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.

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Part 5

  Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.  Rom.12:11-13

           Are you on fire for Jesus? Have there been times in your life where all you could think about was the Lord? My guess is that most of us have experienced that in our lives either on a mission trip or going on a youth retreat or maybe right around the time of your salvation. Unfortunately, the passion or zeal wanes over time. Why is that?

         I think it's a little like love. You meet a person of the opposite sex, you have a memorable date with them, and you can't wait until you see them again. You start talking to them on the phone for hours, even fall asleep at night talking. When you are around your friends you show them his or her pictures and you are present, but your mind is elsewhere. You get married eventually and you start having kids, taking care of a house, working a job to pay the bills and when you see the love of your life it almost has become a joint partnership in fighting life together. The passion is gone or at least on a "back burner" waiting for a vacation with just the two of you. Isn't this what happens with our passion for Jesus? So many things take up our time and life that our relationship with Jesus gets put on hold waiting for a revival conference or retreat to reignite it.

        Paul gives some hints in this passage on how to keep the flame going and it could be summarized with these two words - prayer and fellowship, or if you want to make it one theme - pray with fellow believers. I would have to say that when I was going my strongest in the Lord, I met with guys before work and prayed with them. We would spend a good half hour on our knees before the day started and pray and the next day before prayer, we would share the "God things" that we saw as a result of our prayers the previous day.

        What, not a 7-step plan to keep your flame burning for the Lord? Nope, just one. Find a fellow believer and meet with them for prayer every day, if you can. It works!

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Part 4

  Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Rom. 12:9,10

        When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He replied a two-part answer, to love God and love your neighbor, but if we want a "bullet point" it would be to love. Paul delves into this command briefly in verses 9 and 10. First of all Paul says, "love must be sincere." In other words, no hypocritical or faked love. This season, 49, of Survivor has a lot of that. Teammates will say how much they love the person, are on their side, want to make it to the end with them but as soon as they are away from them, they confess to the camera their disdain for the person and how they can't wait to vote them out. Drawing an inference, what would be the motivation for insincere love? We are insincere because the relationship is benefitting us, so we stoke it for our gain.

        Paul says true love isn't for our gain but the other person's benefit. Therefore, we are devoted to them which implies some sacrifice and commitment on our part. It also suggests that we don't give up on them when they disappoint us but rather are in it with them through thick and thin. It also honors them above ourselves so we are more concerned about their flourishing than our own. If you can find friends like that in life, you are blessed because most people's love is insincere.

       The first part of Jesus' great commandments, I am dealing with second. It is to Love God. Paul addresses this in verses 9 when he says, "Hate what is evil and cling to what is good." Jesus said, "If you love me, you will obey my commandments." As Paul has said time and again in Romans, our love for God WILL manifest itself in our behavior. Jesus said, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." We must hate the mindset and system of this world, and cling tightly to the teachings of the Bible even if they go against every longing of our sinful self and every championing by those who don't know Christ. This is true love for Christ not insincere, fake love which so many so-called "Christians" have.

      How is your love life? Do you have real love for God demonstrated by your obedience? Do you have real love for others demonstrated by selflessness? These are marks of true believers.

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Part 3

  For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. 4 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. 6 We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; 7 if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; 8 if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully. Rom. 12:3-8

            As a Christian, what is your (my) proper view of yourself? I certainly have a sense that I am a VIP. I'm a child of the king and creator of everything who is going to live forever in Heaven and just visiting the planet Earth for a short time. Therefore, I should have a sense of worth that supersedes whatever my status is on Earth and the value placed on me by others in regard to that status. If I have a low paying, low status job, my self-worth should not be low because of it. If I have a high status, high paying job, my self-worth should not be influenced by that.

       Paul in this passage then deals with our proper view of ourselves when we enter into the fellowship of believers which happens when we are saved. In this world there always is a hierarchy whatever group you belong to. In school, there are the jocks and cool girls working its way down to the, well you get the drift. We are watching a medical show, The Pitt, which deals with an Emergency Room. One thing is clear from the start, there is a hierarchy in the ER and people are treated accordingly that work there and the patients are treated according to their perceived worth.

     In the Church, there is no hierarchy as to worth. Yes, there is a chain of authority and command to help it function properly, but people in charge like pastors, elders, deacons all have the same worth in the body. They should not think they are better than or more necessary than or more valuable than the doorkeeper. We are all parts of the body necessary for bodily function. (that sounded like a bathroom experience) We are all cogs in a wheel that are all needed for it to roll properly.

     If you find a person in the church that emanates an air of superiority, and you will, pray for that person. I would say confront but that's difficult because you may be wrongly judging them, too. Anyway, make sure that isn't you!

