tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69651653366502124552024-03-28T20:47:44.629-04:00UBC Wed For LifeGod speaks to all of us. Sometimes all that is required of us is that we listen, but we at United Baptist Church also believe that sometimes God wants us to act as mouthpieces for his Word and his will. Here you will find members of our church doing just that, and we hope these words bless you and bring you closer to God.United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.comBlogger178125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-91080502743127244072024-03-28T20:47:00.001-04:002024-03-28T20:47:08.422-04:00Trials of Truth <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHW0A4O1vlORHTerbjsbV91HcrC2DScJdbqKQJllDCxCVQwIMp59QIU8rxgrgW6-_qSg_UfYl6zx2s8awiNj_LDHJfwI01lctnub6H-SC25fapf8QiQmyr8NFS6wzBvaPiixnlRjeiO1nDuB51f_qfKoYfpfC7tYldoslLGxlPljp61LR7v_DLG-f2pQ/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202024-03-28%2020.46.18%20-%20an%20image%20of%20a%20cross%20with%20a%20pair%20of%20scales.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHW0A4O1vlORHTerbjsbV91HcrC2DScJdbqKQJllDCxCVQwIMp59QIU8rxgrgW6-_qSg_UfYl6zx2s8awiNj_LDHJfwI01lctnub6H-SC25fapf8QiQmyr8NFS6wzBvaPiixnlRjeiO1nDuB51f_qfKoYfpfC7tYldoslLGxlPljp61LR7v_DLG-f2pQ/s320/DALL%C2%B7E%202024-03-28%2020.46.18%20-%20an%20image%20of%20a%20cross%20with%20a%20pair%20of%20scales.png" width="320" /></a><br /><br />Every day, we find ourselves questioning what's real and what's not in the way we talk to each other, make choices, and take in information. It's like truth is always being tested in everything we do. The truth is not just a concept reserved for formal settings like courtrooms or classrooms; it's a constant presence in the ebb and flow of our daily lives. Take, for instance, the conversations we have with others. Whenever we talk to someone, it's like we're dancing through a world of different ideas and views. We have to dig deep through all the chatter to find what's truly real and honest. Whether we're chatting about the news with a friend or trying to find middle ground with a coworker, figuring out what's true takes a mix of critical thinking, active listening, and discernment. <br /><br />When we're truly engaged and curious, these moments of interacting with others become opportunities to not only discover what's real but to also gain a deeper understanding of the world around us. We have to ask questions, dig beneath the surface, and be willing to challenge our own beliefs. As a believer in Jesus Christ, I believe the word of God shows us how to navigate this mining of truth with God’s wisdom. Allowing us to discover that understanding truth goes beyond just being smart; it calls for empathy, a pure spirit, and a firm dedication to seeking genuine connections and authenticity in everything we do.<br /><br />Proverbs 14:15 tells us, <div><blockquote><i>The simple believe anything, but the prudent give thought to their steps. </i></blockquote></div><div>In a world saturated with information, it's easy to fall into the trap of believing everything we hear. But through this proverb, the Lord reminds us of the importance of critical thinking and discernment. How often do we pause to question the things we encounter? Are we simply accepting information at face value, or are we taking the time to investigate and verify its truthfulness?</div><div><br />Proverbs 18:17 lets us know, </div><div><blockquote><i>The one who states his case first seems right, until the other comes and examines him.</i> </blockquote></div><div><br /></div><div>This proverb speaks volumes about the power of perspective and the need for thorough examination. How often do we rush to judgment based on initial impressions or one-sided narratives? Are we willing to listen to opposing viewpoints and consider alternative perspectives before forming conclusions?<br /><br />1 Thessalonians 5:21 tells us to </div><div><blockquote><i>test everything; hold fast what is good.</i></blockquote></div><div>Here, we're reminded of the importance of actively engaging with the truth, rather than passively accepting or rejecting it. How do we test the validity of the information we encounter? What criteria do we use to determine what is good and worthy of holding onto?</div><div><br />1 John 4:1 declares, </div><div><i></i></div><blockquote><div><i>Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.</i></div><div></div></blockquote><div>This verse urges us to exercise discernment and spiritual wisdom in determining truth from falsehood. How do we discern the spirit behind the messages we encounter? What roles do faith, prayer, and the condition of our hearts play in our quest for truth?</div><div><br />As we navigate these tests of truth in our daily lives, let's remember that it's not just about seeking answers, but also about asking the right questions. The quest for truth is more than just uncovering facts—it's about transforming ourselves into more compassionate, discerning people by the grace of God. Let's embrace this challenge with courage and conviction, trusting that God will grant us the knowledge needed to safely travel through the complexities of our perceptions of His truth. <br /><br />May the light of the Lord guide your steps in this dark world.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Deacon Darnell Sheffield</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-38470435237286472722023-12-24T18:00:00.005-05:002023-12-24T18:00:27.813-05:00Return of the King<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiynWIglMxkNWQuG_GbPLsEtLkgnMOB_N97tBbceFoM4x0U3TORzG9JwtRKUmyNUhd03ROE2f1je6CuzAxeBqqFku0hCP9agsf9YUx_2S0xofctcdk6qqefKEeny_M6xrGKnHrIWQCIWsF9d2jd714oFbeZlTZxgrm10WNE81JlCj4kVUrJqU1p6vEv3A/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-12-24%2017.59.39%20-%20a%20cross%20with%20a%20crown%20hanging%20on%20it%20,%20digital%20art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiynWIglMxkNWQuG_GbPLsEtLkgnMOB_N97tBbceFoM4x0U3TORzG9JwtRKUmyNUhd03ROE2f1je6CuzAxeBqqFku0hCP9agsf9YUx_2S0xofctcdk6qqefKEeny_M6xrGKnHrIWQCIWsF9d2jd714oFbeZlTZxgrm10WNE81JlCj4kVUrJqU1p6vEv3A/s320/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-12-24%2017.59.39%20-%20a%20cross%20with%20a%20crown%20hanging%20on%20it%20,%20digital%20art.png" width="320" /></a><div><br />It’s Christmas time again, and every good Christian should know the reason for the season. Beyond all the gift giving, time off from work, and other things that have become associated with the holiday, Christmas is first and foremost a celebration of Jesus’ birth. For believers this day commemorates when God gave the world the best gift it could ever receive. Nowadays, nearly the world celebrates Christmas. It’s a practice that has spread across the globe, but in general, only a small amount of the fervor associated with the holiday is directed where it belongs - remembrance of Jesus.<br /><br />To be honest, that shouldn’t be surprising. The significance of Jesus’ birth doesn’t hold the weight it should. It would be easy to blame that on the commercialization of our society and all the distractions that it brings, but in all honesty, Jesus has probably never been appreciated the way he should be.<br /><br />Consider the fact that he was prophesied to be the King of the Jews, but now most Jews either consider him a heretic at best or don’t believe he existed at all at worst. How can that be given that it was their texts that foretold Jesus’ coming?<br /><blockquote><i>“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”</i> - Micah 5-2</blockquote>The above verse may give some insight into the problem. When Jesus was born, the Hebrews were under the thumb of the Roman empire. They did not control their own nation as they did in the past. They had to answer to a bigger more powerful force. Many of them probably believed that when the Messiah came, he would be someone like David. A great warrior that would take on the Roman Empire, win Israel’s independence, and rule over the Jewish nation as a powerful king.<br /><br />When we look at Jesus’ life, it couldn’t be farther from what the people wanted at the time. We see this in the way the Pharisees tried to trap him. They asked his opinion about paying taxes to Caesar, and Jesus responded.<br /><blockquote><i>But Jesus, knowing their evil intent, said, “You hypocrites, why are you trying to trap me? Show me the coin used for paying the tax.” They brought him a denarius, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”<br /><br />“Caesar’s,” they replied. Then he said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” When they heard this, they were amazed. So they left him and went away.</i> - Matthew 22:16-22</blockquote>Jesus was gaining a following, and some people did think he was the subject of the prophecies in the scriptures. The Pharisees believed they were ensnaring him with this question because they thought everyone was expecting a rebel, someone who would fight against Rome. They thought Jesus' refusal to oppose Rome would lower Jesus' stock in the eyes of his followers. The Pharisees didn’t understand that Jesus was a rebel, but Rome wasn’t his enemy. He wasn’t sent to earth to take down a human empire. He was delivered to us to conquer sin.<br /><br />Even today, we make the same mistakes the Pharisees made. That’s why it’s hard for many to believe in Jesus. They don’t understand what is meant when he’s called a savior. They believe accepting Jesus should mean an end to earthly hardship. They believe Jesus is supposed to make their lives better here, and when that doesn’t happen, they conclude that Jesus is a false savior. That misconception is held by nonbelievers and, unfortunately, even some professing believers.<br /><br />We have to stop judging God’s actions based on our expectations and experiences. Would it have been nice for the Jews if God had sent someone who freed them from Rome’s yoke? Maybe, but he had already done that before. He sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt. He sent David to rule them on earth, and yet the people of Israel still found themselves in miserable situations time and time again. God could have given them what they wanted, bu<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />t he decided to go a better route. He didn’t just deliver temporary salvation from minor problems. He gave us a permanent solution to the gravest problem. He didn’t just rescue the Jews. He came to the aid of anyone who would believe.<br /><br />In Jesus’ times, the Jews were still a fallen people and they were looking for a king like David or Solomon who, while great in many ways, were still flawed human beings. God gave them something better, and they didn’t even realize it. To paraphrase the Dark Knight movie, Jesus wasn’t the king that the Jews deserved, but he was the one they needed. He is the one the world needs.<br /><br />Ironically, Jesus actually will one day become the king that the Jews of his time were seeking.<br /><blockquote><i>So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.</i> - Hebrews 9:28</blockquote>Jesus is coming back one day, and when he does, he’s coming to save his followers and rule over them as a king in every sense of the word. As we reflect on Jesus’ birth let us also check ourselves and tear down any misconceptions and false assumptions we have that are keeping us from accepting Jesus as the savior he is. One day our king will return, let us make sure we’re doing what we need to do to ensure that we’ll be among his subjects when he gets back. Let us also do our part to tear down the misconceptions that maybe keeping others from accepting Jesus for who he is.<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><br /></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-38321436317078921252023-12-10T11:14:00.003-05:002023-12-10T11:14:36.120-05:00The Cycle <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMWxV2Jg6rH5h1sK5V_3l8izzcnXSy-3bErGclyxlesJPiyD1qY8pD6Q6CkxSoxWjVL1iRfjGi-zWCYGy4eRbrK8ahjLWLINQbtsMjiZbkpX3M-u2HqUFRi3F-t9AHZQGJ56QTX6QlFmt_rMbmrjy8aasQgorFA4IJH39jsl9iuJ7hyy3QeUBjbOgTQ/s1386/Cycle.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1042" data-original-width="1386" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBMWxV2Jg6rH5h1sK5V_3l8izzcnXSy-3bErGclyxlesJPiyD1qY8pD6Q6CkxSoxWjVL1iRfjGi-zWCYGy4eRbrK8ahjLWLINQbtsMjiZbkpX3M-u2HqUFRi3F-t9AHZQGJ56QTX6QlFmt_rMbmrjy8aasQgorFA4IJH39jsl9iuJ7hyy3QeUBjbOgTQ/w362-h273/Cycle.png" width="362" /></a></div><br /><br />The previous blog entry discussed God’s ability to plan for the future when providing inspiration for the Biblical texts. The various books of the Bible were written thousands of years ago for a culture foreign to our own, but at times, it can seem like the Bible is full of coded descriptions of what we experience today in the modern world. Take Micah 3:9-11 for example:<br /><blockquote><i>Hear this, you leaders of Jacob, you rulers of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they look for the Lord’s support and say, “Is not the Lord among us? No disaster will come upon us.”</i></blockquote>The references to Judah and Zion should make it recognizable to most that these verses are not about the U.S. However, anyone in the U.S. who follows politics or current events has heard plenty similar things expressed about today's corrupt politicians and even religious leaders over the past few years. Those verses from Micah would be just as true if written today as they were millennia ago.<br /><br />God already proved that he can speak through the Bible to people across time, but sometimes the Bible’s unwavering relevance doesn’t have anything to do with God’s uncanny planning ability. Sometimes we humans are the reason the Bible always seems on point. This world may change, but in a lot of ways people do not. We’re still susceptible to corruption. We’re still violent. We’re still divided amongst ourselves.<br /><br />Often, when speaking with nonbelievers, you might find that their inability to believe in God comes from the negativity they witness in the world around them. They’ll look at the decadence, death, and destruction common in the world today and ask “How could God be good and allow any of that to happen?”<br /><br />They completely ignore the fact that it’s not God who lets those things happen. It’s us. God has allowed us to make our own choices. That’s true now, and it was true in Biblical times.<br /><br />Later in Micah 6:9-16, God identifies Israel’s transgressions and explains its punishment. He ends those verses by saying:<br /><blockquote><i>Therefore I will give you over to ruin and your people to derision; you will bear the scorn of the nations.</i></blockquote>There are multiple examples of God enacting punishments in spectacular ways in the Bible, but sometimes his punishments were as simple as him stepping back and allowing people to fall all on their own. The people chose to rebel against God and his commandments. Doing that has consequences. Sure, it may move God to wrath, but since many of God’s commandments were created for our own good, the act of breaking them in itself puts us in danger. God does not always have to deliver an active punishment, sometimes he can simply decide not to protect us from the consequences of our own actions.<br /><br />America is a good example of this. Some refer to it as an empire in decline. Has God seen the wickedness in the country and decided to enact judgment like he did with Sodom and Gomorrah? America’s fall doesn’t seem to be anything that cinematic, and why should we blame God for it? <br /><br />If this country is on a downward slide, the fault lies with us. We often put more faith in our science and scholars than we do God, but we don’t even listen to them when it comes to moving away from our own harmful behaviors. When they tell us we need to make changes to our society to combat climate change, many of us scoff at and dismiss those warnings. Then when the intensified storms come and wreak havoc, we want to ask why God allowed such destruction to take place. When doctors and scientists give instructions on how to protect ourselves and each other in the midst of a pandemic, we complain about having to give up freedoms or be inconvenienced. Then we ask “Where is God” when society is turned upside down and millions die as a result of the disease. We have a democracy where we choose our leaders but then question God in the face of misery generated by the terrible decisions of the leaders we elected.<br /><br />None of this is new. It’s just one big cycle. The Old Testament is full of examples of God delivering his people and allowing them to live as they see fit only for them to turn their backs on Him and then have to suffer consequences wrought by their own actions. That cycle has been replaying itself for thousands of years, and it will likely continue until the Lord comes back.<br /><br />None of us have the power to stop the world turning in that way, but we do have the power to break that cycle in ourselves. The cycle isn’t just a global phenomenon or something that affects humanity as a whole. Each and every one of us has fallen victim to it in our own lives. We make bad decisions. We walk away from what God wants for us. We suffer consequences, and then we ask “Where is God?”<br /><blockquote><i>“He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed.”</i> 1 Peter 2:24</blockquote>Believers have the answer for that question. God (His Spirit) is in us. Jesus already suffered the consequences of our actions. He’s already bore the weight of the bad decisions we’ve made and will make. He’s given each of us the key to breaking out of the cycle. All we have to do is believe in him enough to take that key and use it. We can choose to walk away from the rut in which humans have found themselves for ages, and we can help others make the same choice. The world may be falling to darkness, but we are supposed to be the lights. However, to truly shine, we have to be set apart. That means we have to see the trappings of this world for what they truly are and use the gifts that God has given us to free ourselves from the cycle that humanity has been riding since the very beginning.<div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-56023499096933040872023-11-12T16:24:00.004-05:002023-11-12T16:24:54.196-05:00Parables Were Meant for Us<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MyIoyGHC4B4rf_KOgCFCQtzXNYlLwuLz-JXdQhDiatIqwgPOPJrrHlRW6uddjdGNmm0BnyLyxqB_8G6dEGugk3BQzoCYVjievQIdLVkGgzWh7VwY-A-bVekN6y2GVuh3Gho_DK6DldMMoCCMbjd5uQrja-VY3c2-I57XlSfpZityVWjjo7-0DdrGVg/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-11-12%2016.23.41%20-%20a%20king%20raising%20a%20toast%20at%20a%20great%20banquet%20full%20of%20people,%20digital%20art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4MyIoyGHC4B4rf_KOgCFCQtzXNYlLwuLz-JXdQhDiatIqwgPOPJrrHlRW6uddjdGNmm0BnyLyxqB_8G6dEGugk3BQzoCYVjievQIdLVkGgzWh7VwY-A-bVekN6y2GVuh3Gho_DK6DldMMoCCMbjd5uQrja-VY3c2-I57XlSfpZityVWjjo7-0DdrGVg/s320/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-11-12%2016.23.41%20-%20a%20king%20raising%20a%20toast%20at%20a%20great%20banquet%20full%20of%20people,%20digital%20art.png" width="320" /></a><br />Jesus had an interesting way of teaching his followers. Many of his lessons came in the form of parables that explained godly concepts in terms of things his followers should have been able to understand. The use of stories to teach lessons isn’t in itself unusual. The Tortoise and the Hare is one such story. It was one of Aesop’s fables. Like Jesus’ parables, Aesop’s fables consisted of simple narratives that were used to deliver a lesson about what is right or prudent i.e., the moral of the story.<br /><br />What made Jesus’ approach unique is his reasoning for why he used parables.<br /><blockquote><i>The disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you speak to the people in parables?”<br /><br />He replied, “Because the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. This is why I speak to them in parables:<br /><br />“Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.”</i> - Matthew 13:10-13</blockquote>Jesus taught using parables because he didn’t want to be understood. He was fulfilling a prophecy from Isaiah. It seems strange that Jesus, the great teacher, would purposely give lessons that he knew wouldn’t be understood, but that’s exactly what he did. Consider the parable of the wedding banquet.<br /><br /><blockquote><i>Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come.<br /><br />“Then he sent some more servants and said, ‘Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: My oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’<br /><br />“But they paid no attention and went off—one to his field, another to his business. The rest seized his servants, mistreated them and killed them. The king was enraged. He sent his army and destroyed those murderers and burned their city.