1 Peter 2:9-12 But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Our fourth metaphor of the church comes from 1 Peter 2:9—a royal Priesthood.
This term came from Exodus 19: 6, when the Hebrews first arrived at Mt Sinai.
When they were in Egypt, the Hebrews had no personal freedom. On the other hand, they were secure. As long as they stayed obedient, they could be safe. But if their masters became angry, they would die. They always knew their place in life, and hung on to a kind of squalid security.
God gave them freedom, but also insecurity. They had to depend upon Him, and their own resources. The manna and quail were only temporary. Eventually, they had to fend for themselves. It’s easy to see why some wanted to go back rather than face a life of constant challenge.
When the Hebrews left Egypt, they did not fully understand their destiny any more than the Pilgrims understood that they were starting a mighty nation. It was not until they arrived at Mt Sinai they understood the larger purpose of their personal manumission. God spoke to them from the mountain.
'You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' "
We are a kingdom of priests. We were not meant to live pointless lives in a squalid ghetto. We are supposed to be owned by others. We were meant to be a free people, answerable only to our Lord and King—Jesus Himself.
What is the difference between a minister, rabbi, and priest. A minister and a rabbi have similar function. “Rabb” means “teacher” and “minister” means “servant.” Both serve God, and teach the people. But the term “priest” is very different. A priest doesn’t just serve, he mediates. A priest is one who stand between God and the world, bringing the prayers and concerns of the world to God, offering up sacrifices to Him, and bringing God’s forgiveness and pardon to the world. A priest is a mediator between God and man.
That’s what we are. We are mediators. By our witness, we bring God’s forgiveness to the world. By our prayers, we bring the world to God.
In the Catholic church, clergy are called priests, because only they are allowed to handle he host, which they suppose to be the body and blood of Jesus. When they consecrated the bread, they call it offering up the sacrifice. When they pronounce forgiveness in confession, they call it offering forgiveness/ As Protestants, we do not believe our ministers have that kind of power.
It is a mistake, though to think that Protestants do not have priests. We do. In Jesus, every believer if priest or priestess. We are all heard by God. We all forgive sins. We offer up our bodies as living sacrifices to Him. We do not have to be ordained as priests—God has already done that. We are all made to be a nation of priests.
When God called them a kingdom of priests, that had never seen a Hebrew priest. God had not yet chosen the children of Aaron. The only priests they knew were Egyptian priests. So what did they think a priest was?
The role of priests in Egypt bore little resemblance to that of a modern priest, or even a Hebrew priest. They did not practice any form of organized religion, as we would recognize it. They did not preach, proselytize, or care for a people. They were not messengers of any truth.
The most common title for an Egyptian priest was “the servant of the Gods.” The principal god they served was the Pharaoh. They were the Egyptian public servants. They performed services and sacrifices in the temples, but that was not their main occupation. They were the administrators and justices. They were more like civil servants than holy men.
The priests were very wealthy. The temples of Egypt often resembled mansions. The priest often lived in great luxury, even while everyone else was starving..
Why did the people stand for this? They not only stood for it, they encouraged it! Thet enjoyed these things on behalf of the people. They were symbols of his greatness and power. When priests walked down the street of Memphis, wearing their gold and silver jewelry, they displayed the wealth of the God they served.
I grew up in another Memphis—the one in Tennessee. In those days, Memphis had another king--Elvis. He had a royal palace—Graceland—was not far from where I lived. Elvis’ staff drove around in pink jeeps. Whenever you saw a pink jeep rolling down the street, you knew that this was a servant of the King of Rock and Roll. Everyone treated them with great respect and amazement. The person who drove that jeep knew Elvis personally.
That’s what God was telling the Hebrews through Moses—you re like those royal priests. Every one of you has audience with the Lord of Lords. You have great luxury and privilege. You live in God’s presence. Not just one of you—all of you. You all know Him. Do you know how rare that is? Most people never know Him. The more we get to know God, the more others benefit.
I was in Russia across Red Square from St Basil’s Cathedral at a Russian Orthodox church. There was a service going on. We had never seen a Russian Orthodox service, so we went in to see what it was like.
We saw nothing. There was not a priest, choir or altar. Instead, there was a wooden wall. The service is half over before the priest ever emerges from behind that wall. Th service actually begins a half hour before the priest arrives. The priest chants prayers from the other side of the wall.
The were glad they did. They did not care whether the priest ever looked at them/ The priest stood in for hem. He was their living representation before the altar.
No one has to stand in our place before God. We can all know Him. Instead, we stand before God in the place of the world. What we do in our prayer closets will change the world. Our faith will move mountains. Our hope will lift spirits. Our prayers will intercede for all. We are the living representation of God’s power and Spirit.
This is your destiny. This is your purpose. You have been led from your slavery into a position of authority. You are given the responsibility to represent God. All of you, from the oldest to the youngest are to be dedicated to being servants of God.
People are looking at you too. When you walk down the street, people will know your prayer life. They can sense it.
That’s what it originally meant. Why did Peter bring this up? What special purpose did this metaphor men in his day
Peter lived in the time of the emperor Nero. He was a wicked, insane despot. All over the world, Nero’s soldiers were killing Christians for something they did not do.
Never mind who others say you are, Peter said--iust know who you really are. You are a royal priesthood. Just as the priests of Egypt administered the wealth of the Pharaoh, we administer the wealth of heaven. In spite of he hatred others may feel you are the priests standing between the common and the divine. The whole world benefits from your piety. There is no on in this earth who is like you, in any way. When you behave as the church, the world benefits. When you are not, the world suffers.
Peter goes on to tell the church how they should live as priests.
First, being priests requires that we be separate. You are not part of the world. You are servants of God. You don’t have to live as other people do. Everything you do reflects on your Lord and Master.
We Christians have this idea that we have to conform. We are afraid to be the ambassadors to Christ. That we are supposed to be.
Have you ever stood in an international airport and watched the passengers go by? You will see all kinds of people—Arabs, Hindu, Europeans, Africans. You can spot them often by their distinctive dress. Why would a man wear a turban in an airport, or a floor length kafti? Because they proudly don’t belong. They are unashamed to show that their citizenship is somewhere else. So why are we Christians so often ashamed to be seen as different? We should be proud of it! If we are not different, then we have no use in the world.
Even in persecution, Peter was not ashamed to show who he really was. We are God’s priests, and we should behave that way.
Second, being priests mean that we should live respectfully of others. Once abroad, I saw a true ugly American. He was berating a desk clerk in a hotel for some small offense. He was yelling loudly that they did not do that way in the States. I felt ashamed to admit that I was from the USA, because of that man’s behavior.
We should obey the laws, not because we have to, but because we want to. We do not submit because they world has any obligation over us, but because we want to bring glory to God’s kingdom. God is not glorified by us acting like fools and idiots.
Peter further says we should obey our masters—even our unworthy masters. In this, we say that we are truly free from the world.
When it comes to conforming with the world, a rebel is just as much guilty of it as a conformist. One is influenced by the world because he loves the world too much. Another is influenced by the world because he hates the government too much. The truth is, if we are truly free of the world, it does not matter is we win here or not.. We stand before God. We answer to Him, and whether or not we obey our earthly masters is simply a matter of how may we best represent God before the world.
Third, being priests means are ambassadors to the world. An ambassador has two functions: he takes the will of his king to other countries, and he delivers messages from another king to his country.
We do the same. We take the messages of our King to this world . At the same time we take the concerns of our world back to the Lord, who can do something about them. Wherever we go, whatever we do, we represent Christ. You can’t help it—if others think that you are a Christian, then you bear the responsibility of representing His name. To do this right, you need to be a priest. You need to stand before Go in prayer and humility, asking Him to forgive your sins, and to give you the strength and courage to follow Him.
Friday, January 29, 2010
The Church: The Chosen People
Life isn’t fair. Even God plays favorites. God treated Abraham as a favorite son,choosing him to be the father of many nations. Out of all Abraham’s children, he chose a favorite, too—Isaac. Isaac did nothing to deserve this peculiar protection. God just picked him as favorite.
Abraham was not better than others. He was righteous some of the time. But he did believe. Through his faith, God’s blessing flowed through his family for generation after generation.