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Day 2

  Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom. 12:2

         So much of Romans is about living a life pleasing to God. If we are really Christians, that should be our number one goal in life. The Baptists would say, no, it's witnessing. But witnessing is a way we please God. Others would say loving our neighbors. Yes, but loving our neighbors is a way we please God. Did I wake up this morning thinking, "How can I please God today?" No, but I should have.

       So how do I figure out what pleases God today? First of all, I could start by asking Him, "Show me what pleases you today, open my eyes to see it and help me to be obedient to it even if it goes against my natural inclinations. My goal is to please You today." Second, read His word and see if there is something He is telling you. Lastly, Paul would say in this verse, analyze in what area of my life am I conforming to the pattern of the world?

        What is the pattern of the world? My dad would have said, "Get all you can and can all you get," meaning accruing possessions or wealth that isn't going to last. Maybe we should think about who could I give money to today? As I look in the mirror and see aging and gravity, maybe the pattern of this world is keeping up with those who are paraded before us as looking so much better than us. How much time do we spend on our bodies that Peter describes as tents? My skin is starting to look like canvas! We are going to get new bodies, stop wasting so much time! The pattern of this world is self-gratification. What will make me happy today? I just saw it in a TV show yesterday. A person wrestling with life was told to "Just find out what makes you happy." How about finding out what makes someone else happy today?

      I want to make God happy today. How about you?

You Do Believe in the Bible, You Just Don't Realize It

           When I argue against an issue in society, like abortion, I try not to use the Bible because I realize not everyone accepts the Bible as a valid universal source of morality. They could say, "well, I don't believe the Bible", therefore I try to reason from knowledge or common sense. Lately, I'm rethinking this strategy a little after reading The Air We Breathe by Glen Scrivener, which makes the point that no matter how much people protest the influence of the Bible in regard to morality, they are living by and adhering to the Bible without realizing it. Let me explain from his writings.(I'm not going to footnote, etc. Just assume none of these thoughts belong to me but all come from The Air We Breathe)

  EQUALITY

         You probably believe in equality of people. Where did you get that belief? Is it just common sense or intuitive? Actually, it's not. Back in 300-400BC, Aristotle and Plato taught the philosophy of natural inequality; nature herself taught that some were fitter, stronger, smarter, and frankly, better than others. There were superior races, sexes, and classes. How could anyone deny some people can govern well while others need governing. It was obvious that certain humans were born to be "living tools"; machines to be used by others. Justice was superiors ruling over you - that's what nature decreed and those most in tune with reason could see that. Even before Aristotle and Plato, ancient creation myths of man from Babylonians to Mesopotamians, to Greeks, all had a common theme and that was that man was made out of bloodshed to be slaves to the gods.

        Is that what we believe today? You can just look at the reaction to CoVid in 2020 not just here but worldwide to see that our views have changed. CoVid 19 selectively killed the elderly, sickly, obese, immunocompromised who in pre-Christian era would have been considered lesser human beings. Yet, we and other nations effectively shut down our whole lives to protect those people who we deemed as equal in value to ourselves and were appalled by any suggestion to the contrary. What has caused this radical shift in our view of equality of mankind?

       Human equality, human rights, and humanism can trace their sources back to the Biblical root that our inherent value is that we are made in the image of God. If we feel that life is sacred, that every person possesses dignity and equality, and that no one deserves to be trampled down simply because they are smaller or weaker or poorer, then we are standing on particularly Biblical foundations not taught by any pre-Christian thought.

COMPASSION

    Today we are moved with compassion for the down and out. We are champions for the underdog and the whole Critical Theory that has permeated our thinking in the West of identifying the oppressed and delivering them from oppressors is something that would never have entered the minds of pre-Christian thought. Plato thought in order to be worth rearing, children must be "malleable, disposed to virtue, and physically fit.?" If they didn't prove themselves worthy parents should "properly dispose of them in secret, so that no one will know what has become of them." Aristotle thought defective children should be discarded at rubbish tips, abandoned on hillsides, thrown down wells or drowned in rivers. "Let there be a law that no deformed child should be reared", he stated. Infanticide was so widespread in the Roman world that the first known treatise on gynecology in the 1st century by Soranus of Ephesus included the vital section, How to Recognise the Newborn That is Worth Rearing.

