Blasphemy Results in Death Penalty

Lev. 15-16. “Whosoever curses his God shall bear (the consequences of) his sin. And he that “blasphemes” the name of the Lord, he shall surely be put to death, and all the congregation shall surely stone him”

The sin of blasphemy (defamatory speech against God) in the Old Testament was punishable by death. Note the scriptures don’t say that the guilty one can pray for forgiveness or offer the blood of an innocent lamb or make any other kind of sacrifice. If you “blaspheme” God in the Mosaic Law you are to be punished with death… there is no forgiveness

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Which brings us to the New Testament, in Matthew 12:31 we find Jesus teaching that whoever “blasphemes” against the Holy Spirit cannot be “forgiven in this life or in the world to come (Heaven).” Let me suggest that Jesus affirms by this statement that the prohibition against “blaspheming” the name of God in the Mosaic Law carries over to the Law of Christ, i.e., Christians who “blaspheme”(directly) the name of God (or the Spirit of God) cannot be forgiven… ever.

Consider then the individual in Hebrews 6 (vv. 1-8), he was a Christian, believed in Jesus Christ, etc. but rejected (blasphemed) the name of God by his rejection of God. The text says it is impossible to renew him to repentance (v.6) and he will be “rejected and whose end it is to be burned” (v. 8). He was guilty of the unforgiveable sin of “blasphemy” against God.

Also, 1 John 5:16, “If any man see his brother sinning a sin not unto death he shall ask and God will give life…” Perhaps the visible sin that we are to evaluate as a “sin unto death” and decide not to pray for is the sin of” blasphemy” against the name of God because as God has instructed… there is no forgiveness for that sin… don’t waste your time praying for it.

The sin of “blasphemy” against God or the Spirit of God (Holy Spirit) is unforgiveable in the Old and New Testaments. The only difference is that in the New Testament God does not compel his people to mete out punishment for this specific crime against God… God will take care of that himself.

Could the father of the “Prodigal son” be an Elder in the Lord’s church today?

Of course we have to remember that the father lived under the Mosaic Law but he apparently was faithful to it. What about the two sons? The older brother apparently was a Jew in good standing and certainly faithful to the rule of his father but he had some problems… he lacked compassion. Still, no problem with him as far as his father’s Elder qualifications.

What about the younger son? He too was apparently a Jew in good standing and was faithful to his father’s rule. However like his older brother he too had a problem… he was enamored by what the world had to offer… drunkenness, sex, etc. And given the first opportunity acted upon those desires… although still in a manner respectful (superficially) of his father. He asked for his inheritance and left the country before acting upon his desires.

Get this… the only difference in the two sons was the “visibility” of their chosen sins and the “opportunity” to come up short of God’s word.

So based upon what we know of the father’s leadership in his family he could have qualified to be an Elder in the Lord’s church.

So… based upon the subsequent actions (drunkenness, fornication) of his younger son could he have continued as an Elder in the Lord’s church or would he have to step down?

Many would say he would have to step down because he has to “maintain” the qualifications and when the younger son went wild he was no longer qualified. In my opinion this concept is short sighted. The father exhibited the exact qualities one would want to find in an Elder of the Lord’s church… patience and compassion and the temporary failures of his two sons did not make him less of a servant in the eyes of God.

The father addressed both of his son’s sins as the opportunities presented.

Ground Hog Day

One of my all-time favorite movies is “Ground Hog Day”. I bet I’ve watched it a 100 times. The movie centers on a local weatherman who travels to a city he despises to cover an event he despises… a groundhog who predicts the future weather. Weatherman Phil Collins (played by Bill Murray) is arrogant, condescending, and prideful.

While covering the event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania he wakes up to find he is living the same day over and over again… in the same miserable city covering the same miserable event. At first he takes advantage of the situation and seduces women, steals money, flaunts the law and gets thrown in jail but every morning he wakes up bearing no consequences for his actions… but there is one woman who despite all his efforts he cannot seduce… Rita, his program manager.

Eventually he despairs of taking advantage of people and tries all kinds of methods to kill himself, but he wakes up every morning still alive.

Then one day gives up the futility of trying to seduce Rita and decides to start living to serve other people. He fixes flats for old people, he saves a kid who falls out of a tree everyday, etc. Women (not Rita) start trying to seduce him. Along the way he learns a foreign language and how to play the piano and becomes the type of caring, giving person that Rita falls in love with. At the complete transformation from being arrogant, condescending and self-serving to being compassionate, caring and humble Phil finally wakes up in a new day… and wins Rita.

That, my friends, is a microcosm of the futility of life and the acceptance of Jesus Christ so that like Phil we can be transformed and find true happiness. The problem with Phil was… Phil.

How to be Filled with the Spirit

“And be not drunken with wine… but be filled with the Spirit, speaking one to another in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs making melody with your heart to the Lord...” (Eph. 5:18-21)

This verse contains a spiritual imperative… we are to be filled with the Spirit. That filling is our responsibility not Gods. We are filled with the Spirit when we sing, when we give thanks and when we subject ourselves to one another.

These verses and the preceding verses are instructions given to individual Christians, i.e., not assembly instructions. The singing instructions then are not primarily regulating congregational (assembly) singing but are primarily about an individual being “filled with the Spirit” by singing. That can be done as an individual, a group of individuals or the assembly. If we say that these verses concerning singing only regulate congregational singing then by the same reasoning “giving thanks” and “subjecting ourselves one to another” would also have to be exclusively congregational (assembly) related. Simply… not true.

Be filled with the Spirit by actively following the instructions listed in Ephesians 5; Sing, give thanks, and place the needs of others before your own needs. It is your spiritual responsibility.

Work for Salvation

“So then… work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12)

Here’s an interesting scripture… we’re supposed to work out our own salvation. Wait a minute, I thought the work was God’s and salvation was given as a free gift (grace) with no strings attached?

First of all the free gift of grace is Jesus Christ (Titus 2:11). We have the spiritual responsibility of becoming Jesus Christ (Eph. 4:13). That responsibility requires some work on our part.

So specifically what work is described in Phil. 2? We are to imitate the servitude of Jesus. Jesus served the world and we must be like him. We must serve each other. It starts by developing the attitude that everyone else is better than we are. It’s easy to do things for people that we respect and admire. When we have the attitude that we’re better than everyone else and our things are more important than the things of others, then we tend to just serve ourselves. We’ve got to work out of that kind of selfish living.

“… not looking each of you to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others” (Phil.2:4)

So then we accept the free gift of Jesus Christ who pays the price for our sins and we work to become like him. We work to become servants. We work for our salvation because Heaven will only be populated with servants.

Motivations of False teachers from Galatians

The letter to the churches in Galatia was written to correct a particular false teaching. Namely, that non-Jewish Christians would have to be circumcised to be acceptable to Jesus Christ. The Apostle Paul identifies their motivations for teaching this soul- damning doctrine.

