Gathering Together: Singing

by Ruth Wilkinson

Doing Church 2 – Sing (Acts 16:19-30)

Why is this so important? If music is ephemeral, if music is disposable—it comes and goes, it’s just cultural—if there’s so much about it that comes down to personal preference, why is it important? Why does it matter that the Church sings together?  

Let’s look at our scripture focus.

Paul and Silas were having a bad day.

It had started well. They were in the city of Philippi going about their business, and they encountered a young slave girl who was doubly a victim. She was controlled by an evil spirit, and she was being trafficked by humans.

Paul had miraculously set her free. Which was cool, right? Well, her pimps didn’t think so. So they accused Paul and Silas of breaking Roman law. They had them arrested, stripped, beaten, thrown in prison to await trial. Paul and Silas had been dragged underground to the dark, dank, smelly, oppressive, secure-unit. They had been chained up with their feet in wooden stocks. The door had been locked… And there they sat.

Pressed in with men and women who had been treated the same way. They were in a pit filled with frightened strangers, chained to each other, waiting to be sentenced to either death or hard labour.

But Paul and Silas… They didn’t panic. They knew the system. They knew that their friends Timothy and Luke knew where they had been taken. They knew that the church in Philippi wouldn’t abandon them to starve.

They also knew that James had been beheaded by Herod because of his faith in Jesus. They also knew that Stephen had been stoned because of his faith in Jesus. Maybe Paul looked around him and wondered about the fates of the Christian men and women that he himself in the past had had arrested and thrown in places just like this.

So there they sat. Waiting. Underdressed for the underground cold and damp. Bruised. Bleeding. In a windowless, crowded hole with too few toilets and not enough drinkable water. The hours passed. They lost track of time. They couldn’t sleep.

So what did they do? They sang… “♫ HE HAS MADE ME GLAD! HE HAS MADE ME GLAD! I WILL REJOICE, FOR HE HAS MADE ME GLAD!… ♫”

Really?

That’s how this story has been presented to me over the years. That’s the kind of singing we represent Paul and Silas doing in that moment.

But I gotta wonder. I really, seriously, wonder.

I wonder if it wasn’t more like this: Paul and Silas in that darkness. In pain. Hungry, thirsty. Surrounded by fear. I wonder whether they didn’t turn to each other—as the Church—and remind each other why they were there. If they didn’t look each other in the eye, and maybe sing something like what later came to be known as the Philippian hymn.

Jesus Christ, who was very God, emptied Himself.  

Became a slave.  

Humbled Himself in obedience, even to death on the cross.  

Then God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name above all names, that every knee would bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Philippians 2 var)

And all the prisoners were listening to them. Listening to Paul and Silas sing the hope of a God who knows what it is to be humbled, to be bound, and to be emptied. Maybe it was like that.

Or maybe Paul and Silas cast their minds back to the Psalms written by David, so many of which are songs of lament, and of trust in God. Maybe they sang together Psalm 30:

Lord, how my foes have increased, how many rise up against me,  

Many say of him, “God will not deliver him.” 

But you, O lord, are a shield around me. My glory, and the one who lifts my head.  
I lie down and sleep; I will wake again, for the Lord sustains me… (Psalm 30, var)

And all the prisoners were listening to them. Hearing Paul and Silas singing their own pain, singing their own fear. In the dark, these foreigners—their companions in chains—singing the name of Yahweh God, who delivers the innocent, who delivers the suffering, who does justice, who forgives the guilty. Hearing the name of Yahweh God sung by these broken voices, from empty bellies, and with dry mouths:

Arise, O lord. Save me, O my God. 

Strike all my enemies on the jaw.  

Break the teeth of the wicked.  

Salvation belongs to the lord.  

May your blessing be on your people (Psalm 3, var)

BAM! In that moment, the earth shook. The doors flew open. The chains fell from every bruised wrist and every raw ankle, and all the prisoners were free.
And they stayed where they were. They stayed where the hope was. There was no hope for them if they ran for the door. But maybe listening to Paul and Silas singing songs of lament, of trust, of praise… That’s where the hope was.
Maybe in that moment they had heard the Church sing. And when the Church sings, God hears. When the Church sings, God rolls up his sleeves, and moves to meet us.

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Ruth Wilkinson is a pastor Ontario, Canada and appears here most Fridays. Her sermon blog is Pastor Percipia. Click the title of this post for a link to the original article and a video sermon — containing some musical examples of this week’s content —  of which this is an excerpt.

Don’t Just “Do” Church

by Ruth Wilkinson

Doing Church – Introduction (Matthew 16:13-19)

For several years in the early 2000’s, my husband and I didn’t ‘go to church.’ We were two of many, many people, particularly in North America, whose imaginations and whose hearts were caught up by the ‘Missional Church’ movement.

That movement was fueled by an increase in Christian bloggers, which provided people like us, living in a smaller town with not a lot of internet access up to that point, with a greater awareness of other opinions, traditions, and perspectives. It gave us some insight into ancient writers like St. Ambrose, John Chrysostom, Ignatius of Loyola, and Hildegard Von Bingen. These writers had a passion for Jesus, as well as insights and ideas that we found inspiring.

Alongside that growing awareness of other Church traditions, seeing what was happening in our world (watching TV and reading the newspaper (back when that was a thing) and seeing the impact of our culture’s shift into post-modernism) meant taking a deep look into ourselves, and at the Church’s place in the world and saying, “We’re not in Christendom anymore.” Our world had changed.

At the same time, in reaction to the post-modern movement of our broader culture, the Evangelical Church was creating a subculture of music and books and rules and vocabulary. Some of us started to wonder whether we were trying to turn Christianity into a sort of gated community. Someplace where we could feel safe. Some of us started to ask ourselves, “Are we supposed to feel safe? Are we supposed to even be safe?”

The Missional Church movement helped my husband and me to put a finger on some frustrations that we both had with our church experiences, especially around dealing with people who were ignoring the way the world had changed, and who wanted to keep doing things the way they’d been doing them for decades and for centuries. We had butted heads with people whose motto seemed to be what is jokingly called The Seven Last Words of the Church: “We’ve always done it this way before.”

Postmodern, Missional, Christian writers—bloggers and authors like Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch—were not only pushing back against stodginess within the church. They were also pushing back against the secular religiosity of consumerism. Of cynicism. Of vague spirituality. Of worshipping the tiny little gods of individualism. These writers pointed and pointed and pointed to Jesus, and they helped people like us to find our way through some of those frustrations while keeping our eyes on Jesus.

They also refreshed our desire to see God do something amazing. They urged us, in the parlance of the conversation, to not just ‘do church,’ but to ‘be the Church.’

They wrote passionately about being the Church that was created and empowered by the God who was the original missionary,

• The God out of whose real self flowed all that was good to create the universe to create us
• The God who waded into the shallows of three-dimensional space to walk with Adam and Eve in the garden.
• The God who chose to reveal His power, His glory, and His love to humanity,
• The God who became one of us who embodied himself as a human so that He could deliver His message in person.
• The God who, after His death and resurrection, filled us with His spirit and sent us out to do the work that He had begun—of restoring our relationships with him, with each other, and with our planet.

Missional writers urged us to be that Church—to be the Church that was established by the God on whose mission we had been sent. They urged us to be the Church that was founded on Peter’s testimony:

You are the Christ. You are the Son of the living God.

To be the Church that is on the march against the gates of death. The Church who hold the keys to those gates because we’ve been handed them by the one who infiltrated the kingdom of death and opened the gates from the inside.

These writers urged us to reimagine the Great Commission, “Go into all the world, and preach the gospel, making disciples…” not simply as a willingness to leave our home and to go to some other part of the world where maybe they hadn’t heard about Jesus, but also as “You’re going into the world anyway. You are going into the world every day. Wherever you are, as you are going, be preaching the good news of Jesus.”

We heard fantastic stories—like the church that was planted on the Pine River in Australia by a guy who was a waterskier. He went waterskiing one Sunday morning and prayed with somebody. He went waterskiing the next Sunday morning and told somebody about Jesus. And they slowly built a church of waterskiers who met on Sunday morning on the bank of the river: who worshipped and ‘did church’ together as a bunch of waterskiers. We loved those stories. They’re so exciting.

Those ‘Missional Church’ years have left their fingerprints on the way church planting is done today, continuing to engage with the principles and ideas fleshed out during that era. It was a good thing. It was a powerful thing. It was an important challenge and, I believe, a correction for the way that many of us had been doing church.

And I loved it. I don’t regret a single second of missing church on Sunday mornings for the years that we were doing the work that we were doing.

______

However…

I have to confess.

I have to confess that, in my excitement of seeing God do amazing things as we went into our day to day world, I and others fell into a trap: of looking over our shoulders at the brick and mortar churches from which we had come, and being just a little bit prideful.

Being a little bit arrogant.

