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The People That We Meet on the Journey to the Crosspt3outline

FLEX or FIRM, Your Choice

In the last few months I have been hearing and learning about some serious problems the evangelical church is facing. It seems that many in our world see the evangelical church as irrelevant because it follows a strict set of beliefs from a book that is over 2000 years old.  It seems that church attendance is not what it could be because church leaders are insisting on imposing their moral code on the church’s membership. What’s more, the next generation is finding the church, how can I say this, boring. They aren’t used to being lectured or told what to believe. They want to mix and match belief systems. The church is just too intolerant. Everybody knows that.

Irrelevant, in your face, and intolerant; the church has got a big problem doesn’t it? After thinking about this for a while, I believe I have come up with a simple solution. The evangelical church needs to adopt a FLEX theology. FLEX implies something is to be pliable, flexible and easily molded to fit a situation, a culture, or a worldview. With this approach almost all of the church’s problems go away. Allow me to demonstrate with a simple acrostic.

F – This stands for forget as in forget what you have heard or heard preached. It’s a new day.

L – This stands for loophole, as in look for a loophole, to make the Bible say whatever you want it to say.

E – This stands for experience as in let your experience, what you feel, govern what you believe.

X – This stands for expand as in expand your beliefs to include all faiths and beliefs; they are all right in some way, aren’t they?

Right away you can see how FLEX theology could work for you. You feel ostracized by your gay and straight friends because they believe your church and you are judging their sexuality or sexual behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can alleviate their fears. By Forgetting what you’ve been taught you can be open to new interpretations. We know better now anyway don’t we?

Your church teaches that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and that people who don’t accept Christ go to hell. They quote verses like John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. This seems to be to narrow of a view.  How can it be true?  Don’t sweat it. FLEX Theology to the rescue. Use the ”God’s too loving to sentence anyone to eternal hell” Loophole. See how FLEX theology gives you some awesome wiggle room?

You know that sex outside of marriage is forbidden in Scripture, that marriage in the Bible is between a man and a woman and that according to the Apostle Paul’s teaching, giving in to same sex attraction is a sin. Your experience though tells you something different. You know many unmarried couples, gay and straight, some dating with no sexual restrictions, others living together without the commitment of marriage….. they seem happy enough.  What could be wrong with sex outside of marriage? Don’t worry about it. With FLEX Theology you can follow your heart. You can determine what is acceptable through your own Experience. It’s a better guide than any old Book anyway right?

You find yourself giving in to sin and compromising in your own behavior. No problem. With FLEX theology you can just eXpand what you consider to be right and wrong.  This will ease your guilty conscience and let you sleep at night. Aren’t you grateful for how easy FLEX Theology makes things for us?

When not seeing the Bible as a powerful, divinely inspired, authoritative, life-changing book but thinking of it more as just a collection of old but pretty good suggestions, we’ve found the secret to FLEX theology. When we are able to see the commandments found in the Bible not as being there for us, but only for the people of their day, we become enlightened enough to adopt FLEX Theology.  When we believe that we have evolved beyond the ancient religious concepts proposed in Evangelical Christianity, then FLEX Theology is for us.

Finally, here’s the best thing about FLEX Theology. It allows us to be seen as tolerant, gentle people who, in fact, believe in nothing passionately enough to stand for anything. This will allow everyone to like us and we will fill our churches with people so we can share with them that we, in fact, really believe in nothing and they can too. They can hold to whatever views they want to and live as they please unencumbered by an irrelevant, in your face and intolerant faith taken from an ancient Book that worked in the past but couldn’t possibly work now. It allows us to basically be the masters of our own lives —- and after all—– isn’t that what life is all about?

FLEX Theology is amazing isn’t it?

But on the other hand if you are uncomfortable exchanging your Christian faith for the man-centered wasteland of FLEX theology there is an alternative. If you prefer substance over nothingness, if there is a yearning in your soul for a God who has revealed Himself to man, you have another option. You could choose to embrace a set of truths that are unchanging. I’ll call this FIRM Theology. It is what for at least two centuries the serious Christian community has indeed embraced.  Embracing FIRM theology doesn’t lead us down an easy road. It is challenging, yet rewarding. It will require the following from us:

F – As in Foundational. I need to see the Scriptures, the Bible, the written revelation of God, as foundational to Christianity. This God- given book reveals to us the truths we need to have a healthy relationship with God as well as with others.

I – As in Investigate. I need to find out what the Bible really says. It is incumbent upon me to read it, study it, meditate on it and live it .

R – As in Rely on it. I need to see the Scriptures as my “go to Book” for advice. I need to hold on to it in times of suffering and distress as well as use it as a guide in the midst of life’s confusion. It is our authority for faith and practice and should be relied on as such.

M – As in Meaning – Find the meaning of life we all are looking for through a relationship with the God of the Scriptures. Understand the meaning of life through the words of the Scriptures. Share the meaning of life with others through the Scriptures.

The Revelation of God has been passed on to us almost as a legacy from those before. The Scriptures are the once and for all faith delivered to us that we are to earnestly contend for (Jude 3). The teachings of the Apostles found in the Bible are the essentials to what is called Christianity.

Everywhere these holy writings have gone they have dramatically changed the world around them for the good. They have been miraculously preserved and translated by men like John Wycliffe and William Tyndale literally giving their lives to make sure you and I could have a copy for ourselves.  The result of their efforts is that this Book, ancient as it may be, has changed whole cultures and families as well as individual lives. If we will embrace the Scriptures, we will find them to be our anchor in our storms, our medicine for our wounds, our light for our path, our wisdom for our decisions and our nourishment for our soul.  The Bible is capable of changing us from the inside out once we embrace and live out  FIRM theology.

