Tag Archives: faith

Don’t put your faith in a box

Posted on July 24, 2012 by | Comments Off on Don’t put your faith in a box

In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths (Proverbs 3:6).

Its amazing what we learn about ourselves when we finally begin to gain true perspective in our lives.  I didn’t grow up in a Christian home.  While I was saved while I was 19 years old and while at college, the church I attended did not offer much in discipleship.  Instead of seeking a church that did, I was content to approach my new-found faith based on what I thought it meant to be a Christian.

Believing what the world taught about faith and Christianity, I strove to keep my “church life” separate from my “school life” and “work life.”  Without knowing it I had done the very thing that Jesus warns against: No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).

I know that one of the reasons that my walk with God has not always been where it should be is because I did believe that as a member of modern society, I had to keep my beliefs separate from work, school, and secular pursuits.  Even as recent as a couple of years ago, I struggled with my Christian identity and faith while attending graduate school to work on a Ph.D. in U.S. History.  At one point, I even had one of my instructors tell me that it would be extremely difficult for me to ever teach at a liberal arts college if I insisted on displaying my Christianity.

When the apostle Paul was on his various missionary journeys across the Mediterranean world, he would often follow up with churches that he had help start.  These early churches did not have the benefit of having both Old and New Testaments to gain reassurance and instruction.  They faced tremendous pressure to conform to the world around them  – to worship pagan statues, to participate in state sanctioned appropriate activities and festivals to honor pagan gods.  Paul’s advice to them was to be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:2).

The reason that so many Christians, myself included, have such a hard time in our walk with Christ is that we have been conformed to this world.  We have been taught to regard our faith as something we do on Sunday and at the home.  What Jesus calls us to do is far more radical – our faith should become the center of our life, not just some small and isolated component.  We adopted the world’s view of Christianity under the misrepresentation that we should not judge but instead be compassionate and respectful of those who are different that we are.

What Jesus calls us to do is to allow our faith to shape who we are without any reservation.  When we claim to be a follower of Christ but do not allow our faith to shape our daily lives, we become what Paul warns about: those who call themselves Christians and they profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate (Titus 1:16).  In other words, to live a Christ-centered life means that we must also acknowledge him in all that we do.  It should be evident from how we go from day to day, doing the things we normally do, that there has been a fundamental change in our lives.

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Off the cuff: The misleadings of our own understanding

Posted on July 10, 2012 by | Comments Off on Off the cuff: The misleadings of our own understanding

Why should I go to church when it’s full of hypocrites?

In the last six days I have had this statement/question asked of me by two different people.  The first is my eighteen year old daughter; the other is a late twenty-something former student of mine who has kept in contact.  Both are Christians and both young ladies have had difficult lives to say the least.  Both want to do what is right and are looking for the sweet fellowship, support and love from brothers and sisters in Christ that we all need and desire.  Both are members of a church that for various reasons no longer offers that love, support, and fellowship to meet their needs.

Hannah, my eighteen year old daughter, recently told me that she no longer goes to church because the one she was going to is “full of hypocrites.”  She then told me that her pastor had an affair on his wife; for that reason, she was not going back to church but was going to read her Bible at home. She even added that no where in the Bible did it teach that one had to go to church.  She was totally unfamiliar with what the apostle Paul wrote: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching (Hebrews 10:25).

Monday morning, I ran into my former student at the post office in the town where I live.  As we exchanged pleasantries, she asked me if she could ask me a personal question – she asked what I thought she should do about going to church.  She told me that she did file for divorce in May 2012 from her husband of eleven months.  When she moved back home with her infant daughter, she began attending the church where she grew up.  She had sweet memories of what it was like when she was a child and wanted her daughter to be surrounded by that kind of warmth, support, and love.

Instead, she became an object lesson for her church, was asked not to participate in (or offer support to) certain church ministries.  She was further disheartened when another young woman, divorced since January, was asked to teach a vacation Bible School class; when she asked why the pastor or youth minister why she could not help, she was not told any reason except it was not her place to question the decisions of the church leadership.  She was not angry about it, just deeply hurt.  She told me that she was done with churches since there was obviously a perceived double standard.

As we talked for another ten minutes I was asked how I would have handled the situation – the rejection of service by the leadership of the church.  I shared with her an experience I had in 1996 – I had been married for three years and had been medically discharged from the U.S. Army in March of that year.  My wife left me to move in with her old high school boyfriend, taking my children with her.  At the time, I was the song leader of a small, independent Baptist church and because of what I was going through, I was asked to immediately resign all my positions within the church.  The pastor of the church did tell me why I could no longer serve; I was told that Jesus cannot use divorced people in the ministries of the church!  For the next handful of years I struggled with church attendance, “hypocrisy” of the church, and not trust[ing] in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding (Proverbs 3:5).

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Living a life that reflects God’s plan (Part 3)

Posted on June 21, 2012 by | Comments Off on Living a life that reflects God’s plan (Part 3)

For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing (II Timothy 4:6-8).

 In the last installment of Living a life that reflect’s God’s plan, we looked at how God must have top priority in our life.  He is our creator and redeemer.  He is what brought us into existence and is there when we draw our last breath.  Too many times every one of us has placed something in front of God; we may not have planned to do that but it does happen.  The second most important relationship that Christians have is with their spouse if they are married; if unmarried, they are to seek after God and to focus on him and their earthly family.

The apostle Paul writes that if we are not married, we are not to seek to be married: Art thou bound unto a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh: but I spare you (I Corinthians 7:27-28). This is hard for many to accept, including myself.  Those around us, such as our family and friends, encourage us to seek that special person; even family reunions stigmatize unmarried adults by putting them at the same table with all the children.  Our movies and entertainment sends a clear message that unless we have that special someone, we are not complete. In my own life, I have rushed into relationships that were spiritually and physically unhealthy for the sake of having that “someone.”  Our churches are filled with divorcees who rushed into marriage that they sought out rather than to wait for who God would bring.

In that same passage, Paul also tells us not to seek separation from our spouses if we are married.  As I have mentioned in a previous post, I teach at a local community college and have been involved in higher education for the last nine years.  Each semester I hear stories from the students in class about their marriages, divorces, and dating habits.  Not counting those who have been victims of abuse, domestic violence, and infidelity, too many marriages are ending for the wrong reasons.  About three years ago, I actually had a man in his late 20s tell me that he and his wife of four years were getting a divorce because he wanted a dog and she was allergic to animal dander!  Older couples who have been married for twenty or more years also divorce; many claiming that they no longer know their spouse!  These couples have managed to elevate something else – kids, jobs, dogs – in the place that God had ordained for their spouse.

Paul instructs both men and women, married and unmarried, young and old, that we all have roles to fulfil in order to strengthen the family and church.  Older couples are to be the role model for younger couples; the older men teaching to the younger men what it means to be a father and husband, the older women teaching younger women what it means to be a wife and mother.

Since the early 20th Century, we have witnessed attacks on traditional marriage; most pointing out that the Bible calls for women to be submissive to their husbands. While the Bible does say this, those who complain about it never continue to read the passage where Paul instructs the husbands to love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it (Ephesians 5:25).  Men are to love their wives to the extent they should be willing to die to defend and protect her.  A godly, Bible based marriage is not one in which the husband dominates and rules over the wife, but one where both are co-equals, supporting one another, but where the man is held accountable to God.

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