We have been reading the Bible nightly. We pray before we start. We read one chapter. Then we talk about the chapter and make observations and ask questions. Then we close with prayer. The children love it. It is quite a blessing to watch them learn and discern.
Come you children listen to me;
I will teach you the fear of the Lord. (Psalm 34:11)
Recently, I was sitting in this church listening to the sermon and trying to determine if this was our family's new church home when the pastor said something that totally moved me.
He said, "Rest."
Actually, he said it more than once during the course of the sermon, but the first few times he threw it out there he did it so casually I barely noticed.
He said it again; "Rest."
That's when it hit me:
"Rest."
I was doing some research on Barack Obama's profession of faith and I came across a blog with a few comments in it, and a comment sprang up from me.
I was struck by what seemed to be indignation that Christians would seek a leader who reflected Christian values. There also seemd to be an assumption that for Christians to want the nation's leader to be a Christian was evidence of Christians wanting to institute a theocracy. I was obviously compelled to respond.
Now, I'm sure I do not represent all Christians (I have enough trouble adequately representing myself), but I pray I have at least represented the truth.
Can a godly woman serve as Vice President?
Yes, it’s that time again; time to ask some religious questions within a political forum. Of course, on this blog it’s a religious forum and the question is political. Believe it or not, we’ll sort through the confusion before it’s over.
So, the question of the day: Can Sarah Palin, or any woman, serve as Vice President of the United States, or in any government leadership position, and not betray the biblical roles and relationships ordained by God for women?
I believe that the simple answer is yes, but since it says in the Bible to test everything, let’s not settle for the simple answer.
Does the Bible say that a woman cannot lead? No.
While the Bible does seem to indicate that women are not to be the heads of a/the church, we see in the Old Testament that women, on rare and obviously special occasion, were judges over Israel. Proverbs also lays out the responsibilities of a woman, specifically a wife, which clearly indicate that she is serving in a leadership capacity, but that same woman is called to submit to her husband (and ultimately her family) in all those things.
So, does that mean that a woman can only serve if there is a man over her? Does that rule out President of the United States? No on both counts.
I think (and I’m no biblical scholar) that the Bible makes it clear that faith in and service to God is first for men and women. God calls men and women to humbly serve Him and one another before self, and the hierarchy within the family helps to maintain the purity and heart of faith and service. For this reason, I think as God addressed the hierarchy within the family He also addressed the hierarchy within the church. God never, however, addresses the hierarchy of secular government.
When God gave Israel the kings that they asked for, He told them it was a bad idea and that they would regret it. Just as God differentiates between good and evil, He differentiates between His rule (good) and man’s rule (evil). If man rules apart from God (almost the definition of the US government), what does it matter who is in charge; can man alone do good (for all you dreamers and schemers, the answer is no…sorry)? If a man (women included) serves God and serves as a leader as unto God, again, what does it matter who is in charge; will not God bless such leadership?
The Bible makes it clear that women are valued equally in the sight of the Lord, women are more than capable of bearing significant responsibility, and a woman, with God’s calling and blessing, can serve as a leader of the people.
If we say that a woman must stay in the home to serve her family in a godly manner, we are merely translating God’s call for a woman into a legalistic mandate. There are plenty of women who stay home and completely miss the mark.
Career is a religion and the office is the temple, in both the private and public sector, for men and women alike. The world is an incredible temptation promising deliverance which it cannot provide; “you will not surely die.” So, while it is prudent to avoid legalism, it would be horribly misleading to say that women can serve their families in a godly manner outside the home…if you do not also offer this singular caveat: by the grace of God.
If Sarah Palin is without God, there is absolutely no difference between her and any other run-of-the-mill politician. If she is with God, what man (women included) can be against her. Either way, make no mistake, the next leader of this nation is there only because God allowed it, and regardless…
His will be done.
Cameron Strang of Relevant Magazine made a statement in a FOX interview in which he seemed to indicate that pro-life for Christians means not only anti-abortion, but anti-war as well.
(Note: In Mr. Strang’s defense, it was a limited sound bite, so I may have misunderstood his meaning or caught it out of context, but it’s definitely an issue worth tackling.)
The first things that come to mind are the obvious…or seemingly obvious…exceptions to the rules. In the case of medical situations where it is reasonably certain that the mother, the child, or both will die, is abortion, the intentional killing of an unborn child, a moral alternative? As Nazis ravaged Europe and Asia, murdered millions, and threatened to expand their evil footprint across the globe, was war (a definition here may be the crux of the argument) a moral alternative?
In this particular case of abortion, we can say what we would do, but we cannot say what is moral. Our worldly and human sense of compassion might say it is an acceptable path to abort the baby, but maybe this is what God meant when He said he who tries to save his own life will lose it, but he who gives his life for another will gain it.
