Confession

Well I think I am going to take a break from the teaching mode and write about some other things. I do however have a confession to make. I found out that in my “Knowing God” post I made an error in something I wrote, I have since corrected it on my post. Although it was not an error of heresy, I was convicted to do a little bit better job in checking out what I write. For those of you wondering it was a statement about me not holding the view that one of the reasons Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac because he believed that God could raise him from the dead. Well, I was reading Hebrews yesterday and as it turns out that was probably one of the reasons for the Abraham’s willingness to take that step of faith. Although this did not change the content of my article, I felt the obligation to point out my error. Sorry I will do a better job in the future.

All that being said I think I am just going to write about some opinions and issues that I have had lately. I have recently found out that youtube.com can be very educational. I found full length sermons and old clips of political figures, (which is great because you can look back and hold them to what they say!). You can even take a stroll down memory lane be checking out some old 1980’s rock videos, ok that part is neither spiritual or educational, but I must admit I still like all that big hair guitar rock. I did however find something that troubled me. While I was searching out information about some good Bible teaching I ran across some that was not so good. I expected to find that, but what I didn’t expect to find is Bible teachers blasting each other about who is going to heaven and who is preaching heresy. Now I have my opinions about a couple of the big name mega church leaders. Therefore I did agree with some of the analysis about heretical statements coming from one or two of these guys. I was however more then a little discouraged by this, because of the volume of vitriol that some preachers would spew out towards others. I even found one guy lambasting Charles Spurgeon (Pastor from England that preached from around 1850 to the turn of the century.) I couldn’t believe I found that one but I guess you can’t please everyone! I found myself having the attitudes of judgment that I was seeing from some of these guys. I was convicted by the Holy Spirit about my short comings when it comes to compassion sometimes in my attempt to be right. Now for those that have read some of my stuff I am not someone who is loose with doctrine and I am not backing off from that one iota. However I am not always right and don’t always know all the proper information to make an informed decision about someone. So I guess the Lord allowed my to be convicted in my spirit to put a little more focus on brotherly love and achieve some balance in my walk with the Lord. That is part of the reason for not writing these last few weeks. Sometimes we need to reflect and evaluate where we are with the Lord, with our children, with our wives and with our brothers in Christ. I must admit that I did not like all that I saw, therefore I felt compelled to step off the bully pulpit for a little while and exercise a little humility, as well as fellowship with my brothers and more worshipping the Lord in spirit and truth.

All of this leads me to my overall point and that is the balance between rigid spiritless legalism and “spirit filled” charismatic  churches with no doctrine is harder then you think it is. Depending on your background we seem to want to swing one way or the other. Whichever side you tend to end up on it is fruitless both ways. The balancing act is impossible without the Holy Spirit leading and giving the ability to understand sound doctrine in the Holy Word. When I am leading my own life I tend to get rigid spiritless and legalist. So I guess a little spirit filled charismatic expression might not kill me after all. I’m sure glad the Lord will get rid of all my rebellion when I get home. I would however like to get as close to him as I can while I’m here. This life we live in Christ is hard sometimes, but it sure beats the alternative don’t you think? 

Church of Children

A friend of mine posted a blog that he read about the feminization of the church. Now we have heard of the society at large being feminized, a lot of talk radio most notably Rush Limbaugh have talked about this topic frequently, but I have not heard a lot of commentary on the church being feminized. However, I concur with the evaluation about the church. I think this issue creates a twofold problem. First of all if the church is geared towards things that are important to women outside of women’s groups that church must choose to move away from things more masculine. That creates a leadership void that women step into and therefore created problems in how a church is supposed to be run. The second I believe to be intended consequences of this is men who are never challenged to become the men God wants them to become. Essentially we get a church filled with women acting like men and men acting like children. You might wonder why I said men act like children? Well, I don’t think a Christian man will totally take on feminine characteristics even if his wife is a type A take charge personality. Therefore I don’t think what we have is a total reversal of roles, although sometimes I wonder! Before I continue I don’t think the church’s issues are the fault of women taking over it is the fault of men not fulfilling their roles. (Another one of my disclaimers to make sure I am not misunderstood!) What I think happens is men find their worth apart from the roles in the home, church and the heavy lifting of ministry, and instead find them in their leisure time. How many guys have motorcycles, trucks, watch ESPN, go golfing, etc. I am not saying that these things are in and of themselves bad because I do all these things (except the golfing I just added that because I think other people do.) What I am saying is that a live filled with these things in an effort to hide from your wife, kids, or the hard work of what God is calling you to do is childlike. Let’s be honest hear all of these things are toys and entertainment and a live focused on those things is the life that you had when you were a child. It is repulsive to see a man with a ton of high priced toys that is afraid of his wife and a Bible that has never been taken off the shelf. It is just as bad however to see a man going to all of the programs at church and going through the motions but only his wife is really excited to be there. I must admit that I have been less then thrilled to go to men’s fellowships at churches. They really have turned into female chat sessions, we never DO anything we just talk about stuff. It is like stepping into an episode of the view that is masquerading as a deep men’s study. Look I am not saying that there is a bunch of heresy being preached everywhere (although you do have to be careful about that.) What I mean is that it is an inch deep and a mile wide, anybody tried to fish in a lake that is an inch deep, not much good is it. That has become the church to men, not much good but they go because there wife wants them to.