    What caused the shift in thought from "survival of the fittest" to compassion? Nietzsche identified the cause and blamed Christians for it. He stated, "Christianity has taken the part of all the weak, the low, the botched; it has made an ideal of antagonism to all the self-preservative instincts of sound life." In other words, Christians have put themselves on the side of the inferior, endangering the survival of the species. What caused Christians to think this way? If natural selection means the survival of the fittest and the sacrifice of the weakest, Christianity's moral revolution taught sacrifice of the fittest (Jesus) for the survival of the weakest (us). This thinking caused Christians to introduce Hospitals, orphanages, and stop the Roman death arenas and eventually slavery. William Wilberforce, a Christian, in his speech to the House of Commons in 1791 said,

" ...we have gained one victory; we have obtained, for these poor creatures, the recognition of their human nature, which, for a while was most shamefully denied. This is the first fruits of our efforts; let us persevere and our triumph will be complete. Never, never will we desist till we have wiped away this scandal from the Christian name, released ourselves from the load of guilt, under which we at present labour, and extinguished every trace of this bloody traffic..."

implying that Christians were complicit in this travesty by nature of both turning a blind eye to it when they knew it was contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and in some cases participating in it.

       If you consider yourself to be a compassionate person, don't pat yourself on the back saying, "I'm a good person." This does not come naturally. You have unknowingly adopted the teachings of the Bible.

CONSENT and ABUSE

        When a patient comes into the hospital, they are inundated with consent forms. They sign consents for treatment, procedures, release of information, transfer of records and others because in the day we live we are very conscious of people's rights, privacy, and not treating them as objects or lesser beings. But it's not just medical facilities that require consent forms. With the abundance of "hook-up" apps, there are consent forms one click away to spell out what a person will allow in bed. This is done for protection against sexual abuse claims. Where did our concern for consent and abuse come from? Is it from our membership in the animal kingdom? No, animals don't behave this way. Just the other day I saw a duck holding down a female duck so another male could mate with it. If that was a human action, those two would get life in prison. Does it come from ancient thought? Let's see.

      In the ancient world, gods were violent rapists, and sexual agency was solely in the hands of powerful men and sexual misbehavior consisted in the violation of reputations, not of bodies or wills. In other words, if a person was below you or beneath you or inferior to you, in the Roman culture, you could force yourself on them physically. Women, because they were considered inferior were required to be chaste and virgins at marriage and monogamous while men could relieve themselves with anyone beneath him. Adultery was considered wrong only because it was deemed a power play against another man. Pedophilia, abhorrent in today's culture was common in the Roman culture. All one had to do was buy a child as a slave and you could do what you wanted with them.

      Then the teachings of the Bible came in. It said that everyone is equally made in the image of God. Women, children, men, slaves, races, impoverished all had equal value in the sight of God and no one could impose their will on another without their consent. In the area of sexuality, Jesus gave two options: lifelong monogamy or chaste singleness. When the disciples, who were steeped in the philosophy of their day heard this, they were shocked and stated, "then it's better off not to get married". Although consent and not Biblical sexual ethics has been adopted by our society, sociologists recognize that the Biblical sex ethic would suppress the male reproductive competition, drain the pool of unmarried men full of testosterone and low on responsibility, and tie men to their women and families. If this Marriage and Family Program (MFP) that the Bible teaches were adopted, society would flourish.

       So next time you ask someone's permission or consent, you aren't doing what comes naturally or is intuitive. It only seems the rational thing to do because you have unknowingly adopted the teachings of the Bible.

  SCIENCE

              You might think that to say that your belief in science would come from Christian "brainwashing" when the contemporary view of science is at odds with the Bible. As Esqueleto (Skeleton) told Nacho Libre when Nacho asked Esqueleto if he had been baptized, "Why are you always judging me, just because I believe in science?" One of people's major objections to the veracity of the Bible is because of its apparent conflicts with science. Is this valid? Let's explore.

       The basis of modern science comes from three unprovable premises: 1) The belief that the world is real and the human mind is capable of knowing its real nature. Einstein called this the "miracle of science". "The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility... The fact that it is comprehensible is a miracle", Einstein said. 2) The second postulate underlying the structure of scientific knowledge is that of cause and effect. 3) The third postulate is that the universe is unified. "These scientific premises define and limit the scientific mode of thought. It should be pointed out that each of these postulates had its origin in or was consistent with Christian theology."(Stanley Beck journal of Bioscience 1982) 

          Thus, science emerged among people who believed certain things. Specifically, they believed that science could be done. They believed in what Einstein called the "miracle of comprehensibility"- the wonder that puny human brains could figure out the mysteries of the cosmos. Here are some quotes by early scientists who believed in the Bible

       Copernicus -"To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend... the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High."

      Galileo - "The glory and greatness of almighty God are marvelously discerned in all His works."

      Kepler - Geometry is unique and eternal, a reflection of the mind of God. That men are able to participate in it is one of the reasons why man is an image of God."

      Newton - "This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of a powerful intelligent being."

