Life Here and There

People should not be required to participate in abortion procedures. Period. In any sensible culture, that would make sense. But we’re currently living in times when social liberals have gone mad and many conservatives who beat around the bush a few months ago have helped them along.

If you haven’t heard, the Department of Health and Human Services is considering repealing a policy instated by the Bush administration protecting the right of healthcare providers to abstain from abortion procedures if they had a moral, religious, or conscientious objection. So we want women to have the freedom to choose abortion, but those who disagree will not be granted the freedom to abstain from a non-emergency procedure. And how does this make any sense?

The Bible speaks of people having their “consciences seared with a hot iron.” We’re there! And Cal Thomas has done a good job of writing about it. Listen to this…

Carried to its logical conclusion, repealing the “conscience rule” would allow hospitals to require pro-life doctors and nurses to participate in abortions. The Catholic Church teaches that elective abortion is a mortal sin, so the government is considering a requirement that would have a Catholic risk excommunication and the eternal damnation of his or her soul. Evangelical Christians regard abortion as equally offensive. Where is the separation of church and state when you really need it?… To repeal the conscience rule is an affront to every American who believes government ought to be under God, not play God.

What is even more shocking is the thought of where our nation will go in the future as our conscience continues to die. Thomas makes a bold assertion that doesn’t seem too far off base to me…

If you are a resident in an assisted-living center, you might consider putting an extra lock on the door, because you are next. By the time our consciences have been reprogrammed, the bureaucrat who decides you have outlived your usefulness will have forgotten how to feel guilty about anything.

It seems that our freedoms are expanding… unless we’re talking about the freedom to do no harm. God, I fear, based on history, what You will do with a people who refuse to feel guilty.

Our second message in the Wednesday evening message series, Exposed: Shocking Truths About Liberated Living, pertained to the idea that we can live legalism free! Legalism is perhaps an overused term, but it’s also an over-lived one. It’s defined in different ways by different people and debated in all kinds of religious circles. (more…)

Yesterday was a very special day at Bethel. Though we had a lot of folks out on vacation for the holiday weekend, we who remained celebrated God’s greatness in raising up heroes throughout the centuries. From Hebrews 11, we recounted the lives and deaths of some of God’s greatest servants. Many in the chapter remain unnamed, but their works and martyrdom are mentioned. My favorite line in the passage says, “Of whom the world was not worthy!” Those words reflect my feelings about every man and woman who has served in the face of such great risk in every war America has ever fought.

A couple of weeks ago, I was getting my haircut down at the Corner Barber shop. In came a man who must have been in his late 70’s. He sat down and I noticed his cap. He was a World War II veteran and the cap named his fleet from the South Pacific and told the number of survivors from his unit. I sat there, imagining what this man must have seen in his time in combat. What we see dramatized on the big screen and embellished for effect, this man had witnessed with his very eyes. His mind had recorded thoughts I could never imagine. Yet here I was, serving as Pastor of a church where I have the privilege every week of carrying a Bible to the pulpit and freely preaching the gospel without fear of arrest or penalty – because of men like this.

When I rose to leave, I paid for my haircut, and his too. He chuckled and commented about how that wasn’t necessary, so I said, “Well I saw your cap and wanted you to know that I appreciate what you went through for me.” His face changed, he shook my hand firmly, and his emotions suddenly impacted me deeply. I still don’t know the man and may never see him again, but his life has influenced mine. I feel that same sense of gratitude toward every soldier that has ever fought.

Today, on Memorial Day 2007, we’re making barbeque, playing some games, and enjoying the company of friends. But we also ought to pause to thank God for those whom He has raised up to stand for our freedom and our faith. Let this be a memorial day, not only to those who have died in battle, but to those who have died as martyrs for the Christian faith, and to all those who have been living sacrifices for His dear cause!

“But (God) hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Savior.” -Titus 1:3

When preachers preach, they do so as frail and fallible human beings, holding forth the precious words of eternal life. There is, however, a sense in which the preacher communicates on God’s behalf. Only when his words match the content or the intent of Scripture do they carry any heavenly authority, but when he faithfully pronounces God’s truth to the masses, he is God’s spokesman, God’s chosen means of carrying His perfect message to the world.

The prophets of old set the standard with their “thus saith the Lord.” Jesus stated emphatically on God’s behalf, “Verily, verily I say unto you…” The apostles marched boldy into the temple to preach to the people “all the words of this life.” America needs preaching! Our thirsty souls need preaching just as our parched tongues need water. Preaching is being diminised today, relegated to the back burner of ministry. Oratory is almost all but lost in exchange for professional speaking. But God still chooses spokesmen and He still speaks volumes through them Sunday after Sunday in pulpits across America.

Let us as the church today return preaching to its rightful position at the forefront of worship. Let God’s Word remain the centerpiece of our services. Let the pulpit be a place of freedom where God’s men may stand and boldy proclaim God’s will for the world.

“Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.” -2 Thessalonians 3:1

I must admit that few things in life are more exhilarating than preaching God’s Word. That’s how God has wired me, that my great passion in life would be to see people’s hearts changed by the preaching of God’s Word. But it isn’t just public speaking that changes people – it is the powerful and supernatural Word of God that does so. In fact, one key to great preaching is the willingness to stand and deliver, in the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s perfect message and then to step out of the way and watch God work.

