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Category: Church (Page 15 of 61)

Keep It Between Yourself and God

November 30, 2016 / / 0 Comments

oneheartwings“One man considers one day more sacred than another; another man considers every day alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. He who regards one day as special, does so to the Lord. He who eats meat, eats to the Lord, for he gives thanks to God; and he who abstains, does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God.” ~Romans 14:5-7

Paul tells the fractured house churches in Rome that each Christian or group of Christians should be fully convinced that the things they believe and practice are the right things in the eyes of God, but don’t you dare bind those things on other disciples who don’t feel the same way. If my brother or sister believes or practices something different from me, we assume he’s doing it to the Lord, she’s doing it before the Lord, they’re doing it in the presence of the Lord with a clear conscience. We assume that my sister with a different belief or a different practice is not believing or practicing arbitrarily. She’s not doing it with a bad attitude or with bad intentions. She’s doing it with careful study and serious prayer and reflection. And she’s fully convinced she’s doing the right thing. So everything’s fine, Paul says. Don’t judge her.

“For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord.” ~Romans 14:9

But what if we’re talking about a “salvation issue?” OK. You already know how I feel about the term “salvation issue.” Besides, in this Romans context, Paul never once categorizes the issues and practices in terms of saving or condemning anybody. “Disputable matters” seems to be almost anything about which Christians might argue. And, in Paul’s words, Christians should keep those beliefs and practices between themselves and God.

“As one who is in the Lord Jesus, I am fully convinced that nothing is unclean in itself.” ~Romans 14:14
“Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.” ~Romans 14:19
“Whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God.” ~Romans 14:22

Paul clearly identifies himself as one of the strong — he says it: “We who are strong!” But let’s notice that he doesn’t say the weak need to change their minds or their opinions or their practices. These Christians who disagree with him on church traditions and worship practices? He doesn’t call on them to change. In fact, Paul goes so far as to command them not to change their practices unless their minds are fully convinced.

Paul’s prayer is not that all the Christians in Rome come to the same opinion on these things. No. He’s praying that they may possess a unity of Spirit that transcends their differences.

Peace,

Allan

He Will Stand

November 29, 2016 / / 0 Comments

oneheartcross“Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man’s faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. The man who eats everything must not look down on him who does not, and the man who does not eat everything must not condemn the man who does, for God has accepted him. Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” ~Romans 14:1-4

Nobody looks down on anybody. Nobody condemns anybody. For God has accepted him. Accepted whom? Who has God accepted? This brother or sister who disagrees with me on a certain church tradition. This group of brothers and sisters who don’t see eye to eye with me on this matter of opinion. You’re not his master, Paul says. Who’s his master? Christ Jesus as Lord is his master. Not you. Whether he stands or falls is up to the Lord. Whether he’s right or wrong is up to the Lord. Paul says we can’t judge that.

And then Paul goes ahead and judges. Paul makes the call.

“He will stand, for the Lord is able to make him stand.” ~Romans 14:4

He’ll stand. He’s fine. Whether he agrees with you or not, whether y’all are on the same page or not, he’ll stand because he’s in Christ. So, you accept him because God accepts him. This is why Jesus died, Paul says later, for this very reason. Christ died and was raised so he could be the Lord over all this, and not you.

Peace,

Allan

Stop Saying “Salvation Issue”

November 28, 2016 / / 0 Comments

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“In matters of faith, unity; in matters of opinion, liberty; in all things, love.”

We’ve used the above Restoration slogan in the Churches of Christ for more than 200 years. We’ve quoted this little line as a guiding principle for a long time. It’s a creed, actually. And that’s OK. But it doesn’t really help much because what some people consider a trivial matter of opinion, others consider a non-negotiable matter of Christian faith. If you and I are arguing about something and the argument and the feelings are such that it’s dividing us and threatening to divide the body, then, of course, one or both of us believes with all hearts we’re dealing with a serious doctrinal matter.

And one or both of us will use the term “salvation issue” to either downplay or raise the status of our opinion.

“It doesn’t matter; it’s not a salvation issue.”

“We can’t budge on this; it’s a salvation issue.”

I’d like to make a bold and, maybe, scandalous proposal for all of us: Let’s stop using the term “salvation issue.” Let’s just stop saying it altogether. Let’s promise never to use that phrase in our debates about Kingdom matters.

