Are We in Laodecia?

Some may not agree that the seven churches of Revelation are church ages and that is fine, since the Bible does not directly say that. But they are actual churches and church types and last church type is Laodecia - the lukewarm church. However, the word Laodecia means "my rights come first." If that doesn't describe the day in which we here in America, I don't know what does? Here are just a couple of examples for the past few weeks:

1. Two teen girls (15&16) were arrested because they beat a 62 year old man who asked them to not sit on his lawn. Theses two videoed and the man was clearly not being mean or angry in his request, which is inconsequential as it was his yard!

2. A male high school student beat his principal at school for asking him to turn his earbuds down because it was so loud everyone around him was being distracted. The teen's excuse was that his mother had just died and he had a right to do whatever he wanted because of that.

3. Two separate pictures are floating around the internet that have been posted by police to show the effects of heroin. Both pictures are of parents sitting passed out from heroin usage in their vehicle along the side of the road with young children in the back seat. One of the parents said, "Well at least I pulled over. That should count for something."

4. A man in Indiana killed his live in girlfriend when she refused to marry him. The neighbor said it best when she said, "I guess he couldn't take rejection?"
5. Here are six reasons given in a recent article to teens why they and adults should go ahead and do whatever they want: you only live once, you'll make new friends, its's your party so invite who you want, no one cares as much as you think, you are the boss of you, and (worst of all in my opinion, they said) you'll be a better person for having done what you want.

6. Finally, a Christian "world" example - Christians leave their church when something doesn't go their way. They mainly leave not because of bad doctrine or true matters of conviction, such as worldly music or dress, but, because the preacher said something that offended them or because another church member was treated differently than they were. In short, they leave because they did not get their way. I have been in ministry now over 28 years and in that time only one family came to me and said they were leaving over doctrine - they believed in double inspiration and I refused to teach that. We had a person leave our church some months back and just recently they wrote back to tell me over 20 things that were "wrong" with our church, including celebrating the holiday of Christmas and being tax exempt. They stated several times that our doctrine was overall fine, just our practices they felt were ungodly, though they could not provide one verse to show the early churches path on the things they mentioned. We did not do what they wanted and away they went....Laodecian - "my rights come first."

Are we in the Laodecian age? I don't know, but it sure seems as if we are often making Laodecian decisions!

An Attempt at a Biblical View of Depression

Recently a precious member of our church and I had a written discussion (texts and emails) about the issue of depression.  After reading several websites and praying about this issue, I decided to share the heart of our discussion about the subject in the hopes of helping others.  I say this because depression is often a difficult subject for Christians to discuss as many leaders are not sure how to approach the subject without demeaning the character of God or taking away a Christian’s responsibility. 

Here is the heart of our last exchange:

There are many examples of Bible characters who struggled with a depression that was real, so to say that depression is not real or that it is always sin is not true.  Depression IS real but also CAN be a sin when we allow it to control those parts of our lives where God said, in His Word, that He should be in absolute control.   In other words, depression is sin only when we do not allow God to control our lives in the way He says we can allow His control over.  (By the way, there are areas which we can have no control over, such as other’s actions, but we can surrender our reactions to these kind of situations.)

Depression is real and there are many Bible characters who struggled with various types of depression: 

David - Psalm 38:4; 42:11

Elijah - 1 Kings 19:4

Jonah - Jonah 4:3

Job - Job 3:11, 26

Moses - Exodus 32:32

Jeremiah - Jeremiah 20:14, 18

I hope you believe, as I do, that God has given wonderful promises about helping us in all the types of depression and we should be convinced that God does not want any Christian living perpetually in a defeated state.  We are going to always struggle with our emotions and depression can be one of the hardest emotions we face in our lifetime.  But we can know that God wants to help us defeat permanently some sources of depression and then have the strength to “bear up” under all the other kinds of depression.  Here are some of those promises:

Psalm 34:18

2 Corinthians 4:8-9, 16-18

Galatians 2:20

Isaiah 40:31

I believe, that the key to those Bible truths helping us with those moments of “deep” depression is to determine first what is causing the depression and then find the Bible truths that help us know a course of care for that source of depression.  Some of the causes in the Bible for depression can include:

Physical imbalances - Matthew 26:41 (Getting help medically when needed)

Guilty conscience - 1 John 1:9 (Getting our own hearts right with God)

Stress - Matthew 11:28-30 (Learning to rely on God instead of mankind)

Abuse - Philippians 3 (Going forward instead of living solely in the past hurts)

Unthankful heart - Colossians 3:15 (Giving thanks even in hard times)

These are just a few of the examples the Bible gives of what can cause depression and they may or may not work together in a single life.  Some people may have one source problem and some may have more than one.  But depression is a real issue and God wants to help us.

