Day for rummaging

I started today rummaging through old posts found on some of my favorite blogs. I wrote about one in the post below this one, then I came across this list from Green Baggins. He called it "Toddler Property Laws."

• 1. If I like it, it’s mine.
• 2. If it’s in my hand, it’s mine.
• 3. If I can take it from you, it’s mine.
• 4. If I had it a little while ago, it’s mine.
• 5. If it’s mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.
• 6. If I’m doing or building something, all the pieces are mine.
• 7. If it looks just like mine, it’s mine.
• 8. If I saw it first, it’s mine.
• 9. If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.
• 10. If it’s broken, it’s yours.

Rev. Baggins post was serious. Mine is too, I suppose, but in a totally different sense. The Rev was preaching. I'm just sayin'. We have a toddler in the family, his name is Nate. (Short for Nathaniel).

One day Nate was playing with Gammy's broom: That means Toddler Property Law #7 applies.

Nate "owns" Gammy's Broom!

Big Sister Bridget Wants It! (Isn't she sweet)? 

A Tug of War Did Not Settle The Issue.

Of course the "war" ended with Nate holding the broom, crying his eyes out, yelling mine, mine, mine.

The Rev. Baggins could, of course, turn this illustration into a great sermon; I will leave that to him. All I will say is that in the end Nate was just following Toddler Rule #5.

Everyone's Job - NOT!

All my life I have been in churches that teach it's every Christian's job to "win souls for Christ." To the best of my recollection I have never overtly done that. I told playmates, when I was a child, about my faith in Jesus and invited them to church, but I neve asked Billy or Suzie if they wanted to "receive Jesus as their personal Savior."

As an adult I've always participated in the worship services by either singing in choirs or playing keyboard instruments for congregational singing - or both. Also as an adult, I express my faith to others when the opportunity presents itself. Here again for example, I've never asked Mr. Jones, for example, whom I just met, if he would like to bow his head - in the lunch room - and "receive Christ as his personal savior."

I still participate in the worship services of my church by playing keyboards and teaching adults from time to time. I have never been paid for any of this I always viewed it as part of my "service for the Lord." I still do, in a sense. I have never thought about what I do as a ministry. Prof. Clark has this to say about that:

I realize this is heresy in contemporary evangelicalism, but not everything every Christian does is “ministry.” The baker has a vocation to bake to the glory of God but baking is not his ministry. We need to recover the idea of vocation. Calling the daily work of Christians “ministry” is intended to elevate it but it actually accomplishes the opposite. It devalues it by implying that anything that isn’t “ministry” isn’t valuable significant in itself.

Recently I have been the brunt of a couple of remarks from someone I know along the lines that makes what I do and have always done as a Christian sound almost as though I wasn't really a Christian: All because I have not led someone to a "saving knowledge of Jesus Christ as their personal savior," nor "visited others" like I've been told I should.

In searching scripture I was never able to reconcile the stuff I heard about "everyone should be a soul winner" with what is actually said in the Bible. Still when I was confronted by the person who accused me of "not winning anyone to Christ," I had no answer for him, all I had was a sense of guilt. Thank God for the internet and sound teachers around the world. Here is more of what Prof. Clark says about this issue:

I think the “every member” model probably has a lot more to do with democratic populism than it does with the biblical view of the church. Our Lord did not give the keys of the kingdom (Matt 16) to every member but to the apostles, the first officers in the visible, institutional church. The “every member” model fits well into the program-driven approach adopted by virtually all evangelicals since the 18th century but does it fit Paul’s view of the church elsewhere? It seems to me that, if Paul had such a view, he would have expounded on it in detail in other places but he did not. He did, however, spend a considerable amount of space detailing the nature of the special offices. 1 and 2 Timothy were written to a young pastor. 1 Tim 3 is about the offices of elder or overseer (vv.1-7) and deacon (vv.8-13). Most of 1 and 2 Timothy are about how Timothy should conduct his office as pastor. Much of Titus 1 is taken up with the matter of elders and Titus 2, again, is about the conduct of pastoral ministry. 1 Peter 5 is devoted to the office of elder. In other words, we have extensive revelation about the special offices and precious little about so-called “every member” ministry.

Over the years I've tried to open a dialog with some in church leadership about these kinds of issues by going back historically to what the early American/Puritan church was like. That was like butting my head against a wall. The last answer I got for my efforts was "he's messing with a very fine line." How do you discuss issues with someone who thinks like that? They're attitude seems to be "he's a nut," and "I know better just do as I say, I'm not arguing about it."