Galatians 6: 12-13. “Those who want to make a good impression outwardly are trying to compel you to be circumcised. The only reason they do this is to avoid being persecuted for the cross of Christ. 13 Not even those who are circumcised obey the law, yet they want you to be circumcised that they may boast about your flesh”

Here it is… first they wanted to escape persecution. The persecutors were Jews who rejected the teachings of Jesus Christ. These false teachers were trying to escape persecution by circumcising Greek Christians so they could make the claim that Christianity was just a type of Judaism. After all, Jews were intensely interested in converting the Greeks to Judaism. Jesus said to the Jews…

"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” (Mt. 23:15)

If these false teachers could convince the Jews that these new Christians were *just* hybrid Jews then they would not only escape persecution but also achieve their second motivation… making a “good impression outwardly” with the Jews and “Boasting about their flesh” to the Jews.

False teachers are no different today. They want to be accepted… not rejected or persecuted and they love the lime-light. A false teaching can be dressed up and made to look good. Examine the teaching to see if there is consistency with the scriptures and look at the teacher’s motivation… otherwise it could cost you your soul.

Galatians 5 describes something called “the work of the flesh”. Really it should probably be called “the work of those who are led by Satan”. Work implies that a wage will be received and those who are led by Satan will indeed be paid a wage.

Those who are working for Satan do things like having sex with whoever might be available... homosexuality, drunkenness, wild partying, animosity, bickering and fighting are all activities associated with Satan. Those engaged in such activities have wages that are paid on earth and in life after earth.

On earth you can expect your life to be characterized by; Isolation, unhappiness, turmoil, impatience, arrogance, etc. (6:22-23). In the afterlife you can expect eternal suffering (5:21).

Choose to “work” for God and experience blessings on earth and in Heaven (5:22-23 & 6:8).

The Holy Spirit in Galatians

- We receive the Holy Spirit by the “hearing of faith” (3:2)

- We grow to spiritual maturity “in the Spirit” (3:3)

- We are “born after the Spirit” just like Isaac was. (4:29)

- We walk by the Spirit (5:16)

- We are led by the Spirit (5:18)

- We “plant” unto the Spirit (6:8)

We “walk”, are “led” and “plant” by the Spirit when we serve each other. “… through love be servants to each other” (5:13) and by “… loving our neighbors like we love ourselves” (5:14)

If we have these attributes of service we will harvest the “fruit of the Spirit” (5:22)…. Love, joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, and self-control (6:23)

If we don’t have these attributes in our lives then perhaps we’re planting something other than spiritual things.

Precious Memories

Every once in a while something happens that opens a door to my past. This morning it happened when I was teaching Bible class and I saw Kyle Willis walk into the auditorium. You see Kyle and Linda (now deceased) Willis were very close friends to my parents. Kyle was a Deacon at Spring Woods Church of Christ when Dad was an Elder there. When Dad got sick and his health began to deteriorate Kyle did a lot of things to help Mom and Dad… and even after Dad died Kyle helped my Mother. I don’t know all of it but Mom and Dad loved gardening so Kyle would come over and till the garden for them. Kyle also helped Mom with accounting and other kinds of paper work. Little things I guess, but huge to us.

We always had hope and faith that God would intervene and help Dad but it wasn’t looking too good. We were up there one weekend and they asked me to lead the closing prayer. I don’t remember what I said but I prayed my heart out and Kyle came up afterwards with tears in his eyes and hugged me and said, “that was a powerful prayer”. Kyle loved Dad.

So this morning as I was sitting there trying to sing… all those memories came flooding back. I’m convinced that Dad is alive and maybe knows what’s going on with us down here. Sometimes when I pray I ask God to tell Dad that I love him and miss him… and I thank God for men like Kyle Willis.

Jesus Lives

My office manager told me she was impressed when she was stuck in traffic the other day. She saw a homeless guy sitting in a parking lot and a car drove up to him and the driver got out and gave the homeless guy a Whataburger meal. It touched her heart.

Julie told me she was stuck in traffic for a while and she witnessed a man arguing with a woman and getting physical with her. The woman kept pulling away but the man kept grabbing her. Finally when Julie’s car moved up she rolled down the window and said “Honey… do you need a ride?” The woman gratefully got in the car and explained to Julie that the guy was an ex boy-friend who was stalking her. Julie drove her to where she could meet up with her mother. I asked Julie if she was afraid and she said no because she didn’t think the guy would do anything with all the onlookers.

I wish I was the guy who had stopped and gave the guy the hamburger but I’m proud that my wife was the one who helped the woman. Jesus Lives!

Galations Intro

http://youtu.be/qaBDI76gasU?list=UUbSZZJ7GzXrsNuzEXt0Ffyg

Resolutions

I was a student at Texas A&M University for eight years (1973-1981). During that time Julie and I were members at Twin City Church of Christ and were very regular in our attendance and I think I may have led songs a time or two and waited on the table when I was asked. But over-all was dissatisfied with my involvement with the congregation. So when we graduated and prepared for our move to Mexia, Texas, I resolved that whatever the leaders at Shiloh Church of Christ asked me to do… I would do it.

I think we had only been members up there a few weeks when they asked me to teach the auditorium class. My heart froze in my body… I had never taught the auditorium class before. Everyone in that class was older than me (except Julie) but I couldn’t quiet down that resolution I had made and told them I would do it. I’m sure my efforts were subpar but everyone was very encouraging to me.

A year later we moved to Corpus Christi, Texas and started attending at Parkway. The preacher at that time was Elmer Moore. After we placed membership Elmer called some of his contacts in Mexia and asked them how active I was. They responded… “well, he taught the auditorium class”. So here we go again… people asking me to do things and I can’t say no.

Looking back I wouldn’t have it any other way. Those kinds of experiences have helped to shape me. It’s easy to say “no”. In fact I tease some people that they have a short circuit from their ear to their mouth… a sentence ends with a question mark and a special nerve bypasses the brain and goes straight to the mouth and a “no” comes out. Challenge yourselves, step out-side the box (kick the box in and stomp on it)… re-invent yourself. You might be surprised at the out- come… I was.

Humility Contests

Some of you know that several years ago Julie made a comment that one of our members was “the humblest man she had ever met”. Of course I said “what… more humble than me?” And told her I could be the humblest guy at church and started a humility contest with the other guy.

In retrospect, maybe that humility contest thing is not such a bad idea and what would that look like anyway? A lot of people have the wrong idea about what humility is and think that humility is incongruous with a strong personality or a lot of confidence in ones abilities. So before we can see what a humility contest looks like we first have to understand the Bible definition of humility.

Phillipians 2:5-11 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name.

Jesus Christ our supreme example in everything was also supreme in the attribute of humility. He had a strong personality, strong self- confidence and was very forthright in his speech and yet… humble.

Jesus Christ was humble because he served others. He gave up his rights and his life to serve humanity.

So get this… humility has nothing to do with a quiet nature/personality but has everything to do with helping and serving others. So what would a humility contest look like? It would look like people sacrificing their time, energy and resources to help other people out.

