Golden Calves of Our Own Creation

Books upon books

Words upon words

It all gets overwhelming

And becomes a tower of Babel.

All of our gold

Provided by God

Is tooled and fashioned

And becomes a Golden Calf.

Offerings upon offerings

Feasts upon feasts

Worship and praise

 To our own creation

MOVEMENT NOT INSTITUTION

A pattern that I have observed and experienced many times in the life of the church is an organic organism becoming organized, and then the life slowly drains out of it.  It begins in a delightful way with people getting together to simply talk about their life with God; to sing and worship and just be together and enjoying the company and companionship of one another.  The numbers grow and then the gathering becomes bigger so organization develops, formality increases and soon the problems arise.  The normal pattern is meeting at a larger facility and then the building project begins and another Church Building is erected.  Eventually the building (container) becomes the focus, changing the content and conversation away from God and people, to the maintaining of the building.  Hence the institution is fixed and the original movement is ceased.

Institutions require control and control requires hierarchy.  Soon money is needed to support the institution.  Fund raising, buying and selling, and all the things that Jesus spoke against find their way into the mix and in my opinion we have as a result a Golden Calf.  In most of these cases the people began in innocence and with good purposes.  But something happens and both are transformed into something that does more harm than good.  When I read that a minister of a church makes a salary of $250,000.00 in my spirit I know something is not right.  I don’t see this in the teachings or mission of Jesus or the Apostles.  What I do see is the pattern copied over and over again.

Jesus tended to keep things simple, not spectacular. Jesus began a movement to a better life, not a bigger life; transformed individuals not necessarily tremendous buildings.  Even the event at the very center of a Christian’s life, the Resurrection, was treated in a simple manner.  Jesus showed himself to his disciples.  It would have been a sensational event if he had gone to Pilate or to the Pharisees.  Being a celebrity or a superstar was not his motivation or God’s plan. He had warned his disciples against this very thing many times.  He left the earth as he had come to earth, in humility and hidden except to those who were closest to him.

Jesus rose from the dead to give us life.  Life is moving and growing and needs the freedom to do that.  Institutions are stationary; they become needy and demanding.  Christians are to follow their Master and tend to the needs of living souls in people, not the lifeless stones of buildings.  To expand and build is always in the mix and seems to be a well used pattern.  But I believe we need to look at the original plan of Jesus and keep to his task.

EYES ON ETERNITY

The many churches today are very active in supporting the rights of people who are Gay to obtain the privileges that married people receive from the government.  But are they equally concerned about the rights and privileges people receive from being a child of God?

“Jesus came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.  But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” (John 1:11, 12).

The Church of God has a mission.  It is to reestablish a broken relationship between God the Creator and His creation so that we, as people, can live in right relationship with our Creator.  The coming of Jesus and the work of Jesus gives everyone that right, but it is each individual’s choice to choose to accept or reject. 

I would ask that the Church keep its eye on the goal line, on the one thing that is important.  There is no marriage in heaven.  There is a relationship with God. 

“Behold the dwelling place of God is with man.  He will dwell with them, and they will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God” (Revelation 21:3).

The fight between Gay Marriage will never be settled.  The Church needs to render unto Caesar’s what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s. The Church needs to look above and beyond this world to what matters for eternity.

The Only Voice That Needs to be Heard

In the sea of many voices

There is only One who needs to be heard

The still small voice of the Holy Spirit within

It is the Spirit that speaks Truth to my soul

It is the Spirit that speaks and warms my heart

It is the Spirit that speaks and enlightens my mind

It is the Spirit that speaks from the One Word

The One Word from God is Jesus.

He is the Voice that speaks The Way, The Truth, The Life

The Holy Spirit faithfully speaks The Word of God

And in the sea of many voices

That is The Word that needs to be heard.

