This Post Is Missing

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

I don’t take down a post very often, and never without prayerful consideration.

But I don’t blog in order to tick people off. Provoke people to think, sure. But not to just be ornery.

I’m afraid I may have come off that way, through my inability to communicate or unclarity of thought or even the possibility that I am flat-out wrong.

I appreciate the willingness of Nick Gill and Jennifer Thweatt-Bates (their blogs are linked to the right) to contact me via Facebook and cause me to reconsider. That’s what good friends do!

So this post may or may not reappear after reconsideration and rephrasing.

If not, you didn’t miss nuthin.’

Postscript: After reconsideration and rephrasing, the modified post has been re-posted and should appear below this one on the chronologically-listed pages.

Jesus Hung Out With Hookers?

/ W. Keith Brenton / 5 Comments

Maybe. Maybe not. But as far as scripture revealing that as established fact — I don’t think so. I haven’t found any scripture that specifically puts Him in the vicinity of one.

It’s just that we’ve heard this phrase so much that we’ve tended to accept it as fact, and it might not be. (People tend to do that with things they’ve heard over and over.)

In Matthew 25:6-13 and in Mark 14:1-11, Jesus is dining at the home of Simon the Leper (presumably cured, but there is no record of it) at his invitation when a woman anoints Him with expensive perfume. No slur is made on her character sexually; the charge against her is that she wasted the perfume, which Jesus refutes. In a similar record in Luke 7:36-50 (where the host is identified as a Pharisee, also named Simon), and all that he says to himself is “If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner” (v.39). Jesus agrees that her sins are many, but that “her many sins have been forgiven” (v. 47b). Nothing is said about the nature of these sins. John 11:8 identifies her as Mary, one of the sisters of Lazarus; and chapter 12 relates the story with no comment on her character or sins.

The Samaritan woman He meets near Sychar at Jacob’s well in John 4 has been married five times and is living with someone she is not married to (vs. 17-18). Jesus, who has intuited this, says nothing about her asking for or receiving money for sexual services. It’s possible, but He seems to be very discreet in the way He phrases this revelation. (Almost as if He is not judging her, one might conclude.)

A woman who touches His garment in Luke 8:40-48 has a bleeding disease that undoubtedly troubles her reproductive system, but no inference can be drawn about its nature or source — certainly nothing that requires it to have resulted from illicit sexual activity.

The woman who begs Jesus to heal her daughter is simply described as foreign in Mark 7:24-30.

Finally, in the disputed passage beginning John 8, a woman about to be stoned or spared at Jesus’ word is described simply as “caught in the act of adultery.” Again, no exchange of currency for service is mentioned or implied.

If there are other instances of contact between Jesus and women of tarnished reputation, I’d still need to be convinced that the label “hooker” is deserved. If they didn’t sell themselves, they weren’t prostitutes. If we’re going to be pejorative, then the accurate term would be “sluts.” Is there really a need to be pejorative? We don’t pick on other sins like this one and say “Jesus hung out with pimps” or “Jesus hung out with child molesters” or “Jesus hung out with tax cheats” or “Jesus hung out with slanderers” in the absence of any scriptural evidence for it.

We know Jesus hung out with a tax collector/collaborator, a member of a revolutionary sect, a boatful of fishermen, and a traitor who became an accomplice to His murder. He dined at the homes of Pharisees as well as tax collector/collaborators and ate out with thousands at a time, even providing the food. He went to a wedding once where way too much wine was served, and He was the reason for it.

People of all sorts sought company with Jesus. They were all sinners. That was the big accusation of the Pharisees and teachers of the law in Luke 15:2: “This man welcomes sinners and eats with them.” (As if they weren’t sinners themselves … just as we are.) And they were right. However, there’s rarely any indication that Jesus actively sought these contacts — or that He shied away from them, judged, or failed to engage them as people loved by God. Point is, He was Jesus. He didn’t have to. They came looking for Him.

So I’d advise caution about repeating the phrase in the title or anything substantially similar to it as historical fact. It’s not strictly biblical. While it may convey Jesus’ loving nature and willingness to reach out to (and associate with) all of us who sin, it’s really not accurate to infer from scripture or imply to others that Jesus frequented dens of iniquity while His sandaled feet traveled Israel, Galilee, Samaria and the environs.

