Christianity 101 | Ain't Complicated

A Blank Check for Love

What kind of commitments toward Himself does God require of me?

Love Him with all (Matthew 22:37)
If I love, then also obey (John 14:15)
Seek Him first, also His kingdom (Matthew 6:33; Colossians 3:1,2)
My body (Romans 12:1; 6:13)
Live His life (Galatians 2:20; 5:25)
Absolute dependence (John 15:5)
Take up my cross daily and follow (Luke 9:23)

Can I trust Him and love Him enough to stick my neck way out and give Him a blank check?

Dare I say, “Lord, whatever You tell me to do, I will do my best to do”?

Source: notes from a talk I gave at my home congregation — Hopewell Mennonite Church — on Sunday, May 28, 2006.

Heavenly Minded

A day or two ago I was leafing through a homeschooling magazine we got in the mail.

Eventually I got to a page on the left with this at the top:

Raising Heavenly Minded Children

Very good!

Then I glanced to the page on the right and saw this:

Is this photo conducive to being heavenly minded?

As a man looking at that, I admit to being momentarily distracted from that whole heavenly minded business.

Yes, I flattened out the scanned image above. I couldn’t in good conscience and Christian purity leave the photo as it was.

Did the magazine editors not think about the contradiction between the article and its accompanying photo?

I don’t know.

Was the woman being heavenly minded by dressing that way and then offering that view to the camera?

Obviously I don’t know that either.

I’m simply appealing to Christian women to consider whether or not the decadent culture in which we live has caused you to inadvertently lower the decency bar too far.

It seems to me that Christian purity requires modesty in dress. Actually, purity also produces such modesty.

So allow me a play on words in closing:

Heavenly minded — how much does it cover?

Good’s Store: Update

E-mail targets store

Kenneth Burkholder is perplexed.

His business, Good’s Store Inc., is one of hundreds of Amish and Mennonite stores that do not sell American flags.

Nobody’s singling out the other places.

But Good’s is under fire. Again.

The sender of a recent mass e-mailing claimed that a young, unnamed Good’s sales clerk “wrinkled her nose” in disdain when quizzed about flag sales.”We don’t sell those here,” the clerk supposedly said, “and we never will.”

It’s true that flags aren’t in the Good’s inventory, said Burkholder, the company president. The families that own the stores are Anabaptists, who view the banner primarily as a symbol of military might.

But, he said, it’s false to imply that this faith group, which includes Amish and Mennonites, is anti-American.

Nor could Good’s find proof that the supposed testy exchange with an employee ever took place, Burkholder added.

“We researched it. That was my main concern,” Burkholder emphasized, that the company not appear arrogant.

[…]

Burkholder said the brouhaha is not going to affect the store’s Amish and Mennonite customers.

Nor is it going to compel the 51-year-old business to start stocking American flags.

All the same, he added, he would prefer that people just stop talking — and writing — about what’s for sale at Good’s.

“We’ve been through this a number of years.”

Keep Yourselves

“Keep yourselves in the love of God”
Jude 21a

“Get Out of the Pulpit”

That’s my message to you, pastor friend, if you’re going to become political in the pulpit.

Today is Pulpit Freedom Sunday:

More than 80 pastors nationwide will be participating in the Alliance Defense Fund’s second annual Pulpit Freedom Sunday on Sept. 27. The pastors will preach sermons related to biblical perspectives on the positions of electoral candidates or current government officials, exercising their constitutional right to free religious expression despite a problematic Internal Revenue Service rule that activists groups often use to silence churches.

Pulpit Freedom Sunday is an event associated with the ADF Pulpit Initiative, a legal effort designed to secure the First Amendment rights of pastors in the pulpit. Some of the pastors preaching Sunday will address the positions of candidates in current state governor’s races; others will address the positions of existing government officials or people who have declared themselves for office in future elections.

“Pastors have a right to speak about biblical truths from the pulpit without fear of punishment. No one should be able to use the government to intimidate pastors into giving up their constitutional rights,” said ADF Senior Legal Counsel Erik Stanley. “ADF is not trying to get politics into the pulpit. On the contrary, the whole point is that churches should be allowed to decide for themselves what they want to talk about. The IRS should not be the one making the decision by threatening to revoke a church’s tax-exempt status. We need the government to get out of the pulpit.”

