How Smart Do I Have To Be?

I am not sure how many people struggle with this question but it is one I find hard to dismiss and which continues to force its way back into my thoughts.

As an educator, I do not feel strange telling others how our education begins shortly after that first breath and though some people seemingly bring and end to their education at some point, I believe their level of understanding and education continue to grow until they take their last breath.

Having been raised in the church, I was taught or either felt I was taught to believe I existed in my early years without any need of the blood of Jesus (this was never taught in these words). As I grew older, this concept changed and I was told "you know better than that," and I was taught that those who knew better (education) were sinning and the "wages of sin was death." This teaching went on to convict me of my sin and remind me of my need to come in contact with the blood of Jesus. Eventually, I was told, "you have to be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins" if you want to be covered with the blood of Jesus and I was "obedient." Later, I even took this responsibility upon myself and even encouraged those who had not been baptized for the right reason (education) to complete the baptism once again for the "right" reason (I have since considered I may have been asking those in the RIGHT to participate in what I only considered to be "right").

Recently, I have been reading Eternity In Their Hearts by Don Richardson and with the thoughts from this book in my mind combined with the thoughts from our lesson Sunday morning on the Holy Spirit, I was reminded how I don't think SALVATION is our educational issue (Just a note, but I paused for maybe 45 seconds thinking of how to put it and I left it as thought). Yes, my Christian education taught me how, once entrusted with the knowledge of God and what one needed to do to be saved, I was responsible for taking salvation to the rest of the world. Without me, God's plan to save the world could be frustrated. I now realize how this understanding might be the very definition of arrogant. I might be a disappointment to God and I have definitely failed Him at times but I am not capable of FRUSTRATING His plan. I will also add how I do not think I am capable of frustrating his plan with any individual.

I often find myself seeming to be describe a situation negating the importance of missionaries and yet this is most distant to my thinking. I want to do nothing more than exalt and lift all who have chosen and will choose to be missionaries for God and I am thrilled (also a bit fearful) to see my youngest daughter have this goal in her heart. However, I do think the concept of missionaries needed to take salvation to the lost is a bit misguided (off track).

In the book mentioned above, the author makes it clear how the idea/concept of taking the message of God to other peoples has existed since the 12th chapter of Genesis. I do not think this mission has ever ceased and yet I do believe we have been "reformed" into thinking the purpose of the mission has changed and our participation is much more important.

Lest I get too long with these comments, I believe salvation to be the work of God. I believe the Holy Spirit is living inside of every last person recognized by God as belonging to His family and guiding them to make righteous choices in their lives. I also believe the Holy Spirit is working on everyone who is not currently recognized as a member of God's family to convict them of their sin and encourage them to change direction. In other words, it is the responsibility of the Holy Spirit to instruct/educate people as to "what they must do to be saved" and not MIKE. My purpose is to tell the story of God!

Yes, like Abraham and so many others throughout history, I am to continue with my specific portion of God's plan to tell someone else of all that God has done. Some of us may only reach a few with greater knowledge of God and others might reach thousands or millions.

At this point in my life, I have come to believe and accept God is in control of everything. I believe God (Holy Spirit) will successfully bring salvation to the world and offer it to every last individual. In my life and the life of those who choose mission work, I hope others will learn of what God has done for them so they can take joy in knowing of His work.

To answer my own question, I don't believe man is capable of answering it for each individual. I do believe the Holy Spirit is more than capable of bringing each person the answer and making sure obedience is possible for everyone and not just those capable of man's wisdom.

In reality, I do not believe the choice to be covered by the blood of Jesus is one we make through the process of education about God but rather the choice made in our hearts to be like God because He has made the difference.

Man's wisdom will never be sufficient to make sure we are obedient enough for salvation so lets forget about our misguided thoughts of SAVING people and simply continue telling the story of what He HAS DONE!

One Body

The eye cannot say to the hand, "I don't need you!" And the head cannot say to the feet, "I don't need you!" On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it, if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (From 1 Corinthians 12)

I hope the fact that I have not been writing in a while does not mean my life has been stagnate and lacking growth but only a reflection of getting everything done at school for the kids. One of the things I am blessed with each week is getting to hear a great speaker in our congregation. I call him a great speaker because every time I hear a lesson, my mind is challenged to think and consider all that God has done in the past and is doing right now in our lives. While I would not even assume he desires for my thoughts to wonder in the many directions my mind has taken, I know he loves to know he has engaged listeners each week. I trust that the Holy Spirit is involved with his lessons each week and also trust the Holy Spirit is leading my thoughts in the direction needed for my individual growth.