Because we said, “We’re ‘being the Church.’ They’re only ‘doing church.’ They’re only showing up on Sunday morning for an hour, singing the same songs they’ve been singing since 1940, following the same formulas, putting their money in envelopes and into a plate. They are stuck in the past. They do their hour on Sunday morning and then they go home. Back to ‘real life.’ They’re not really living their faith. They’re not really ‘being the Church.’ Like we are.”

That is the trap that we fell into. And that is a thing of which I have had to repent.

Not because churches can’t get stuck. Not because Christians can’t forget to live out their faith out in real life and as they go in the world. We are all capable of doing those things.

The reason why I have to repent of that attitude is because I came to understand that those things that we do in that hour on Sunday morning really matter. When we pray together, when we sing together, when we learn together, when we share baptism, when we sit side by side, rubbing elbows. When we do those things well, we are doing things that Jesus himself did and/or commanded us to do. And when we do those things together well, we are fed. We are healed. We are encouraged. We are humbled in ways that empower us when we go out into the world to ‘be’ preaching the gospel we need those things.

They are an inescapable, inextricable part, a necessary part of living our lives of faith in Christ. They are a necessary part of living in—and living out—the mission of the missionary God.

Where our vision fails, where we start to get off track, is when we start to think in terms of ‘being the Church’ and ‘doing church’ as two different things. It’s not either/or. It’s not binary.

We ‘be the Church’ by doing the things that Christ has told us to do. We ‘be the Church’ by engaging—yes!—with Him in a personal relationship, and also with how He moves through our world.

We ‘do church’ by being the Church: by coming together, being together, worshipping together, then going back out into the world and embodying the good news of Christ, because we have been fed and healed and embraced and encouraged (and sometimes corrected) by our brothers and sisters.

We need… us.

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During this series, we’re going to come back a few times to Acts 2:37 and following. This is moments after Peter has preached his first sermon, and people in the streets are asking him, “Now what?”

So the people, when they heard [Peter’s sermon], were cut to the heart and they asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers and sisters, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, everyone of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” …Those who embraced his message were baptized and about 3000 were added to the believers that day. They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, to prayer, and a sense of awe came over everyone, and the apostles performed many wondrous signs. All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and their goods, they shared with anyone who was in need.

In that passage, we see the Church doing church: gathering, worshipping, baptizing, sharing communion at the breaking of bread, praying, learning, teaching, giving. These are the things that we do when we ‘do church’ and these are things that we must do well. Because Jesus has told us to do these things.

So… for a few years in the early 2000s, I didn’t go to church on Sunday mornings, and I do not regret a single second of that adventure. I don’t regret a single second of that schooling and (I gotta be honest) there are times when I miss it. Because it was an adventure.

But I have come back. I have come back to the brick and mortar church. I have come back to this hour on Sunday morning. I have come back to do the things that we do together when we ‘do church’ because I have come to understand that you can’t ‘be the Church’ if you can’t ‘do church.’

We can together stay grounded in our shared history. We can together stay grounded in our forms of worship. And we can—absolutely—have the adventure.

I am here to ‘do church.’ I am here to do it well. I am here to ‘do church’ in a way that shapes me, informs me, and changes me in a way that makes it possible for me to live out—and to live in—the mission of God.

I am here to invite you to join me in doing church together in a way that equips us for being that Church.

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Ruth Wilkinson is Pastor of a CBOQ (Baptist) Church in Cobourg, Ontario, Canada and appears here most Fridays. Her sermon blog is Pastor Percipia. Click the title of this post for a link to the original article and a video sermon of which this is an excerpt.

Building a Transient Church or a Church Built to Last?

As we did last year at this time today we’re featuring two consecutive daily devotions by no less than A.W. Tozer, which appear daily at the website of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) denomination’s devotional page. Tozer, a modern day prophet, was a key figure in the C&MA. His legacy reaches through time and has impacted countless millions. A prolific author and pastor, Tozer was known for his emphasis on the deeper life movement. If you read and think you know the people or organizations to which he is referring, keep in mind that he died in 1963. But his writing is still immediate to our situation.

The Psychology of Impermanence

Verse

Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria—enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.
— Acts 9:31

Time may show that one of the greatest weaknesses in our modern civilization has been the acceptance of quantity rather than quality as the goal after which to strive. This is particularly evident in the United States. Costly buildings are constantly being erected with no expectation that they shall last more than one short generation. Not only in our architecture but almost everywhere else is this psychology of impermanence found. A beauty salon ad recently defined a term that has long needed clarification. It read: “Permanent Waves. Guaranteed to last three months.” So, permanence is the quality of lasting three months!

These may be extreme cases, but they illustrate the transiency of men’s hopes and the brevity of their dreams apart from God. The church also is suffering from a left-handed acceptance of this philosophy of impermanence. Christianity is resting under the blight of degraded values. And it all stems from a too-eager desire to impress, to gain fleeting attention, to appear well in comparison with some world-beater who happens for the time to have the ear or the eye of the public. This is so foreign to the Scriptures that we wonder how Bible-loving Christians can be deceived by it.

The Word of God ignores size and quantity and lays all its stress upon quality. Christ, more than any other man, was followed by the crowds, yet after giving them such help as they were able to receive, He quietly turned from them and deposited His enduring truths in the breasts of His chosen 12. He refused a quick shortcut to the throne and chose instead the long painful way of the cross. He rejected the offers of the multitude and rested His success upon those eternal qualities, which He was able to plant in the hearts of a modest number of redeemed men. The ages have thanked God that He did.

Thought

Quantity growth of the church is noted at least nine times in Acts 2-9. Occasionally specific numbers are given. But quality is not sacrificed for quantity. Spirit-filled witnesses, healings, and miracles characterize the growing, first-century church.

Prayer

Lord, give discernment to our church leaders so that they are deceived neither by growth in numbers nor desperate clinging to decline and methods of the past. May their eyes be focused on the primary goal of Spirit-filled living.

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The Contemporary vs. the Eternal

Verse

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.
— Psalm 119:105

Pastors and churches in our hectic times are harassed by the temptation to seek size at any cost and to secure by inflation what they cannot gain by legitimate growth. The mixed multitude cries for quantity and will not forgive a minister who insists upon solid values and permanence. Many a man of God is being subjected to cruel pressure by the ill-taught members of his flock who scorn his slow methods and demand quick results and a popular following, regardless of quality.

These children play in the marketplaces and cannot overlook the affront we do them by our refusal to dance when they whistle or to weep when they out of caprice pipe a sad tune. They are greedy for thrills, and since they dare no longer seek them in the theater, they demand to have them brought into the church.

We who follow Christ are men and women of eternity. We must put no confidence in the passing scenes of the disappearing world. We must resist every attempt of Satan to palm off upon us the values that belong to mortality. Nothing less than forever is long enough for us. We view with amused sadness the frenetic scramble of the world to gain a brief moment in the sun.

“The book of the month,” for instance, has a strange sound to one who has dwelt with God and taken His values from the Ancient of Days. “The man of the year” cannot impress those men and women who are making their plans for that long eternity when days and years have passed away and time is no more.

Thought

Contemporary and eternal: are they compatible? The challenge is to recognize and communicate the eternal without contemporary or traditional forms letting in syncretistic or current worldview error.

Prayer

Father, Your Word is my light along the way, keeping me from the momentary popular or the hoary traditional. Increase my sensitivity to perceive Your light, in Jesus’ name.

Did You Hear from God That Time?

Today we’re in Jeremiah 23:

²¹ I did not send these prophets,
yet they have run with their message;
I did not speak to them,
yet they have prophesied.  (NIV)

²¹ I didn’t send the prophets,
yet they ran anyway.
I didn’t speak to them,
yet they prophesied anyway. (CEB)

²¹ I did not send those prophets.
Yet they were in a hurry to give their message.
I did not tell them anything.
Yet they prophesied anyway.  (NET)

²¹ “I have not sent these prophets,
yet they run around claiming to speak for me.
I have given them no message,
yet they go on prophesying.  (NLT)

The force of this verse is clear, but the second line is nuanced differently in each of the above translations. The CEB brings out the idea that the prophets went out regardless of having not heard; the NET Bible suggests that they were in a big rush to speak, and the NLT suggests what we sometimes call a “beehive of activity.”

Each one of these three alternatives to the NIV offers a different potential application.

To me, the CEB suggests someone who, like the characters in the comedy The Blues Brothers goes forth saying to themselves, “We’re on a mission from God,” when in fact God didn’t authorize that particular mission. Blogger Johnny B. wrote in 2012 that this sense of urgency can really turn a true prophet into a false prophet:

How many times do we follow false gods or do things against God, yet try to give God the credit?  Beware false prophets as you venture out and open yourselves to the world today.  Constantly, throughout the day, be in tune to God and what He wants you to do.  Be not a false prophet, but a man (woman) who follows God and displays Jesus in his (her) daily walk and actions.