<br /><br />“Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. So go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, the bad as well as the good, and the wedding hall was filled with guests.<br /><br />“But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.. <br /><br />“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’<br /><br />“For many are invited, but few are chosen.”</i> - Matthew 22:2-14</blockquote>Jesus said a lot with this parable. First, in the parable, the king called in people that were set apart with the expectation that they would surely come, but they didn’t come. Not only did they not come, they killed the servants sent to deliver the invitations. The people did not understand, but this part of the story was referencing their past. Jesus was alluding to how the Hebrews, God’s chosen people, rejected him on several occasions and even went so far as to kill some of his messengers, the prophets. Jesus made reference to that in other parts of the Gospels too (e.g., Luke 13:34). Jesus spoke of their past, but the people didn’t really understand. <br /><br />Even more interesting was that Jesus also used the parable to speak about the present and future. The king ordered his servant to open up the party invitation to people outside of those he set aside. That part of the story was in reference to Jesus reaching out to the Gentiles. <br /><br />The last part of the story involves someone being invited but then being kicked out of the party because they weren’t properly dressed. The people at the time certainly did not understand Jesus’ meaning, but we should because Jesus spoke on it in another place in the Bible.<br /><blockquote><i>Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. 22 Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ 23 Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’</i> - Matthew 7:21-23</blockquote>We are in a unique position. We have access to all of God’s Word and don’t have to rely on others to learn. We can read the Bible and receive God’s word in a way that wasn’t possible for most people in the past. We who believe have access to the Holy Spirit and gain insight in a way that most people in the past could not. The people of Jesus’ day did not fully understand Jesus’ parables, but thanks to all of God’s gifts, we can. <br /><br />Jesus delivered his parables to his contemporaries, but all the meanings of those stories weren’t meant for the people he was teaching at the time. They were meant for us. God’s planning is amazing. Sometimes it might feel like we received the short end of the stick because we can’t physically interact with Jesus like the people in his day did. The truth is that we are blessed because we are able to gain insight from Jesus’ words that people back then could have never hoped for, and that’s just how God wanted it.<div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-41727279265413855192023-10-01T09:50:00.003-04:002023-10-01T09:50:46.618-04:00Bible Character Spotlight: Jesus Part 2<br /> <a href="https://www.medishare.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jesusteachingcrowd.png?width=1508&height=1004&name=Jesusteachingcrowd.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="800" height="309" src="https://www.medishare.com/hs-fs/hubfs/Jesusteachingcrowd.png?width=1508&height=1004&name=Jesusteachingcrowd.png" width="464" /></a><div><br /> Jesus was the subject of the previous blog entry, but that entry focused more on what and who Jesus is and what he means for Christians. Understanding that is important, but as mentioned in the previous entry, Jesus was a real human being that lived in and interacted with the world the same as any other person. He lived a life complete with goals, objectives, and purpose.<br /><br />As Christians, we look to the Bible for dogma as we should since the Bible is our blueprint for how to live a righteous life. Jesus’ teachings are very important for that purpose, and it clearly was always part of God’s plan for Jesus’ teachings to resonate with us now thousands of years after his death. Still, it’s important to remember that we weren’t the original recipients of those teachings. For us, Jesus is a godly figure whose impact has proven timeless, but when he lived on the Earth, he was not perceived that way.<br /><blockquote><i>When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” “But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?”</i> - Matthew 16:13-16</blockquote>The people of the day recognized that Jesus was special, but to them he was nothing more than a teacher or prophet sent to deliver God’s Word. Peter was able to correctly surmise that Jesus was God in the flesh, and Jesus pointed out that Peter was only able to come to that conclusion because of divine inspiration.<br /><br />As a character in the Gospels, Jesus was perceived in different ways by different people. He was the Son of God to his disciples. He was a great teacher to the masses. He was a miracle worker for those in need. He was a cult leader to the Romans and others who held power. He was a heretic in the opinions of the religious leaders of the day. It’s amazing that one man can be seen so differently by so many different people. After all, it’s not like Jesus changed how he behaved based on who he was around. He simply carried himself in such a way that people who encountered him were affected down to their core.<br /><blockquote><i>Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked. “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him.</i> - Matthew 13:54-57</blockquote>When he taught, even people who thought they knew him or at least knew of him were awed because his understanding of the teachings and the authority with which he taught was unlike anything they had experienced. That won him a lot of followers. It also made him a lot of enemies. Jesus did not just parrot the teachings of the day. In many ways, he turned those teachings on their heads, and that was problematic for the religious authorities of the day.<br /><blockquote><i>Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin.<br /><br />“What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our temple and our nation.”<br /><br />Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.”</i> - John 11:45-57</blockquote>The Pharisees were intimidated by Jesus. They thought he would be able to bring down their whole system. They wanted to kill him to preserve the established order. They even convinced themselves that Jesus’ death would save the nation. Ironically, though they did not understand God’s plan, they were right. Jesus’ death was necessary to save the nation and not just the nation of Israel but all nations.<br /><br />Jesus’s life had an impact on the people of the day for sure, but life also impacted him just like it does for all of us, and because he was such a big and important person, he faced greater challenges. He didn’t just have to worry about avoiding the Devil’s influence on the world. He had to overcome a direct confrontation with the Devil. He wasn’t just responsible for the spiritual wellbeing of a single church. The believers of an entire nation looked to him for guidance. He didn’t just have to give up his time and comfort for the people around him. He had to sacrifice his life.<br /><br />Many great characters like Moses, David, and Elijah precede Jesus in the Bible. When reading the Gospels, it becomes clear that Jesus was the culmination of the best aspects of all of them. He was a leader of lost sheep just like Moses. He was an earthly authority with a deep reverence for God just like David. He held a unique connection to God and had great prophetic insight just like Elijah. What truly set Jesus apart was that while all those other characters had weaknesses along with their strengths, Jesus had none. Even when at his lowest points, he still shined and was the perfect example of righteousness.<br /><br />Jesus as God means everything to Christians, but Jesus as a man is what started the movement that eventually grew into what we now know as Christianity. He didn’t gain his followers because they all knew he was God. He gained them because, as a man, he stood so clearly for what was right that people couldn’t help but believe in him. The people heard his teachings and saw his deeds, and that was enough for them to elevate him.<br /><i><blockquote>The next day the great crowd that had come for the festival heard that Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem. They took palm branches and went out to meet him, shouting,<br /><br />“Hosanna!”<br /><br />“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”<br /><br />“Blessed is the king of Israel!” - John 12:12-13</blockquote></i>If the people of that time who knew nothing about Jesus’ true status and purpose honored and favored him so highly, we should hold him in a vastly higher regard given that we understand that he isn’t just a teacher or prophet. He is our Savior.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://www.medishare.com/blog/learning-to-teach-like-the-great-teacher">Medi-Share</a></i></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-5422896248401971682023-09-10T10:13:00.003-04:002023-09-10T10:13:51.855-04:00Bible Character Spotlight: Jesus<a href="https://assets.answersingenesis.org/img/cms/content/contentnode/header_image/is-jesus-god.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="800" height="254" src="https://assets.answersingenesis.org/img/cms/content/contentnode/header_image/is-jesus-god.jpg" width="800" /></a><br /><br />Almost every entry of this blog has mentioned or referenced Jesus in some way. It is, or at least should be, impossible to write a Christian blog without regularly writing about Jesus. That said, Jesus is such a big and important figure that it’s perfectly possible to talk about him constantly and still miss some important factors about him. It’s easy for people to hear about him but not completely understand who or what he is.<br /><br />In our faith, Jesus wasn’t just a man or prophet. We often refer to him as the Son of God, but even that leaves room for confusion. We don’t simply believe he was a child of God in the same way that we are. He was actually God in the flesh.<br /><blockquote><i>In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.</i> - John 1:1-5</blockquote>What exactly does it mean when the Bible refers to Jesus as God’s Word? Whenever we think about God, we have to put our human notions to the side. Our words have power, but on a completely different scale than God’s. After all, he spoke the entire universe into existence. Jesus isn’t just the audible proclamation of God. That’s not what the Bible is telling us. Jesus is the manifestation of God’s will and intent for this physical realm. God used Jesus to create our universe and everything in it, and the universe and everything in it were created for Jesus. <br /><br />God existed before the universe, and as such, exists outside of the universe. Interacting with God, the Father, is no simple task.<br /><blockquote><i>Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.”<br /><br />And the Lord said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the Lord, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”</i> - Exodus 33:19-20</blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><i>The Lord said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.”<br /><br />Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.</i> - 1 Kings 19:11-13</blockquote>God is all powerful. The problem isn’t that he can’t exist in this physical plane. The problem is that this physical plane can’t handle God in his full glory. The simple presence of his glory is enough to cause calamities and put the lives of the people who witness him in danger. That’s why throughout the Bible we see him use proxies like burning bushes or columns of fire. Those were his ways of revealing himself so that the people could perceive him without causing them danger.<br /><br />God knew that such limited interaction would not be enough to save humanity. He needed to engage with us on our level and as we are. That’s where Jesus comes in. He is the person of God who can safely exist in this world. He’s the one that can interact with us on a physical level. He’s the person of God that can experience what we experience and feel what we feel.<br /><br />Given God’s greatness, it’s hard to believe that he could squeeze any part of who he is into a tiny physical vessel like ours, but he did, and Jesus was the result. It’s important to understand that Jesus is God in the flesh, but it’s also important to understand that he was truly a human being in every sense.<br /><br />Yes, by nature of being God, he was greater than any of us could hope to be, but he was still subject to everything that being human entails. He was born. He grew from a child to an adult. He had friends and family that he loved. He displayed human feelings like frustration (Matthew 17:17-18), anger (Mark 3:5), sadness, and dread. The latter two of those examples are particularly interesting.<br /><blockquote><i>When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked. “Come and see, Lord,” they replied. Jesus wept.</i> - John 11:33-35</blockquote><p>As God, Jesus knew that Lazarus wasn’t truly gone even though he was dead, yet Jesus was still so moved by everything that he saw surrounding Lazarus’ death that he wept. His humanity showed through despite his nature as God.</p><blockquote><i><br />Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.” Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”</i> - Matthew 26:38-39</blockquote>Jesus knew what awaited him. He knew the pain that he would have to endure. He knew that he would have to face death. He knew that he would have to take on the whole world’s sin. He knew that he was great enough to endure it all, but yet just like any human put into such a dire position, he was greatly upset by his fate to the point that he asked the Father to change that fate.<br /><br />Jesus was a human and that meant that he could experience torment and even death, things that a being like God should never have had to feel, but God specifically subjected himself in the person of Jesus to those things all for us. We are the ones that fail God with our sinfulness, but, in an act that shows just how truly loving he is, he took responsibility for our actions. He made the sacrifice necessary for us to receive salvation.<br /><br />Death wasn’t the end for Jesus. He lived on afterwards. Not as some ghost or other ethereal being that we often associate with the concept of life after death, but as a tangible being that living humans could see, touch, and hear. He left this world behind, but the Book of Revelation tells us that he will be back, and one day he will rule a new world as king and that new world will be inhabited by all those who accept his gift of salvation.<br /><br />Jesus isn’t just a concept. He is a real being that lived on Earth, exists now with the Father, and will one day return to us. As Christians, we need to do our best to help others understand who Jesus is and what he represents because one day the world we know will fall away and only those who truly know Jesus will be around to see what comes next.<br /><br /><i>Chris Lawyer</i><div><i>Image Courtesy of <a href="https://answersingenesis.org/jesus/jesus-is-god/is-jesus-god/">Answers in Genesis</a><br /></i><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-14734990781766444622023-08-06T12:04:00.000-04:002023-08-06T12:04:14.288-04:004 Misconceptions About the Christian Faith<div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTT3hb-EY7dNPWooXpOJ5Fvf93AcdpJ4r8zFdJ9ItkqGd46OJ8Vqrz6A148XtZgwsk1T2eavwXOeUHkCZIXGhQ_NvFeazPbrEhcPDZ7Yn0mFjuf2-KMP0A4s-rKbcpr9GajcmkmoBCNkNweuXQn-iiAIiFXE7sc6-UIPCrO3L635KTBgUpr_ke0rEMHg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="1731" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjTT3hb-EY7dNPWooXpOJ5Fvf93AcdpJ4r8zFdJ9ItkqGd46OJ8Vqrz6A148XtZgwsk1T2eavwXOeUHkCZIXGhQ_NvFeazPbrEhcPDZ7Yn0mFjuf2-KMP0A4s-rKbcpr9GajcmkmoBCNkNweuXQn-iiAIiFXE7sc6-UIPCrO3L635KTBgUpr_ke0rEMHg=w518-h259" width="518" /></a></div><br />Lists are popular fodder for YouTube and social media content. While many of them are frivolous in the topics they cover, the format is still a pretty good way to cover topics and present information for both entertainment and insight. So why not create one with the purpose of serving the Lord?</div><br />There are a lot of things that both believers and nonbelievers get wrong about our faith. So here is a list of 4 misconceptions people have about Christianity. The hope is that in covering this list, nonbelievers will be better informed about the truth of the faith and believers will be better equipped to answer questions and correct misinformation when sharing the Gospel.<div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>The life of a Christian isn’t supposed to be easy.</b></div><div><div><br /></div><div>The lives of Christians have ups and downs just like with all other human beings. For some reason, this has been used to attack Christianity and suggest that belief has no merit. Some skeptics will even point to Christians going through struggles and ask “Where’s God?” That question is rooted in the idea that if God is real, he wouldn’t let those who believe in him suffer. There’s also the insinuation that no one would choose to believe in God if that belief didn’t make their lives better.<br /><br />The truth is that suffering is inherent to the Christian experience.<div><blockquote><i>For it has been granted to you on behalf of Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him,</i> - Philippians 1:29</blockquote>Anyone who has read the Bible should understand the wrongness of the idea that Christian lives are easy. Every major servant of God in the Bible faced trials. Moses had to wander with the Hebrews and didn’t get to see the Promised Land because of his disobedience. David sinned and was punished harshly for it. Jesus was beaten and murdered in his effort to save humanity. The disciples were persecuted and killed in some cases just trying to teach about Jesus. If one chooses to become a Christian, that person should expect to face some degree of suffering in this life. The Bible promises us that much. </div><div><br /></div><div> So why would anyone choose to believe? As believers, we want happy lives on Earth, but that’s not what we live for. Our true goal is to serve God both when it brings us joy and when it brings us pain because we understand that this life isn’t the end for us. Our reward is waiting on the other side.</div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>God always answers prayer, but that doesn’t mean believers always get what they pray for.</b></div></div><div><br />Prayer is a very important part of the Christian experience. Through prayer Christians can praise God, confess sins, show gratitude, and make requests. Sometimes seemingly unanswered prayers are used to cast doubt on God and his existence. When a whole church prays for the life of a member and that member dies anyway, some would suggest that the prayer didn’t work. Some even point to the words of Jesus to cast doubt.<br /><blockquote><i>If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.</i> - John 15:7</blockquote>If you didn’t get what you prayed for then the prayer was of no use, right?<br /><br />Sure, the Bible tells us that if we make requests in prayer, they will be granted. However, the Bible does make caveats to that. Even the verse above is an example. Jesus said that those praying must remain in him. Other verses make it even clearer that there are conditions for having a prayer granted.<br /><blockquote><i>If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.”</i> - Matthew 21:22</blockquote><blockquote><i>When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.</i> - James 4:3</blockquote>When we read the Bible as a whole and not just take isolated verses, we see that God sets conditions for our prayers to be granted. We have to have faith that God will actually grant our request, and we have to pray with righteous hearts and not just out of selfish desires. Even then, when we make our requests, we’re not always entitled to them being answered the way we want.<br /><blockquote><i>This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.</i> - 1 John 5:14</blockquote>At the end of the day, God is sovereign and he does what he wants. We can ask him for anything, but sometimes his answer may be “No.” That’s something believers have to understand. God knows best, and sometimes our prayers aren’t granted because they aren’t truly what we need or what he wants for us. Even Jesus was subject to that truth. In Gethsemane, he prayed to be spared from his fate (Matthew 26:36-46). Luckily for us, the Father did not grant that prayer.