Archive for the ‘Church’ Category

Church Finances

Indebtedness

I cannot seem to get past the financial situation that faces our church today.  In far too many ways, we seem to be modeling our finances after the world instead of teaching biblical stewardship to our members – first by example, then by teaching.
Throughout the Old Testament, the model of offerings to the Lord was expressed in the tithe.  A tenth of a man’s crops or livestock was to be brought each year to the Temple.  But for what purpose?  Was it to be sold, and the monies collected for the Temple workers?  Was it to provide for the needs of others?  Deuteronomy 14 gives us a good picture of what God planned for the tithe – both what to bring, and how that tithe was to be used:
22 Be sure to set aside a tenth of all that your fields produce each year. 23 Eat the tithe of your grain, new wine and oil, and the firstborn of your herds and flocks in the presence of the LORD your God at the place he will choose as a dwelling for his Name, so that you may learn to revere the LORD your God always. 24 But if that place is too distant and you have been blessed by the LORD your God and cannot carry your tithe (because the place where the LORD will choose to put his Name is so far away), 25 then exchange your tithe for silver, and take the silver with you and go to the place the LORD your God will choose. 26 Use the silver to buy whatever you like: cattle, sheep, wine or other fermented drink, or anything you wish. Then you and your household shall eat there in the presence of the LORD your God and rejoice. 27 And do not neglect the Levites living in your towns, for they have no allotment or inheritance of their own.
28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns, 29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. – Deut. 14:22-29
So, each year, a tenth of a family’s produce, grain, and livestock, whatever that family raised or grew, was to be brought to a celebration.  If a family lived too far away to carry the tithe to the appointed place, then they could sell the tithe for silver, come to the appointed place, and buy whatever their hearts desired – for the purpose of celebration (even wine or beer!).  The Lord delighted not merely in the fact that the tithe was set apart and brought to the appointed place, but that his people came and ate with Him in celebration and rejoicing.
Every third year, the tithes were brought not for the celebration, but for the meeting of others’ needs.  First, the Levites, who had no other source of food (because their work was in the Temple), and then to the aliens, the fatherless, and the widows, because they too had no way to provide for themselves.
So, we find that the tithe had two purposes:  celebration (i.e. a big party), and to provide for those who didn’t have their own.  Israel was supposed to be a storehouse where aliens, fatherless, widows, orphans, and the like could come and be fed.
And what about the Tabernacle and the Temple?  When constructed, how were they funded?  Exodus 36 tells us that when the Tabernacle was constructed, the gifts and offerings had to be turned away because more than enough had been brought.  No loans were secured; no money was borrowed.  Israel had what it needed and the Lord provided through his own people to see that construction could be done successfully.  And the Temple was constructed out of the riches of Israel – Solomon lacked absolutely nothing, and spared no expense building the Temple.
But What About Today?
I see a great number of forces at work today in the church.  For starters, our main drive is a number of people, not the God we’re here to serve.  We seem convinced that if we have a certain number of people filling the building every week, then we will be able to raise the money that we need to stay afloat.  What happens, though, if we don’t have the number of people we require?  Probably the same thing that’s happened the past several years:  we dry up the cash we have available, and grow closer and closer to having to close our doors and abandon our building.  So if numbers fail to rise, we do the only thing we can do:  we ask for more money from those who are attending.  Nevermind the fact that our county has a 25% unemployment rate (a fact that hits many families who are members or attenders).  We ask families to give more money, but their money is trapped up in the same place the church’s money is trapped:  debt.
The church needs to collect $4,500 a week – not to meet the needs of members, or of the community of Greenville, but to pay a mortgage on a building whose entirety we use a few hours a week.  When money gets tighter for families because they’ve lost a job or because they’ve overcommitted monthly payments, we ask them kindly to give anyway.  Skip the mortgage payment and write the tithe check – God will provide.  But what is our example?  When the church fails to make budget every month, what gets paid and what doesn’t?  The mortgage gets paid but the ministries get cut.  The building that most attenders walk into and out of for an hour a week is taken care of, while the attender who needs to pay his bills and the missionary who wanted to stay on the field are drying up and falling apart.
This is the kind of hypocrisy that the world looks at and shakes its head in disbelief.  If a family says, “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet, so I can’t support the church,” he is told that he’s disobeying the commandment to give his tenth.  But if the church says, “I don’t have enough money to make ends meet, so we can’t support this ministry and that ministry,” the congregation is told … they’re disobeying the commandment to give their tenths.
What would happen instead if we wiped the budget away and started over?  What would happen if we wrote down the ministries we were required to support:  the orphans, the widows, the fatherless, the jobless, and the pastors and missionaries, and we supported all of those needs first?  That is, after all, the very reason we’re still on the Earth!  Then we said that whatever was left over would provide for a mortgage, utilities, and any additional money was saved for future needs.  That money would tell us what building (if any) we could afford, and we would live within our means.  This is the model that is preached to the congregation (and it is also a biblical model), but it is opposite the model that the church follows right now.  And therein lies the hypocrisy.