Is Homosexuality More Severe Than Other Sins?

My wife and I were recently asked by someone we love dearly about whether homosexuality is categorized as a more grievous sin than other sins?  They said they had heard that is was a more serious category but wanted clear biblical verses to the question.  My answer to them and others is below.  This is a important question in our current day because so many Christians will use the answer to either isolate from reaching out to homosexuals or ignore the sin as being nothing different than any other.

First, its important to know that God says homosexuality is sin.  It is interesting to note that it is one of the few sins that God actually explains WHY it is wrong and how a person “falls” into it.  Not that He needs to justify or explain why any sin as wrong since He is holy and as God He does not owe us an explanation.  In Romans 1:18-32, Paul by inspiration of God gives the progression of a person into homosexual behavior.  It begins in verses 18 to 23 with the rejection of accepting God’s goodness  and plan.  It then moves in verses 24 to 25 with the rejection that their bodies were created for the glory of God and good works. (Ephesians 2:10 & Colossians 1:15-17)  Finally in verses 26 to 27, God allows their rejection to take them a very dark place - homosexual behavior.  This does not mean God made them homosexual, but it means they digressed into that lifestyle by rejecting the goodness of God’s act of creation of gender.  It is clear that God says homosexuality is not an alternative lifestyle but a sin.  God calls it vile affections (Romans 1:26), reprobate (Romans 1:28), and abomination (Leviticus 20:13).

Second, nowhere does the Bible say that homosexual is a unique category of sin.  It is true that homosexuality is called abomination, but there are over 50 “abomination sins” in the Bible.  These sins include cheating at business (Deuteronomy 25:13-16) and a proud heart (Proverbs 6:16-17), not just homosexuality.  This does not mean that homosexuality isn’t a serious sin, but it does mean that it is not a unique category of sin.  To be completely honest, I do not believe there are categories of sin anyway.  Some sins are described as abomination and wickedness, but that is a descriptive term not a category.  All sin is sin and are described by various terms throughout the Bible.

Third, there are really only two types of sins - the forgiven and unforgiven.  According to God’s Word all sins can be forgiven except one (blasphemy of the Holy Spirit - Matthew 12:31).  If we are going to be concerned about the categorization of sin, shouldn’t that be the sin we are concerned over? Whether they are forgiven or not?  God desires to forgive all sins (Acts 17:30 with 1 John 1:9).  This means that any category of sin that mankind may develop is useless in the light of eternity.

Last, and more personal opinion about homosexuality - not everyone is going to be sexual in their lifetime and the Bible teaches this fact.  Unfortunately sexual things are often pushed upon our young people, both by the world and by some Christian folks.   The world system pushes sex as doing what feels good regardless of the Bible’s commands and then the world uses sexual things to promote everything and anything.  Some in the Christian “world” unfortunately teach that if you do not have sexual desires for members of the opposite sex then you must be perverted and thus a homosexual in the making.  But the Bible clearly teaches that there are people who are born without the usual sexual desire.  Jesus Himself taught in Matthew 19:10-12 that there are eunuchs born eunuchs.  When you study the word “eunuch” it is clear that they are those who have no sexual desire/ability.  Unfortunately many well meaning Christians make these “eunuchs” feel rejected and may even unknowingly be encouraging them into sin by feeling since they do not desire the opposite sex then they must be homosexual.

God created our genders (Genesis 1:27 & 5:2) and those genders were for procreation (Genesis 1:28) which homosexual behavior cannot fulfill.  Thus the severity of homosexuality (like all sin) is about the rejection of God’s plan and not due to a God given category of sin.

The Leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees.