Oddly, I was not even present for the lesson leading to the thoughts coming from the scripture above. Due to this, I should probably not "quote" much from his lesson. We did have a discussion of the lesson in our Sunday night life group and I got the message "second-hand." The concept sending my thoughts into a spin came from his description of the "two side" comparisons of our brains and what motivates some of us to approach our Christian lives in one way or the other.

I have already stated my belief of the body of Christ being found throughout the many denominational names we see on buildings in our community and yet I never really considered how this variety might be a GOD DESIGN! Of course, those growing up within the same heritage as myself know how we have always declared denominations to be an abomination. This is also why so many in my fellowship are offended when someone associates those meeting in a building with the name "Church of Christ" with the word denomination.

Having visited many of the various denominations in and around the community, I am quick to recognize sincere devotion to God and our saviour Jesus Christ. I have found nothing other than people wanting their lives to reflect the light of Christ in all they do and yet for most of my life, I condemned what they were doing as evil and considered them adversaries of Christ because they were not like me. While there are still those within my fellowship stilling holding on to these beliefs, I am proud to say they are becoming fewer and fewer with each passing year. Effectively, we were considering ourselves the "head" and telling every other part of the body they were not only not needed but destructive to the body.

Having taken a little time to look inward on my local congregation, I see the same thing within the walls of one building I see demonstrated in the community. We have several life groups with differing names (denominations) and different focus of Christian activity. We have differing classes each Sunday and Wednesday. One of the groups on Wednesday night has named themselves (Christians In Action) and focus getting out to the community with Christ-like activities. Yes, it is perfectly ok for us to have a variety of names representing who we are and what we are doing for Christ just as long as we come to the building with "Church of Christ" on the sign.

Taking this focus back into the community, I see no problem with grouping Christians based upon the focus of Christ-like activity going on in each group. In fact, if we are serving Christ, the true head of the Church, then we are all part of the same body and necessary for the body to function properly.

When I look at the last part of the quote from 1 Corinthians above, I also see how the body suffers when any part of the body suffers. If we take a careful look at what has happened to Christianity over the past decade in our country and how many people are living without Christ in our communities, it is not hard to see how the failures of those in many denominations representing Christ have led to a distrust of Christianity (the body). Whether it is a preacher being caught in an adulterous affair, a television evangelist caught in criminal sting operation or a priest abusing young boys, we are all affected in a negative manner because of who we represent.

As I finished writing this last comment, I am reminded of a dear friend who discovered a cancerous tumor in his brain a few weeks ago and the comment that cancers survive the defenses of the body because the body does not recognize the cancer as being destructive. I think it is too bad we are quick to raise our weapons in the defense of tradition and effectively miss the cancer of Satan slipping in to eat away at all that is GOOD!

Our Baptismal Confession

Having witnessed several baptisms in various denominations, I recognize the fact many groups do not take a public confession of the individual being baptized just prior to the act of baptism and so these few comments today only reflect the nature of what takes place on a regular basis in my own fellowship. While not responsible for what I write, my youngest daughter at Abilene Christian University gave me the idea for these comments and I am more than pleased to see her taking hold of her own faith and not simply mimicking the things told her in the past.

Most members of my fellowship expect and some might even raise their hand and say, "wait a minute. We have not heard his/her confession yet," if we were to take someone into the water for baptism without having them stand before the congregation and state their belief that Jesus is the son of God. I will not go into it at this time but most of the congregations I have been affiliated with over the years will ask women if they belief Jesus is the son of God so she can give the only acceptable yes. After all, it is important to remember women MUST remain silent in our worship services and the only allowable alteration to this "command" from God is when they join in the "song service" and admit they believe Jesus is the son of God.

Returning to the focus of my comments, I finally realized while talking to my daughter the problem with divisions in our fellowship has nothing to do with people "leaving" the truth of scripture behind, but rather our failure to adequately ask for the RIGHT CONFESSION!

