Seems that many kids of the “Millennial” generation have lost their Christian “bearings”. They are faced with major obstacles to their faith in a way that most of the older generation never had to encounter. Many of these young Christian adults live within an academic culture that is at odds with the traditional values of their family.
These young Christians, no longer attend church, or identify with the roots of their faith. They question the Church’s stance on evolution and homosexuality. Their parent’s “old fashioned” ideas on these as well as other topics, leave the kids thinking that older Christians have somehow left their brains “at the door”. They believe we simply aren’t keeping up with the 21st century mindset.
Perhaps they are right. We aren’t giving our young people the tools they need to face the assaults of life in the “real” world. These are real issues to be faced and real problems that we as parents and those in the Christian community have failed to address.
I have no solid answers…….wish I did. But I do know this. Many Bible school teachers shy away from controversial subjects. If they do approach these subjects they do so in an unquestioning manner. No real discussion takes place.
In regards to evolution, there are countless DVD’s and books that will help the Bible teacher. He/she doesn’t need to be a scientist to refute the outrageous claims of the evolutionist.
God loves us…….we are all sinners. That includes those of us who have been added to God’s community of believers. We don’t have all the answers in questions of faith, but we do have the Bible. God has given us guidelines for living our life. The list of “no’s” is there for all to read. He loves homosexuals as much as He loves anyone of us. However, that life style is a sin….along with other sins listed. We didn’t write the book. This was God’s idea…..not ours.
Because our culture has been willing to call the deviate behavior an”alternate lifestyle’ doesn’t make it right. Young adults, however, view this as being narrow minded or even bigotry. They are being led to believe that homosexuality is something that “just happens” and people are born with this tendency. Maybe so.
Although many psychologists have refuted that idea…..the mindset of most liberal professors in both secular and Christian schools, also consider that homosexuals can be accepted “just as they are” without a change of behavior.
Does that mean that robbers, child molesters, wife abusers, murderers, are equally accepted? I doubt that.
Jesus told the woman that was brought to him and accused of adultery… to repent. Although He loved her and excused her He told her to “go and sin no more.” (John 8:11)
All have sinned and fallen short of the God’s glory.….all of us need to repent and pray for what is amiss in our lives. With repentance comes a change of lifestyle, otherwise why repent?
Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? 20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body[c] and in your spirit, which are God’s.( 1 Cor. 6:18-20)
Yes, God loves us……….but He also gave us laws. He knows what we need.
I subscribe to Christianity Today magazine. Many times I have been tempted to write……either pro or con to an article which caught my attention. This time however, I was quite disturbed by a recent article written by Carolyn Arends. She is a Christian singer, song writer, as well as a contributor to Christianity Today. Here’s my response to her recent article in the November issue. See if you agree with me.
God Did It.
The article by Carolyn Arends…..”God Did It” was interesting although fraught with danger. I always enjoy her writing and her discernment on matters of faith, however, this time she missed the mark.
Her son was sincere in his desire to know the truth of creation. He read Genesis 1 and 2, as inspired. His view of an Almighty Creator who made the heavens and the earth; divided the waters and made a completed human, says it all. Is this too simple?
Billy Graham, notwithstanding, errs in his belief that the Bible is not a “book of science”. I am not a scientist but I do know that Scripture itself is replete with scientific principles. No, it isn’t a text book…..but we are finding more and more evidence which proves that our Creator did not need eons of time for the creation process.
Evolution itself involves death and decay from the beginning.
Here’s the heresy. If atheistic evolution is correct, then death is a good force through which only the fittest survive. Death, therefore, is not “the wages of sin” and that our Lord’s death was not necessary for salvation. Therefore as Billy say, “The Bible is a book of Redemption.” Yes, from the sin of the first man and woman…not from the primordial slime, which produced death and decay.
