Salty Love

Most will recognize that 1 Corinthians 13 is the (so called) chapter on love. In fact you don’t even have to be a casual reader of the Bible to recognize the sentiments recorded there because these verses are often read at weddings and popularized in music.

I’m okay with reading these verses at weddings but when done so they are a secondary application of these verses and I’m not okay if our primary knowledge of Bible passages is based on a secondary application/understanding of said verses.

Note chapter 13 is found squarely in the middle of chapters 12 and 14.

Chapter 12 is about jealousy and envy among Christians in the Corinthian church about which gifts they had been given. Imagine that… God gives you something and you are envious of what God gave someone else. Sometimes someone will complement me on some attribute or the other that I might have and I’ll respond… it’s a gift and I can’t take credit for a gift. Nor can you accept a gift from God and wish it were a better gift.

Chapter 14 is about the misuse of these gifts during the assembly of the church. Their assembly had become a chaotic assembly characterized by people interrupting and demanding attention for themselves.

So Paul didn’t take a break from talking about spiritual gifts to have a dialogue on love so that we could have nice weddings surrounded by the release of butterflies and white dove and a reading of 1 Corinthians 13.

Note in chapter 13 that Paul personalizes what he says… “If I (Paul) speak with the gift of the languages of foreigners and angels and have not love…” etc. etc. etc.

Things that love doesn’t do… does not envy, does not elevate itself above others… etc. etc. etc.

Things that love does… bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things… etc. etc. etc.

Paul is contrasting his behavior with their behavior especially as it is found in chapters 12 and 14 but really in the whole letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were childish, envious, jealous, tolerated sin, judged improperly and some of them charged Paul with not being a true Apostle and therefore not worthy of monetary support.

Paul was striving for spiritual perfection and if he suffered all that he suffered and responded to their mistreatment of him in an unloving manner then all was for naught.

Paul records the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians to illustrate the stark contrast between his behavior which was characterized by actionable love and their behavior which was in many ways worse than the behavior of the pagans whom they lived among and which bordered on Blasphemy.

So in summary I don’t mind at all the secondary applications that are based on 1 Corinthians but as Bible students we’re not worth our spiritual salt if we neglect or fail to understand the primary application of what we read.

Let’s be salty.

Maintain Elder Qualifications?

We were studying the qualifications for Elders in Bible class one Sunday morning and someone asked me a question that was kind of a trick question… does an Elder have to maintain the qualifications as found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 to continue to serve as an Elder?

The natural answer would be… yes… of course he does but let’s hold our horses for a few minutes.

Let’s say you have an Elder and he’s everything you would expect an Elder to be… he has keen leadership abilities, he manages spiritual problems as they arise and he’s a gifted teacher. He has a wife and three adult children who are as faithful as the day is long and then tragically his three children are killed in a car accident. He no longer has three “believing children” and cannot maintain that qualification.

Most folks would say of course he could continue as an Elder. It’s not his fault his children died and he is at the top of his game spiritually. Why harm the congregation un-necessarily?

Okay, if we can see that point then how about this one? Let’s say his wife is tragically killed in the car accident as well. He is no longer the “husband of one wife” and therefore cannot maintain that qualification.

Must an Elder “maintain his qualifications”? That depends on the qualification in my opinion. Of course he must be… above reproach, temperate, no brawler, etc. But those are qualities he can control. There are other qualities he cannot control like losing a wife and children for instance.

Thanks for thinking with me.

Did You Grow Today?

Tonight during Bible class Marc asked us if anyone thought they had grown spiritually today and I raised my hand.

This morning there was about 10 minutes left in Bible class and our security guy tapped me on the shoulder and said someone was in the foyer who wanted to talk to me. I didn’t figure it was an emergency so I told him I would talk to the fellow after class.

When I went back to the foyer I saw about what I expected to see… a young man who was about 30 years old, tatted up pretty good and who looked homeless. When I sat next to him he didn’t smell very pleasant either. As I talked to him I discovered he was a little different than most… he started sobbing and telling me what a bad life he had lived and how he didn’t know what to do. He had spent some time in jail and had been living on the streets for about 8 months.