Throughout Jesus earthly ministry the religious leaders were constantly seeking to attack Him, His teaching, and His method of ministry.  These religious people were filled with jealousy but also attacked Jesus out of ignorance as Paul attested to in 1 Timothy 1:13.  Jesus would often correct these hypocrites’ doctrine as they had made their personal observations on the same level as the doctrine of God Himself (Mark 7:7).  But some of the greatest admonition from Jesus is over what He called their “leaven.”  But what is that leaven?

In Matthew 15 and 16 this confrontation comes to a climax as Jesus directly confronts them over this issue.

It begins in Matthew 15 when the scribes and Pharisees accuse Jesus’ disciples of not ceremoniously washing their hands before they ate.  Jesus does not respond by attacking the washing of the hands, as that was a proper thing to do, but He did address their heart being far from God even if they sounded good in their words. (Matthew 15:1-8)  Jesus then gathers the people to Himself and publicly addresses the heart of the issue of the hypocrites - motivation.

You see, the religious leaders believed that if they did the right things the motivation was unimportant because they were doing “the right thing.”  But Jesus makes it clear that doing the right things for the right reasons was the crucial to being right with God.  He tells the people that the sins of our lives come from the condition of our heart (Matthew 15:18-19).

Then in Matthew 16:1, the Pharisees and Sadducees approach Jesus looking for a “sign from heaven.”  This was obviously their attempt to get Jesus to prove to their satisfaction that He was from God.  Jesus makes it clear, Matthew 16:1-4, that their desire for signs is because they refuse to accept the sign of Jonah, which was a message of faith alone.  Jesus then warns his disciples of the “leaven” in Matthew 16:6-11.  His illustration of the feeding of the five thousand and the four thousand was proof that the outward cannot motivate the inward but the other way around.

This truth has unfortunately caused many to throw away their holy righteous living as they believe that Jesus has accepted their heart’s motivation instead of the outward living.   They say things like “God knows my heart.”  It is true that God knows our heart, and according to Jeremiah 17:9 the heart is wicked and cannot be trusted in itself.  

So what are we to do?

First, ask the Lord to give us a clean heart - Psalm 51:10.  God is the only One who can make our hearts clean before Him.  Proverbs 20:9 tells us that we cannot make our hearts clean.

Second, accept that God is holy and we must seek to live holy lives - 1 Peter 1:16.  Sin has no place in our lives, and, our salvation should change our desire from sinfulness to sanctification toward God’s holiness. (James 4:8)

Third, never justify your sin because you think your motivation is right with God, because the sin shows you are NOT right in your motivation. (Romans 6:1-4)

My entire life has been lived in a group of Christianity known as independent fundamental Baptists (IFB).  This group has often been called Pharisees due to their strict stance on certain moral issues and a perceived belief that the outward makes a Christian right on the inside.  I cannot answer for every IFB out there and I am sure there are those who are Pharisaical in their stance.  But though every Christian may not have the right stance about the heart’s motivation there are those who do have their hearts right with God.  So don’t judge every IFB as a Pharisee.  Those that choose to live their lives with standards and convictions may be doing so out of a desire for holiness and thus have a right motivation. 

Beware of the leaven, even in your own heart!

Praying Instead of Posting

In the book of Acts chapter 23, the Apostle Paul had an encounter with the leadership of the nation of Israel;

“And Paul, earnestly beholding the council, said, Men and brethren, I have lived in all good conscience before God until this day. And the high priest Ananias commanded them that stood by him to smite him on the mouth. Then said Paul unto him, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall: for sittest thou to judge me after the law, and commandest me to be smitten contrary to the law? And they that stood by said, Revilest thou God's high priest? Then said Paul, I wist not, brethren, that he was the high priest: for it is written, Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.” - Acts 23:1-5

My heart is heavy for America today for so many reasons, but one of the greatest is the condition of Christians and churches here.  We have stopped influencing our nation’s conscience and behavior and so I want to ask a few questions that are relevant for the situation:

1. When did it become acceptable for Christians to call the leaders of our nation names and continually ridicule the God allowed authority?
2. Why do we expect the unsaved Americans to behave like Christians when the Christians cannot seem to behave like Christians?
3. When did it become more important to be accepted by our peers than our God?
4. Why do we assume that because leaders are doing wicked things all that needs to happen to “straighten out” the nation is for the people of the nation to simply be shown this and they will reject the leaders?  Thus Christians again and again point out every glaring failure of our leaders with a “clear justifiable” conscience using every term and name they can.