<br /><br /><b>It’s not the job of believers to convert nonbelievers.</b><br /><br />Jesus told his followers the following:<br /><blockquote><i>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, </i>- Matthew 28:19</blockquote>Some take this to mean that believers are not just responsible for sharing the Gospel but also for ensuring that those who hear the Gospel accept it and live by it. That is a mistake. Just as each of us had a choice to believe or not believe, everyone we share with also has that choice. Yes, in the above verse Jesus told his followers to bring people to the faith. That was the goal of his followers. However, earlier in Matthew, when Jesus sent out the 12, he made it clear that there would be people who did not accept them or their message. The same is true for believers today. We are supposed to share the Gospel, but we don’t dictate whether or not someone receives it. We can’t force anyone to follow God. They have to make that choice for themselves.<br /><blockquote><i>We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.</i> - 2 Corinthians 5:20</blockquote>As Paul taught, we are simply mouthpieces for God. We can implore to nonbelievers on God’s behalf, but it is not up to us whether or not they accept Him.<br /><br /><b>Being a good person doesn’t get you into Heaven</b><br /><br />We see evidence of this misconception all over. It’s pretty commonly accepted that Christians believe that good people go to Heaven and bad people go to Hell. That’s incorrect. Being good does not save you.<br /><blockquote><i>For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast.</i> - Ephesians 2;8-9</blockquote><blockquote><i>If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.</i> - Romans 10:9</blockquote>Salvation isn’t something we can earn through good behavior. It’s something that God gives us, and the condition for receiving that gift is belief in Jesus. <br /><br />Does that mean that bad people can get into Heaven as long as they believe in Jesus? Probably not.<br /><blockquote><i>Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on them.</i> - John 3:36</blockquote><blockquote><i>“If you love me, keep my commands.</i> - John 14:16</blockquote>Belief in the Bible isn’t just about showing lip service. Jesus made it clear that when the end comes, there will be people who claim they believed, but Jesus will not accept them (Matthew 7:21-23). Simply saying you believe is not enough. When one actually believes, he or she will be changed. That’s not to say that they will become perfect and never sin again. True believers gain access to the Holy Spirit, and by leaning on the Holy Spirit, believers can continuously improve and grow closer to the Lord. Actions don’t save. Belief does, but for true believers, actions are often the evidence of that belief.<br /></div></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-36072747063438610742023-07-09T10:33:00.004-04:002023-07-09T10:33:19.902-04:00The Modern Bible <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6eYmwXYnZMTZFKb_OUJaKDw10Mmc9UPKEizs9jWPR4E1PmjhigCe--ZTijeXntCSKEvONWsEcPsh-AKqtOMouHPqeOC_wSrzWBO1jKB5Dgj77weuJu-Yxtwutrlxbp4rni-SNLDPRh_xvidAqHnJhijmMaemI-xQ_vRcQVWhimEZ36R3j25CxPOslTA/s2320/Untitled.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2320" height="296" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6eYmwXYnZMTZFKb_OUJaKDw10Mmc9UPKEizs9jWPR4E1PmjhigCe--ZTijeXntCSKEvONWsEcPsh-AKqtOMouHPqeOC_wSrzWBO1jKB5Dgj77weuJu-Yxtwutrlxbp4rni-SNLDPRh_xvidAqHnJhijmMaemI-xQ_vRcQVWhimEZ36R3j25CxPOslTA/w381-h296/Untitled.png" width="381" /></a></div><br />The previous entry attempted to provide some insight on what the Bible is and why reading it is so important for believers and our mission. As mentioned in that entry, the Bible is a big and complicated book. Reading it can be a daunting task. Further, it is essential that we not just read it but also understand what God is trying to communicate to us.<br /><br />Technology, in some cases, has developed in a way that might make it more difficult for people to live righteous lives. That said, advances in technology can also be put to use by those who choose to pursue God. That should not be a surprise. After all, God is the one that blessed humanity with the knowledge and capability needed to produce the advances in technology we now see.<br /><br />Aspects of the Bible have changed over the centuries since it was put together. God’s Word itself is the same as it always was, but originally the various books of the Bible were written in Hebrew or Greek depending on the book. As Christianity spread around the world, it was translated again and again to serve the people to which it was introduced.<br /><br />That is a good thing, but the problem is that translating texts, particularly those as complex as the books of the Bible can be hard. Words have multiple meanings, and sometimes it’s not always clear to translators which definition of a word was the one God intended.<br /><br />For example, a past blog entry covered the concept of meditation. Philippians 4:8 is a good example of the Bible instructing us to meditate, and if you’re reading the New King James Version, that fact is clear.<br /><blockquote><i>Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.</i></blockquote>Maybe it’s not as clear with the New International Version.<br /><blockquote><i>Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.</i></blockquote>One version says “meditate” and the other says “think.” Which one is right? Both are. “Think” is a pretty broad word. It can mean to quickly consider something. It can also mean to deeply contemplate something. Upon first encountering the verse, readers might not understand what God is trying to say, but when taking both translations together, it becomes clearer that the NIV translators meant something closer to that second definition for the word “think,” which would be consistent with what is presented in the NKJ version.<br /><br />To add onto the difficulty translators face, figurative language exists. Consider the phrase “Hit the Road.” People who grew up in America understand that the phrase is an idiom (i.e., a phrase that has a non-literal definition). When someone tells you to “Hit the Road,” they don’t want you to go outside and physically strike the pavement. They are telling you to leave.<br /><br />The Bible has examples of figurative language too. The problem is that translators who understand the language but don’t understand the cultures from which those languages came can make the mistake of translating figurative language too literally and delivering a completely different message than God originally intended. Take this pretty well-known saying from Jesus:<br /><blockquote><i>Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.</i> - Luke 18:25</blockquote>Many scholars disagree with what the “eye of a needle” actually is. Some believe it means the literal eye of a needle. Some say it referred to a particularly small gate leading into the city of Jerusalem. Still others think it might have referred to a particular type of rock formation present in the deserts of the Middle East. Depending on the interpretation, Jesus could be saying that getting into heaven would be very difficult for a rich person or impossible (without God, as Jesus goes on to explain that God can make the impossible possible).<br /><br />Some translations of the Bible err on the side of being more literal, while other translations such as the NIV try to be truer to the intent of the original writers.<br /><br />What does this have to do with Technology? Well, perhaps the best way to deal with the uncertainties of the various translations of the Bible are to read more than one. The NKJV, NIV, American Standard Version, and others all have their strengths and weaknesses, and when you read multiple versions it becomes easier to get to what God’s original message might have been. In the past, doing that would have meant having to carry around multiple Bibles. which could be cumbersome. Now with Bible apps and programs, we are able to gain access to dozens of translations all at the same time. That can be a big help when trying to study the Bible.<br /><br />The benefits of those apps aren’t limited to providing multiple translations of the Bible either. Most people carry phones with them everywhere they go. The existence of Bible apps means that the Bible can be with you everywhere you go too. Most Bible apps have a search function. That means that if you ever have a particular question, it’s now easier than ever to find the answer in the Bible. Many modern Bible apps offer devotionals and reading plans that give believers and those seeking knowledge of the Bible great ways to study and understand the Bible. Even for those people that feel like they don’t have enough time in the day to really read the Bible, apps also send out “Verse of the Day” reminders that can help anyone make some time for God’s Word even if that exposure comes in a small tidbits each day.<br /><br />God’s Word is as true today as it always was, but it’s also true that what we read today is not exactly what was written centuries ago. If you can’t read Hebrew or Greek, there’s a good chance you’re probably going to miss something. Still, some of the Bible’s evolutions are undoubtedly good, and we have to use those positive changes to enhance our Bible study.<br /><br />At the end of the day making the best use of all the tools associated with the modern Bible is great, but there’s only one foolproof tactic that will work for believers trying to understand the Bible in whatever form it takes - asking God for help. No matter what tools we use, we will need God’s help to truly understand his word. So we have to make sure to pray for guidance and understanding. After all, the Bible itself tells us that the Holy Spirit is what allows us to gain any true insight from God’s Word.<br /><blockquote><i> these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.<br /><br />The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.</i> - 1 Corinthians 2:10-12</blockquote><br /><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-22456224800841817472023-06-11T09:45:00.000-04:002023-06-11T09:45:03.704-04:00What is the Bible? <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyR3pm1zXI5cKk503GLrX-0rQJE8YNkN_J_m8Q06vSJ7RsfiPc7q5E2l1vcqzk5_XZvIH5J8ohSZ_B5h_Dz6pqnzrQEEuXCP6JGr1ORMQJzUSOBmyNhGTyOxJwBX5EkdONCm68N9HL6lzyFYA97AsRnljtOh000teIc_iwDvP8yAEFJ2OcDNji3I/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-06-11%2009.43.41%20-%20the%20bible%20surrounded%20by%20a%20glowing%20aura,%20digital%20art.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjyR3pm1zXI5cKk503GLrX-0rQJE8YNkN_J_m8Q06vSJ7RsfiPc7q5E2l1vcqzk5_XZvIH5J8ohSZ_B5h_Dz6pqnzrQEEuXCP6JGr1ORMQJzUSOBmyNhGTyOxJwBX5EkdONCm68N9HL6lzyFYA97AsRnljtOh000teIc_iwDvP8yAEFJ2OcDNji3I/s320/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-06-11%2009.43.41%20-%20the%20bible%20surrounded%20by%20a%20glowing%20aura,%20digital%20art.png" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><div>Pastor Pope is currently in the middle of a series of sermons intended to help the people of the church and other believers in their efforts to share the Gospel. Sharing the Gospel and bringing people to Jesus is one of if not the most important duties of all believers. Jesus gave that very instruction to his disciples while he was alive.<br /><blockquote><i>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</i> - Matthew 28:19</blockquote>And later spoke on his expectations for the new and future believers following his death and resurrection.<br /><blockquote><i>But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.</i> - Acts 1:8</blockquote>In its simplest form, sharing the Gospel can be boiled down to simply telling others that Jesus was God in human form. He died for our sins and was resurrected three days later. He came to save us.<br /><blockquote><i>For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.</i> - Romans 6:23</blockquote>That sounds simple enough, but in reality, sharing the Gospel can be tricky. While that little tidbit of information from the Bible may be the heart of the messaging coming from believers, it is rarely ever sufficient to answer all the questions nonbelievers have. That’s why it is important for anyone who seeks to share the Gospel to have a good foundation in the Word. As we all know, God’s Word is captured in the Bible.<br /><br />Everyone has heard of the Bible, but how many people truly understand exactly what the Bible is? First and foremost, it’s not a single book. It’s an anthology. That’s why we refer to the various sections of the Bible as “books.” All the books were inspired by God, but each was written independently and while all the books give us a piece of the story God wanted to tell, they all have their own distinct purposes. <br /><br />Some books cover the same events, but provide different perspectives. For example, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are the four books that chronicle Jesus’ life and are referred to as the Gospels. One might expect that all four books tell the same story, and at high level, they do. However, when you delve deeper into each book, you’ll find that each tries to drive home a different point. Mark, arguably the oldest of the Gospels, is the simplest retelling and gives the most basic and “straight to the point” retelling. While Matthew focuses more on Hebrew culture and what Jesus’ teaching meant for God’s people at the time. Luke was the first part of a 2-part story that was continued in Acts and gives the most complete picture for not just Jesus’ life but also the immediate aftermath of his death and resurrection. Finally, John, the youngest of the books, was written with the stated purpose of driving home the fact that Jesus was the Son of God.<br /><blockquote><i>Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.</i> - John 20:30-31</blockquote>Understanding the subtle differences between the Gospels and all the books of the Bible can help us figure out where to look when we receive the questions that will inevitably arise when sharing with nonbelievers.<br /><br />The Bible isn’t just divided into books. It’s also divided into Testaments: Old and New. This division is particularly important and also perplexing for many that are new to or just exploring the faith. The tones, styles, and purposes differ substantially between the two Testaments, so much so that some have questioned whether or not they are truly meant to be part of the same text. Some have gone as far to question whether or not the the God introduced in the two Testaments is the same.<br /><br />At United, we definitely believe both Testaments have their own purpose and were both delivered to us by God with a specific reason. It’s fair to say that the New Testament is currently the more relevant of the two for us in the West, especially as it relates to the task of sharing the Gospel. That’s why there are versions of the Bible that are printed with only the New Testament. Still, the Old Testament is very important in its own right. <div><br /></div><div> For example, it provides the prophecies that foretold Jesus’ coming. Jesus didn’t just pop up randomly in the New Testament. His coming was foretold throughout the Old Testament, perhaps most prominently in Isaiah.<br /><blockquote><i>Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.</i> - Isaiah 7:14</blockquote><blockquote><i>For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.</i> - Isaiah 9:6</blockquote>Jesus was part of a grand design orchestrated by God. Without the Old Testament, it would be impossible for believers to truly understand that fact.<br /><br />Additionally, the Old Testament shows us why Jesus’ coming was necessary. As Pastor Pope pointed out in a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/WEDForLife/videos/6358404357551219/">recent sermon</a>, salvation isn’t something we could achieve ourselves. It’s something God had to do for us. The Old Testament tells us why salvation was necessary. It gives us the story of the original sin. It introduces us to people like Abraham, Moses, and David, and charts the lineage that led to Jesus. It lets us see just how troubled God’s people were and makes us privy to their many failures. The New Testament tells us how we can be saved, but the Old Testament tells us why we need a savior. The New Testament gives us our charge, but the Old Testament gives us the reason why such a charge is necessary. Understanding both sides of the equation is paramount to being able to competently share the Gospel.<br /><br />For believers, the Bible is the most important book ever written, and there’s no question it has had a major impact on the world. After all, more copies of it have been produced than any other book. As widespread and well known as it might be, it’s often misunderstood. Trying to share the Bible with a poor understanding of what it actually is can be detrimental to the goal of bringing people to the faith. So, as important a duty as sharing the Gospel is, it’s at least equally important to read the Bible, meditate on it, and pray for guidance and insight into it. Only by doing that can we really ever be effective in our mission.<br /><br /><i>Chris Lawyer</i><br /></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-79086744129760252362023-04-30T09:56:00.003-04:002023-04-30T09:56:13.413-04:00We've Been Here Before <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDEuEyVZPYa8FuNpx1QjNbLOp0dMyOso3dZR9WEk_so0rj5DzKyHrNVTW4ikGKlJS-eLTum36HiT_F9djFVnOGCngpYIMmFuIy2jmk2HshtkFEUmkM8IFIRRz_VRMXh6O-cFVYiXQ9XUrU9E5igkkLiKYgv1lsxHo2Ia_4yPNrPPHvqL9evgdj4WI/s400/David.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="400" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDEuEyVZPYa8FuNpx1QjNbLOp0dMyOso3dZR9WEk_so0rj5DzKyHrNVTW4ikGKlJS-eLTum36HiT_F9djFVnOGCngpYIMmFuIy2jmk2HshtkFEUmkM8IFIRRz_VRMXh6O-cFVYiXQ9XUrU9E5igkkLiKYgv1lsxHo2Ia_4yPNrPPHvqL9evgdj4WI/s320/David.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br /> If for some reason, you ever want excuses to be depressed, you need only watch the news for five minutes, and you’ll find more than enough. It seems like America and humanity in general just can’t get it together. Between the various social issues, geo-political conflicts, and existential crises looming on the horizon, it can sometimes feel like we are all hurtling towards oblivion. To make things worse, we don’t see a trend of people turning to God in these trying times. Unfortunately, people are abandoning the faith. This blog has noted that fact on several occasions. There are probably a variety of things to blame for the trend, but whatever the cause of people turning away from God, we can be sure it’s not something that pleases him.<div><br />It’s easy for us to look at today’s world and feel like things are uniquely bad, but the truth is the world being in crisis is nothing new. Ask the elders and they can probably give you two or three examples from their long lives of other times in the past when it felt like everything was going down the drain.<br /><br />These ups and downs seem to be an intrinsic part of the human experience. Read the Bible, and you’ll come to understand that all of it is a product of sin. You’ll also realize that the madness is something that’s been there almost from the start. While the New Testament gives us the blueprint for being a Christian, the Old Testament helps us understand why such a blueprint is necessary. It does that primarily by using the Hebrews as an example, and what an example they are. To get a good understanding of what the world and even God’s people were like during those times, we need only look at the words of David, perhaps Israel’s greatest king.<br /><br />The fool says in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, their deeds are vile; there is no one who does good. <br /><br />The Lord looks down from heaven on all mankind to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God.<br /><blockquote><i>All have turned away, all have become corrupt; there is no one who does good, not even one.<br /><br />Do all these evildoers know nothing? They devour my people as though eating bread;<br />they never call on the Lord.<br /><br />But there they are, overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous.<br /><br />You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge.<br /><br />Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion! When the Lord restores his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad!</i> - Psalm 14 </blockquote>The modern world didn’t create the concept of rejecting God. People have been doing it throughout the ages. Even back when God was making his presence known in the most in-your-face ways, his people still turned away from Him. The people in power used that power to mislead and abuse those under them. The world and many of the people in it were corrupt. Sounds familiar doesn’t it?<br /><br />Like all other Psalms, this set of verses is meant to be a song, and it goes to show that not every song in service of God is meant to be uplifting or joyous. Sometimes our songs need to deliver cold hard truths. Sometimes the songs have to be about the way things are and not just about the way they should be. We hear plenty of songs about people searching for God, but how often do we hear songs about God looking for us? In David’s time, the world was full of evildoers but God still looked down on it wanting to find those who were seeking Him. The psalm also lets us know that even if those who seek Him are like small islands in an ocean of wickedness, God is with those people. He is their protection. He is their salvation<br /><br />These same sentiments apply to us today. Many people proudly proclaim that there is no God. They dismiss the idea of following God’s laws or striving to live righteously. Why put such shackles on yourself in service of a being that does not exist? That’s what they’d argue, and look what that mindset has wrought. We see what humanity does when it lives by its own rules.<br /><br />Those who believe should keep the faith. David’s song seemed bleak, but it reinforced the fact that God was there even when people didn’t believe. He supported those that sought him, and the same is true today. If your heart is with HIm, He is with you. The world may not have been that much different before, but we are because we have access to the Holy Spirit. Jesus died for us and through his death we have been equipped with everything we need to thrive despite the hardships we face. There is no reason to question whether God is with us. Every believer already has access to Him, and He has the power to conquer the world’s trials. Jesus said as much to his followers, and his words still ring true today.<br /><blockquote><i>“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”</i> - John 16:33</blockquote></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image Courtesy of <a href="https://creation.com/psalms-1">Creation.com</a></i></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-64608325865373401202023-04-16T18:52:00.001-04:002023-04-16T18:52:26.871-04:00Hearing from God <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HxXsnRapJqfUjeayP4f65UlVqSH0GFObX8v263Q_aPG-uQ8h7J654EUTj5ra0w17osk6NFtmKHwu87Pj_itVfmrZxWgwHvLJxmVyAJTlui99t8HKOxwfoHWPktiTMSQB2w2CGcARP3GV5XYHNBaw0oZf9GHjB677P5HQ5-7ByGYPkHy2Yr4Knw0/s614/Christian-Meditation-1-614x346.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="614" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-HxXsnRapJqfUjeayP4f65UlVqSH0GFObX8v263Q_aPG-uQ8h7J654EUTj5ra0w17osk6NFtmKHwu87Pj_itVfmrZxWgwHvLJxmVyAJTlui99t8HKOxwfoHWPktiTMSQB2w2CGcARP3GV5XYHNBaw0oZf9GHjB677P5HQ5-7ByGYPkHy2Yr4Knw0/w446-h251/Christian-Meditation-1-614x346.jpg" width="446" /></a><div><br /> <br /> A rapper named Killah Priest has a song that includes the following line:<br /><br /><i>When you pray you talk to God. When you meditate God talks to you.<br /></i><br />To be clear this isn’t really a Biblically based statement, and the song is secular not Christian rap. Still, the perspective is interesting. At United’s Sunday Encounters, Pastor Pope is in the midst of delivering a series of sermons that explain how we should pray. His sermons revolve around the following acrostic:<br /><br />T - Thanksgiving<br />A - Adoration<br />C - Confession<br />O - Others<br />S - Supplication<br /><br />TACOS is a very useful tool for remembering everything that should be included in our prayers. It helps ensure that we consistently say everything we need to say to God when we pray. However, therein lies part of the problem. We can use TACOS to guide how we talk to God, but if we consistently just go through that checklist, say Amen, and then go on our way to do something else, do we ever actually give God a chance to speak back? One might assume that all believers want to hear from God. Many believers might admit that they don’t know if God has ever actually spoken to them. That wouldn’t be surprising. When we pray, we spend all our time doing the talking. When do we actually listen?<br /><br />Some might be surprised to find that the Bible mentions meditation.<br /><blockquote><i>“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.</i> - Joshua 1:18</blockquote><blockquote><i>Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.</i> - Philippians 4:8</blockquote>The above verses came from the New King James Version. Other versions use words like “think,” but it's all the same. The Bible is instructing us to take his Word into our hearts and to contemplate deeply on what God is trying to tell us. That is meditation.<br /><br />Meditation isn’t as fundamentally tied to the Christian walk as it is to the practices followed in other religions like Buddhism or Hinduism. As Christians, we believe our way is the only true way to follow God. That doesn’t mean we can’t take lessons from other belief systems. For example, Muslims are very intentional and regimented when it comes to their prayer lives. That’s certainly something Christians could benefit from emulating. Perhaps meditation could also be a useful addition to our daily Christian routines. We wouldn’t be seeking enlightenment like the Buddhists, but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t come to our own revelations through meditation.<br /><br />The Bible tells us that God answers prayers.<br /><br />When Jeremiah delivered God’s Word to his people, he stated:<br /><blockquote><i>“This is what the Lord says, he who made the earth, the Lord who formed it and established it—the Lord is his name: ‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ </i>- Jeremiah 33:2-3</blockquote>A psalm spoke of listening to what the Lord said:<br /><blockquote><i>I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants—but let them not turn to folly.</i> - Psalm 85:8</blockquote>Quite a few verses in the Old Testament referenced the voice of God, and several of the stories have moments where God spoke directly to various people. Most of us have never actually heard the audible voice of God and likely never will. However, the Old Testament also told us that God spoke to his servants through the Holy Spirit too.<br /><br />As he was dying, David said:<br /><blockquote><i>“The Spirit of the Lord spoke through me; his word was on my tongue.</i> - 2 Samuel 23:2</blockquote>The same spirit that spoke to David and used him to deliver a message to God’s people now lives in all believers because of Jesus’ sacrifice.<br /><blockquote><i>And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.</i> - Romans 5:5</blockquote><br />The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit guides our prayers and plays a role in our communication with God.<br /><blockquote><i>In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.</i> - Romans 8:26</blockquote>God can speak to any of us just like he did with David and the prophets in the Bible. We just have to be open to hearing him. We all know that we need to take time to pray and talk to God, but do we want or expect our communication with God to be one sided or do we want something more like a dialogue? If it’s the latter, then we should also strive to give God a chance to speak back to us and be open to hearing what he has to say. Maybe meditation can help with that, or maybe we just need to learn to lean on the Holy Spirit more in everything we do. Whatever we do, as we strive to improve our prayer life, let us also make it a goal to give God more opportunity to speak to us. Once we let him speak to us, maybe we’ll be better able to let him speak to others through us.<div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>Image Courtesy of the <a href="https://www.christianmeditationcenter.org/">Christian Meditation Center</a><br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-70382283767046599112023-03-19T10:05:00.005-04:002023-03-19T10:05:41.394-04:00Accountability<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxadzHKKHO0a1UCVvPoCs3zFxAWDc58N1Btip0YDbGRvFm0BThU71CU6sb2VxsYSw2ZZk6qdPqnhicxqyFypu-u_ZfpA62PUtVmmFN9r4jzKzF-kGyOpWYhWfbB3li3Zf8osw4dUkttx6o7QSIlGMMGM7yzIgwEq2ER2DMPvtp1fBo6IxToqcWk44/s1800/accountability.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-style: italic; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1800" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxadzHKKHO0a1UCVvPoCs3zFxAWDc58N1Btip0YDbGRvFm0BThU71CU6sb2VxsYSw2ZZk6qdPqnhicxqyFypu-u_ZfpA62PUtVmmFN9r4jzKzF-kGyOpWYhWfbB3li3Zf8osw4dUkttx6o7QSIlGMMGM7yzIgwEq2ER2DMPvtp1fBo6IxToqcWk44/w392-h280/accountability.jpg" width="392" /></a><div><br />Several weeks ago Laruen Boebert, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives gave a <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/video/news/lauren-boebert-sparks-fury-after-praying-bidens-days-be-few/vi-AA18bPs2?cvid=81c835b160404c3aadcee086b6d0e011&ei=30">speech</a> where she referenced a verse from the Bible and seemingly used it to wish death on President Biden. Anyone who calls themselves a Christian should be disturbed by what she said. A politician using God’s Word for such a vile purpose shouldn’t be acceptable. Unfortunately, as has been mentioned on this blog before, it’s increasingly common in today’s world to hear politicians and other famous people who claim to be Christians using the Bible to push their own agendas, spread hate, and promote things that are not Christlike.<br /><br />Often these poor uses of the Bible go unchecked, at least on a public level, but this time was different. In response to Boebert’s comments, <a href="https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/lauren-boebert-faces-calls-from-over-17k-christians-to-repent-and-resign/ar-AA18bgJq">almost 20,000 Christians have signed a petition asking for the Congresswoman’s resignation</a>. Whether or not Boebert resigns is less important than the reasoning behind the petition.<br /><i><blockquote>Your repeated misrepresentation of our faith pushes people away from Jesus Christ, harms both democracy and the church, and even risks further unholy violence. Let us follow Jesus together by seeking love and the common good -- not division and death. Please, for the good of the country and the Body of Christ alike, resign from Congress immediately.</blockquote></i><br />The writers of the petition rightly point out that Boebert’s comments and others like hers are not only against Christ’s teachings but are also against the purpose given by Jesus to his followers. We are supposed to be bringing people to him, but the misrepresentations of the Bible and what it says only serve to push people away from God. Many people who don’t know God will be turned away from getting to know him because of false impressions they develop about God and the faith because of wayward comments. The problem only worsens when people who identify as Christians say horrible things, and no one speaks out against them. Boebert and those like her certainly don’t represent all Christians, but if Christians that don’t agree with hurtful comments don’t speak out against those comments like these petitioners did, how would nonbelievers know that the wayward comments don’t actually represent the faith?<br /><br />Accountability is important. When Christians make mistakes or do the wrong thing, it is important that we hold ourselves and each other accountable. If that wrongdoing is done in public, it may be necessary that the accountability also happen publicly. Some might push back by pointing out that the Bible teaches that believers should avoid passing judgment. That’s true but judging each other and holding each other accountable when wrong are not the same thing.<br /><blockquote><i>So watch yourselves.<br /><br />“If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. -</i> Luke 17:3</blockquote>Jesus himself told his followers that they should seek to hold their fellow believers accountable when they are wrong. Paul echoed the same sentiment.<br /><blockquote><i>Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted.</i> - Galatians 6:1</blockquote>The Bible tells us that when we see wrong done among those within the Body of Christ that we should strive to address and redress the wrongdoing. Why is that important? It’s part of our responsibility. Christians are stand-ins for Christ himself. We are supposed to be his representatives on Earth while he’s not here.<br /><blockquote><i>But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.</i> - 1 Peter 2:9</blockquote>Most of the time we take this charge to mean that we should live righteous lives as an example to nonbelievers of what Godly people look like. That’s certainly true. However, it’s also true that none of us are perfect. We all sin. Those of us truly committed to God should be spending our lives reducing the amount we sin, but very few people ever cut it out completely. So, what happens when we sin? Should we ignore it or attempt to hide it while we continue to portray that we are exceptionally righteous or holier-than thou? That’s what many of us do, and it can hurt our efforts to bring people to God. <br /><br />When we act as though we are flawless and clearly aren’t, it makes us seem as if we aren’t genuine and that our faith isn’t real. Who would seek to join a fake faith followed by a bunch of pretenders? Nonbelievers know we’re not perfect. It’s more productive for us to make it clear that we also know we’re not perfect. We will mess up, but when we do, we should be quick to admit wrong and make amends because that’s what God wants from us, and it’s also the right thing to do even by secular standards.<br /><br />Contrary to what some Christians may believe, nonbelievers understand the concepts of right and wrong. They may not always know all of what God wants especially if they haven’t read the Bible, but most of God’s commands are intuitive and should make sense to every human being. If nonbelievers can look at us and hear from us and constantly see us in the wrong, they have no reason to want to be like us. They can do wrong all by themselves. However, seeing people admit wrong and try to make right is something that’s not exactly common in today’s world.<br /><br />What if we, as believers, set that example? What if we buck that trend and show that anyone who is capable of wrong is also capable of making it right? Perhaps, that’s just one more thing we can do to reverse the trend of people moving away from the faith. The Bible tells us that not all people will be saved, but that shouldn’t be because we’ve pushed them away. If we become the problem and the reason that more people don’t follow God, then it’s something we will have to answer for when we see him. He will make us accountable, and at that point the reckoning may be far worse.<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image Courtesy of <a href="https://bibleportal.com/topic/accountability">Bible Portal</a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></i></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-89860266000956094282023-02-19T11:30:00.002-05:002023-02-19T11:30:42.691-05:00Wisdom in James <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnYBJyI8ZBQkFopAMOy7sWv5V13d4Bz-Vd58zLwkqnAzDhs-uudNkdtl8hHtJnwqawjH1eqzSR2UGZxiV64eUPsDNgXO0w23A_FmK4vCn8mg8f9Jdpa4RL_OgMClBgvAG42UkrBc0jQ_i0JFy-VYjRFfJVIDsDGcD3zj4B_Bx_iArRWQNifDVy-Q/s810/james-1-1200x665.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="448" data-original-width="810" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqnYBJyI8ZBQkFopAMOy7sWv5V13d4Bz-Vd58zLwkqnAzDhs-uudNkdtl8hHtJnwqawjH1eqzSR2UGZxiV64eUPsDNgXO0w23A_FmK4vCn8mg8f9Jdpa4RL_OgMClBgvAG42UkrBc0jQ_i0JFy-VYjRFfJVIDsDGcD3zj4B_Bx_iArRWQNifDVy-Q/s320/james-1-1200x665.webp" width="320" /></a><br /><br /> When we think about the New Testament, the teachings of Jesus and Paul are probably the first to come to mind. Jesus, of course, is the focus for the whole New Testament. The Gospels cover his life and death while his teachings, resurrection, and the advent of the Holy Spirit are what provide the foundation for all the other books in the New Testament. Paul, on the other hand, was the prominent figure in the New Testament responsible for the spread of Christianity from the Jews to various groups of Gentiles throughout the Mediterranean Sea coast and Middle East. <br /><br />There is good reason that those two are the stars of the New Testament, but we shouldn’t forget that other voices are also present within the New Testament books. Jesus had twelve disciples and several of them have books that appear in the New Testament. They each bring interesting perspectives.<br /><br />When we learn about the disciples in the Gospels, they are studying under Jesus, and they aren’t always quick on the uptake. At times, Jesus even gets frustrated with their lack of faith and understanding. However, in the books they wrote, we are able to see their growth and maturity. We see how they went from students to teachers. They are no longer the ones asking questions. Instead, they have become the ones giving answers. It’s important to note that their writings really only repeat lessons that Jesus first taught. However, they are able to deliver those same lessons from a different perspective. Unlike Jesus, his disciples weren’t God in the flesh. They were people just like us who had to learn and come to an understanding of the truth. In that sense they were able to deliver Jesus’ message in a way that even he couldn’t - as people who had walked in the darkness but came to see the light.<br /><br />The Book of James is a good example. It’s not very long, but it is packed with useful information. The first chapter alone makes some interesting points that should be of use to all believers.<br /><blockquote><i>If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.</i> - James 1:5-8 </blockquote>Everyone has likely heard the shortened version of this verse “Ask and ye shall receive.” As is common, that shortened version leaves out important information. James is speaking specifically about gaining wisdom. He's not talking about asking God for just anything. However, the more important part of the verse shines light on the requirement for us having our requests granted. When we ask God for something, we have to believe that he can and will deliver. If we ask but don’t really believe God will grant our requests, we’re just wasting our time. That’s important to remember. People who offer half-hearted prayers shouldn’t expect an answer. When we go to God, we should be firm and resolute in our confidence in him.<br /><blockquote><i>When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.</i> - James 1:13-15</blockquote>It’s not uncommon to hear people say things like “God is testing me.” Sometimes those people mean that God is subjecting them to hardship to make them stronger. Other times they mean that God has put an obstacle before them to see if they can resist. James is telling us that people who claim to be in the midst of these tests from God should be careful, especially with the latter example. While God may very well nudge us along our paths to help us get stronger in our faiths, he’s never going to purposely put us in positions where we may fall to sin. That should really be obvious. God doesn’t want us to sin, so why would he subject us to anything that could lead us to sin? That sounds more devilish than godlike.<br /><blockquote><i>Those who consider themselves religious and yet do not keep a tight rein on their tongues deceive themselves, and their religion is worthless. Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.</i> - James 1:26-27</blockquote>These two verses make two different but very important points for today’s world. We hear a variety of ideas being expressed by Christians nowadays. Unfortunately, much of them are questionable and don’t really reflect what the Bible says. Many of the people that espouse these ideas are reckless with their words and so-called teachings. James says the religion of those people is worthless. It doesn’t matter how pious people believe themselves to be, if they are not careful and considerate with the things they say, then they are not really doing the work of God. However, those that help the needy (e.g., orphans and widows) and keep themselves separate from the ills of the world are practicing a religion that actually reflects God’s desires. As the saying goes - actions speak louder than words<br /><br />James makes many more good points in that first chapter and the rest of the book. His book is worth the read as are all the books in the Bible, particularly those in the New Testament. It doesn’t matter how short the book is or how prominent the writer, God inspired them all for a reason. Even when different books happen to cover the same topic, they often do so in unique ways. Basically, the various books in the Bible exist to make sure the Bible has something for everyone. If you’re not reading regularly or are skipping over certain books, you might be cheating yourself out of lessons that God meant just for you.