Would Jesus hang out with hookers — or any other kind of sinner one might care to single out — then or now? Without a doubt!

In fact, He does so almost all the time. His Holy Spirit within the lives of His servants reaches out in ministries to the homeless, the hungry, the incarcerated, the addicted, the poor, the rich, the self-righteous and the self-doubting. He is in His servants and they are in Him, doing the work God has prepared for them to do.

Jesus began it. We are to continue it. That’s what matters.

The Math

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

Let’s do the math.

Jesus surrounded Himself with twelve called-out disciples for special training and ministry; we call them apostles. He trained them and sent them out over a period of, as nearly as we can tell, about three years.

One of the eleven turned on his Master and turned Him in. That left eleven.

What would have happened if each of those eleven, after that three-year period culminating in His death and resurrection, had done the same? Selected twelve people and trained them for three years?

And what if only two out of those twelve had remained followers who would do the same? And at the end of each three-year training period, there were no deaths or losses due to persecution?

Well, in the first three years, you would have 22 new mentors in addition to the original eleven; a total of 33.

At the end of six years, you’d have 99. Nine years? 297. Twelve years: 891. Okay, it’s a slow start compared to Pentecost and 3,000 in one day — but special circumstances intervened there.

What about 18 years? 2,673. And you’re almost up to that 3,000.

Twenty-one years: 8,019. Remember, these are not just baptized believers worshiping and sharing together, but discipling.

Twenty-four years: 24,057. Twenty-seven: 72,171. Thirty: 216,513. Thirty-three: 649,539. Thirty-six: 1,948,617.

That’s a long time, but we’re nearly up to two million in the lifetime of a fairly long-lived adult person.

So let’s drop out the original trainers from now on, and just double the number of believers every three years.

By the thirty-ninth year, there would be 3,897,234 mentors ready for the next generation of 7,794,468 disciples ready to train others after 42 years. With the success rate holding steady, by the forty-fifth year, 15,588,936 mentors.

More than 30 million in 48 years. Sixty-two million in 51 years. One hundred twenty-four million in 54 years. Almost a quarter of a billion in 57 years. A half-billion in 60 years. A billion in 63.

Keep going, and in 72 years, the equivalent of the entire current population of earth could have been reached and discipled.

And in less than a hundred years, the number would be larger than all the souls who are estimated to have ever lived.

Oh, yes; I understand that there are factors that would affect that outcome: travel limitations, disease, war, overlapping of available potential disciples (but the 2-out-of-12 odds might also have improved with more than one witness to each group of twelve, had they seen dedicated mentors persisting year after year with Christ-like lives and will to teach).

Not every mentor would have 24/7 available to do nothing but travel and teach disciples; there are jobs to do and income to earn.

Obviously, things didn’t turn out that way. This is just a math exercise. And math was never my strong suit.

But what if we tried Jesus’ way of doing things?

Just for a generation.

The Incredible Free Giveaway Offer

/ W. Keith Brenton / 3 Comments

No, my blog has not been hacked and taken over by some seamy cheat hacker trying to pry bucks from your gullible or not-so-gullible grasp. This is just a little story I made up. So indulge me.

A creative entity known as Apple decided to make known an incredible free giveaway offer of iPads and gave away an almost immeasurable quantity of iPads to all the people who heard about the free offer and responded. The hope was that the iPads would serve as a resource for people to “think different,” create good stuff, and generally make the world a better place.

Surprisingly, word did not spread as widely as Apple might have anticipated, and Apple decided to just give away iPads where the offer was not made known.  After all, Apple had always been the sole source of iPads, and it was within Apple’s purview to distribute iPads at pleasure. Apple found all kinds of people who wanted to “think different,” to create good stuff, and to generally make the world a better place. So Apple gave iPads to them, too.

Now the first group of people, who received their iPads because the offer had been made known to them, felt it was unfair to be giving away iPads to people who had not heard of the offer and had not responded to it as they had. They felt it was not like Apple to give away iPads to people who had not heard about the offer, and they began telling people that Apple should not and would not give away iPads to people who did know about the offer and respond to it.

Were they right to do this?

I’m guessing that most people would say “no” to this story, and I would be one of them.