In an article no longer online about problems in the church in Ghana, someone wrote:

They prophesy lies in God’s name, but God did not send them, command them nor speak to them.  They prophesy lying vision, worthless divination and the deceit of their own minds.  Jeremiah 14:14.  They are all over the place and they spring up every day like mushrooms.  They claim to be “men of God,”  “apostles,”  “pastors,” “prophets,” “bishops,” “archbishops,” and what-nots, but they lie!  They are ordinary criminals parading as “men of God” and deceiving the gullible who don’t know their Bible and have no discernment.

With the NET Bible, we think of the times we think first and speak later. This is even more important when we presume to speak for God. I’ve already covered the idea that each of should be “slow to speak” in this article and this article.

However, we can’t assume that if a pastor feels he hasn’t heard from God this week he should simply move directly to the closing hymn and dismiss the service early. But it does suggest that there are indeed such times. Could the pastor phone up a church member and offer him or her the pulpit? In conversation with hurting people do we open our mouths when perhaps just our presence — even in silence — or an offer to pray is what is called for?  Do we know someone who needs encouragement, but we pick up the phone or send the email before we’ve really been given something of substance to say?

In ministry this is sometimes called burnout; though the term would have been somewhat foreign to Jeremiah or this context. In a review of the book Leading on Empty by Wayne Cordiero, a reader defined it:

Burnout happens when you keep pushing yourself and don’t know when to slow down… As a leader you give and give, but you can’t give what you don’t have…

Singer Jackson Browne called this “Running on Empty,” or what some people call “running on fumes;” the tank is out of gas (petrol) but the vehicle is still in motion — barely.

Can it be that in so doing you cross the line from true prophet to false prophet?

Can it be that up to a point you actually had a pretty good track record in what you spoke, but fatigue or carelessness tarnished your message?

The Voice Bible echoes this with the addition of an extra phrase:

²¹ Eternal One: I did not send these so-called prophets,
        but they have run to you with their empty words.
    I did not speak to them,
        but they claim to speak for Me.

With the NLT, I see the breadth of ministry defined. God gave us a word to give to person “A”, and we then scurry out thinking that “B,” “C,” and “D” need to hear it as well.  Probably entire churches have been founded on what was a single word that was meant for a particular individual, location or situation.

In the NLT rendering there is a picture of running around, ‘to and fro’ as some say; a picture of busy church people busy doing church things.  A great deal of energy is expended, but the result is heat when what’s needed is light.

Sometimes this flurry of activity is about the building of someone’s personal empire, either a pastor or a ministry organization. The Reformation Study Bible says the verse reflects ” a picture of zeal in their self-serving propagation of falsehood.”

This doesn’t mean that all overburdened, overtaxed pastors are necessarily spreading false doctrine, but certainly it can be a variable that increases the propensity to error.  The phrase “yet they go on” suggests an individual in desperate need of an “off” switch or even a “pause.” We need to take time to refresh and dare I say reload in the sense of hearing from God afresh.

That’s the message in the very next verse:

²² But if they had stood in my council,
    they would have proclaimed my words to my people
and would have turned them from their evil ways
    and from their evil deeds.

Hearing from God is key.

Writer Isaac Guiterrez confesses to experiencing this personally:

How many self-proclaimed prophets are out there? In my years of ministry I’ve seen many. They all believe that they have been called of God to bring a word of correction and judgment to the church.  I walked also strongly in the prophetic but I used it wrongly. I brought judgement instead of edification. Well God had to humble me by taking out of ministry for some time. Just recently I’ve been receiving invitations to come back to the church to bring the ministry of prophetic evangelism to the local churches. What I learned as helped me understand how prophecy is to be handled. Praise God because I have a new revelation not just head knowledge of the prophetic. It’s time that we walk in building others up. God must send you before you run out on your own and became a prophet to the church. We have to many loose cannon prophets.

He goes on to add,

Jesus warned of false prophets. This is one of the reasons it is important for us to recognize a true prophet, so we can then recognize a false prophet.

And Jesus, answering them, began to say: “Take heed that no one deceives you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and will deceive many.” (Mark 13:5-6)

If the prophecy does not point toward or lead to God, if it does not uplift Jesus, then the source is not from God and is false.

True Prophecy testifies of Jesus Christ

Revelation 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, “See that you do not do that! I am your fellow servant, and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.”

Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

The original of Isaac’s article is still online, and I encourage you to continue reading here.

Seven Spiritual Report Cards

John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and kingdom and perseverance that are in Jesus, was on the island of Patmos because of the word of God and my testimony about Jesus. On the Lord’s day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, saying, “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.” – Revelation 1: 9-11 BSB

A year ago we introduced you to the website Stained Glass Rebel from Niles First United Methodist Church in Ohio. Click the article title which follows and read this where it first appeared.

Unveiling Revelation: Checking in with Your Spiritual Journey

Hey friends! Ever felt the need for a spiritual check-up? Well, if your soul is signaling for some attention, you’ve landed in the right place! Today, we’re delving into the mesmerizing, often intricate Book of Revelation. It’s like cracking open a spiritual fortune cookie with loads of wisdom waiting to be unveiled.

Diving into Seven Churches

The second and third chapters of Revelation, penned with divine inspiration, serve up timeless messages to seven distinct churches in Asia Minor. Picture these as ancient report cards providing each church a mixture of commendation, some friendly nudging, and calls to action.

First, we meet Ephesus – diligent and discerning yet somewhat cold-hearted. Remember the fizz and spark when you first fell head over heels in love? Ephesus seems to have misplaced that spark. The remedy? Reigniting the flame of first love for God.

Now, consider Smyrna, not rolling in dough but spiritually wealthy and steadfast, even though life’s tossing them curveballs. Upcoming challenges might be stiff, but they’re urged to stay faithful, with eyes fixed on the eternal prize – the crown of life.

Navigating Through Challenges

We then engage with Pergamum, resilient believers dwelling amidst evil, but some are teetering, wading into murky theological waters. It’s like having a few rotten apples potentially spoiling the entire bunch. Time for a spiritual cleanse, perhaps?

Thyatira is up next, a commendable bunch known for their love, service, and faith. Yet, they’re tolerating a ‘Jezebel’, a corrupting influence that’s got to go. Their action plan? Kick out the toxic elements, repent, and fortify what’s good and true.

Now, here’s Sardis, looking alive and kicking on the outside but spiritually snoozing. Ever felt stuck in a spiritual rut? That’s Sardis in a nutshell. Their wake-up call is literal – it’s time to reinvigorate their faith.

Philadelphia gets a gold star for keeping the faith even with limited resources. They’re walking the walk and talking the talk, embodying faithfulness with a VIP pass to divine rewards.

Finally, Laodicea, lukewarm and spiritually indifferent, needs to pick a lane, hot or cold. Their challenge? Shaking off complacency and sparking spiritual vibrancy.

Time for Spiritual Reflection

The nitty-gritty of these messages beckons us to reflect, pondering where we mirror these ancient congregations. Are we fiery hot, icy cold, or uncomfortably lukewarm in our spiritual lives? Let’s use this scriptural mirror to evaluate and recalibrate our spiritual health, leaning into the commendations and learning from the challenges.

Practical Applications

In these timeless letters, there’s a wealth of wisdom beckoning us to action. Maybe you’ve misplaced your initial zeal, similar to Ephesus. Reignite that spark, dive back into that first love with God. Perhaps you’re more like Laodicea, comfortably lukewarm. If so, it’s time to reignite your spiritual temperature, turning up the heat or embracing the cold, but never settling for mediocrity.

Together in This Journey

The beauty of this journey is that it’s a collective endeavor. We might stumble, we might soar, but we’re all in this together, navigating through commendations and challenges. Whether you’re feeling spiritually wealthy like Smyrna or navigating through a period of lukewarm indifference like Laodicea, there’s a message in Revelation calling out to you, offering guidance, reflection, and a roadmap to spiritual rejuvenation.

Closing Thoughts

So, how about it? Ready for a spiritual self-check with the seven churches as your guide? These ancient words are not just tales from the past but timeless treasures, offering guidance, warning, and wisdom for anyone willing to listen and learn. It’s time for some soul-searching, friends. Let’s dive deep, explore, and emerge spiritually enriched and enlightened!

■ Click this link to start at Revelation 2. Choose from 7 translations (the one on-screen and six others). Click the right arrow to move to Revelation 3.

When Friends Hurt Us

I want to open with a verse that is not the verse we’ll be landing on today, but because I know it will come to mind instantly for most of you, I want to deal with it first. That verse is Proverbs 27:6:

Faithful are the wounds of a friend, But deceitful are the kisses of an enemy. (NASB)

Most translations keep the imagery of wounding here, but in case there is doubt, the Amplified Bible includes clarifications:

Faithful are the wounds of a friend [who corrects out of love and concern], But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful [because they serve his hidden agenda].

Although we have to be careful not to self-appoint ourselves judge and jury* over every detail in the lives of our friends, occasional loving correction — that doesn’t create the polarization or loss of friendship we’ve seen so often in the internet/social media age — can be useful.