Poor Moses!….He was on the spot. God was calling him to do something that he didn’t feel qualified to do. I can see him squirming as the Lord told him that he was to return to Egypt and tell the Pharaoh to release the Hebrews from their bondage.
“O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.” (Exodus 4:10) In essence he is saying…… “I’m not the man you want.”
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, God could have given Moses an eloquent tongue and answered Moses’ excuse, but He didn’t! Instead, God sent Moses back to Egypt with all his weaknesses.
The apostle Paul felt there was a limitation in his life and asked God to remove it. He called it “a thorn in the flesh”. As strange as it might seem God told him, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” Upon hearing that the apostle responded, “I will all the more gladly boast of my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. ………for when I am weak then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
If Paul could have pointed to his remarkable physical resources then the power of God in his life would not be so obvious.
I can sympathize with these men. Although I am disciple of the Lord and a Christian duty is set before me and if God really expects me to do and to be all that He wants……. then He should grant me special abilities….. but He doesn’t. I am still me.
God does not need to overcome my inadequacies before He can use me. The truth is, God’s power is manifested in weakness! Now that’s amazing. He can use me just as I am.
That doesn’t mean that I am not to “equip” myself. But I am aware that real confidence comes from knowing God is with me. Let’s call it “God confidence”.
We are always told to be “self confident”…but without the power of God then our self-confidence becomes our focus…not God’s spirit within us.
As Paul says. “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, (that’s us) to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.” (2 Cor. 4:7)
There are many things about God we simply don’t understand. How can it be that He has no beginning and no end? How can He hear a million prayers at one time? How can He deal with each prayer individually…without benefit of email, text message or I Phone??
The answer is that God lives outside of time and space and He can reveal Himself in any way He chooses.
Therefore God has a personality. He is not merely “The Force”….as in Star Wars. He knows each of us personally and He wants us to know Him. An impersonal force doesn’t know us or care how we live. But a loving personal God does.
Perhaps that is why God chose to reveal Himself in a person….a real life human just as we are. …..a man who can relate to us and us to Him.
But not only did He reveal Himself in the form of the man, Jesus, but He manifests himself as a spirit and dwells within the believer. ““And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever….7 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. (John 14:5)
We see the power of the Holy Spirit as one of God’s “personalities”. The spirit personality of God was there from the beginning.
In Genesis 1: 2, “ The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
When Jesus used the word “ Helper”…He means the Holy Spirit. He is our helper. The Spirit intercedes for us in our prayers, He helps illuminate scripture and gives us peace.
God has not left us alone. Not only do we have His word, the Bible, but after Jesus left the earth the promised Holy Spirit came to dwell in a special way in believers.
Jesus told us that circumstances in this world may range from not- so- good…..to just plain awful! But by belonging to Him and allowing the Spirit of God himself to live within us….true peace is possible………..even now.
The problem of eating food offered to idols must have been a major concern of the Apostle Paul because he devotes various verses of three chapters in his letter to the Corinthians to deal with this issue (see 1 Cor. 8 through 11).
So what? How does that concern us? Perhaps we should just skip over those verses since we don’t have idol worship anyway.
Also the Jerusalem Council warned against this problem in their letters to the Gentile believers (Acts 15:23-24). Not only that but two churches …..Pergamum and Thyatira…..are rebuked by Jesus for eating “food sacrificed to idols” (Rev. 2:14; 2:20)
Perhaps we need to understand what was happening in the 1st century pagan world and why the Jewish Council, Paul and Jesus were so concerned with this problem.
When food was brought to the pagan temple as a sacrifice to the god’s…. only a small portion of it was actually burned on the altar. The majority of the offered food survived to be either sold by the priest in the marketplace or eaten by the worshiper in a dining room located in the temple. These dinners then became a type of worship and cultic rituals. Christians were forbidden to join in these meals because their participation involved a level of intimacy with a pagan god that made the Christian guilty of idolatry.
