Parsons Ponderings

Living without compromise in a tolerance overload

2011-12-09T14:08:00.001-08:00

Living without compromise is a rare and dying bread of character in today's age of tolerance and relativity. The church today is in an identity crisis spurred on by a diminished view of scripture and an increasing infatuation with the apparent prosperity this hedonistic world offers. The evidence of this is most often displayed in the body's apathy towards biblical truth. This lack of militancy towards defending truth has relegated Christianity to an antiquated piece of furniture that is so dilapidated that it is useless. This is not the first time in Christian history that we find God's people in such a state. Historically, we know, more often than not, that Israel found itself assimilating into the culture around it rather than impacting that culture. One of those periods that stands out above the rest is the Babylonian captivity were God chooses to focus our attention on four young men through the book of Daniel. The people of Israel had compromised their faith in order to get along with the heathen nations surrounding them. The church today, like Israel, is showing signs of assimilating a worldly view with a biblical view so as to embrace a form of godliness but denying the power thereof.

     Consider the biblical case study of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. They were in prominent positions of leadership under a God rejecting King. They were called to bow to a statue showing complete allegiance to the King by worshipping the image. The King most likely had religious and political motivations for doing this due to the multiplicity of ethnic and religious backgrounds in his administration. Whatever the motivation of the King, the challenge came to the young leaders to either compromise their faith or die.
The average posturing of today's Christian is rationalizing to justify compromise. The response of the average believer today facing this dilemma would be some thing like these commonly expressed sentiments.
"Bow the knee, every one else is doing it",
"Bow the knee first, ask forgiveness later"
"Bow the knee, God would not expect me to sacrifice my life"
"Bow the knee, as long as I don't truly mean it in my heart"
"Bow the knee, God does not want us to be unhappy"
"Bow the knee, live to fight another day"
Compare these to Shadrach, Meschach,and Abed-nego response
"We are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand , O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou has set up." Daniel 3:16-18
     There are a million different reasons (utilitarian ethic) these faithful servants of God could have logically embraced averting the fiery furnace of death. Why did they not bow the knee? There can only be two biblical reasons these men would not compromise: 1) They had a deep conviction that the word of God was to be obeyed at all cost 2) They had pleasing God as their number one priority which regulated the exercise of all decision making.
The absence of conviction, and the ever present readiness to sell our beliefs to the highest bidder leave the church starving for substance, for direction, for an anchor to the soul. Do you have a faith of Conviction, Preference, or Convenience; What are you willing to die for?

Sounding the Trumpet

2011-11-16T14:28:00.001-08:00

Imagine the warriors back in the fortress after a hard fought battle finding a few moments of shut eye before the next campaign. Shut eye is only possible due to the diligence of the watchman on the walls of the fortress. He knows his job is to detect danger and warn the citizens of the walled city. Now imagine all the other sounds that may be taking place in the walled city, sounds of children playing, voices shouting in the market place, people arguing. These sounds become a part of the cacophony of sounds blending in as one melodic escort into slumber for the weary soldier. The ability to rest is found in trusting the watchman to sound the warning cry if evil and danger were to show its menacing face. What a tragedy for the citizens and the hard fighting soldiers to have the watchmen fail to heed the warning. Pastors like the watchman are to be warning the sheep of the dangers outside of the walls of the church family and making sure that the evil of the world is not penetrating the family of God. Ezekiel the prophet rebukes the priest (the Old Testament pastor) for not making a difference between that which was holy and that which was profane.

Ezekiel 22:26,28 ²⁶ Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. ²⁸ And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord God, when the Lord hath not spoken.

There is in American Christianity a loud cry to stop preaching application of the word to this present culture. Much of American Christianity decries this as legalistic, traditional, playing the Holy Spirit, and going beyond what the bible has to say. So the question remains are pastors to preach application of the word of God to the present cultural norms of the day? Do pastors prescribe standards of holy living based upon the application of God’s word?

Nehemiah 8:8 So they read in the book in the law of God distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading.

Hebrews 5:14 But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

The scriptures are clear that the responsibility of the pastor is to give the application of the word of God to the people. To not do so is to fail in being a faithful shepherd. The scriptures are also clear that the people in the last days will not accept this kind of preaching.

2 Timothy 4:3–4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; ⁴ And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.

He that has ears to hear let him hear.

Parsons Ponderings: Walking a mile in Paul's shoes

2011-11-09T05:20:00.000-08:00

Parsons Ponderings: Walking a mile in Paul's shoes: The book of Acts is full of climactic events narrating the birth of the Church. Paul enters into the picture and much of the Book from this ...