They were not the ones making the decision. They were not part of the decision-making process about making an offer or giving away iPads. They did not word the agreement of the offer. They were beneficiaries of the process. They lost nothing; they still had their iPads. The wonder is that they largely kept the information about the offer to themselves.

You see, the people who responded to the offer were given a promise, then they received the gift. The second group of people just received the gift.

Now do me a favor. Put your cursor at the beginning of the story, sweep it and copy it and paste it into a text document app, and do a search-and-replace. Replace “Apple” with “God” and “iPads” with “salvation.”

Oh, let me just do it for you:

A creative entity known as God decided to make known an incredible free offer of salvation and gave away an almost immeasurable quantity of salvation to all the people who heard about the free offer and responded. The hope was that the salvation would serve as a resource for people to “think different,” create good stuff, and generally make the world a better place.

Surprisingly, word did not spread as widely as God might have anticipated, and God decided to just give away salvation where the offer was not made known.  After all, God had always been the sole source of salvation, and it was within God’s purview to distribute salvation at pleasure. God found all kinds of people who wanted to “think different,” to create good stuff, and to generally make the world a better place. So God gave salvation to them, too.

Now the first group of people, who received their salvation because the offer had been made known to them, felt it was unfair to be giving away salvation to people who had not heard of the offer and had not responded to it as they had. They felt it was not like God to give away salvation to people who had not heard about the offer, and they began telling people that God should not and would not give away salvation to people who did know about the offer and respond to it.

I don’t know about you, but I would still say that the people in the first group were not right to draw this conclusion and make this pronouncement.

For all the same reasons.

If you can find a scripture that says God gives up His sovereignty to show mercy and favor to whomever He wills because of His contractual obligation to those of us who have heard the offer and responded to it, I’d like to see it.

I understand that He is a just God and that we are imperfect people and that believers have an advantage in living saved lives and making the world a better place, but I am not aware that our ongoing imperfections are less egregious to God. I haven’t read anything in scripture that says we stop sinning after we believe and respond or that our sin becomes less sinful.

In fact, don’t the people who live that kind of lives that believers should be living put us to shame for having the law of love written on their hearts yet having never encountered the free offer of salvation made by God through His Son, Jesus, the Christ?

If we are going to picture God as only just and not merciful — having somehow exhausted His mercy at Calvary as if it were a finite quantity — then we truly picture ourselves as children of a lesser god.

And if we keep the information about that offer to ourselves, when others could benefit from it here and now and gladly join in the telling, well then … what does that say about us?

Now, the qualifier. I said nothing about God giving this incredible free offer to everyone, but to everyone whom He wishes to give it.  It is within His power enacted by Christ’s blood to save everyone. It is not within His nature. Clearly, we have much information in scripture that indicates He will judge and there will be those who will reject Him and His offer and face consequences that have no reprieve.

But you have to know someone to either receive or reject them. You have to be aware of an offer in order to accept it or turn it down. You have to have knowledge of a promise in order to believe or disbelieve it.

At the same time, you can reject everything that a person stands for without knowing them, or even knowing that they exist.

Anyone can accept a gift. If a life is lived which displays the acceptance of that gift, will God ultimately deny it to someone living it yet who has never heard the Name of the Giver?

Even Still Yet More Maxims of Methuselah Moot

/ W. Keith Brenton / Leave a comment

Methuselah MootRobert Heinlein chronicled a far-flung future’s The Notebooks of Lazarus Long; a few years later, David Gerrold responded with the often-hilarious and equally-irreverent Sayings of Solomon Short. That was all years ago, so I have decided at last to reveal Even Still Yet More Maxims of Methuselah Moot (although some of them go back as far as the Greek philosopher-dishwasher Bolognades).

It is possibly coincidental that most if not all are 140 characters or less.