That original humility contest thing was a big joke because the motivation was misplaced. Our real motivation to be humble is to serve God and defeat Satan. We do that by killing the self-serving pride in our lives and by cultivating and nurturing selfless humility.

Ephesians 2:19-22 A Holy Temple

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his Spirit.

This passage is taken out of a context to illustrate to the non-jewish Christians that they were equal to Christians from a jewish background. It begins with the concept that all individual Christians are built upon the foundation of Jesus Christ (and the Apostles and prophets) as is consistent with Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians 3:10-11. Paul laid a foundation and a spiritual building is built on that foundation. As people build their lives on the foundation a building arises and that building looks like Jesus Christ because as is stated in Ephesians 4:15 we grow into being the very likeness of Jesus Christ.

Now here’s an interesting thing… these individual buildings are assembled together (the church) to create a Holy Temple. Christian people, then, make up a Holy Temple in which God lives. Remember that in Jewish times a man- made temple was constructed and God lived in an especially sacred part of it. No man could enter in to it except the High Priest of Israel and he could only do it once a year to carry in a blood offering to atone for the sins of the people.

The people had no direct access to God!

With the coming of Jesus Christ we not only have direct access to him but he lives in a Temple that is composed of his people… a living Temple. What a great blessing. Here’s the important thing… live your lives in such a way that God has a beautiful and majestic place to live. He deserves it for all he’s done and continues to do for us.

Building Homes

There was a problem in the church at Corinth, and the problem was pride. Some teachers had come in after Paul had left and undermined his teaching and impugned his character. They said he wasn’t a real Apostle (for one thing). In the letter, Paul defends himself and the Evangelistic work he had done among them. In 1 Corinthians 3:10-16, he describes himself figuratively as a wise Master Carpenter who laid a perfect foundation. That foundation was Jesus Christ. He goes on to say that someone came after him and started building on that foundation with inferior materials. The inferior materials were false teachings (lies). Paul says these buildings (who are individual Christians) would be tested with fire. If the building was made with combustible materials (lies) the buildings (Christians) would be burned up. If they were built with non-combustible materials (truth) the buildings (Christians) would not be damaged. He concludes in verse 16 that Christians are a Temple of God in whom the Holy Spirit resides. Paul warns that these false teachers could destroy the Temple of God and if they did the false teachers would also be destroyed (by God).

Paul had to demolish these buildings (remove the lies they had been taught) until he reached the true foundation and begin re-building with non-combustible materials (truth). Christians must be careful to examine the scriptures to see if truth is being taught. If they don’t, and build their spiritual house with lies… God won’t live with them and they will be destroyed.

Let’s build a nice house together so God can live with us.

Scatter Shooting 2. Thinking about Parenting

When I was in the fourth grade (the first time) we lived in Utah. I guess Utah had a big grasshopper problem because mom gave us a jar of alcohol and paid us a penny for every 10 grasshoppers we caught. That’s’ right 10 cents for every 100. Every time I think about the three of us chasing grasshoppers all over the neighborhood I want to call CPS. Never underestimate the power of a mother to manipulate her young charges.

When I was about 13 we had a litter of puppies. Mom said “Robby don’t you think you’d like to be a Veterinarian one day?” I guess so mom. So she kept reinforcing that idea until I thought it was my own. Now I wonder if I ever had any original thoughts or if they all came from my mother.

When I was in the seventh grade I always wanted to arm wrestle mom but she wouldn’t do it because she didn’t like getting beat. One day she wanted to paint my bed room some sick color and I stedfastly refused. She asked me if she could paint my room if she beat me armwrestling? I said.. sure because she couldn't do it. So she signed me up for life-saving lessons at the local pool. After swimming about 100 laps I came home exhausted and mom said “do you want to armwrestle?” Of course I did and she beat me. I looked at her grinning face and realized she had already painted my bedroom. Manipulative and cunning.

The last whipping I ever had was when I was 16. Actually it was a mass whipping because mom ordered Scott, Greg and I to lay down on her bed and she proceeded to lay into us with a belt. I’m not sure of the offense but I am sure we were well deserving of the punishment. Anyway we had learned to ignore the pain and just laughed instead. Pretty soon she started laughing and she never whipped us again. What a confusing scene that was.

When we would come to California to visit the relatives there were two big things we always wanted to do; go to the beach and go to Tiajuana, Mexico. When we would go to Tiajuana we were always told two things. Don’t buy any fire crackers and meet us back here at 4 pm. What parents in their right mind left their three sons alone in a foreign country? I don’t know but guess it worked out, except we always snuck firecrackers back into the states with us.

When we moved from Utah to Alabama and I repeated the fourth grade. Scott told mom he was going to run away from home. Mom said… go ahead. Well the little rascal did it. I still remember mom going crazy about it. So while mom was searching all over Athens, Alabama for Scott the police came by in a patrol car and told me to come with them they had found Scott. So when we picked him up the cops told him that if he ever ran away again they were going to throw him in the basement of the jail where they kept all the bad criminals (actually these were not the exact words). Needless to say he never ran away again. I’ve always wondered if mom told those cops to say that.

Of course we always had BB guns as kids and would try to shoot apples off of each other’s heads and of course have BB gun wars. Uncle CB who was eight years older than me happened to shoot my cousin Sharron right in the buttocks and it left a horrible bruise. Off course Sharron, destined to be a great mother one day, manipulated the situation by “over crying”. So here’s what our parents did, they had Sharron lay on a bed with her naked bruised buttocks exposed but tastefully surrounded by towels and had us file in to see the damage. I still feel bad for uncle CB about that

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When Lauren was little she would cry for no reason at all… it was very annoying. So I told her if she would stop crying I would let her hit Walker in the stomach. Through the tears she nodded her head and punched Walker in the stomach and quit crying. Sometimes you’ve got to take one for the team.

When Walker first got his driver’s license I let him drive my Mazda pick- up. It was my truck of many colors. The salt water had not been kind to it and I had done the Bondo and fiber glass work myself and used whatever spray paint I had available. So one day a client tells me they have seen Walker driving recklessly. I thanked them and told them I would take care of it. After I verbally disciplined my son he replied, “as long as I’m driving dad’s truck I might as well have a bumper sticker that says ‘How’s my driving, call 241-9864?” It’s good that kids realize they can’t live anonymous lives.

I was filleting Flounder one day and Walker and some of his buddies were watching and I asked them if they wanted to taste the Flounder eggs? They said “no… you do it”. I responded that if I tasted them they do it would too and when the said yes I made them seal the deal with a promise. So I ate some Flounder eggs and said… your turn. They all went back on their word. Then I fastened my eyes on my beloved son and said, “you’re going back on your word too?” And he said, no dad I’m not and ate the Flounder eggs”. Proud moment.

Walker preached his first sermon when he was about 16 years old and just prior to that I asked Lauren if she would do me a favor. She said… what? I told her that when they sang the invitation song I would like her to respond and go forward and confess some vague sin and ask for prayers that it would help her brother’s self- image. Of course she refused. It’s good to teach your kids to have a sense of humor. Both my children have excellent senses of humor.

