Failure To Obey the Law

Pentagon fails to comply with law to help overseas soldiers vote, watchdog says

http://www.washingtonguardian.com/ballot-buck-passing

This article was a real eye opener for me and should be for you regardless of your political leanings. “Why?” you ask. Because of the last paragraph of the article (seen below) and the last sentence, which says that, the pentagon is in agreement with the inspector general’s recommendation.

The inspector general recommended the Pentagon create better survey capabilities to identify the voting needs of soldiers, sailors, Marines and Air Force personnel after the 2012 election and to work with Congress to change the parts of the law that it isn’t complying with. (my emphasis added)

Doesn’t bother you too much?

Well how do you feel about people who refuse to obey the law and when asked about it they say, “let’s just change the law?”

How about complying with the law of the land the one that your commander-in-chief signed into law? And then work to change the law if necessary. After all that is what w followers of Christ are called to do (see Romans 13 & 1 Peter 2)

Lets put it into perspective of the Kingdom. Suppose your King issued a royal decree that says that obedience is better than sacrifice and rebellion is equal to witchcraft (an act punishable by death in the Old Testament) 1 Samuel 15:22 or that the greatest commandment is to Love the Lord your God and the second is to love your neighbor as yourself. Matthew 22:38-40.

But instead you say, “We will work with our Lord the King to change the laws that we are failing to comply with at this time.” How do you think He would react?  What do you think He would do with servants who disobeyed Him?

The people of this republic have sunk so low that no one is up in arms over this failure to obey. What happened to honor, respect and duty by the upper echelons of the military? And how can they expect the rank and file to obey when they themselves don’t?

For followers of Jesus the only time we are allowed to disobey the government is when it conflicts with God's Law. (see Acts 5:29) Notice how the Apostles reacted those in authority. They were willing to suffer persecution if necessary and not complain about how unfair and unjust the law was. But what about disobeying God's law?

What a shame that believers are just as cavalier with their obedience to God’s law!

God forgive me of my lack of obedience, honor and duty to my King,

Pastor Val

Keys to the Kingdom

When I was younger I saw everything as pure black and white with very little gray. As I’ve matured in my spiritual walk I have come to realize that yes there are doctrinal issues that we must take a firm and unshakable stand on, but there are other things that are more culturally driven or even spiritually unclear questions. These questions are what I want to address in this paper: things like contemporary or traditional music, liturgical or non-liturgical style services, the proper role of women in the church, gifts of the spirit and many more that I could mentioned.

How do we address these issues? How do we resolve them to the general satisfaction of the individual independent local church or denominational group?

I believe that before the Lord’s death he gave us the tools to deal with these issues. Further I believe that the book of Acts gives us a prime example of how to deal with these divisive issues. I call it the Keys of the Kingdom.

In Matthew 16 Simon Peter has declared that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. The passage continues with Jesus blessing Peter and made reference to Peter being “a stone” but the truth that Peter has proclaimed is “a boulder” upon which Jesus will build his church. Then I believe Jesus said one of the most puzzling yet profound things he ever said to the twelve (and not just to Peter):

¹⁹ I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."
Matthew 16:19 (NIV)

To understand this verse we must remember a number of things. Matthew who records this saying is writing to Jewish believers. As such he is showing that Jesus is not only the greatest Rabbi to ever have lived but also Jesus is the promised Messiah and the very Son of God.

 Rabbis had a way of teaching and they often spoke in “Rabbiese” much like many Christians today speak “Christianese” If you lived in the culture of the time you will understand what Jesus is saying. But being almost 2000 years removed and living in a western culture vs. a Hebraic eastern culture we miss the significance of the message. 

When a student (disciple) was ready to graduate from his training under his teacher (rabbi or master) he would be granted permission to carry on his teacher’s work. If he encountered a situation that the teacher had not specifically covered he was given permission to make decisions based upon his understanding of training for the teacher and his followers. He was given the “keys to the kingdom.”

Now this played out in the early church with what is known as the first Jerusalem council in the 15^th chapter of the book of Acts (the history book of the early church). Paul and his fellow missionaries had shared the good news with Jews and gentiles alike. This influx of gentile believers of Jesus Christ into the church had caused concern for the more traditional Jewish believers. Did these non-Jewish believers need to convert to Judaism (with all of it’s rituals and rules) or not.