  • Sickened by the inaction of both epistemologists and animal rights activists, I am today starting the “FREE SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT” movement.
  • Rene Descartes: “I think; therefore, I am.” Me: “God is; therefore, I thank.”
  • There are some people who think for themselves. There are other people who think they’re thinking for everybody.
  • My word is my bond. I told that to the judge, but she said it was insufficient.
  • Maybe it IS best to live 1 day at a time. I tried living 2 and 3 days at a time during finals week in college, but then I’d crash 2 days.
  • I wish I had a job like Polly and Wally, where I could doodle all the day.
  • Believers in Christ who don’t shoot for perfection ain’t aimin’ high enough. (Matthew 5:48)
  • “Matthew 5:11-12 … Matthew 5:11-12 … Matthew 5:11-12 … ” It’s my mantra today.
  • This year, for Lent, I am going to try to give up judging people. I will not be indulging to celebrate on Sundays, but asking forgiveness.
  • Just had to walk away from “Parenthood.” Love the show. But as an adoptive parent, I couldn’t handle birthmother Zoe’s anguish.
  • Well, they should have called it a “drive-past” window instead of a “drive-thru” window if they didn’t want me to …
  • My favorite president? William Henry Harrison, who died in office after one month, before he could do anything history would have us regret.
  • Fair warning to churches who’ve sent teens to Winterfest: They’ve heard the gospel that frees their souls, not laws which kill their hope.
  • Do sumpin ta bless sumbody t’day.
  • I appreciate Twitter. It teaches me to communicate concisely. Look! 53 characters left!
  • What folks say/write says something about them. Their words – even when they don’t realize it -can be a clue that you need to pray for them.
  • Okay, seriously, Microsoft – at the end of the day, I don’t want to shut down my laptop and wait for 20 minutes while 11 UPDATES INSTALL!
  • If I feel the need to close something I’ve said with “Just sayin’,” then I probably should have swallowed it instead of said it.
  • One thing about growing older that I don’t like is my increasing inability to maintain a coherent where was I going with this?
  • I unlocked the Expert Nonconformist Clueless Apathetic Badge at @ExtremelyBoredPeople !
  • If I liked you better, I might argue with you more.
  • When I express it toward them, it’s “tough love.” When they express it toward me, it’s “persecution.”
  • If there was a way I could get my work done by sitting like a dormant zombie, I’d be ready for today.
  • You haven’t truly received grace until you have been able to show it to others.
  • Masters of transcendental meditation can actually psychically move from a state of Nirvana to a state of Arkansas.
  • Okay, I’m visualizing whirled peas. Now trying it without the blender. Nope, can’t do it without CGI.
  • My dog Roadie would win hands-down at #Westminster if there was a breeding category called “Sweet-Natured Doofus.”
  • There’s a pre-warmed bed waiting for me. But before I get in it I have to shoo the cats off of it. #felinebedwarmers #electricwouldbecheaper
  • When I was little, I wanted to grow up to be Captain Kangaroo. Of course, he passed away years ago, so I’m glad I didn’t get what I wanted.
  • Tomorrow’s Valentine’s Day, and I’m reminding you that geeks need love, too. But a slide rule probably won’t cut it. Unless it was Nimoy’s.
  • It can be difficult to love someone with issues. Especially if it’s years’ worth of issues. Of, like, “Seventeen” or “Boy’s Life.”
  • How to determine if your husband or wife really loves you: First, determine whether you have a husband or wife. Then we’ll go from there.
  • You can tell a lot about a person by the way they insult their spouse and kids.
  • We think news anchors are smart, but they’re not. They say, “See you at 10:00” but TV doesn’t work that way. We see them; they can’t see us.
  • I’m not as afraid of dying since finding out that all sorts of dead people still have access to Twitter.
  • Would like to be able to get a few more things done today before my head finally decides to explode after all.
  • Well, yeah, they’re okay musically. But they never actually fought any foo. #programmersareheroes
  • I’m in a whiny mood and the only thing I have to whine about is that I don’t have anything else to whine about.
  • Keep repenting until it sticks. Then start repenting of something else.
  • Forgive and forget. But don’t forget that you’ve forgiven. (Your turn, @MaxLucado.)
  • Anyone who says, “Scripture says this, but it means that” is selling you something. Be careful what you buy.
  • “Love never fails. Failure to study never passes. Neither does Tony Romo.”
  • Beware of folks who add (only), as in “Faith comes (only) by hearing.” Seeing is believing, too (John 10:38; 20:28).
  • Perfect love drives out fear. Imperfect love drives a Ferrari and wears sunglasses. (Your turn, @TravelingMead.)
  • My village called. They want their idiot back. Homesick and honored. But bummed that I have never even been nominated here.
  • Some days I can only be the tiny moth that feeds on the ill-fitting sweaters knitted from fibers of man-made orthodoxy. Hey, it’s a living.
  • Don’t strain at a Gnat and swallow a Camel. Especially the filter tips. Bleah.
  • It just occurred to me that the most important thing I do today might just be … to pray for someone.
  • My score spread was off, but at least I guessed the right team. You’ve got a 50-50 chance even when you know nothing about the NFL. Like me.
  • At least the Material Girl had sufficient material for her costume … if not her performance.
  • Now we know for certain what we’ve all been wondering about: the Chevy Sonic faithfully obeys the laws of gravity.
  • Patriots 28, Giants 31, Indianapolis $364,000,000, NBC $3.5 million/30-seconds in advertising. That’s my pick of the winners.
  • I wanted to tweet something positive, encouraging, witty, intelligent and inspiring today. Uh … lemme get back to you on that, okay?
  • I saw my shadow today and realized there would be six more weeks of New-Year’s-resolution-diet.
  • I could care less about your apathy. As if it matters to you. Or me.
  • There’s a small number of people who don’t think I’m the greatest thing since sliced bread — but understand, sliced bread is way overrated.
  • I know this will come as a shock for my fans on signing day, but I’ve decided to let my eligibility expire in order to pursue table tennis.
  • @bmitchell42 says she’s interested in a marathon. I love marathons. I could watch ’em all day. Star Trek, Friends, Phineas & Ferb – whatever
  • If his Grace has brought you safe thus far, then you don’t need nobody else takin’ you home.
  • Just had to give a friend bad news: that K-Cups are for Keurigs, not a new bra size. He was heartbroken.
  • I was banished from Farmville with the prestigious Brown Thumb Award and several animal neglect charges.