Mom let it go to my kids that I had repeated the fourth grade. Of course they were very interested in that and she explained that she had started me in school really young and I was “socially immature” and so she had me repeat the fourth grade when we moved from Utah to Alabama. of course they ran with that and said “maybe dad needs to repeat the fourth grade again”. I told them their grandmother had lied to them that the real reason I repeated the fourth grade was because I had killed another kid. There’s that sense of humor thing again.

Incredible Hospitality

Ken Osbourne visited recently and I was reminded of the hospitality Parkway showed to us when we came here. In 1982 I was working in a predominately Beef cattle practice in Mexia, Texas and looking for a better paying job. I heard of one in Corpus Christi so I set up an interview. Julie’s Dad knew a member of the Church in Corpus, John Osborne, and told us the Osborne’s wanted us to stay with them. We don’t usually stay with strangers but since we were dirt poor we agreed to. So we got in our 1974 Dodge Charger, that burned more oil than gas, and headed for Corpus. Julie was six months pregnant and Walker was about 3 years old. We reached Refugio, Texas about 11:00 at night and didn’t want to be a burden to the Osborne’s so we called and said we were getting in late and would just find a hotel. Brother Osborne told me all the Hotels were full and they would wait up for us… he wouldn’t take no for an answer. So we rolled in after midnight, met them and went right to bed.

The next morning I was at Riverside Veterinary Clinic interviewing all day, which meant watching Dr. Denman work his clinic until about noon. Then we grabbed a hamburger and I went with him on a farm call to see a sick cow. On the way back we came to an agreement and I drove to the Osborne’s house. Keep in mind this was before cell phones and I hadn’t talked to Julie all day long. When I got there I told Julie I had taken the job and she told me that the Osborne’s were throwing us a party that night that there were some people in the church that we had known from our A&M days. So that night they had a houseful; Brad & Beth Roach and Tim & Dorothy Torno were young couples we had known from A&M. And of course we made many life-long friends that night; Carl & Dot Miller, Elmer Moore, Hutchins, Barnes, Ray Tornos, Dansbys, Grafs, etc.

We went to church the next morning and afterwards Brother Osborne took me around looking at rent houses. We rented a place that Sunday where one of the malls stands now. The rental company would not take my out of town check so Carl Miller took our check and gave me cash and we were able to put a deposit on that rent house. Julie reminded me that Linda Torno came to the rent house with her kids after we left and saw the condition of the back yard and cleaned up a lot of broken glass and other trash. Of course, we moved in July 4th week-end and Lauren was born Aug 31. Four weeks later the church ladies had a baby shower. Julie said she held Lauren and let Walker open the gifts and he kept expecting a truck or a motorcycle but kept getting something pink until finally one of those thoughtful church ladies handed him a present that contained something for him. God bless them. Incredible hospitality which we will never forget and I was reminded of when Ken Osborne visited last Sunday.

Satan’s 10 Commandments

1. There is no God and if there is one he doesn’t really care about you. So, live your life however you want to.

2. Since there is no God you can worship whatever you want to; Sex, Sports, Food… whatever.

3. Use God’s name however you want to. It really doesn’t matter… it’s not like he’s going to throw thunderbolts at you. If you do offend him all you have to do is say “I’m sorry”.

4. The Sabbath Day is just like any other… do whatever you want to. You’ve worked hard all week… rest up or go do whatever makes you happy.

5. Your mom and dad… what makes them so special? They’re human just like anyone else. I say respect wisdom and experience. If your parents have that then great but so do a lot of other people. Find those people and respect them

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6. Thou shalt not kill? Really? Didn’t God kill people for violating his so called laws? If it’s good enough for God why not you? There is a law of self-preservation and benefitting self. If someone violates that then… you know what to do.

7. Adultery is OK as long as it doesn’t hurt anyone. After all it is your own body and you can do with it what you want.

8. Stealing is not that bad, especially if the other person does not deserve what they have. Why should they have something they don’t deserve? Stealing is also OK if the other person has too much and you have too little. God told the rich to share with the poor. It’s OK to punish them by taking what they have.

9. It’s OK to “bear false witness” if you have to in order to protect yourself. Also you can bear false witness if the other person has ever harmed you or if they are not nice.

10. Wanting what others have is not bad. We all want to better ourselves and have more. What could be wrong with that?

Eldership and New members

At Parkway we try to meet with all of our new members. There are certain things we want them to know about being a member at Parkway. One of our goals at Parkway is to help our members reach full spiritual maturity.

- We encourage our new members to come to a complete knowledge of what God has revealed to us. So we encourage our members to study their Bibles at home and to attend all the public Bible classes we offer. - We encourage our members to control sin in their lives and we are there to help hold them accountable for their actions. We will help with any problems they might have but for those who willfully sin we cannot maintain fellowship. - We encourage our members to live lives of service to each other. Humility is built and pride is torn down by putting the needs of others before our own needs. - We encourage our members to participate whole heartedly in our collective worship responsibilities; Singing, Praying, Lord’s Supper, Sacrificial offerings and teachings.

By having these discussions up front we all start off on the same page and have a foundation to build on.

Sacrifice

The scriptures are clear that the world will come to know Jesus Christ through the love/service that Christians show to each other. We’ve got the concept down. I thought I might illustrate it with some experiences from my life.

Rudolph Kocurek and I were good friends, God rest his soul. He taught me a lot about woodworking. We developed a partnership where we would go out onto ranchland, winch the mesquite logs onto his trailer, go to the sawmill in Kingsville, Texas and then divide the boards. One day my Dad was visiting from Houston and watched Rudolph and I as we divided the boards. I would pick out the best boards and tell Rudolph… you take this one. He would say… no you take it. This happened board after board. Finally Dad out of frustration said… just divide them up… you’re not going to cheat each other. No we weren’t because our relationship was a lot more valuable than boards.

Gus, David and I have been Elders for a number of years. We were having problems with a member and two of us wanted to do one thing and one of us wanted to do another. I told the other two to go ahead with what they wanted to do but I couldn’t be part of it. The other two said if you can’t go along with it then we won’t do it… our relationship is too important. The member ended up moving off. I’ll never forget the respect that David and Gus had for my conscience.

In 1998, Pancho Hubert and I decided to partner up and start a new Veterinary clinic. A lot of people warned us about taking on a partner. I’ve had a lot of good friends and Pancho Hubert is as good a friend as I’ve ever had. We take care of each other. He can borrow anything I have and I can borrow anything he has. If he’s short on cash I’ll give him whatever I’ve got and he’ll do the same for me. He went to my dad’s funeral and I went to his dad’s funeral. We can laugh and poke fun at each other and we love each other for it. We never take advantage of each other but try to treat the other better than we treat ourselves. We have built an incredible business because just as water flows downhill so does the power of good leadership.

I’ve learned this, when you have complete trust in a relationship that frees you up to focus all your efforts in a positive direction and great things can be achieved.

