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Children in Church

I just ran across this article and wanted to share it with you:

What My Pastor Did About the Rowdy Kids at Our Church

Pastor Dan certainly reflects our view of children in worship at Thornydale Family Church. We are blessed to have so many families with small children who are learning to love and worship Jesus by being part of our worship gathering each week. I love seeing kids sing at the top of their lungs or dance in aisles. Perhaps we could could learn as much from watching them as they learn from watching us. What do you think?

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The Syrian Refugee Crisis

This post is pretty long, but please, before you get mad at me or are tempted to fire off a nasty response, please do me the favor of hearing me out completely.

Like many of you, I imagine, last week my knee jerk response to the terrible atrocities in Paris was to immediately support those who are calling for our country to refuse to admit any Syrian refugees into the United States. Those calls have been doubled down on in the last few days by over 25 governors, many of who claim to be Christians, who say they will refuse to accept any of these refugees.

But then on Sunday, God used a missionary who spoke at our church to show me that kind of thinking is sinful because it is so contrary to how God would want us to treat these people. This particular missionary is working with and coaching a group of church planters who are sponsoring refugee families in the Phoenix area. These Christian families are being the hands and feet of Jesus by doing practical acts of love and meeting needs. The goal is that over time, the almost 100% Muslim families they are sponsoring will develop  a level of trust so that they will hear about the Jesus who i is the source of the love that is being demonstrated toward them.

That led me back to the Scriptures to see what the Bible teaches about how I am to view and treat these refugees. The first thing for us to note is that every single disciple of Jesus is a “refugee” in this world:

But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,(Philippians 3:20 ESV)

And if you call on him as Father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourselves with fear throughout the time of your exile,(1 Peter 1:17 ESV)

Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.(1 Peter 2:11 ESV)

We are all spiritual refugees who have been shown the love and compassion of Jesus, which is the only way that we will one day get to experience our real citizenship in heaven. So it seems to me that our responsibility to these other refugees, who God loves every bit as much as He loves, us, is to respond with compassion and mercy, not suspicion and hate.

That idea is also borne out in the Old Testament where God repeatedly commands His people to treat foreigners and aliens with compassion and respect. I couldn’t possibly include all those passages here, so here is but a small sampling:

“You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.(Exodus 22:21 ESV) 

 “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’(Deuteronomy 27:19 ESV) 

 “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts.(Malachi 3:5 ESV)

I certainly know I don’t want to be cursed because I have wronged or perverted justice or thrust aside these people. Many of the Syrian refugees are actually our brothers and sisters in Christ who are facing terrible persecutions and almost certain death for their faith. And even those among the refugees who are Muslims are also being attacked by Muslim extremists due to no fault of their own. God loves these people and so must we.

Don’t get me wrong. I still believe that we are a sovereign nation who needs secure borders. Our federal government’s primary responsibility is to keep our people safe and they have a right and a responsibility to determine who is and is not allowed into our country. I’m reminded of the example of Nehemiah, who when faced with enemies who threatened his God-given work and his fellow Jews, prayed, but who also took the prudent step of posting a guard and having the workers work with their swords strapped to their sides. And it is certain prudent for us to secure our borders so we know who is coming into and leaving our country.

I also believe that the Bible clearly teaches that governments are given the “power of the sword” to carry out God’s wrath against evildoers (See Romans 13:4). And there is no doubt in my mind that radical Islam is nothing but pure evil carried out in the name of a false god. So again the decent nations of the world are not only justified in trying to stamp out this evil, I believe they have a responsibility to do whatever it takes to do that quickly and decisively.

So practically how do we as Christians act in a compassionate way toward these refugees and still protect our country? I certainly don’t have all the answers here, but I’ll humbly offer a couple suggestions:

1.      Perhaps we can limit the refugees that we accept as a country to families with children for whom sponsor families have already been line up prior to their arrival here. There are certainly plenty of people who fit that category and even though we can’t help everyone, that would make a tremendous impact. That would also eliminate the group who is most likely to enter this country for the express purpose of doing harm to us – young, single Muslim men. And it would also serve the most vulnerable among the refugees. That means that as believers we are going to have to step up to the plate and be willing to take on that responsibility personally, not just wait around for others to do that. And if we are not in a position to sponsor a family directly, we can at a minimum financially support those who are on the front lines doing that.

