Archive for July, 2008
Relevance
There’s a group on the social website “Facebook” that is dedicated to “Independant Christian Church Ministers”. The moderator posted this note on “The Wall” this week.
What does it mean to be relevant?
What is your church or ministry doing to stay relevant to it’s people/ community?
How do you balance being relevant without sacrificiing the message?
The space allowed for Wall posts is limited and I hit the end of my short space before I finished typing – so I’ll just post a link to this note there and answer here. 
Works for me, hopefully it’ll work for the folks in the group as well.
Relevant – having significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand – affording evidence tending to prove or disprove the matter at issue or under discussion, having social relevance
OK, now that we’ve got a definition – how does it apply to me as a christian? It is my belief that through a life devoted to following Christ I can demonstrate relevance to those around me by having the answers to the questions that torment them. And not just a “pat answer” but an answer demonstrated through a life changed by God. When I go through the same trials and temptations that they do – but with demonstrably better results, that affords me the opportunity to show them what Christ could do in THEIR life – if they would but let Him.
So, what do I do to maintain relevance? I do my best Monday through Saturday to put into practice that which I teach on Sunday – so to speak. When the church is so busy with their “worship service” and their “praise service” and their “bring a friend Sunday” and other such programs and activities that they don’t take time to live out the Truth in their lives during the week, they lose relevance. They are no longer able to “have significant and demonstrable bearing on the matter at hand” because they are so wrapped up in themselves and their programs that they forget to whom they were sent to minister in the first place.
Our ministry maintains relevance by “the training of the saints in the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ”. I do not believe that the Apostle was referring to “full time Christian service” when he mentioned “work of ministry”, but rather he referred to the Church serving (ministering to) the world around her – thereby maintaining relevance and building up the Body through natural means.
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The Presence Of God
Then He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain in the LORD’s presence.” At that moment, the LORD passed by. A great and mighty wind was tearing at the mountains and was shattering cliffs before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire there was a voice, a soft whisper. I Kings 19:11-12
Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. Psalm 46:10
Today it is common for people to run around seeking great and miraculous signs of God. They want an experience, something earth shaking, something bold and daring. Now, to say that God is not capable of showing Himself in such ways is naive at best. But so is insisting that if He does not show Himself in such ways then you’ve not been in the presence of The King. “Be still and know that I am God” wrote the psalmist. And often, that is what we must do. We need to step out of our busy world and take time to be still before the Lord, to hear “the still, small voice” speaking to us. Too many times we seek for God in a desperate, busy way – when He wants us to simply be still before Him. “Be angry and do not sin; on your bed, reflect in your heart and be still.” Psalm 4:4
Do you take time to seek God’s presence? Do you take time to listen to Him in silence?
And then we also often neglect to allow Him to be a part of our day. We get busy doing things and forget the Apostle’s admonition to “pray without ceasing”. When we take time to be still before the Lord we come to know that He is always at our side and even in the midst of activity He is tuned in to hear our thoughts and to prayers.
Praying is not just about getting on your knees or prostrating yourself before the Lord – although both postures have much to commend them to those who seek God’s presence. Praying is about being in communication with our Creator, about letting Him have a place in our busy lives. As you drive down the road or go about your daily chores you have ample opportunities to allow Him to be a part of your life. “Pray without ceasing” is about being in touch with YOU as a person and with GOD as your source of wisdom and strength. And too many times we do not allow Him room. We shut ourselves up in our busy lives, keeping our thoughts and emotions to ourselves – and don’t let Him in to help us through the tough times.
A friend wrote recently about some experiences he had. He was going through some tough and strenuous times and didn’t take time to take it to the Lord, much less to allow others to lift him up before God’s throne. Now, I mention this not as a criticism but as an illustration. He’s a great guy and the pastor of a church – but in the midst of stress forgot to take time to allow God in to help. And I can identify with him because I’ve “been there, done that, got the t-shirt” so to speak.
Recently a young woman was talking with my wife. She was feeling bad because she wasn’t having time in the morning to get onto her knees everyday like she felt she SHOULD – from the teaching she’d received in a certain religious group. And although she was using her bus ride to talk to the Lord about her life and family and job and such, she felt guilty. But she IS learning to practice the presence of God in her life. Over the past few months she has been learning to “let go and let God” – and her marriage and family show the effects. We’ve seen them go from separation on the way to divorce to a growing and maturing relationship. Thanks to her learning to “be still and know that God is there”. He has carried her through some tough times and has helped her to overcome difficult situations. It has been a pleasure to see her learn to make Him part of her life and not just a morning ritual to fulfill religious preconceptions.
The presence of God. There’s a time for worship, that’s for sure. But the idea that only during such times are we “truly in touch with God” is false – He wants to be a part of our lives on every level. He wants us to truly “pray without ceasing” – touching base with Him all through the day and allowing Him to help us through the tough times.
Now, to learn to truly put this all in practice consistently. That in itself tends to be a lifelong battle against my “macho” attitude of “I can do it all myself.”
…”our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.”