And all this brings us back to the true point of the tithe anyway.  The tithe was an offering to God, not to a group of people.  It was to be used by the person who brought it for celebration!  And every third year, it was to be stored up to provide for the Levites, the widows, the fatherless, and the aliens.  The church’s tithes are used to support a building and a few staff members.  If there’s any money left over, it will be used to support a family or two in dire need (now, I believe, only those within the congregation), as well as the few ministries we can still afford.
Where are the needy to go?  In the Old Testament, Israel was to be a blessing to the nations!  Those who didn’t have, came to Israel to receive from their storehouses.  This model is no more evident than Joseph’s management in Egypt during the drought.  Today, the Church is to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world.  We should be at the front lines of providing for those with needs.  Acts 2 lays out a model where the congregation sold what they had until no one in their midst had need.  Today, the worldly model is to buy everything we can until no one has money (or available credit) remaining.  This mindset has infected and poisoned the Church in America.  Instead of being a source of food, clothing, and shelter to the needy, we go to the needy and beg for their money.  Even those who have no job have to go to the government to get basic needs fulfilled.  And instead of being ashamed of ourselves that we’re not providing and the government is, instead of selling our possessions and giving to those who have nothing, we go to them and ask that they tithe their minuscule income and trust God for their needs.
What must God think of this?  God provided a way for the hungry to get fed – it was the Church.  At first it was Israel, but they became so infatuated with themselves they shut the door to the Kingdom on any who wanted to enter.  And now what has the Church done?  We’re too interested in big buildings, big screens, new van smell, and “modern worship experience” to even see the dying people covering our streets and filling our chairs every week.  Instead of going to our city, offering to meet their needs (in a real, tangible way), we tap into those who have and those who don’t have, and we tell them their duty is to give us money so we can spend it on the desires of our heart.
Where do we go from here?  How do we turn this huge ship around?  Perhaps it won’t be left to us to decide.  The Pharisees were so far gone that when the Messiah showed up, they were too callous to accept the glorious salvation they’d waited so long to see.  Perhaps God will need to take our building away from us before we’ll be able to start doing what He’s called us to do.  Solomon warned us that the borrower becomes the lender’s slave (Prov. 22:7), and we certainly have seen that one come true.  Nearly $20,000 a month will be wrapped up paying for a building until our kids and grandkids are paying the bills.  If God should decide that that money could be better spent helping widows and orphans in their times of distress, it may take His work to break our bondage to the bank.
Or, of our own free will, we could admit our inability to afford such a building, and walk away.  Perhaps we should at least admit that in a time like this, there are far more important places to invest our money than a building.  It would cost  the church its building, its name, perhaps even its leadership, but it would set its members free to start doing the work we’ve been called to do, and in such a time as this!  Christ will build His Church.  She will be pure, blameless, a blessing to any and all who even look upon her.  She will be so beautiful, so radiant, that the King of kings and the Lord of lords will be delighted to announce, “That’s my Bride!”  She will not be concerned with buildings and possessions and worldly things, but with righteousness, with love, with service, and with the Lord.  When He comes, we must be about these things.
The work of the Church is to set the captives free.  Set free from sin, from debt, from oppression, from guilt, from anything and everything that sets itself up against God.  When the Church itself incurs debt and becomes a slave, it immediately enslaves all the people involved.  A new convert comes into our midst a free man and we immediately announce his new shackles – you must now help us pay this mortgage, then if you have anything more, you may work on your own.  The long-time member who wishes to use what he has for his King’s service is left with a difficult decision:  Does he give his money away to the endless pit of “debt retirement”, essentially admitting the ineffectiveness of an entire generation, or does he neglect his local church’s call to “giving” and seek to do the work himself which his Lord has required?  You see, a church in debt is no longer the liberating Church of Jesus Christ, it is a different beast altogether.  It is a body of people once again enslaved, unable to break the shackles they themselves willingly put on.  And from that point, they share those shackles with as many people as they can.  This was not the ministry we’ve been called to perform.
I don’t have all the answers.  But I know that at the very least, we need to admit there’s a serious problem.  Maybe we’re stuck with this debt until every last penny is paid off.  Maybe if we throw ourselves at the mercy of God, He will have pity on us and provide freedom.  But I do know, whether we get the debt paid off or not, we need to make up our minds we’re done borrowing.  We need to recognize the importance of people, not of spending money we don’t have on stuff we don’t really need.  Then we can clear our heads and come up with a solution.