2.      Working with other nations, we can establish safe zones within Syria and other Middle East countries and use the necessary military power to protect the refugees from the Muslim extremists. And then once again, Christians would need to actively work and give to provide food, water, lodging and other necessities to these people.

No matter what we do, there is no assurance that our compassion toward these refugees is won't result in some “bad guys”  getting into our country as a result of these actions. But frankly, we don't have that kind of assurance even if we don't take these actions.. That is really no different than what Jesus experienced on this earth. He extended compassion to many who later turned their backs on Him and shouted “crucify him!” I’d rather err on the side of compassion and live with consequences and hear Jesus say “Well done, good and faithful servant” sooner than might have happened otherwise than to hold on to hate and be safe for longer here on this earth, and hear Jesus say, “I never knew you. Depart from me you workers of lawlessness.”

If you’ve taken the time to read this far, now you may comment.

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Honoring our government officials

This week I read something that I didn't particularly like in 1 Peter chapter 2:

Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme, or to governors as sent by him to punish those who do evil and to praise those who do good. (1 Peter 2:13-14 ESV)

I don't like what Peter wrote because it contradicts completely my own fleshly nature which would rather fight most of our government leaders rather than submit to them. Submitting to our governmental leaders, and praying for them, as we are instructed to do in 1 Timothy 2, is certainly not an easy thing to do living in a culture where our government leaders often reject the clear teaching of the Word of God and ridicule those of us who hold to the truth of Scripture. So certainly there must be some exceptions to Peter's command here, right? As it turns out, there are, but probably not nearly as many as we would like or that we think.

Do I only have to be subject to and honor those officials with whom I agree? The word "every" in verse 13 seems to preclude that idea. But surely, I only need to honor those officials who are godly and follow Biblical principles, right? Peter seems to answer that objection a few verses later:

Servants, be subject to your masters with all respect, not only to the good and gentle but also to the unjust. (1 Peter 2:18 ESV)

Obviously I am not saying that we don't have a right, or even an obligation to confront evil when it is promoted by any government official. But what the Bible teaches consistently is that if and when I do that I must do it respectfully and honorably or else I risk damaging my testimony for Jesus. If people are going to dislike me I want it to be because I am committed to follow Jesus, not because of my political opinions.

In this digital age it is particularly easy to be disrespectful of our governmental officials with whom we disagree. It is so easy to post an unflattering image, or re-post untrue information because we failed to take the time to check that it was factual or to post a meme that attributes words to a person that he or she never uttered or to just call people names. And while I am often tempted to do many of those things because I get so mad at what is going on in our country, I need to remember that God holds me to a higher standard.

I think it's also instructive to note that Jesus never spent much time at all arguing with, protesting or confronting government officials, even though many of His followers wanted Him to be that kind of Messiah. I can't believe that if He were on earth today, Jesus would waste much of His time at all posting disparaging comments about political leaders on Facebook. He'd be far to busy praying for them and doing what He could to meet their needs. Maybe we ought to follow His example.

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The Oregon School Shootings

There has been a lot said and written over the last few days about the latest school shooting in Oregon. Much of that discussion has focused on things like gun control and mental health, which is certainly appropriate. But in my opinion that focus fails to really get to the heart of the issue. I'd like to briefly address two of those root problems.

Much of the discussion that I've seen seems to be reluctant to acknowledge that we live in a world where evil exists. But that evil is not just limited to the limited handful of people who engage in such despicable acts. Each and every one of us has a heart problem that God described like this to the prophet Jeremiah:

The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?(Jeremiah 17:9 ESV)

Certainly there are individuals who suffer from mental illness, and I'm not suggesting that we don't need to do more to identify and treat these people. But at the same time, we need to acknowledge that we all suffer from spiritual illness that is due to our deceitful and desperately sick hearts. And since that is a spiritual problem, it requires a spiritual solution.