But being a chosen nation carries a price. Other nations tried to wipe them out. Some
came very near succeeding. Sometimes they wanted to cry like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof “God, I know we are the chosen people, but why don’t you choose someone else for a change?”
Being a chosen nation also brings responsibility. They had to be a blessing to the whole earth. Israel was rarely that. Most of the time they did not think of the other nations any more than any other ethnic group that was fighting for survival.
By God’s favoritism, they survived, nevertheless. In the fullness of time, God sent the Messiah, Jesus, to earth. He was a blessing to all nations. It was a great surprise to his fellow Jews to learn he didn’t come just for them.
When God wanted to bless the world, He usually did it in spite of His chosen people, not because of them. Each time they were scattered--by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, and Nazis, they were salt and light, influencing the world around them. They did not plan to be, but they were.
When the Israelites were in Egypt, they weren’t thinking of changing the Egyptians, or helping other hapless slaves. Bur when Moses went to Pharaoh and told him to let his people go, it wasn’t just the sons of Abraham that was freed. A “mixed multitude” of other slaves went with them. Moses didn’t tell him to let all the slaves go. But when the other slaves said, “Take me too!” the Israelites took them into their nation. Anyone who called upon Israel’s God, become one with them.
When Israelites were scattered among the Assyrians, the Jews were unhappy. They resented what the Assyrians had done to them. One of them, Jonah, wanted to see every Ninevite dead and in hell, Even so, in spite of himself, he introduced them to the living God, and God blessed the Ninevites. Because of Jonah, the whole country was saved.
When they Jews were scattered among the Babylonians, the conquerors were curious about them. They did not try to convert their oppressors to their God. Most of them did not want the Babylonians in heaven with them. But the Babylonians got the Jewish Bible anyway, and read for themselves about Israel’s God. The Babylonians observed prominent Godly Jews, men like Ezekiel, Esther, and Nehemiah, and many others. From them they learned about Israel’s God, and many worshipped Him. Even among those who didn’t believe, God blessed them. Many of the grea philosophies of ancient times, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and others, can be traced to their hearing about the one God of th world from the Jews.
But when they were scattered among the Romans, God had a better plan. He sent Jesus to them, to open the door of the Kingdom of God to any who would enter by faith. This word spread among the scattered Jews, and through them to the cities of the Roman Empire, even Rome itself. In a few hundred years, Christianity took over the Empire.
Now, we have become the new chosen people, grafted onto the tree of Israel by Jesus. He did not remove the Jews, he just added us on. Now we are salt and light. God still plays favorites, and that we are his favorites. God blesses those who bless the church. God curses those who curse the church, and through us the entire world has been and will be blessed. We need to recognize our vital importance to the world. This special relationship affects the way we are seen:
By God, because He has chosen us to be His instruments in this world. The church has been called the Body of Christ, which means that just as Jesus is the Word of God, our church is the Word of Jesus. We are Jesus’ expression on earth.
We have special responsibilities. That responsibility is to act like Jesus. We are to represent Him in our words and actions.
We also have special privileges. God hears us when we pray. He responds when we pray in Jesus’ name. We have no idea what we are capable of achieving with Jesus at our side. We should be storming the gates of heaven when we pray.
God also gives us special protection. God loves the whole world, but He has a special love for His people. He does not allow us to perish without good reason.
However, just because we are God’s special people does not mean our lives will be earlier or less difficult than others. We have no right to expect this. Jesus did not lead an easy life. This was on purpose. God wanted Him to experience what others experience, even the cruelty of others. If God did this to His own son, why would he have a different purpose for us?
By the rest of the world. A Christian does not have to be persecuted by the rest of the world. All we have to do is to keep our mouths shut and our heads low. In other words, if we do not care to be salt and light, we can lay down and be dirt.
But if a Christian stands up for Jesus, he must stand against the world. The moment we become successful in getting out God’s message, we become the objects of persecution and ridicule. Jesus said in John 15:18-25
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
They will hate us without reason, too. People call us joyless, judgmental, intolerant, prudish—none of this is true. People accuse us of pushing religion down people’s throats. Again, this is not through. I do not know another place in the world where you will find more love, more tolerance, more compassion, and more joy than we find in the church. The church may not approve of homosexuality, but nowhere do homosexuals find more compassion than in the church. We may not approve of drug addicts or alcoholics, either, but I know by personal experience that they have found tolerance and redemption in the church. the church is the arms of Jesus, wrapped around those who are lost and hurting.
When the church functions in the name of God, people see God through us. As a minister, I realize that I represent God in many people’s minds. The attitudes and hopes they have about God fall upon us. For that reason, I have seen people have an immediate positive or negative reaction just by revealing my calling. But this is also true of you. As a church, people look to us to represent God to them. That is why it is so important that we respond to human needs, because we are revealing what God thinks.
By each other. If the world hates us, then who will love us? We must love each other. That is why Jesus makes such a huge point of us loving each other, even calling it the mark of discipleship. There are abundant references to this in the New Testament. Here are a few.
John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Rom 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love .
Eph 4:2-3 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love
Thess 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:22-23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
2 John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
In spite of this abundant evidence of what God wants us to do, we don’t do it. One of he most telling statements we hear is “I love the church, but can’t stand the Christians in it.” People say this because we forget to include others in our love of God.
The church is a network of people loving God and loving each other. If it is really that, then half of our time should be spent loving God, and the other half loving each other.
Have you prayed for the Christians of Haiti? Have you looked for ways to help? Do you hurt for those believers who are caught up in the sins of the world? Do you make an effort to support other Christians in times of grief and sorrow? Do you even know when other Christians are in times of grief.
We did not choose our family. God chose it. We do not choose our church family, either. We are called to support it, and the people in it, foolish or hurtful though they may be.
Each one of us is a part of the Body of Christ, showing a different aspect of His divine nature. God chose us for this role, we did not choose it. May God give us the grace to be worthy of His choosing.
Abraham was not better than others. He was righteous some of the time. But he did believe. Through his faith, God’s blessing flowed through his family for generation after generation.
But being a chosen nation carries a price. Other nations tried to wipe them out. Some
came very near succeeding. Sometimes they wanted to cry like Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof “God, I know we are the chosen people, but why don’t you choose someone else for a change?”
Being a chosen nation also brings responsibility. They had to be a blessing to the whole earth. Israel was rarely that. Most of the time they did not think of the other nations any more than any other ethnic group that was fighting for survival.
By God’s favoritism, they survived, nevertheless. In the fullness of time, God sent the Messiah, Jesus, to earth. He was a blessing to all nations. It was a great surprise to his fellow Jews to learn he didn’t come just for them.
When God wanted to bless the world, He usually did it in spite of His chosen people, not because of them. Each time they were scattered--by the Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Romans, and Nazis, they were salt and light, influencing the world around them. They did not plan to be, but they were.
When the Israelites were in Egypt, they weren’t thinking of changing the Egyptians, or helping other hapless slaves. Bur when Moses went to Pharaoh and told him to let his people go, it wasn’t just the sons of Abraham that was freed. A “mixed multitude” of other slaves went with them. Moses didn’t tell him to let all the slaves go. But when the other slaves said, “Take me too!” the Israelites took them into their nation. Anyone who called upon Israel’s God, become one with them.
When Israelites were scattered among the Assyrians, the Jews were unhappy. They resented what the Assyrians had done to them. One of them, Jonah, wanted to see every Ninevite dead and in hell, Even so, in spite of himself, he introduced them to the living God, and God blessed the Ninevites. Because of Jonah, the whole country was saved.
When they Jews were scattered among the Babylonians, the conquerors were curious about them. They did not try to convert their oppressors to their God. Most of them did not want the Babylonians in heaven with them. But the Babylonians got the Jewish Bible anyway, and read for themselves about Israel’s God. The Babylonians observed prominent Godly Jews, men like Ezekiel, Esther, and Nehemiah, and many others. From them they learned about Israel’s God, and many worshipped Him. Even among those who didn’t believe, God blessed them. Many of the grea philosophies of ancient times, Platonism, Zoroastrianism, and others, can be traced to their hearing about the one God of th world from the Jews.
But when they were scattered among the Romans, God had a better plan. He sent Jesus to them, to open the door of the Kingdom of God to any who would enter by faith. This word spread among the scattered Jews, and through them to the cities of the Roman Empire, even Rome itself. In a few hundred years, Christianity took over the Empire.