Discipleship

“Take a moment to examine your life. Is there one person walking with God today and investing in others the fullness of life he has in Christ as a result of your ministry? One man? One woman? If not, you have been unfruitful.

“Perhaps you faithfully attend church, sing in the choir, usher, sponsor a youth group or serve as an elder, deacon, or even a pastor. You might witness every day or teach group Bible studies. These are commendable activities but they fall short of fulfilling your high calling to make disciples.

“Activity is no substitute for obedience; busyness cannot replace reproduction. One functioning disciple is more valuable in building the Church than a host of carnal believers. Resist the temptation to be so active in “Christian work” that you neglect the business of the Kingdom. Reevalueate your priorities in light of Christ’s commission to make disciples.”

– Dr. Keith Phillips, The Making of a Disciple

So where does one go when he reads that list of activities and realizes it consumes him, yet bears no fruit? Is it possible that “church” as we know it is really just a trap to keep us from the Kingdom and from obeying Christ in His call to discipleship? How does one exchange the unfruitful for the fruitful without abandoning the church model altogether?

Worship “Music”

Much discussion and thinking over Shaun Groves’ series, Shut Up and Worship led me to a few conclusions about worship and music and how the pieces fit together…

Style of music matters so little to me. I much more look at how Scriptural a song is. Often times I find “Christian” music, particularly of the last 10 years or so, to be all about feeling good and getting the warm fuzzies. I find a lot of “secular” songs that deal more truthfully with the issues we’re facing in the real world. If one so desires, he can live an entire life in CCM-style music and feel like the world is already a perfect place where sin is okay and we’re all forgiven and we’ve been saved from all responsibility.

The problem with that is it’s not true. We do have responsibilities. We aren’t saved simply to have our sin forgiven, we’re saved to be set free from sinning. We aren’t saved so we can be individuals who individually get to “go to heaven”, we’re saved so we can live day in and day out as a part of a BODY of believers… we’re saved to be part of the winning team.

But if we minimize the impact of salvation, if Jesus merely gives us a ticket to heaven when we die, and the rest of our life looks just like any other red-blooded cling-to-my-rights American, then God is just a ticket machine and we needn’t be grateful for much of anything. In fact, God starts looking like a mean guy — he gives me salvation, but not the next guy. I got my golden ticket… sucks to be in the rest of the world! Oh well, when do the Lions play?

Worship is FAR MORE about attitude. It’s about recognizing what filthy God-hating trash we were and how incredibly much God sacrificed on our behalf so we could have LIFE restored to us. It’s about realizing that everything we have is a gift to be shared with someone else. It’s about recognizing that our brothers and sisters are the most valuable asset on this earth. It’s about thanking God for a gift we could never afford.

What does that attitude look like? Sometimes it’s “Be still and know that I am God.” Sometimes it’s lying prostrate for an hour because words just don’t come. Sometimes it’s crying out in agony because our little minds just don’t understand. Sometimes it’s making a loud noise.. so loud it wakes the dead. Sometimes it’s a quiet hymn, while other times it’s blowing the roof off in music. But most of the time, it’s living a life of peace as much as it’s in our power, of feeding the hungry, of healing the sick, of housing the homeless, of strengthening the weary, of supporting the hurting. We mourn with those who mourn and we rejoice with those who rejoice. We forgive faster than we can think up a grudge and then we seek moment by moment ways to bless our friends as well as our enemies.

Worship isn’t music. Worship is becoming the grateful, godly, bold, intelligent, well-informed, loving people God created us and saved us to become. It’s living every moment of our life knowing that God is so incredibly awesome (in it’s original sense) that we can’t even earn a second of His ear or a moment before His throne… and then realizing that He dug into the filthy mess we’ve made to pull our stinky carcasses out and breathe into us new and everlasting life.