I’m really loving switching all my text searches over to Bible Hub partly because of the inclusion of cross-references on the page. I think this one is significant. The first part of Psalm 141:5 reads,

Let the godly strike me! It will be a kindness! If they correct me, it is soothing medicine. Don’t let me refuse it… (NLT)

Let the righteous man strike me; let his rebuke be an act of loving devotion. It is oil for my head; let me not refuse it… (Berean Study Bible)

and for readers here, I don’t need to do more than mention the iron sharpens iron principle, or the build each other up concept. (I’ll let you dig for those!)

So… with all that as a backdrop, I found myself yesterday morning in Psalm 55: 12-14.

If an enemy were insulting me,
I could endure it;
if a foe were rising against me,
I could hide.
But it is you, a man like myself,
my companion, my close friend,
with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship
at the house of God,
as we walked about
among the worshipers.

Some Bible commentators say that we don’t know specifically to whom David is referring, but the commentary I’m going to cite seems to indicate that it is Ahithophel. I’ve had search engines refer me to very diverse sources before, but this one was at Britannica (i.e. the encyclopedia people!) which tell us that Ahithophel was

one of King David’s most trusted advisers. He took a leading part in the revolt of David’s son Absalom, and Ahithophel’s defection was a severe blow to David. Having consulted Ahithophel about his plans to proceed against David, Absalom then sought advice from Hushai, another of David’s counselors. Hushai, who remained secretly loyal to the king, betrayed Absalom’s cause by opposing Ahithophel’s plan and proposing in its place a scheme of his own, which actually gave the advantage to David. This plan Absalom accepted. Ahithophel, recognizing that Hushai had outwitted him, foresaw the disastrous defeat of Absalom’s forces and took his own life.

That summary is sourced from II Samuel 15:31–37; 16:20–17:23. David’s wounding was in fact a treacherous betrayal. If you’ve been in pastoral/vocational ministry, the first thing that came to mind when you read the verses in Psalm 55 may have ranged on a spectrum between insult and insurrection.

Let’s jump back several decades to see what Matthew Henry said about these verses:

No wickedness so distresses the believer, as that which he witnesses in those who profess to be of the church of God. Let us not be surprised at the corruptions and disorders of the church on earth, but long to see the New Jerusalem. He complains of one that had been very industrious against him. God often destroys the enemies of the church by dividing them. And an interest divided against itself cannot long stand.

but then he adds an important parallel

The true Christian must expect trials from professed friends, from those with whom he has been united; this will be very painful; but by looking unto Jesus we shall be enabled to bear it. Christ was betrayed by a companion, a disciple, an apostle, who resembled Ahithophel in his crimes and doom. Both were speedily overtaken by Divine vengeance. And this prayer is a prophecy of the utter, the everlasting ruin, of all who oppose and rebel against the Messiah.

Author and Pastor Marvin McKenzie writes,

This Psalm is often ascribed as a prophecy of Judas’ betrayal of Christ. No doubt that this is a powerful portrait of that and many profound truths may be drawn from it in this light.

It seems most likely that David wrote this Psalm on the occasion of Absalom’s rebellion and that the man David refers to, as his equal was Ahithophel. There is, therefore in this Psalm, instruction on dealing with betrayal by loved ones and close friends. How to handle the broken heart.

This is a prayer
Vs 1
Let us always remember to flee to God in prayer. The loss of a friend can drive us so low we forget that we have a friend that sticks closer than a brother.

His impulse was to run
Vs 6-8
There are times when the pain is so great we just want to get away. We want to hide. We want don’t want to confront the fact of our trouble. David did flee from Jerusalem but not from responsibility. Some of the very trouble David experienced might have been avoided if he had simply confronted Absalom earlier.

This was a friend
Vs 12-13
I think both Absalom and Ahithophel might be referenced by David. Absalom, the rebellious son. Ahithophel, the trusted counsellor. We understand we have enemies. What we never understand is how a dear friend can turn against us.

David left judgment to God
He expected judgment to happen (verse 15) but as for David, he said he would call upon the Lord (vs 16)

Let this be a lesson
Verses 19-23 take on the flavor of a sermon rather than a prayer. Having prayed and given this trial to God, David then fixed his eyes on those around him and used his trial as a teaching moment. We may, as he, cast our burdens upon the Lord and trust that He shall sustain us.

I thought that verses 19-23 might be a good place to leave this today, but I know many of you have suffered from the betrayal of people who, as David said, you have worshiped with. We sometimes write this off as “church politics” but often the degree of hurt can’t be written off in a short time and if you’ve been in vocational ministry, it may have been career/life altering.

Know that you are not alone, and that as Matthew Henry points out, the betrayal of Jesus was by a man with whom he had spent three years in active ministry.

God, who is enthroned from of old,
who does not change—
he will hear them and humble them,
because they have no fear of God.

My companion attacks his friends;
he violates his covenant.
His talk is smooth as butter,
yet war is in his heart;
his words are more soothing than oil,
yet they are drawn swords.

Cast your cares on the Lord
and he will sustain you;
he will never let
the righteous be shaken.
But you, God, will bring down the wicked
into the pit of decay;
the bloodthirsty and deceitful
will not live out half their days.

But as for me, I trust in you.

(vv19-23 NIV)

 

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*an exception to this would be a case where the person has formally acknowledge their desire for discipleship and mentorship by us; or conversely we have asked them to critique elements in our attitudes, or doctrines, or lifestyle, etc. Otherwise, such rebuke/correction would normally be occasional or infrequent. If it develops into a pattern, that person will no longer be our friend, and perhaps the verse we looked at next as greater application.

The Importance of Community

My motivation for this topic today began with an article I was writing for another platform, which I’ve included in full following the scripture medley which follows first. This outline was prepared by Jeff Snow who we’ve featured at Thinking Out Loud several times before; including a book review, a story about his day-to-day ministry on a university campus, and his 3-part series on divorce, which we ran twice.

Jeff is in bi-vocational ministry; at least sort-of. Both halves of his life involve ministry with two different organizations. One as a local church pastor for which he is paid a salary, and the other as a campus ministry worker on the combined campus of a university and community college, for which he must raise support.

Are you ready for lots of scripture today? Here we go…

Community is based on a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. – 1 John 1:7 NLT

Community finds its source in the Godhead — Father, Son and Holy Spirit,

Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. – Ephesians 4:3 NIV

Community is a place where members can find encouragement, strength, comfort and assistance for daily life.

Carry one another’s burdens and in this way you will fulfill the requirements of the law of Christ [that is, the law of Christian love]. – Galatians 6:2 AMP

So then, while we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who are of the household of the faith. – Galatians 6:10 NASB

In Community, each member belongs to the other.

[I]n the same way we who are many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another. – Romans 12:5 CSB

In Community, each puts the interests of others above their own.

Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well. – Philippians 2:3-4 NET

Community involves accountability

Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. – Galatians 6:1 NLT

Community is strengthened through worship, fellowship and prayer.

They spent their time in learning from the apostles, taking part in the fellowship, and sharing in the fellowship meals and the prayers. – Acts 2:42 GNT

Community is strengthened by engaging in works of service together.

Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. – Hebrews 10:24 NLT

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Are You a Covid Church Dropout?

If you’re one of the ones who never went back, this is for you. If you know someone who fits that description, you can forward this to them. The absence of you and many like you is felt.

Many of you were contributing to various programs at your church; perhaps others of you were simply part of the worship community that happens in a healthy church. It’s possible today there are choirs with not enough members to re-start. Children’s programs that are still on hold for a lack of teachers and leaders.

But most of you were also contributing financially, and right now churches are feeling that loss. A handful have mentioned to me that while giving sustained during the actual lockdowns, a new reality has crept in as people have lost contact with their place of worship, or are themselves squeezed by economic realities.

It’s time to go back. Time to re-experience:

• community and fellowship
• the impact made by corporate giving
• corporate worship
• corporate prayer
• help and prayer for yourself in times of need
• The Lord’s Supper / Communion / Eucharist
• the spiritual ‘sharpening’ that takes place in interacting with each other
• being part of a mission that’s bigger than our own

and so much more.

The followers of Jesus met together in homes, and later in public spaces. Our faith is meant to be lived out together.

It’s time to return.

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If you’re one of the ‘givers’ and you’d like to support Jeff’s ministry, click this link. American readers, remember your dollars go farther as this is set up in Canadian currency, so please be generous!

Don’t Extinguish the Holy Spirit’s Fire

1 Thess 5:19

• Do not quench the Spirit.  NIV
  
• Do not stifle the Holy Spirit.  NLT
  
• Do not extinguish the Spirit.   BSB
  
• Do not put out the Spirit’s fire.  ISV
  

Today we return again to the blog By Leaps and Bounds which is an outreach of Arise Ministries, which is based in West Virginia. The author of today’s thoughts is Toney Cox who is a pastor in West Virginia.