It is not our place to decide what is right, we can only attempt to discern what God has deemed right. We pray and fast and meditate on the word, and then ask for God’s wisdom and guidance to help us do His will, and we ask for His mercy and forgiveness if we fail. If you are genuinely seeking His will and giving it all up to His judgment, I have faith that He is faithful.
In the not so particular case of war, what biblical basis is there for refusing to violently oppose such evil? Also, when the soldiers asked the Christ what they should do (as righteous soldiers), he told them not to intimidate people or accuse them falsely, and be content with their wages. He did not tell them not to go to war, or to resist their leaders' direction to war.
What we see in the Bible is not an opposition to war itself, but more likely an opposition to the misuse of military might. Here again, we do not decide what is right, we attempt to discern what God has deemed right.
To say war in and of itself is wrong does not seem to be biblical, so to say a Christian has to be anti-war is legalistic at best.
Anyone who says that there are other paths to God, is not of His Christ.
If you do not believe … “the word of the Lord” … “I am that I am” … “the LORD God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” … “so loved the world” … “gave His only begotten Son” … “the way, the truth, and the life” … “no one comes to the Father except through Me” … “narrow is the way which leads to life” … “in Him we have redemption” … “through His blood, the forgiveness of sins” … “He will come again” …
…if you do not believe, can you still profess to be a Christian?
Which of the above truths can you denounce and still be a Christian?
Test everything!
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world. (1 John 4:1-3)
It’s been a long and hectic while….since I blogged…that’s my excuse anyway.
I was in church this morning (the long and hectic while inhibited that as well), and the pastor had a wonderful message, straight out of the Bible. Imagine that.
Getting to the point, he referenced Christians who are saved, yet we do not serve. One of the reasons I (we) have been church hunting is because I wanted to find a church where we could serve as a member of the church family.
I’ve used the “busy-ness” excuse to justify not reading my Bible and not praying or meditating on the Word, and now I realize that I’ve used the very same excuse for not serving.
Note, I said “not serving,” instead of “not serving in the church,” because service goes beyond the church.
Obviously, we are called to serve in our church communities, but just as the Christ was sacrificed for all, so that all might be reconciled to God, if we are to imitate or reflect Him beyond our church communities, where He is needed most, we are to serve beyond our church communities as well.
How?
Love.
I do not swear or use crude language around my children or family, because I love them far too much to denigrate their ears (or personalities) through the use of such language, so why would I use such language at work? I must take the same love I show to my family, in Christ, to those for whom God gave Him.
We are all undeserving of God’s grace, but that is exactly who He has extended it to, everyone. In the same way, we as Christians are called to love and serve all, according to God’s will, for His glory.
One meager act of service is this blog, and I have neglected it.
Give us a servant’s heart, Lord, and help us to give of ourselves cheerfully and generously, so they will know we are Christians by our love.
The state has adopted a religion and dictates that religion to its citizens.
As a citizen and soldier, it troubles me that our courts misuse their authority and attack the very fabric of our nation’s constitution in order to usurp the authority of the people’s voice, and the voice of the majority is drowned out by the voice of the media supported hyper-minority.
As a husband and father, it troubles me that the state would bind me to equate the faith, commitment, and sacrifice of marriage with the fashion, fickleness, and folly, of dating; and the state advocates the legal degradation of children to little more than hobbies.
Yet we champion this as progress.
We overlook human nature, history, logic, commonsense, and the will of the majority. The truth is swept away as we progress toward self-imposed oblivion. “Oh come now,” they said twenty years ago…and twenty years before that…and twenty years before that…and so on. Conveniently, progress never takes account.
It’s very difficult to write about without despairing, but…
“…we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
Not a few things or some things or most things or the vast majority of things or practically all things, but “ALL THINGS.”
So, “do not fret because of evildoers, nor be envious of the wicked.” (Proverbs 24:19)
The Lord still reigns sovereign and His standard of righteousness bends neither to the will of man nor the courts of the world. Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and give thanks and praise for all that is good and holy to the one, true God.
Jesus said …“ ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. (Matt 22:36-40)
“And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd.” (John 10:16)
“[He] is the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through [Him].” (John 14:6)
Wife and mother is a vocation.
The duties and responsibilities of a wife and mother are not part-time activities; they are a full-time endeavor requiring dedication and commitment to build the skills necessary to be successful. Similar to how one might go to school and/or focus time and efforts toward a career discipline, even more so a wife and mother must dedicate her life to experience the fullest measure of success in her home.
I am confused at the wider range of skills, higher degree of competence, and more demanding and strenuous labor required and demonstrated in my wife compared to my female co-workers, yet my co-workers bear the term “working” while my wife gets branded as “stay-at-home.” Then, to add insult to injury, in spite of the incredible disparity in dedication and endeavor on behalf of the family, the term “mother” seems equally and somewhat arbitrarily applied.