… “our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.” how strange those words sound to modern ears, words which are in little use and poorly comprehended by our current “civilization” in which anything goes, just so long as “number one” is taken care of. And yet, that is what the signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged to each other. They knew that they were in grave danger from the king and his minions – and yet they put their names down and thus passed into the pages of history, founding the greatest bastion of freedom the world has yet known.
A careful reading of the document shows that the very abuses laid out by the signers of the declaration are things which today’s people do not understand. Too many have sold their freedom for “security” and when one cries “but the emperor has no clothes!” they act as though one were crazy – and blind.
232 years have passed since that fateful signing – it is time for our nation to read once more those words and to reflect upon them. Do we still believe in these values?
IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776
The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of AmericaWhen in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
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. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.
— John Hancock
New Hampshire:
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew ThorntonMassachusetts:
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge GerryRhode Island:
Stephen Hopkins, William ElleryConnecticut:
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver WolcottNew York:
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis MorrisNew Jersey:
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham ClarkPennsylvania:
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George RossDelaware:
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKeanMaryland:
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of CarrolltonVirginia:
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter BraxtonNorth Carolina:
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John PennSouth Carolina:
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur MiddletonGeorgia:
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton
As Independence Day Draws Near
In just a couple days we’ll be celebrating the fact that 232 years ago a band of brave men pledged their “lives, fortunes and their sacred honor” to declaring the 13 north American British colonies to be independent from England. They said “No!” to the stamp act, “No!” to the Tea Act, “No!” to the quartering act, etc. They didn’t “choose the lesser of two evils” – they said “Give me liberty, or give me death!” and then picked up their muskets and marched into battle.
Now, 232 years later, we’re being told “It doesn’t matter that John McCain was one of the Keating Five, nor does it matter that his name is part of the McCain-Feingold or the McCain-Kennedy pieces of foul legislation, it matters only that he’s the Republican candidate and we’ve got to get behind him or lose to the Democrats.” Uh, I beg your pardon, but since WHEN does putting a Republican into office constitute voting for freedom? Under our latest Republican President we got “The Patriot Act” and “Department of Homeland Security” and the joy of removing our shoes in the airport and being scrutinized and humiliated by government minions when we wish to travel by air. Yes, it’s all about “the war on terror” and “we’ve not been hit again since 2001″ but we HAVE paid – with our freedoms. Once more our freedom is taken away “to make us safe” – thus giving victory to those who would destroy our freedom via terrorism, we’ve given them victory by surrendering our nation’s freedom in the name of “safety” – while refusing to act against those who are REAL threats as we allow non-threats to be harassed in the name of “security”.
Also, once more we are being rallied to the support of the GOP – the very group that is sponsoring the AWB Version 2 (Assault Weapons Ban) – that’s right, the very ones who are saying “you’ve GOT to get behind McCain” are the ones who are pushing for a new (and worsened) version of the failed Clinton Assault Weapons Ban. I feel like I’m living in some “Wonderland” such as Alice fell into. Or, worse yet, like “1984″ is coming to life twenty four years later. We now have “double speak” as the national language, apparently. “Conservative” now means new bans on freedom and new assaults on our resources. The only (slight) comfort one can get is that “Liberal” is MUCH worse, sliding into the deepest recesses of Marxist/Leninist doctrine – but the so-called “Conservatives” are little better any more.
And there’s a growing rallying cry of “No MORE!” when it comes to those who would pull the wool over our eyes once more. It will be interesting to see what transpires in November. Interesting in the same way that seeing an out of control cruise ship come steaming into a crowded harbor and crashing through the pier is “interesting” – a sense of horror and impotence sets in as one realizes that there’s nothing one can do as the captain obliviously allows the ship to steam to its destruction – this is the feeling I get as I see the GOP once more steaming powerfully forward – in the wrong direction.
And many will say “Vote for McCain or you’re voting for Obama.” No, no matter how I vote I vote my conscience. And if I vote for a third party it will NOT be for Obama – it will be for the candidate for whom I’m voting. The guilt trip should be laid upon those who are responsible for drumming up support for such a leftist candidate as John McCain is. There are good men yet in the nation, I’m sure of it. So why are we supposed to be getting behind someone who has proven time after time that he leans farther left than many Democrats (some southern Democrats are more conservative in their values and voting than their Republican couterparts)? Just because of a party name? What’s in a name? A marxist by any other name smells just as bad to a freedom loving person.
Two hundred and thirty two years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence – and what have we done to our country? Will we allow her to slide ever deeper into the socialist mire that is sucking her freedom dry? Well, time will tell. Many of us will NOT vote for those who drag us in that direction. And we will NOT be to blame for the sinking of the ship. Those who ignore our calls of “Wrong direction, wrong director!” and insist on following the pied piper of ever increasing socialization of the nation are the ones to blame. Give us a candidate who sings the old song of freedom and liberty and you’ll see supporters crawling from the woodwork all around. But don’t expect those who think for themselves and who refuse to get on board a ship bound for destruction just because “at least it’ll crash later than the other choice” to rally around a RINO who has proven himself to be an enemy of our nations ancient values. To paraphrase what the man said, “Being shot down and spending years as a POW does not necessarily qualify a person to be President of the United States.”