Spirit Extinguishers

Fire extinguishers are popular tools. In fact, did you know that the most popular type of fire extinguisher sold by the industry today is the Class A extinguisher, which accounts for 41.8% of total sales; in total volume, more than 18.8 million Class A fire extinguishers are sold globally each year (Safety Now, 2021)? Closely related, did you know that 147,000 fires within commercial structures are handled through the use of a fire extinguisher annually without the fire department being notified (Safety Now, 2021)? It is safe to say that the modern fire extinguisher is readily available to be both handy and helpful in most facilities of American life.

The concept of a fire extinguisher is a simplistic one; inside the extinguisher is either air-compressed water, foam, dry chemicals, or various combinations of fire suppressants designed to be released with the expressed purpose of extinguishing a fire. While the design and technique of use can be more adequately detailed by a fire professional, the purpose of the product is purely to extinguish a fire.

While fire extinguishers are helpful and undeniably handy in our society, not all fires are intended to be extinguished. For instance, a person would not desire their campfire to be extinguished as he or she is about to roast marshmallows. Likewise, if a person works hard to chop wood and then build a relaxing fire in the fireplace preparing for a cozy winter evening, he or she would not welcome the extinguishing efforts of the fire extinguisher. The point is pronounced; not all fires are intended to be extinguished.

Understandably, there is a relatable concept of this imagery within scripture; the apostle Paul exhorts believers to avoid extinguishing the Spirit as he says, “Do not quench the Spirit” (1 Thessalonians 5:19). Talking in context about the moving of the Spirit in the community gathering of the believers, Paul advises that Christians must avoid putting out the moving of God. This can be truthfully interpreted as the Greek word for quench in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 is defined as, extinguish. In other words, Paul says do not extinguish the Spirit.

The moving of the Holy Spirit is most assuredly a fire that God does not intend to be extinguished. This is a reoccurring theme for Paul; he proceeds forward in the following verse saying do not despise prophecies (1 Thessalonians 5:20), he says to the Corinthians to not forbid speaking in tongues (1 Corinthians 14:39), and he encourages all believers to eagerly desire spiritual gifts especially prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:1). Paul straightforwardly says do not extinguish the Spirit; rather, welcome and allow the Spirit to move.

Yet, there remains much phobia in the church world concerning the gifts of the Spirit, the moving of God in display and power, dynamic worship, as well as God performing miracles in faith and prayer. There is much, as it has been coined by others, charisphobia, in the church world. Many believers grab the Spirit extinguishers and quickly extinguish any resemblance of a fire. However, this is opposite of what God tells us through the apostle Paul.

It is unfortunately true that many extinguish the Spirit; many believers quickly run to grab the Spirit extinguisher based upon fear, ignorance, church tradition, a lack of love, or even a lack of invitation; it is something that is not taught in the traditional denominations, so many who have traditional church in their history or family are fearful of what they do not understand.

Others grab the Spirit extinguisher over a misunderstanding of scripture; many incorrectly assume that the gifts of the Spirit have ceased on the earth. Some cling to a misappropriation of scripture claiming that Paul teaches that the gifts would cease or that the gifts cause chaos (1 Corinthians 13:10; 1 Corinthians 14:40).

However, the contextual point from Paul in Corinthians is not anathematizing or avoiding the gifts in Corinth; Paul is teaching that they must be manifested out of love, sincerity, control, order, honor, and with the desire to minister to other people. Further, 1 Corinthians 13:10 teaches that the gifts will cease when the church is collectively in heaven with Christ, not on the Earth.

Yes, it is true that the gifts are to be controlled in a positive manner by the human agent; however, they are not to be extinguished. There are, in fact, guidelines taught by Paul in which the gifts should be limited. Yet, in a simultaneous fashion Paul encourages the desire and usage of the gifts. On this poignant point Author Ben Witherington states, “Paul is correcting abuses of various gifts, but to correct abuse of a gift is not to rule out its proper use” (Witherington, 1995).

Order, structure, love, and ministry-centric mentalities are the instructions in 1 Corinthians on how to manifest the gifts of the Spirit. Gifts of the Spirit are manifested, in order to bless the body of Christ, and to bring hope to a world in need! The gifts were being abused in Corinth, and Paul pushed back against those abuses. Tongues were out of order, and everyone had a prophecy. People were, apparently, over running each other with his or her moment in the church charismatic spotlight. To this Paul firmly replies, stop it. Yet, he never says to extinguish the Spirit.

Remaining in the contextual facts of 1 Corinthians and not deviating into the realm of opinion or doctrine, believers today who practice the gifts of the Spirit are to follow the clear ambitions of Paul when he instructs to control the gifts in such a fashion where people can receive good from them. Gifts of the Spirit should never be used to hurt people or cause harm in the church. True. However, do not extinguish the Spirit.

Contrary to traditional church teaching, the gifts are available to all believers who believe and desire when a study of 1 Corinthians is performed in an unbiased format. The grace of the Holy Spirit operates his gifts through human vessels of high or low social status, in order to heal, deliver, set free, and in order to uplift others! Stop extinguishing the Spirit, and allow God to heal people, give direction, speak to the church, give prophecies, operate in the discerning of spirits, and set people free!

Tracy Hartman states concerning the gifts and the moving of the Spirit, “I love how God chose to gift us as believers. God knew that we would need a variety of gifts to accomplish God’s mission” (Hartman, 2017). This comment dives straightway to the heart of the matter; the gifts taught by Paul are to expand God’s mission by ministering to people! The Spirit is all about ministry in the grace of Christ. Believers must let the Spirit work! Allow the Holy Spirit to work through you as a vessel of grace! Paul would say to the church today, put away the Spirit extinguishers as the fire of the Spirit was never intended by God to be put out.

How do we avoid the Spirit extinguishers and allow him to move?

1.     Ask and desire to be used as a vessel. Invite. Humility. (1 Cor 14:1; 1 Cor 12:31).

2.     Refuse to despise prophecy (1 Thess 5:20).

3.     Read the Bible in proper context and put aside traditional views (2 Tim 2:15).

4.     Reject tradition. Tradition extinguishes the moving of the Spirit (Mark 7:13).

5.     Keep order and use the gifts of the Spirit for edification (1 Cor 14:40; 1 Cor 14:12).

6.     Use discernment and ensure that it is the Holy Spirit in operation (1 Thess 5:21-22).

7.     Operate in love toward others. A lack of love will extinguish the Spirit (1 Cor 13:1).

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Hartman, T. (2017). “A sermon for Pentecost: Acts 2:1-21, 1 Corinthians 12,” Review & 

Expositor, 114 no 2. http://0-eds.b.ebscohost.com.library.acaweb.org/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=11&sid=656af19b-1107-46d3-b3e1-0dda90c8b92f%40sessionmgr

Safety Now ILT. (2021). Fire extinguisher – Stats and facts. https://ilt.safetynow.com/fire-

extinguisher-stats-and-facts/Witherington, B. (1995). Conflict and community in Corinth: A socio-rhetorical commentary on 1 and 2 Corinthians. W. B. Erdmans Publishing Co.,

Are We Seeing Godly Sorrow?

Once again we are back at Meanderings of a Minister written by Pastor Jack Jacob. The past five years have brought the downfall of a number of notable Christian leaders. Often restoration happens rather quickly. Too quickly. Men and women who should give up a Christian leadership profile entirely are back on the platform within months (and in one case, six weeks.)

To read this article where it first appeared, click the link contained in the title below.

What is True Repentance?

We are in an era when many public figures have been caught in sin. They have stood before microphones and the media to admit they sinned and feel bad about it. Few, if any, have gone beyond that in their speeches. They left the impression that they were more upset that they got caught than that they sinned. While I cannot judge the hearts of others, I can consider their statements and compare it to what the Bible describes as true repentance.

Consider the Bible’s definition of the marks of true repentance:

“For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death. For behold what earnestness this very thing, this godly sorrow, has produced in you: what vindication of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what longing, what zeal, what avenging of wrong! In everything you demonstrated yourselves to be innocent in the matter.” (2 Corinthians 7:10–11, NASB95)

First, true repentance leads to turning away from sin and turning to God for forgiveness and that comes from the foundation of earnestness or a true desire to want to be different and be forgiven. The person who has sinned feels the damage to the fellowship they have with God and want it to be forgiven. The lost person who repents first realizes he does not have a relationship with God. Both examples illustrate that godly sorrow comes from God to initiate, strengthen, or confirm relationship with Him.

The desire to be vindicated is a mark of repentance as well. One wants to be cleared of the charge for which he or she knows they are guilty. This does not mean that they attempt to cover up the sin, but that they have a desire to see the sin forgiven by being covered by Christ’s blood. This precludes any desire to have the slate wiped clean just to do it all over again. True repentance comes from a desire to be holy as God is holy (Leviticus 20:7).

Additionally, true repentance includes an indignation, not at anyone who points out the sin, but at self for falling into the sin (again). There comes a hatred of sin that causes one to be indignant about their sin. This indignation is a reminder that we do not have enough strength to avoid sin on our own, but since the Holy Spirit lives in us (1 Corinthians 12:3), God will always give us enough strength and a way to escape temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) so that we do not have to sin. We do and that is on us, and it ought to bother us.