I’ve also learned that things are not as important as people. Sacrifice yourselves and your things so you can build great relationships with people and God can be glorified.

Keep Your Vows

The prophet Isaiah was the mouth piece for God to warn his people about his unhappiness with them. God’s people Israel were often referred to as God’s wife. They had made promises to each other but the wife Israel forsook her promises and started “sleeping” around with other false Gods. God warned Israel through Isaiah (and other prophets) that he was going to give them over to her “lovers”… the heathen nations of Assyria and Babylon. God took away his protection of his wife and gave her over to Assyria and Babylon and they treated her horrendously… slaughtering most of them.

We as Christians have made a promise to God and committed our lives to him. Don’t think for one minute that God doesn’t expect us to live up to our promises. There are consequences for breaking vows… on this earth and in Heaven. Just ask Israel.

Let Your Light Shine

1 Peter 3:8-15

"Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart and a humble mind… being ready always to give an answer to anyone who asks you a reason concerning the hope that is in you.”

This text explains that our Christian behavior as we interact with others should generate questions about Jesus Christ which dovetails precisely with what Jesus said in John 13:35…

“By this shall all men know that you are my disciples, if you have brotherly love for each other.”

So here it is, through our demonstrable interaction with each other Jesus Christ is exalted. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Let your light shine… do not hide it under a basket… and other Bible quotations. Demonstrate your lives to your neighbors, your fellow workers, your enemies and whoever you may come in contact with so they can ask you the question, “Why are you different” and you can respond “because of Jesus Christ.”

Customer Service

Julie and I were in New Orleans a few weeks ago and were scheduled to go to a lunch put on by a drug company. We were a little early and Julie was hungry so we walked in to the hotel restaurant where they were still serving a breakfast buffet. I asked how much it was and the server said $28. Julie said… I’ll just wait and walked out.

The server said… if she wants a muffin I’m sure that will be OK. So I fetched my bride and she picked out a Blueberry muffin. As we were walking out the server ran to us and said… here’s a napkin.

Wow! That’s customer service.

How about “customer service” in our assemblies… specifically our visitors? Do we ignore them or give them a warm welcome and act as if we are truly interested in them. Do we judge them because they may be dressed inappropriately or do we ignore their dress for the sake of being hospitable? Are body piercings and tattoos so repulsive to us that it creates a barrier to hospitality?

I was paid a compliment by a former employer who is not known for paying compliments. He said, “Rob Perkins can talk to anyone, no matter their station in life, and make them feel comfortable”. That compliment really goes to my mother because I learned hospitality from her. Learn hospitality. Don’t be too busy and neglect visitors and don’t judge based on appearance. Practice excellent “customer service”.

That server at the Ritz Carlton in New Orleans? I told her if she wanted a job I would gladly hire her. She is a precious jewel. I hope that visitors at Parkway can see the same qualities in us.

The Problem with Grass Burs

I’m in the middle of a big Grass Bur problem at my house right now. It’s because when it was a little problem I ignored it. Now it’s a big problem. I started attacking the problem a year ago. I take my wheel barrow and a shovel and walk two acres searching for the little weeds. I’ve gotten where I can identify the plant without its characteristic bur but I’m so obsessed with getting rid of them that anything that even resembles a Grass bur plant gets dug up. I have two or three “hot spots’ in my yard where they have taken over. On these areas I spray the whole area with Roundup herbicide spray… but it kills everything. This year I have cleared up certain areas of my yard and I can focus on the few areas left. I see that it’s going to be about a three year process but really I’m going to have to pay attention to them in perpetuity because when I drive into my back gate I invariably will bring in Grass Burs from the wild and untamed areas behind my property.

Grass Burs are a lot like sin. - Grass Burs make my life miserable… so does sin - Sin, like Grass Burs, if ignored when small can become huge. - Sometimes Sin, like Grass Burs, reaches a critical mass before you decide to do something about it and then it’s a lot of trouble to bring under control. - Grass Burs are easy to recognize by the fruit it produces… the bur. Sin is easy to recognize by the fruit it produces. Learn to recognize the “plant” early and “weed” it out of your life before it produces that un-godly fruit. - Sometimes you are so surrounded by sin that you have to use a “Sin Herbicide”. That means you have to get completely away from your un-godly friends and family and surround yourself with the kind of people who are good for you. - You may have sin totally controlled in your life but we live in an un-godly world and if you are not vigilant you’ll carry those little grass Burs home with you.

To control Grass Burs you have to be a little obsessed with getting rid of them… be obsessed with eradicating sin from your life. It makes life so much sweeter.

Eldership and Member Development

Obviously the congregation is made up of different members with differing abilities. The church is described in 1 Corinthians 12 as a human body. The body needs all of its parts to function properly.

If parts are absent or weakened then the church is “handicapped” and cannot function properly as God designed it. So then it is on the Elders to identify and develop talent in the congregation so that the church body can function properly.

Here’s the thing… talent can never be developed unless it is discovered and used.

Several things factor into the wasting of talent by not using it. In a lot of congregations the Preacher is the main guy. He typically does all the preaching and teaches all of the classes. After-all that’s his job we pay him for that right?. So you have a body part that is over developed while the other parts are wasting away. I’m not a fan of the one Preacher system (for several reasons) where the Preacher is used to the exclusion of the other members.

Another factor is micro-management by Elders. Some Elders feel like they have to do and control everything. I know, of some congregations where the Elders do all of the announcements for fear that someone might “announce” the wrong thing.

At Parkway we discovered a young man who in his early 20s had an incredible “presence” for making announcements. He was comfortable, spoke clearly and had good extemporaneous thoughts to share with the congregation. We have used him and I’m convinced still have not discovered his “ceiling”.

We’ve had young Song-leaders who showed ability and with use have really developed into excellent Song-leaders.

Talent and ability can never grow unless you use them. You can’t be afraid of talent making mistakes. In fact you want the talented people to make mistakes so they can grow and learn from it. As Elders, let’s not handicap the congregation. Let’s discover talent and use that talent so the congregation can be all that it can be.

Eldership and Communicating Your Mission

I’m afraid that for many members if you asked them what the mission of the church was they would reply… to take the Lord’s Supper, sing, give the offering, pray and listen to preaching… Failure… abject failure. Those things are “what” the church does. The mission relates to “why” we do those things. We do the “what” things to accomplish the “why” things.

The Lord’s Supper causes us to remember Jesus and his sacrifice. Singing is a memory device to teach us about God and to teach each other. The offering teaches us to sacrifice to help others. Praying teaches us dependence upon God for all of our cares and worries. And Preaching/teaching causes us to learn about God. These things (and others) help us grow spiritually as individuals and collectively as a congregation to demonstrate to the world (physical world and spiritual spiritual world) that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

That’s our mission and it’s a grand and challenging mission.

So Elders, as leaders, need to constantly communicate to the congregation why we are in business. Not just a collection of spiritual robots performing a mundane list of requirements but a living, breathing, growing, organic collection of spiritual beings waging war with Satan and pleasing our God and Father in Heaven.