Now, we have become the new chosen people, grafted onto the tree of Israel by Jesus. He did not remove the Jews, he just added us on. Now we are salt and light. God still plays favorites, and that we are his favorites. God blesses those who bless the church. God curses those who curse the church, and through us the entire world has been and will be blessed. We need to recognize our vital importance to the world. This special relationship affects the way we are seen:
By God, because He has chosen us to be His instruments in this world. The church has been called the Body of Christ, which means that just as Jesus is the Word of God, our church is the Word of Jesus. We are Jesus’ expression on earth.
We have special responsibilities. That responsibility is to act like Jesus. We are to represent Him in our words and actions.
We also have special privileges. God hears us when we pray. He responds when we pray in Jesus’ name. We have no idea what we are capable of achieving with Jesus at our side. We should be storming the gates of heaven when we pray.
God also gives us special protection. God loves the whole world, but He has a special love for His people. He does not allow us to perish without good reason.
However, just because we are God’s special people does not mean our lives will be earlier or less difficult than others. We have no right to expect this. Jesus did not lead an easy life. This was on purpose. God wanted Him to experience what others experience, even the cruelty of others. If God did this to His own son, why would he have a different purpose for us?
By the rest of the world. A Christian does not have to be persecuted by the rest of the world. All we have to do is to keep our mouths shut and our heads low. In other words, if we do not care to be salt and light, we can lay down and be dirt.
But if a Christian stands up for Jesus, he must stand against the world. The moment we become successful in getting out God’s message, we become the objects of persecution and ridicule. Jesus said in John 15:18-25
"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. 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. Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.' If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. Now, however, they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father as well. If I had not done among them what no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now they have seen these miracles, and yet they have hated both me and my Father. But this is to fulfill what is written in their Law: 'They hated me without reason.'
They will hate us without reason, too. People call us joyless, judgmental, intolerant, prudish—none of this is true. People accuse us of pushing religion down people’s throats. Again, this is not through. I do not know another place in the world where you will find more love, more tolerance, more compassion, and more joy than we find in the church. The church may not approve of homosexuality, but nowhere do homosexuals find more compassion than in the church. We may not approve of drug addicts or alcoholics, either, but I know by personal experience that they have found tolerance and redemption in the church. the church is the arms of Jesus, wrapped around those who are lost and hurting.
When the church functions in the name of God, people see God through us. As a minister, I realize that I represent God in many people’s minds. The attitudes and hopes they have about God fall upon us. For that reason, I have seen people have an immediate positive or negative reaction just by revealing my calling. But this is also true of you. As a church, people look to us to represent God to them. That is why it is so important that we respond to human needs, because we are revealing what God thinks.
By each other. If the world hates us, then who will love us? We must love each other. That is why Jesus makes such a huge point of us loving each other, even calling it the mark of discipleship. There are abundant references to this in the New Testament. Here are a few.
John 13:34-35 A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.
John 15:12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
Rom 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfilled the law.
Gal 5:13 You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love .
Eph 4:2-3 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love
Thess 4:9 Now about brotherly love we do not need to write to you, for you yourselves have been taught by God to love each other.
1 Peter 1:22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for your brothers, love one another deeply, from the heart.
1 Peter 4:8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.
1 John 3:10 This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother.
1 John 3:22-23 And this is his command: to believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as he commanded us.
2 John 5 And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another.
In spite of this abundant evidence of what God wants us to do, we don’t do it. One of he most telling statements we hear is “I love the church, but can’t stand the Christians in it.” People say this because we forget to include others in our love of God.
The church is a network of people loving God and loving each other. If it is really that, then half of our time should be spent loving God, and the other half loving each other.
Have you prayed for the Christians of Haiti? Have you looked for ways to help? Do you hurt for those believers who are caught up in the sins of the world? Do you make an effort to support other Christians in times of grief and sorrow? Do you even know when other Christians are in times of grief.
We did not choose our family. God chose it. We do not choose our church family, either. We are called to support it, and the people in it, foolish or hurtful though they may be.
Each one of us is a part of the Body of Christ, showing a different aspect of His divine nature. God chose us for this role, we did not choose it. May God give us the grace to be worthy of His choosing.
Things I wish I'd taught my children
Now that my children are grown, it's time for a self-evaluation as to how I did as a parent. All in all, I think we did well. They are all Christians, all gainfully employed, even if they are under employed, and they all considerate, caring people. Even so, I look back on the experience and think if I knew what I did then, I could improve upon it.
Here are some of the things I wish I would have done better.
1. I would have prayed with them more. When my children were young, it was difficult to get them to pray aloud. After a while, I just quit trying, and got by with simple, formulaic prayers. Even though they have all learned the value of prayer, I think it would have been better had I set a better example before them.
2. I would have been tougher on them. When children are young, they can take a lot more than we give them credit for. I was always afraid of breaking them. As a result, they find it hard now to manage what we should have taught them long ago.
3. I would not have been afraid to say "Do what I say, not what I do." I know this sounds hypocritical, but some things are just to important to leave out, even if we haven't mastered them ourselves. if we have gone in the wrong direction, we don't want our children following.
4. I would have taught them to look around. When we would ride in the car, I of course did the driving. They sat in the back seat not paying attention to where we were going. They didn't have to. I paid attention for them. When we become adults, we cannot live only in our own worlds We have to learn to notice our surroundings--especially people. There's a big, beautiful world out there, you can't learn anything about from television , the computer. or books. You have to look around and see it
5. I would teach them the art of conversation. Holding a conversation is not hard There are three rules to it. Look people in the eye, ask questions, and listen to their answers. You can get by in any company if your practice them.
6. I would teach them to seek the right kind of friends. We need friends who will challenge us to become better than we are. I am not suggesting that we should dump the needy, but if we don't want to become needy, we had better learn to have ambition and drive. You don't get that from books, you catch it from people.
7. I would have told them not to neglect physical exercise. The Romans had a phrase for it "cprpus mens in corpore sana."" A sound mind in a sound body." Those who succeed physically also succeed intellectually emotionally, and spiritually. We know the fountain of youth. It is diet and exercise. Unless we want to die early, we had better drink from it daily.
8. I would have taught them better the value of money. The rules of finance are eternal and inviolable. A penny saved is a penny earned. If we don' work, we don’t have . No one has it easy when we get older. We had better learn to prepare for tomorrow.
9. I would have taught them to be careful risk-takers. Will Rogers once said that we have to go out on a limb, because that is where all the fruit is. The secret of a successful life is not whether or not we meet our initial goals, it is whether he have learned to prepare so that when we fail we will land on our feet. Once prepared, we can be bold, and we can accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
10. I would have been more affectionate. Frankly, I don't know why I wasn't. I wanted to be, but I didn't hug them enough or tell them enough what wonderful and special girls they were. Happy people are always hugging and touching one another. Unhappy people keep their hands to themselves. Happy people compliment each other constantly. Unhappy people only speak when something is the matter. I think it is best to say today what you wish you would have said to someone after their death, and to show someone the affection you found difficult to say. We only have today to get our priorities right. There may be no tomorrow.
11. I would have taught them to give. I have worked in many charitable drives, but rarely did I take my children with me. This is what life is all about--helping others. If we don't teach our children to give when they are young, they will have a much harder time finding the time to do it when they are old.
Here's a partial list of my childrearing regrets. Even as I write them, I think of many that I have left out. Too many. I hope my children forgive me . But God is faithful to forgive. Regret is the ashes of yesterday's fire. It is best not to wallow in it today, but to get busy living and loving now. That is what I want to do now, with the rest of the time God gives me.
Here are some of the things I wish I would have done better.
1. I would have prayed with them more. When my children were young, it was difficult to get them to pray aloud. After a while, I just quit trying, and got by with simple, formulaic prayers. Even though they have all learned the value of prayer, I think it would have been better had I set a better example before them.
2. I would have been tougher on them. When children are young, they can take a lot more than we give them credit for. I was always afraid of breaking them. As a result, they find it hard now to manage what we should have taught them long ago.
3. I would not have been afraid to say "Do what I say, not what I do." I know this sounds hypocritical, but some things are just to important to leave out, even if we haven't mastered them ourselves. if we have gone in the wrong direction, we don't want our children following.