True repentance comes with a healthy fear of God as well. This is not being afraid of God because we know He loves us, but the awe of and respect for God ought to cause us to see ourselves as falling short of His glory and feeling that we want to be who He is changing us to be. That causes us to see ourselves in the light of His glory and grace.

True repentance comes from a longing to be closer to Jesus. Sin causes damage to the fellowship we enjoy with our Lord. It is not that He avoids or hides from us, but we do from Him. When Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they ran and hid in the bushes. God came walking in the garden like he always had, but they hid and that caused them not to be close to God like they were before they sinned. They longed for that relationship to be made right, but they would have to wait for many years for the sacrifice of Messiah to come.

True repentance also comes from a zeal or jealousy to protect the name of God, reputation of God, and glory of God. When a believer sins and the Holy Spirit convicts them of the sin, they realize they have hurt the way the world sees God and they want to make it right. This zeal for the Name of God draws them back to God to make things right. Like the criminal that hung next to Jesus, we want the world to stop mocking Him and look forward to spending eternity with Him. This desire draws us to turn from our sin back to our Savior.

Lastly, true repentance involves a desire to avenge the wrong we have done. This does not be self-flagellation, but it means a desire to want to do whatever it takes to make sure that we are close to, walking with, and following Jesus as Lord and Savior. This is way beyond just saying we are sorry.

What would it look like for you to truly repent from the sin you did last night? This morning? How would you know if your repentance is true repentance? What will you do?

Jesus Granted Access to All

I’m not exactly a novice when it comes to the internet, but after spending 15 minutes trying to track down what would be considered a minor Canadian Christian celebrity and finding every door closed, I’ve come to the conclusion that some people are too convinced of their own importance.

Jesus gave access to everyone. He was never too busy. Interruptions, when they happened, seemed to be graced with a divine providence. Nobody was unimportant.

One time a woman went out of her way to not create an interruption, but Jesus didn’t allow her to get with it!

As Jesus went with him, the crowds pressed around Him, including a woman who had suffered from bleeding for twelve years. She had spent all her money on physicians, but no one was able to heal her. She came up behind Jesus and touched the fringe of His cloak, and immediately her bleeding stopped.

“Who touched Me?” Jesus asked. But they all denied it. “Master,” said Peter, “the people are crowding and pressing against You.” But Jesus declared, “Someone touched Me, for I know that power has gone out from Me.” Then the woman, seeing that she could not escape notice, came trembling and fell down before Him. In the presence of all the people, she explained why she had touched Him and how she had immediately been healed.

“Daughter,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you. Go in peace.” Luke 8: 42b-48 BSB

Here’s the thing. This person I was trying to reach is part of a Christian organization which has reached a point where they are, on a regular basis, simply talking to themselves. It’s to be expected when their websites lack contact info; their social media doesn’t accept direct messages; their lives are wrapped in layers of security.

Again, Jesus. He didn’t have stalkers per se, but there were people — even early on in the gospel records — who wanted to kill him. In Luke chapter 4 — remember we’re only 4 chapters in at that point — this happens:

They got up, drove him out of town, and brought him to the edge of the hill that their town was built on, intending to hurl him over the cliff.

Okay, maybe Peter acted as security one time, but it turned out he wasn’t all that deft with his sword.

When the other disciples saw what was about to happen, they exclaimed, “Lord, should we fight? We brought the swords!” And one of them struck at the high priest’s slave, slashing off his right ear. But Jesus said, “No more of this.” And he touched the man’s ear and healed him. Luke 22:49-51 NLT

An ear? C’mon Peter, if you’re carrying a sword, at least know how to use it. And pick a fight you can actually win. You were outnumbered. (Jesus heals the ear so that the servant of the high priest, known today as Malchus, could report back, including now the added detail of his own healing, the last pre-crucifixion demonstration of the power of Jesus.)

The one time we see the entourage of Jesus going into full security mode, they try to scatter a bunch of women and kids, and Jesus actually shuts that down rather quickly.

Then little children were brought to him for him to lay his hands on them and pray. But the disciples scolded those who brought them. But Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and do not try to stop them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:13-14 NET

Back to where I started: I know people need their private lives. Jesus would retreat to isolated places.

Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.” So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place. Mark 6: 31-32 NIV

These occasions were few compared to the times he made himself available to all: Religious leaders, tax collectors, ex-prostitutes, the sick, the blind; in addition to his own circle of friends.

Establishing a lifestyle of isolation from we “common folk” just broadcasts a total lack of humility.

Kings, prime ministers and presidents at least have people who receive and read their mail. Why should Christian leaders be any different?

 

Christianity and the Celebration of Holidays and Birthdays

I have a birthday coming up later in this month. Over the years I have had discussions with people who feel very strongly that we’re not to celebrate birthdays or holidays. Much of this is based on a passage in Galatians:

^NLT.Gal.4.8 Before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to so-called gods that do not even exist. ⁹ So now that you know God (or should I say, now that God knows you), why do you want to go back again and become slaves once more to the weak and useless spiritual principles of this world? ¹⁰ You are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons or years. ¹¹ I fear for you. Perhaps all my hard work with you was for nothing.

Three things are evident here:

• Paul sees the keeping of special days — and it’s the Old Covenant feast days he has partly in view — as going back or reverting to a series of rituals they had been freed from.
• The Galatians — and it should come as no surprise that the above passage is from his letter to the church in Galatia in view of the situation there — were doing this to try to please God. They were adding to what Christ’s death and resurrection had made no longer necessary. They were wanting the structure of religion with its dos and don’ts.
• Others of Paul’s converts may have come from pagan religions which each had their own feast days. Old habits die hard. Imagine if you had a family tradition that had been practiced for generations that was suddenly stripped away. These pagan feasts day were incompatible with Christian faith and could not be retained in a Christ-following life.

That doesn’t mean we today abandon an awareness of the feasts recorded in the Hebrew Bible altogether. We’ll come back to that. But clearly, Paul is not speaking of wishing someone a happy birthday. In celebrating my birthday over the years, I trust that my family had these aims:

• I’m not being venerated. Their purpose isn’t sacred. Their actions are not sacramental. Some people argue that we can’t separate life into the sacred and the secular, but some things we do are merely perfunctory, like getting dressed, brushing our teeth, checking the mail, etc. A birthday serves no spiritual purpose.
• Recognizing and celebrating the encouragement that someone’s life brings you is scriptural. Over and over we are told to encourage one another, to build one another up. A sincere expression of thanks and appreciation — personal, not what the greeting card writer came up with — should really be an everyday occurrence, not a yearly thing; but we we do need prompting to do this. Go to a greeting card store and you’ll find the majority of the serious birthday cards express thanks and appreciation for the recipient.
• We are reminded of the passing of time. Our lives are “but a breath;” we are “here today and gone tomorrow.” We live sometimes in the “myth of continuity;” believing that things will always be as they are, but in fact, age will eventually catch up with us, it will happen quickly or when we are not looking. It’s good to be reminded of the fragility of life. That may seem to make a birthday bittersweet, but as you get older, it really is.
• It’s not wrong to buy people things. We are to be good stewards of the resources that God gave us. Going to a dollar store (or for my UK readers, a poundshop) to buy something that will be broken a week later is not wise stewardship. (Perhaps the earth’s resources should never have been used to manufacture the item in the first place.) But there are things people both need and desire, and having an excuse at least provides a context to nudge someone to acquire something that might be beneficial to their hobbies and interests, but that they might hesitate to purchase for themselves.
• Children need to identify and celebrate friendships. If you can do a birthday party without excluding anyone, and at the same time not incurring great expense, it’s nice for kids to gather their friends around them. You can also do a party where instead of gifts, people make a contribution to a charity of the child’s choice. (Try Compassion International, Partners International, Christian Blind Mission, etc.)
• The date will be remembered after the person is gone. We’ve talked here before about “stones of remembrance,” and there is value in “calendar notations of remembrance.”

Some of the same people also do not believe in celebrating Christmas or Easter. While this needs to be the subject of a different discussion, my short answer would be that our family does not celebrate Christmas or Easter, we recognize and stand in awe of incarnation and atonement.

I’m going to more or less repeat the sentence but… we’re celebrating the gift and miracle of incarnation; we’re remembering the costly sacrifice and meaning of atonement.

I don’t like birthdays. The thought of another year passing scares me, but only because I realize that there are things I have wanted to accomplish that have not happened, and in fact may not happen. But I don’t want to over-spiritualize this and make it seem that I am being pious or devout by asking my family to skip this year’s birthday observance. We should never let tastes and preferences appear to be deeply spiritual principles.

Let’s pause for a minute and look at secular holidays.

I believe that the modern church is far too wedded to the civic calendar. It intrudes into many of our worship services and other events when we are in fact citizens of heaven, not of earth. But I’m not sure that the way to express that is to refuse to stand for the national anthem or refuse to sing it; to totally ignore Mother’s Day or Father’s Day; or in the case of some people who are extremists on this, to refuse to recognize the beginning of new calendar on New Year’s Day, or even jettisoning Christmas and Easter themselves.