<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://simplygospel.net/2019/09/17/an-overview-of-james-chapter-1-maturity-in-faith/">Simply Gospel</a></i><br /><i><br /></i></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-1413138556465491142023-02-05T15:47:00.001-05:002023-02-05T15:47:52.374-05:00Bible Character Spotlight: Jonah<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCJVKyd6SBxURR_xDRDanIa8Jm5upK0UNJ1jr4ZdfyZ6PbZwi7mKEVP7sdq4TzogzkwgnyHAhW9NPljAWhgJif2onmbC6Unjd7H8-BVvpeTMqyYnkKRV8KKXZC0LbVDHae2uTX5qBlbf1nMIEK6zGWGc01en0L4fiCJ3KYU45mwYJRRmP7E9em0s/s861/Jonah-and-the-great-fish.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="861" data-original-width="696" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvCJVKyd6SBxURR_xDRDanIa8Jm5upK0UNJ1jr4ZdfyZ6PbZwi7mKEVP7sdq4TzogzkwgnyHAhW9NPljAWhgJif2onmbC6Unjd7H8-BVvpeTMqyYnkKRV8KKXZC0LbVDHae2uTX5qBlbf1nMIEK6zGWGc01en0L4fiCJ3KYU45mwYJRRmP7E9em0s/s320/Jonah-and-the-great-fish.jpg" width="259" /></a><br />Several prophets have short, often overlooked books, dedicated to them in the Bible. Jonah is one example, though his name is more well-known among believers and others who have a casual familiarity with the Bible. It’s not that Jonah’s work was more important than that of the other prophets. His story simply had a component to it that made for better storytelling. We’ve heard about Noah and the Ark, David and Goliath, and Daniel in the Lion’s Den. They are all stories that illustrate who God is in fantastical fashion. Jonah and the Fish is a story that fits right along them.<br /><br />The problem is that in boiling Jonah’s story down to his experience with the fish, we miss out on a lot of what the Book of Jonah is trying to teach us. That’s unfortunately a mistake that we sometimes make with the Bible as a whole. We try to find the big lesson or get caught up in the more amazing aspects of the various Biblical stories and wind up overlooking the important details.<br /><br />We are given the crux of Jonah’s story right away.<br /><blockquote><i>The word of the Lord came to Jonah son of Amittai: “Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before me.”<br /><br />But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.</i> - Jonah 1:1-3</blockquote>Jonah was a prophet. The whole purpose of his role was to take God’s Word and deliver it to the people. We aren't told much about how Jonah operated before the story begins, but we can assume that he embraced his role and upheld his duties (see 2 Kings 14:25). However, when God directed him to go to Nineveh, he refused and tried to run away from God, something that as a prophet, he had to know was impossible.<br /><br />What follows is the most famous part of his story. The ship encountered a bad storm that threatened to destroy it. The sailors were distressed. They cried out to their gods to no avail. They awoke Jonah who was somehow sleeping through the storm and asked him to pray to his god. They did everything they could to try and figure out who was responsible for bringing the calamity down on them all. They were particularly alarmed when they found out that Jonah was a Hebrew and prophet of God. He confirmed for them that he was the cause of their woes and instructed them to throw him overboard. They resisted at first, but eventually complied when they realized it was the only way to save themselves. God responded by ceasing the storm and sending the fish to save Jonah.<br /><br />Right away, we see some points in the story that are often glossed over in more simplified retellings. For one, the sailors were not servants of God, but they knew and understood who God is. Also, Jonah was fully aware of what he was doing and expected God to take action. Lastly, Jonah was not as selfish or self serving as is sometimes portrayed. He was more than willing to die so as to not drag others down because of his actions.<br /><br />With this part of the story, we learn that disobeying God can have dire consequences. However, from the belly of the fish, Jonah prayed, repented, and praised the Lord. God, in response, had the fish deliver Jonah to dry land safe and sound. So, we also learn that God is forgiving and merciful.<br /><br />This part of Jonah’s story has a good message and delivers it in dramatic fashion, which is the reason it is so memorable. However, it may not even be the most important part of the story. Retellings that focus only on this part of Jonah’s story skip out on answering an important question. Why did Jonah run away in the first place?<br /><br />God said Nineva was a wicked city, so was Jonah afraid to preach there? Did he think the people would reject God and kill him in response to him delivering God’s message? No, the true reason might surprise some.<br /><blockquote><i>But to Jonah this seemed very wrong, and he became angry. He prayed to the Lord, “Isn’t this what I said, Lord, when I was still at home? That is what I tried to forestall by fleeing to Tarshish. I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love, a God who relents from sending calamity. Now, Lord, take away my life, for it is better for me to die than to live.”</i> - Jonah 4:1-3</blockquote>It might flat out shock people when they realize that Jonah fled from God’s command because he knew that the Ninevites would hear him and would repent. Jonah didn’t believe they deserved to be saved. He knew that God would show them mercy, and he didn’t believe they were worthy of that mercy. Jonah wasn’t just a little annoyed that God chose to spare Nineveh. He was very angry to the point that he wanted to die.<br /><br />God inquired about Jonah’s anger, and while Jonah was pouting outside of the city in the oppressive heat of the day, God made a plant grow to give Jonah shade. When Jonah would not give up on his anger, God had the plant destroyed. Jonah was then angered by the destruction of the plant leading to the final exchange between God and Jonah in the story.<br /><blockquote><i> But God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry about the plant?”<br /><br />“It is,” he said. “And I’m so angry I wish I were dead.”<br /><br />But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight. And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left—and also many animals?”</i> - Jonah 4:9-11</blockquote>God’s final point was that it was silly for Jonah to be mad about the death of a plant he did nothing to create or sustain. It was just as wrong for Jonah to be mad at God for choosing not to kill a whole city of people who did not understand the errors of their ways.<br /><br />The story ends there. It’s an odd ending. Did Jonah get over his anger and reconcile with God? Did he come to some understanding of the error of his ways and commit himself to always executing the will of God? Did God grant him his request and take his life? We don’t really know.<br /><br />There are a couple things we do know, especially when we put this story in the context of the other books around it. First, serving God and constantly dealing with wicked and backsliding people weighed on the prophets. The Hebrews were caught in a cycle of disobeying God, being punished by God, and coming back to God. Jonah understood that, and in the case of the Ninevites, he believed that God should have broken the cycle. He didn’t believe they deserved the opportunity to come back to God.<br /><br />It’s easy to dismiss Jonah as being overly judgemental and maybe he was, but was he really so different from many of us? Don’t we have times where we deem some people to have done too much wrong to be given the opportunity to make right? Aren’t we sometimes like Jonah where we get so caught up in the wrongdoings of others that we wind up doing wrong ourselves?<br /><br />Our bad actions in those cases should lead to us being punished too, but therein lies the other thing we learn at the end of the story. God is gracious and understanding. He talked to Jonah and tried to get the prophet to see the error of his ways. God loves us all, whether we are people who don’t know him and are neck deep in wickedness or are believers that have let our own perceived righteousness blind us to the evil that we do. God will punish us, but that’s not what he wants to do. He wants us to see the errors of our ways and correct them accordingly. Living a righteous life can be hard. Reaching out to those who indulge in wickedness can be even harder. Still, we have to do both because that is what God commands. Perhaps, doing both of those things will be a lot easier if we make sure we never forget that, just like with Jonah, at some point God had to save us too.<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://sean.si/fish-man/">The Fish man</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-81028550084751850152023-01-08T10:33:00.001-05:002023-01-08T10:33:37.582-05:00Customs <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GOMw99i624rL00Tgmz7K3bYc5gqViFbMaqyKZmuTly1v3wzpRvvX587js_q7rLCLxWb2A-ogZWqgTc-Lv9SsepvmoXQGToKs51U3BvvJAyZtRa_LrZp6DICzyX34D7DD71fCtcgEasP7hJ7fjYhT8x_2vwHv0H3qc4Zo-9i6_82uINQs0FaD-OI/s736/iNjqkdTDFchj1VS87ZinvxwN.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="545" data-original-width="736" height="386" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7GOMw99i624rL00Tgmz7K3bYc5gqViFbMaqyKZmuTly1v3wzpRvvX587js_q7rLCLxWb2A-ogZWqgTc-Lv9SsepvmoXQGToKs51U3BvvJAyZtRa_LrZp6DICzyX34D7DD71fCtcgEasP7hJ7fjYhT8x_2vwHv0H3qc4Zo-9i6_82uINQs0FaD-OI/w522-h386/iNjqkdTDFchj1VS87ZinvxwN.jpeg" width="522" /></a><br /><br /> With the holiday season drawing to a close, almost everyone has observed some sort of long held tradition over the past couple weeks. America, the melting pot that it is, has citizens that celebrate a number of different holidays during this season including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s Day, and Christmas. Christmas, in particular, is an interesting case as it is like a mixed bag of several different holidays. Of course, for us believers, Christmas commemorates the birth of Jesus Christ. Given Jesus’ importance to us and our faith, there’s no surprise that Christmas is one of the most important holidays to us.<br /><br />That said, Christmas is no longer a holiday solely celebrated by Christians. Many people who do not even believe in Jesus still celebrate Christmas. As a result, Christmas has a number of attached customs and traditions that don’t have anything to do with Christ’s birth. Does that mean we shouldn’t observe any of those customs or celebrate Christmas at all? Some groups within the body of Christ would say “No,” but what does God say?<br /><br />Does the Bible tell us that we can’t put up Christmas trees or have Easter Egg hunts or set off fireworks to celebrate the birth of the nation? Of course not, so it’s not really Biblical to say that indulging in those things is wrong. That’s not to say that everything is fair game when it comes to taking up secular customs. For example, some aspects of Halloween should probably be avoided because they are contrary to Christian beliefs.<br /><br />The dilemma really comes down to us understanding how our actions compare to what God expects from us. Jesus addressed this topic.<br /><blockquote><i>Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”<br /><br />Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You hypocrites! Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you:<br /><br />“‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules.”</i> - Matthew 15:1-8</blockquote>Here we have an example of the Pharisees trying to attack Jesus and his disciples for not upholding Jewish customs. It’s something they did several times across the four Gospels. They sought to discredit Jesus and his teachings by pointing out that he wasn’t adhering to God’s rules. However, Jesus pointed out that their concern was more aligned with following human rules than obeying God’s law.<br /><br />For Jesus, following or not following a custom wasn’t as important as the reason why people did what they did. That point is even clearer in another encounter.<br /><blockquote><i>Another time Jesus went into the synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Some of them were looking for a reason to accuse Jesus, so they watched him closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath. Jesus said to the man with the shriveled hand, “Stand up in front of everyone.”<br /><br />Then Jesus asked them, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” But they remained silent.<br /><br />He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.</i> - Mark 3:1-5</blockquote>Refraining from working on the Sabbath is one of the 10 Commandments, so the Pharisees were not wrong to point that out. However, what Jesus tried to get them to see was that doing good is not what God meant by working. Loving and caring for people is never sinful in God’s eyes.<br /><br />So what does this mean for us? There’s no rule against celebrating customs that weren’t originally born in Christianity. In many cases, Christians can use those customs to fulfill the mission given by God. For example, Thanksgiving isn’t a Christian holiday, but the custom of serving the poor that is practiced by many on Thanksgiving is absolutely something in which Christians should engage.<br /><br />The Hebrews took on the customs of other groups in the Old Testament, and they were wrong. Why? Because those customs involved idolatry and other actions that broke God’s law. So we should never adopt anything that goes against God or denies him the glory he deserves. However, if the worldly customs don’t contradict with God’s will, then our first instinct shouldn’t necessarily be to avoid them. Instead, maybe the better option would be to use those customs as a way to bring others to Jesus. <br /><br />Some scholars believe that Christmas is on December 25th because the Romans wanted to usurp pagan celebrations in an effort to ease the conversion of those pagans to Christianity. They didn’t just throw away the customs of others. They tried to repurpose them to serve God instead. As a result, they facilitated the spread of Christianity around the known world. We aren't really in a position to save the entire world, but if we can use the world’s customs to save even one person or simply to bring glory to God, why shouldn’t we?<br /><br /><br />Chris Lawyer<div>Image Courtesy of <a href="https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1265112923408171011">ThingLink</a><br /> <br /><br /> </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-18277011620739737452022-12-24T22:16:00.000-05:002022-12-24T22:16:29.740-05:00We Need a Savior <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UCr-7zJepMhvS_Jicd71_PYpc75hy1q5hoQTdtzYuKHRHtjWUKHg2JN6F5BkbfnJ67WNDZxp2jwl92BOwPe9l-gzOr2YnxVugtVI63xS1Stb2QJEabqZ8-JeaNb687BDMGXRR78Z7MSghnaFKHQ-Cit2uoi3uHxi1-yLO3owYhoFsp6JYYwrDjI/s500/Jesus-Gift.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="324" data-original-width="500" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-UCr-7zJepMhvS_Jicd71_PYpc75hy1q5hoQTdtzYuKHRHtjWUKHg2JN6F5BkbfnJ67WNDZxp2jwl92BOwPe9l-gzOr2YnxVugtVI63xS1Stb2QJEabqZ8-JeaNb687BDMGXRR78Z7MSghnaFKHQ-Cit2uoi3uHxi1-yLO3owYhoFsp6JYYwrDjI/s320/Jesus-Gift.jpg" width="320" /></a><br /><br /> It’s Christmas time again. Christmas is a holiday celebrated by both religious and nonreligious people. The Christmas season is supposed to be a time of joy, love, and generosity, all of which are undoubtedly good things. Still, as we Christians like to say: Jesus is the reason for the season. He’s what it’s all about. Sending Jesus to earth was God’s greatest display of love, generosity, and mercy, and our joy during this season should come from our reflection over what Jesus’ birth means for us. He wasn’t just a very special person. He was and is our savior.<br /><br />You’ll probably hear that sentiment a lot. “Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of our savior.” What does that really mean though? We say it. Many of us believe it, but do we really comprehend what it means? <br /><br />We live in a time where the movie theaters are ruled by superhero movies - stories about super powered individuals and teams that save people and even worlds in the most dramatic and spectacular ways. Even the less super heroes that we encounter in real life like firefighters, paramedics, or just average citizens that leap into danger to save others always seem to play their savior roles in dramatic fashion.<br /><br />That’s just what our imaginations have been trained to expect, so when some people think about Jesus’ story, they may come away less than impressed. Sure, he was superpowered. He could read minds, control the weather, heal the sick, raise the dead, and tell the future. He had an array of powers that would make many Marvel and DC heroes jealous. He helped those in need, spread the word about the importance of love, stood firm on his beliefs, and died for the benefit of others. That should probably put him squarely in the category of a hero by anyone’s standards. <br /><br />He saved people for sure. Lazarus, for example, was dead and Jesus raised him up. The Bible tells us about many people for which he was a savior, but what does it mean when we say he is our savior? <div><br /></div><div>Jesus, at least in his physical form, has been gone from this world for nearly two millennia, so nonbelievers who are open to, at least, acknowledging his existence still struggle to see how he is saving any of us. To them, Jesus lived, and he died. His death didn’t immediately change life for his people. The Jews were still under the thumb of Rome when he died. His death also didn’t make life any easier for his followers. In fact, for many, their lives got harder. So who exactly did his death save, and what did it save them from?<div><div><div><br />As Christians, this should be an easy answer for us. The Bible tells us:<br /><blockquote><i>You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.<br /><br />Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!</i> - Romans 5:6-10</blockquote>Jesus died to save us all from our own sin and from God’s Wrath that was born in response to our sinfulness. If that’s too vague, the Bible makes it clearer.<br /><blockquote><i>For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.</i> - Romans 6:23</blockquote>Jesus’ death and resurrection saved us from death. That’s what the Bible tells us, but again that concept might not ring true to nonbelievers. People, even Christians, die every day. How can that be if Jesus saved us? Part of being a believer means seeing past this physical world and looking to the spiritual one beyond. That’s the part of Christmas that doesn’t get talked about enough. Sure, it’s a time of giving and fellowshipping and spreading cheer. We can and should indulge in all of that, especially in Jesus’ name. However, we Christians have to make sure the Gospel doesn’t get lost in all the worldly activity. <br /><br />One day the Christmas trees, the presents, and everything else in this world will be gone. Jesus left the world, but one day he’s coming back to destroy and rebuild. On that day, those who were believed to be dead will come back to be with the savior.<br /><blockquote><i>For we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words.</i> - 1 Thessalonians 4:14-16</blockquote>Contrary to what the movies show us, salvation doesn’t always come accompanied by explosions and fighting and spectacular displays of superhuman abilities. It also isn’t always instantaneous or easy to understand. Still, whenever you’ve been saved you should know it. Those of us who believe in Jesus understand full well what he’s done for us. We know where we were headed before we accepted Jesus and God's gift of salvation. The good thing is we can play a part in the salvation of others. All we have to do is share our story. What better time than this season to let others know that he can do the same for them? It’s only fitting that everyone learns that we all have already received the greatest Christmas gift of them all. Merry Christmas.