4. I would have taught them to look around. When we would ride in the car, I of course did the driving. They sat in the back seat not paying attention to where we were going. They didn't have to. I paid attention for them. When we become adults, we cannot live only in our own worlds We have to learn to notice our surroundings--especially people. There's a big, beautiful world out there, you can't learn anything about from television , the computer. or books. You have to look around and see it
5. I would teach them the art of conversation. Holding a conversation is not hard There are three rules to it. Look people in the eye, ask questions, and listen to their answers. You can get by in any company if your practice them.
6. I would teach them to seek the right kind of friends. We need friends who will challenge us to become better than we are. I am not suggesting that we should dump the needy, but if we don't want to become needy, we had better learn to have ambition and drive. You don't get that from books, you catch it from people.
7. I would have told them not to neglect physical exercise. The Romans had a phrase for it "cprpus mens in corpore sana."" A sound mind in a sound body." Those who succeed physically also succeed intellectually emotionally, and spiritually. We know the fountain of youth. It is diet and exercise. Unless we want to die early, we had better drink from it daily.
8. I would have taught them better the value of money. The rules of finance are eternal and inviolable. A penny saved is a penny earned. If we don' work, we don’t have . No one has it easy when we get older. We had better learn to prepare for tomorrow.
9. I would have taught them to be careful risk-takers. Will Rogers once said that we have to go out on a limb, because that is where all the fruit is. The secret of a successful life is not whether or not we meet our initial goals, it is whether he have learned to prepare so that when we fail we will land on our feet. Once prepared, we can be bold, and we can accomplish more than we ever thought possible.
10. I would have been more affectionate. Frankly, I don't know why I wasn't. I wanted to be, but I didn't hug them enough or tell them enough what wonderful and special girls they were. Happy people are always hugging and touching one another. Unhappy people keep their hands to themselves. Happy people compliment each other constantly. Unhappy people only speak when something is the matter. I think it is best to say today what you wish you would have said to someone after their death, and to show someone the affection you found difficult to say. We only have today to get our priorities right. There may be no tomorrow.
11. I would have taught them to give. I have worked in many charitable drives, but rarely did I take my children with me. This is what life is all about--helping others. If we don't teach our children to give when they are young, they will have a much harder time finding the time to do it when they are old.
Here's a partial list of my childrearing regrets. Even as I write them, I think of many that I have left out. Too many. I hope my children forgive me . But God is faithful to forgive. Regret is the ashes of yesterday's fire. It is best not to wallow in it today, but to get busy living and loving now. That is what I want to do now, with the rest of the time God gives me.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
The Bride of Christ
There are no words which adequately describe the relationship of Christ to His church. So when we talk about it, we have to use analogy and metaphor. The New Testament uses several metaphors to describe it—he Body of Christ, the Bride of Christ, a royal nation, a chosen priesthood. No metaphor though is more powerful or descriptive than the Bride of Christ.
The New Testament gives two references to the church as the bride. The longest is Ephesians 5:25-33
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
This passage tells us several things we need to know.
First it tells us how much God loves us. He loves us like a bridegroom loves his bride.
Second it tells us how God thinks of us as one person. We are His bride, not his brides.
Third, it tells us the importance God places on our relationship to Him. No human relationship is deeper or stronger that the one between a husband and wife. Yet Paul says that this sacred relationship is only a picture of a greater relationship in heaven. Our relationship to God is more important than our relationship to our spouses—or for that matter our children and grandchildren.
The other reference is Rev. 21:9
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
The two great traditions of the ancient church were the Western, exemplified by Paul, and the Eastern, exemplified by John. If the same metaphor in John and in Paul, it must be important. The whole church must have used it.
This metaphor came from the prophets of the Old Testament. Isaiah says in Isa 62:3-5
You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. . .for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you;as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride , so will your God rejoice over you.
Jeremiah uses a similar image in Jer 2:2
"'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me
We are the bride of Christ, not yet the wife. That does not happen until heaven. The wedding happens in heaven, while we are on earth, we are just engaged.
The image of the church as fiancé has special meaning to me right now. Two of my daughters are engaged. The house is full of talk about weddings. I think I understand what a bride must go through before she gets to the altar.
There are many parallels between the pre-nuptial state and the state of the church. There is a sense of hope and anticipation, as well as the romance and excitement. God wants us to love Him as passionately and as deeply as an engaged couple loves each other.
In our society, though engagement has a crazy side to it. We are obsessed with the wedding and not the marriage. Engagement has become a time of temporary insanity in which we throw caution to the wind and spend like drunken sailors--thousand dollar dresses, ten thousand dollar receptions, bridal carriages, limousines, orchestras, flowers, and every imaginable indulgence. We spend what we do not have to make every detail perfect. The fuss about weddings is the reason some couples choose to elope.
As the bride of Christ, we do not have to worry about the wedding or the ceremony. Our heavenly Father is paying for all that. We do not even have to plan it. It will be done for us in heaven, with the angels of God as attendants and servers. So what is left for us to do, to be the bride of Christ? What do we do in our engagement period? Several things:
1. We get to know our spouse. Before you get engaged, you think you know your girl friend. You don’t. You just know the face she wants to show you during courtship. But when you get engaged, you really begin to get to know her. Hopefully, you get premarital counseling. It’s amazing the answers that come when we sit down and face some honest questions. Getting to know each other is the main task of this period of life.
The main task of the church on earth is to get to know God. Worship is the first way we do this. Worship is getting your eyes off ourselves and onto Jesus. As we do all things for His glory, He reveals Himself more and more; It takes a lifetime to really know Jesus. In that lifetime, we need to stay close in prayer and worship.
2. We get to know ourselves. In the movie Runaway Bride, a woman gets engaged several times, but never gets married, instead, she keeps running away from the altar. At one point in the movie, someone tells her that the problem is that she does not know how she likes her eggs. When she was with one fiancé, she liked them poached, with another, she liked them scrambled, with another fried. She tried to please the man by pretending to be just like him, and having the same likes and dislikes. But we cannot be phony for a lifetime. Sooner or later, we have to face ourselves.
In the church is we often put on false faces. We pretend to be better than we are. It takes a lot of faith to be honest to God. There is a word for putting on masks. It is called hypocrisy.
3. We burn our address book. In the wedding ceremony, one of the questions we are asks is this—forsaking all others, are we willing to keep ourselves only to Him? If we are not willing to do that. We should not be getting married.
The church needs to purify its love for Jesus. We do that by forgetting the interests which have occupied us in the past. Married men still notice pretty girls they do not pursue them. Instead, we look to ur spouses to be our total fulfillment.
How often we are guilty of spiritual adultery! We need to look to Jesus and Jesus alone for our fulfillment. Cut off everything that will come between us and our relationship
4. We must learn to work in concert with God. Every relationship is like a dance. One leads, the other. Christians are always looking for some magic formula for righteousness. If we keep these commandments perform these rituals, we are going to be right before God. But it does not work this way. Relationships require learning the intimate details of our spouses life, responding to their moods, and hearing what is left unsaid.
There is no magic formula for knowing God’s will and His ways. We just as we work in concert with Him. It requires a lifetime of living to know His ways.
5. We deliver the invitations. God may be planning the wedding, but he expects us to deliver the invitation. When the wedding feast of the Lamb comes, and the church is united in final matrimony to God, who would you like to see as guests there?
Now is the time to invite other people to join us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Who would you want to bring as a guest to it? We have to invite them today.
The only reason God has not taken us to heaven (though He is just as anxious to do so as we are) is that the number of those who are to be there is not yet full. We must grow to the size God wants us. We must reach the others who are supposed to be wedding guests.
If you are not telling others about Jesus, then you are neglecting the greatest task you have. It is the one thing that God has left for us to do. Invite others now, so that the wedding will be full.
The New Testament gives two references to the church as the bride. The longest is Ephesians 5:25-33
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless. In this same way, husbands ought to love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. After all, no one ever hated his own body, but he feeds and cares for it, just as Christ does the church— for we are members of his body. "For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh." This is a profound mystery — but I am talking about Christ and the church. However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
This passage tells us several things we need to know.