Both sides presented their concerns and positions to the leadership of the church that included not only the apostles that were in Jerusalem but also the church leaders (specifically James) of the mother church. Following the discussion and after seeking God’s direction through prayer James made his judgment. Gentile did not have to become Jews to be considered full followers of Christ. The leadership of the church had practiced Matthew 16:19 and the Lord blessed their decision with a great influx of gentile believers in the years to come.

So how does all of this apply to some of the more the cultural questions you have asked me to address? My answer is that some answers need to be made based on carefully seeking God’s will for our local church. Not every church will come to the same conclusion and that is fine in not essential doctrines. Each church (and leader for that matter) will stand before God to give an account for what they decided. There will be occasions when these decisions will be right for one group but not another. And that is okay. Paul and Barnabas agreed to disagree regarding taking John Mark on a missionary journey and they separated ways. The net result was that the gospel reached more people because they multiplied their efforts. Neither was right or wrong. Furthermore what might be right at one point in our journey might change with the passing of time. Later in life Paul commented on how helpful John Mark had become to him in the ministry after previously rejecting him for that second mission.

In conclusion while I have opinions and preferences on cultural issues I am more desirous to partner with the spiritual leadership of the church to seek God’s leading and do His will regarding these and other non-essential issues. Our concern should always be what does the Lord want and not what do we want. After all we have all been taught to say “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven!”

Now if I can just find those keys…

Pastor Val

The Prize of Peace

This past week there has been a lot of talk about peace and prizes for peace. It got me wondering about peace and the chances we have for real peace.

Is it possible for there to be peace in this age? How about the age to come? What will it look like and who will bring us true and lasting peace?

For those of us who are Christ followers we know that true and final peace will not come during this age. (See 1 Thessalonians 5:2-3) As the age comes to a close we know that there will be more and more war and strife. Peace will not be found. (Matthew 24:6).

Jesus himself taught that peace making is a blessed occupation. (Matthew 5:9) But notice that he said peace makers not those who give peace away in a Chamberlin-like fashion. Peace at any cost is no peace at all. There are times when peace making requires non-peaceful methods.

And what about peace? What is peace? Too often we equate peace with the absence of open conflict. But in the Hebrew God calls peace shalom. Shalom is so much more then the absence of conflict. It is the creation of a Kingdom where God reign and rule comes to affect every portion of our life and being. Jesus came to offer a Kingdom of Shalom. But we wanted a peace that was ruled by force. There will come a time when Jesus will rule by force but now He offers us His shalom. Shalom is used as a greeting and a farewell (a wish for God’s blessing to be upon the other person), it is used to express our wish that His will, including His shalom is done here on earth as it is in heaven.

His peace should permeate the lives of all citizens of the God’s Kingdom. Our duty as citizens and representatives of His Kingdom is to seek to further His shalom both in our lives and in the world around us. While it is true that full peace will never be accomplished until after this age when the” age to come” comes, we are still commanded during the time of “now and not yet” to practice His peace to all that we meet.

It is always interesting to watch non-followers of Christ try to create something and long for something that is impossible to attain without the most necessary ingredient – the Prince of Shalom – Jesus Christ our Prince of Peace

Peace to you

Pastor Val

A Plea

Upon occasion I run across something that needs repeating. A friend of mine Kent Straith recently wrote an open letter entitled "A Plea." I was moved by his comments and thought that all of us would benefit from his thoughts. So with his permission, I have copied his passionate plea for your consideration.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008 at 10:00 pm
As I type this, it has become clear over the last hour that Senator Barack Obama has been elected the 44th President of the United States. Minutes after the polls close on the west coast, there'll be an official call, and later on tonight, there’ll be an acceptance speech in Grant Park in Chicago, and a concession speech at a hotel in Phoenix. What’s on my mind, though, is tomorrow. And the next day, and the day after that. And the appeal I’m about to make is not to everybody on my list…rather, you’re only getting this if I know you to publicly call yourself a follower of Jesus Christ.

After some early promise, this has turned out to be an unpleasant campaign. A wrenching, divisive, long ordeal that makes me wonder what could possibly be on the news now that it’s over. My hope is this: Now that this longest campaign in history exists now only in our history, I hope that followers of Christ…His Church…can come together in a spirit of inclusion and acceptance and humility and be a force for reconciliation in this country. Mark Twain famously said, “a lie can get halfway ‘round the world while the truth is getting its shoes on.” Admittedly, my heart broke a little bit for Christians every time I saw a video posted on Facebook which called Barack Obama a Muslim or a Marxist or questioned if he was an American citizen or compared him to Osama Bin Laden, but there was a contest going on, and politics in this country has become war, and war is hell. But the battle is over, and there is an unarguable winner, and I just pray that we don’t see any more of these videos or see any more of these e-mails. I hope I never see a bumper sticker like the ones which so shamefully declared that President Bush was “Not My President!” Not from us. We have a higher calling.