Something You Can Learn from Dogs

I was recently at a seminar that provides service dogs for people who are handicapped and often wheel chair bound. I was struck by what the speaker said, that a lot of these handicapped people are mentally beat down because they are not normal and that feeling is validated every day by the way people look at them and treat them.

When this organization provides a service dog for these individuals a transformation begins to take place… the dog provides unconditional love… the dog cannot see the handicap. He’s blind to it.

And eventually the handicapped person begins to believe the dog that they are worthy of love.

Jesus Christ provides that kind of transforming love but the problem with that is it’s hard to buy into concepts. What’s easier to buy into is when the Lord’s people provide that kind of unconditional love. Then it becomes palpable and real and helps build faith in Jesus Christ.

So when we meet someone who is not like us and may wear the visible effects of a sin stained life don’t look at that handicap, don’t even look at it… look at the person inside and use the power of love that Jesus gave you to help transform them because eventually they’ll begin to believe in it and reject the lie that Satan has sold them and believe in Jesus Christ.

Friends... Lost and Found

I know two people who love each other and each wants to feel important to the other person… and yet they don’t call each other because they think the other person should call them. So two people who could have a much deeper relationship… don’t because of their expectations.

A long time ago when I was a Deacon I was really close to one of our Elders and then some church trouble came up and we found ourselves on different sides of the fence. The troubles were resolved but our relationship was never the same and then the old Elder and his wife moved away. I loved that old man… he had taught me a lot about the Lord and plus we were just good friends.

I hated it that we had lost our old friendship and then one day I told Julie, “I don’t care if he doesn’t like me… I like him” and I started calling him and talking with him and lo and behold our friendship rekindled and I found out that he had never stopped liking me and it just took me a little effort to find that out.

Carl Miller developed Alzheimer’s and no longer lives on this earth. I’m glad that we found our relationship before it was too late.

Put your pride away and call those people you love.

Eldership and How the Church Functions

You might see different things when you walk into a church service.

- Some churches are heavy on formality and ritualism and some are very casual and informal. - Some churches emphasize the Bible and Bible study. Some who emphasize Bible study may put much more emphasis on the New Testament than the Old. - Some churches are heavy on the social aspect of Christianity and the whole assembly may be punctuated with meals and snacks and such like with minimal Bible study. - Some churches emphasize acceptance of other people to the extent that they ignore open sin and do not hold their members to any level of accountability. - Some churches emphasize the positive aspects of God and de-emphasize God’s hatred of sin.

All the examples listed above are examples of churches who are out of balance. The dangerous thing about out of balance churches is that they may produce Christians who are also out of balance. The church functions to assist in the production of Christians who are the mirror images of Jesus Christ. To do so Elders must lead the congregations they have authority over by teaching the Bible in a comprehensive way… a balance of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Elders must not neglect the powerful social aspect of the Gospel of Christ and must encourage its members to fulfill their social obligations to each other. Elders should inform the congregations members that Jesus wanted his people to be sin-free and that open sin in the congregation will not be ignored. Elders should give careful consideration to how the congregations they work with function so that on The Day when these congregations of people are delivered up to God for evaluation they may be found healthy and whole.

The Wife of God

http://s186728045.onlinehome.us/mp3/RobPerkins-2014-04-13-Ezekiel.mp3

Eldership and Wives

The qualification in I Timothy 3 states that an Elder candidate “Must be the husband of one wife”. Usually there is a reason behind qualifications and one reason is that the man must be a family man and demonstrate good leadership qualities in his own family so that the congregation can predict his ability to lead God’s family. Not a bad reason but probably not the only reason.

Julie and I were married in 1973 one week out of high school. She remains some 43 years later the only girl I ever dated. When I became an Elder at Parkway she fully supported me in that… of course. Over the course of time I have seen her excel as a Bible class teacher. To this day I can still say she is stronger in the Old Testament than I am. Gradually I saw her taking on other tasks. Tasks that I never asked or hinted that she do. As you know I send out via email my “Church News”. She started copying that and handing it out to people who don’t have email… primarily older people. Her weekly “Church News” is different than mine. Hers includes a prayer list, plus all the emails that I have sent out to the rest of the congregation during the week. In addition, she’ll add anything encouraging that she might find.

Speaking of the “Prayer List” she is the one who maintains and updates that. I just forward it on. She also keeps up the “Membership Roster” which includes email addresses, birthdays and anniversaries. Every once in a while someone will thank me for an anniversary or birthday card. Everyone in the congregation receives those but they are not from me… they are from her signed “Rob and Julie Perkins”. BTW, she doesn’t get as many thanks as the number of cards she sends out but she has never complained about that.

She sees needs and encourages me to do something about it.

A while back I closed my fist and told her jokingly she was “quenching my spirit”. She said “I have been trying for 40 years to quench your spirit and so far have been unsuccessful”. And yet a while back I had 3-4 members who were kind of down on me and said (for the first time), “sometimes it just doesn’t seem worth it”. A few days later she told me some things about what a fine Elder she thought I was and some other kind things and a light came on and I said, “this is about what I said the other day?”

She is vital in organizing church Pot lucks like the one we just had.

She’s a quiet person and some people don’t understand her. Several years ago one of our Hispanic members asked me if she was prejudiced. No she’s just quiet and not as extroverted as I am. She doesn’t like attention drawn to herself and I’m sure I’ll be in trouble for this but I wanted to illustrate what an Elders wife can do working behind the scenes and not seeking the limelight and how she has helped transform me.

I’ll never forget the day when a light clicked on for me and I thought…. She believes in me.And that has made all the difference.

Eldership and Leading by Example

I’ve been wanting to do a little writing about being an Elder in a congregation of the Lord’s people. You can read in the scriptures details about the qualities of men required to be an Elder and the work that Elders do. I want to add to those things some things I have learned about being an Elder. I don’t presume to know everything and in fact find that with every year that passes I am still learning.

David Smitherman and I were selected by the congregation to be Elders on July 20, 1997. Three years later on June 18, 2000, Gus Cargile and Bill Chambers were added by the congregation. I was 43 years old when I was selected… that’s pretty young.

One of the huge things about being an Elder is you have to lead by example. A blood brother to that concept is that congregations will never rise (generally) above the level of their leadership. So we have to not only lead by example but also the example must be at a very high level.

If we want the congregation to be hospitable we have to be hospitable. If our level of hospitality is just shaking hands and making a little conversation then that’s what the congregation will do as well. That’s the level that a lot of congregations perform at.

If we want the congregation to attend well then we have to attend well.

If we want the congregation to be students of the Bible or teachers or preachers… so must we.

If we want the congregation to care about widows, children, the old, the lonely, the sick… so must we.

If we want the congregation to care about the lost… we must be obsessed with it.

If we want the congregation to pray and engage in heart felt prayer and to pray at every opportunity… that must be our example.

If we want the congregation to be generous with our money and time… we have to demonstrate generosity and the sacrifice of our time and our lives.