First it tells us how much God loves us. He loves us like a bridegroom loves his bride.
Second it tells us how God thinks of us as one person. We are His bride, not his brides.
Third, it tells us the importance God places on our relationship to Him. No human relationship is deeper or stronger that the one between a husband and wife. Yet Paul says that this sacred relationship is only a picture of a greater relationship in heaven. Our relationship to God is more important than our relationship to our spouses—or for that matter our children and grandchildren.
The other reference is Rev. 21:9
One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, "Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb."
The two great traditions of the ancient church were the Western, exemplified by Paul, and the Eastern, exemplified by John. If the same metaphor in John and in Paul, it must be important. The whole church must have used it.
This metaphor came from the prophets of the Old Testament. Isaiah says in Isa 62:3-5
You will be a crown of splendor in the LORD's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate. . .for the LORD will take delight in you, and your land will be married. As a young man marries a maiden, so will your sons marry you;as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride , so will your God rejoice over you.
Jeremiah uses a similar image in Jer 2:2
"'I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me
We are the bride of Christ, not yet the wife. That does not happen until heaven. The wedding happens in heaven, while we are on earth, we are just engaged.
The image of the church as fiancé has special meaning to me right now. Two of my daughters are engaged. The house is full of talk about weddings. I think I understand what a bride must go through before she gets to the altar.
There are many parallels between the pre-nuptial state and the state of the church. There is a sense of hope and anticipation, as well as the romance and excitement. God wants us to love Him as passionately and as deeply as an engaged couple loves each other.
In our society, though engagement has a crazy side to it. We are obsessed with the wedding and not the marriage. Engagement has become a time of temporary insanity in which we throw caution to the wind and spend like drunken sailors--thousand dollar dresses, ten thousand dollar receptions, bridal carriages, limousines, orchestras, flowers, and every imaginable indulgence. We spend what we do not have to make every detail perfect. The fuss about weddings is the reason some couples choose to elope.
As the bride of Christ, we do not have to worry about the wedding or the ceremony. Our heavenly Father is paying for all that. We do not even have to plan it. It will be done for us in heaven, with the angels of God as attendants and servers. So what is left for us to do, to be the bride of Christ? What do we do in our engagement period? Several things:
1. We get to know our spouse. Before you get engaged, you think you know your girl friend. You don’t. You just know the face she wants to show you during courtship. But when you get engaged, you really begin to get to know her. Hopefully, you get premarital counseling. It’s amazing the answers that come when we sit down and face some honest questions. Getting to know each other is the main task of this period of life.
The main task of the church on earth is to get to know God. Worship is the first way we do this. Worship is getting your eyes off ourselves and onto Jesus. As we do all things for His glory, He reveals Himself more and more; It takes a lifetime to really know Jesus. In that lifetime, we need to stay close in prayer and worship.
2. We get to know ourselves. In the movie Runaway Bride, a woman gets engaged several times, but never gets married, instead, she keeps running away from the altar. At one point in the movie, someone tells her that the problem is that she does not know how she likes her eggs. When she was with one fiancé, she liked them poached, with another, she liked them scrambled, with another fried. She tried to please the man by pretending to be just like him, and having the same likes and dislikes. But we cannot be phony for a lifetime. Sooner or later, we have to face ourselves.
In the church is we often put on false faces. We pretend to be better than we are. It takes a lot of faith to be honest to God. There is a word for putting on masks. It is called hypocrisy.
3. We burn our address book. In the wedding ceremony, one of the questions we are asks is this—forsaking all others, are we willing to keep ourselves only to Him? If we are not willing to do that. We should not be getting married.
The church needs to purify its love for Jesus. We do that by forgetting the interests which have occupied us in the past. Married men still notice pretty girls they do not pursue them. Instead, we look to ur spouses to be our total fulfillment.
How often we are guilty of spiritual adultery! We need to look to Jesus and Jesus alone for our fulfillment. Cut off everything that will come between us and our relationship
4. We must learn to work in concert with God. Every relationship is like a dance. One leads, the other. Christians are always looking for some magic formula for righteousness. If we keep these commandments perform these rituals, we are going to be right before God. But it does not work this way. Relationships require learning the intimate details of our spouses life, responding to their moods, and hearing what is left unsaid.
There is no magic formula for knowing God’s will and His ways. We just as we work in concert with Him. It requires a lifetime of living to know His ways.
5. We deliver the invitations. God may be planning the wedding, but he expects us to deliver the invitation. When the wedding feast of the Lamb comes, and the church is united in final matrimony to God, who would you like to see as guests there?
Now is the time to invite other people to join us in the Wedding Feast of the Lamb. Who would you want to bring as a guest to it? We have to invite them today.
The only reason God has not taken us to heaven (though He is just as anxious to do so as we are) is that the number of those who are to be there is not yet full. We must grow to the size God wants us. We must reach the others who are supposed to be wedding guests.
If you are not telling others about Jesus, then you are neglecting the greatest task you have. It is the one thing that God has left for us to do. Invite others now, so that the wedding will be full.
There is a law--by Randy Rayfield
Randy Rayfield is one of the funniest guys I know. He's a writer, raconteur, and part-time Santa who lives in Monroe. He periodically puts our a email called "Whittlin and Wonderin", giving his observations about life to a small list of friends. Every one I have seen so far is a gem. Randy can be reached at prrayfield@interlink-café.com. Here's an example.
At one time or another all of us has uttered the phase “there ought to be a law” about something that seemed ridiculous. Well, folks, it seems there is a law. Goggle silly, zany laws and you will get a hit of more than 257,000 listings in .26 seconds. Why do I know this? Recently I was listening to the radio and a commercial came on about some service or other and one of the things in it was a comment about a law in Lee County Alabama where it is illegal to sell peanuts after sunset on Wednesdays. This time for some reason, that little piece of information struck in my mind and later that day I did an internet query and found that sure enough there is a law in Lee County (AL) that prohibits the sale of peanuts after dark on Wednesday.
First get your mind around this. Laws are passed because something happen first. In the American legal system, the deed occurs, the citizenry demands action, elected leaders pontificates, laws are written, the law enforcement system enforces and the judiciary judges. While it may seemed the other way around many times, this is how our legal system works.
Using that legal concept, let do ourselves some wondering. What happened in Lee County (AL) on a Wednesday night involving the selling of peanuts causing the good folks of Lee County to have their leaders make it a crime to sell peanuts after sunset on Wednesday? The county fathers just did not decide to pass this law. Something happened that enraged citizens to demand that their elected leaders pass a law to prevent this hideous crime from happening again.
The next time you visit Atlanta don’t tie your giraffe to a street light because it is illegal. Was this a problem in Atlanta at some point? Did the mayor decide to take his wife for a Sunday afternoon drive and found giraffes tied to posts. Did she make a comment leading him to go before city council and demanding something be done? Think about this. Giraffes are not found in the wild in Georgia. Any giraffe in Atlanta had to come from somewhere else. Was the city overrun with giraffes? Do you ride a giraffe? Do you walk one like a dog? How do you tie a giraffe? By the neck? By the leg? I don’t know because my experience with them are limited.
Down the road in Columbus it is illegal to carry a chicken by its feet on Sunday on Broad Street. Again what enraged the citizens in Columbus to make this illegal? Why would it be all right to carry the said chicken by its feet Monday though Saturday? Were enough people carrying chickens by their feet on Sunday on Broad Street to create a public nuisance? I am making an assumption here that the chickens in question were alive. Knowing a little something about live chickens, when you carry one like that they will make a racket. Could it be that all the First Churches in Columbus – First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Methodist -- are on Broad Street?
Over in Macon it is against the law to eat fried chicken with a fork. This law I can understand. Good fried chicken cooked by Sunday school teachers in cast iron skillets should be eaten with your fingers. And as you are wiping your fingers give thanks to those Christian ladies and the Good Lord.
I have traveled to Kentucky several times but I did not know this. Kentucky requires all its citizens to take a bath once a year. Now this is my wondering question. When you take a job in law enforcement in Kentucky, does your police training include indicators on how to determine if a citizen has violated this law? Is the sniffing out of these criminals given to rookie officers to help them gain experience in dealing with vicious perps? Do you need someone to verified this? A doctor? Your spouse? While we think the evidence would be apparent, how do you determine the length of time between bathing? Will a shower suffice? It could be that this law was adopted from the old country. I have heard of similar laws there. Does the law apply to travelers? Will I need to carry some type of documentation that I have bathed within the recent year?