The Bible promises us that God holds the heart of the king in His Hand, and what happened Tuesday has happened for a specific reason. For believers, we have a simple choice: We can either make our voices heard and hold the President’s feet to the fire on the issues we disagree with him on, and remain respectful and Christ-like in doing so…or we can engage in a whispery, shadowy, sniping, bitter smear campaign over the next several years. We can treat President Obama like we treated President Clinton, and how the other side treated President Bush…or we can follow the advice of Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who said tonight, “tomorrow morning, we can all become Americans.”

Eleven weeks from today, the President-elect will stand on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, raise one hand, and place the other on a Bible (not a Qu’ran). He’ll take an oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. The United States is a country that has existed in its present form for 220 years, and in those 220 years, been ruled by forty three men, soon to be forty four. Many of those men have been ideological opposites, and many have hated each other personally…but in all of those years, not a single bullet has ever been fired in those transitions of government. This is, indeed, the most magnificent country in history. It’s a country that runs IN to melting skyscrapers. It’s a country that gives to the needy in numbers that leave the rest of the world speechless. We can take this opportunity to raise the level of debate in this country…a country that God we worship clearly has His Hand on. Tomorrow, let’s be better than the campaign we’ve just witnessed. Wednesday morning, and in the days and weeks and months to come, let’s try to make Him proud of us.

Kent Straith

Thanks Kent for sharing your thoughts.

At the end of the day we are not only Americans, more importantly we are Kingdom Citizens who are called to advance our King's agenda and not a particular political party.

Horizontally representing Christ to the nation

Pastor Val

Musings from a liberal conservative, democrat, republican, libertarian, independent, green party Christian.

Today is Election Day here in the USA and regardless of what political party you belong to I hope you voted your conscience.

Regardless of who wins the presidential election probably about half of our country will be disappointed. Some will be downright mad, especially Christians on one side or the other.

You see for the past generation or two something strange has been happening to Christians here in the US we have bought into the concept that we can legislate morality or better yet God’s will by the voting box.

If you are a conservative evangelical Christian there are two issues that become your litmus test for who you will vote for in an election.
Gay Rights
Right to Life (Abortion)
These two issues are the rallying cry that every good evangelical stands firm on. We prove our commitment to God by our commitment to the conservative agenda on these two issues. And you know what, they are serious issues that the Bible does address.

If you are a liberal main line Christian or one of the few evangelical who are of the liberal persuasion then you also have two main issues that become your litmus tests for who you will support with your vote.
The Poor
The Environment
These two issues are the major rallying points for your social agenda. And you too prove your commitment to the cause by your devotion to these issues. And again the Bible does speak to both of these issues, too.

Interestingly enough the Bible speaks to all four of these issues and many more. So why is it that the two parties have chosen these as their hot buttons? Why do we have to choose which camp we are in and why do reject out of hand the other issues?

Who gave us the right to decide which issues are more important to God then the others? As I have been studying the Bible I see a God who commands us to be good stewards of His creation. Who calls us to help the poor. Who loves life and commands us not to sacrifice our children on the altar of our own self interest. Who commands us to love the sinner (regardless of the category that we place the sin in) but to hate the sin.

Isn’t it interesting that when God lists sins He includes the sin of lying (slander), idolaters, thieves, greedy and homosexuality together as all sins that God detests? (I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Why do we pick and choose what our personal agenda will be? Why is it that we become partisans to a political cause to the exclusion of those who disagree with us politically but are still our spiritual brothers?

The only answer I can come up with is that we are still embedded with the sin nature. We are not yet what our God calls us to be and because of this defect in us we are prone to sinning against Gods command to show our love for God by our love for each other.

I was reminded of the 12 disciples that Jesus chose to represent Him as His Apostles. When we read the gospel accounts we learn a lot about these men. We learn many of their occupations and we even learn about two of these men who were from different political worlds. Matthew was a part of the establishment and was partner with the Roman government and would be considered on one extreme of the political party line. His contemporary and political opponent was a guy named Simon (not Simon also known as Peter). Simon carried a descriptive name to distinguish him from the better known leader of the disciples. This Simon is always identified as a zealot. Zealots were on the other extreme of the political spectrum from tax collectors and collaborators, like Matthew.

