Sometimes your mind is so full of so many ideas it is hard to focus on one and develop it. So instead, I thought I would just post a few of those ideas and maybe develop them later, but at least get them out there before they dissipate into the nether reaches of my brain.
Pastors kids. The young pastor introduced today is married to the former head pastors daughter. She grew up in a church in which her father was a legend. That must have been so hard. A child in such a situation is in a no win situation, in many ways growing up under a microscope. I dont know that I could have done it.
The evil around us. Todays sermon was on 2 Timothy 3:1-9. It is a tough scripture, listing everything wrong with those who oppose the gospel in these last days (the period between the first and second coming). One quote stood out, Remaining faithful to the gospel requires that we understand the hard realities of our age. I agree. While we need to, as Paul says, think on the noble things, we also need to not be ignorant of the wiles of the devil.
You are here. The image of a map with a your are here red dot that helps you place yourself within the landscape around you brought to mind my concern over the Churchs lack of understanding of its own history. We all need to be grounded in where we are in our Christian walk: where we are in Church history; where we are in doctrinal understanding within the whole of our belief system; and where we are in our own redemptive history, a marker along the path of our sanctification. There is a lot to be said for knowing your are here.
Religious phonies. One of the warnings in that 2 Timothy passage I mentioned early was against religious phonies, traitors to the gospel. They seek religion without righteousness and develop religious habits without holiness. They may appear to be nice people, but they are tares in the wheat field and we need to turn/stay away from such people. Paul does not say confront them but avoid them. This is something I need to think about.
Open Theism. In case you dont know anything about it, see Ideas Have Consequences on Intellectuelle. The shart course is that God is primarily love and in some ways limited and makes mistakes. This is not exactly the God of the song by the late Rich Mullins, Our God is an Awesome God. It is also not the God I see in scripture. One more retelling for modern times that fails miserably to accomplish anything except heretical nonsence. For those of you who appreciate John Piper, he has a series of sermons on the subject from his Reformission 2004 conference. These are MP3 files.
Diligence. I guess that is my watchword for the moment. I cannot afford complacency, even a little bit. There is just too much out there assaulting the “faith once delivered unto the saints” (Jude 3). We need to stay motivated. I love the list of synonyms Word has for diligent: hard-working, industrious, assiduous, meticulous, conscientious, thorough, attentive, careful, and painstaking. We need to be all these things and more.
Grace and peace to your day and may God give you the grace you need to be diligent+.
