End of compartmentalizing

I know you didn’t ask, but I want to answer you anyway. I go to church principally to be challenged in my spiritual walk and my understanding of spiritual things. That pretty much happens every time I go. When you learn to tune your soul’s ear you will discover a lot of challenges even when others wonder what is going on.

That prelude to introduce something I learned this morning. As Ecclesiastics 1:9 says in part … there is no new thing under the sun. What I got isn’t really new. But like many of the vehicles I have owned, new to me, in a new way.

There are in Christendom many phrases that sound good, or illustrate points, or get lodged in our brains as catch phrases, but aren’t in closer examination, good theology.

I refer to my pastor a lot in this blog, I realize, but most of what I hear spoken comes from him. So without meaning any disrespect I’ll refer to him simply as Kerry here in this blog only.

This morning Kerry jump started my thinking. And while being jump started in your thinking in the midst of a message is often counter productive because the brain goes off on its own journey while the speaker continues on theirs. So when it happens to me I try my hardest to not lose my new avenue of thought but also stay engaged in the message. At my age, difficult.

In an age when we live lives that are very compartmentalized, we need to re-examine whether we try to put salvation in compartments.

Kerry made a statement something to the effect that Christ shouldn’t be the center of our lives. Now before you jump headlong off the parapet yelling treason and landing in the moat of murky waters and among, as Dennis so eloquently put it in The Search for the Holy Grail, “strange women lying on their backs in ponds handing out swords ...” think this through with me.

If something is at the center of a body, then by definition it is surrounded by that body. Therefore if we would examine that something, that core, we would necessarily have to go through the insulating and filtering layers of the body.

With me so far?

If I wanted to see a trophy kept in an inner room you have in your house, I must first weave my way through the roads and byways to your neighborhood, through your property, into your house, into where this room is positioned within your house. It is there, after getting through the insular layers that I would gaze upon this trophy.

Whatever paths and obstacles I encountered is likely to influence what I think about your trophy. If it was a difficult and arduous journey, I may be less inclined to believe your trophy was worth the trip.

Therefore, I believe that Christ being in the center of our lives is a fine statement but a little misleading. I believe many people try to live with Christ as their central focus, but never quite get rid of themselves that surround this Christ. I know it is true in my life. I try to have Christ in my center, and all the while I’m nowhere near where He wants me to be in a spiritual geographic sense.

When we speak of God wanting all of us, that pretty much describes it. Forget this idea of God being central. I think God wants to be our all.

OK, now practically, how does that happen? I can not say I have achieved it, but here is what I think it means. When we ask God to take our lives we need to, at that point and as well as we know how, abandon, leave behind, our hopes and dreams and aspirations for our lives, and let God be our lives.

I know it is tough. We have to work to provide. We have to be fathers and mothers and sons and daughters and on and on. We live in a physical world that demands a lot. It can and will demand ALL of our time and ALL of our resources if we let it.

But…and here is the second thought from this morning, and it made me smile with excitement. Isn’t it amazing that God so arranged the solar system and the miniscule part that we know much about so that every day, for as long as we know about, a new dawn has come every day? In fact, a day's beginning is defined by the dawn. A reminder that from our entrance into the kingdom of God and taking on Christ, not at the center of our lives, but in place of our lives, we are constantly renewed with a new dawn.

I may chew on this a while.

Tithing - only the beginning

This might step on some toes, but it is something I really believe in and believe I can qualify my position. Our church has been in a stewardship season the last few weeks. What that means in case you aren't familiar with the term, is a time of examination of how responsible we are with our resources towards the earthly kingdom of God. We can't give God anything. Our money and precious possessions are rubble to Him anyway. But we can give of our resources to God as we give unto others. If we choose to give through a local church body the good can be spread better than if we give individually to individual needs.

I am a strong advocate of being individually responsive and responsible to individual needs, but not at the reduction in our giving to a local fellowship body. I also am a firm believer that a tithe is still insignificant in the community and social status in which most of us live. I understand being coupled with debt and the high cost of life styles. I am living beyond my current means myself. Not because I choose to, but because I was dealt an income blow unwarranted. I was enjoying an income level that allowed me to give more than a tithe, take mission trips and give individually to needs that came to my attention. Now I barely make ends meet.

So I am not unacquainted with stretched budgets. I am hoping for better income levels soon.

I am a believer that a tithe is less than most of us can afford because most of us own things we simply do not need. In fact, I'd say many of us own things that are not only a drain on our income, but are a detriment to our spirituality commitments. And, no, I won't list any. Just in case I'd miss one you might have and you would feel smug thinking you don't.

A tithe to me is a good starting point for those just introduced to salvation and holy living. But we must remember that the tithe was introduced to God's chosen people at a time in history when they were pretty much self sufficient. Self sufficient in the sense that they didn't go to anyone for their needs. They grew everything they ate. They grew what they lived in unless it was a cave and it came with the land they owned. They grew their transportation. They even grew their own labor so having work done for them wasn't paid out of pocket. They didn't pay for education, insurance policies or medical services for the most part (they most likely lived with the ailment or injury and they certainly didn't have their teeth cleaned every 6 months or have preventative colonoscopies done). Their homes didn't require termite inspections, boundary line surveys or occupancy permits when selling or buying. And the list goes on.

So do we tithe on our gross, net, net after bills or what we have left at the end of the month? I say none of the above. I say move past a tithe as soon as you can convince yourself you can. As our pastor often says. "Don't give until it hurts, give until it feels good."

The basic fact and truth that Christians must come to is that when we come to God asking for forgiveness, protection, love and commitment on His part, we must give ourselves totally over to him. What's God's is God's, and what's ours is God's. Simple.

Pastor Kerry put me on the spot this morning. I mean really on the spot. When I think of the thousands of children and adults I have seen with my own eyes who do not have have the necessary provisions for sustaining life on a daily basis and then instantly think of all of the things I have that are not necessary for provision or happiness I cringe.

Lord, forgive my extravagant ways. Guide me as I simplify.

Workable VS Fatal differences & Fatal VS Workable similarities

I have a coworker who is a licensed minister in a different denomination than I am in, or have ever been a part. Yesterday I told him he would probably make a better Nazarene than me. He thought about it a couple of minutes, and said he agreed. He agreed because we do a lot of talking as work together first thing many mornings for a couple of hours.

His denomination believes in the idea of a physical rapture and a time on this earth when Satan will be "bound" for a "season." The Nazarenes do as well. I don't. Many of the Nazarenes as well as the denomination this friend is affiliated with believe in a physical battle commonly referred to as Armageddon. I, again, do not. In fact, I mostly discount all of the prophesies attributed to Daniel and to John the Revelator. I think at best they were feeble human attempts at explaining spiritual realities going on at the time of the writings as well as future events. I actually lean more towards them being fantasy with possible hallucinate influences.

But are they workable or fatal differences? It really depends on parties involved. For me, they are workable. For my deceased parents and deceased and living family, fatal. And there is the sad part.

On the flip side, we can agree on things that are fatal not only to our own spiritual relationship, but to those that look on our spiritual relationship.

As people who don't really know anything about us observe us, what are their impressions? Are they attracted to us and by way of that attracted to the Gospel? Or are they turned away because we maintain that things have to be a certain way and are not willing to consider other possibilities? I am not talking about spiritual relationship ending sin here. I am talking about concepts and ideas that we can not prove or disapprove via the Scriptures. Like a rapture. Like an Armageddon.

If you know for sure what is going to happen at the end of time, please write it up as clearly and succintly as possible, chew it up and swallow it and let nature takes its course. Please do not send it to me. I also do not believe in fortune telling.