When we get into discussions about “salvation issues,” we start ranking things in order of importance to God, in terms of what’s going to save us and what’s going to condemn us. We’ll bring up really important things like baptism and church and communion and worship, but we rarely talk about helping the poor or being kind to your neighbor or giving your money away which, the Bible says, are actually the weightier matters, the “salvation issues.” I would suggest they’re ALL salvation issues! Everything is a salvation issue. Whether a church has a kitchen or not is a salvation issue — not because a kitchen is right or wrong, but because of how you treat people who don’t feel the same way about it as you do.

“You folks who don’t have kitchens in your churches, grow up! You’re focused on the wrong things. It’s silly. You’re like the Pharisees. How backwards are you? When are you going to get serious about the Kingdom?”

“You folks with kitchens in your churches, I guess you’ll do anything. You see any kitchens in any churches in the New Testament? You let the culture decide everything in your church? We’re a little more serious about following Scripture than you are.”

See how kitchens at church is a salvation issue? Not the kitchen — but your heart, your attitude.

We need to stop saying “salvation issue” because we don’t do a good with it. We won’t fellowship a church because they sing different songs than we do or we won’t accept a group of Christians because they believe differently about baptism than we do, but we’re OK with lying to our customers or cheating on our spouses or ignoring the poor! We typically use the term “salvation issue” to categorize the issues I think are important and the issues we don’t think are important based on our own opinions and understandings. The salvation issue is your heart in all circumstances; the salvation issue is your attitude toward others in all things.

Here’s a link to something I wrote seven years ago on this subject that was prompted by a passage in Mere Christianity by C. S. Lewis. I’ll write much more about this through the week. I welcome your comments (click the comments link at the top of this post).

Peace,

Allan

Good to Be Reminded

November 13, 2016 / / 0 Comments

It is good for God’s people to be together today. It is good for us to be reminded, to remember together, to affirm together as one people that, yes, this world is being saved. This whole world is being redeemed and restored. Everything is being fixed. Not by politicians or platforms or parties. Not by power or force or money or threat. This world is not being saved by democracy or elections or the media. Salvation is being won by God’s love and mercy and grace. Reconciliation is happening through forgiveness and service and sacrifice. Our salvation and the salvation of the entire planet belongs only to our God through our risen and coming Lord Jesus.

“Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.
The Lord, the Lord, is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation.
Give thanks to the Lord, call on his name;
make known among the nations what he has done,
and proclaim that his name is exalted.
Sing to the Lord, for he has done glorious things;
let this be known to all the world.
Shout aloud and sing for joy, people of Zion,
for great is the Holy One of Israel among you.”
~Isaiah 12

It’s good to be reminded.

Peace,

Allan

The Communion of Saints

September 29, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“We believe in the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.” ~Apostles’ Creed

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The Scriptures make it very clear that if we are one with Christ we are also one with each other. Communion. Fellowship. Sharing. God through Christ restores us into a righteous relationship with him and then, out of that, into a deep and rich life together with one another.

“In Christ, we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” ~Romans 12:5

God brings us together in his Church and he puts us with people who bug us. He puts us in close proximity to people who irritate us. He puts us with sinful people who bother us and, at the same time, my sinfulness is bothering all those people. But it’s through these close relationships with people who are different from us that we’ll be sanctified. We’ll be made holy.

There are at least 59 times the New Testament uses the phrase “one another” or “each other” in describing how we’re supposed to live. In the Church. Plural. Us.

Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Live in harmony with one another. Accept one another as Christ accepted you. Instruct one another. When you come together to eat, wait for each other. Have equal concern for each other. Serve one another in love. Greet one another with a holy kiss (3x). Carry each other’s burdens. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Be kind and compassionate to one another. Forgive each other. Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. In humility, consider others better than yourselves. Bear with each other. Forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Teach one another. Admonish one another. Make you love increase and overflow for each other. Love each other (13x). Encourage each other (2x). Build each other up. Encourage one another (2x). Spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Confess your sins to each other. Pray for each other. Love one another deeply, from the heart. Live in harmony with one another. Offer hospitality to one another….

There are several more, but you get the idea. You can’t work all of that out just by showing up at the church building for an hour and a half on Sunday mornings. If your experience with God’s Church is nothing more than listening to a sermon and getting a crumb and a sip and see-you-next-Sunday, that is not the fullness of what God wants for you in Christ.

We need each other. We need that deep communion.

You need me. Whether you want to admit it or not, you need me. You need me to remind you of how much you are loved by our God. You need me to challenge you and stretch you. And I need you. I desperately need you to encourage me. I need you to keep me straight.