Recently I was reading the posts of other Christians via various blogs and found post after post of these so declared authorities of governmental wickedness.  Now, mind you, I agree we are living in wicked days and have many leaders doing wicked things.  But when did we as individuals gain the biblical right to publicly attack our leaders?

In Acts 23, the Apostle Paul unknowingly calls the high priest a “whited wall” and then apologizes for the term by acknowledging: “Thou shalt not speak evil of the ruler of thy people.”

In other places there is a clear God given line of how to respond to the governmental authority allowed by God:

"The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities." 2 Peter 2:9-10

"Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation." Romans 13:1-2

The state of our nation is dire but so is the current state of our Christianity!  Let’s do as the scripture mandates for us:

“I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty” (1 Timothy 2:1-2, KJV).

The next time you are tempted to post or repost an attack piece about the governmental official you reject pray that God changes their heart and yours!

How do Christians deal with a nation that is falling apart morally?

One of the most difficult things for American Christians is the moral slide taking place in our nation.  For so many generations we have had religious freedom in the US and now it appears that some of that freedom is eroding away.  We used to be able to speak out against sin in an area without fear of reprisal but that is clearly changing before our eyes.  So what are we going to do?

Many will relocate themselves into another state that seems to be more friendly toward their faith and still others will isolate themselves from everything and everyone in the hopes of delaying the world's influence on them and their children.  But are these even biblical options?  Paul lived in an ungodly world and yet he remained faithful to his Lord.

Many years ago I was taught a valuable lesson about applying scripture to my life.  The lesson was to find a godly person in the Word of God whose life situation is similar to mine and then do what the godly person does.  As an example, I have been asked a few times “Preacher, my spouse had left me for another person and now wants to come back.  What do I do?”  My response is, "Do what Hosea did when Gomer left him…take them back."  Or another example is how do we answer a person trying to trap us in our words?  Do what Jesus did and show them scripture.  You can never go wrong by mirroring what a godly person does in scripture.

With that said I have been reading my Bible looking for a clear example to follow and finally I have found what I believe to be the exact example I needed.  Jeremiah 15 tells of how the prophet was lead by God in though the nation around him was falling apart spiritually.  Here are the lessons we can learn:

1. Accept that judgement will always come to rebellious hearts. In verses 2-5 God shows Jeremiah that He is will bring judgment upon Israel for their sin.  God cannot keep holding back His wrath from America forever.  His holiness requires judgment to fall at some point.  So know that this nation will see the hand of God at some point.  You can count on it!  No nation or person is going to rebel and get away with it.  We serve an omniscient holy God.
2. Believers will feel discouraged and even like a failure when they see their nation falling apart.  We try to preach the message and still the nation slides into the abyss of immorality, taking many Christians with them as well.  Unfortunately so many Christians see this slide and become defeated by the failure of others.  In verses 10, 15-18 Jeremiah reminds God of his suffering even though he sought to be faithful.  We must know that the moral slide of the nation is because of their decisions not ours.  Too many Christians get discouraged because they are doing what the Bible commands and still the nation drifts further and further away from God.  Why?  Because the people’s hearts are hardened and desire the sin they are living in.
3. Every Christian must stay prepared themselves for the day when America morally completely falls apart as there will still be people who will seek to turn to God from their sin and will be looking for someone to give them answers.  Jeremiah was told by God that there was a remnant and that the the enemy would one day look to these faithful few to entreat for them.  In a practical way let me illustrate this -  have you ever had a family member or friend who was antagonistic toward your faith, but then they had a tragedy and they asked for your prayers?  That's what God was telling Jeremiah in chapter 15.  Be prepared for to help those who fall apart.  But what are Christians going to do, if/when America falls apart and the people around them come looking for answers and they cannot give them answers beaus they have succumbed to the sin or discouragement?
4. Finally we must accept that living for God is always going to be unpopular.  Christians will always be in the minority.  God told Jeremiah in verse 20 that he (Jeremiah) would be like a “fenced brasen wall” which the people “will fight against.”  Yet God told Jeremiah, and by default us I would say, to “take forth the precious from the vile.”  In other words, see God’s hand as good even in the midst of the moral decline.  We can be faithful in spite of the condition of our nation.