In our real life world we Christians live with idols because of our sin nature. Of course these idols are not wood or stone but idols of the mind. Any form of temptation, desire, or even lust which draws us away from the Lord is a type of idol worship. Disappointments, failures and sickness…might leave us bewildered and adrift from our foundation of faith.
I have come to recognize this in my own life. If I can deal with my idols, then I can better equip myself to overcome them. Through prayer and worship, I have a chance to overcome need for the “meat” of idol worship.
It is the beauty of Christian fellowship which also helps to sustain and strengthen me.
We gather with other Christians……..not to eat the meat offered to idols…….but to feast on the bounty of good things given by God to those who love Him. Therefore I count on my community of faith, the Church, as we help to sustain each other.
“So whatever you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all for the glory of God.” (1Cor. 10:31).
Many people who profess to be Christians also believe that merely attending services on the major holidays…….Christmas, Easter, and perhaps when there is a special service or a visiting speaker……is good enough.
Others believe if they give God a couple of hours on Sunday, He ought to be happy with that. Besides the Cowboy’s game starts almost the same time as the sermon is ending and perhaps the preacher speaks too long.
Now don’t get me wrong…..God doesn’t need you in services on Sunday. But you need to be there. We need to worship as a cooperate body. We need the support of other believers. We need to build up the “Body of Christ” which is the church. We support each other in the Lord.
Other people only have a “Sunday Jesus”. They don’t look for Him on the other six days of the week…….that is, until they need Him.
So make a commitment………what better place to be on Sunday than in worship with other believers!! But it doesn’t stop there.
Being a Christian means discipleship. It means giving up something to follow the Lord. Jesus wants to be involved with every aspect of our lives and this includes what we do with our time. When Jesus said to his disciples, “follow me”, He meant that to be 24/7.
You need more than a “Sunday Jesus”
Here’s a laugh for you……..from the comic B.C.
“A conscience is what hurts when everything else feels great”
We have the most amazing view from our sunroom. I love the sunrise as we begin a new day; the glow of the city lights at night and the orange and purple sunsets. The moon is amazing and I do believe I can see a man up there smiling at me!!
Everything outdoors seems so very much alive. There’s movement, changing colors and sounds.
So what do we call the great outdoors and the wonders we observe?
Modern science refuses to credit our glorious creation to God. Therefore, the changing seasons, the living creatures and climatic events, both good and sometimes violent….are attributed to Mother Nature. Really??
Our God and Creator has designed it all. The Earth revolves around the Sun, with great accuracy. Not too close or we would all burn up……..not too far or all we would freeze. Birds fly south for the winter. Salmon spawn in only certain areas…..all according to God’s perfect plan.
Even though it appears that “nature” is alive, is it really? Does nature think or choose to do these things all by itself?
Evolutionary scientists would have us believe that all of the beauty we observe and all biological functions of living creatures are simply a result of natural selection. In other words, Darwin and his successors would credit intelligence to nature. We know otherwise.
Mother Nature isn’t really a mother at all……she is a non-person and a fairy tale made up by atheists and humanists.
God is the great designer of all nature. He engineered every form of life to live and to fill the earth according to His command.
Just as Adam was given the responsibility to care for Eden, we too are to care for our earth. We are to use its resources wisely, remembering that all nature is a gift to enjoy but also to nourish.
Have you ever been to the ICU unit in a hospital? Perhaps a parent, child or even a dear friend has suffered a major heart attack or some terrible physical trauma. There are beepers, buzzers, and the rhythmic pumping of machines. Somehow these machines are helping to keep someone alive. Every heart attack patient has experienced the trauma of fighting for their very next breath. Breath is precious.
In everyday life, we don’t think about breathing. It is one of the involuntary attributes that God gives us. We take breathing for granted. That is, until our very next breath becomes a matter of life or death.
In 2 Kings 20, we read about Judah’s King Hezekiah. We know that he was “sick unto death”. We aren’t told whether or not he was fighting for his next breath but we are told he begged God for a few more years of life. He was granted his wish. He was allowed to live another 15 years.