If we want the congregation to own up when they make mistakes… then we also must be accountable.

Men who have a desire to be Elders should prepare themselves by emulating these concepts. Shepherds must labor among the flock and be intimately known by the flock. The flock needs to see that its Shepherds are willing to make any sacrifice necessary for the benefit of the flock. I’m not the Shepherd I was 16 years ago hopefully, if the Lord wills, I will continue to learn. I hope this helps.

Two Wives

In the Old Testament the nation of Israel was figuratively called God’s wife. God was committed to his “wife” and cared for her and provided for her and she became prominent among the nations of the world. But there came a time when his wife wouldn’t listen to him and she started following after “false” Gods. She committed adultery. God was patient and urged her to return to faithfulness to him but she rejected him. So God empowered a foreign nation to almost completely destroy her as punishment for her infidelity.

In the New Testament we see that Jesus Christ has a wife and his wife is the church. He cares for her and cherishes her and provides amply for her. However we read in the Book of Revelation (Chapters 1-3) that Jesus found fault with his wife. Among other things she had “left her first love”, “followed after false teachings”, and had become complacent in performing good works. Jesus warned her to make correction and if they did not he personally would “make war with them with the sword…”

God’s bride Israel (of past times) and Christ’s bride the church are beautiful brides as long as they remain faithful to their husbands. It can be a beautiful and satisfying relationship. Jesus Christ will always be faithful as a husband to the church. As a church let’s remember to be faithful to him in our good works and correct teaching of his Word.

Two Farmers

There were two farmers who made a crop every year but they approached farming in two drastically different ways.

The first farmer was an old school farmer. He owned a farm that his father and grandfather had farmed before him. He liked the old ways of farming. He liked hooking the harnesses up to the mules and following them as they plowed. Sometimes his young sons would ride on his shoulders as he plowed. He saved seed back every year from the harvest.

As the young plants would come up he and his family would hoe the rows to keep the weeds down and at harvest the whole family would be in the fields picking cotton. They worked from sun-up to sun-down and took pride in their work. He knew there were newer ways to farm but was satisfied to farm the way he was the most comfortable with.

The second farmer was also raised on a family farm but when tractors became available he made the switch. Eventually he was using tractors that were guided by GPS systems. He invested in hybrid seeds that produced plants that were both drought and herbicide resistant. When it came time to control weeds he was able to over spray his fields with herbicide that didn’t harm the cotton plants. When harvest time came the big combines would come in collect all that cotton in a jiffy. Because his operations were so profitable he was able to expand his operations and farm more land and became even more productive.

The farmers are Elders and Preachers. The farms represent both the lost in the world and local congregations. Some of the Elders and Preachers like the old ways… tried and true and do some good. Some of them look at the changes that are occurring in society and are reaching out to society where society “gathers”… like social media and instead of going “door to door” are using the internet to teach classes on Skype.

There are many tools to build congregations and find the lost. Let’s seek them out and use them.

Need a Favor

I talked to my cousin Mark Perkins this morning and he is discouraged that his cancer is worse. I wish you would lift him up with your words. You can email if you like. Thanks. perkinsmark83@yahoo.com

Marriage Enrichment

Several years ago some couples from church were going to get together to watch Gary Smalley’s marriage enrichment tapes. It was the kind of thing where you watched the tapes and then had a group discussion with the intent to enrich your marriage. Julie told me about it and asked me if I wanted to go. I thought about it for a minute and said something like it would probably be a waste of our time since our marriage was in such good shape. Then she said, well we could probably help the others with our experiences. Ohhh… that woman is smart… really smart. So, simpleton that I am, I said, sure let’s do it. So we started attending those meetings and generally they were good. I think I only fell asleep in one of them. But then we had one where Smalley said to rate your marriage from 1 – 10 (10 being the best) and discuss privately with each other what you individually could do to make your marriage a “10”. So sure enough Julie asks me on the way home how I rated our marriage. I was just about to say “10” when I thought, no a ten is perfect and she probably thinks our marriage is not quite perfect. So I was about to say “9” but stopped and thought no nine is like an “A”… I’ll say “8” like a “B”… above average but still room to get better. So I told her “8”. She said “8”!?!... I rated us a “6”. I thought to myself hmmph… a six… almost failing. So then she asked me what I thought I could do to make our marriage better. I was well familiar with her complaints about me so I went through the list blow by blow of what I could do better. Then she asked me what I thought she could do better. I thought for a minute and told her that I didn’t know anything that she could do better. That I lied when I rated our marriage an “8” that I really thought it was a “10”. I was perfectly happy with her. It wasn’t long after that, that I noticed she was really treating me nice and I didn’t really connect the dots. I just noticed how nice she was and thought well, we’ll give it a few days and see what happens. But then the days turned into weeks and I began to question her “is there something wrong with you?” Of course she replied “no”. Then I began to worry if the reason she was treating me so nice was that she was worried I was having an affair or something so I kept asking her about it. Finally she told me that when I told her I was perfectly happy with her and didn’t know of anything she could do better… that she knew I was wrong about that. So she started with the premise that Smalley and others teach that you can’t control anyone but yourself, so be the best you can and leave it to God and time to make your mate better and she worked hard to be the best wife she could be. So I asked her well did it work… am I better? And that smart wife of mine said, “I can’t really tell if you’re any better but I’m happier this way”.

1 Corinthians 1-6. “A Failure in Judgment”

These first six chapters in 1 Corinthians highlight three cases of failed judgment. First, the Corinthian Christians had used improper judgment in judging Paul to be an inferior teacher. Secondly, in their focusing on judging teachers an elephant had sat on them… they had failed to judge a case of obscene sexual misconduct within the congregation. Lastly, they had abrogated their responsibility to judge the smallest of civil disagreements, that they had with each other, to Pagan judges… judges who in their wise judgment had judged the story of Jesus to be a fairy tale (so to speak). Even the most biblically ignorant people carry one Bible verse in their pocket… judge not so that you won’t be judged. And yet Paul corrects the Corinthians for their failure to judge properly… which verses are right? The correct answer would be both of them. Congregations of Jesus Christ have the responsibility to hold each other accountable to the commandments of Christ but not hypocritically. Proper judgment is to judge ourselves first and with that humble spirit help others correct their improper behaviors so that they can be acceptable to Christ.

Marked for Death (revised)

The original "Marked for Death" was something I wrote back in 2003. It has gotten a lot of views but I really wasn't satisfied with it so I re-wrote it. Here it is.

I know a Veterinarian who several years ago was called out late at night to see a colicking horse. After the exam the Veterinarian determined that the horse was “twisted” and would either have to make the six hours trip to College Station for surgery or would need to be put to sleep. The old man accepted the diagnosis but surgery was not an option for him and he was not really ready to put the old horse down. He wanted some time alone to say goodbye to his old friend and told the Veterinarian he could do the euthanasia himself but didn’t know where to put the bullet. The Veterinarian got out a grease pencil used for marking cattle and put an “X” right between the horses eyes…. Put it there.