To be saved is not just to go to heaven when I die. Being saved means being in a new relationship with God and with fellow Christians in the community of God’s people right here and now. How can I know that the love and forgiveness of God in Christ are real if I don’t experience them in communion with God’s people? How can I be a Christian if I don’t participate in the life and work of the community gathered by God and empowered by his Spirit to share his love with others?

Whoever tries to do without Church tries to do without Christ. Whoever is too good or too “spiritual” for the Church — with all its faults and weaknesses — is too good or too “spiritual” for Jesus himself and the Father who sent him and the Holy Spirit who continues his salvation work.

The Church in all of its eternal glory, in all of its beauty and truth and power, is right in front of us. It’s right here, all around us. But we miss it. We miss it because we’re only looking at the surface and the immediate. We look at the Church like people started it and people are running it. We look at the Church and we evaluate it as if it were my church or even our church. We make judgments based on the narrowest and most self-centered of criteria.

You know, this is God’s Church. He started it and he’s running it. And he puts us all together just like he planned. God did this. He has arranged us, every one of us, just as he wanted us to be.

And these people… some I like more than others. Some of them I wouldn’t choose to be on a 5th grade kickball team. But if I invest my life together with these people, then by the grace of God he will transform us more and more into what we really are: the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.

Peace,

Allan

The Universal Church

September 28, 2016 / / 0 Comments

“We believe in the holy, universal Church, the communion of saints.” ~Apostles’ Creed

steepleThe early Church thought of themselves as a worldwide movement through a network of gatherings spread all over Palestine, Syria, Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. When Paul wrote his letter to the Corinthians, he called them one group among those “everywhere who call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ — their Lord and ours.”

We are one people — everybody equal, everybody the same — with all Christians everywhere. Universal. One. There are so many wonderful, glorious, Kingdom things happening in and through your church. But it’s so puny compared to what God is doing globally. His Church is growing in every part of the world today except in North America. God is right now today growing his Church; he is today adding to his Church. And we are united together with all of it. One of the reasons we want people to go on short term foreign mission trips and help them pay for it is so they can watch other people following Christ. To see different cultures, different languages, different customs — to see people so different from us worshiping our God and submitting to our crucified and resurrected Lord is profound. The Church of Jesus Christ is a universal Church — all believers for all time in every place forever. One universal Church.

You love your church? Good! I love mine, too! I want you to love your church! But we’re not in competition with anybody (well, except the devil; and he’s already lost). Praise God for our brothers and sisters in the Baptist and Methodist and Presbyterian churches all over our city! Praise God for the Christian churches throughout this country and around the world who are faithfully preaching and teaching and praying and serving and living together in the name and manner of Jesus!

They might have their faults. They might have their shortcomings. They might have their misinterpretations and questionable practices. And so do we! We’ve got ours by the buckets! We’re all in this together!

“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit — just as you were called to one hope when you were called — one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” ~Ephesians 4:3-6

And, I know, some of you are pushing back on this. “Don’t talk like there aren’t any boundaries. There have to be some boundaries. You can’t talk like everybody’s in.”

No, of course there are boundaries. If a somebody comes in saying that Jesus is not from God, that Jesus is not divine, he’s out! 1 John 4. If a guy comes in bragging about having sex with his step-mother, he’s out! 1 Corinthians 5. Believe me, the Bible gives us some lines. And we need to pay attention to them. But we don’t need to obsess over it. I mean, myself, if I’m not careful, I can go from zero to Pharisee in 2.9-seconds. But I will not draw any lines of fellowship between Christians that I can’t find in the Bible. I’m too conservative.

You know the disciples see these others casting out demons in Jesus’ name and they run to our Lord with their complaint: “Make them stop, they’re not one of us.” And Jesus responds, “Just because they’re not with you doesn’t mean they’re not with me.” Elsewhere our Lord says he has sheep who are not even from this pen. He says all those sheep will hear his voice and there will be one pen and one shepherd. Drawing those lines is above our pay grade.

When the Church is splintered into different factions, when the Church is divided into different denominations, when we draw lines between us because of our differences instead of tearing down the walls because of everything we have in common in Christ, what we’re saying to the world is that the Church is not holy and it’s not universal. We can no longer in good faith justify or excuse or explain away the sin of the divisions in God’s Church. Going along with the divisions, keeping our distance from other Christians in other churches, contradicts everything we say about one Lord, one Spirit, one faith, one baptism, and one God over all.

Peace,

Allan

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