Scripture tells us that God formed man and “breathed into his nostrils the breath of lifeand man became a living soul.” (Genesis 2:7) When Jesus appeared to His disciples after the resurrection He”breathed on them” saying “Receive the HolySpirit” (John 20:22).
These passages tell us that God is the life giver and that all life comes from Him…both physical and spiritual. We live because He breathed the sacred breath of life into us. No, we weren’t formed from some ancient slime a million years ago.
When we see the wonders of our bodies and how they are given to us for life in this world we cannot help but to be amazed at the uniqueness of God’s creative powers.
Both the recovering ICU patient and King Hezekiah shared the privilege of another breath, and another opportunity to live for God.
But we don’t have to wait for a critical illness or catastrophic event to appreciate life. Instead we can look around us and observe God’s unique creation. We can slowly inhale and exhale and we can be grateful.
We can be grateful knowing that every breath is precious because it represents the blessing of another moment.
It is evidence of the gift of life from the Creator of life Himself.
After Israelites left Egypt for the land of Promise, they grumble their way through the hot miserable desert. Even though God had demonstrated His watchful care for them, they still felt alone facing the threat of starvation and thirst. (Exodus 15:22-25; 16:4-15). Their memories of His care for them, last no longer than their last meal. They complain. Wouldn’t you?
How long does our faith endure when we are tested? “Is the Lord in our midst or not?” In other words, is He still keeping up with me?
The people had little choice but to depend on God. No grain fields, no ready water supply, no real nourishment. They told Moses in certain terms. “Why did you bring us out here to suffer? We weren’t so bad off in Egypt. At least we weren’t starving!” (Exodus 16)
God responds by sending the manna and the quail. He provides water from a rock. He is in their midst! He did work miracles for them. He did provide. But it was a daily exercise in faith. Every day, they had to gather. They needed faith for each day…. that the manna would fall and the water would flow.
But what about me here and now? It’s my “daily bread” I’m after.
I am learning to take each day as it comes……praying that God will provide a blessing for that day. Tomorrow is up to Him. I know He loves me but also wants my attention. He gets it! That’s the greatest part of faith. It’s my daily dependence upon the One who cares the most.
Yes, the Lord is in our midst…….you can depend on it.
The Jewish community is celebrating Rosh HaShana it is a period of time when people search themselves and reflect on the past year. They humble themselves before God and make restitution to those they have wronged.
There is a story that the old Jewish wise men would say to their followers……..”Repent one day before you die. But who knows the day that you will die?” Of course none of us knows the day of our death so therefore we should always be in a state of repentance!
On Rash HaShana…….
.” It is a time for intense introspection on one’s life, achievements, failures and goals. Simultaneously, it is a time for communal reflection and involvement. When we enumerate our sins on Yom Kippur, each individual has his or her own list, yet the format we recite is in plural language. Sentence after sentence begins with the words “We have sinned…” rather than, “I have sinned.” (Quoted from Rabbi Daniel Lappin from his website)
We do not generally pray in the plural language that the Rabbi describes. Perhaps when we come together for our cooperate worship and we speak for the whole congregation. I do remember Moses praying for the sins of the people….seeking God’s forgiveness.
Do we as Christians remember to humble ourselves before the Lord…asking His forgiveness for our failure to live up the tasks he has set before us? Do we search ourselves, in relation to what He requires of us? Do we forgive others for some suspected or intentional wrong done to us? That’s a hard one.
Since my illness I have reflected on things in my life that at one time seemed important……but now seem so trivial. I am getting the big picture. I am finally learning to ask less and spend more time in seeking repentance.
Repentance means humility. Risking our self worth; risking our own desires instead of seeking God’s will; risking His answer…..that it might be no.
That the risk of humility ……………… Go ahead and take the risk !!!
AbideLines 