There's a horse that had a sentence of death placed upon him and had the mark on his head to prove it. We all carry or have carried the mark of death on our heads as well. The scriptures tell us that whenever we break God's Law he marks us for a death that will be carried out on the Judgment Day. There is only one way to have that mark removed and that is by substituting someone else in place of ourselves. Fortunately God has provided a substitute for us and we can be spared that sentence of eternal death. However, the gift is a conditional gift, it requires us to quit breaking God's Laws and to live lives that mimic Jesus' life on earth.

The first consequence of sin is that we die and are punished eternally. Sin does something else to us. Sin steals meaningful lives from us here on earth. Sin shapes us into something ugly...righteousness shapes us into something beautiful.

When we lie...we become liars and that takes away our trustworthiness.

When we have sex outside the marriage relationship it ruins the beauty and trust of a committed relationship.

When our priorities are wealth and pleasure our lives have no depth to them...we are behaving selfishly.

Even if we live basically good lives here on earth, if we don't assemble with other Christians we are neglecting our responsibilities to them and to God. God's Word does not teach solitary Christianity.

The second consequence of sin is it ruins our lives on earth.

Don't allow yourselves to be shaped by sin and miss out on what this life has to offer and what God offers us in eternity. All those people not following Jesus Christ are like that old horse with an “X” on his forehead just waiting for the day when God places the bullet that condemns them to eternal punishment. Have faith in Jesus Christ and have that mark removed.

Marked For Death

I knew a Veterinarian who was called out late one night to examine a sick horse. Upon completion of the exam the Vet told the owner that he would not be able to save the horse and recommended euthanasia. The old man accepted the diagnosis but wasn't quite ready to put the horse "down" yet ha wanted to spend some time with the old horse. He told the Vet he could euthanize the horse himself but did not know where to put the bullet. The Vet obliged by taking a grease pencil and marking an "X" right between the horses eyes. There's a horse that had a sentence of death placed upon him and had the mark on his head to prove it. We all carry or have carried the mark of death on our heads as well. The scriptures tell us that whenever we break God's Law he marks us for a death that will be carried out on the Judgment Day. There is only one way to have that mark removed and that is by substituting someone else in place of ourselves. Fortunately God has provided a substitute for us and we can be spared that sentence of eternal death. However, the gift is a conditional gift, it requires us to quit breaking God's Laws and live lives that mimic Jesus' life on earth. The first consequence of sin is that we die and are punished eternally. Sin does something else to us. Sin steals meaningful lives from us here on earth. Sin shapes into something ugly...righteousness shapes us into something beautiful. When we lie...we become liars and that takes away our trustworthiness. When we have sex outside the marriage relationship it ruins the beauty and trust of a committed relationship. When our priorities are wealth and pleasure our lives have no depth to them...we are behaving selfishly. Even if we live basically good lives here on earth, if we don't assemble with other Christians we are neglecting our responsibilities to them and to God. God's Word does not teach solitary Christianity. The second consequence of sin is it ruins our lives on earth. Don't allow yourselves to be shaped by sin and miss out on what this life has to offer and what God offers us in eternity.

Build Some Hope

I know who a fellow who had a pretty good life. He’s a very likeable person with a very engaging personality and excellent communication skills. As far as intelligence goes… he’s smarter than most. When you couple those attributes together he had the ingredients needed to build a pretty good life and he did… but over the course of time it slowly began to unravel. He started making bad choices including rejecting the Lord and engaging in activities that were not consistent with God’s word. His life started deteriorating until he had almost nothing left. Along the way I (and others) would offer advice which was largely ignored. I never wanted to do more than give advice because his attitude was that his problems were mostly other people’s fault. Plus, his solution to problems was anger and physical violence. So I couldn’t really see doing much more for him than offering advice and I had lost hope for him. Then a day dawned when I was in his company and I saw something new and unexpected… he started accepting responsibility for the things that had gone wrong in his life. And he realized that responding to problems with physical violence had just served to get him into more trouble. It was at that point that I decided to do more than help with just advice. Slowly his life has turned in the opposite direction. He has started going to church and has begun to take the steps necessary to rebuild his life. And along the way something surprising happened. He told me that he had dug himself into such a deep hole that he couldn’t see any way out of it and he had lost all confidence in his abilities but when I offered to help him his confidence started growing because someone believed in him and he hung on to that small sliver of hope and picked himself up and climbed out of that hole. You see… I’m a guy who believes if you’ve got a problem… make some correction… get with it. I had not realized that mentally you could despair so much that it would be almost impossible to help yourself and how a small thing like expressing confidence in someone could mean… so much. I had always had confidence in him… he just didn’t know it. Thanks you Lord for helping someone I love and for opening my eyes.

Hebrews 6 and the Prodigal Son

“For it is impossible in the case of those who have once been enlightened, tasted the heavenly gift, become partakers of the Holy Spirit, tasted the good word of God and the miracles of the coming age, and then have committed apostasy, to renew them again to repentance, since they are crucifying the Son of God for themselves all over again and holding him up to contempt.” (Hebrews 6)

This text is somewhat troubling… the idea that if someone falls away from the faith that he cannot return, i.e. he is eternally lost. I guess it’s troubling because we have all known those who have rejected Christ but have in some point in the future come back. What exactly is their condition with God? I think the parable of the “Prodigal Son” helps explain these verses. Remember that the son was raised to adulthood but rebelled against his father and went to a far off land where he lived a wild life… alcohol, women, etc. totally rejecting the teachings of his father. Note that the father did not travel to that far off land and yank his son by the ear back home. Why? because it would do no good. The son had to realize and experience the consequences of his actions and come home on his own free will. Similarly, those who have known Christ and rejected him cannot be drug back to the Lord. It won’t do a bit of good to re-explain and hammer on them about what Christ has done for us. They already know that. They too must realize the consequences of their decisions and come back on their own. And like the father who rejoiced at the return of his son, so too Jesus Christ rejoices at the return of his sons and daughters.

Satan = Weak

Satan had it going pretty good up until about the time Jesus was baptized and received the Holy Spirit. Satan had plenty of Demons and they could live in anybody they wanted to with few restrictions. Satan had turned one of the 12 disciples (Judas) who would do whatever Satan wanted and Satan had received permission to test Peter who failed the test and denied Jesus three times.

Satan did have a setback in his failure to induce Jesus to sin and his demons were starting to be exorcised. But he did have Judas in his pocket and was about to chop Peter’s legs out from under him hoping to destroy him with depression and inaction after his failure.

Satan also was in control of the Chief Priest and the Jewish rulers and even though he hadn’t been able to tempt Jesus he was going to have the son of God… killed. So, all-in-all, Satan must have been pretty happy with himself. Little did he know that he was playing right into God’s hands and in killing Jesus allowed God to restore life to Jesus and hope to humanity and to limit Satan’s powers and effectiveness by the giving of His Holy Spirit to those who believed.

Don’t be afraid of Satan we have God. Thank you God for what you did.