Thoughts From Romans 14 - Part 2

  One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.

            As we discuss debatable issues, if we're asking, "Is it OK?", we're probably asking the wrong question. Paul talks about doing things "to the Lord" in this passage which means to me, the question we should be asking is does this glorify You, Lord?"

           Let's take two holidays Christmas and Halloween. We discussed Santa recently but if I ask the question "is it OK to put up Santa decorations?" and "Does it glorify God to put up Santa decorations?", I get two different answers. It's not a sin to celebrate Santa Claus but celebrating him does nothing to, in fact detracts from lifting up the incarnation of God, the real reason for the holiday. What about trick or treating? If we ask those two questions, in my opinion we get the same answer - yes. There is nothing against going door to door with your little kids dressed up like superheroes or princesses and it glorifies God spending time with your kids and meeting neighbors. A different issue would be decorating with witches, skeletons, etc. You could ask those two questions and also get the same answer - no.

       This is the second rule for debatable issues - ask those two questions and if the answer is yes, then go for it. What's the first rule? If your brother or sister asked those questions and came up with a different conclusion than you, let God grow them. Or maybe you came up with the wrong answer. Look further into the issue and make sure your heart isn't hardened in this area. As a kid, Wizard of Oz showed once a year and it was always Sunday nights - church night. I remember asking my Dad if I could miss church just this once and he told me to go in the bedroom, get on my knees and pray about it. After several minutes I came out and said, "God says I can skip church just this one time." My Dad didn't say, "No He didn't!", but he let me stay home from church. He was allowing me to make the wrong decision on a debatable issue (morning AND evening church) because he was growing me to stand. It's complicated but we will keep exploring this issue.

Thoughts From Romans 14 - Part 1

  Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

            I feel like our 4 kids could match up to any 4 kids raised by Christian parents in the world. I know I am a little biased, but I think my wife and I did a great job raising these kids. I'm pretty sure our kids think that they turned out pretty wonderful, also, and that's why it never ceases to amaze me, as they raise their 11 kids, that they don't do it exactly like we did. Obviously, they think, with their insider information, that they know better than us! One thing that we have learned is not to tell them where they are deviating from our way and where they are going wrong. Oh boy, that does not go over well. The interesting thing, the older I get and can observe the outcomes of parenting techniques or say schooling choices that I was sure were the best and only way to get the optimal outcomes, may not be the only way. There may be other legitimate schools of thought that work.

         Paul is kind of saying the same thing here - God is raising children. Our spiritual progression from baby to adulthood, although the older I get I wonder if I'll ever reach spiritual adulthood, has been overseen by a loving parent who is determined to see us stand on our own two feet and reach maturity. The interesting thing about God is that he isn't bound to a singular parenting style - he individualizes it. Imagine if we decided everyone goes to bed at 9 except one child, who functions better on less sleep, gets to stay up till 11. Pandemonium would have ensued! "That's not fair!" "Why does he get to stay up and we don't!" God isn't bound to that. He raises everyone as He sees fit.

         There is the rub because we as Children of God see other children being raised in different manners with different rules and we don't get it. But God is individualizing because He knows what it's going to take to bring that person to maturity. The problem is that there is a difference between parenting rules regarding bedtime and parenting rules regarding letting their kids drive without a license. One is a matter of opinion, and one is wrong and we may be obligated to step in and say something. This is the problem that we find ourselves with in the body. We are obligated to step in when we see going off the path into sin, but we just need to know and be sure of where the line has been crossed from not doing and seeing things our way to legitimately getting off the unique plan God has for them.

        This isn't easy and takes much wisdom and Paul is going to give us some more pointers throughout the rest of this passage. The takeaway today? God isn't interested in producing your clone. Give Him and your brother and sister freedom to grow in a different way than you did.

Thoughts From Romans 13 - Part 3

  And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. 13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. 14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the flesh.

             It's interesting at the hospital, that throughout the corridors there are mounted on the ceilings closed circuit cameras. Those cameras are all wired to or sent wirelessly to a central security room somewhere in the hospital where I would imagine that some security guard is watching you. Now I'm not sure how much trouble one can get into in the halls of the hospital, but if they were watching over the years, they could have seen me slip and fall on wet flooring multiple times and most recently walk into a wall playing Pokemon Go. The cameras would catch my life's bloopers, but they wouldn't catch my sins. Why? Because I know they're there and watching me.

           Last blog I looked at the motivation behind truly loving people is to love God more than anything. To be accepted and loved by God should tear down the idols in our life that keep us from pure love for others. This passage tells us that if there is part of us that is still gratifying and living for self, and there always is, picture those divine ceiling cameras.