It is not enough to know of the person recognizing Jesus as the son of God; the son of God who came and gave His life for our sin. Since the Church is obviously responsible for adding members to the body of Christ, we need to know more about their ability to match the "true" commands of God. We fail because we do not have them stand and confirm their displeasure of women praying in the service, instruments being used, a girl collecting the attendance cards, women serving communion to the membership and a myriad of other items demanded by those seeking to take the Lordship from Christ.

In my search of through the bible, I do not find the official creed of the Churches of Christ demanded by so many for fellowship and I am saddened these same people will even allow someone the opportunity of baptism and tell them their name is being written in the book without knowing they are "true believers."

I hope we will soon get to a point in our fellowship where we recognize our understanding of God does not position us as the official scribe for the Book of Life!

What IS Actually Stated?

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering , but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. Genesis 4:3-5 NIV

Still thinking of my "New Year's Resolution," I thought I might briefly mention one of the stories in the Bible where we have often taught more than is actually stated by the passage. I was reminded of this because my 7th grade bible class has been focusing on anger this week and our book uses the story of Cain and Abel to open our discussion for the week.

The author of the book makes a point to tell the reader why Cain's sacrifice was not acceptable to God. The reason given and the one I was brought up being taught was how Cain's sacrifice was of the soil and not a "blood" sacrifice (checking with some of my brothers and sisters tells me that this is not much of a belief any longer so BRAVO).

My question to those saying it was not acceptable because it was not a blood sacrifice seems pretty simple. Where does the passage tell us of this deficiency. From the quote above, we can suggest some possibilities but even our suggestions are little more than "my opinion." One suggestion might be how Cain offered "some" of the fruits and Abel offered the "fat" portion of his firstborn. As I read the passage, it looks like Abel offered the best of the best and Cain just took some of what he had and made an offering.

I told the kids how I almost get the feeling of Cain's sacrifice being in response to Abels offering and not something that he really desired in the heart to give. I then followed up with what has become our class statement and reminded them how this was "my thoughts" and not from a biblical statement.

Speaking to one of the other bible teachers between chapels, I mentioned how thankful I am for those who encouraged me to read for myself and not accept what I have been told "as truth." As I discover more and more of what has been taught to be without support in the bible, the fuel of excitement found in each new discovery brings a great sense of joy.

Much like our government, we have been weakened by accepting what we are told. As I witness the swelling tide of those excited about the message actually found in the bible, when they read for themselves, I can also hope (politically) to find people who will examine our country in the same light.

People like control and to control great masses of people, we need to have them believe we know what we are talking about. We only lose our control when people begin to think for themselves.

Further Defining Us As A Denomination

As New Year's Resolutions go, we all seem to have a problem keeping them for very long and one of mine is to post shorter comments on the blog as they come to me. I love writing and when I get going it is often hard to stop short of 1000+ words.

My thoughts on this occasion were brought on by reading/scanning the Christian Chronicle. In one of the advertisements for the "official" listing of Churches of Christ in America, the company made a point to mention those Churches of Christ deleted from the registry. Richland Hills Church of Christ was one of the ones deleted and the specific reason stated does not matter since the point was made of them not adhering to the "official" creeds "accepted" by the Churches of Christ.

There are some who object to my use of the word denomination when referencing the Church of Christ because I have been taught that each congregation is autonomous. My heritage also created a belief in my earlier years regarding the name Church of Christ being the only "acceptable" name for those claiming to be true Christians.

When I think of those who have assembled the "official" listing of the Churches of Christ, I must draw certain conclusions from their statement of exclusion.

The first conclusion is that the Churches of Christ are not individual congregations autonomous to the rest of the congregations and "allowed" to make their own decisions. It is obvious in the advertisement each congregation calling themselves Church of Christ can only make decisions agreeable with the HIERARCHY defining the boundaries or creed for the Churches of Christ.

Another conclusion is that an official hierarchy for the Churches of Christ does exist and a church congregation should not be using the "official" name for the body of Christ if they do not wish to follow the official creed of the Church of Christ. This hierarchy is made up of those who have disowned those of our fellowship not following a pattern defined and created by man.

I guess I should keep at least one entry short and so I think you have the idea by now. May God help any of us who thinks we have an exclusive right to determine who and who is not a Christian. When we get right down to the main idea, I am convinced God ignores the name on the building where I meet with other Christians and can easily see the name of Him who is written on our hearts and guarantees our name being found in the Book of Life.