Wrap THAT into a song :-)

Salvation

* 90% of Americans believe themselves to be Christians
* * Nearly 100% of those who attend church regularly
* * Going door to door would reveal that nearly everyone believes he is going to heaven when he dies.
* The means of one’s salvation varies a bit more:
* * Some believe that going to church secures them
* * Some believe that all men will be saved by a loving God
* * Many believe they’re saved because a pastor, teacher, parent, friend, etc. has told them they’re saved.
* * Many in America believe that saying a prayer to ask Jesus into their hearts secures their eternity.
* * Often times people reassure one another of salvation despite having no way of knowing one way or another
* * When doubts creep in, we resort to comparing ourselves to one another… “I’m better than most of the other people in the world,” or, “I’m just as good as everyone else in the youth group.”
* * There’s a problem, though. Everyone in the church looks just like everyone outside the church.
* * Divorce is as prevalent among “Christians” as it is among those with no claim to believe
* * Abortion is as popular
* * Sexual immorality is just as prevalent
* * We have the same entertainment, the same values, the same desires, the same possessions, the same morals; the list goes on.
* * How do we know if we are saved? If any man can be deceived by thinking himself safe, to whom do we turn? Scripture tells us to test ourselves – to examine ourselves, to see if we are in the faith.

Examination
* Matthew 7 provides some of Jesus’ most well-known teachings. (READ passage)
* Narrow gate, narrow path
* * What is the narrow gate? Repentance and belief.
* * What is repentance? A turning away from sin.
* * BUT, it’s not merely a narrow gate; there’s also a narrow path!
* * * The repentance must continue daily with faith
* * * Die daily, take up your cross, and follow Jesus.
* * If few will find the narrow gate, and fewer will walk the narrow path, then those few must be very different than the rest of the world. If we examine ourselves and find we look just like everyone else, we should be terribly alarmed.
* * * What do we put our time and money into?
* * * What entertains us? Do we laugh at the things God hates, or do we hate the things God hates? Do we watch idolatry on TV or do we abhor idols?
* * * Do we wear clothes that display our love for purity or do we dress provocatively just like the rest of the world? Are we saving our bodies for our future spouse, or do we display it like a hooker in Vegas?
* * * Do we save our eyes only for our spouse, or do we fill our minds with images of women we have no business looking at?
* * * Do we hide the Word in our hearts so we don’t sin against our God, or do we receive our religion from music, TV, clichés, and t-shirts?
* * TEST: Are we living like the few people who have found the narrow gate and walk the narrow path, or are we walking just like most people, who are on the broad road that leads to destruction?
* Good trees, bad trees
* * We’re born rebelling against God. It’s not simply that we do a bunch of good things and mess up every now and then with sin. It’s that we do nothing but rebel against God. We hate Him; we hate His ways; we hate His laws. We don’t even have the ability to come to Him – he must draw us away or we will perish!
* * If Jesus asked, “Thorn bushes… do you find figs on thorn bushes?” how would we answer? “And fig trees… do they produce thorns?” “Of course not, Jesus! You’re being absurd!”
* * It is equally absurd to find you live like the world, walk like the world, talk like the world, love the things God hates, hate the things God loves, and conclude that you know God!
* * TEST: Do you produce fruits of repentance, turning quickly from sin whenever you’re confronted? Or do you produce the same fruit the rest of the world is producing?
* “Lord, Lord”
* * Many will claim Jesus is lord… they will have done great and powerful things in His name. But Jesus will tell them plainly, “Away from me. I never knew you.”
* * Isn’t this statement promoting a “salvation by works” theology? Absolutely not. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “Only those who believe obey. And only those who obey believe.” The two are inseparable.
* * Jesus’ final words against these people are that they “practice lawlessness.” This doesn’t simply mean that they lived in sin, but that they lived as though they were never given a law. They live as though Jesus never said, “Take care of the widows and orphans”, “Not a hint of sexual immorality”, “Love God, love men”, etc. As if there were never standards of how to dress, how to treat one another, how to forgive, how to encourage and uplift, how to confront sin.
* * TEST: Do you call Jesus “Lord” and claim to have surrendered your life to Him while living as though He hasn’t told you how to live? Do you hunger and thirst to live in His righteousness, building His Kingdom, or do you chase after the things of this world?
* House on the rock, house on the sand
* * One who hears these words of Jesus has two options: He can act upon them, or pass them by. He can turn to daily repentance, clinging only to Jesus and His Word, or he can ignore these words and go about his life.
* * The one who acts on these words will stand through the storm and find eternal life.
* * The one who ignores these words will be destroyed.
* * TEST: Does this Scripture move me to scrutinize every aspect of my life, to remove any hint of sin and rebellion, or am I comfortable with where I’m at and where I’m going?