Isn’t interesting that Jesus choose men on both extremes? Isn’t even more interesting that both of these men chose to give up their respective political positions to take on an even greater position as representatives of the Kingdom of God?

While I’m concerned for who will be running the government here in the United States for the next four years, I’m more concerned about advancing the Kingdom of God and seeing His shalom spread throughout a world that knows no peace that knows only conflict, wars and hunger both physically and spiritually.

Let’s live beyond our means, using God’s means. And let’s show to the world what Kingdom living is all about.

Won’t you join me as together we seek to live as citizens of the kingdom that is now and not yet.

Pastor Val

My Kingdom Go

For years I had heard and often repeated the prayer “Thy Kingdom come” without ever giving much thought to what I was asking God to do. A couple of months ago I read the book IT: How Churches and Leaders Can Get It and Keep It by Craig Groeschel. He quotes Alan Redpath who said “Before we can pray, ‘Lord Thy Kingdom come,’ we must be willing to pray ‘My Kingdom go.’”

Wow did that quote really strike home for me over the last few months. I moved to a small town where to pastor a church that was involved with a community of churches from many different tribes. Those of you who know my background I’m sure are surprised that I would be involved with churches from different tribes. But then those of you who have followed my evolution won’t be surprised by my change and acceptance of those who come from different traditions. Perhaps it can be blamed on my doctoral studies or my post-modern spiritual bent or maybe God has just been doing a work in my heart and it’s starting to show to the outside world.

Over the last few years I’ve come to realize that different does not mean heretical. While I know that there often legitimate differences theologically and doctrinally, I also know that God’s plan for us is unity even in our diversity.

17 Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them: "Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. Luke 11:17 (NIV)
Richard Baxter, Seventeenth-century Puritan minister once lamented “Is it not enough that all the world is against us, but we must also be against one another? O happy days of persecution, which drove us together in love, whom the sunshine of liberty and prosperity crumbles into dust by our contentions.”

As leaders we must be Kingdom minded and His, not our own personal kingdom. Kingdom minded people are more interested in the advancement of the Kingdom then our own personal agenda. Kingdom-minded people are generous and eager to partner with others in order to accomplish more for the Kingdom. It’s about Jesus – no other name under heaven is more important – not even yours! Or mine!

It’s all about Him (or at least it aught to be)!

Several weeks ago I was reviewing my message for the coming Sunday (yeah I try to plan ahead) and I was struck by the passage in Genesis on Abraham and how he lived open handedly and gave a tenth of his wealth to the King of Salem who was a gentile and also the high priest of El Elyon (God Most High). Abraham was the one God promised to father many nations and was the one through whom all of the world would be blessed and yet he practiced living open-handedly.

I was going to be teaching on this subject and I thought, “Won’t it be great if we could put actions with my words.” And sitting in my favorite Chinese Buffet it struck me exactly how we could practice living open handedly and promote unity of the Kingdom of God. We had a neighboring tribe (read church here) that was having a Miracle Sunday in two weeks. They were on their final push to raise funds for a new building. And I thought wouldn’t it be grand if a neighboring tribe we contributed to their building drive with a love gift expressing our unity amidst our diversity.

So after my elders gulped a few times they prayed about it and agreed that this was a God thing. I announced my hair-brained idea to our congregation. Their first though was what about our building fund. And I explained how God’s plan was for his servants to meet the needs of others and that God promised to meet our needs when the time was right.

We gave and I went across the street to deliver our love gift to our neighboring tribe and was very warmly received by the pastor who blown away that we would give to their needs.

Their big Miracle Sunday was a huge success for them and they far exceeded their goal for the day. The interesting thing was that the church sent over a delegation to our church during our morning service to thank our people for our love gift.

They were blown away our people were moved by God to practice what we were learning from Scriptures and healing between our two congregations was begun. God was honored and unity of the body was promoted in a tangible way.

Here are some of the lessons that I’ve learned from this experience

God wants to stretch our faith
God’s kingdom is a very big place.
God will bless us with more responsibility for being obedient
When we share Kingdom unity emerges
We are extending His Kingdom when we are obedient to His leading
We model true Kingdom stewardship
We need to encourage others to radical generosity
We really don’t know what the final outcome will be, because God is not done with us yet.

John Wesley once said: “Do all the good that you can. By all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as you ever can.”