</div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of Valley Christian School</i></div></div></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-17101126879102004852022-12-19T00:02:00.002-05:002022-12-19T00:02:28.917-05:00Christianity and the LGBT Community Part 2<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU0kxfjs9uXRFnF7BPj-XLMfT7GUS0Ix6KGEr1OrYJ-BnjZwpBKrcTbSkxdvNt8nN7o9oer1peV0UVP-SB_7sM8xijG995o2b5MC8yFlt72uLfHXuMZOeDMih9RMNxZZ3ptVOMPZfHXgMIBKGTI85cBfjdR-3QFYjAwph_8IB5U-dohuuL7QcLhLs/s519/5041e3_a9f32be705434d818074ca8577fe3f3e_mv2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="519" height="157" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjU0kxfjs9uXRFnF7BPj-XLMfT7GUS0Ix6KGEr1OrYJ-BnjZwpBKrcTbSkxdvNt8nN7o9oer1peV0UVP-SB_7sM8xijG995o2b5MC8yFlt72uLfHXuMZOeDMih9RMNxZZ3ptVOMPZfHXgMIBKGTI85cBfjdR-3QFYjAwph_8IB5U-dohuuL7QcLhLs/w409-h157/5041e3_a9f32be705434d818074ca8577fe3f3e_mv2.png" width="409" /></a><div><br />The previous blog entry addressed the first three letters in LGBT. This entry will discuss the remaining letter, the T, which stands for transgender. Transgenederism and transgendered people are perhaps one of if not the most controversial topics in our world today. For many people, it is also probably one of the most confusing topics out there. Understanding what it means to be transgenedered is something with which most people have great difficulty. Sometimes, it even seems like many people who identify as transgendered cannot clearly explain exactly what it means. As a result, some people believe transgendered people are just confused or mentally ill. Others don’t believe transgendered people exist at all. To them transgendered people are just playing games in an effort to turn society on its head or hiding even more sinister intentions.<br /><br />It would be nice if we could point to some authority and get a definitive answer on what exactly transgenderism is and what causes it, but in truth, no such earthly authority exists. Scientists are trying their best to understand it, but they are far from being able to answer every question. On top of that, there is some disagreement between experts on the few questions that do have proposed answers.<br /><br />For example, one of the explanations that is commonly accepted by many biologists and doctors is that there are periods in human development where fetuses or young children reach milestones where they are either defined as male or female. The physical distinctions between the two sexes are easy to understand as we can clearly see them. However, some scientists claim to observe that there are psychological and even neurological differences between males and females that arise during early development. On rare occasions, the physical path that defines what sex a person is doesn’t necessarily match up with the psychological path that defines what gender a person is.<br /><br />Based on the theory, sometimes, a person’s body can develop as a particular sex, but that person’s brain develops in a different way that doesn’t match the body. In the most extreme cases, some people will be born as one sex physically and the opposite gender mentally. That’s the case a transgendered person. However, science acknowledges that the contrast might not always be that drastic. Sometimes people can simply not fit into a clear gender category. Those people are referred to as nonbinary<br /><br />As stated before, there is still much disagreement about this, even within scientific circles. Some experts still believe that gender is a social construct and doesn’t really have a basis in a person’s physical development. Still, if we accept the somewhat prevailing scientific theory, transgenderism is probably still one of those things with which a person cannot truly relate unless they are going through it. The one thing that we should all takeaway is that it’s not fake. Whether we understand it or not, it’s something that people actually experience, and denying that can be very damaging. <br /><br />In a 2018 study, about half the transgender male (i.e., people born as female sexually but identify as male) participants, nearly 30 percent of trangender female (i.e., people born as male sexually but identify as female) participants, and a little over 40 percent of nonbinary participants admitted to having attempted suicide. To put things into perspective, the general suicide attempt rate in the U.S. was about 0.5 percent among adults. So, suicide rates within the transgendered people is alarmingly high. Given the way transgendered people are treated in our society, it’s not particularly surprising that many would rather just leave it all behind.<br /><br />So, what should the Christian stance be? It would be nice if we could just point to the Bible and find a verse that gives us clear and direct instructions. Unfortunately, the Christian Bible does not directly address transgenderism. That’s not to say that the concept did not exist during Biblical times. The Torah is the most well known Hebrew text and is what comprises the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, but there are other Hebrew texts, such as the Talmud, that are non-canonical as far Christians are concerned but are still consulted by various Jewish sects.<br /><br />Joshua Lesser, a rabbi in Georgia, believes the Talmud and Mishna identify six different genders: <i>Zachar</i>, <i>Nekeivah</i>, <i>Androgynos</i>, <i>Tumtum</i>, <i>Ay’lonit</i>, and <i>Saris</i>, which correspond to male, female, nonbinary, transgendered male, and transgendered female respectively. That is a somewhat controversial take, but at least in the case of andrgogynos, the term does at least seem to broach the concept of something with an indeterminate sex or gender. Even if Rabbi Lesser is taking some liberties, he’s probably correct that the existence of transgendered people is not something new, and transgenderism did exist as far back as Biblical times.<br /><br />As Christians, we care most about what Jesus had to say about various topics, and just as was the case with homosexuality, Jesus did not comment directly on the topic of transgenderism. While it might be frustrating to not have insight from Jesus on such a lightning rod of discussion, maybe that’s the point. The fact is Jesus didn’t draw lines between people the way we do. He acknowledged that he was Jewish and that his mission on the Earth was to reach the Jews, but the commands he gave were not directed at a particular nation, race, sex, or gender. <br /><br />Jesus, time and time again, told his followers about the importance of love.<br /><br /><blockquote><i>“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. ’There is no commandment greater than these.”</i> - Mark 12:29-31.</blockquote><br />Today, we have so many people who claim to be Christians and claim to love God, but show nothing but hate towards their fellow human beings for a variety of reasons including transgenderism. Given what the Bible teaches, such behavior is ridiculous.<br /><br /><blockquote><i>We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.</i> - 1 John 4:19-21</blockquote>We are all made in God’s image regardless of how we identify ourselves. When it comes down to it whether we’re talking about sex or gender, both are trappings of the flesh. One day none of the trivial things we let divide us will matter. Matthew 22:31, says that during the Resurrection, we will all be spiritual beings like the angels. That means that for believers, we will come to a point where these dividing lines no longer exist, so shouldn’t we start treating them now as if they don’t exist?<br /><br />That doesn’t mean we don’t acknowledge our differences because sometimes those differences are what cause pain for people. It just means that we believers shouldn’t allow those differences to affect our ability to obey Jesus’ command to love.<br /><br />None of us know why transgenderism or all of society’s other complexities exist, but we do know that all of it is somehow part of God’s plan. What if God’s purpose for transgenderism is to give His followers a venue to really let their love shine? What if the Christian response to transgenderism is supposed to demonstrate the type of love that would reduce those high suicide rates in the trans community? If that’s God’s purpose, then we are failing. <br /><br />As Christians, our goal should be to become more like Jesus. If that’s the case, we have to stop thinking with such worldly minds. The world is full of hate. If we take part in that, we’re not following the Christian God, we’re following this world’s god - Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4). If that’s true, then we’re all just as godless as many Christians claim the members of the LGBT community to be. At the end of the day, we don’t have to understand transgenderism. We don’t have to like the lifestyles that people within the LGBT live. We just have to give them the respect that all human beings deserve and show them the love that Jesus commanded.<br /><br /><i>Chris Lawyer</i><div><i><br /></i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://www.sthugh.net/lgbtq-affirming-scripture">St. Hugo of Lincoln</a><br /><br />Reference:<br /><br /><a href="https://brainworldmagazine.com/what-neuroscience-tells-us-about-transgender-people/">https://brainworldmagazine.com/what-neuroscience-tells-us-about-transgender-people/</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://www.hrc.org/news/new-study-reveals-shocking-rates-of-attempted-suicide-among-trans-adolescen">https://www.hrc.org/news/new-study-reveals-shocking-rates-of-attempted-suicide-among-trans-adolescen</a><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><a href="https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/">https://afsp.org/suicide-statistics/</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-39314099900230372482022-12-04T18:06:00.003-05:002022-12-15T00:29:33.517-05:00Christianity and the LGBT Community Part 1<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP1AUeRTzxDxqooLOrpeBgcQfPQpacXZsW0c5vbNMTR_-plV7kpfB78LSWuVZl6jshW4cwHp5DTykd3aGmjJK2UO0SmoXfoZIFZni1TnydGaS4SSbabouriYO5a6Eebt_WQ5WtMIS2ipDvz2Yoc2PWVeDQvvtBfnm93a_4gv9OPUT4ZJX6gZ36gY/s2119/christian_gay_by_paulmckinnon_istock.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="2119" height="294" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjGP1AUeRTzxDxqooLOrpeBgcQfPQpacXZsW0c5vbNMTR_-plV7kpfB78LSWuVZl6jshW4cwHp5DTykd3aGmjJK2UO0SmoXfoZIFZni1TnydGaS4SSbabouriYO5a6Eebt_WQ5WtMIS2ipDvz2Yoc2PWVeDQvvtBfnm93a_4gv9OPUT4ZJX6gZ36gY/w439-h294/christian_gay_by_paulmckinnon_istock.jpg" width="439" /></a><div><br /> This blog has addressed some controversial topics in the past and also focused on how Christians address or fail to address those topics. The LGBT community is a topic that this blog hasn’t addressed much despite it having been a hotbed issue in the nation and world for quite a while. With yet another recent act of violence perpetrated against people from that community, it is a suitable time to address the topic.<br /><br /><br />For this discussion, we will need to split the community up somewhat. This entry will focus on the L, G, and B, which refer to lesbian, gay, and bisexual respectively. All three of these concepts are problematic from a Christian standpoint because each involves same sex couplings. There’s really no ambiguity when it comes to how God feels about the subject.<div><blockquote><i>“‘If a man has sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They are to be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.</i> - Leviticus 20:13</blockquote>The above verse represents a pretty harsh critique of homosexuality. Such harshness is not unusual for the Old Testament. Christian doctrine is based more on what appears in the New Testament though. So what does the New Testament say?<br /><blockquote><i>Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men</i> - 1 Corinthians 6:9</blockquote>Even in the New Testament, homosexuality is confirmed to be wrong in God’s eyes. Non-believers certainly don’t like that Christians see it that way. Truthfully, there are probably some Christians who are not happy with this assertion either. There are certainly homosexual and bisexual people professing to be Christians, and it must be difficult for them to know that something that feels natural and right to them is wrong to God. It’s also undoubtedly difficult for the loved ones of people with those struggles. How do you reconcile the love that you have for someone close to you with your love for God and his Word? Some critics take things a step further and launch attacks against God. They question how God can be loving and condemn people for who they love?<br /><br />The important thing to remember is that as believers we may not agree with or like everything God does or says, but we do have to understand and respect that God is sovereign. He made this world and everything in it. At the end of the day, he has the right to set whatever rules he wants whether we like it or not. He created woman for man and relationships based on that dynamic are what please him. That’s just how it is. We can’t change that.<br /><br />Does all this mean that the perpetrator of the Club Q shooting was justified in what he did? After all, the Old Testament says that gay people are to be put to death. So, wasn’t he just fulfilling God’s command? <br /><br />No. It’s not that simple.<br /><br />Jesus did not actually mention the word homosexuality in the Gospels, so it’s impossible to provide a direct quote from our Savior on the topic. When you look at the various verses where Paul addresses homosexuality, he almost always groups it under the umbrella of sexual immorality, which includes other sins like fornication and adultery. We do see an interesting interaction with Jesus concerning adultery.</div><div><blockquote><i>The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.<br /><br />But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.<br /><br />At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there. Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”<br /><br />“No one, sir,” she said.<br /><br />“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”</i> - John 8:3-11</blockquote>It’s reasonable to believe that Jesus’ stance would have been the same had the adulterous woman been a homosexual man instead. What too many Christians do far too often is prioritize sins based on what they do or don’t do. Heterosexual Christians may not struggle with homosexuality, so it’s easy for straight people to try and condemn gay people, but Jesus didn’t do that. He got everyone involved to acknowledge that they were all sinners and that, as such, they had no right to condemn that woman.<br /><br />The same is true for us today. We must be honest about what is right and what is wrong, and that includes with respect to the sins we commit too. The Christians that envy, lie, fornicate, slander, or commit any of the other sins that most of us do on a daily basis are no better than homosexual people. We don’t have any more right to condemn them than the Pharisees had to condemn the adulterous woman. <br /><br />it’s not our job to judge those who are wrong. That is left to God. It’s our job to love, to pray, and to spread the Gospel. We are to bring people to Jesus, and, honestly, we’ve been failing when it comes to outreach to the LBGT community. It seems like all they ever see from us is hate. That’s not only unChristlike, it’s also counterproductive. Most of us aren’t committing mass murders of gay people, but we might as well be. If we’re not behaving in a way that will give them the chance to choose Jesus and the eternal life that comes with him, then we’re still playing a part in them being condemned to death. Yes, homosexuality is wrong according to God, but so is taking actions that push people away from Him.<br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/anti-lgbt-bill-allowing-religious-exemption-for-discrimination-clears-texas-senate-committee-11621199">The Dallas Observer</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-9864735895364046942022-11-13T23:17:00.000-05:002022-11-13T23:17:43.138-05:00Don't Worry Revisited<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZnXp8QtUlCaZ5PoYvlvjGRMkee6zoQLCo4TAmvcvQ14Au3qFUiTR4Q4bL13Rsk49_MHlcETLma0Pa1yIKLYwUG2GK7yFDTdxwQwQVZb0p2zw3jycilVfxldqdgspoTbLffqBWmeQmQRF0cRCBJWLX4MNL6WAol9ptZ28g9J8zCvfXLOuS5hcGKfU/s1102/EO0bPITWsAALdSj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1102" data-original-width="735" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZnXp8QtUlCaZ5PoYvlvjGRMkee6zoQLCo4TAmvcvQ14Au3qFUiTR4Q4bL13Rsk49_MHlcETLma0Pa1yIKLYwUG2GK7yFDTdxwQwQVZb0p2zw3jycilVfxldqdgspoTbLffqBWmeQmQRF0cRCBJWLX4MNL6WAol9ptZ28g9J8zCvfXLOuS5hcGKfU/s320/EO0bPITWsAALdSj.jpg" width="213" /></a><div><br />Almost everyone has heard the song or phrase “Don’t Worry, Be Happy.” As much as it might sound like a mantra, it’s doubtful anyone really takes it to heart. In fact, many people probably think the phrase is a bit cheesy. In fact, in one of Public Enemy’s songs, regarding the phrase, Chuck D famously said “...if I say it, you can slap me right here.”<br /><br />I’m sure he’s not the only one that feels that way. It’s difficult to have such a seemingly flippant attitude in today’s world, such as it is. A recent blog entry (<a href="https://wedforlife.blogspot.com/2022/10/the-violence-of-man.html">The Violence of Man</a>) covered how violent the world is. It’s hard not to worry with that problem looming over your shoulder. The same goes for the threats that disease, economic instability, natural disasters, and a whole host of other concerns pose. The idea that one can just brush all those things off and proceed as if they don't exist seems ridiculous.<br /><br />Refraining from worrying seems like something that’s easier said than done. However, that’s exactly what Christians are expected to do. This blog addressed that very topic before in the original <a href="https://wedforlife.blogspot.com/2019/05/most-people-believers-and-nonbelievers.html">Don't Worry</a> post. Still, the importance of the concept and the need for it especially in the midst of everything we face on a daily basis warrants revisiting the topic.<br /><br />The original post mentioned the following verse:<br /><blockquote><i>Then Jesus said to his disciples: “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear. For life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds! Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?</i> - Luke 12:22-26</blockquote>Jesus delivered wisdom in a way few others can. It’s easy for us to get caught up in the spirituality of his teachings. After all, he was God in the flesh. However, we shouldn’t miss out on the importance of the practical applications of his teachings. As people, we worry and stress ourselves out about every little problem we face, and it does nothing to help us. In fact, it usually hurts us. That stress can lead us to make mistakes in our work, make bad life decisions, and may even lead to sickness. In the end, what does it accomplish? As Jesus points out - nothing.<br /><br />Jesus didn’t stop the lesson there though. He continued.<br /><blockquote><i>“Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you—you of little faith! And do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it. For the pagan world runs after all such things, and your Father knows that you need them. But seek his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.</i> - Luke 12:27-31 </blockquote>Jesus gave us the key to being able to avoid worry. We have to have faith. Consider a roller coaster at an amusement park. They are fast, take you high up off the ground, and accelerate in ways that would send you flying to certain death if anything ever went wrong. A high-speed roller coaster ride is likely a more harrowing and death-defying experience than anything most of us face on a day-to-day basis, yet not only do people not fret over roller coaster rides; but, they line up and wait for hours just to ride. How can that be?<br /><br />Well, we all know that roller coasters have safety measures built into them to keep riders from real danger. We know that they are regularly inspected to make sure that everything is in order. We see the operators check them to make sure we are safe and secure before each ride. Basically, we get on them with the expectation that we are protected from anything truly dangerous happening, and, as a result, no matter how wild the ride is or how much fear it produces, we can enjoy it.