There is another law in Kentucky that may have influenced the passage of the bathing ordinance. It is illegal to keep a mule in a bathtub. Was it because the people of Kentucky were keeping mules in their bathtubs the reason that a law for bathing was needed? Mules usually do not take to being made to do something they are against doing. While I have never done it, I think it would be difficult to keep a mule in a bathtub. It must have been enough of a problem to make the legislature of Kentucky debate the issue of mules in bathtubs and then pass a law prohibiting it. I guess this is why we need lawyers. What is the definition of keeping? Is it overnight or just long enough to give the mule a bath? Why would you give a mule a bath? If the police came to your house and found a mule in your bathtub, do you need a lawyer? Do lawyers advertised in the Yellow Pages about their expertise in this area as they do divorces? I don’t know if I would want to be a law enforcement official in Kentucky.
Don’t think that strange laws are a southern eccentricity. Think about these and wonder what caused people to demand action from their elected officials.
In Vermont it is illegal to paint a horse. You cannot smoke a pipe after sunset in Newport, Rhode Island. In Hartford, Connecticut you aren’t allowed to cross a street while walking on your hands. You thought that tying a giraffe to street light was a particularity to Atlanta. Well in Michigan it is illegal to hitch a crocodile to a fire hydrant. I am sure that firemen in that state appreciate this effort to keep them safe but are there enough crocodiles in Michigan to warrant this? Of course I would like to buy the guy who originally hitched his crocodile to a fire hydrant a cup of coffee and hear that story. Do dogs and crocodiles have anything in common when it comes to fire hydrants?
If you are traveling to Oxford Ohio with your wife make sure you do not put a picture of you or George Clonney where she can see it because it is illegal for a woman to strip off her clothes while standing in front of a man’s picture. Thinking about it, I would pay a lady’s bond with enthusiasm if she was arrested for this crime involving my picture. Is stripping off her clothes the same as taking them off? It has been my observation that there is a difference. Who put together the statistical data in Oxford to determine this was a problem?
Bathing seem to be a popular topic for lawmaking. In Indiana it is illegal to take a bath in the wintertime. Back in Vermouth you must take a bath every week – on Saturday night. Within the Boston city limits, it is illegal to take more than two baths a month. Virginia forbids bathtubs in houses, tubs must be kept in the yard. And Pennsylvania state law prohibits you from singing in the bathtub.
Another interesting law that is common throughout the United States is the prohibition against carrying an ice cream cone in your back pocket. How does the prevention of this activity help maintain the public well being? While I would not buy a fellow a Starbucks coffee to hear his reasoning for putting an ice cream cone in his back pocket, I think would spring for a small cup at McDonald’s.
I didn’t really want to spend any time checking on crazy laws in California. You just know they are going to have them. Here is some advice if you decide to move to there. Buy a hunting license before you set a mouse trap. It’s the law. You must have a state hunting license to trap mice. If Blythe, California is your destination, be sure you buy two cows before wearing cowboy boots in public. That’s right. You must own two (2) cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.
You say that these laws once passed are not looked at again and forgotten. Wrong. Here is an example of a law being passed and then amended. Again back in Kentucky -- “No female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within this state unless she is escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club.” Evidently they had some issues with the law and has to make a few changes. As amended “The provisions of this statute shall not apply to any female weighing less than sixty pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds; nor shall it apply to female horses.” Did somebody really put a bathing suit on a horse and parade it down a highway?
Just wondering.
At one time or another all of us has uttered the phase “there ought to be a law” about something that seemed ridiculous. Well, folks, it seems there is a law. Goggle silly, zany laws and you will get a hit of more than 257,000 listings in .26 seconds. Why do I know this? Recently I was listening to the radio and a commercial came on about some service or other and one of the things in it was a comment about a law in Lee County Alabama where it is illegal to sell peanuts after sunset on Wednesdays. This time for some reason, that little piece of information struck in my mind and later that day I did an internet query and found that sure enough there is a law in Lee County (AL) that prohibits the sale of peanuts after dark on Wednesday.
First get your mind around this. Laws are passed because something happen first. In the American legal system, the deed occurs, the citizenry demands action, elected leaders pontificates, laws are written, the law enforcement system enforces and the judiciary judges. While it may seemed the other way around many times, this is how our legal system works.
Using that legal concept, let do ourselves some wondering. What happened in Lee County (AL) on a Wednesday night involving the selling of peanuts causing the good folks of Lee County to have their leaders make it a crime to sell peanuts after sunset on Wednesday? The county fathers just did not decide to pass this law. Something happened that enraged citizens to demand that their elected leaders pass a law to prevent this hideous crime from happening again.
The next time you visit Atlanta don’t tie your giraffe to a street light because it is illegal. Was this a problem in Atlanta at some point? Did the mayor decide to take his wife for a Sunday afternoon drive and found giraffes tied to posts. Did she make a comment leading him to go before city council and demanding something be done? Think about this. Giraffes are not found in the wild in Georgia. Any giraffe in Atlanta had to come from somewhere else. Was the city overrun with giraffes? Do you ride a giraffe? Do you walk one like a dog? How do you tie a giraffe? By the neck? By the leg? I don’t know because my experience with them are limited.
Down the road in Columbus it is illegal to carry a chicken by its feet on Sunday on Broad Street. Again what enraged the citizens in Columbus to make this illegal? Why would it be all right to carry the said chicken by its feet Monday though Saturday? Were enough people carrying chickens by their feet on Sunday on Broad Street to create a public nuisance? I am making an assumption here that the chickens in question were alive. Knowing a little something about live chickens, when you carry one like that they will make a racket. Could it be that all the First Churches in Columbus – First Baptist, First Presbyterian, First Methodist -- are on Broad Street?
Over in Macon it is against the law to eat fried chicken with a fork. This law I can understand. Good fried chicken cooked by Sunday school teachers in cast iron skillets should be eaten with your fingers. And as you are wiping your fingers give thanks to those Christian ladies and the Good Lord.
I have traveled to Kentucky several times but I did not know this. Kentucky requires all its citizens to take a bath once a year. Now this is my wondering question. When you take a job in law enforcement in Kentucky, does your police training include indicators on how to determine if a citizen has violated this law? Is the sniffing out of these criminals given to rookie officers to help them gain experience in dealing with vicious perps? Do you need someone to verified this? A doctor? Your spouse? While we think the evidence would be apparent, how do you determine the length of time between bathing? Will a shower suffice? It could be that this law was adopted from the old country. I have heard of similar laws there. Does the law apply to travelers? Will I need to carry some type of documentation that I have bathed within the recent year?
There is another law in Kentucky that may have influenced the passage of the bathing ordinance. It is illegal to keep a mule in a bathtub. Was it because the people of Kentucky were keeping mules in their bathtubs the reason that a law for bathing was needed? Mules usually do not take to being made to do something they are against doing. While I have never done it, I think it would be difficult to keep a mule in a bathtub. It must have been enough of a problem to make the legislature of Kentucky debate the issue of mules in bathtubs and then pass a law prohibiting it. I guess this is why we need lawyers. What is the definition of keeping? Is it overnight or just long enough to give the mule a bath? Why would you give a mule a bath? If the police came to your house and found a mule in your bathtub, do you need a lawyer? Do lawyers advertised in the Yellow Pages about their expertise in this area as they do divorces? I don’t know if I would want to be a law enforcement official in Kentucky.
Don’t think that strange laws are a southern eccentricity. Think about these and wonder what caused people to demand action from their elected officials.
In Vermont it is illegal to paint a horse. You cannot smoke a pipe after sunset in Newport, Rhode Island. In Hartford, Connecticut you aren’t allowed to cross a street while walking on your hands. You thought that tying a giraffe to street light was a particularity to Atlanta. Well in Michigan it is illegal to hitch a crocodile to a fire hydrant. I am sure that firemen in that state appreciate this effort to keep them safe but are there enough crocodiles in Michigan to warrant this? Of course I would like to buy the guy who originally hitched his crocodile to a fire hydrant a cup of coffee and hear that story. Do dogs and crocodiles have anything in common when it comes to fire hydrants?