Scripture is painfully clear that those who continue in their sin have only the eternal wrath of God to look forward to. God is patient, wanting none to perish, but all to come to repentance. But there is coming a time when He will judge each and every one of us.

We cannot be satisfied by comparing our lives to other people. We can no longer hang our eternity on the testimony of men – even if Pastor Randy or Pastor Bob says, “You are saved; stop worrying!”, it is not good enough. Our job is not to tell people they’re saved – we are to tell people how to get saved – to repent and believe. GOD will tell them when they’re safe. In the mean time, we have been commanded to test ourselves to see whether or not we’re in the faith. We must be painfully truthful with ourselves because the heart is deceitfully wicked and other men don’t have the authority to declare us saved.

Copyrights…

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Wow.

Excuses

“Christians today are far more interested in spitting out excuses for why they can’t do what they ought than they are in just doing it.”

Preaching

Give me Christ, or else I die.

Shout It Aloud!

Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. “Why have we fasted,” they say, “and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?” Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers.

Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in strking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is that the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one’s head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter — when you see the naked, to clothe him, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?

Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say, “here am I.”

If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your light will become like the noonday. The Lord will guide you always, he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.

If you keep your feet from breaking the Sabbath and from doing as you please on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the Lord’s holy day honorable, and if you honor it by not going your own way and not doing as you please or speaking idle words, then you will find your joy in the Lord, and I will cause you to ride on the heights of the land and to feast on the inheritance of your father Jacob.

The mouth of the LORD has spoken.

Late Night Thoughts on Television

Today I want to talk about television and the evil that comes through it into our homes. I’m sure many of you are thinking right now about the shows you think I’m going to discuss. Some of you are thinking, “Oh, he’s going to light into those who watch ‘Sex and the City’ and all those carnal immoral shows about sex!” Others are thinking, “He’s really going to go after those reality TV shows!” Some are thinking, “I know he’s thinking about ‘Everybody loves Raymond’ and all those other shows that portray men as big buffoons. Some of you are hoping that I’m going to say something that will get your husband away from 60 hours of sports every week. Maybe some of you think I’m going to talk about American Idol and how we worship mere men and women for their singing abilities.

The truth is, you’re all right. I hope today to show you that TV is one of Satan’s greatest tools in the US to keep people out of the Kingdom of God for all of eternity. I’m sure at this point you all think I’m overreacting. But please hear me out before making that assessment.

Let’s start with the most controversial show I listed. American Idol. I’ve had more people tell me how great that show is than any other show on television. So-called Christian radio stations can’t talk enough about who’s on that show. After all, there are several contestants who claim to be Christians and some even sing Christian songs! Surely that can’t be a bad thing to watch!

But what follower of Christ would compete to be named THE American Idol? Have we forgotten that God is a JEALOUS God? Have we forgotten that we are to have no graven images before him? Yet somewhere along the line, we’ve exchanged singing worship with worshiping singers. And we’ve forsaken our Lord to do that. And just as bad, Americans worship athletes with billions of dollars and great deals of time. We can’t possibly find time to gather for a men’s Bible study, or to spend time praying with our falling brothers, but when our favorite sports team comes on the air, we’ve got HOURS of time to devote! We’re so addicted, we even watch games we don’t care two hoots about… just because they’re games! Surely sports are the American Idol.

How about, “Everybody Loves Raymond”? What’s wrong with that show? It’s so funny to watch a guy run around completely clueless to the life he’s in! He has no backbone, can’t stand up for what’s right, and his wife treats him like a kindergartner! It’s HILLARIOUS!

And perhaps it is. But is it godly? Does the wife submit to her husband? Does the husband love his wife as Christ loved the church? Does the husband lead his family in godliness and self-control? Does he selflessly serve his family? Absolutely not.

