Freedom and Domination-The prophets were very clear about responsibility. The saying had been, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes and the children’s teeth are set on edge”, implying that the children suffered due to the sins of their parents. While all mankind suffers because of the sins of Adam and Eve, it is because we choose to follow their example and choose our way over God’s way. God gave the law to direct our behavior towards what God had intended but our desire is to obey the letter of the law while getting around it to get our way if possible. Since our heart seeks to disobey, even when we outwardly obey, our heart isn’t in it and we are rebelling against God’s law, and the penalty for sin is death. The people later demanded a king like the other nations but God warned them that the king would tax them and conscript their sons and daughters for his benefit and would lead them away from God. In fact, that is what the kings did. The prophets reminded the people that “the soul that sins will die”. Each man is responsible for his own behavior. Men want to have someone else in charge to make decisions and take the heat for bad decisions. When we appoint leaders over us, we are authorizing them to make decisions on our behalf. We then become responsible for their decisions. If they don’t do what we want, we should remove them if we can. If we can remove them and do not, we are consenting to their decisions. When leaders take power by force and try to force us to do something that violates God’s will, we must decide whether we will obey them or obey God. We cannot claim we violated God’s law because man told us to, because no man has the authority to override God’s commands. Ultimately, God will hold us accountable for our behavior and will hold them accountable for theirs.
Archive for the ‘Kingdomtide’ Category
Tenth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Nov 13-B
Church and State-B Jesus illustrated the real separation of church and State when asked about the taxes. He stated that we should render unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s and unto God, that which is God’s. Since God created everything, everything is under His domain, including the government. However, God has established governments to keep the peace and maintain order and taxes and laws are necessary to carry out their responsibility. Since God created life for a purpose, only He has the right to determine when it ends and since God laid down the ground rules in the Ten Commandments, man does not have the right to change them or set them aside. The government is established to enforce them, but does not have the right to abolish them or change them. The Constitution recognizes that we have certain God-given rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and established procedures to protect them through the safeguards it established. The liberal politicians do not recognize God, so they do not recognize anything as being under God’s domain. They believe that their right to pursue happiness takes precedence over other people’s right to life and liberty, and feel they can change the law or set it aside when they wish, in order to pursue their right to happiness. Clearly there is a conflict of world views. Everyone must choose who he will follow, God or man. God has set before us life and death. Following God will result in life and following man will result in death, because disobeying God is sin and the wages of sin is death. Eve chose the fruit of disobedience over the fruit of following God and many people today still choose the way of death. Many today do not know they have a choice and choose death by default. The church needs to teach them the way of life.
———————————————————————————————-
Tenth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Nov 13-A
Church and State-A Liberal politicians cry out when Christians call for protecting life, saying that the Constitution requires a separation of church and State. It does but not like they say. The Constitution prohibits the government from passing laws restricting the free exercise of religion. It does not prohibit the church from voicing its opinion on religious matters. Speaking one’s views on the value of life falls under the Constitution’s protection of free speech. You do not lose the protection of the Constitution simply because you are a Christian. Without God, man seeks only his own best interest. He can say that he wants what is best for everyone, but when it comes to doing it, he puts his interest before everyone else’s. That creates conflict as every man seeks his own interest. If four people have one pie, they cannot all have all of it. God calls us to seek what is best for everyone. True Christians and Jews recognize that and put God’s law before man’s law when the two conflict. Dictators fear true Christians and Jews because the dictator cannot force them to disobey God. There are many that believe they are Christians and Jews and may even attend church or synagogue, but when forced to choose, they choose to obey man and not God. Many who attended Christian churches supported Hitler when he came to power or at least stood by and did nothing when he exterminated the Jews, those who were crippled, and the mentally deficient, because they knew what Hitler would do to them if they opposed him. They put their own interest ahead of God’s law and preferred to play it safe. Many Christians did choose to obey God and spoke out against Hitler, and Hitler put many of them in prison or killed them. Dictators may severely punish those who stand up for God, but God’s people know that the rewards in the end are well worth it. The church today faces a similar choice. It can remain silent as it did in Germany, or it can choose to stand up for God.
Eighth Week of Kingdomtide-Oct 23
Time –God places great value on time, both past, present, and future. We must remember past events and learn from them, we must experience His presence in the present through celebrating the past, and we must look forward to the future when He will fulfill what He promised. God told the Jews to celebrate three events as a way of doing that and to do it forever. Many say we are not under the law any longer and do not have to celebrate them, however that is only partially true. They were designed to teach the major tenets of the faith. By celebrating them, it reminded the Jews of what God had done and showed them what God would do. They continued to celebrate them, but forgot the meaning of them, so they did not recognize Jesus when He came. God has fulfilled two of the celebrations so we no longer look forward to their fulfillment, yet they should now be a part of our experience and worth celebrating. We celebrate our birth, why not celebrate being born again. We celebrate when God gave the law to guide the Jews, why not celebrate when the Holy Spirit came into our lives and became our teacher and guide. I am glad Jesus came to save me and that the Holy Spirit came to guide me, and I celebrate those events. Do you? God has not fulfilled Rosh Hosanna. Jesus said he will come again and take those who are His, to be with Him. However, He said if we are not ready when He comes, we will be left behind, so it is important to remember that He is coming and to be ready. How can we be ready, if we don’t remind ourselves that He is coming. We will be left behind like the Jews that forgot He was coming the first time. Just about everything I do is designed to prepare myself and those who are willing to listen, to walk with Jesus. What do you spend most of your time for? Time is important. The time to prepare is now. When time ends, there won’t be a second chance.