If you are traveling to Oxford Ohio with your wife make sure you do not put a picture of you or George Clonney where she can see it because it is illegal for a woman to strip off her clothes while standing in front of a man’s picture. Thinking about it, I would pay a lady’s bond with enthusiasm if she was arrested for this crime involving my picture. Is stripping off her clothes the same as taking them off? It has been my observation that there is a difference. Who put together the statistical data in Oxford to determine this was a problem?
Bathing seem to be a popular topic for lawmaking. In Indiana it is illegal to take a bath in the wintertime. Back in Vermouth you must take a bath every week – on Saturday night. Within the Boston city limits, it is illegal to take more than two baths a month. Virginia forbids bathtubs in houses, tubs must be kept in the yard. And Pennsylvania state law prohibits you from singing in the bathtub.
Another interesting law that is common throughout the United States is the prohibition against carrying an ice cream cone in your back pocket. How does the prevention of this activity help maintain the public well being? While I would not buy a fellow a Starbucks coffee to hear his reasoning for putting an ice cream cone in his back pocket, I think would spring for a small cup at McDonald’s.
I didn’t really want to spend any time checking on crazy laws in California. You just know they are going to have them. Here is some advice if you decide to move to there. Buy a hunting license before you set a mouse trap. It’s the law. You must have a state hunting license to trap mice. If Blythe, California is your destination, be sure you buy two cows before wearing cowboy boots in public. That’s right. You must own two (2) cows in order to legally wear cowboy boots in public.
You say that these laws once passed are not looked at again and forgotten. Wrong. Here is an example of a law being passed and then amended. Again back in Kentucky -- “No female shall appear in a bathing suit on any highway within this state unless she is escorted by at least two officers or unless she be armed with a club.” Evidently they had some issues with the law and has to make a few changes. As amended “The provisions of this statute shall not apply to any female weighing less than sixty pounds nor exceeding 200 pounds; nor shall it apply to female horses.” Did somebody really put a bathing suit on a horse and parade it down a highway?
Just wondering.
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Our World Wide Web
a long time, I have wanted to talk about the church, because I believe that church living is misunderstood. To many people, the church is an organization. In God’s eyes, it is an organism. It is a living breathing thing, so closely knit together that God refers to us as one person—“The Body of Christ” or “The Bride of Christ.”
We do not see the church as God sees it. Dr. Reuben Welsh once defined the difference this way. We see Believers like people walking around on the ocean floor in old-fashioned diving suits. Prayer and Bible study is our hose to the surface. This is what keeps us spiritually alive. in an inhospitable world.
But suppose one of us gets a kink in our hose by neglecting the disciplines of our relationship with God that keep us spiritually alive? Or suppose one of us gets a hole in our suit, and the hostile environment of the world comes rushing in? We warn them, of course. But if one of us drowns, the rest of us keep going. We grieve them, but we did not need them.
God sees us differently. We are much more like the crew on a submarine. If one of us runs out of air, we all run out of air. If one of us becomes polluted by the world rushing in, we have all been affected. We all depend on each other.
The church is a community defined by our relationship to God. The Greek word for church is ecclesia. It comes from the word to call. The church is comprised of all those who have been called out of the world. It is a body of people collected from all places and all walks of life who have been brought together by God to be His body on earth. It is not defined by social status, race, family, or any other factor, but by God’s sovereign choice of those who live by faith. The real church spans all denominations, all communities, and all kinds of political and social beliefs. It is made up simply of those who love the Lord.
In most rural areas there is a strong attachment to family. This attachment comes from necessity. Who else can we trust but our own flesh and blood? They are our support. If one member of the family is in trouble, we all in suffer. \ We assume that everyone has a family like ours that will take care of them when they are old or sick. This is not the case.
We need to see the church as a real family. In Christ, we are part of the same home, and responsible for each other. We need the church to be a family.
Why? Because that is what God wants. In Ephesians 1, Paul calls the church “His Body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.” In the church, we see God in His fullness.
In worship, we can sometimes catch a glimpse of God. We are moved by the preaching, singing, and even the architecture. But this is not His fullness. \
In nature, we see His strength and His power. But that is not his fullness.
In human love, we see His nature. But that is not His fullness either.
Only in the church as a whole does God exhibit His love, His power, and His majesty together.
We are the only physical representation of Jesus on earth. Just as Jesus as the Word of God, the church is the Word of Christ. We demonstrate to the world of who Jesus is, by living His life before them.
In the body, we are not individual members, but one together.
Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. Ephesians 4:14-16:
The Church depends upon the support of every member. All of us, without exception, hold the church together by our commitment to Christ and to each other.
Paul expressed the same idea in I Corinthians 12:12-26
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free — and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.
Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. If they were all one part, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.
We are all necessary. Each person needs to give himself or herself to God, but we must also give ourselves to one another as well.
Let me suggest an illustration of the church. We are a web.
Imagine a fly hitting a spider’s web. Spider string, is not strong enough to hold a fly. What makes the web strong is its connection to other strings. When a fly becomes entangled in a web, the strain is passed on to every other string is crosses.
The same thing is true in a net. The safety net under a trapeze artist is made of individual strings. None of them are strong enough to hold a man. But woven together they are. It can hold several men, because it is connected.
We are much weaker in isolation. We may stand tall as individuals, but we will be crushed without a network.
If any church needs to be a web, we do. Trials and temptations have sapped our strength as a congregation. The only way we can survive is to be a web. We must bear one another’s burdens, or we will surely die.
In order for us to function as a web, we must have two strong relationships. First, we have to know each other. A trapeze artist has every right to be concerned whether the net has been properly tied. His life depends on a properly woven net.
We can learn a lot from penguins. In the dark days of an antarctic winter, the penguins huddle in a tight group. When the penguins on the outside get to cold, others take their place. No penguin feels the full cold for long.
No one can withstand anything forever. We need others to bear our burdens, or we will break. The church provides support for us when the burdens of life become too strong.
But what happens when an entire church is under hardship? There have been times when almost every family has become immersed in their own troubles.
Imagine that tightrope walker above his net. Not only does he want to know that the strands of rope are strong enough to hold him, he also wants to know that those ropes are connected to strong posts. Ultimately, the burden of his fall must be born by those posts.
Our church has often failed to be firmly grounded theologically and spiritually. When we do, we are disconnected from the true source of our strength.
This happens when we worry. Worry puts additional burdens not only upon ourselves, but on everyone to whom we are connected. In or relationship to God, worry is a lack of trust in God’s ability to hold us, our friends and our families. Worry is really a failure of faith, a disconnection between ourselves and God’s promises.
Worry adds stress to the web. If this world is all there is, we look to one another to solve the problems we cannot solve alone. We get panicky and desperate when others fail to solve our problems or theirs. We think we have to solve the problems of others, too. If our grown children misbehave, we think it is our responsibility to fix them. But fixing people is God’s prerogative. He is the one who ultimately gives the answers. Just as the strength of a net is in its poles, and the strength of a hammock is in the trees, so the strength of our communal lives are in the trust be place in the Strong One who does not change, or get tired.
Negative thought and feelings spread throughout the web. Worry begets worry. It can spread through the whole web if we let it. Disconnect yourselves as soon as possible from worriers, or you will be a worrier, too.
Positive feelings spread, too. If we have faith, others will be strengthened. If we love, others will love. When we mirror the thoughts and feelings of Jesus, we truly become the Body
of Christ. Then we know that God will support us, an not only us, but our whole community.
We are the body of Christ. We are webbed together. We are a world wide web, connected to one another and connected to our Spiritual Father.
Heaven Come to Earth
In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world.(This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified.But the angel said to them, "Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying,
"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests."
When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let's go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about."
So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. 17 When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, 18 and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. 19 But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. 20 The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.
It is a curious fact of Biblical history that there is very little told about the birth of Jesus. Only two of the four Gospels mention his birth at all. Matthew does not really talk about his birth, but only Joseph’s dilemma at his conception. Then he skips the birth narrative and goes straight to the visit of the Magi, an event that happened some time after his birth.
Most of what we know about the Nativity comes from Luke, But if we examine the story carefully, we discover that Luke does not have much to say about it, either. The entire journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem, the manger, the inn, and all the rest is covered in just four verses, verses 4 through 8.