The Word of God, when given free course, will change people to their core. We must simply pray that the Word of God is given the chance to do so. Sometimes we get in the way, thinking that our cleverness will somehow “help” the Bible out. Other times we simply doubt, at least subconsciously, the divine power of God’s Word to effect any real change. But the writer of Hebrews told us that the Bible is “quick and powerful” meaning that it has a resurrecting and reviving power unrivaled by anything produced by our creativeness.

The Word of God changes lives. It has for two millennia and it shall until Jesus comes again. Have you given the Word of God free course in your own life? Have you allowed it the freedom to change you at will? When you hear it preached do you tune in or check out? If you want to be all that God intended, then let the great Sculptor shape your life with His choice tool, His infallible Word!

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification… For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but unto holiness.” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, 7)

It’s very easy to get caught up in the pursuit of something secondary to God’s great purpose for us as believers. We constantly face the temptation to be driven toward success or popularity, possessions or prestige. But God has caught us and called us to a higher purpose, a better life, a heavenly goal. We’ve been called to cleanness.

While many believers will suffer spiritually as they struggle to gain the freedom to rule their own lives (and thus resorting back to the old, unredeemed life), we must pursue the purpose for which we have been apprehended by Jesus – holiness, cleanness, and sanctification. What other pursuit could be more important in our personal journey of faith?

If you’re a believer, you’ve been caught! Jesus, the fisher of men, has apprehended you. He has purchased you in such a way that you are no longer your own. Contrary to popular opinion and American individualism, you are not your own any longer. God has placed certain spiritual authorities in your life. He’s placed you in the family of God and your church has a mutual stake in the outcome of your faith. While you may scream for the freedom to rule your own domain, God’s Word will remind you that the greatest freedom of all is to be enjoyed within the boundaries of God’s will.

His will is in one respect, an individual issue. In another respect, His will is universal to all believers. We cannot resort to a Christian brand of moral relativism. Instead we must realize that certain rules are applicable for all Christians, regardless of individual circumstances. This is not legalism, which is seeking to please or “pay off” God through rule-keeping. Rather it is merely reverencing God’s moral authority as our Father, Lord, and King.

If Jesus is your Savior, then pursue that for which you’ve been saved – holiness! It’s a worthy pursuit. Holiness brings the confidence of spiritual assurance, it earns a crown in heaven, it pleases the Lord who purchased us with His precious blood, and it supports our verbal witness to a lost world. Give yourself wholly to this goal – total perfection, total spiritual completeness, and total Christlikeness!

Let me share with you some personal fears of mine, rational or otherwise. I have a fear of wasps. After doing a little yard work, it seems that Northwest Arkansas (or at least Bethel’s property) is infested with the big red angry ones. My Dad once told me “If you don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.” Yeah right, Dad…

I’m also afraid of embarrassing myself in a softball game. Though I’ve proven to be mediocre at best, at least I did not do any belly-flops-while-rounding-the-bases this past Tuesday night. Another fear for me is oversleeping and missing something important at church… like church! If you haven’t heard already, I arrived at our Tuesday morning Men’s Bible study 25 minutes late after a sunrise panic attack when my alarm clock did not go off. We all have to face most of our fears sometimes. Now let me share a wonderful word with you…

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” -1 John 4:18

In context, John is describing the wonderful effect of God’s love upon us as we face the inevitability of standing before God someday. His point is that God’s love frees us from the fear of God’s judgment. God’s powerful love throws, with intense violence, our fear to the side and allows us to live in boldness.

When you are afraid, whether it be of wasps or witnessing, rest in the love of God for you. If you’ve received Jesus Christ as Savior, God’s wrath toward your sin was abated when Jesus died on the cross. You are forgiven! The truth of His love sets us free.

If you’ve never been saved, then you need to fear God, to fear death, and to view eternity with trepidation. Thankfully, God offers freedom from fear to all who will place their full trust in Jesus alone as Savior. You need only to turn to Jesus and ask Him to save you once and for all to have your ultimate fear eternally laid to rest.

”For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.” -1 Corinthians 11:31

Did your parents ever make that ludicrous comment to you, “If you don’t stop crying, I’m going to give you something to cry about?” I never really understood the logic behind that line of reasoning, especially when I was the direct object of the statement. When I read Paul’s words to the Corinthians, it suddenly makes more sense.Paul wrote to a church with severe moral problems within and they were doing nothing about those problems. There was no restorative discipline taking place, yet they came together for the Lord’s Supper as though everything was fine. Paul had the wisdom to foresee that God would judge them for their tolerance of sin, but there was a way they could avoid God’s judgment – handle the problem themselves.

You see, all of us need pruning, and God as our great husbandman and vindresser will certainly take care of us by pruning us. But the process of pruning is always painful. Suffering and crises are often God’s means of cleansing us. He intends for His Son’s bride to be pure, so He purifies us through chastisement… and it hurts. Thankfully, God has given us an escape plan from His punishment in our lives.