Learning what it means to be a citizen of the Kingdom

Pastor Val

Exodus vs. Exile

Have you ever spent some time thinking about the nation of Israel and their Exodus from Egypt to the Promised Land? In this story we see God’s concern for the injustice that Israel suffered. Israel oppressed and they call out to God for deliverance and He answers them by calling Moses to be the agent of their deliverance (Exodus 3:7-12). This paradigm is familiar throughout the New Testament. The theme of captivity, bondage and exodus is expressed in a number of passages but it can be seen especially in Hebrews 3:1-6.

This theme of deliverance was especially impactful throughout Church history. Perhaps achieving its pinnacle in the American church, where it became a way of life. Think about the early pilgrims who founded the Plymouth and Massachusetts colonies. They were fleeing from oppression and hoped to find the Promise Land for themselves and their progeny. With the passing of years the desire to flee and move further and further west in their pursuit of spiritual and religious freedom became an overarching idea throughout the church in America. This pursuit of exodus was often linked with a belief in our rightness and the blessing of God upon our endeavors. We saw in our westward movement a sense of God’s intervention in our behalf and a divine destiny. In the past Americans have equated our national interest with God’s interest. This exodus mentality has provided us with a sense of destiny and that has affected our understanding of Christianity, or at least American white middle class Christianity. We rarely read Scripture through any other lens then our own.

We see the Exodus event as an escape rather then as a deliverance to serve. (Take another look at Exodus 3:7-12). We have often used this paradigm as an excuse for a lifestyle that promotes consumerism and a lack of interest in true worship and its results, true justice (Isaiah 1:10-17)

We are addicted to consumerism partly because of this Promise Land mentality. We believe that our acquiring of things will satisfy our hunger. Hunger is equated to still being on the journey to the Promised Land where hunger will be alleviated. Unfortunately, after succumbing to the advertising and marketing of these things that promise to assuage our hunger, we find we are soon restless and our appetite is unsatisfied and unfulfilled. This is because we have not learned to find our rest and satisfaction in the Lord.

Now in the exile paradigm which is also found in the Old Testament, God is concerned because of the injustice that Israel has perpetuated. Israel causes its own subjugation by its continued disobedience to live a life of deliverance in the Promised Land.

God promises Abraham that he and his progeny are blessed to be a blessing. This promise is now to be lived out in exile in Babylon. Israel’s call is to work out what it means to dwell as a stranger in a foreign land and yet to live as those who belong to Yahweh. God places His people in a position where they are expected to stay under their tribulation and live as exiles. This means there is no escape from their problem only perseverance (James 1) and to of all things, seek the welfare of their captors.

“Also, seek the peace [shalom] and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers [in shalom], you too will prosper [in shalom].” Jeremiah 29:7 (NIV)

Think of Daniel and then think of his modern day equivalents. The best and brightest men and women of their nations, who have chosen to stay and help their people and their nations by using their skills in difficult situations instead of journeying to the Promise Land (USA) where life is easy compared to their situation. We need to pray for their safety and ask God to bless their efforts to expand the Kingdom.

In the New Testament the church is called to exile as well as exodus.

“While we are highly attuned to avoid a faithful peculiarity that might offend, we also avoid a faithful peculiarity that might redeem. While we run from what might cause cultural or personal offence, we opt for benign acceptance of so many things that grieve our Lord Jesus Christ” (The Dangerous Act of Worship – Mark Labberton p.143)

Our unwillingness to live as exiles, faithful to our King, explains our willingness to let culture transform our lives instead of our transformation of culture. It also explains our willingness to fight meaningless worship wars instead of fighting the spiritual war of the Kingdom. We fight for our personal preferences instead of fighting to introduce people to the King.

It’s harder to live in exile then to live in exodus. We are forced to put down roots and live a life that interacts with the culture, to engage our culture and to speak to the issues of the day from a true Kingdom mindset.

“If we think we live in exodus, life is about getting to the promised land we think we deserve and desire. On the other hand, if we think we live in exile, then life’s agenda is all about living distinctly where we are and determining whether our home in God or in ‘Babylon’ will influence us most.” (Labberton, p.144)

Where we live is determined by how we live.

Worship in exodus is expressed in gratitude for our release form captivity to serve our God. While in the exile dimension, worship is the practice of our peculiar identity in a culture that is familiar yet foreign to us.

We are called to both exodus and exile living as New Testament believers. As Kingdom citizens we have often perverted the former while ignoring the latter. Today let’s not forget our profound gratitude for our deliverance while also not ignoring our responsibility to represent our King as his ambassadors until He returns!

Until He Returns

Dr Val