I promise this is absolutely the next-to-the-last time I will publish more “Maxims of Methuslah Moot.” However, if you would like to experience them as they spring unbidden to the three pounds of goat cheese known as my brain and thence to my keyboard, all you have to do is follow keith_brenton at Twitter.com.

A Word About Labels

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

Agin’.

I’m agin’ ’em. Against them, that is, if you’re not from the South. My word about labels is “against.”

Especially labels used within the church of our Lord. “Conservative,” “progressive,” “liberal” — they’re all just designed to facilitate the process of choosing up sides and smelling armpits, as my colorful late uncle Gene Ellmore used to say.

They’re not accurate. There are some who would have you believe that Restoration Movement churches — or at least Churches of Christ — are divided into two warring camps, conservatives and progressives. The more accurate picture of our fellowship is that of a sneeze. You can’t bisect it because it’s all over the place and moving farther apart with every microsecond.

I haven’t said anything about ongoing findings that attendance and membership is shrinking, but I will acknowledge it as researched fact. It is not, of course, just our fellowship but the entire body of believers at large. Labeling each other, calling names, accusing and villifying and pillorying each other is not going to help to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

So I will not use the labels. I will discourage their use. They’re inaccurate and divisive.

(And don’t go quoting “Nicolaitans” at me until you have definite proof who they were and what their beliefs/works were and that they did not call themselves by this name in order to provoke division. Its use in the Revelation is not a license to divide and hate. And by the way, it is the “practices” or “deeds” of the Nicolaitans and what they teach that is hated there.)

There is one body; one church.

We would do well to remember that.

With Many Other Words

/ W. Keith Brenton / 2 Comments

We believers have a tendency to skip right over those words.

The Story here is so wonderful, and we have so much of Peter’s sermon on that first Pentecost, that we like to jump right from “Repent and be baptized!” to “about three thousand were added!”

But there are those words, right there in the middle, verse 40:

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

40With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, “Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” 41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day. ~ Acts 2:38-41

The sermon wasn’t over with “for all whom the Lord our God will call.”

He warned them and pleaded with them with many other words. It could have been an all-day revival that just started at nine in the morning.

I’ve only got one point to make, and I’m gonna make it as quickly as I can.

There were a lot more than 3,000 people in Jerusalem. Probably most of them had been there since Passover, to enjoy the feast with friends and families. They knew what had happened on that hill outside of the city wall. They knew who Jesus was and what He’d taught and what He’d done; how He died and quite likely the rumors that He was alive again. It was bound to be the talk of the town. Some of them may have welcomed Him into town and threw down their coats in His path. Some of them may have turned on Him and shrieked “Crucify Him!” when He hadn’t turned out to be the kind of deliverer they craved.