That escape plan is to prune ourselves. In our prayer time each morning, we should pray for God to reveal any part of us that He would like to have us prune. When we spend this time judging the sin and evil in our own hearts, we are able to enjoy the wonderful freedom of a relationship with Jesus in purity. Don’t misunderstand. What is necessary is not merely putting ourselves down all the time, rather an honest facing of our darkness with the light of Jesus within.”

Prune thyself, that He prune thee not” might be a good way of looking at it.

Temptation. This one word encompasses all of the greatest threats to a consistent and successful Christian walk. Let it be known that you cannot resist temptation. That is, temptation will always be a part of your life. But you can refuse to give into it in the power of Christ.

The Best of Circumstances

“…all our fathers were under the cloud… passed through the sea… baptized into Moses… at the same spiritual food… drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” – 1 Corinthians 10:1-5 (NKJV)

Paul points us back to the Israelites in their wilderness journeys. He quickly reminds us that great circumstances do not guarantee freedom from temptation, nor from the consequences of yielding to its power. Five times, he says that all of the Jews were at the center of God’s blessings. Then, he lists the top five…

• They all witnessed the guidance of God in a pillar of cloud and fire.
• They all witnessed the parting of the Red Sea.
• They were all identified with a great leader in Moses, the lawgiver.
• They all ate the manna that God provided them miraculously.
• They all drank from the rock, which symbolized Christ’s presence.

But the Bible says that they failed… miserably. Their bodies were scattered across the wilderness as a result of God’s judgment. An entire generation of people, all of whom had seen some of history’s greatest miracles died in the tragedy of overwhelming rebellion.

What you and I need today is not a perfect set of circumstances. It isn’t even a great manifestation of God through the miraculous. Where we must begin to be successful is in getting to know the God of the miraculous. Again and again, the Israelites demonstrated that they had all the gifts God could offer, but the did not know Him well enough to remain faithful. They had tasted His goodness, but had not indulged themselves in Him. Have you met Him? Have you gotten to know Him more today?

The Worst of Decisions

“Now these things became our examples,… that we should not lust after evil things… and not become idolaters,… nor let us commit sexual immorality,… nor let us tempt Christ,… nor complain.” – 1 Corinthians 10:6-10 (NKJV)

Even in the best of circumstances, we can make the worst of decisions. In fact, Paul will make the argument that our self-assurance is really Satan’s playground. Paul reviews the five-step downward spiral of yielding to temptation. You may find some of the steps surprising, but valid nonetheless.

First, we lust. The miraculous becomes boring and commonplace. The miraculous whets our appetite for more of God, but if we don’t seek Him in our hunger, we’ll find other junk to fulfill our desires. Then comes idolatry. When the thing we lust for becomes the object of our worship and the focus of our attention. Willpower is quite self-destructive because it often placed our gaze on the very thing we’re trying to resist.

Step three is committing the act. For the Israelites, it was sexual immorality. For us, it could be anything that breaks down our relationship with God. The word “commit” is significant here. It not only infers that we take action once, but that we resolve to give into a particular behavior. We “commit” ourselves to doing this evil thing. Beyond committal comes a change in our spiritual character in which we “tempt Christ.” That is, we begin to question the very beliefs that might have saved us to begin with. We lose our convictions.

Finally, we complain. This is more than a simply comment. It describes the heart’s calloused reaction to self, God, and the world around us. An old gospel song proclaimed, “Sin will take you farther than you want to go. Slowly, but wholly taking control. Sin will leave you longer than you want to stay. Sin will cost you far more than you want to pay.”

Are you on the downward spiral of sin and rebellion? Whichever of the five symptoms describes you, bail out of your rebellion now and repent. Confess your sin and return to God’s overwhelming grace.

The Greatest of Promises

Now all things these happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition… Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will now allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:11-13 (NKJV)

Today we have the privilege of learning from thousands of years of human civilization. The story of the Israelites’ rebellion in the wilderness was recorded and preserved in an infallible Bible so that we could learn from their mistakes. Satan is still up to his old tricks. In fact, He doesn’t need new ones when the old ones still work just fine.

If you want to overcome temptation, you must rely on God’s precious promises. Paul gives some of God’s great promises to us here. The battle for purity always begins in the mind, so you must begin to replace the lust, idolatry, and questioning of your convictions with God’s alternative thoughts. Namely…

• If you think you can handle temptation on your own, think again!
• Every temptation you face has been faced many times before. You’re not alone.
• God is faithful! Enough said. He’ll be there for you, never leaving nor forsaking you in the heat of the battle.
• God will never allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. This removes our excuse, but it also removes our fatalism.
• God will always give an alternative thought, action, or attitude that will rescue you. There’s always an escape route!
• You’ll be able to “bear” temptation. This literally means to “stand up under the weight” of temptation.

Perhaps you feel trapped in habitual sin today. You may feel too weak to overcome temptation. It’s possible you’ve even questioned whether the battle against temptation is worth it. I can assure you it is! The reward will be greater intimacy with God and a greater reward in heaven. You’ve been entrusted with the years of your life, however many they may be. Trust the great promises of God and determine today to overcome in the power of Christ. He’s worth it!