Cult of Self

Sunday's sermon was odd.  I know what the pastor was driving towards, but I am not so sure that he got there.  Which takes me back  a few months ago and to running into Pink Hair Girl at an antique show.

I never told you the entirety of our conversation because at the time I did not know how to deal with something she had said.  Now mind you, her and her husband are as dear to me as my own children, so keep that in mind.

So, I had commented that I had not seen her or her husband at church in quite a long while and wondered if they had moved.  See, Kris can be non threatening when asking a question.  They had moved but that was not why they no longer came to church, it is because of the pastor.

Now, I had already had my January run in with the pastor by then and the thought had crossed my mind, oh maybe 10,000 times to just walk away from this church and go to Argentina.  But, then if I did, I would only be proving all of the gossips correct - which they are not but I just know everyone is waiting for Kris to prove the gossip right.  So, I stand in innocence, which I am sure grates on more than a few people here.  So, I wondered, had she or her husband transgressed the gossip hot line as well?

Her reply is what I have thought about, without a response until yesterday, "No, we just feel that the pastor, in his pursuit of a doctorate, has left correct teaching behind."  Yeah, how to respond to that one?  You know I condemn the western church and its theology system it has created to support heresy.  But that was not her point, his education was.  It was getting in the way of his presentation of the truth to her.

Interesting.

Now mind you, I think as the pastor has gained more and more knowledge, his doctrine has come more in line with mine as time progresses.  However, he is still sold out to western culture and theology, plus he remains overly impressed with the idea of being the next Rick Warren - Lord help us!  We really do not need another one of those!

And I can live with that because it does not get in the way of his having some good points, usually.

But, Sunday did show me the problem, PHG and her husband saw a year ago and left over: he has become impressed with himself.  No,  you can not point to any one statement and say "See!, there is the problem.".  But, I could see, without being critical of him in the least, that it has become a problem for him publicly now.  I offered to tell him back in September, what separated him from God - with no evidence at all, but he did not want to know and even stopped talking to me at that point.  And, no I have the evidence of what I "knew" last fall.  Sigh.

And my mind has thought on this for months.  Even last week I told my niece that I was working through this, because it needed to make sense but just did not quite yet.  Today, it came together.  My mind for one brief instant cleared and I could see the basis of the problem and the contrasting correction to it!  But, if I tell you here, this will become a tome!  So, look for something more interesting tomorrow.

Apostacy

So far, we have seen that God does condemn Divorce and Remarriage in many, if not most modern instances.  Yet this does happen and worse yet, it happens amongst our eldership and leaders.  If our eldership is blinded by their own sin, how can we expect any form of God-ly leadership from those tasked with shepherding us?

It would be easy to do exactly what the church has done - ignore the entire situation or blame it on the culture and continue business as usual.  Of course, this leaves us with a church with no call to righteousness, no discernment, actually no fruits or gifts of the Holy Spirit - because you are not going to find God blessing in this situation.

On the other hand, you can start to weed out those unfit for leadership, which needs to be done but there will be a cost!  Forget attendance numbers, money, etc.  Expect the world to label you as narrow minded, judgmental, exclusive, cultic, haters, etc.

What are Godly men and women to do when the very foundation of the culture, family and church are under such direct attack?  Indeed, what are Godly men and women to do?

What will happen if we do nothing?  Well, that one is actually easy!

Expect denominations to sell out Biblical standard for cultural standards.  Expect churches to become more 'liberal' in their understandings of Scripture.  Expect the least qualified of men and women to become leaders over the body.  Expect to see the church grow by leaps and bounds as the body less and less represents the one true God.  It is called apostasy - it is directly where we are headed in the modern church of today.

And when the church succeeds through apostasy, what are you to do?  Absolutely nothing, if you have not prepared for the day (or is it night?)  to come!

1.  If you have fallen as we have discussed across the last many posts, get your life right with God and fix your problems before God!
2.  Start to learn your Bible!  Do not read books about the Bible, read your Bible!  If you need ideas on where to start: Luke, John, Acts, Romans, Revelations is a great sequence.
3.  Begin to identify whom the 'real' believers' are in your fellowship.  You will need them for the next assignment.
4.  Become a prayer warrior for your church, fellowship, Bible study - what it is you have.  Remember in particular your leadership for all of these.  And, of course, the needs of your body you worship with/in.
5.  I am a solid believer that we need as many in the church as possible with Knowledge, Wisdom and Discernment as spiritual gifts.  Of course, the Holy Spirit has the right to dish these out as it sees fit and without any input from us - but it never hurts to all least ask!
6.  You are going to need faith, to give you courage and the backbone for handling the tasks God will set before you.  God will provide lots of opportunities to build your faith, if you follow and do not lead through life.
7.  You must become the least of anyone, a threat to no one, an example to all.  You must be blameless before the courts, police and your fellow man.  You have to live your faith!
8.  Support God's work.  If you can not in good conscience support your church financially, then move to another church!  There are many wonderful Christian and humanitarian missions around the world, all terribly under funded.  Need ideas, ask and I can tell you of ones I believe do a great job of financial stewardship and witnessing.
9.  As you grow in maturity, you need to become involved in service within the body.  Sunday School, youth groups, elderships, deacons, whatever your area's opportunities are to service God and not yourself.