Add to these four pioneers Joseph Lister (antiseptic surgery), Louis Pasteur (bacteriology), Robert Boyle (chemistry) Georges Cuvier (comparative anatomy), Charles Babbage (computer science), Lord Rayleigh (dimensional analysis), James Maxwell (Electrodynamics), Michael Faraday (Electromagnetics), Ambrose Fleming (electronics), Lord Kelvin (energetics), Henri Fabre (entomology), George Stokes (fluid mechanics), William Herschel (astronomy), Gregor Mendel (genetics), Louis Agassiz (geology), James Simpson (gynecology), Leonardo DaVinci (hydraulics), Matthew Maury (Hydrography), Blaise Pascal (Hydrostatics), William Ramsay (chemistry), John Ray (natural history), Bernhard Riemann (geometry), David Brewster (minerology) John Woodward (paleontology), Rudolph Virchow (pathology), James Joule (thermodynamics), Nicholas Steno (stratigraphy), Carolus Linnaeus (biology), and Humphrey Davy (thermokinetics) who were all Bible believing scientists.

        Today's scientific method formulated by Bible believing Francis Bacon (1561-1626) is based on these Biblical principles; Investigating what is - God had the freedom to create the universe as He so desired and now we can figure out what is. Secondly, the world can be figured out. There are regularities in the way the world works and these are reliable. Thirdly, humans are fallible. Stephen Pinker said, "The signature practices of science, including open debate, peer review, and double-blind methods are designed to circumvent the sins of scientists who are human and vulnerable."

     When you are "trusting the science", it's important to realize that science is standing on the broad shoulders of Christian thought.

   CONCLUSION

    Scrivener has several other arenas of thought or morality that he deals with which didn't resonate with me as much, so I didn't give them much time in this discussion. He considered the age of Enlightenment commonly referred to as the Dark Ages, where education, once considered a luxury for rich men, became a necessity for all. He also considered "Progress". Once history was thought of as a descent from the Golden Age, Christianity taught an arrow pointing onwards and upwards.

    The obvious objection to this is that if Christianity teaches all these principles and world views that we have supposedly adopted, why have Christians been such major offenders of these? He gives this as an answer, maybe unsatisfying to critics and disheartened Christians alike, but nonetheless he makes a good point. He says that if you don't like the violence of the Old Testament wars or church history of the last 2000 years, it's probably because you have adopted the teachings of the One who said, "Put away your sword." If you recoil at Israel's ancient practice of slavery or the Bible-belt's adoption of slavery, you have probably inherited the Biblical notions of redemption, freedom and equality. If you are devastated by church abuse scandals, you are standing with Christ against the misuse of sex and power. Remember, Jesus saved his harshest criticism for hypocrites in the "Church". If you are bothered by hypocrisy, He was bothered more. If you abhor the church mistreating minorities, you are assigning a Christian value to the weak, poor and oppressed. If you consider the church to be on the wrong side of history, you are considering history and progress in Biblical ways.

    He basically says that on all the points that critics judge the Church on violating all these moral principles, the straight line they are using to judge "crookedness" is the Bible. In a way, I feel that is a bit of a "cop-out" because it doesn't address the fact that Christians haven't practiced what they preached through the ages. In a sense though, (my thoughts) the very fact that we don't do what we know is right, beneficial, and would lead to our flourishing, illustrates the biblical truth of first of all, sin, which the Bible declares is our default nature - rebellion against God, and secondly a force warring against God, the Devil, who wants us to destroy ourselves and draw others away from God.

     

    

Thoughts From Romans 12 - Day 1

 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Rom. 12:1

            Scandals abound in the area of worship music. Just this week we heard a worship song from an artist, and I said to my wife, "Wow, I haven't heard a song from him in ages." My wife googled him and found out he has now been sober for a year, which is great for him but bad for worship music in general. Worship music has far surpassed traditional contemporary music in popularity. If you look at YouTube views or monthly followers, you will see that groups like Hillsong or Elevation are much more viewed than the most popular traditional artists. Even our local Christian radio station changed its format from contemporary to worship.

       Paul, in Romans 12:1, would seem to say that to sing songs of worship to God and not have a surrendered heart to Him which manifests itself in the way we live, Holy, obedient, Godly lifestyles - is non-sensical. I recently saw a video on YouTube which talked about 8 Christians in Hollywood and when I watched it I was shocked by the ones they included because from their lifestyles I had no idea. One of the most haunting verses in the Bible is Luke 6:46 where Jesus says, "Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and not do what I say?" As we sing worship songs, most of which have the word "Lord" in them, are we being hypocritical?

      Why the fascination with Worship music when our lives are telling the opposite story? Maybe it's because it is echoing where we want to be but we aren't and it's the cry of our hearts to get there or thanking God for the mercy shown to us while we mess up? I don't know, but let's start demonstrating true worship by living lives totally surrendered, obedient, righteous, and a stark contrast to the immorality around us.