<br /><br />Life is like a roller coaster. It has plenty of ups and downs and twists and turns, and it comes at you fast. We worry and stress because we don’t believe we are protected. We don’t see the strap that keeps us from falling to our doom when life sends us through a loop. What Jesus was trying to explain is that we do have that protection. God is our safety system. <br /><br />He keeps us secure on the ride. When our financial woes make us feel like we’re hurtling to the ground at 100 miles per hour, he pulls us back up. When our bad decisions have us approaching a turn in our lives way too fast, God keeps us on the rails. When a series of losses has us feeling like we’re stuck in a spiral, He straightens the course. We’re on the ride of our lives, and when we understand that God keeps the ride safe, we can learn to enjoy it regardless of what is thrown at us. We can worry less and spend more time finding ways to be happy.<br /><br />Jesus finished his lesson by saying.<br /><blockquote><i>“Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will never fail, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.</i> - Luke 12:32-34</blockquote>Most of us probably get a little nervous when we see Jesus say things like “Sell your possessions and give to the poor.” We don’t want to give up the things we worked so hard to achieve and therein lies the problem. Jesus was trying to explain that it is those trappings that lead to our worries in the first place. We stress and we fret because we don’t want to lose things we value whether it be our possessions or our very lives. Jesus wants us to understand that eternal life with God is the one thing that believers can’t lose. If we put more of our focus on that than the fleeting things of the world, then there will be no reason for any of us to worry. If we truly give our hearts to God, then one day we will see him, and then, there will be nothing left for us to do but to be happy.<br /><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://twitter.com/sermoncentral/status/1219661022157594624?lang=ca">Sermon Central</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-46522714402611396492022-10-23T09:31:00.004-04:002022-10-23T09:31:28.575-04:00Holyween <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXCt1f4nwVjjhD0FF74QPbd8kkjSz2hEiDpq_Pgm_O9OIquwatrvuupa3YZ4HGCsingfh3jEt8HtKjJ9PF7KYv06m5-5bf29M4raa9tdLPZ-yP4v-mUYFYM6SQaQ8Wx5F3HwZdMVPo10njepP-6-OPAJb8nCeMGFkqp2qcatja77UXEX4toBa3zI/s705/Shine.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="705" data-original-width="705" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsXCt1f4nwVjjhD0FF74QPbd8kkjSz2hEiDpq_Pgm_O9OIquwatrvuupa3YZ4HGCsingfh3jEt8HtKjJ9PF7KYv06m5-5bf29M4raa9tdLPZ-yP4v-mUYFYM6SQaQ8Wx5F3HwZdMVPo10njepP-6-OPAJb8nCeMGFkqp2qcatja77UXEX4toBa3zI/s320/Shine.png" width="320" /></a><br /><br />This year UBC will be celebrating Holyween. It’s probably obvious, but Holyween is supposed to be a more Christian friendly version of Halloween. The name <i>Halloween</i> is a contracted version of the day’s original name <i>All Hallow’s Eve</i>. It started out simply as the day before a past Christian holiday named All Hallow’s Day (also known as Hallowmas).<br /><br />Interestingly enough, the word hallow means to honor as holy, so essentially, the titles Halloween and Holyween mean nearly the same thing. So, what’s the purpose of even using the new name? Well, regardless of what the name Halloween actually means, the holiday's complicated history has taken it far from its holy beginnings. At best, it has become a commercially supported holiday meant to give kids a little fun but mostly sell a lot of candy and costumes. At worst, it’s become a day to celebrate darkness, evil, and the worst parts of the human experience. As with most holidays, Halloween is really whatever those who choose to celebrate it make of it. UNITED has chosen to use it to fellowship with the community and direct attention back to Jesus, and the new name is just an attempt to separate the church’s celebration from any negativity associated with the more commonly used title.<br /><br />There’s actually a pretty good parallel between the holiday and humanity. Halloween started off innocently enough, and so did we. The Bible tells us that we began with two people in paradise who seemingly knew nothing of good and evil. Over time Halloween was corrupted. What was innocent and holy was introduced to sinful things and darkened. The same happened to humanity. Adam and Eve committed the first sin by disobeying God and eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. As a result, humanity has been corrupted. Over time Halloween changed so much that now it would be unrecognizable if compared to what the day was originally about. Similarly, we are far removed from what God originally made us to be. At one time, we were the finishing touch on his creation, and over time humanity became his enemy.<br /><br />Sometimes, in our world, people and things can become so mired in or connected to controversy that they have to disappear for a while and then reintroduce themselves as something new. We’ve seen this happen with businesses (Philip Morris changed into Altira to show that they were more than a cigarette vendor), sports teams (several teams that formerly used Native American inspired names and mascots have changed), and even people (Ron Artest became Meta World Peace to separate himself from his bad boy image). Sometimes things just need to be rebranded.<br /><br />That’s what UNITED is doing with Halloween. Consider Holyween to be the holiday’s rebranding. The church will reintroduce Christ to the celebration and make it something that is completely new but also closer to what it originally was. And therein lies the biggest similarity between Halloween and humanity. At one point, God looked at us and believed that we needed to be rebranded, so he introduced us to Christ, and, if we choose to accept him, we too will become something new while also becoming closer to what we once were.<br /><blockquote><i>For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.</i> - Romans 5:19</blockquote><blockquote><i>His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature, having escaped the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.</i> - 2 Peter 1:3-4</blockquote><blockquote><i>Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!</i> - 2 Corinthians 5:17</blockquote>So, feel free to enjoy your Halloween or Holyween or whatever you want to call it. There is nothing wrong with eating candy (in moderation of course), dressing up, and having fun with friends and family. Just remember that this holiday like every other day is better when you include Jesus in it, and the same can be said for our lives, our community, and everything else we believe is important.<div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i><br /></i></div><div><i>Image Courtesy of <a href="https://www.heathergillis.com/should-christians-celebrate-halloween/">Heather Gillis</a></i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-17035541636139204912022-10-09T17:50:00.001-04:002022-10-09T17:50:23.396-04:00The Violence of Man <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMetxK-A1HIME49M_Khr-FT7bn26Xu6iwJMBZbc7PF3ZJJRsRa6bi-eeyH688s0XpJtjZQFl7C_ColYaH1DVtUTHTMCbVyF8nsWNn-_QZi_bVzrVC6D9fwtIBNiDQnIMI9VIuWbHiM9FU70jPllEc95wSUewfcoDWkyos7AWOLL_mSwMk4grVM-H0/s833/The-story-of-Cain-and-Abel-still-relevant-today_833_460_80_c1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="460" data-original-width="833" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMetxK-A1HIME49M_Khr-FT7bn26Xu6iwJMBZbc7PF3ZJJRsRa6bi-eeyH688s0XpJtjZQFl7C_ColYaH1DVtUTHTMCbVyF8nsWNn-_QZi_bVzrVC6D9fwtIBNiDQnIMI9VIuWbHiM9FU70jPllEc95wSUewfcoDWkyos7AWOLL_mSwMk4grVM-H0/w467-h258/The-story-of-Cain-and-Abel-still-relevant-today_833_460_80_c1.jpg" width="467" /></a><br /><br /> Today’s world is a violent one. There’s no question about that. Everyone has heard about the war going on in the Ukraine right now. War in itself is bad enough, but the reports of the murder, torture, and rapes of civilian men, women, and even children make the events unfolding in the Ukraine right now seem even more horrific. Many in America might believe that with our recent departures from Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. has moved away from war. Those people might be surprised to know that the U.S. is still actively participating in several other wars in places like Yemen and Somalia. Whether the events are reported on the news every day or not, global scale violence has been a constant in the world for decades.<br /><br />One need not know anything about the various wars in the world to understand how violent the world is. Even on national and local levels, we see plenty of examples of the violence. You can’t turn on the TV or open a newspaper without seeing a story detailing some ridiculous and unnecessary act of violence. With the rise of the internet and social media, you can be nearly drowned in a wave of stories, articles, and videos detailing or showing egregious acts of violence.<br /><br />With the exposure we get to the violence, it’s easy to come to believe that the world is more violent now than it ever was. After hearing about incidents where dozens of people get shot or killed in a single weekend in cities like Chicago or Philadelphia, people can easily come away thinking senseless violence has reached unprecedented levels. What might come as another surprise to many is that such an impression would be wrong. For example, the murder rate in the U.S. had actually been on the decline since the early 1990s. One of the strange consequences of the COVID pandemic was that the nation saw a sharp rise in murders, still even with that rise, the amount of homicides committed each year is much less now than it was three decades ago. As unbelievable as it might be, violent crime in the nation has actually been going down over the decades.<br /><br />Truthfully, any inspection of history would show us that violence now doesn’t stand out when compared to what has always existed in human society. Modern wars have definitely resulted in unprecedented destruction and casualties, but that has more to do with the nature of modern weaponry than any increased propensity of violence for people. Even without tanks, machine guns, and high yield bombs, groups like the Mongols were still able to wipe whole cities off the map.<br /><br />Anyone who has read the Bible should understand how violent humans can be. The stories in the Old Testament are particularly telling. Violence in the Old Testament is extremely prevalent. The very first crime we are introduced to after Adam and Eve’s fall was an act of fratricide with Cain killing his brother Abel (Genesis 4). Take a moment to think of five stories you know from the Old Testament. There’s a good chance that at least three of those five stories have a violent angle to them.<br /><br />Critics of the Bible like to point out that God actually took part in a lot of the violence of the Old Testament. He helped the Israelites destroy the city of Jericho (Joshua 6). He gave Samson the ability to kill masses of Philistines (Judges 15), and he helped David kill Goliath and then go on to massacre his enemies in a series of wars (1 and 2 Samuel). Does that mean God likes man’s violence?<br /><br />Absolutely not, as has been noted by this blog many times, God wanted to destroy humanity with the flood primarily because humans were so violent (Genesis 6:11-14). So why did God support the Israelites in their efforts to destroy their enemies?<br /><blockquote><i>When you enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, do not learn to imitate the detestable ways of the nations there. Let no one be found among you who sacrifices their son or daughter in the fire, who practices divination or sorcery, interprets omens, engages in witchcraft, or casts spells, or who is a medium or spiritist or who consults the dead. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord; because of these same detestable practices the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless before the Lord your God.</i> - Deuteronomy 18: 9-13</blockquote>God knew that the enemies of the Israelites were evil and would lead His people astray if they were allowed to consort. This wasn’t just some baseless assumption God was making. He’s all knowing, and the Bible proves him correct. Throughout the Old Testament when the Israelites did come into contact with foreign nations, they were quick to take up wicked practices just as God said they would. What exactly were these practices?<br /><blockquote><i>They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I did not command, nor did it enter my mind.</i> - Jeremiah 7:31</blockquote>Yes, the Israelites were routinely engaging in child sacrifice even though God repeatedly told them not to do it and punished them for disobeying. That's just how committed they were to being violently in the wrong.<br /><br />Unfortunately, violence just happens to be part of the human experience. It’s so deeply ingrained in us that when God made his big act to offer us salvation, it involved his Son being the victim of violence, and his Son’s return will be met with even more violence. Basically, violence isn’t something that will go away until God is ready to cleanse this world completely.<br /><br />So what does that mean for us? It means we have to live and persevere. The threat of violence is ever present and too many people fall victim to it, but it’s important we understand that it’s nothing new. We can’t allow our heightened exposure to it to discourage us. God was with the Israelites when they were surrounded by enemies. He was with the early Christians when they were being actively persecuted. He’s still with us here and now.<br /><br />The world is a harsh place. That is the consequence of sin. As Christians, we have to do our best to rise above sin and the violence that comes with it. As we do, we can help others do the same. We’ll never eliminate the violence in the world. Only God can do that. What we can do is believe in and spread the Gospel. If we do that, we can ensure that one day we and everyone who chooses to believe in Jesus will see a world of peace and an eternity with God when the violence of man becomes a thing of the past.<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><i>Image courtesy of <a href="https://lifehopeandtruth.com/change/sin/story-of-cain-and-abel/">Life Hope & Truth</a></i>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-54765881433096864992022-07-24T14:40:00.005-04:002022-07-24T14:40:53.949-04:00Bad Theology<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExmA9SmpkB8Sw6N1o0q3Oq3CFjZlaINDxxJGA8BNcYcHn0t8Xe_Pn0NslQxLLJulRGGE-zeWF1a0ZsGXhKMGod9XP4qFXc2XWIg79uB08cfBunHmNvf6oS7O-qMl0gZGqA3_DiZA6C026P7Q8d7UNxxkSHmih7v405Xg3hbkwpqv0zD0zQMk9tXE/s4080/PXL_20220626_175422775.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4080" data-original-width="3072" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiExmA9SmpkB8Sw6N1o0q3Oq3CFjZlaINDxxJGA8BNcYcHn0t8Xe_Pn0NslQxLLJulRGGE-zeWF1a0ZsGXhKMGod9XP4qFXc2XWIg79uB08cfBunHmNvf6oS7O-qMl0gZGqA3_DiZA6C026P7Q8d7UNxxkSHmih7v405Xg3hbkwpqv0zD0zQMk9tXE/s320/PXL_20220626_175422775.jpg" width="241" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />God’s and Jesus’ names are invoked a lot in today’s world. Unfortunately, not always for the right reasons. Recently, Representative Lauren Boebert made the comment that “Jesus didn’t have enough AR-15s to keep his government from killing him” in an attempt to defend the second amendment. Someone should tell Rep. Boebert that the Son of God wouldn’t have needed guns to stop his crucifixion.<br /><br />While it may be easy to laugh off the absurdity of Boebert’s comment, her flub is merely a symptom of a larger disease. It’s commonplace for politicians to quote scripture out of context to serve their own purposes, but it’s not limited to politicians. We often see celebrities turn to the Bible in an effort to try and pull away a line that might help them absolve themselves of some wrongdoing. Even among everyday ordinary citizens, it is an all too normal occurrence to hear someone try to use the Bible to attack, discriminate against, or tear down others.<br /><br />The reality is that the world has created a new religion…a new Christianity that hardly resembles the real thing. Sure, it has a “God,” but that God destroys some sinners while turning a blind eye to the sins of others, and he only loves certain people. The new Christianity has a Jesus, but he’s all about the prosperity of the people that claim to believe in him and doesn’t really care if that belief is genuine or if those who claim to believe in him actually follow his teachings.<br /><br /><br />The new Christianity is ridiculous, but it’s clearly tempting seeing as how so many are ready to follow it. What’s even worse is that it alienates some other people and leaves them disenfranchised and disinterested in both the new Christianity and the genuine article. That’s a big problem, particularly for sincere Christians who believe it is their duty to bring people to God.<br /><br />So, what can followers of the real Christianity do to oppose the spread of the cheap imitation?<br /><br />First and foremost, we must make sure we haven’t fallen victim to it ourselves. So often, those who spread bad theology say things that sound right and appealing. That allows them to trick even sincere believers. To protect ourselves from this, we must make sure that we know what the Bible actually says.<div><blockquote><i>Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.</i> - Joshua 1:8</blockquote><div><div>God made it clear to his followers even back as far as the days of the Old Testament that it was important to keep his Word close. We have to read it, indulge in it, and believe in it. It’s not enough to be able to quote timely scriptures at the drop of a hat. We have to actually understand the message God is trying to deliver. That way, when we hear someone misquote a scripture or make an incorrect statement about God or Jesus, we will know right away that it’s wrong and why it’s wrong.<br /><blockquote><i>For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.</i> - 2 Timothy 4:3</blockquote>Pop culture has led many to believe that there is one Antichrist that will be comparable to Jesus and work to tear down what God has established. The Bible tells us there will be many false prophets and false messiahs (antichrists) that spread teachings that lead people astray. As believers we cannot simply hear these false teachings and turn a deaf ear to them. We have to be willing to set the record straight. When someone like Boebert implies that Jesus died because he was not able to fight off his attackers, a true believer needs to take a stand and point out that Jesus willingly gave his life for all of us. If we do not make it clear that it is unacceptable to abuse the Lord’s name and his teachings, people will continue to do it.</div><div><br />Lastly, we must be proactive. We must spread the truth. The teachings of the false Christianity won’t be able to take root if everyone is familiar with the real thing.<br /></div><blockquote><div><i>for, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”<br /><br />How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them?</i> - Romans 10:13-14</div><div></div></blockquote><div>Not everyone is a Biblical scholar, so it’s not surprising that some are led astray by bad teachings, misguided sayings, and out-of-context Bible quotes. The best weapon against bad theology is good theology, but it, like any other weapon, has to be wielded by someone. If we really believe in the real God and his real son, then we have to be willing to speak the truth about them and do it just as confidently and commonly as those who uplift their fake counterparts. If we don’t, we will find ourselves in a world full of people who claim to know the Lord but are unrecognizable in his eyes, and we know what the consequences of that are.</div><div><blockquote><i>Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’</i> - Matthew 7:22-23</blockquote><div><p><i>Chris Lawyer</i> </p></div></div></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-17427130972754881212022-06-19T11:19:00.004-04:002022-06-19T11:19:46.784-04:00Set Apart<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1J1_G6qpN_iQDO_dsGYWk6ne7EOd_xFnAv6mlJ8dIyJ-rtpwH_s2hS_jXsrRaF5LFhZSiv3iRNyqDEIZ4d9F-cE1ZdEvucV0Ubk24BuBJYZbcXomy1XEYdBGdlrmPZS1LvFXq6yFrL6TiuLsfY1ZZbEjEKk2NT063_aJlj7-TXqOCLQwsiMk2odg/s600/HomeAdvisor_Set_Apart_From_Competition_2018-600x300.