Ironically, while looking for a link to include that would, at the very least, let you see a graphic about being citizens of two worlds, I found this article from last year titled Long Live the King. (I’m posting this on the day of his coronation!)

Before we get back to birthdays, I need to say a word to Christians in the 2020s about the Jewish feast days themselves. While attending a Passover Seder recently, I was reminded that we are woefully ignorant of the Jewish calendar. If you want to take Paul’s words (above) to the Galatians as the last word on this subject, remember that there was a specific context in that letter. Yes, we’re now under The New Covenant, but those holy days and feasts have major prophetic significance for the Christ-follower. We may not observe them in the same sense as our Jewish friends observe them, but we can’t take the posture that they no longer matter at all.

Okay. Back to my birthday. (I hope you’re all thinking about the gift you’re going to give me!) (That wasn’t serious.)

Including birthdays and anniversaries in the “special days” category Paul is referring to here is to miss the intention of the passage, and really amounts to poor Biblical interpretation (hermeneutics).

When your turn rolls around, I do, with all sincerity and with all intention, wish you a Happy Birthday!

Taking a second look a the way the civic calendar (or political cycle; or greeting-card-industry cycle) controls much of our special programs in the church is a different matter, especially where nationalism is proving problematic, especially at a time when we already have so many distractions.

Poverty and How We Spend Our Money

In the circles in which I travel, various refugee crises and domestic homelessness have brought the problems of poverty and social inequities into clearer focus. Yet at the same time, an evangelistic project spent millions of dollars on two single television advertisements during a sporting event. How do we react to that expenditure against a background of chronic need?

For a sixth time — and the first time in four years — we’re back with Steven C. Mills at the website, Steve’s Bible Meditations. Click the title which follows to read this where it first appeared.

You Always Have the Poor

“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit…” (Matthew 28:19a NIV)

Then one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot (who was about to betray him), said, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?”…. Jesus answered, “Leave her alone; she has kept it for the day of my burial. For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.” (John 12: 4-8, CSB).

A group of Christian individuals and organizations recently developed an advertising campaign for American TV called “He Gets Us” (www.hegetsus.com). This group states that they are a diverse group of people passionate about the authentic Jesus of the Bible who want everyone to understand Jesus as he’s depicted in the Bible.

The campaign has purchased airtime to broadcast its commercials on national television. Recently, the campaign purchased airtime for two commercials during SuperBowl LVII at a cost of millions of dollars for each 30-second spot. The campaign says it plans to to invest a billion dollars on spreading its message of the Jesus of the Bible.

Spending millions of dollars on “messaging” has, of course, generated criticism from both the socially-conscious Christians on the theological left and the fundamentalist Christians on the theological right. The biggest criticism of the campaign, however, is its spending on marketing, which is seen as money that could be spent for funding community programs for the poor and advocacy for the oppressed.

While you could make a coherent, biblical justification for either side of the argument, fortunately Jesus addressed this issue during His earthly ministry–you always have the poor but you don’t always have me!

Matthew and Mark also include the anointing at Bethany in their gospels, though under slightly different circumstances. In Matthew and Mark it is a group of disciples, not just Judas Iscariot (though he may have been the ringleader), who express displeasure at using the perfume to anoint Jesus and not selling it and giving the proceeds to the poor. Then, Jesus addresses His response to this group, not just Judas. Mark also expands Jesus’ response to this group to include: “You always have the poor with you, and you can do what is good for them whenever you want…” (Mark 14:7, CSB).

Most Christians would agree that evangelism–making disciples of all nation–is the Great Commission of the Church. Some may do it through efforts accentuated by social activism and some may do it through multi-million dollar advertising campaigns. What’s important is that ALL Christians work toward the same goal of making disciples. Because ALL Christians are evangelicals!

The Bible is pretty clear that injustice, poverty, war, hunger, disease and all forms of human suffering will only be resolved ultimately by God. That doesn’t mean, however, that people shouldn’t try to bring relief to human suffering. And clearly, there are some diseases and forms of injustice that have been overcome as a result of the efforts of good people.

The International Congress on World Evangelization held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1974 urged the necessity of both evangelism and social justice in the mission of the Church. The gathering produced The Lausanne Covenant, a declaration that is “intended to define the necessity, responsibilities, and goals of spreading the Gospel.”  Since 1974, the Lausanne Covenant has challenged Christians of all persuasions to work together to make Jesus Christ known throughout the world.

We affirm that evangelism and socio-political involvement are both part of our Christian duty…
~ From The Lausanne Covenant Section 5 – Christian Social Responsibility

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without works, and I will show you faith by my works. (James 2:18, CSB)

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Second Helping: From the same author, a look at “amateur” theology of the man born blind.

 

Monetary Costs Can Obscure Ministry Evaluation

A week ago in the United States eyes were glued to the biggest (American-style) football game of the year. In addition to the game itself, attention is focused on the half-time entertainment, and the creative advertisements which are broadcast throughout the game.

One (two, actually) of those advertisements was from a group trying to raise awareness of the person of Jesus through a campaign called “He gets us.” A 30-second advertisement cost $7 million (USD) to air not including production costs and many of the adverts the organization has produced are 60-seconds long.

While you would expect the world at large might not be thrilled to have their big game party interrupted by an evangelistic appeal, there was also notable criticism from other Christians. That seems to go against the principles of Romans 14. Particularly verse 4:

Who are you to condemn someone else’s servants? Their own master will judge whether they stand or fall. And with the Lord’s help, they will stand and receive his approval. (NLT)

We do this a lot.

It’s easier to sit back in the comfort of our own homes and offer micro-analysis and critique than it is to summon the energy to be part of a large-scale effort to try to do something significant to advance the Kingdom of God. The capital “C” Church is no different than the world: Everyone’s a critic.

What about the theme of the advertising?

A couple of generations past, a similar campaign appeared on billboards and bumper stickers simply stating, “I Found It.” I can’t remember how the dynamics of follow-up or next steps worked with that one, as there was no internet. But today, that campaign might get mired in the controversy of, “Did I find God or did He find me?”

So what about the idea that God “gets us?”

I especially like this translation of Hebrews 4:15:

Our High Priest is not one who cannot feel sympathy for our weaknesses. On the contrary, we have a High Priest who was tempted in every way that we are, but did not sin. (GNT)

This is the very essence of incarnation. I like how this translation “fleshes out” the passage of God the Son “putting on flesh” in Philippians 2:6-8:

although He existed in the form and unchanging essence of God [as One with Him, possessing the fullness of all the divine attributes—the entire nature of deity], did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped or asserted [as if He did not already possess it, or was afraid of losing it]; but emptied Himself [without renouncing or diminishing His deity, but only temporarily giving up the outward expression of divine equality and His rightful dignity] by assuming the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men [He became completely human but was without sin, being fully God and fully man]. After He was found in [terms of His] outward appearance as a man [for a divinely-appointed time], He humbled Himself [still further] by becoming obedient [to the Father] to the point of death, even death on a cross.  (AMP)

How do you read that? I would say, “He gets us” is an understatement. It’s the difference between sympathy and empathy. He doesn’t just “get us” but through the incarnation has “been us.”

If you were in the middle of a rough stage in life, wouldn’t you want someone who understands? Who has felt your pain?

Which brings us to the cost.

The money spent to run those advertisements in the big game was just a small part of a $100 million (USD) investment. This begs the question, “What is the cost of a soul?” Or better, what do we know from scripture about putting price tags on someone else’s “offering?” Matthew 26: 7-9 tells us that Jesus was at Simon the Leper’s home.

While he was eating, a woman came in with a beautiful alabaster jar of expensive perfume and poured it over his head. The disciples were indignant when they saw this. “What a waste!” they said. “It could have been sold for a high price and the money given to the poor.”  (NLT)

But Jesus doesn’t accept that line of argument.

But Jesus, aware of this, replied, “Why criticize this woman for doing such a good thing to me? You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me… I tell you the truth, wherever the Good News is preached throughout the world, this woman’s deed will be remembered and discussed.”
(v10-11 13, NLT)

As if to underscore the point, Matthew’s next words detail the effort by Judas to get paid as an informer to help the chief priests optimize the time and place of Jesus’ arrest. Money, again! Yikes! Money gets in the way of everything. The discussion of money gets in the way of everything.

I’ve never met the people who created those advertisements and purchased the required airtime. They don’t go to my church. They aren’t people I follow on social media. I don’t know their hearts at all. But I believe their intention is clear. I really like how this translation covers the last few words of Luke 9:39:

John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn’t in our group.” (NLT)

He wasn’t part of their group. So many problems happen in the modern church because we don’t know each other.

Jesus has already hinted at the inclusionary answer to their dilemma in the preceding verse (“whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me“) and does so directly in the verse that follows.