But they were there, and they heard the Spirit-wind and the many languages. They saw the tongues like flame. And they knew what Peter was talking about when he went back through their history and literature and prophecy and pointed out all kinds of things that could not have meant anything — in retrsospect — but that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah they had longed for and their forefathers for generations ahead of them.

Is there a preacher who can’t and wouldn’t like to imagine taking Peter’s place; having an extraordinary revival with 3,000 converts after one powerful, soul-bursting six-minute sermon like his in Acts 2?

But, let’s face it; it ain’t-a-gonna-happen very often these days. Most people don’t know Jesus except as an epithet when something goes wrong. They don’t have a clue about Hebrew history. They barely have a concept of sin beyond something bad that they don’t like. They didn’t pillory the Son of God to a cross with their vocal vote, or see Him there as He died hour by hour, or make the connection between prophecy and reality right before their eyes. And not all of the likely tens of thousands of visitors to/residents of Jerusalem — even the ones who were present to hear the Spirit’s message on Pentecost — said yes to the water and the blood.

Plus it takes time to make disciples. You can stir people and persuade them, perhaps even baptize them in a matter of minutes. But have you made them disciples? Do they know Whom they have believed? Jesus chose twelve men, and with very few short breaks, spent most of three years with them as nearly as we can tell. One of them still turned on Him and the other eleven deserted Him at the moment of truth. Still, they came back from it on Pentecost with a hundred or more friends (Peter didn’t preach alone, you know) to do what God had in mind for them to do — together. That’s discipleship. They communed, shared, prayed and stayed together. When some were arrested, they didn’t scatter like threatened rats; they gathered to pray. That’s discipleship.

I don’t preach. Well, not often. Sometimes I get the urge, but it usually passes after I lie down a while.

But on those rare occasions when I do, I can usually get past the unrealistic ambitions and expectations with a few fairly rational thoughts like these:

The miracle doesn’t always happen.

The audience isn’t always primed.

Preaching is only part of the process.

Discipling takes time.

Not everybody accepts the message.

Three Ways We Shortchange Law and Grace

/ W. Keith Brenton / 8 Comments

First of all, I think we do injustice to God’s instructions in scripture — both testaments — by seeing them as merely law; arbitrary things we must do to gain His favor or to avoid obliteration. Psalm 119 saw the law as an insight into God’s deep love for us, and so did Jesus (Matthew 22:34ff). God gives us instructions for us to become more like Him, not only for our own good, but for the good of all.

Secondly, I think we understand poorly the concept that law has been supplanted by grace in the example and Person and sacrifice of Jesus Christ (John 1:17). Law is not bad, but it is insufficient to save (Galatians 3:21; Hebrews 7:11). Its time and function to lead us has past (Romans 6:14). It is now written on our hearts, which should be much softer than tablets of stone.

Third, God still has instructions for us through Christ. He repealed specific instructions through what He taught, did and suffered – rendering them obsolete: animal sacrifice, priestly tribes, sabbath observance, as examples. They were replaced by much broader, wider, more demanding, more perfect expectations: self-sacrifice, priesthood of all believers, constant spiritual act of worship, etc. But not all were specifically repealed.

Some were specifically reaffirmed. We still are not to commit murder … but neither are we to hate. We are still not to commit adultery … nor are we to look after someone not our spouse with lust, and thereby commit adultery in our hearts.

Some were left as matters of conscience and tradition, not binding on Gentiles.

And some of the 613 precepts of the law just don’t get mentioned at all.

This calls for discernment, which is the gift of the Holy Spirit, and we can ask for it.

Does God still detest divorce (Malachi 2:16) and find remarriage to the original partner detestable (Deuteronomy 24:4)? When did it stop being an abomination to Him, so that some teach it as a requirement to please Him? Does Numbers 23:19 lie about Him changing His mind?

He commands (2 Chronicles 29:25) and is pleased with worship that includes singing accompanied by instruments of music, right through the the Old Testament– see Psalm 150 for a sample. When did He change His mind about this? Why would He not express this change explicitly as Jesus does about the Sabbath? Has He ever failed to tell — no, to SHOW — us what is expected of us?