A TRUE CELEBRATION FOR THE CHURCH OF GOD

To me the church as the Body of Christ doesn’t speak about so much as what the church does, as it speaks to what it is; the Body of Christ is the Presence of God on earth today.  To me that means I need to look at how Jesus was while he was on earth, because he was the Presence of God, incarnate.  He did not abolish the law.  He was the fulfillment of all of the law and the prophets.  He gave them meaning.  Today we throw off the law and the admonitions of the prophets and claim that Jesus made love the hallmark of the Christian faith.  That is true, but Jesus never separated love from obedience to the law or the admonitions of the prophets; they built on each other giving a complete meaning and a firm foundation to build on.

Love wants the best for another.  Often the best for another looks different to different people, and more than often looks different to Jesus.

Giving up my life in order to gain a better life doesn’t look like the best for me; hearing I need to stop what I am doing because it is wrong and actually harmful to me doesn’t look like the best to me. Asking for forgiveness, repenting, and admitting I am wrong doesn’t look like the best for me.  I want the freedom to be who I think I am and do what I think is best for me so I will look for people who reinforce and support me and stay clear of those who don’t.  I don’t want to feel convicted by my conscious so I will declare my conscience as null and void.  I will feel healthy, no matter what I am doing that might be unhealthy.

In the story about the woman brought before Jesus by the religious leaders for being caught in the act of adultery speaks clearly to the power of his presence.  The religious leaders left convicted and went home without bringing the woman to the justice she deserved by their law.  He could have said, “See, no one condemns you, and neither do I so go back to what you were doing.”  He said, “See, no one condemns you and neither do I.  Go, and sin no more.

In the story of the prodigal son the younger son went out and squandered his life and money in reckless living.  He had fun for awhile but that ended and he found himself as empty as he thought he was at home.  He came to himself, realized he had chosen wrong, repented and went home to seek forgiveness from his father, healing their relationship.  His father celebrated his homecoming.  The older son was equally squandering his life in resentment and bitterness.  But he never came to himself, to the conviction that he was choosing wrong and treating his father poorly.  In the eyes of others he was doing everything right, everything a son should do.  He never was brought to repentance or to the awareness that he needed to ask his father for forgiveness.  He missed the celebration and didn’t heal the relationship.

The restoration in relationship between God and human beings is the hallmark of Christianity.  Love has a great deal to do with that, but so does repentance and forgiveness for that breach in relationship.  The love of God leads us to repentance. When people who were in need came into Jesus’ presence, they experienced God’s love and they were healed. Jesus acted and spoke true to who he was.  People who didn’t think they were in need left his presence the same because they didn’t hear or didn’t see who he was and consequently could not celebrate in his love.

It is not true love to thwart the reconciliation of the relationship between God and one who has turned aside from God’s standard.  It is not true love to say that everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and that God delights in them, just so they won’t feel bad. This is not what is best for anyone.

The church as the Body of Christ needs to be light and salt to the world.  It needs to stand true to God’s laws, God’s prophets, and to Christ Jesus.  It needs to stand true to the covenant God made with Levi.

“My covenant with him was one of life and peace, and I gave them to

him.  It was a covenant of fear, and he feared me.  He stood in awe of

my name.  True instruction was in his mouth, and no wrong was found

on his lips.  He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and he

turned many from iniquity.  For the lips of a priest should guard

knowledge, and people should seek instruction from his mouth, for he

          is a messenger of the Lord of hosts.”  Malachi 2:5-7

The church as the Body of Christ needs to stand firm on a solid foundation of love and obedience.  But is it?  Unfortunately in our day the church appears to be falling into the same condition that Malachi speaks of in the rest of that chapter.

“But you have turned aside from my way.  You have caused many to

stumble by your instruction.  You have corrupted the covenant of

Levi, says the Lord of hosts, and so I make you despised and abased

before all people, inasmuch as you do not keep my ways but show

partiality in your instruction.”  Malachi 2:8, 9.