Seventh Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 16
Marriage God created man and woman to pair off. One reason is to enable the couple to teach children what they need to learn. While some today say that two men or two women can raise children just as well, it is very difficult for a man to teach a girl to be a woman or a woman to teach a boy to be a man. It is also difficult for two men or two women to teach kids how men and women should treat each other. Kids learn by watching and doing, not just by verbal instruction. Sometimes a close friend or relative can fill in for the missing spouse but it is very difficult. Marriage results in a long-term consistent training that is not possible with a series of short term boyfriends or roommates. Another reason is to protect the wife and children. If there is no legal marriage, either one can walk off whenever the going gets rough. With a legal marriage, they have to get a divorce before they can find someone else or be guilty of adultery. In addition, it provides a legal means to divide the couple’s assets and to ensure that the wife and children are provided for.
Christian Values-Value of Family and Gender-study course
promo https://youtu.be/v1vdPNPjr-I – time 3.12 m
Course URL- https://www.udemy.com/course/value-of-family-and-gender/?referralCode=B59AC09CACA5C0C97BDD
Sixth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 9
Value of Children –In early history, children were prized because they were necessary for the preservation of the family or group. In fact, women (who produced children) and children were so prized that they were often kidnapped or taken as captives of war from neighboring groups. Over the years, they were often valued to help out on the farm and farm families had a lot of children. As cities have grown, the value of children has declined. At various times in history, they have lost their value and various means of aborting unwanted children or killing them after birth, were developed. However, at no time in history has it taken on the proportions it has today. Environmental activists seek to restrict the birthrate to preserve nature and groups like Planned Parenthood seek to restrict the birth of populations they don’t like, such as Blacks and Hispanics, and the poor. They look at whether they can contribute what they cost to maintain or will they restrict our opportunities? We have no way of estimating what the future economic contribution of a child will be. Many non-White and poor White orphans have gone on to make great contributions, when given the opportunity and the education. Christians recognize that each person is created by God for a purpose and to take that life is to destroy God’s creation. Many individuals contribute a great deal that cannot be measured in dollars and cents and God created them regardless of their skin color and nationality.
Fifth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Oct 2
Value of Life -As Christians, we recognize that every person is created by God for a purpose and only God has the right to say when that life ends. While liberals say that that they care about the girl who is pregnant and want to help her, they simply want to get rid of the baby, so it won’t be a problem for society. They say that the girl has a right to take the life of her baby if it will inconvenience her, but once you state that, you open the door to allow other people to claim the right to kill someone who inconveniences them, whether it is an aging parent, a terminally ill family member, or simply someone that gets in their way on the freeway. In addition, every life is created with a purpose, and we should not allow any life to be wasted. God wants us to have life and that more abundantly so we should seek to help everyone to reach their full potential by helping them find God’s purpose for them and helping them achieve it.
Fourth Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 25
God’s Values vs Man’s values
Man looks at things from his own perspective, while God sees the whole picture. Man’s values are those that appear to benefit him and fail to realize the fact that what benefits others will ultimately benefit him. Without God, we are centered on getting things for us. If there are four people and one pie, man sees the benefit of getting the whole pie, but everyone can’t have the whole pie. There will be a struggle and only the strongest will get the pie. They all will only benefit if they divide the pie. God laid down His values in the Ten Commandments and throughout the Bible, to provide for the benefit of everyone, but they seem foolish to man. Why should we give in order to receive when all we have to do is take it. If we give, the other person may not give back, but if we take it, someone else will want to take it from us. We will only find peace and happiness as we understand the love of God and see things from His perspective. In the weeks ahead, I will be examining the various values and how God and man see them differently.
Third Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 18
organized teaching-In addition to a firm foundation, members need organized teaching. Often, the preaching and the adult Sunday Schools of many churches are very haphazard with no master plan. Sermons are often chosen week by week or from a series that hits the pastor’s fancy. Adult Sunday School classes are often chosen for each quarter at random. Without a basic foundation of knowledge and without organized instruction, bits and pieces of knowledge are tossed together in a heap. Many adult church members know many things about the faith but have no way to pull it together and do not understand how it applies to their life. The church needs to draw up a blueprint of what its members need to know and teach them in an organized manner. Using the Christian calendar gives structure to teaching and helps the church provide organized teaching. By going through the Christian calendar, it goes through all the major teachings of the church each year. I have a series of courses on Udemy to teach Christian beliefs. It begins with a course on Basic Christian beliefs. Next is a course on the Celebrations and how they help members understand the faith. Next I have courses on the values laid down in the Ten Commandments., including the value of life, the value of the rule of law, and the value of the family. See promos and links under “study courses”
Second Sunday of Kingdomtide-Sept 11
A firm foundation- Catechism. When I began my ministry, it was common for churches to have a concentrated time of study for those coming of age, generally considered about age twelve, to give them a basic foundation of understanding of the church and its beliefs. Few churches today, particularly evangelical churches, have any organized classes for twelve year olds to teach them the basic tenets of the faith. Even children who have been in Sunday School their whole lives need a concentrated time to pull together everything they have been taught. As a result, many children today do not have even a basic foundation of knowledge and cannot build their faith as they grow older. There is also no concentrated study for those coming into the church who did not grow up in church. The result is that few adult church members today have even a basic understanding of the faith. I have developed a basic catechism course of study for new members for that purpose (Understanding the Path We Walk-see “books” on website and Basic Christian Beliefs on Udemy-URL- https://www.udemy.com/course/basic-christian-beliefs/?referralCode=45EA0BA6DAD6F47E7541)