So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
But then Luke quickly moves to the shepherds. Once the shepherds are introduced in verse 9, they become the protagonists. The story is told from their point of view. Why?
One possible explanation is that Luke may have known them. Luke got his material from various sources, so it was possible that some of those shepherds were still around.
But that can’t be the only reason. Tradition suggests that Luke knew Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her later days. We know from John’s gospel that John became Mary’s protector. John moved to Ephesus, near where Luke was born. So it is more likely that Luke interviewed Mary, and got his information from her.
If that is so, then why does Luke not tell us about Jesus’ birth from the viewpoint of Mary? I think I know why.
When you are writing a story, you want the reader to put themselves into the story. The way was do this is by telling it from the perspective of someone we may identify with. Great events are better understood from the perspective of ordinary people. When Margaret Mitchell wanted to write about the Civil War in Gone With the Wind, she invented the character of Scarlett O’Hara. When Boris Pasternak wanted to write about the Russian revolution, he ivented Dr. Zhivago. Reporters tell the great events of our time by interviewing ordinary people who participated. That way, we feel as well as learn the story.
Luke. focuses in on these ordinary guys so we can feel the impact of Jesus’ birth.
What crosses to your mind when you hear the word “shepherd?” Cute little lambs, green fields, and guy laying around on rocks playing flutes? The I this image is wrong. If a shepherd’s life was so peaceful, then why did they go into the field armed? Wolves, lions, sheep rustlers, and angry rams had to be kept in line. There were long rainy, cold nights away from home. Sheep are some of the dumbest animals on earth. They will walk off a cliff while you are not looking.
Who would be our equivalent of shepherds today? Cops on the night beat. Long-haul truckers who stay out on the highway all night. Crab fishermen who spend months on boats in the arctic. Day-care workers and preschool teachers who have to herd children from one place to another. Homeless people, who lay out at night in public parks, sleeping under newspaper. In one way or another, these lonely occupations resemble the shepherds of long ago.
In these shepherds, the ordinary meets the extraordinary. In the middle of the night these average Josephs and Simons were visited by a host of angels.
In the Bible, there are many appearances of angels. There are a few instances when people see two angels. But there is only one instance where anyone sees a multitude of angels. It is these shepherds. Only these ordinary men in this ordinary place were given this honor. Their appearance symbolizes the meeting of the gap between earth and heaven in Christmas.
What does the word “miracle” mean to you? A miracle is the moment when the natural and the supernatural meet. Suddenly, we are thrust into believing in something we cannot explain, something which proves that there is a bigger world around us than we know.
The world around us is really a pretty drab place. If all that exists is what we see around us, then there is no point in anything. Why should we be good or bad, if this world is all there is? Why give our lives for others? It would be better for us if the rest of the world die and we live.
But let us suppose that the supernatural exists. Then we are not alone in the universe. Whatever we endure is not our only hope.
The supernatural is frightening, of course, because it means that we are not in control. That is why the shepherds were terrified, the same way we would be if we saw a ghost or unicorn. But once we know that the supernatural is on our side, then nothing is impossible. Hope exists.
That’s why Luke tells this story. He wants us to know that miracles happen. God is real, angels are real. We really do endure after death. God really answers prayers. It is all true; God can reveal himself to ordinary guys like ourselves.
What a magnificent vision! Heaven itself is rolled up and the choirs of angels are revealed. There is music like no human music could possibly be, unearthly and exquisitely beautiful. It was a light show in the night sky greater than fireworks or the northern lights.
I enjoy science fiction (some of it, anyway.) The thing I like about it is the sense of onder it produces. I was thrilled when I saw the yellow brick road in The Wizard of Oz, the space ships in Star Wars, and the dragons in Lord of the Rings. I know they are not real. Nevertheless, l like o think that in this great universe, there is something that will provoke in me that same sense of wonder. Then I read the Bible, and I learn that wonderful miracles do exist. Angels can visit shepherds. Heaven can come to earth.
And the angels are just the beginning!
The angels are not just putting on a show. They have a jaw-dropping announcement to make.
"Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger."
Christ is born. God has come to earth. This is bigger than a host of angels. All the fictional magical beings we can ever imagine pale in comparison to the true magic of Christmas.
Did the angels say this miracle occurred? In a barn. A child, so small you can nestle him in the crook of your arm, is living in a cattle stall. He is an ordinary child in an ordinary place, and yet he is the king of the entire universe.
Children, do you see what that means? You read about superheroes, spaceships, and alien visitors. Yet there is one more fantastic than that. You go to Sunday School and read Bible stories and you can’t wait to get out so you can go home and watch your cartoon heroes. Yet a real hero is right before you, in the carols you sing and the stain glass windows in the churches. This miracle is real, not imaginary.
There is real supernatural power. God became a man. The gates of heaven swung open, and we got a glimpse of the real world behind it.
And you can see Him. Look, there is the manger, go look in it. Look, there is the mother, go talk to her. Look, kneel by your own bed. Pray to Him, and he will answer. You can all see him, If you will open our eyes and look.
I feel sorry for children today. They have been fed so many fantasies that when they have a genuine opportunity to experience the fantastic, they cannot recognize it.
But miracles are real. Angels are real. Anyone can come and see.
The Road to Recovery
The year's end has come like a soft, beautiful sunset. After Christmas, the whole family traveled to Atlanta to see my parents and sister, who were living together under the same roof again for the first time in forty years. My parents have moved into a new apartment in my sister's house. First they endured, then they survived, then they thrived. It's good to see them smile again.
Joy and I stayed in Atlanta for three days, and celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. I used to think that when we hit this far-off milestone of marital fidelity that we would be bored and tired, without fire or fun. The opposite it the case. Marriage gets more fun and more passionate, the older you get. Whee!
We came home to some serious concerns. Jill, daugher of my friends Jerry and Helen, was found passed out in her home, in an unconscious state. they flew her to Charlotte, where she is recovering from a possible seizure. It was a trying tearful time for the whole family, but it she is now on the road to recovery.
Right now, my church is full of individual problems. We have had deaths, sickness, blindness, home invasions, and all sorts of problems n the families of our church. It can be overwhelming. It is overwhelming.
But they are all on the road to recovery, now. They are getting better. Just as Joy and I are getting better. Our problems are not over, but we see some light, thank God, a kind of soft, warm line of sunrise on our spiritual horizons.
One image that sticks in my mind in thinking about some of the trials in our lives, and the lives of or friends. The image of a net. we are all interconnected. We cannot survive alone, none of us We all need the comfort, support, and prayers of each other, and we need some strong faith connectios with God. We have experienced the strong support of families and friends over the past several years. We have also seen so man poeple come through their difficulties unscathed, because of that same support. We cannot be on the road to recover, or the road to happiness for that matter without a community of love around us. We have that, thank God, and it is good.
Joy and I stayed in Atlanta for three days, and celebrated our thirty-fifth wedding anniversary. I used to think that when we hit this far-off milestone of marital fidelity that we would be bored and tired, without fire or fun. The opposite it the case. Marriage gets more fun and more passionate, the older you get. Whee!
We came home to some serious concerns. Jill, daugher of my friends Jerry and Helen, was found passed out in her home, in an unconscious state. they flew her to Charlotte, where she is recovering from a possible seizure. It was a trying tearful time for the whole family, but it she is now on the road to recovery.
Right now, my church is full of individual problems. We have had deaths, sickness, blindness, home invasions, and all sorts of problems n the families of our church. It can be overwhelming. It is overwhelming.
But they are all on the road to recovery, now. They are getting better. Just as Joy and I are getting better. Our problems are not over, but we see some light, thank God, a kind of soft, warm line of sunrise on our spiritual horizons.
One image that sticks in my mind in thinking about some of the trials in our lives, and the lives of or friends. The image of a net. we are all interconnected. We cannot survive alone, none of us We all need the comfort, support, and prayers of each other, and we need some strong faith connectios with God. We have experienced the strong support of families and friends over the past several years. We have also seen so man poeple come through their difficulties unscathed, because of that same support. We cannot be on the road to recover, or the road to happiness for that matter without a community of love around us. We have that, thank God, and it is good.
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