Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Partnered With God?

who has saved us and called us to a holy life—not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace. This grace was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time, 2 Timothy 1:9 NIV


“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost." Luke 19:10 NIV


There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor? James 4:12 NIV


Over the past week or two, the idea of salvation has been churning in my thoughts and having spent time thinking about who is saved and who is not saved, I decided to share my current belief concerning our “mission” in God’s plan for the lost. As always, my thinking is heavily influenced by those I read and in a recent Reflection by Al Maxey, Quid Pro Quo Theology, I was able to better define my thoughts concerning “our part” in the plan of salvation. In Al’s Reflection, he also mentions and article by Dr. Garrett.


I really appreciate the work of Al Maxey and it looks like I need to begin reading more of Dr. Garrett. I mention this because both of these men have spent their lives in the study of scripture and their preparation comes from being in this field of study. My writing is usually off the top of my head and is basically the result of something I have been considering for some time. I find it important to place my thoughts in print as I make conclusions and come to my current position of belief. Hopefully, my beliefs will never get to the point of some I have been around over the years because some have not considered anything new in their belief for many years.


The title of this offering is “Partnered With God” and this past week when considering this thought, I even told people when it comes to saving the lost, we do not have anything to do with the salvation of another person. While I have heard the concept of God’s part and man’s part preached within my fellowship, I currently believe salvation to be something God has given and was planned, as mentioned in the quote above, before time began. I also believe Jesus came to save the lost and He is the one and only one responsible for the salvation offered to mankind.


I have mentioned in other comments how I believe every man, woman and child having lived and those who are still to come will have sufficient knowledge of God and Christ to be capable of responding to God with their heart in a way acceptable to receive the gift of salvation. Most of my years in the church have been spent defining the parameters of who is and who is not a member of God’s family and this was necessary because I/we felt a need or even a commandment of God to go out and SAVE the lost. The idea of all sin being forgiven on the cross was known and at the same time, foreign to us in our thinking. My mind accepted sin being forgiven, if and only if, I recognized the fact and responded in the appropriate manner to cover my sins with the blood of Christ.


Even as I type these words, I am still shackled by the official creed of the Churches of Christ and I am reminded of the writer asking how they shall know if no one preaches to them (my words). My training from childhood has been in the doctrine of each person being responsible for the salvation of another and it has been hard to accept God being responsible and me being nothing more than a tool of God in whatever He has planned.


I can hear the comments running through my mind expressing the sentiment of how many are lost because we have never reached them with the message of Christ. I can hear the burden of those in my past telling me how justified God is for condemning those who have not heard the message because they are sinners and the wages of sin is death. Ultimately, the reasoning results in millions of people having lived with no hope of salvation because MAN was a failure.

While I do not deny this is a possibility, I simply can’t accept God placing the success of His plan in the hand of a failure and in reality, His plan given to us in the bible says Jesus became man to take this burden upon Himself.


How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? 1 Corinthians 7:16 NIV


“Not that I accept human testimony; but I mention it that you may be saved.” John 5:34 NIV


He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.' Acts 11:14 NIV


After considering all just discussed, I think it is important to address so many of the scriptures, a few of which are quoted above, from which the idea of being burdened with this responsibility might have come. The quote from 1 Corinthians seems confusing and yet it reminds us of our inability to understand the saved or lost condition of those even in the close relationship of marriage. Over the years, I have been blinded by the idea of being responsible for salvation and failed to even notice how strongly the idea of not being able to know was being presented.


The message given to Cornelius wants to push us even deeper into the corner of responsibility because we see a comment made concerning the “message through which you and all your household will be saved.” Have I not mentioned in previous writing the belief of mine in Cornelius being saved before Peter ever got to him with this message?


One expression heard often in my past concerned the idea of scripture being twisted by those who were not “real Christians” or members of the Churches of Christ. Since many may not consider me a “real Christian,” I might as well admit the explanation is going to look pretty TWISTED. It might even look the same to those who do accept the validity of Christ working within my life and yet it is how I see what is being said!


I hope I have stated enough times the belief of Jesus completing His mission on the cross and being the only way for us to be saved. I have also stated before how I believe this gives God the ability to use the blood of His son to forgive any and all according to His plan whether it meets the definition of man or not.


