important than what the Holy Spirit is trying to do. “God, what I want, is more important than what you want!” How do you think that will play out in eternity?

Peter King of Sports Illustrated in his blog says that the Michael Sam selection is his pick as the highlight of the draft. He glorifies ESPN’s decision to run uninterrupted and unedited the saga up to and including when Sam kissed his, oh I don’t know, companion, SO,… Really??? So much for unbiased journalism. How on earth does this rate anymore then a shake of the head? If this is what this guy wants to do, if this is what the NFL wants to do, hey you’re grownups, you make your own decisions. But somehow lionizing this moment, trying to make it comparable to some major points in American history? Give me a break and as I wrote before, a 249th pick, someone who will probably never wear an NFL uniform in a regular season game, in a league that has numerous issues with players dealing with legal issues, questions involving gambling and who can forget the great “wardrobe malfunction”, drug abuse, a league that is often derisively referred to as the “National Felon’s League”. There’s no doubt in my mind that the majority of people in the NFL are people of integrity and good judgment. But more and more those in the NFL who just push for the buck, cheap publicity, a general disregard for common decency are dominating professional football. How do you think that will work out for football, for fans of a league that is becoming more debased?

When do those in the NFL who long for a sport of decency, integrity, sportsmanship, an inspiring product, start to push back against the element in the NFL that seems to want to drag the league down to the lowest common denominator? A league that disposes of a Christian who wins (Tim Tebow) and then two years later lionizes a 249th pick solely on the basis of the fact that he sleeps with another guy?

I will admit it, I will probably stay a Patriots fan, because, despite their own situation with former tight end Aaron Hernandez. To their credit, they immediately cut all ties, they did not play around with the situation. It’s an organization that is generally recognized to be high quality in many respects. But it’s teams and people like the Patriots who are going to have to start to restore the credibility of a league that is becoming more of a symbol of questionable virtue.

Yeah, all will be held accountable by God, even those of the great and powerful NFL. The NFL may be an American icon today, but what does that really matter when the final judgment comes. In the meantime, as Blackaby so aptly points out, we don’t do anyone a favor by patting them on the head, telling them not to worry about what God says and send them on their way.

Please do me one more favor, for all you amateur theologians who love to do the “judge not…” that’s not what it means, if you don’t know what you’re talking about, do yourself a favor, stop making yourself look ridiculous and either learn or just be honest and say, “We don’t care what God says, we are going to sin, our blood is on our hands.” Hey so be it. Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 4: 1-3: “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires,…” This is Paul giving directions to a pastor that he is mentoring. Likewise directions to me a Christian pastor. I’m really tired of the world trying to make a virtue out of obvious sin, admit it, quit trying to justify it, be honest. The world is steeped in sin and trying to justify it with utter nonsense. Christian teachers, the Bible, tell me what is God’s will, that’s what I’m responsible for, that’s what I will teach, convince, rebuke and exhort. At the end of time I can stand before the throne, and yes I will have my own sins to deal with, but in the end I look forward to hearing those words from the Father “‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’
That’s my responsibility, the Holy Spirit put me where I am, and I can only be responsible to Him and not to a world that loves to rationalize, justify, cavalierly flout was is virtuous and what is good. If the NFL and the media treated this as a note, fine and move on. But the hyperbole surrounding this has been absurd. Don’t tell the rest of the world that this is a “draft for the ages”, it’s a footnote, if you think it’s otherwise, you really do not live in the real world.

We’re called to be in the world, not of it.

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We’ve been reading Dr Gene Veith’s book God at Work in our Wednesday morning group at the Green Bean in downtown York, Pa. I highly recommend this book, especially if you are interested in a fundamental understanding of the issues related to living your Christian life in the workplace.

One great point we discussed this past week was Dr Veith’s following observation: “Christians live in tension with the fallen world. And they are not allowed to diminish that tension by either retreating form the world or by uncritically embracing it. Jesus alludes to this in His great priestly prayer in John 17: 14-18: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.”

Throughout the history of the church, it has lurched from one extreme to the other. For so long people were honored who escaped into the desert, forests, mountains, for a time those who lived on the top of poles or, sort of, scaffolds. This is clearly not Christian, not at all what Jesus taught. Sure Jesus is depicted as going off to pray somewhere, but sure enough the next day was right in the mix of the crowds. And it was not just with other Jewish people. Jesus interacted with Samaritans, Romans, Greeks, a Syro-Phoenician woman, free, slaves and no doubt others, Jerusalem was an international crossroads in His time.

Many Christians exist in an, essentially, Christian sub-culture, many have no non-Christian friends an don’t interact with any non-Christian unless it’s necessary. We look at Paul’s life and travels, from Israel to Rome and maybe even Spain. According to legend the rest of the apostles were dispersed to all the points of the new world. Biblically we are encouraged to interact with all non-Christians.

Dr Veith’s other point about “uncritically embracing” the world is also a great observation. Jesus certainly didn’t in His time, He was very counter-cultural, He was in the world to fulfill and observe the Law. He was against the Law, He did oppose those who abused, twisted the Law. Today we see the other extreme, especially in, so-called, liberal Christianity, which seems to allow itself to be dictated to by the world, regardless of what the Bible teaches.

Having said this, there seems to be this idea among Christians who do feel led to venture out into the world (which we are supposed to do), that if we are nice and sweet to everyone than they will all immediately fall in love with us/Jesus and everything will be all sweetness and spice or the other extreme, if people find out we’re Christian then we will be immediately set upon by the evil world. The latter supposition is probably closer to the truth, but neither one is really a day to day. Jesus told us: “”If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.” (Jn 15:18)
There’s this kind of odd idea among some Christians, that if we just say the right words, people will come around and love us and love Jesus. There is no magic set of words that people will immediately respond to in some kind of “come to Jesus” epiphany. It certainly didn’t happen with Jesus. Sure many responded to Him and what He did, but no question there were plenty of people who wanted to get rid of Jesus.

The world really does see Christians as gullible, suckers, easily led. This is the same world that will jump through hoops if you wave a few bucks in front of it, or booze, drugs, sex, the world will fall right in. Talk about gullible, Jesus is life, what the world wants is inevitable death. It’s stupid, but it is consistent, the world is all about death.

Dr Veith’s point is that as a Christian it is tough to be in the world. Jesus recognized this in His prayer. We live in this constant tension and yes sometimes we do give in to the temptations. Difference is, we’re forgiven, the world in the same circumstances, is condemned. As Christians we have to keep all this in mind. We can’t give up on the world, Jesus didn’t, He is our Lord, and we have to be faithful to His leading. We have to keep witnessing to Christ in all the areas of our life. But when we do that it is with the realization that often we won’t be “liked”, appreciated and the good works we do will often be repaid in spite and coldness. We can’t run away from the world, and we can’t affirm the world’s sinful lifestyle. We have to be faithful to Jesus’ leading and endure the world’s animosity.

We won’t be meeting this Wednesday because of a funeral, but May 14 we should be meeting the coffee shop at the corner of W King St and Beaver, 10am, welcome to park right behind the church.