Let them proclaim freedom from politics in the pulpit!

I have a modest proposal. Those preachers who want the government to “get out of the pulpit” will put their pen where their mouth is by signing a public commitment to stay out of politics.

Any pastors who do not get out of politics will “get out of the pulpit.”

Did I say that is a modest proposal? Yep. And it is. Just like it’s sensible.

But is it Biblical?

(By the way, how does anybody get into a pulpit?! I mean, it’s not like it’s a closet or a telephone booth or or a bathtub or a car or even some sort of clerical garb.)

Steven Anderson: Wrong, Wrong, Wrong

So Pastor Steven Anderson prays for President Obama’s death, huh?

Here’s an excerpt of the above story. What Biblical commands and injunctions is this guy violating anyway?!

Pastor Steven Anderson said he and his congregation have received death threats after a controversial sermon earlier this month.

“Guns are a great deterrent,” said Anderson. “We haven’t had any violence because people know if they come down here swinging a baseball bat, we’re ready to protect ourselves.”

On August 16th, Anderson delivered a sermon titled “Why I Hate Barack Obama.”

In it, Anderson admitted he prays for the president’s death.

It is a position he reiterated Sunday.

“If you want to know how I’d like to see Obama die, I’d like him to die of natural causes,” said Anderson. “I don’t want him to be a martyr, we don’t need another holiday. I’d like to see him die, like Ted Kennedy, of brain cancer.”

Then there’s this from Fox News:

He called his message “spiritual warfare” and said he does not condone killing.

[…]

In Anderson’s controversial sermon, delivered at his Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe before Obama arrived for a speech in Phoenix earlier in the month, the pastor said he wants the president to “melt like a snail” with salt on it.

“I’m gonna pray that he dies and goes to hell when I go to bed tonight. That’s what I’m gonna pray,” he told his congregation.

So, what do you say? Which New Testament rules for Christian living is Mr. Steven Anderson disobeying?

Let’s compile a Christianity 101 lesson outline for him (and for us) on this subject. Maybe after we get something together here, I’ll post it as a separate post called “A Biblical Sermon Outline for Steven Anderson” — or something like that. And link to it at some free sermon outlines web site.

Meanwhile, I call on God’s people to pray for the President. Pray for God’s protection over President Obama and his family. Not only that, pray for God’s blessing on them.

(Just so you know, right now I can’t think of any part of President Obama’s agenda as I know it that I would call righteous. But that’s not what this post is about!)

Just Words

They're evidence. Make them count for good!

I stared. 😯

I was incredulous at the email. It was bad as a personal email. But sent to a multi-recipient list?!

Wow! Somebody was having a bad day! 🙁

Not only had the email departed the sender’s mind ahead of any grace and tact, it projected itself as mind-bogglingly dumb. I don’t mean that unkindly or disrespectfully. I’m simply saying its cargo excluded basic common sense.

The person who sent it issued a follow-up email 38 minutes later. It was an apology.

Very good! God bless him for his honesty, humility, and integrity.

But guess which email is more likely to be remembered?

Yeah. Too bad.

Words. Just words. Not sticks and stones, you know. But what dismay they can cause.

Words. Just words. Too often I want to excuse mine. And attack the other guy’s (if I deem them ill-advised or outright bad).

Words. Just words. But God doesn’t see the matter so lightly.

He will judge me by my words.

And by how they line up with His Word.

So….

“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart,
be acceptable in thy sight, O LORD,
my strength, and my redeemer.”
Psalm 19:14

Full of sweet, nourishing honey — not stinging bees!

This whole deal was one of those wretched teachable moments (can we come up with a different term already?).

The lesson above leaps forward as Number One (or more).

Other lessons?

Be slow to react to email. Come to think of it. Don’t react.
Be slow. There’s no rush. Especially if you’re having a trying day.
Email is forwardable. How far will yours go? That may not matter to you now, but it likely will in a day or two. Or in a minute or two. Or less.
Email lists have the added danger of being archived on the Web “forever”!

There. I don’t want to give them all. What other lessons do you see?

This was to post last evening…but I didn’t get back to my computer and the Internet in time.