I also think it’s interesting, that we would never encourage would be accountants, doctors, or lawyers to actively pursue other endeavors that would undoubtedly require them to sacrifice time away from their primary studies. You would never hear anyone counseling young budding professionals or tradesmen that they could divert their attentions toward competing pursuits and still effectively master their disciplines and achieve at their highest potential.
In the above instances, dedication and commitment mean 100% of your focus and attention; sacrifice other things, but not that which you are dedicated and committed to. It stands to reason that the increasingly automatic practice of pushing family and children to the back burner indicates that our culture values career above family and/or children.
It’s debatable whether we’re looking at the chicken or the egg, and obviously some very devoted mothers have no choice but to do additional work outside the home, but it is clear that straying from God’s path has clearly inhibited (sometimes prohibited) the recognition of wife and mother not only as a vocation, but as a worthwhile vocation. Some would argue that women have benefited, but it is unarguable that the family and children have not.
Lord, protect our children.
(I can’t possibly credibly address every aspect of this issue, partly because I have neither the time nor the wisdom, but mainly because I am not a woman. Here’s a blog post my wife showed me that goes much further to challenge today’s mis-understanding of women.)
We did a Bible study this morning on the light that God made. It was kind of an impromptu….uh, who am I kidding….we prayed and then pulled it out of thin air.
Seriously, I wanted to talk to the girls about worldly deception, and I had planned to talk about the serpent in the garden, but things went in a different direction. Instead, we talked about light and dark…and the alleged worldly grey.
It turned out to be a very simple and easy study.
God made the light, and it was good. He divided/distinguished the light from the dark, and that was good. The Bible doesn’t say anything about grey. God said it was good. He did not say it’s good for some people, but not everyone sees things the same way, so it’s not good for others.
Truth is a common theme in the Bible; a theme the world is not very fond of. The idea that good and evil exist and are mutually exclusive of one another is not something the world is eager to embrace. I mean after all, “you will not surely die.” Even more offensive to the world is that there is only one Truth, one Light, and one Way.
It is the Truth, or it is not; it is the Light, or it is not; it is the Way, or it is not. There is no in-between. There is no grey.
As it says in the Bible, you cannot serve two masters, you will “hate the one and love the other…be loyal to the one and despise the other.” In the worldly debate over a black and white moral standard, grey is not an argument against black.
PoliWax has been unlocked, so New American Racism: Embracing Obama has been removed from this site. It can be found on PoliWax.
Sorry for the confusion..."these aren't the droids you're looking for...move along."
I got an audio Bible for Christmas, and I recently threw caution to the wind and stored the CDs in my car. Now, I listen to the Bible on my way to and from work.
It’s actually pretty cool.
If I wasn’t listening to the Bible, that’s almost an hour and a half (sometimes more) of cursing my neighbor for driving too slow, cutting me off, not using blinkers, tailgating, and other stuff that I’m sure I’m typically cursed for when I drive. Now, instead of being angry that people are driving like I do, I focus on the word of God. The only bad part is that if I try taking notes I end up driving into the bay, and if I underline significant passages I end up with a CD that plays nothing but the genealogy of Gad over and over and over.
At least “Raca” is slowly being weeded out of my driving vocabulary. (Matt 5:22)
I definitely prefer reading my Bible, and actual reading is definitely a more complete and engaging experience. While I don’t think listening (while driving anyway) can adequately substitute for reading, I find that having listened to several chapters earlier during my drive, when/if the opportunity to read later arises, I tend to feel absolved of the responsibility to actually crack the book. My usual excuses for not reading my Bible are bolstered by the fact that I listened and meditated…at 70 mph…right through a red light.
My Bible CDs are a stumbling block…how did that happen?
I definitely need a Savior.
Anyway, it is an awesome gift, and I think my car is a good place for it; it’s being put to good use. I do feel that I still need to take active responsibility for my relationship with God and actually read. Besides, I noticed that I haven’t blogged on the Word in a while. Also, it’s time to start Bible studies with our oldest…but that’s another post.
Suddenly I realized what God meant:
“…this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” (Gen 11:6)My wife showed me an article today on MSNBC about a woman who had a surgery altering her breasts and began taking testosterone because she wants to be a man. Even though she wanted to be a man, and she pursued this desire by physically altering her body, she decided not to have her female reproductive organs removed...because she wanted to one day have a baby. Well, the first attempt at having a baby resulted in her fallopian tubes being removed, but undaunted, she is again pregnant.
Try PoliWax!
I was thinking…I spend so much time posting to this blog that maybe I should mix it up a bit and post to another blog…everything in moderation, right?
I sense skepticism.