The church as the Body of Christ is His Presence in the world today.  As we love one another and encourage one another and build one another up, let’s make sure we are true to the standard and the plumb line that God uses.  Then we will be able to truly celebrate at the restoration of the relationship that God has been waiting to celebrate with us.  And oh, what a glorious celebration that will be.

THE CHURCH THAT JESUS IS BUILDING

“But who do you say that I am?

Blessed are you, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

But, my Father who is in heaven.”

Matthew 16:15

It is easy to be ‘evangelized into a church; invited to a place and group of people who make you feel loved and care for you.  It is easy to become committed to the church that offers that sense of belonging that all people need.  But that same sense can come from joining a club, a sports team, or many other social constructs we have built into society.  Those groups of people built that group into being, with charters, admission requirements, regulations, rules, and methods of accountability of the members, one to another.

As I look at the churches today I somehow sense that Jesus had something else as his building plan.  Human institutions are not sustainable because humans are flesh and blood and are not permanent.  Human institutions cannot withstand the gates of hell coming against them.  The institutional, human built churches are falling apart, due to dissention between members, economic depletion, compromises to God’s standard of life, and failure to achieve the original intention Jesus proclaimed for His Church. If anything fails it is not of God, but of human devising.

“My word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me

 empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose

 for which I sent it” (Isaiah 55:11).

What is to be, what is to come, already is.  That is what Jesus came to tell us, to show us.  What we need to know about the things of God flesh and blood can’t tell us.  We must hear those things from God Himself. God will add those people to the Church He is building.  That is the Church that will withstand the gates of hell.  Christ is the Rock His Church will stand on; not on flesh and blood, not on human thoughts or ways, but on God’s Word revealed by God Himself.

THE AXE IS AT THE ROOT

What if Jesus’ first coming to earth was today in 2014?  What expectations would our world have of him?  I suspect they would be the same as the expectations those folks years ago had.  They expected him to overpower and correct the Roman Empire; to ease the suffering those tyrants were inflicting on them; to take charge and be King.  He didn’t do that then so I suspect he wouldn’t do that today.

The problems of the world are not the evil deeds done by tyrants.  It is the roots of pride, arrogance, and perverse speech that produce the deeds of evil, and those roots are in all people of all persuasions and positions; rulers of nations, of religious systems, of political systems, of educational systems, and of social systems.  They are in individuals; rich and poor, men and women, of every culture and background.  Every one of us had the roots and the potential for evil, as God sees evil, within them.  That is why Jesus came; not to fix the world systems, but to fix us, everyone of us in this world.

         

“No problem can be solved from the same consciousness that created

it.”  Albert Einstein.

“Watch your thoughts; they become words; words become actions;

actions become habits; habits become character; character becomes

destiny.”  Lao Tse

Jesus came to fix us by transforming us and the way we think.  There are thoughts all around us and within us, and we often grab onto them and absorb them unconsciously, without much thought.  Thoughts run free range, the good with the bad, the creative with the destructive, and the right with the wrong.  The world’s problems all began with human thoughts, thoughts that may have looked good but were bad, looked creative but were destructive, looked right but were wrong.

Jesus came to set us in our thinking and that thinking is not rooted in pride, arrogance, or perverse speech.  It is rooted in, “But, I say to you” just as in the beginning, and “God said.”  To live our lives well, creative, and right human beings need to listen to, and obey what God says; listen to and obey His Word.  Until we do, we will all continue to be wicked and capable of evil.

“Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts.

And let him return to the Lord…”For My thoughts are not your

thoughts, nor my ways your ways”, declares the Lord.  “For as the

heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your

ways and My thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8).

It was human pride and arrogance and perverse speech that Jesus spoke to and condemned.  He didn’t look to the actions he went right to the roots.  “The axe is laid unto the root.”  Let’s accept the work Jesus does to our pride and in humility look to God to lead and direct our thoughts, our words, and our actions.  It’s the only Way.