Walking a mile in Paul's shoes

2011-11-08T09:16:00.001-08:00

The book of Acts is full of climactic events narrating the birth of the Church. Paul enters into the picture and much of the Book from this point on revolves around him. This being true one would expect that the last documentation of Paul's life in Acts 28:11-31 to be another one of those climactic events. What ones finds is just the opposite, it is a rather anticlimactic narration of Paul's last two years of his life. The author Luke takes us through a journey from the Island of Melita to the longed for destination of Rome. The striking part of this narration is the rather exhaustive account Luke gives of rather mundane events. He gives the details of the Ship they sailed on, the ports they entered into, the brethren that came to meet him, the fact that he rented a house in Rome, and that he had house guest for the two years of his house arrest. All this to say what?
When believers are in the mundane of their life they would do well to remember this account of Paul's life. The point of this narration is that in the mundane of life there is still the need to run the race set before us. The race is a marathon not a sprint, and as those who have run the marathon know well, it is not the finish line that is at the forefront of ones mind it is the next step. Paul in this mundane found ways to impact people for Christ and to be impacted for Christ. He found believers in each port, believers traveled 45 miles to greet him on his way to Rome and he received encouragement from them, after three days of getting moved into his place of residence he opened his house for the cause of impacting Jews and Gentiles for Christ. Paul for the span of two years kept on doing what he always did, impacted people for Christ. In the climaxes of life and the mundane of life Paul kept his focus on the next step and therefor could with confidence declare "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing." II Tim 4:7,8. Paul calls upon the believer to follow him as he follows Christ. When we serve Christ in the moment we are not overwhelmed by the life time. The mundane of the believer giving systematically to the Lords work is highlighted in the fact that Paul was able to rent his house for two years without any personal income. Walking a mile in Paul's shoes requires a moment by moment commitment to impacting others positively for Christ in the mundane and in the climaxes of life.

DEAD MEN WALKING

2011-11-02T10:19:00.000-07:00

The study of anthropology through the scriptures gives a picture of man with which most would not be comfortable. The scriptures declare that "there are none righteous, no not one", that there is "none that do good". This intuitively does not resonate with the general experiences of man. Yes, all will attest that there is evil in the collective gene pool of mankind, but is there not also good? The experiences of philanthrophy, self-sacrifice, honor, love, heroism... abound beyond the christian society. Paul's description, (under the control of the Holy Spirit-- therefore, God's description) in Romans 3 attests that man is full of evil and death "Their throat is an open grave; with their tongues they have used deciet; the poison of asps is under thier lips: Their feet are swift to shed blood: Destruction and misery are in their ways:" Romans 3:13-16. Now imagine a dear, sweet granny rocking in her rocker beside the fireplace with knitting in her hand as she labors to create a woolen master piece for the underprivileged of her community. Now, imagine that she does not believe she has a need for Christ and his sacrificial death. Is the work she has done void of good just because she has not accepted Christ? No! In fact it was never good in the first place for the motive in doing so was tainted by the dead spirit inside. The good acts by unregenerate mankind have relational (man to man), and temporal earthly benefit but are simply a stealth display of their own wickedness. They are acts done to manipulate life to be beneficial to themselves. We will never see the grandeur of God's goodness until we see the gravity of our own wickedness. The description of ourselves without God as given in scripture must be accepted as absolutely accurate even though intuitively we reject it. When this is embraced, mankind sees himself in need of a Savior, and the Christian sees himself in need of a Father's guidance. When the Christian rejects this horrific description of himself he does so to the end that he carelessly revives the old man who can only produce death. He becomes a DEAD MAN WALKING. Death has replaced fellowship with Christ. Mankind rejecting this horrific description of himself does so to his own eternal damnation. They are the spiritually DEAD MEN WALKING.The Christian's rejection causes him to not fear the sin nature within him, and consequently loses sight of his desperate daily need of God's empowering. Mankind's rejection of this description of himself causes him to continue to walk in self deception blinding him from ever seeing his need of the true Savior. God help us to see as You see !

God's Creation Order

2011-10-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

When reading the creation account, one is struck by the systematic order by which God brought into existence that which was out of nothing. God is God, and being God, He could have created all that exists instantly with one command. God did not do this, but rather in purposeful order created all that exists through a period of what He declared to be days (for time was not a reality before this). There are those who would challenge the idea that these are literal 24 hour days. On what grounds do they challenge this? On the grounds that this does not agree with their scientific conclusions. They operate from the fallible (observable science) to the infallible (God's impeccability) as revealed in His inerrant word. They do this at their own demise, for in embracing this fallacy they miss a wonderful message from God Himself. What is that message? God's purpose in the created order is to give man a model to order his own life. Day means nothing in the mind of the eternal God but day means everything in the existence of man. Without the measurement of days man would be at an utter loss as to how to organize his life and the society of which he lives. Without the concept of rest, man would have no basis point for which to regulate his energy. He would then randomly exhaust himself, rest and then randomly exhaust himself again. He would have no gauge for which to regulate time and energy. This truth is evident when people are put into isolation lock down in prison. When they are isolated from the natural cycle of the 24 hour day they become disoriented, unmotivated. God in His creation order was setting the earth up as a pattern for orderly management of the stewardship He gave man. God does all things for a purpose, not out of random arbitrary expressions of his attributes. All creation is to His glory, and for our good. God is a personal God who lovingly communicates his care for us in His created order. Gen 1-2