But Jesus said, “Don’t stop him! Anyone who is not against you is for you.” (50).

Mark’s gospel adds more detail:

“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us.” (9:39,40 NIV)

I’m thankful that even as we debate the motives and nuances of someone else’s ministry efforts, God still loves us.

He gets us.

 

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Watch the commercials on YouTube or at HeGetsUs.com

Loyalty vs. Allegiance

^{NIV.Mark.14.17} …Herod himself had given orders to have John [the Baptist] arrested, and he had him bound and put in prison. He did this because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, whom he had married. ¹⁸ For John had been saying to Herod, “It is not lawful for you to have your brother’s wife.” ¹⁹ So Herodias nursed a grudge against John and wanted to kill him. But she was not able to, ²⁰ because Herod feared John and protected him, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When Herod heard John, he was greatly puzzled;  yet he liked to listen to him.

²¹ Finally the opportune time came. On his birthday Herod gave a banquet for his high officials and military commanders and the leading men of Galilee. ²² When the daughter of Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his dinner guests.

The king said to the girl, “Ask me for anything you want, and I’ll give it to you.” ²³ And he promised her with an oath, “Whatever you ask I will give you, up to half my kingdom.”

²⁴ She went out and said to her mother, “What shall I ask for?”

“The head of John the Baptist,” she answered.

²⁵ At once the girl hurried in to the king with the request: “I want you to give me right now the head of John the Baptist on a platter.”

²⁶ The king was greatly distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he did not want to refuse her. ²⁷ So he immediately sent an executioner with orders to bring John’s head. The man went, beheaded John in the prison, ²⁸ and brought back his head on a platter. He presented it to the girl, and she gave it to her mother. ²⁹ On hearing of this, John’s disciples came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

Mark Buchanan is Associate Professor of Pastoral Theology at Ambrose University in Calgary, Alberta, and is the author of several books including, God Walk and The Rest of God. This is the 5th time we’ve excerpted some of his writing here at Christianity 201. You are very much encouraged to read this where it first appeared by clicking the title which follows.

Many Loyalties, One Allegiance

“In your hearts, set apart Christ as Lord.” I Peter 3:15

Recently, a friend asked me to preach at his church on Mark 6:14-29

Well, I thought he was my friend: that’s the story of King Herod’s order, in a perfect storm of folly and ego and hubris and spite, to behead John the Baptist. I complained loudly to my so-called-friend. That is not the kind of text, I said, you assign to a guest preacher, and especially not to one you have shared meals and taken walks with. It’s gruesome. It’s bleak. It’s dark. And – this, I said, to finally clinch the argument – it’s inescapably political. You don’t want the guest preacher wading in on post-Covid politics, do you?

He told me to suck it up.

A few weeks before, one of the students in my preaching class quoted someone to the effect that you can have many loves but only one treasure. I liked that. I wrote it down. And it struck me, as I thought about John in the dungeon of Herod’s palace while all the revelers upstairs gorged and besotted themselves, and watched the grisly pageant of John’s head served on a platter, that something similar is true here.

You can have many loyalties but only one allegiance.

You can be loyal to your school, loyal to your girl, loyal to your guy, loyal to your flag, loyal to your tribe, loyal to your favorite airline, loyal to your political party, loyal to your theological camp.

The heart can hold a thousand loyalties

But only one allegiance.

John the Baptist got that. Herod, he was too clueless and cowardly to even know that.

John pursued the Kingdom of God and God’s righteousness. Herod pursued the kingdom of self and his own fragile ego.

I think many Christians got confused about loyalties and allegiances over the past few years. Too many of us took hold of a loyalty, or three – loyalty to a political person or party, to a philosophical or medical or cultural view, to an ideology – and elevated to an allegiance.

An allegiance is our one reckoning. It is our single non-negotiable. It is our only priority. It is the sole conviction and passion that controls, moderates and, if needed, displaces all loyalties. Nothing comes before it. All things must bow to it.

It is the hill we are willing to die on.

The hill we are willing to die on. Such a poignant phrase. That gets to the heart of the matter for Christ followers. Our single allegiance is Christ, the one willing to die on a hill for us and, frankly, the only one who commands our sole allegiance.

Christ alone is Lord.

Not left or right.

Not liberal or conservative.

Not socialism or capitalism.

Not anti this or pro that.

Those are all mere loyalties.

And a loyalty must never become an allegiance, or … or, we get the world we have now: divided over a thousand things, many of them little and petty.

Our hope is built on nothing less – and nothing else – than Jesus Christ.

He alone is our sole allegiance. Everything else must bow. 

Presuming to be a Teacher

This morning a verse suddenly came to mind:

“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

That’s James 3:1 in the NIV, but it’s the NIV1984, because the version you’ll see posted these days from the NIV2011 looks like this:

Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.

It’s that phrase “presume to be teachers” I was remembering, and I do regret that it no longer appears.

Why was I thinking of it?

Because these days, it seems like everyone is presuming to be a teacher. It started with a rise in interest among the laity in ecclesiology in the mid 2000s, particularly in church planting. Personally — and this is just my opinion — I believe that anyone can plant a church, but you need qualifications to lead a church. I know stories of churches that started in living rooms and in one case, a picnic table in the park, but the first thing they all did was then find someone with training to be their pastor.

But around the same time there was

• the explosive growth of blogs (I must include myself in this)
• the exponential growth of self-published books (published without peer review, proper editing, and the vetting of an established publishing house)
• the astounding growth of podcasts and vlogs (where, without transcripts, the content isn’t indexed; you can hear things and be influenced by them, but not have a means to go back and locate exactly what you heard.)

One minute a young woman is posting rambling content from her bedroom, and the next minute she’s got a bestselling self-published book. (Of one of these, someone recently said something to the effect, ‘In all the time I’ve listened to her, I have no idea where she fits in doctrinally, as her content is mostly about things to which she is opposed.’)

In 2014, Dick Lentz wrote:

While attending a small group Bible study a number of years ago, I became concerned when one of the participants started defending an interpretation of a passage that I knew was very different than the writer’s original intent. I don’t recall what the specific verse was or what he was saying about it at the time. But I noted that several in the group seemed to be persuaded by his arguments even though the content of what he was sharing may have been biblically weak, perhaps because of the skill in which he articulated his viewpoint. After the study I cautioned my friend that he needed to be careful about what he shared as others could be influenced by what he said. I then quoted this verse to support my advice to him:

“Not many of you should presume to be teachers, my brothers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly (James 3:1, NIV).”

My friend responded by saying that since this verse is addressing only those who are in an official position of a pastor or teacher and that he was neither, it didn’t apply to him. Our pastor seemed to support my friend’s conclusion regarding this passage when his sermon some time later focused on this same passage and the pastor said, “Since most of you aren’t teachers, I guess this verse has little to do with you.”

This may be too limiting.

I think that my friend’s understanding of this verse as well as my pastor’s, that it applies only to those who feel called to teach or are in an official position of a pastor or teacher, is too limiting. I believe that this verse is actually addressing anyone who presumes to teach in any fashion, and it seems that there are a lot of situations where we do this without being in the actual position of a teacher…

Click here to read the rest of the article.

On the website BibleHub.com they list related scriptures, and one they share is 1 Timothy 1:7

They want to be teachers of the law, but they do not know what they are talking about or what they so confidently affirm. (NIV)

They want to be known as teachers of the law of Moses, but they don’t know what they are talking about, even though they speak so confidently. (NLT)

Now that you’ve seen that verse, let’s jump back one verse:

But some people have missed this whole point. They have turned away from these things and spend their time in meaningless discussions. (1:6 NLT)

Other translations use:

• meaningless discourse
• fruitless discussion
• empty talk
• purposeless talk
• endless blabber and nonsense
  

While there are some excellent podcasts out there, the above words described others to which I’ve listened. At the very least, they constitute a waste of your time.

Dick Lentz concludes:

I believe that we presume to be a teacher anytime we share an opinion and that opinion has the potential of influencing someone else’s thinking or to affect their actions. And I cannot think of very many times when what we say cannot have an effect on someone else Nothing we say can truly be considered trivial or inconsequential. Nearly all our words can affect what people think, can alter how others act, and can change what people feel about themselves, about others, and about God.

It seems to me that this verse is saying that we need to be careful about every word we utter and that we won’t get off the hook or get a free pass simply because we’re not in the official role of a teacher or a pastor.

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■ Related content here at C201: Being a Teacher or Influencer Brings Responsibilities. This article begins with 3 scripture texts we’ll add here:

If what a prophet proclaims in the name of the LORD does not take place or come true, that is a message the LORD has not spoken. That prophet has spoken presumptuously, so do not be alarmed.
 – Deuteronomy 18:22 NIV

Above all, you must realize that no prophecy in Scripture ever came from the prophet’s own understanding, or from human initiative. No, those prophets were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they spoke from God.
 – 2 Peter 1:20-21 NLT

Do your best to win God’s approval as a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed and who teaches only the true message.
– 2 Timothy 2:15 CEV