You can have an impact for God in your family, your community, in your church, in the lives of others - but you have to be willing to put away the remote control and dedicate 'free' hours to the reality of God - to whom you are supposed to be a willing slave.....

To quote an old song, ".....it only takes a spark to get a fire going....."  You can be that spark that will awaken the current generation to the appalling conditions within the modern church.  Just do not assume that the Holy Spirit is going to raise up someone else - you might be your environment's best last chance of turning things around.

First and Last Lessons

When I was selected to become a youth pastor by my uncle's church, you have to understand that I was a brand new Christian and had absolutely NO business in such a position of authority.  Yeah, that nagging lesson concerning DISCERNMENT i keep harping about.  But, then again no one wanted to take on 165 high schoolers!

Now Bill Bright had come out with a 10 lesson study called, Transferable Concepts, and I had gone through those classes as part of my discipleship.  It seemed a good choice for someone so young in the faith.

Now earlier this year I was wondering what to do with my little study group on Sunday mornings.  And, as I was digging through old studies, I found my original notes from 1974!  I thought, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm.....

I had also taught this series in 1976, with the source materials having been out of publication by then.  So, I called up Mr. Bright and asked his permission to xerox the booklets so I could do the class and he thought that was a great idea.  Leave it to a German to call an author and ask to pirate his material, eh?  But, he was one cool guy and we had many long distance conversations through the years!

Today, his material is out of print, however his wife has put up the Transferable Concepts on the internet!  They are not the whole booklet for each class, just the meat and potatoes of the classes.  The series of 10 PDF files maybe found at:

http://crupress.campuscrusadeforchrist.com/green/index.php/resources/transferable_concepts
   
Having just completely this series again with a group of youth, it went well.  The materials are a little dated as one might mistake his teaching to be on the prosperity heresy - which did not even exist back then! So, a few points have to be explained in the context of the church as it existed in the 1960's and early 1970's.

Those whom participated, learned the most and I think enjoyed not only the basics as review but also chewy ideas to come from our discussion.

About 60 to 90 minutes per class, with donuts and much levity......
:^")

Go Against The Flow

There can be little argument today that America's theological influence on Western Christianity has created the post-christian world we are stuck with.  When I first pointed this out, in print in 1981, I was blasted out of anyone ever wanting my material again and called an alarmist.  Really?  Where once Christian ideals brought balance to life, anarchy now rules throughout civilization, thanks to the "Americanized" church.

My current pastor told me the other day he read 15% polled claim to have NO religion at all.  That is twice the percentage of ten years ago!  And we are not talking willing to be called a Christian here - just to consider yourself 'religious'.

So, as we observe society becoming less and less Christian - we must task ourselves with Bible study, service and prayer - all the more in our personal lives!  Well, unless you really want Christianity to have NO impact in your future!

Things looked real bad for the disciples when Jesus was rejected by the crowds because he would not proclaim himself an earthly ruler.  In John 6:56-69, Peter got the answer right to Jesus' question - there is NO one else you can follow!

Peter had a personal relationship with Jesus and he stayed for that very reason.  He had listened, he had observed - and more importantly - he stayed faithful to Jesus, even as the crowd abandoned Him on that now lonely Jerusalem location.

We as Christians must note the crowds are turning against the simplicity of the Gospel, they still are seeking to have their earthly desires filled.  These crowds do not understand we are not about making their lives better, we are offering what their soul longs for - not their stomachs.  Yeah, a famous Christian once said, forty years ago, you can not witness to empty stomachs.  I think we have seen where that bright idea has gone - feeding and no witnessing.


Today's point?

The crowd has already dwindled around the concept of Christianity, they are moving along and chasing other dreams.  You can go with them or you can stay submissive to Jesus and His leading.  The choice has always been yours.

But, if you stay - there is a cost now that you might not expect nor want to accept....

Jude

Once a year I try to do a study on the book of Jude.  I really enjoy this little book and the wisdom that always finds its way into my mind as I study and meditate on its message.

This year I took a different approach: I looked at stuff surrounding the book.  For instance, who wrote the book?  First off, you have to realize that Jude is actually a corruption of Judas.  Yeah, would not do to have a book of the Bible penned by someone of the name of Judas!  And, there were four fairly high profile Judas' we know about in the first century.

The first one goes without saying, but he was dead by the time any of this would have been written - and really no one associated with the apostate Judas Iscariot would have saved anything written by him!

There was a Judas whom was the son (not brother as some versions have translated this) of James.

Then Judas of Damascus, where Saul stayed and did some soul searching.

And, of course, Judas whom was Jesus' brother (Matthew 13:55).

So, four good candidates, one of whom must have lived long enough to warn the early Church of the coming of the apostates!  Personally, I like the idea of it being Jesus' half-brother.

So, you are raised a God-ly Jewish young man, your oldest brother is condemned and executed - probably in front of your eyes, if you were with your mother in Jerusalem.  And at some point, you come to realize that this older brother is the long awaited for Messiah!  Then like your brother James, you become involved.  Perhaps traveling to Ephesus with John (and since he had been given charge of Mary, then to be near your mother was well!).

Well, if nothing else, I am a romantic at heart.....