He lived by walking up and down streets asking if people needed any help and made a few dollars. He also said some would hire him for a whole day and then at the end of the day laugh at him and refuse to pay him.

I talked a while with him and then Larry talked to him for a while. When services started he came and sat on the back pew with us and started sobbing. Larry brought a box of tissues to him. Then Noe got up from his seat and sat next to him and consoled him. I made closing announcements and mentioned a few things about the young man and the congregation showed an outpouring of love towards him.

I had been wondering what to do with him after services and thought about taking him to lunch with our family but was uncomfortable with him being in our car sitting behind us. So I decided to offer him some money. I looked in my wallet and there were five one dollar bills and a fifty dollar bill. I really didn’t want to give him the fifty but the ones were not enough so I crumpled the 50 in my hand and told him I wanted to help him. Guess what… he refused to take any money. He said he couldn’t take any money he hadn’t earned. Dude… that is really different… like unheard of. So I asked him if him if he would like to go eat lunch with us. He gladly accepted.

We went to a hamburger place and he only took about two bites out of his hamburger and said his stomach was upset. Later I found out he hadn’t eaten in two days.

So… I had been thinking about what to do with him after lunch. I didn’t really want to invite him into our home because I still had a notion in the back of my head that this might be some kind of set up. I asked him what he was going to do? He said, walk around and try to make some money and figure out where he was going to sleep tonight.

My conscience whipped up on me again and I said… would you like to spend the day with me? … yes, he would. He talked to us about his mom who lives in Fairfield, Texas and I asked him if he would like to use my phone to call her. I heard him tell her that he had been to church and how nice everyone had been to him. She told him that maybe if he came home they both could go to church.

During the day he told me he had never been in a church building… that when he was in jail some inmates had shared a Bible with him and he read the Book of Job. He said he was walking down Weber road and something told him to turn down a side street and he saw our building and he walked in. He said everyone in the congregation was so friendly to him and as he sat on the pew and thought about the horrible life he lived and the unexpected friendliness the congregation had for him that he just started crying.

He said Marc’s lesson had a lot of meaning for him. As we were out driving he had mentioned that he would like to go back home to his mother. I told him that I could find him some odd jobs and if he demonstrated responsibility I could probably find him a better job or… if he wanted I would loan him the money to get a bus ticket back to Fairfield. Note… I said loan him because he had previously rejected free money.

He thought for a minute and said… I would like to go home. Julie got on line and bought him a bus ticket for Fairfield, Texas. He leaves at 11:45 tomorrow morning and has a 14 hour bus trip ahead of him. He said with the ticket the bus company would let him spend the night in the station. Julie, bless her righteous heart, wanted to get him a hotel room but I told her he was plenty happy with what we had done already. We went to services with him Sunday night and I was talking to Noe about him and Noe said… we need to talk to him about being baptized! So we did.

We baptized Juan right then and right there. When he came out I was the first one to hug him. He was shaking and sobbing and held me for a long time and I cried too. We exchanged contact information and he said he would like to come to Corpus Christi to visit and talk every once in a while.

So when Marc asked during class if anyone had grown spiritually… yes… definitely me. The Lord took away all my second thoughts and doubts and a soul was saved today.

We have a lot of members with a lot of talents but thank you Lord for sending Noe to us… he has a great heart!

There’s a video of the baptism that I’ll put up on our public FB page. Uncle Rob

Spiritual Obesity

We had a client who brought their beloved dog in every year who was just obese… morbidly obese. Of course obesity in dogs can lead to early onset osteoarthritis, cancers and just poor quality of life and the owner knew this and was concerned about it. So we did all the lab work including testing for hypothyroidism and we used all the prescription diets designed to manage weight and still this poor canine was obese.