“But Jeremy! It’s not like we’re going to BECOME those people!” Look around, my friends. We ARE those people. The reason God URGED Israel to stay in the Word is because he knows that what goes into us is what comes out. If we sow seeds of godliness and righteousness, we will reap godliness and righteousness. But if we sow seeds of belittling, discontent, arguing, rudeness, lack of self-control, and a lack of courage, what do you think we’re going to reap? God cannot be mocked! Whatever a man sows, so shall he reap! Women, do you think you can fill your head with thoughts of a rebellious and controlling wife and not become yourself a rebellious and controlling wife? You are deceived! Men, do you think you can fill your mind with the idea that women are nothing more than body parts to be worshiped and conquered and yet not view every woman you meet as a hunk of flesh for your flesh? You too are deceived!

And speaking of sex, how about Sex and the City or the reality TV shows? Do you really think your sexual expectations are going to be godly and pure if you’re filling your mind with those things? Do you expect to teach your children how to control themselves when you raise them on shows that have turned sex into a common practice to be performed with anyone and everyone, and discussed in great detail with everyone else? Parents, you are deceived! FLEE from sexual immorality! Don’t fill your living rooms and your minds with it and think you’re going to be the first human being that’s immune to its influence.

“But,” you say, “there can’t be anything wrong with watching a little TV show for entertainment! It’s just a couple hours a week, and I really enjoy it!”

Let me put that statement into context. … I really enjoy my wife. Seriously, I enjoy my wife! Many difficult days at work come and go. By 2pm, I’m genuinely excited about the thought of getting in the car, leaving the office behind, and walking through my door to the embrace of my wife. I look forward to dinner with her.. I love to sit and read books together on the couch. I love playing games with her. I love taking her out on dates and dinner and holding her hand. I ENJOY my wife!! I love my wife. I would die for her, and I try very hard day in and day out to LIVE for her. I am quick to forgive, patient with her, adore her company… I..love..my..wife.

Now if you knew nothing about me except that those last few statements were true, you would have to agree — I love my wife and I truly enjoy her.

But let’s say you know something else about me. Let’s say that you and I had a conversation a week ago and I told you about a great woman at the office. She’s drop dead gorgeous, I can really talk to her about anything.. I show up early and often stay late just to hang out with this woman. I really ENJOY being with her! Eventually, I have to go home, but I can’t wait to get back in the office and with the woman I enjoy.

Now do you still think I love my wife? Of course not! Jesus told us that where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. If my desire is to be with the woman at the office, then no matter how much I insist that I love my wife, you KNOW I’m lying — to you AND to myself! You would say to me, “If you really loved your wife, you’d want to be home with her, not at the office with this other woman!”

And what if I said, “But it’s only a few hours a week. We make out a little now and then, but it’s not like we go all the way. Besides, I’m home in time for bed, and that’s what really matters, right? I’m not SLEEPING with this other woman!”

You’d know I’d gone off the deep end. I’ve exchanged my wife for a prostitute, and you know it.

God has set our precedents for us. We are to worship his son, Jesus. We are to study his Word, day and night. But we do not enjoy these things. Like a marriage that’s grown dull, God has bored us. We’ve found the woman at the office, television, to be a far more entertaining endeavor. After all… It’s only a few hours a week. And it’s not like we’re out MURDERING or committing ADULTERY! We’re just watching it! It’s entertaining to watch the ways of the world!

The Son of God hears that and calls our lie to the carpet. We’ve exchanged our God for a prostitute, just like Israel. And I’m saying, “You’ve gone off the deep end. You’ve exchanged your God for a prostitute, and I know it. You say you love God, you say you want Heaven, but those statements are no more true than mine when I say I love my wife but honestly can’t wait to get back to the woman at the office.”

Many people measure commitment to God by spending Sunday morning, evening, and Wednesday evening at Church. Surely those are the REAL Christians. But that’s like saying, “I spend 4 hours a week with my wife. Clearly that makes me a good husband. The rest of the week I’m entitled to a little making out at the office. If I didn’t love my wife, I wouldn’t spend those 4 hours with her!”

Proposterous.

“But just because we watch a little TV doesn’t mean it’s going to make us horrible people. We all need a little time to unwind!”

Yes, we do need time to rewind. But if we know Scripture, we know that GOD is our refuge and strength. It is HE who strengthens us and gives us rest. It is in HIM that we find rest and restoration. If we really want to be built up and restored, we need to heed his word. He gave us the Word, the Church, and the Spirit. THESE are to be our strength, our entertainment, our comfort, and our help.

