To Speak or Not to Speak

In worship the message was on Jeremiah and the struggle he faced in his role of preaching.  Jeremiah was great persecuted and physically mistreated due to the message that the Lord gave him to preach.  In Jeremiah chapter 20 is the contemplation that Jeremiah has concerning this struggle.

He struggled with the fact that if he continued to preach the message he would suffer pain.  He also struggled with the fact that if he did not he experienced a consuming fire inside.

If I say, “I will not mention him, or speak any more in his name,” there is in my heart as it were a burning fire shut up in my bones, and I am weary with holding it in, and I cannot.  Jeremiah 20:9

Of course it has not been on the same level but I have experienced this somewhat.

I have suffered pain, turmoil, persecution, slander, alienation, and threats because of sharing that which the Lord has taught me.  I have at many times decided to simply be quiet when around certain individuals out self-preservation.  Maybe that is smart but more than likely it is simply a reliance on self to protect me rather than on God.

Some of those times when I have been silent I have often regretted it even while knowing that I most likely avoided a confrontation.  There are indeed times when we are to be silent but if those times of silence are led by the Spirit there would not be regret afterwards.

We must diligently seek and plead with the Lord to guide our conversations and other forms of communications so that we are indeed following the guidance of the Lord and not relying on ourselves.  We should be relying on God for our protection rather than always self-preservation.  This can be a very difficult thing to do especially when proclaiming the Gospel can and often does bring pain into our lives.

The fact remains that Christ died for sinners.  He has purchased his children with his blood.  We are not our own.  Our lives are meant to bring him glory.  Some of the ways we do this is through praise, worship, and obedience.  He calls us to testify and to proclaim.  This is regardless of the circumstances and the consequences.  He is our protector.  Sometimes though we are not shielded in the same manner that we desire to be.  Sometimes we experience pain, turmoil, persecution, and on and on.

We must resist the call of the flesh to preserve ourselves at the expense of the Gospel and to follow the call of Christ when the Spirit leads.  There may be pain that follows the proclaiming of the truth but the burning within will be more than we can contain if we remain silent.

Glacial Moment

Last week while taking my mother around Alaska we stopped in a place filled with glaciers.  Here is a shot of one place we stopped right off of the highway.  You can see the glacier in the back.  The trees were green with a few beginning to turn yellow.  The water a very clear green/blue color.  Black pebbles along the beach.  It was an amazing and awe inspiring view to behold and a photo can barely do it justice.  What was so peaceful was standing there taking in the beauty and listening to the waterfalls from the melting runoff of the glacier in the distance.  It was quite a ways away but you could hear the thundering of the water as it fell.  God makes some indescribable scenes for us to enjoy.  They all point to His magnificence.  As I absorbed this glorious site the unfathomable reminder came to me.  Even with all of this beauty, considering all of his creation, he chose one such as I to love and redeem!  Amazing love, how can it be, that Thou, my King wouldst die for me!

Words Fitly Spoken

A few weeks ago I took the children to the Anchorage Museum.  It was a fun afternoon.  There were many fascinating things to see and explore.  The children and I all had a good time.  The first floor was lots of fun.  There were so many hands on activities that I thought we would end up spending the entire time there.  We did make it to the second floor which was much more interesting to me.  There were almost full scale Alaskan homes of different kinds and time periods.  Each structure was cut in half so that you could see the inside which contained a full portrayal of what the inside of one of these homes was like.  We spent quite a bit of time there.  Then it was on to the third floor.  This floor had very many interesting things but things that are not as eye catching to a youngster as lets say to someone like me who loves museums.  The littles were beginning to get a bit antsy and I was beginning to get a bit frustrated by the fact that I was having to stay more on top of them than before.

We finished the third floor and got on the elevator to go to the fourth and final (and tiny) floor.  I was a little stressed and wondering if we would make it through the fourth floor before I felt like I was going to loose it.  There was another family with two children in the elevator with us.  As I was about to let out a big sigh to calm my inner stress levels the mother of this family spoke.  She began to praise my children and how well they behaved.  She began to praise me and how well I was handling them all by myself without loosing my cool.  She praised me for the fact that I was even doing this without their dad along that day.  Then she mentioned that she and her hubby could barely do it with their two children.  I simply said thank you as they exited the elevator.

I let out a big sigh and released all that pent up UNNECESSARY stress.