I am thankful that more and more Christians around our community are realizing and acknowledging the work of God in the lives of more people than those who meet at the "right" place. Yes, it has always been easy to see the demonstration of the Holy Spirit living in others once you take off the blindfold demanding exclusion.

Should We Look Like The First Century Church?

To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. 1 Corinthians 9:22 NIV

I have just a few comments before Christmas and the end of the year. We finished a great series of lessons on the seven churches described in Revelation last night and as we were coming to a close, I realized how far off the path we have probably taken ourselves with a desire to replicate the church of the first century. In fact, I have come to the conclusion that if anyone from the first century was to recognize and feel "right at home" in our gatherings, we have most likely been a failure to God.

It is a simple question to ask but what have we become so that the message will be heard about our savior? In the year 2010 should we really be 33 A.D. Christians or should we be current with all of the 2010 scenario to be effective.

As I came into the holidays, I played in several performances that glorified the Lord of Lords and yet my fellowship was only casually involved as audience members to the work of others. I was pleased to see many of my congregation active at the Refuge along side the Baptist church in providing some Christmas joy but I am still saddened to see a few people desiring for no change within our congregation. It is as if some are simply saying, "I don't care about the lost" if it means I have to do anything different from what I have been doing my whole life.

Yes, it is sad , but the tradition of the Church of Christ in most places is still more important than the will of Christ in our lives. I am encouraged by those I see beginning to push the edge of their comfort zone and make advances for becoming anything needed so that we might bring the message of salvation to some. In 2010 I look forward to our congregation making a complete break from the bondage of tradition and moving forward in a manner glorifying Christ.

One thing planned for 2010 is already in the primitive planning stages as I contact other religious leaders in the Deer Park community. The plan is for us to have a Great Communion for Deer Park. I have already visited with another leader from another church in our community and we will be inviting other to plan this event for 2010. The idea will be to invite everyone calling themselves Christian to join together and partake of the wine and bread together as we remember and glorify God as brother and sister. For this one day, we will be united as one only behind our savior and not any of the denominational names declaring the "division" of God's church today. When visiting on this topic I have already been told of some who will not participate and my answer was that all will be invited and those who don't want to participate will not stop us.

Have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year. Hopefully we will all glorify God more in the year He has planned for us.

Missing Out On God

During the past couple of weeks, I have been considering how many opportunities to connect spiritually with God have been missed. Over the years, I have played many pageants and Christmas programs for various churches and been part of an offering to those who sat in the audience. Most of the time, I was focused on trying to perfect my part in the whole orchestration and I never really considered every aspect of what was taking place during the offering (specifically of a spiritual nature).

This past Friday and Saturday I was playing with the Clear Lake Symphony and while I always enjoy the music, I looked up on the screen and took in the words of the selections we were playing. The setting of words to so many of the songs really spoke to me and when talking to those in the audience, I discovered how edified they were from the musical performance offered. I also realized those in the churches of Christ have never edified or lifted those who have souls called to life through music.

The rules and regulations fabricated by men in my heritage held all of those things important to my spritual health as sinful and deviant to honest Christianity. The saddest aspect of this realization comes from having played so much music written to glorify and honor God and those people not capable of seeing the value of the selections written. These musicans spend their lives with a single purpose of reaching the core of our spiritual needs with music to honor God and lift us to a position in our lives where we can be used to the glory of God.

I would guess I find myself in a position of needing prayers because my heart wants to respond in hate to those who do not have the ability to recognize the working of God in these musicians and allow them to meet the needs of so many brothers and sisters needing edification. Effectively, those who have taken the leadership away from Christ have made decisions for Christ and negatively impacted the health of our Lord's body.

I am glad to have passed the point of condemnation for those glorifying God with their gift of music and look forward to every opportunity I have to share the opportunities I know of in my life with others. Those looking for an opportunity only have to look to those churches in your area this week who are offering every sort of Christmas celebration to the community. I will be playing at Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston this weekend but I notice signs on nearly every church I pass acknowledging special plans to help those in the community celebrate the gift of salvation given so many years ago in the form of a baby.

I mentioned one thing causing saddness but I think the greatest spear thrown at our Christianity almost daily by those claiming to have everything right and do everything right, is the spear telling others that Satan is responsible all of the music bringing Glory to God and obviously taking us all to hell.

Enjoy your Christmas season because I have missed too many!