        My least favorite Christmas song is probably "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" because it replaces the eyes of Heaven on you with Santa Claus' eyes seeing if you are sleeping, awake, being bad or being good. I have over 40 inflatables in my yard, no HOA rules, and none include Santa. I'm not opposed to Santa - well maybe I am. He takes away the focus from Jesus and is even given divine attributes. Other people can celebrate and promote him, like Kirk Cameron (my hero), but I won't.

       I'm reminded of a story told by Francis Chan. He and his wife took their godly grandmother to a Broadway play and at intermission she asked to go home because if Jesus came back, she didn't want Him to find her at the theater. While this might be a tad over-sensitive, maybe not, we have to ask ourselves, if the eyes of Heaven are on us and Jesus may come back at any moment (it's 2000 years closer than when Paul wrote), shouldn't that affect our behavior? If Santa Claus sees your actions 24/7, how much more God? Live right!

Thoughts From Romans 13 - Part 2

... whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. Rom. 13:8-10

             "Do not covet" is the 10th commandment because it's the "etc." commandment. Paul talks about it in Chapter 7 and Jesus discusses it in the Sermon on the Mount. Paul as a Pharisee was a strict "law obeyor", but when he read "Thou shall not covet" it tore at him from the inside. All the other laws are somewhat doable like don't murder, don't steal, don't commit adultery, but don't covet gets at your heart. How do you stop wanting what others have?

       We addressed it a bit when we talked about the difficulty of rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn, that it's hard to truly rejoice when you're coveting that they were blessed and mourn when you're kind of glad when they are brought down to your level as you are coveting their success. How do we truly love like Paul says here in Romans 13 when our self-centered hearts are prone to covet?

     When I think about the other commands, I would guess the other non-doable one is "don't worship idols". We are to worship God and nothing else. How easy it is to take a good thing like family, security, pleasure, possessions and make it the ultimate thing. Jesus said the two greatest commands are to love God first and then love your neighbor. Maybe the secret to obeying the second, which Paul is discussing in these verses, is to obey the first. If we truly love God and demonstrate that by making Him the ultimate thing rather than idols, we probably wouldn't have anything to covet and address the heart issue that makes it so hard to love.

     If we truly love God with all of our heart soul mind and strength, then we are free to love our neighbor as we should. Are you coveting something your neighbor has? Why? Is there an idol in your life that needs to be exposed? Let's let these 3 things be idol "diagnosticators"; coveting, problems rejoicing with, and problems mourning with.

Thoughts From Romans 13 - Part 1

  Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. Rom.13:7,8

         These are the go-to verses people use for debt free living. I will agree, it's good to pay cash for everything if you can. I just heard that if you buy a $450,000 house on a 30-year mortgage at 6.75% interest rate, over the 30 years you will have paid 1 million dollars to own that house. No wonder first time age of ownership of houses has skyrocketed from 29 years old to 45 years old. Trump is now proposing a 50-year mortgage which would change the previous bank payment from $550k to $1 million. If nothing else, that is bad stewardship of the money God has entrusted you to manage. If Marty on Ozark did this, he would lose his eyes. Fortunately, God is merciful to us dummies, but he might start giving His resources to better stewards to manage.

        Is this passage really forbidding taking out loans, though. The word outstanding in "let no debt remain outstanding", to me seems to say, if you have taken out a loan, don't miss your monthly payments. If you are renting, the landlord deserves his monthly checks. If you have workers, they deserve their wages on time. This is part of Christian integrity. It's part of being responsible, trust-worthy people that reflect well on Christ and don't allow people to say, "If that's a Christian, I don't want to be one."

      The one debt he says that has no 15, 30, 50- year end is the debt we owe others to love them. We owe people love. God gave us an unbelievable amount of love by sending His son Jesus to die for us and He is telling us that we are to do likewise. We owe a debt of love to God and He expects us to pay it back by loving others and it's such a huge amount that it will take our whole lives to give it back.

       We as humans are owed very little. We don't deserve health care, education, retirement, life liberty the pursuit of happiness - the only thing I believe we deserve is judgement for our sins. But God, rich in mercy, sent Jesus to take what we are owed. Now, we owe it to others to serve them. For example, as a doctor, if someone comes in thinking "I deserve medical care" they will be demanding unthankful and usually unsatisfied. This is also seen in the midst of the government shutdown as people aren't receiving their food stamps. One eighth of Americans feel they are owed these and are angry they aren't getting them. As a Christian doctor, I owe people health care, it comes from me. If people think they don't deserve it but I out of love am giving it to them, what a difference in attitude that makes. If people would think that they aren't owed food stamps but we as Christians owe the poor food and we feed them, what a change in attitude!

       Let's dedicate our lives to meeting the needs of others and sometimes to do that we should have less debt to free up more of God's resources to redirect.