God has done this to me on several occasions to be honest.  When I get to the point of loosing it, He gently reminds me through others that I am focusing on the wrong thing.  I am seeing their being children and shorter attention spans as misbehavior rather than what it is.  I was focusing on my tired feet and lack of energy than the joy of being a mother.  I had to pray and ask forgiveness.  I then praised my children for their good behavior and pointed out how it had made an impression on others.

The Lord used that lady in the museum elevator to discipline me and to encourage me at the same time!  He is good like that!

The fourth floor was so much more enjoyable than it would have been if the Lord had not given me my much needed attitude adjustment.

Proverbs 25:11 comes to mind when I reflect on situations like these.

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.

The NASB puts it this way.

Like apples of gold in settings of silver Is a word spoken in right circumstances.

That is so very true!

Have you ever experienced anything like this?  How has the Lord used others and their timely, fitly spoken words to discipline and encourage you? Leave me a comment to share how the Lord has worked in your life in this manner.

Bumper Sticker Theology

Bumper sticker theology is something I have often thought of and been frustrated by.  I have often thought of blogging on it but just never seemed to get around to it.  I do understand that there is only so much room on a bumper sticker and things need to be short and sweet.  I understand most want it to be something catchy.  I have noticed thought that often times what is displayed on the bumper sticker usually is not Biblically accurate.  Sometimes I think that the messages are even directed more at other Christians with whom they disagree rather than truly trying to share the Gospel.  (I know there are some good ones-not a blanket statement here.)

While I was skipping through blogland the other day I came upon a posting on this very topic.  I think that some of the struggles I have with bumper sticker theology was addressed in the article so I want to share it with you.  Matt Kaufman does a good job of addressing this in his short blog post, Of Bumper Stickers and Bad Theology.

Please leave me a comment and share your thoughts on this topic.  Are any of you frustrated with Bumper Sticker Theology too?

You Might Be Emergent If

Here is a short video addressing the emergent church movement. Postmoderism is growing rapidly in our churches today. In this video Doug Eaton gives 10 warming signs that could help you spot postmodernism or emergent tendencies in a church.

Here R.C. Sproul, Al Mohler, and Ravi Zacharias discuss post-modernism, modernism, liberalism, and the emergent church.

Who’s The Audience

Context, context, context.  We often hear these words when it comes to understanding the scriptures.  Unfortunately, too often when people refer to context they simply mean three verses before and three verses after the main verse they are interested in.  Sometimes people broaden their view to the whole chapter but it seems it rarely goes beyond that.  What about the context with in the whole of the book or even in the whole of scripture?

One aspect of context which is very often overlooked is that of the audience.  In Sunday school we have been studying through the book of Mark.  One thing that has stuck out to me over and over again is the context in respect to the audience.  Why was this never pointed out to me before?  Why have so many churches and teachers overlooked this?

Now it is true that everyone can glean from the miracles and teachings of Jesus but the lessons being taught are not always what we tend to pull out of them because we neglect the audience.  In the book of Mark, Jesus’ main audience was the disciples, the twelve.  He was preparing them for ministry.  It wasn’t the multitude of the crowds that was the main audience.  This can change everything.  When we focus on what Christ was teaching the disciples and why it takes on new meaning than it would if that fact was neglected.

As we studied the illustration that kept coming to mind was that of a field trip.  Maybe it is because I am a homeschooler who knows but it fits!  Jesus was there teaching, training, and preparing his disciples as they wandered the region.  Many people were there, many saw, many heard, and many followed but they only had glimpses and didn’t know the intent or real lessons being taught.

It is like my hubby and I taking our children on a field trip.  We are teaching, training, and preparing our children.  We are leading them in the ways of the Lord as we teach and go about our daily lessons.  Sometimes people over hear us.  We have even had people follow us around in a museum to listen to my hubby’s commentary.  Do they learn and glean from that?  Maybe, maybe not.  If they do  that is wonderful.  But they are not our main audience.  We do not adjust our teaching for their benefit or understanding.  These other people do not know they full context of what we are teaching our children.  They do not know what we have already poured into them and are building upon.  They are missing the big picture. They really do have a limited awareness of the lesson at hand.

If we see the teachings of Jesus in the same manner and neglect the whole context, neglect the main audience, then we really only have a limited understanding of the lesson.  Sometimes the lesson is missed completely because we are looking at it the wrong way!

We are allowed to come along on Jesus’ field trip with the twelve (in Mark) but let us make sure to remember who his main audience was when we are studying.  That way we do not miss the real lesson being taught.  You will be enriched if you remember and do not neglect the context of the audience at hand.