What if Paul found out that his newly formed Church had resigned itself to buying popcorn and watching the Ephesian orgies every night? “But Paul! We’re not COMMITTING acts of sexual immorality! We’re not killing people in Artemis’ temple! We’re just watching!”

Paul would write back, “BUT WHY?! Don’t you know that you were called to SO MUCH BETTER, if indeed you were actually called? Didn’t I warn you that there shouldn’t even be a HINT of sexual immorality among you?! Didn’t I tell you that the days are evil, so you should make the MOST of EVERY OPPORTUNITY? WHY ARE YOU WASTING YOUR TIME IN SUCH FOOLISHNESS??”

Even IF watching shows that made men buffoons didn’t make you treat your husband like an idiot (which it does)…. even IF watching model-like women run around with practically nothing on had no effect on your sexual purity in thought and deed (which is absurd)… even IF you could watch American Idol without worshiping a graven image (which you can’t)… why would you?

You who must be entertained at the altar of television, do you not know that God created humor and entertainment and is more than capable of providing endless joy? Do you not suppose that now is a time for soberness and prayer and fasting and evangelism and meditation? Have you no concern for the billions dying around you that you can sit for hours and watch mind-numbing, flesh-empowering, lust-filled entertainment?

You whose flesh is addicted to the carnality and wickedness offered by television, do you not remember that the wicked have no part in the Kingdom of God? That means you. Repent now while there’s still time!

You who are raising your children to know more about LOST and Grey’s Anatomy than Jesus and our forefathers, do you not care to save your own children from eternal damnation? Or do you think that a simple work of prayer will suffice as a ticket to the Kingdom?

And finally… you who stand convicted by the Spirit, who have even the slightest bit of life in you, who have even the tiniest desire for godliness and righteousness and the Kingdom of God… repent. Forsake the false god of television, which cannot save your soul, and turn to the one and only God. Immerse yourself in his Word, fellowship constantly with his Body, and be filled with the Holy Spirit. Do these things and you will find life. Then train up your children to do the same. Then train up other children and other lost souls. Show them the way.

The time is short and the days are evil. We must take seriously the command to make the most of every moment! We must not give Satan one more square inch of our minds or one more second of our lives.

1 John and Backsliders

Define “backslider”: someone who is repeatedly arrested for criminal behavior, or someone who repeatedly lapses into previous habits of undesirable behavior.

A Snapshot of 1 John

1:6 – If we say that we have fellowship with Him and walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth; but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin.

Is a backslider walking in darkness or light? Is he fellowshipping with other believers and being cleansed from all sin?

2:3-6 – By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked.

3:24 – The one who keeps his commandments abides in Him, and He in him.

Jn. 14:15 – If you love me, you will obey my commands.

Is a backslider keeping the commandments of Jesus? Is a backslider walking in the same way Jesus walked? Is he “teaching them to obey everything [Jesus] commanded” (Mt. 28:20)?

2:10-11 – The one who loves his brother abides in the Light and there is no cause for stumbling in him. But the one who hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in the darkness and does not know where he is going because the darkness has blinded his eyes.

4:20 – If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.

Does the backslider love his brother? Even if his brother accuses him of sin and demands the sin cease? Or does the backslider breathe curses of hatred against his brother?

2:15-16 – Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

Does the backslider love God or the world? Does he love the sports, entertainment, lusts, pleasures, etc. of the world, or has he turned away from the ways of the world to follow the things of God?

2:19 – They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.

These are the backsliders! They started with us but then departed. This happened so it would be shown that these people really are not of us.

As Paul urges, “There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them” (2 Tim. 3:1-5).

2:29 – If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him.

Does the backslider practice righteousness?

3:3 – And everyone who has this hope on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.

Is the backslider purifying himself in anticipation of Jesus’ return?

3:4-10 – Everyone who practices sin also practices lawelessness; and sin is lawlessness. You know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.

If Jesus’ reason for coming was solely to destroy sin, then those who truly believe will want nothing to do with sin!

Is the backslider practicing sin or righteousness?

3:15 – Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

If one of us has the world’s goods, see someone in need, but do not help them, then we can be certain that man does not have the truth.

Does the backslider give up his possessions and his life for the needs of his brothers, or is his heart closed against the needy?

5:4 – For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.

Has the backslider overcome the world? Is his strong faith evidence?

Now, replace “Does the backslider” above with, “Do I”. A sobering test of one’s faith, if we answer honestly.

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