The official doctrine of the Churches of Christ would claim, relative to Cornelius, the message brought by Peter would be heard and the response of him and his family to the message in belief, followed by confession and baptism would save him and all his household. Not being a bible scholar, like those mentioned above, I am looking at the words I have to consider and with the help and I believe guidance of the Holy Spirit in my life would ask a simple question. Could this passage not be saying he would simply be hearing of the one who came for him and would be responsible for his salvation on the day of judgment? In other words, When Peter comes to you, you will hear of the one who gave his life and through His blood you will be welcomed by the Father on that day. Read it again and possibly you will see it does not say man brought the opportunity of salvation but rather the knowledge of what is contained in the message. Notice also how Peter tells Cornelius he already knows the message. The only thing missing was knowledge of it including him on judgment day.


You know the message God sent to the people of Israel, telling the good news of peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all. Acts 10:36 NIV


All of this can easily come across as downplaying the role of missionaries in our society and some have even suggested it might be wrong to take the message of Jesus to other nations if they are already considered to be part of the family by God and covered by the blood of Jesus. The official Church of Christ doctrine tells me we are actually taking the message of condemnation to those who reject the message of Jesus if the message we take is not the vehicle by which they are saved.


While I constantly am reminded of how wrong I can be, I believe those becoming missionaries are taking something extremely valuable to those who never have known the name Jesus. In fact, just like Cornelius, we may be taking the message to just the right people. We may be taking the message to the family of God. I know this can sound strange but Romans 3:1-2 would have me believe the only advantage the Jews had over the Gentiles under the Law of Moses was in knowing the oracles of God. It did not make them more or less acceptable to God but only gave them the joy of knowing the promise.


Those of us who know our future with God, those who know there is now no condemnation for those in Christ, have the joy and peace capable of sustaining us through any trial. We have no fear of what will be since we know the end. Those without this message live their lives not knowing what will come next, if anything.


Even while accepting the decision God might have to use us as the “primary” source of responding to him appropriately, I believe we take JOY and we take PEACE!


Salvation is entirely the gift of God and not a burden placed on us where our failure might keep others from being saved.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Fear of What?

I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, (Isaiah 51:12)


There have been great things happening on Wednesday night with my congregation as we have begun a study titled "Who Turned Out the Lights." It has been encouraging and exciting to hear my brothers and sisters speak honestly as we consider the letters addressed to the churches in Revelation. Needless to say, this has not been a tradition of my fellowship and instead of honesty of thought, others like myself, often consider their thoughts carefully so they will speak only the things appropriately representing the consensus of our fellowship.


One of the greatest conflicts coming to my mind when I consider the fellowship of my heritage is the idea of making sure we FEAR God and keep His commandments. In reality, this idea can be found in the bible but I "fear" we take it too far in the demonstration of our faith. This concept has long ceased to be the fear of God and taken on a new life of its own. In our previous desire to make sure we keep the commandments of God, we have given birth to the idea of fearing men who apparently SPEAK for God.


I fully believe each of us is either standing with or against God as we live out our lives. Unfortunately, we have taken on the responsibility of defining who is and is not standing with God as we use our own understanding of what it means to be part of His family. We grow up through a process of learning causing us to accept an idea of what is right and wrong in service to our God and when we discover the freedom of Christ, it is difficult to break free of the bonds holding us hostage.


Not called such last Wednesday, the idea of being held hostage by fear was clearly demonstrated in our discussion. The fear being discussed was not the fear of God, but rather the fear of men and if we allow this to continue, Satan will have won a great battle against the forces of righteousness.


Many fears were mentioned but it was common to hear fears relating to what others think when we do something not commonly thought of as acceptable in our fellowship assembly. When my heart is moved in response to God, I often feared what will be said if I say or in some cases sing according to the response perceived in my heart. There have been men (elders) tell me not to sing during the time communion trays are being passed through the auditorium and yes, I am fully aware some people are uncomfortable with this happening. From what I can tell, this is probably tied to the traditions of our fellowship and no real understanding of the bible or God. At times, my heart begs to sing and even be joyful during the time of communion and my fear of what others will say or do has caused me to "respect" their position.


Oddly, my response should have nothing to do with their response and we should each honor God without fear of the reprisal from someone not capable of enjoying the freedom found in Christ. I was raised to believe one person doing something during our worship time was effectively forcing all to participate. If someone sings then all are singing and yet you only have to lead singing a few times before you realize a great many people do not sing on any given song. I used to criticize them for not raising their voices to God and now realize there is no reason for them to participate in some facet of the service not speaking to them. The argument has also been taken to ridiculous extremes when preachers have preached all are using instruments in a service if even one is using an instrument.

I believe my grandfather had it right when he told me to follow along when a prayer was offered and add my own thoughts to the prayer offering as they were guided by the person leading prayer. The usual response relative to singing during communion is born from the idea forbidding the mixing of the various acts of worship and will state singing during communion interferes with the prayers being offered up to God. Turn the statement around and we have the prayers interfering with the singing of a song.