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="600" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1J1_G6qpN_iQDO_dsGYWk6ne7EOd_xFnAv6mlJ8dIyJ-rtpwH_s2hS_jXsrRaF5LFhZSiv3iRNyqDEIZ4d9F-cE1ZdEvucV0Ubk24BuBJYZbcXomy1XEYdBGdlrmPZS1LvFXq6yFrL6TiuLsfY1ZZbEjEKk2NT063_aJlj7-TXqOCLQwsiMk2odg/w390-h195/HomeAdvisor_Set_Apart_From_Competition_2018-600x300.webp" width="390" /></a></div><br /><div>If you’ve gone to church long enough, you have undoubtedly heard someone say that we (Christians) are set apart. What does that actually mean? If you go by the context most often expressed in sermons and statements in church, you’d probably come away with the understanding that the speakers believe Christians are special. In their eyes, Jesus chose us and we agreed to follow him, so that raises us above the rest of the world. Though you might not hear it explicitly stated, it would not be unusual to hear that statement and come away from the encounter thinking that the speaker is saying that Christians are better people.</div><br />Certainly, nonbelievers pick up on the sentiment and perceive it that way in many cases given that a common criticism of believers by nonbelievers is that “They think they’re better than everybody else.” Such an accusation is definitely not true for all Christians, but it's probably not unusual for believers to feel a sense of pride in the idea that God chose us. To some extent, that's understandable. Who wouldn't be proud to be chosen by God?<br /><br />The question is, should we feel that way? As with all things, we have to look to the Bible for the answer. Are we really set apart? The answer is “Yes,” but not necessarily for the reasons some think.<br /><br /><blockquote><i>But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.</i> - 1 Peter 2:9</blockquote>Clearly, Peter is telling us that those who follow Jesus are special, but it’s not because of who we are. We’re special because of what we’re meant to do. Paul expresses a similar sentiment.<br /><blockquote><i>For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.</i> - Ephesians 2:10</blockquote>Both men make it clear that we are set apart so that we can serve and represent God. He didn’t elevate us so that we could lord over others. God has positioned us in a way that will allow himself to be glorified through us. Non-believers should see us and come to understand what it means to follow God. They should know what he’s done for us and what he requires of us in return. We should be an inspiration to others, prompting them to seek God for themselves and examples of what it looks like to walk that path. We should be Jesus’ earthly ambassadors.<br /><br />Sure, all of that sounds good. It is honorable to be Jesus’ representative on earth, but fulfilling that role is something that we should take seriously and with the understanding that our position isn’t about us or how special we are. It’s about God, and taking on this role has consequences.<br /><br />For one, not all the people that we try to reach will see us favorably. In fact, many of them will look at us with contempt. Jesus knew that to be true. That’s why he prepared his disciples for it. The same type of reaction might await many of us.<br /><blockquote><i>If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you.</i> - John 15:19</blockquote>We can’t do much about what other people think and feel. We can control how we behave though, and it is important to acknowledge and be mindful of that. As believers, our actions and words matter. If we want to reach other people and convince them that God’s way is the right way, then we have to represent something different than what’s seen in the world. If we don’t do that, what reason would anyone have to want to be like us and follow God?<br /><blockquote><i>But just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”</i> - 1 Peter 1:15-16</blockquote>Holiness is not something that’s particularly common in our society, so it’s something we have to bring, and that means holding ourselves to a higher standard - God’s standard.<br /><br />So, we should be careful not to become prideful because we believe that God has given us a place of distinction. Instead, we should be constantly working to make sure that we are worthy of the position that he’s given us. We shouldn’t speak of being set apart with a lofty spirit. Instead, we should accept God’s charge with humility. If He has set us apart, it’s so that we can better serve Him. Let us never forget that.<br /><br /><p></p><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of www.prohomeadvisor.com</i></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-74592155889673513882022-05-22T16:01:00.004-04:002022-05-22T16:01:26.806-04:00Bible Character Spotlight: Daniel<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBJ0-XhE6jghfqe42ciFJn7mlsto88ZnSTeH7LDjdeUghOgxKNnfvM2KpxwWMf-0I2TbfR23jO1c70MULSKQTJ38RtrM4YbVVD0gFBsDHuzpKk7vSOErfxYiAulxgmUT3KC7f_z-nJOg2FPoAIBJetpQ0Lh2tXaBifh29Oy6lAIYhV2-d_x98v3M/s400/the-lions-den-twin-hicks.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="329" data-original-width="400" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgBJ0-XhE6jghfqe42ciFJn7mlsto88ZnSTeH7LDjdeUghOgxKNnfvM2KpxwWMf-0I2TbfR23jO1c70MULSKQTJ38RtrM4YbVVD0gFBsDHuzpKk7vSOErfxYiAulxgmUT3KC7f_z-nJOg2FPoAIBJetpQ0Lh2tXaBifh29Oy6lAIYhV2-d_x98v3M/s320/the-lions-den-twin-hicks.png" width="320" /></a><br /><br /><div>There are some stories in the Bible that stand out beyond others and are known by virtually every believer and even many nonbelievers. The stories of Noah and the flood, Moses and the exodus, and David and Goliath are premiere examples. The story of Daniel in the lion’s den is probably one of those stories too. Because of that story, most Christians know about Daniel, but his story goes deeper than just that one event.<br /><br />Daniel’s experience was very similar to another well-known character, Joseph (See Bible Character Spotlight: Joseph). Like Joseph, Daniel was blessed by God with the ability to interpret dreams, and also like Joseph, Daniel was able to use that gift to raise his status in the service of the head of a great nation. In Joseph’s case, his service was to the Pharaoh of Egypt. Daniel, on the other hand, started out under Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon.<br /><br />What’s interesting is that God used Jacob’s service to Egypt as a way of taking care of his people as they were able to move to Egypt and thrive for a while because of what Jacob did. That is a sharp contrast to Daniel’s case. During Daniel's time, the people of Judah were facing the consequences of their bad behavior. God had allowed Babylon to take over Jerusalem and remove its king. So instead of being saved by finding sanctuary in a foreign land, the Hebrews found themselves as subjects of a foreign king while in their own land. Many were even forced to leave their homes and serve in Babylon.<br /><br />Daniel along with three others: Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were taken and trained to serve the king. Part of that training involved being immersed in Babylonian culture. The young men had to learn the Babylonian language. They were given Babylonian names. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah became Belteshazzar, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego respectively. What some might find interesting is that many Christians probably know the Babylonian names of the other three young men better than their Hebrew names. However, most everyone knows Daniel as Daniel.<br /><br />Perhaps that’s, at least in part, due to the fact that Daniel was defiant from the start when it came to things that would take him away from the culture and rules that God had established for the Hebrews. Daniel understood his position, but he was still determined to stay true to his service to God no matter what, even when it came to what some might see as relatively minor things like what he ate.<br /><blockquote><i>But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine, and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now God had caused the official to show favor and compassion to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, “I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.”</i> - Daniel 1:8-10</blockquote>Very early in his story, we’re already seeing a few things. First, Daniel is loyal to God above all else. Second, God is right there taking care of those faithful to him. Third, Daniel is willing to put God to the test in order to demonstrate God’s greatness to others. Daniel and the other three Hebrews chose not to eat the royal food like the other servants. Instead, they only ate vegetables and drank water. Daniel challenged the guard to see who would thrive better after ten days. In the end, Daniel and company came out on top, leading the guard to change the menu for all the servants.<br /><br />Just from that action, we see that Daniel, despite being a servant, is able to enact change in the rules that govern him simply by adhering to God’s will. The faithfulness of Daniel and the other young men did not go unnoticed by God.<br /><blockquote><i>To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds.</i> - Danield 1:17</blockquote>God rewarded them with skills that would serve them in their positions and help them stand out amongst the other servants, and stand out, they did.<br /><blockquote><i>At the end of the time set by the king to bring them into his service, the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar. The king talked with them, and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah; so they entered the king’s service. In every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them ten times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom.</i> - Daniel 1:18-20</blockquote>Here we see another similarity between Daniel and Joseph and several other figures in the Bible. These men of God did not exist in a vacuum. They lived at a time when great leaders had their own advisors and people who had somehow obtained their own special powers and abilities. Yet, by simply remaining true to God, all those other people consistently paled in comparison to God’s servants.<br /><br />Daniel started using his gifts to great effect right away. The king had a dream that bothered him so much that the failure of his wise men and advisors to interpret the dream led to him issuing an edict to have all of them killed. Daniel stepped up and did what the others could not. He interpreted the dream, which elicited a great response from the king.<br /><blockquote><i>Then King Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering and incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, “Surely your God is the God of gods and the Lord of kings and a revealer of mysteries, for you were able to reveal this mystery.”</i> - Daniel 2:46-47</blockquote>This is another good Biblical example of the actions of those that are faithful to God causing others to acknowledge God’s greatness. The kings of Babylon were similar to the Egyptian Pharaohs in that they served their own set of gods and to some extent were even seen as gods themselves by their people. Just like with the Pharaoh during Joseph’s time, Daniel was able to get Nebuchadnezzar, a so-called god king to declare God’s superiority.<br /><br />Of course Daniel’s actions did not endear him to everyone. Some of the other servants and officials grew jealous and plotted against him leading to a different king, Darius, being put in a position where he felt compelled against his own desire to punish Daniel. This is what led to that famous story about the lion’s den. <br /><br />When we look at Daniel’s story as a whole, we actually see that the lion incident was just one piece to a larger puzzle. Whether it was Daniel’s interpretation of dreams; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego’s survival of the furnace; or Daniel spending a night peacefully with a group of hungry lions, all these events only served to glorify God.<br /><br />What truly set Daniel apart from some other figures in the Bible is that his actions didn’t just convince one foreign king of God’s greatness or raise God’s presence in one foreign nation. No, Daniel influenced two different kings of Babylon; Darius, a king of Mede; and Cyrus, a king of Persia. Babylon and Persia weren’t two small kingdoms either. They were two of the greatest empires of the ancient world.<br /><br />Daniel’s actions had a monumental impact. His story shows that even back then, God had not forgotten about the Gentiles. While the real outreach to the people outside of Israel didn’t start until the New Testament, even in the Old Testament, we see that God set things in motion that allowed non-believers to know him and understand that he is supreme.<br /><br />Daniel's story ends with a reference to the end times. This time it is Daniel that receives a prophecy, one that we see echoed throughout the Bible and expanded in Revelation. Daniel is also told what his ultimate fate would be.<br /><blockquote><i>“As for you, go your way till the end. You will rest, and then at the end of the days you will rise to receive your allotted inheritance.”</i> - Daniel 12:13</blockquote>We believers understand that the fate that awaited Daniel is the same fate that awaits all who believe. Just as we can take a cue from Daniel's life about what awaits us at the end of our lives. We should also take inspiration from Daniel about how we should live our lives now. Maybe we won’t be able to influence kings like him, but if he was able to do all of that by simply remaining faithful to God, imagine what we can accomplish if we follow his example.<div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer<br />Image courtesy of blackartdepot.com<br /></i><br /><br /> <br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6965165336650212455.post-37695749562826876382022-05-08T09:53:00.004-04:002022-05-08T09:53:55.542-04:00To Be Or Not To Be...a Mother<br /> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBGAiii5AKV9JxpnQb-xIDS-ilQPHZaYzfgTLlBE6nfEISjKQiowLdK9rX6J_4tk26HWkSX_2aknjV4N49w_I1_11Oynl-e5mZCY85464s5SoPvNijkTnDYvk0jVssxWEV-JoU3aBr11YtQJ_sx9O0kBtHt0raKmvvknhuX0bv71IF7OQJ1-85ms/s450/mothers-day-ecards-a-mothers-day-prayer-postcard--master.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-style: italic; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="450" height="332" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQBGAiii5AKV9JxpnQb-xIDS-ilQPHZaYzfgTLlBE6nfEISjKQiowLdK9rX6J_4tk26HWkSX_2aknjV4N49w_I1_11Oynl-e5mZCY85464s5SoPvNijkTnDYvk0jVssxWEV-JoU3aBr11YtQJ_sx9O0kBtHt0raKmvvknhuX0bv71IF7OQJ1-85ms/w415-h332/mothers-day-ecards-a-mothers-day-prayer-postcard--master.jpg" width="415" /></a><div><br />This weekend we have an interesting confluence of events. On one hand, Sunday is Mother’s Day, the day set aside to celebrate and honor all the mothers in the nation. On the other hand, we’re right in the middle of the fallout coming from a controversial Supreme Court decision that puts women’s abortion rights in jeopardy in many places across the nation.<br /><br />As with most of the issues that have arisen in today’s world, this one is messy. So-called pro-choice advocates believe that a woman should have full control over her own body to include ending a developing life inside that body if that is her choice. So-called pro-life advocates believe that fetuses are human life and that we should err on the side of protecting that life over the convenience of the woman carrying it. Opinions on this issue aren’t completely binary. Many people’s stances on this issue don’t exactly fall completely on one side or the other. For example, some that generally discourage abortions also believe it should be an option for cases like pregnancies that result from rape or pregnancies that place the mother’s life in danger. Others that generally support the right of women to have an abortion are willing to concede that at some point in a pregnancy (i.e., late term), abortion should no longer be allowed.<br /><br />So where should Christians stand on this matter? That’s a tricky question to answer. Many of the pro-choice advocates use Christianity as their primary reasoning for being pro-life. That is somewhat problematic since the Bible doesn’t take anywhere near as definitive a stance on abortion as some would have everyone believe. In fact, the Bible doesn’t really give any direct instruction on abortion one way or the other despite the fact that we know that people in Biblical times had methods for ending pregnancies prematurely. Such a method may have even been used at God’s command (Numbers 5:11-31).*<br /><br />That is not to say that there is nothing in the Bible that would indicate that Christians should be more aligned towards the pro-life side than the pro-choice side. The Bible tells us that those that believe in God should also believe that children are a gift from God.<br /><blockquote><i>Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him.</i> - Psalm 127:3</blockquote>All life comes from God, so no life is a mistake in his eyes. That fact should be enough to give any Christian pause when contemplating having or supporting an abortion, but is it enough to take a hardcore stance against abortion the way many are now? Maybe. However, as this blog has pointed out several times, it’s not the job of Jesus’ followers to force others to adhere to Christian ideals. We haven’t been tasked with saving this world or making it reflect what we believe God wants. Jesus did not instruct his disciples to work to legislate away sin or actions they believed to be sinful. That’s simply not the Christian the calling.<br /><br />We are called to spread the Gospel and do our best to help people find the Lord. We are also called to love.<br /><blockquote><i>Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.</i> - 1 John 4:7-8</blockquote>The love that God expects from us should be shown universally, not just to other Christians or people we like or people that live their lives the way we believe they should. When the Bible tells us to “love our neighbors” it means all our fellow human beings.<br /><br />That brings us right back around to mothers because what better example of love do we have here on earth than that shown by mothers? Their ability to love so deeply and genuinely is part of the reason we value them so much. Still, as much as they might sometimes seem like angels, they are still human beings susceptible to all the pressures and stresses the world can deliver. While the Bible tells us that children are a gift from God, that doesn’t mean that an unexpected pregnancy might not feel like a curse depending on a woman’s circumstances. That’s something that gets lost in this debate. We can argue about whether or not a fetus is a person, but there is no question about the mothers. They are humans and, as willing as they are to give support, sometimes they are the ones that need it the most. Those women that are on the precipice of motherhood and don’t know what to do deserve our love and understanding not our condemnation and judgment. <br /><br />We don’t always know what people are going through when they make the decisions they do. Maybe a lack of love is the exact reason why some women seek to have abortions. Maybe instead of attacking them, we should be loving them and ensuring them that no matter what happens we will do our best to support them. Maybe if we did more of that, then fewer women would feel like they are unable to handle bearing a child.<br /><br />Jesus came to the world under unusual circumstances. Mary certainly wasn’t expecting to become pregnant with the savior of the world. God knew that. That’s why he sent her an angel to comfort her.<br /><blockquote><i>The angel went to a virgin promised in marriage to a descendant of David named Joseph. The virgin’s name was Mary. When the angel entered her home, he greeted her and said, “You are favored by the Lord! The Lord is with you.”</i> - Luke 1:27-28</blockquote>None of us are angels, but when we see a mother-to-be that that is conflicted or unsure. We can deliver the same message: “The Lord is with you.” Maybe she will decide to keep the baby, maybe she won’t. What’s important is that she understands who Jesus is and what he did for her.<br /><br />Mothers have to sacrifice a lot for their children, even at the beginning. Simply being pregnant is an act of sacrifice. Even if we Christians are meant to be pro-life, we should still be able to acknowledge the sacrifice women make to bring children into this world. If we think it’s a sacrifice they should make, then maybe we can best help by sharing about Jesus’ sacrifice and letting him do the rest.<br /><br /><br />*https://truthout.org/articles/abortion-is-as-old-as-pregnancy-4-000-years-of-reproductive-rights-history/<br /><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><i>Chris Lawyer</i></div><div><i>Image courtesy of www.americangreetings.com<br /><br /></i></div></div>United Baptisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17961689383726128934noreply@blogger.com0