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Part 7

 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everyone. 18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. 19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: “It is mine to avenge; I will repay,” says the Lord. 20 On the contrary:

“If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
    if he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. 2 Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. 3 For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right and you will be commended. 4 For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. 5 Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience. 6 This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing.  Rom. 12:17- 13:6

          As a Tennessee Vols fan, over the years there have been a handful of games that have been decided by an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Just when you thought you were going to get the ball back because you stopped them on third down, your defender pushes, punches, makes a hit out of bounds and it's game over. The coach and the fans don't care that the ref didn't see the first hit or that he was trying to stick his finger in your eye, all that matters is you retaliated, got caught, and cost us the game. Paul says, this is what happens when you return evil for evil. No matter how justified you might think you are, you are the one that always looks bad.

         There are people that are allowed to meet out justice, which can look evil, but those are people who God has granted authority to - like police, the King, even Church leaders who might excommunicate. God, who judges the Earth is the ultimate dealer of dire consequences. That's why people accuse Him of being evil and not merciful because He is the separator of the sheep from the goats, the wheat from the tares, the fish in the nets. God is just and always right. He sees the first blow, so we don't have to give the second blow. He doesn't miss anything.

        You should be glad God is a judge. Because of that, we don't have to go through life defending our honor but love and forgive people like Jesus did. Otherwise, you go through life like Donald Trump getting even with everyone who has come up against him, hating his enemies rather than forgiving them like Charlie Kirk's wife. Which one do you want to be like? As much as I have appreciated how Trump has stood for the unborn, brought rationality to the gender issues, stood for suffering Christians in Nigeria, been a friend to the Jews, tried to bring peace to warring nations, his personal rhetoric has brought division to our nation worse than I have ever witnessed in my lifetime. You might say, "But isn't he the authority you just mentioned?" and you would be somewhat right. He does deserve deference because of his position, and he does "wield the sword".

           Here's the problem as I see it. Have you ever seen a team take on the personality of the coach? It happens all the time. The USA has a "coach", an authority figure over us who belittles people he doesn't like, dismissing them, degrading them, making up derogatory nicknames so our country does the same thing. If anyone disagrees with him, he marginalizes them and calls them stupid, and the left and the right do that to each other. Authorities still need to live lives under the authority of God and His rules for personal conduct, but Trump acts like he is the ultimate authority, and this is where he fails and he is failing us.

        Lest we pick on him and deflect the message God is giving to us, may we not be accused of hateful, vengeful, angry, plotting behavior, but rather be accused of love, forgiveness, meekness, humility, being good citizens submitting to those placed in authority above us. Let God defend you against injustices, and there will be many. He will, maybe not in this life but for sure in the life to come.

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Part 6

 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.  Rom. 12:15,16

          It's pretty easy to mourn with those who mourn. A bad diagnosis, a death in the family, a layoff at work, a divorce, the 1st Baptist prayer request list goes on and on (although a divorce may be an unspoken request) We wouldn't want any of that to happen to us or our loved ones, so we can easily mourn at best and sympathize or empathize at least. Sending cards, praying for, setting up food chains for or even just texting prayer hand emojis or phone calls saying, "I'm praying for you" or "how can I help?", are legitimate gestures to those mourning. The only fake morning that we might struggle with are when we dislike or are envious of a person and we somewhat gloat and think to ourselves, "I warned them that might happen and they wouldn't listen" or "they got what they deserve" or some kind of vindication of you or your way of managing life is shown to be superior.

        Those are rare cases where we can't mourn and indicate people that we need to learn to love and need to work better at living in harmony with. Paul uses "one another" which means that most of these people that we have hidden dislike for are in the church. As I invent circumstances I would not mourn over in my head, I would concur that most are believers that I have friction with. Unbelievers don't really bother me that much because they are behaving according to their center and don't know better. Also, I know that they will be judged someday and I wouldn't want to be in their shoes. I know I need to do better with believers. Lord help me!

       The other command is to rejoice with those who rejoice. This can be tougher because of our love of self. Someone gets an award. Yay! (Why didn't I get recognized?) Someone's child got engaged or pregnant! Yay! (why is mine struggling with singleness or infertility?) Someone got a huge promotion. Yay! (why did I get passed over again?) Paul says "don't be conceited" or don't think you are better than or more important than someone else. You aren't! Remember, you are just a cog in a wheel that is rolling the Kingdom of God bus. A fellow worker for the kingdom. If one of your fellow cogs gets polished, we should just be happy for them. As fellow servants, it's not like they became a master, they are just a servant who got a new cloak or extra dessert. We have a wrong view of the body which leads to jealousy. We have a wrong view of self which leads to a lack of true rejoicing.

        May God work on our hearts to not think of ourselves more highly than we ought and begin to forgive people who have hurt our inflated ego so that we can truly mourn and rejoice with one another.