The old post I've quoted above has at least reassured me my "discernment" about what I am doing in my church is correct. I serve to glorify God, and we pay big bucks to the hired help (leadership) to do what the Bible commands them to do. But, it is certainly an irritation to have them tell me unscriptural things because I refuse to do what I'm not "called" to do, and we pay them to do what they claim they were "called" to do.

I am of an age now, however, I will tell them to do their jobs and quit trying to palm-off their calling obligations on me through some twisted ideological guilt trip so they can play golf three times a week. Prof. Clark says this:

Strictly speaking, ministry is what ministers do. They administer the Word of God. They fulfill their calling just as God’s people, who hold the office of believer, fulfill their callings (vocations) to bake, to pave streets, or even do radio shows to the best of their ability, before the face of God, to the glory of God . Not everyone in the congregation is a “minister” and frankly, that should be a relief.

It sure is a relief to me.

WTS On Shepherds

Why aren't all preachers taught this way? "Good sermons have to be preached in the context of a pastoral ministry."


Hat Tip to: http://www.inlightofthegospel.org/

An 'R' Rated Book

I'm reading through a book this year that most people never really read. It could be rated 'R' for 'raw', or 'real.' Many people own a copy, but I think it probably sits unread in most homes. It's a fascinating book. It tells stories about people that really good imaginative novels can barely deal with. Here are some examples:

• A man and woman standing in nakedness and shame, blaming each other for what they did wrong.
• An angry and envious man, lures his brother into a field, brutally murders him, and then tries to cover it up.
• The world becomes so corrupt and violent that God decides to virtually wipe out the human population and start over.
• Noah gets drunk, and one of his son dishonors him by committing an immoral act in his father’s bedroom.
• Abraham twice tries to pass his wife off to another man to save his own skin. Later, his son Isaac does the same thing.
• Abraham sleeps with one of the household servants so he can have an heir. This was his wife’s idea, but she becomes so jealous after it happens, that she angrily throws the woman and her son out of house to live in poverty and shame.
• Lot offers to let a violent mob gang rape his daughters. Lot’s daughters later get their own father drunk and sleep with him so that they can have children.
• Jacob, Isaac’s son, is a deceitful mama’s boy who tricks his father and brother out of important family legal rights. He has to run away from home so his brother won’t kill him. He goes to work for his ruthless uncle, who keeps him in virtual slavery for decades.
• Jacob escapes by tricking him and running away. Jacob’s wives live in constant jealousy and competition, continually tricking Jacob and each other in an ongoing battle for supremacy in the family.
• Jacob’s sons loathe one of their brothers, sell him into slavery, then lie to their father and tell him he died.
• Jacob’s daughter Leah is raped. Her brothers exact revenge by deceiving and then murdering the perpetrator, destroying and looting his city, and taking all his family members captive.
• Judah refuses to find a husband for his widowed daughter-in-law, Tamar. So she disguises herself as a prostitute, tricks her father-in-law into sleeping with her, and becomes pregnant.

The Internet Monk has an excellent post about this book (here). You should read it, it might awaken an interest in really reading the Bible.

A.W. Towzer had this to say about these kinds of things, "Our woes began when God was forced out of His central shrine and `things' were allowed to enter. Within the human heart `things' have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne. "

The more things change the more they stay the same. Turn on the nightly news and you hear about the same kinds of 'R' for raw happenings.

The Bible still presents us with the story of the One who can get us out of all this chaos. If only we would read it.

Divine Transcendence

Reading A.W. Tozer's Knowledge of the Holy, I came across this:

"Once in conversation with his friend Eckermann, the poet Goethe turned to thoughts of religion and spoke of the abuse of the divine name. ”People treat it,” he said, ”as if that incomprehensible and most high Being, who is even beyond the reach of thought, were only their equal. Otherwise they would not say ‘the Lord God, the dear God, the good God.’ This expression becomes to them, especially to the clergy, who have it daily in their mouths, a mere phrase, a barren name, to which no thought whatever is attached. If they were impressed by His greatness they would be dumb, and through veneration unwilling to name Him."

I couldn't help but think of some the conversations and sermons I've heard in which God was made to sound like a "buddy" not the Entity whom I can't begin to understand or comprehend. He is not my "pal" He is my God. I'm afraid to think less of Him than his Being calls for.

In conversation the other day, a friend mentioned "assurance of salvation." I told him I was like Paul working out my salvation in "fear and trembling." The more I try to understand God the more afraid (awe struck is probably better phrasology) I become. Anyway I told my friend, I will be fully assured of my salvation when I am in Heaven. Until then I trust Christ, attempt to worship the Father and hope I am one of His elect.