The truth is I am utterly dumfounded by some of the latest political developments in the US, especially with relation to Presidential hopeful, Barack Obama; so much so, I have to blog about it, and since this blog was not meant as a political forum, I started another.
Don’t get me wrong, I completely expect that politics will at times be very relevant and applicable fodder for growing in faith and leading our families in faith, especially since modern day politicians and government seem so intent on encroaching on religion and family. I simply want to make certain politics does not dominate the landscape.
The Father-hood is devoted first to God and family, and while obviously (I cannot betray my values) the other blog is likely to be inadvertently devoted to the same things, the topics will focus more on politics, policy, and the zany antics of voters within the US.
Anyway, in case postings seem to get sparse here in the Father-hood, you can always check the other blog for some PoliWax.
We have just put down our third contract on a house. Or is it the fourth? Anyway, we were having a bit of trouble; we were stuck over $5,000.
We’re not getting a lot of relevant guidance on buying a house these days. There’s no-brainer guidance, “don’t spend more than you can afford;” uhm…thanks…we hadn’t thought of that one. Then there’s old school guidance, “Your mortgage shouldn’t be more than 25% of your take home pay;” yeah right, a single income family can’t go to the movies on 25% of their take home pay. Then there’s worldly guidance, “Can’t your wife get a job;” actually…she’s got a very respectable job, and her Boss has promised her a raise.
Anyway, we asked our realtor to step out of character as our realtor, and give us her opinion as our friend. She said, that from what she had seen, our faith/kids are most important to us, and if we thought for a second that buying that house would possibly detract from that aspect of our lives, we shouldn’t do it.
We had been so busy crunching numbers and balancing ledgers that we had failed to consider that.
While we cannot see the future and can’t possibly plan for every financial possibility, we can say with confidence, more importantly we can say with faith, buying that house will not detract from our faith or the love and values of our family.
Once again we ask for prayer; not that we would get the house, but that we are walking in God’s will.
I am a simple black man, and I was able to rationally conclude inside of an hour of my exposure to Trinity United Church of Christ (via their website) that the philosophy and likely the body of that church was steeped in hatred/racism.
America was appalled at the words spoken by Jeremiah Wright. What is more shocking is that he serves as the shepherd of a flock and wears the title “Reverend” and is referred to as “Pastor.” Even more troubling is that the so-called “Reverend” Wright…“Pastor” Wright uttered these words from the pulpit, from what might be considered an alter of God; leading his flock toward hatred. The most disturbing aspect of all of this seems to have gone almost completely overlooked:
The flock willingly followed…and came back for more.
Maybe the forces of political correctness (read as “selective racism”) continue to bind us from holding all Americans, regardless of skin color, to an equal standard of accountability; the same forces that prevented opposition against Trinity United’s less overt hatred, the same forces that keep so-called “Reverends” Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson legitimized as leaders within the black community, and the same forces that have previously absolved politicians like Barack Obama as they decry racism external to the black community while turning a blind eye to it internally.
It’s the same old song of hatred that the Reverend, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. died trying to silence. The difference is instead of white faces hidden shamefully behind white hoods, we now see black faces beaming proudly in choir robes. Why did it take such an extreme expression of that hatred for the rest of America to take notice? I didn’t have to attend the church for 20 years. I didn’t need to sit in the pews and hear the venom spewed from the pulpit. I didn’t need the media to constantly flood my home with repugnant images. I didn’t need to be questioned under a spotlight in front of millions of people.
I just opened my eyes (when I was about 10 years old) and saw what was right in front of my face.
Not long ago I had a fairly lengthy discussion with a guy who felt religion was the root of all mankind’s problems. His belief in the ill effects of religion was the foundation from which his life’s decisions were made, the root of his moral code, and his personal justification for being an atheist.
A few weeks ago I read a story about how a church’s tax exempt status was threatened because the Pastor endorsed a candidate using church stationary. That very day I found an article in which the National Organization of (or maybe for) Women (N.O.W.) endorsed a candidate quite openly and officially, yet their tax exempt status was unthreatened. (I assumed I obviously did not have all the details, so I wrote to the ACLU and inquired…no response as of yet.)
I recently had a discussion, at work of all places, about the social and/or biological origins of homosexuality. Very early in the discussion it was noted that the woman representing the biological side "believed" that homosexuality was rooted in the genetic foundation. As we talked further, it became apparent that almost every point, explanation, or hypothesis she presented was hinged on that "belief."
It is not uncommon to have a person take up a position or make a decision on an issue and then indicate that the decision or position for the other side of the issue is “religious” and unconstitutional. Very often, even though I seldom use religious arguments, simply because I do not assume the mainstream view, I am asked about my religion. When I indicate my belief in God, suddenly the discussion ends as if I was not worth talking to.
It would seem that freedom of religion does not include theism.
