Sunday 29 November 2015

Sunday Motivation

Ladies and gentlemen, brothers and sisters, may I explain this image. This is typically a political type post but nowadays it's very accurate even among fundamental Christians. In the course of the past 10-15 years of observation, I've noticed one of two trends. 1) is a loosening up of standards and forgetting those long-held biblically proven standards. Considering them non-essential. I see ladies wandering around in clothing that would have gotten them reprimanded in church and even wearing things that flirt in the soft porn range and then ask 'what's wrong with this'? I've seen guys walking around in tight clothing, wearing things with worldly imagery and styles. 

I see a removal of gender boundaries and I touched on this in my last post. I've seen ladies who actually get offended at gentlemen acting their gender and showing honor and respect. At the same time complaining about the lack of decent relationships, having gone through half a dozen boyfriends by the age of 18. No ladies do not take disrespect, don't accept it. You have that right. Gentleman do not stop being polite and doing what is right just because you are mocked. 
  I see Christians who are silent in the face of the slaughter of thousands of babies a year, silent about false teaching and refusing to condemn as Paul did.

If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness; He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings, Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godliness: from such withdraw thyself - 1 Timothy 6:3-5

And again Jesus Himself said Come out from among them and be ye separate 2 Corinthians 6:17

Why are we crying about being convicted by the Holy Spirit when He uses a brother or sister to reach us? Why do we throw foolish accusations like 'judgemental' out at people. What part of show a person his fault is so hard to understand? Apart from the fact it's biblical and they don't want to accept it. We don't want to be made aware of our sin, We don't want to be Christ-like. We'd rather play games. We'd rather carry on with the same behavior that murdered Christ. God uses children to shame us and He did it again in a story that has been online for a few weeks. It would seem a Teacher in Texas tried to make a 12-year old girl deny God. She refused and then the backlash

“A few people have told me to kill myself, people have told me things I’m not allowed to say. I’ve lost a few of my close friends, but that’s what will happen.”


and then this child instead of crying and playing victim said


“I’m going to keep going until something gets done, and until something gets done, I’m not going to stop.”

Wow. a 12 year old girl has more courage than many Christians. Let me close with this question. How come Islam has such an impact in Europe and America despite being the minority? How come there were missionaries in China for 100 years before Communists came and had little impact? Because both parties were and are totally dedicated to their wicked causes and will not waver. Yet with God on our side we can't be bothered?  

Next time I will be dealing with the opposite problem. The Pharisee and hypocrite 




Friday 20 November 2015

Biblical Relationships

Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers,  the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. 1 Timothy 5:1-2

Relationships. When we think of them, many thoughts may cross our mind. We see the breakdown of them, we see them done well, we see them in all kinds of shapes and sizes. To get a clear picture, we need to define what a relationship is. A relationship is not just a friendship or marriage. We have a relationship with everybody we interact with. We even have a relationship with people we've never heard of on social media who see our public posts and those who even just see us or hear on when we go about our business 

We need and require relationships

Take a look at the headline verse again. This is how we are supposed to treat certain people. So we see that first of all we are supposed to honor them, depending on age and gender and with all purity.  If we would not treat our parents or our siblings in a certain way, we should not treat others that way and The last phrase just emphasizes the preceding words even more. God commanded we behave in this manner because people are created for people and of course being God, He knew that. The mess of todays relationships are the result of not treating others the way God expects us to. 


Our relationships must be loving



All commands in Scripture are subservient to the Greatest Commandment.


And He said to him, "'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.' "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' Matthew 22:37,39.


But what is love in the first place? Love is an unconditional commitment to an imperfect person with a continual view to seek the very best for that person. We cannot be loving if we do not interact with them in a pure and honorable way, or at Romans puts it in 'honor preferring one another' 


What should we honor?

This goes to the very basics of what we as human beings were meant to do. Our very purpose in life. Men were mandated to lead the home and the church, primarily by setting a good example to those God has entrusted them with. So we know from the youngest of years, a boy is in training for that purpose and should be learning how to lead biblically, honestly and caringly. He can learn by watching his father older men who must again set that example. The old saying like father, like son is very true. If the father is a failure in his role, chances are his sons will repeat the same mistakes.
Ladies are the keepers of the home so the training a girl is to receive should match that role. From the earliest of ages, she can be taught how to be a lady, how to cook, clean, and serve others with kindness and humility. And yet this station is incredibly important and every bit as essential as the mans role.
I've become incredibly old fashioned partly due to my own past failings and partly as an act of rebellion. Rebellion?? Yes, I did say that. I rebel against the modern day erosion of the biblically defined genders and I believe part of the problem is people have lost the ability to honor and love in the way that they used to and the language has become loose, informal, lax and people do not honor who the other person was created to be.
In years gone by it was considered quite a 'vulgarity' to address a lady without a title and likewise a man would not be addressed so. It's certainly in keeping with the idea of seeking the best for a person to bring those titles back and in some circles they are. Children always want to grow up and it would certainly be honoring to a girl, learning to be a lady, to address her as Miss and likewise she can address older ladies and gentlemen as the case may be. I'm not going to cover every single way of doing this as that would be rather insulting your intelligence but I would like to cover two of them. Firstly the idea that addressing a lady as ma'am is somehow insulting or trying to say something about said ladies age. Where did this idea come from? It has no basis in history. In fact I strongly suspect any lady would be quite offended and maybe scold the offender for not showing proper respect. I believe it's just a symptom of the bigger problem of relationships not being treated properly. Second, the idea that a newly married lady does not need to be addressed and Mrs. Quite untrue. She should expect to be addressed as her position demands her to be. Of course being addressed like that for the first few times with be highly awkward and embarrassing perhaps but it should also be seen as a sense of pride as to the fact this lady has embarked on a life-long journey with a gentleman whom God has provided.


Finally in whatever state our relationship is with people, remember the key verses


Do not sharply rebuke an older man, but rather appeal to him as a father, to the younger men as brothers,  the older women as mothers, and the younger women as sisters, in all purity. 1 Timothy 5:1-2



Should I add more to this? Would you like an expansion of other ways to build and keep relationship?