We do not have to fall apart with our nation.  We can still stand for what’s right because we do it for our God and not just our nation.  I love our nation, but I need to love my God more!

When People Leave Churches Over Personal Reasons and Not Doctrine

Over the years here at Valley we have seen many folks come and go. Many have come because they appreciated the strong stand we take about sin in our world and our strong stance about the Word of God, but too often they then leave when they find an area in which they personally dislike. Most of the time this discomfort is not doctrine but a personal opinion over our church's unique Baptist views or over the leadership's right to set the tone in certain areas. My question is when does a person have a right to leave a church over a personal issue?

In the early days of Christianity, you know the days in the book of Acts, there were not multiple churches to choose from in a community. Ephesus did not have First Baptist, Victory Baptist, Community Baptist, Cornerstone Baptist, and Grace Baptist, it just had one church - the "baptistic" church at Ephesus. These early believers did not leave their church every time they did not get their way to go to another because there was no other church to go to. They worked through their differences and they and the church grew because of it.
But today, because we have churches of every stripe around us, we have a mentality that says, "I want my way or I'm going another way." We too often expect church to adapt to us and not the other way around. 

Folks don't, as a general rule, leave fundamental churches because of doctrinal error being taught but because their feelings were hurt. They leave because communion is not the way they want, because the songs are too slow, because the songs are too fast, because the songs are on a screen instead of a book, because they can't sing in the choir without being a member, because the preacher pointed out the error in a popular book everyone is reading, because the church won't speak against a certain issue, because the church speaks too much about a certain issue, because the preacher tells too many jokes, because the preacher is too serious, and so on. They leave because they have not found what THEY WANTED in their church.

But is that a reason to leave a church?

Just as a quick personal thought before proceeding - what if God acted the same way with us? What if He saw in us something He did not like and decided to walk away? What if when we did less than He expected He gave up on us and decided to work with someone else? But of course, He wouldn't do that since He knows we are human and are going to fail, yet many refuse to give the church the same consideration.

We must recognize that churches are made of fallible people just like us and thus it can never be what every single person "desires" it to be. We must also recognize that it is easier for us as individuals to adapt to the church as whole than for the whole church to adapt to every person...and to be honest this concept it more biblical as well. In 1 Corinthians 9:19-23, Paul said he adapted to meet the needs of those who he was trying to reach. He did not expect them to adapt to him, but was willing to adapt to them.

And maybe therein is the problem with people leaving the church over personal issues. Those who are leaving were never trying to minister to the other folks in the church but were expecting all the others in the church to minister to them. Maybe they assumed that their needs were the only needs everyone in the church should be concerned about, while the needs of the rest of the church go unmet. Maybe they thought that the church was intentionally ignoring them because the church did not care, instead of realizing there are other people whom they could have been ministering to instead.

You see the problem is that too often we judge a church not by what we are doing for the other people of the church but by what we expect them to do for us. Here are a couple of examples some churches face regularly:

1. If the church as a whole wants to hold closed communion (members only) and attendees are offended and leave because they felt isolated as non members, then the problem 
maybe the offended and not the church. Why not just join the church instead of leaving? 

2. If the church as a whole requires background checks for workers and some would rather leave than let their "personal business" become known, then maybe the problem is not with the church trying to do right but the easily offended who left. Why not accept that background checks are for the safety of the church as a whole?  

3. If the church asks faithfulness, tithing, and holy living of its workers then instead of leaving maybe we should adapt our thinking to what the needs and requirements of the church are. Why not simply submit to being holy and faithful as the Bible commands?

Really, when it comes down to it, the root problem is that few people want to submit themselves to the needs and requirements of others. We see everything through our own eyes and not the eyes of others. We expect everyone to submit to our views and our needs and thus we leave a church, not because of doctrine, but because we have chosen to place our needs ahead of everyone else's.

Let me also just say this is passing, too often there are also those who will stay in a church, for whatever reason, but with a bitter heart because they cannot adapt to the church as a whole or the leadership's vision for that church. They will sit and stew in their own juices week after week instead of just letting go of their own personal opinions on unimportant issues and let the leadership lead and membership as a whole decide.
Just something to think about.