Actually I think our associates were the ones who had been seeing this dog and finally as fate would have it I happened to examine the dog. Finally I looked the owner square in the eye and told him I had an all-natural diet that I guaranteed would cause weight loss. It was a high protein, high fiber, low fat and low carbohydrate diet. The owner was very excited and said I’ll do it! So I told him to let his dog eat one Jack Rabbit every day and make his dog catch it.

There’s lots of applications we could make with that story…how to save a failing marriage, the challenges of parenting, etc. But let’s talk about the fellow who wants to be a better Christian… whatever that looks like. Maybe he wants to know his Bible backwards and forwards. Maybe he wants to preach or lead moving prayers. Maybe he wants to be the best Bible class teacher around, etc. But somehow he can’t seem to get past ground zero.

He knows his goal and wants to end up there but can’t seem to find the right path… the path he’s been on always ends up in the same place. He’s like that client who is looking for some exotic diagnosis and some magical medication that will affect a great cure and neglects to see the obvious.

It takes 12 months to get a year’s experience. There are no shortcuts to success.

If you don’t want to be spiritually obese maybe it’s time to start catching a few Jack Rabbits.

Let's Build a Temple for God to Live In

David King of Israel wanted to build a physical Temple for Jehovah God to live in. He wasn’t allowed to because he was a King who had spilled much blood in the killing of Israel’s enemies. Instead his son King Solomon built it.

Jesus Christ also wanted to build a temple for God to live in and he too like his forefather David was a spiller of blood. Not the blood of his enemies but his own blood.

The temple that Jesus built was not a physical temple in a physical place but a spiritual temple that exists in each and every person who believes in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16).

Jesus allowed his own blood to be spilled so that he might purify and cleanse those who believed in him from sin, because God cannot live in a temple tainted by sin (1 Corinthians 6).

What a privilege and blessing that we as Christians have by God personally living in each and every one of us. Also, what an awesome responsibility we have to keep ourselves from sinning so that God feels welcome to continue to live with us.

Let’s not be like the great warrior David who killed his enemies and wasn’t allowed to build a Temple for God. But be more like Jesus Christ who died for his enemies to create more Temples for God to live in.

We are in the Temple making business… for ourselves and for others.

My Dad

I’ve been having dreams about my dad, that he didn’t die and was still with us but his illness had changed him… he was older and more feeble and he didn’t talk much anymore.

In the dream I had last night I was on a road trip with him and he was driving and we stopped at a gas station and he went up to the cashier and when he was backing up he bumped into a woman and he stumbled a few steps and fell to the ground. I ran up to him crying and said… dad… dad are you okay? And he looked up at me and I helped him up and I told the woman how sorry we were.

I really miss him but I guess everyone who has lost their father also misses them.

Dad of course loved the Lord. When I was active on a Christian discussion list he copied all my posts and kept them. I found them when I was going through his things when mom moved out of their home.

I’ve always written in my Bible and made notes and such in it and we were home one weekend and Dad happened to pick up my Bible and started lookin at it. I’ll never forget when he just kind of held that Bible to his heart and didn’t say a word but just kind of gave me a look that he told me he was proud of me.

I’m sure Dad told me he loved me but I don’t really remember him saying it but I never doubted it because he showed me love in so many ways.

I also don’t doubt that he’s in Heaven and he’s happy up there. I wonder if the Lord lets him know how is family is doing. If he does then I know Dad is really happy.

I’ve wished that the Lord would let me have one day with him so I could catch him up on some things like how well my son and daughter have married and introduce him to my six grandchildren each one of whom is so special to me. I would like to take him to church with me and introduce him to all the members who are also so special to me. And just let him know how much the Lord has blessed me.

I guess that will never happen but I have a great hope and base my faith on the fact that Jesus was raised from the dead and I will be too so that I can catch up with Dad in eternity.

In a few years my son and then my daughter will turn 44 years of age and when they do I’ll tell them (if I’m still alive) that they are the same age when I lost my dad and let that sink in.

Anyway, I woke up this morning crying remembering a dream and wishing I could see my dad just one more time.