The Bible clearly identifies the only solution to our heart problem - faith in Jesus. But, unfortunately as a culture, we've rejected that remedy. Collectively, we've stuck a finger in God's face and told Him we'll do things our way rather than His. We've removed Jesus from our homes and our schools and our courtrooms. And we think that by blithely adding "God bless America" to the end of a speech, that is going to somehow make up for thumbing our noses at God. Given our unashamed disregard for God, the only real surprise is that we don't see many more of these kinds of events. I'm reminded of this warning of God to His people:

Then they will say, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD, the God of their fathers who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold on other gods and worshiped them and served them. Therefore he has brought all this disaster on them.’”(2 Chronicles 7:22 ESV)

The other issue that gives rise to these kinds of events is a blatant disregard for human life in our culture. As a culture, we not only fail to value the lives of our most vulnerable - the unborn and the aged - but we actually have large numbers of people who argue that it is a good thing to use our tax dollars to support an organization that kills and dismembers unborn children so that their body parts can be sold for a profit. That same disregard for human life carries over to television, movies, and especially video games, where large portions of our society have been desensitized to the taking of human life. So why should we be surprised when we produce people, mostly young men, who have absolutely no regard for human life and who therefore commit these horrific acts?

No laws or programs are going to solve this problem. The only long term solution is to return to God as a country. Earlier I quoted from 2 Chronicles 7. In that same chapter, we find the only remedy to these problems:

if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.(2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV)

Are you being part of the solution by praying to God for His mercy and by asking Him to turn our country from our wicked ways?

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The Pope's Visit

Now that Pope Francis’ visit is coming to an end, I wanted to take a moment to share a few observations:

1.      I am deeply concerned about what I term “Pope-mania” – which is really nothing more than the worship of a human being. The Bible is clear that no one other than God deserves our worship – not even an angel, alone another human. When John attempted to worship an angel who had made revelation to him, here is how the angel responded:

 “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” (Revelation 19:10 ESV)

I have no doubt that the Pope is a pious man, but like all the rest of us, he is a sinner in need of God’s grace. I can’t find one verse in Scripture that excludes the Pope when it claims that “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”.

(Note: Since I don’t want this post to turn into a book, I don’t have time to address the whole concept of the distinction between “clergy” and “laity”, which actually appears nowhere in the New Testament or the misunderstanding of Jesus’ words in Matthew 16:18 that is used wrongly, in my opinion, as justification for the establishment of the papacy in the first place.)

2.      Although many of His followers certainly wanted Him to, we have no evidence that Jesus ever attempted to influence the politics of His day. About His only foray into politics recorded in the Bible was to tell people to pay their taxes. When He spoke about things like taking care of the poor or meeting the needs of others, He addressed the religious leaders, not the political leaders.

For the most part, His disciples followed His example. When Paul appeared before Felix, Festus and Agrippa, he didn’t speak to them about their politics, he spoke to them about Jesus and the gospel.

My greatest disappointment with the Pope’s visit is that he had a great platform to share the gospel with a nation who certainly needs to hear about the hope that we can find in Jesus, but instead he used his influence almost exclusively for the purpose of trying to influence our nation’s politics.

3.      Finally, I find it very hypocritical that so many of our politicians of both parties who would be the first to cry “separation of church and state” as a convenient way to limit any influence of the Bible on our morals as a nation were so quick to embrace the Pope when his message suited their purposes. 

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My take on the Kim Davis situation

I’ve been reluctant to chime in on the whole Kim Davis situation – in large part because I’ve struggled personally to decide exactly what to think of this situation. And even after thinking and praying about this for a couple of weeks now, I will admit I still don’t have all the answers. Let me also acknowledge before I share my thoughts that I know that others who I respect greatly will disagree with some of my conclusions – I know that because I’ve read or heard some of them already. I’m OK with that because this is certainly one of those “gray areas” where we can disagree and still respect and love each other. I also want to apologize up front for the length of this post, but I couldn’t really find anything I could cut out and still make a coherent, comprehensive argument.