Blessings

Pastor Dave Watson

Even when the leader has done the utmost to fulfill daily obligations, vast areas of work always remain. Every call for help is not necessarily a call from God, for it is impossible to respond to every need. If the leader sincerely plans his day in prayer, then executes the plan with all energy and eagerness, that is enough. A leader is responsible only for what lies within the range of control. The rest he should trust to our loving and competent heavenly Father.

The spiritual leader should outpace the rest of the church, above all, in prayer. And yet the most advanced leader is conscious of the possibility of endless development in his prayer life. Nor does he ever feel that he has “already attained.”Dean C. J. Vaughan once said: “If I wished to humble anyone, I should question him about his prayers. I know nothing to compare with this topic for its sorrowful   self-confessions.”

To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit. The Christian leader’s mind, emotions, will, and physical strength all become available for the Spirit to guide and use. Under the Spirit’s control, natural gifts of leadership are lifted to their highest power, Through the work of the now ungrieved and unhindered Spirit, all the fruits of the Spirit start to grow in the leader’s life. His witness is more winsome, service more steady, and testimony more powerful. All real Christian service is but the expression of Spirit power through believers yielded to Him (John 7:37–39).

Sermon Outline

PEOPLE WE MEET ON JOURNET PT 2

Patience meets its most difficult test in personal relationships. Paul lost his patience dealing with John Mark. Hudson Taylor once confessed: “My greatest temptation is to lose my temper over the slackness and inefficiency so disappointing in those on whom I depend. It is no use to lose my temper—only kindness. But oh, it is such a trial.” Many leaders can identify with Taylor’s struggle. But in the face of doubting Thomas, the unstable Peter, and traitorous Judas, how marvelous was the patience of our Lord! A leader shows patience by not running too far ahead of his followers and thus discouraging them. While keeping ahead, he stays near enough for them to keep him in sight and hear his call forward. He is not so strong that he cannot show strengthening sympathy for the weakness of his fellow travelers. “We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak,”Paul wrote in Romans 15:1.

#snow #snowno

It is almost unbelievable that it is snowing again. Hopefully, prayerfully, please God let it be so -ly this is the last storm of the winter season. Here is my attempt to stay positive with some Scriptural thoughts about snow.

• Snow can remind me that the power of God is beyond my comprehension

Job 37:5-6 – God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend. For to the snow he says, ‘Fall on the earth,’ likewise to the downpour, his mighty downpour.

• Snow can remind me that the forgiveness of God can cleanse the worst of my sin stained heart and life

Isaiah 1:18 – “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.

Psalm 51:6-7 – Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.

• Snow can remind me that God’s Word, His promises, commands, exhortations, warnings and encouragements are sent to us for a reason and they will accomplish their purpose.

Isaiah 55:10–11 – “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.

• Snow can remind me of the purity of God, and of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ

Daniel 7:9 – “As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire.

Revelation 1:13–15 – And in the midst of the lampstands one like a son of man, clothed with a long robe and with a golden sash around his chest. The hairs of his head were white, like white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire, his feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and his voice was like the roar of many waters.

• Snow can remind me of the utter helpless of myself and the rest of mankind

Job 38:22–23 – “Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail, which I have reserved for the time of trouble, for the day of battle and war?”

Blessings

Dave Watson

The last three days we have looked at the first five reasons to oppose the assisted suicide/death with dignity bill making its way the New Yor5k State Legislature. For those arguments see https://nycshepherd.com/2015/03/04/part-3-seven-major-reasons-all-new-yorkers-including-state-senator-diane-savino-should-lobby-against-the-assisted-suicidedeath-with-dignity-bill/

Today we look at the final two reasons :

• The bill misunderstands dying with dignity

Dying with dignity doesn’t means dying without pain and suffering. Sadly, pain and suffering are a part of the human condition. I had the sacred privilege of being in attendance as individuals leave this life for the next. They all experienced some level of physical pain and even more emotional pain because of who they were leaving behind.  Gratefully, we live in a world where much of the pain associated with physical death can be lessened through pain medicine. There is very little that can be done about the emotional pain. But dying with dignity is not the absence of pain. Death with dignity is the presence of acceptance of a Will greater than my own and then making the most of every moment one has with friends and family. Death with dignity means I walk out of this life recognizing that it is not me who calls the shots but Someone else.  Death with dignity means I let God make the call as to when I leave this earth. Death with dignity means I understand that there is a process that I must go through that has a greater purpose than I can understand and I will let it play out. We often complain of physicians playing God. The fact is this bill promotes both the physician who holds the pen for the script and the patient who has the bill in hand to gods. It promotes a pseudo sense of control over one’s own destiny. Let’s not perpetrate this illusion by a bad legislative act.

•   This bill misunderstands the source of human dignity.

Why does any person deserve dignity? Why do we value someone so much that we desire they be treated with dignity even in death? Their value doesn’t come from their place on the food chain. This is not a position the human species evolved to. Our sense of dignity for each other is from our Judean/Christian roots.  Our dignity or value comes from the belief that we are created in the womb in the image of God. This Judean/Christian foundation spills over to our Declaration of Independence which states “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”  Our Founding Fathers knew that our dignity, my dignity, your dignity comes from God. God manufactured me. God alone has the right to choose my expiration date. I die with dignity when I accept that. When I see myself not as a sovereign but as someone who lives under the rule of Another I can be one who experiences value and dignity in life and in death.  The source of our value, the Almighty, the Creator, is completely ignored in this bill. This bill however can’t be ignored. It must be defeated.