The statement is actually a valid argument and those wishing to sing have, in the past, been refused the opportunity to sing because the official "creed" of the Churches of Christ only allowed prayer during communion.

I look forward to the day when none of this will matter to anyone in the congregation and each person will lift their hearts to God according to the gift given to them by the Holy Spirit. After all, personal expression to God is not something God instructs me to control in the lives of others. It is a difficult thing when we attempt to quit running the Christian lives of others but hopefully it will allow us to focus on our own lives and offer ourselves more fully to God.

I started out with fear and so I will end with fear. The greatest fear I believe having bondage over my fellowship for the majority of my life is the fear of LOSING OUR SALVATION. In the words of Joe Beam, "Forgiven Forever," I can still hear him say this is most likely not as easy as we have accepted in the past. He does not deny the possibility but we have lived under the concept of our salvation being lost as a PROBABILITY! He goes on to say, "if Satan can't take our salvation from us, then his next best job will be to make us as ineffective as possible!"

My current fear is the accuracy of his statement with respect to our church fellowship today and recognizing Satan may be winning the battle to make us all ineffective as we "pretend" to live a life with hearts devoted to God.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The Law of Moses and Worship

October went by and I am sure that some may be pleased to see me disappear from blogging. For some reason, I felt a need to make sure my focus was on my preparation for class and the students I would be addressing. 7th grade bible class continues to be a source of joy and I love to hear what comes from the mind of those kids when they are allowed to express their thoughts in a hostile free environment. We focus on a different bible character each week and yet we still have plenty of time for "what do you think" in class. From one of our lessons, we have begun using the phrase biblical or non-biblical to preface points of our discussion. Not obvious to many I have grown up around and yet extremely obvious to 7th graders is the concept that a direct statement from God in the bible is biblical and a statement from me or the student concerning the meaning of something in the bible is usually non-biblical and only our own ability of reasoning.

I have enjoyed the first two lessons of our Wednesday night focus on the churches addressed at the beginning of Revelation called "Who Turned Out The Lights" and tonight as we discussed the church at Smyrna, I wandered off topic just long enough to consider something I am bringing up with very little thought. Indeed, you might just have to check for yourself because it is completely off the top of my head with no preparation spent going back to the Law of Moses for a refresher of what is written.

I came up with a simple question. What has the Law of Moses to do with worship in the Old Testament? As I briefly considered the topic and even asked a few people to make comments on the subject, I quickly got the answer I am currently thinking. NOTHING!

Possibly, a refresher is needed and I am definitely open to the reader who might post and give me an example I was to lazy to consider for myself. However, I believe the Law of Moses was given as instruction to the way God wanted His people to live. Some things required under the law might be considered worshipful and yet I don't see the Law of Moses as instructing the people of God in worship.

If the premise of my thought can be verified (which I currently think is the case), then the Law of Moses has nothing to do with worship and the instruction of worship in the Old Testament has nothing to do with the Law of Moses. I know I have mentioned before how I believe a person might currently find the Law of Moses of no value to our salvation and would also state how if the Law was "nailed to the cross" as was taught by my heritage then eliminating it from the bible for the purpose of our use today would still leave us with much information concerning God and His will for mankind.

Looking at this question, I simply believe the Law of Moses was the way of God given to His people requiring them to actually be 100% obedient and the New Testament gives us a new way of life where our perfection is given in Christ and our obedience is wrapped up in living a "failed" life as we attempt to transform ourselves into the likeness of Christ.

In closing, I believe the physical act of worship has never had anything to do with our salvation under the Old Law or the New Law. In the very words of Jesus, we are told the worship will not be on the mountain or in the temple but rather something new. Worship in spirit and truth will be the kind of worship fragrant and fully acceptable to God.

The "acts of worship" as we often describe them today are simply artificial and of no real value to God. The value of these acts is found in what they do for us in the form of encouragement to be Christ-like. The acts of worship possibly can't be described any better than in the Psalms and yet we argue over those things which our human reasoning can accept as acceptable.

I am reminded of how my grandfather carried a small New Testament and Psalms with him in his pocket. I have never seen it stated but believe the Psalms were thought to be important even though the rest of the Old Testament was "not needed" for our daily walk with Christ. Maybe someone will correct me with the true reasoning for the Psalms to be added to the New Testament but I currently believe it is because it instructs in all we need to consider as we daily walk with Christ.

The heart of David, a man after God's own heart, is modeled in Psalms for us so we can transform our heart to be one after God's, as well.