In the unlikely event that you don’t know who Kim Davis is, she is the Kentucky county clerk who has refused to issue marriage licenses to homosexual couples. Let me say first of all that I do admire Kim for standing up for her Biblical convictions. However, I do question whether the way she has chosen to do that is appropriate. Over the last few weeks, I’ve seen many people cite several Biblical texts to support Kim’s actions. The most commonly used passages seem to be the Hebrew midwives who refused Pharaoh’s order to kill the Hebrew males when they were born (Exodus 1), and Daniel and his three friends in Babylon. For the reasons I’ll expand on more in a moment, I’m not sure that any of these situations are actually as relevant to Mrs. Davis’ situation as some have claimed.

The Hebrew midwives were not government employees. They had not taken an oath that required them to carry out Pharaoh’s edicts. So it was certainly appropriate that as individuals, they chose to follow God and not Pharaoh.

What about Daniel and Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah – Daniel’s three friends that we all know better by their Babylonian names – Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego? When they petitioned the chief eunuch regarding the eating of foods that would have defiled them (Daniel 1), they were not government employees either. So once again their decision to follow God rather than man’s laws was appropriate and noble.

But by the time they are faced with a decision of whether or not to bow down to the image King Nebuchadnezzar had set up, they were government officials (Daniel 3). But when they failed to bow down to that image, they did that as individuals and not as government officials who had taken an oath to carry out the king’s commands. But even more important, they understood that their decision was going to subject them to the consequences imposed by the king and they willingly submitted themselves to the fiery furnace. They never claimed that as government officials they had the right to either compel or prevent others from following the law of the land.

Probably the closest parallel would be in Daniel 6. Daniel is clearly a government official here, but when the king issues an order to quit praying to his God, he refuses to submit to that order. I believe it is clear that Daniel made that decision as an individual, and not in his role as a government official. And he did that knowing that the consequence for his actions is that he would be thrown into the lion’s den, which by the way also meant he would lose his government job. Like his three friends, he never used his position as a government official to try and compel the decisions of other individuals. He just chose to obey God himself.

Kim Davis is an elected official who has taken an oath to carry out the law. She did not take an oath to merely carry out the laws with which she agrees. (As a side note, I agree there is a lot of hypocrisy among with those who claim that Mrs. Davis has an obligation to carry out the law, but who are quick to defend other elected officials who only enforce the laws with which they agree. But their hypocrisy is really irrelevant here).

While, like many others, I am deeply troubled by the fact that five unelected judges have effectively made a new law which overturns our country’s long history of upholding a Biblical model of marriage, the fact is that is now the law of the land regardless of what the Kentucky legislature or any other elected body has or has not done. So those who argue that she is right not to issue marriage licenses are essentially claiming that she is committing the lesser of two sins – i.e. that it would be a “worse sin” to “participate” in a homosexual marriage by issuing a marriage license than it would be to sin by violating the oath she has taken to uphold the law. The problem with that argument, in my view, is that I can’t find even one place in the Bible where we are instructed to choose between sins and pick the “lesser” one. So it seems to me that there must be a way for Mrs. Davis to act in a manner that would not require her to sin at all.

The recent Supreme Court decision does not require Mrs. Davis to directly participate in sin by entering into a homosexual marriage herself. That would certainly be much more akin to the Biblical examples I’ve cited in which people were commanded to personally engage in actions that violated God’s commands. And if she genuinely believes that by issuing marriage licenses to homosexual couples she would somehow be participating in evil (I would probably agree with her there), then she is entitled to resign her government position and avoid any sin whatsoever.

God never promised that following Him would be easy. Nor did He promise that following Him won’t mean that we have to make difficult decisions and even have to give up some things – like a job – in order to do that.

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