“He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” – Micah 6:8

 

This article is expanded from a comment I made at Tim Archer’s blog.

Just Tell The Story

/ W. Keith Brenton / 4 Comments

Some time ago — and I can’t recall where; on what blog or forum — my contention was that we don’t need to judge the eternal predisposition of another person in order to share with them the Story of Jesus.

And it was met with objection. By someone who insisted that we do.

Really?

When you sit down and talk to someone that you barely know and the subject of the Dallas Cowboys comes up, don’t you get an impression fairly quickly about whether that person’s for or agin’ ’em — or they don’t give the first care?

Is it any less true if you talk about Jesus?

If the someone you’re talking to responds enthusiastically and positively, has an interest in the subject and enjoys sharing their own faith, don’t you pretty much know that you’ve found a brother or sister in Christ?

And if the someone you’re talking to displays no real knowledge of Jesus or a negative impression of His followers, or no genuine opinion on the subject either way, don’t you kinda deduce that you’ve met someone who doesn’t really know Christ and needs to?

I’m thinking that I don’t have to go into every conversation with a checklist of doctrinal possibilities and interrogate each person I meet before I can love them and share a table with them and have fellowship with them.

Oh, we may not have fellowship in the Lord; that’s up to Him to determine. But we can have fellowship of the Lord in the same way he dined with all kinds of people at all stages of belief.

And it can start so simply.

Just tell the Story.

Ease right into it just as if you knew what you were getting into.

“Would you mind sharing this table with someone who will have to say a prayer of gratitude even over a tray full of McDonald’s?”

“Is it okay if I ride next to you and read my Bible if I promise not to keep it to myself if I find something cool?”

“I am perplexed by this. Do you see here in John 5 where Jesus says we should eat His flesh and drink His blood. What do you make of that?”

“Do they have to put these tables so close together that a person doesn’t even have room to kneel down and say grace?”

“You look like a normal person. If I told you that I believed some guy two thousand years ago is still alive and was the Son of God, would I start looking abnormal to you?”

“This may sound selfish, but when I see a news report like that, I just want to start praying, ‘Come, Lord Jesus.’ You know?”

“You are a really patient person with all us crazy folks at this table, and I’ve just got to tell you that your servant nature reminds me a whole lot of Jesus Christ. Thanks for serving us today.”

Yes, we believers are a little crazy. A little crazy about the One who gave Himself up for us, so we’d be a little crazier not to give ourselves up for Him. Give up a big tip. Give up a little dignity. Give up a bit of our time and love and self-importance.

If we can’t do those things for a chance at telling His Story, what does that say about us?

logica absurdum

/ W. Keith Brenton / 13 Comments

“Preacher? Oh, hi! I’m glad I caught you at a good time. I just had to tell you about my friend at work!”

“The one you’ve been studying the Bible with at lunchtime?”

“Yes! I’m so excited! We finished talking about the gospels today, and he said he believes that Jesus is the Son of God! He’s accepted Christ as his Savior!”

“Did he now? Well, that’s too bad.”

“Too bad? Excuse me?”

“Yes, too bad. You’ll have to stop teaching him now. In fact, you can’t have any contact with him at all. If you see him, turn your head. Walk away.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

“Are you so dull? Your friend believes that Jesus is the Son of God! You said so yourself! But he hasn’t been baptized. Doesn’t recognize it’s necessary for salvation. He’s just like all of the other denominational church-goers out there who think they’re saved without baptism!”

“Well, then I’ll teach him. We were going right into Acts next …”

“You can’t teach people like that! The best thing you can do for them is shun them! Show them your back! Have no fellowship with them until they learn! Maybe they’ll come to their senses and actually read the Bible and come crawling in penitence to the true church, but if not — and in the meantime — what’s happened to your friend is all your fault!”

“My fault?”

“Yes! You should have started with the plan, just like Peter did in Acts 2! There’s always plenty of time afterward to explain to people about Jesus and who they believe in … the important thing is to baptize them now, before something terrible happens and they’re forever damned in a fiery hell! What in the world gave you the idea to preach Jesus first? — And while we’re on the subject of your ineptitude, have you explained to that hapless sister of yours yet what will happen to her if she doesn’t divorce that second husband and remarry her first one?”