Bible and Bit

Misuse of Freedom

It is becoming the norm in this 21st century to consider wrong behavior and character flaws acceptable using freedom as an excuse.

Following closely on my last post, Christian politics and the Ten Commandments, these few words from Peter communicate the core issue much better that I did. It took me paragraphs to say it. It took Peter one sentence.

“For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men – as free, yet not using liberty as a cloak for vice…” ~ 1 Peter 2:15-16

Christian Politics

Due diligence is required of every Christian before stating that anything is either good or evil, right or wrong. Christians across the United States are asking what role they should play in the political drama/horror presently unfolding in the nation. In this time of spiritual peril such a question is entirely appropriate.

Let’s begin with the concept of sin. I think most Christians agree that sin is evil. If you don’t, then I suggest you quit reading here. It’s only going to get worse…

Anyone who relates a conclusion reached by someone else without checking the facts may be breaking the ninth Commandment. Calling evil, good and good, evil is strictly forbidden even before considering whether they may be guilty of bearing false witness. Next time you hear a news report that just takes your breath away do your homework and check out the facts before passing along what may be skewed reportage.

Every news outlet in every medium has blurred the margin where truth meets readership and ratings until the public is left with the responsibility to check sources themselves. Do the same with every juicy email as well before you forward it to your list.

Your Vote and the  Ten Commandments

It is a responsibility of citizenship to exercise your privilege to vote. Failure to do so is like hiding in the tent when the trumpet blows calling all to march. Whether you hide from apathy or cowardice, neither will earn you a jewel in your crown. Evaluate candidates and referendums factually. One who lies is a liar. One who misuses public funds is a thief.

There is no biblical principle of economic equality. Solomon did not divide his great wealth among his subjects. Indeed, the balance in one’s checking account or 401K in no way reflects on their relationship with Jesus Christ or extent to which they are blessed. Scripture suggests that aliens from a foreign nation should partake of local benefits as long as the aliens abide by local law.

Commandments Are Not Suggestions

Don’t put any god before the God of the Bible. There is no person, no cause, and no political or social position that supersedes His Word. Do not presume to use God as your spokesperson. He can do well enough on His own. Do you set aside a day to rest from the world in order to benefit your family and reconnect with your Creator? Do you consider the family to be the center of Christian life, both honoring and esteeming the bond between one man and one woman?

That takes care of the first five.

If looking at a woman with lust makes a man guilty of adultery, then wishing another dead probably makes one guilty of murder. Both are forbidden to Christians. Taking what doesn’t belong to you is stealing. How well do candidates and representatives fare with not taking what isn’t rightfully theirs? Have they fudged on their taxes? Added an earmark for personal gain?

There you have six through eight. We already covered number nine.

Thou Shall Not Covet

Here’s the one that is causing most of the trouble in the United States today. When I want what you have and expect to get it in any manner other than earning it I am guilty of violating the tenth and final Commandment.

Evaluate every candidate and proposition using the Ten Commandments as your guidepost.

The Snare of Service

One of the most difficult concepts to master, and points of balance to maintain, is the role of service in relationship with our Lord.

Sharing the message of grace and victory in Jesus Christ is one aspect of my relationship with Him. I struggle to remember on a daily [or even hourly] basis, that relationship is all that matters, and not service.

We have a couple of ministry events this week. I will be sharing that victory message from behind a lectern in one state and in the round pen with a horse in another. It is so tempting to get caught in the snare of wanting to be good at sharing the message rather than concentrating on nothing more than my relationship with Jesus Christ and simply being faithful to Him.

Does my horse, Bo, care if he trailers out to ride in a friend’s pasture or to a World Championship competition? No. All he cares about is that he is with me and that I will be a faithful leader to him no matter where we travel together. Our personal relationship is everything.

The Work of Relationship

Habit of Task

Horses with a habit of task perform their service or works regardless of the direction of the rider. Have you ever ridden a rental trail horse who paid no attention to your requests,  but simply plodded along doing the same today as he did yesterday with some conventioneer from Philly in the saddle? You have no communication with that horse and no obedience. The horse is focused entirely on performance, not on relationship.

Imagine how frustrated God is when we blindly ’serve’ rather than focus on Him. It is a sign of the times that Christians spend far more time serving the Lord rather than in His presence.

Jesus reminded the disciples in Luke 10:18-20 to rejoice not in the authority to preach and heal in His name, but rather to rejoice that their names are written in heaven. The important stuff of relationship between Bo and me happens at home. The important stuff of relationship with Jesus Christ is also accomplished when you are alone with Him.

There are times I use Bo in ministry work. But that is not where our blessing lives. The Holy Spirit will send us out to serve, but never under our own authority. Stay in right relationship with the Lord and service will take care of itself.

They Don’t Understand

This is an amazing video that runs less than three minutes. If you have never considered the power of the horse and human together, that joined they exceed the reach of either individually.

If you doubt the power of the human when indwelt with the Holy Spirit… you may not understand.

Watch the video. You will be blessed.

Not Just a Horse

Thank you, Wendy!

More than the sum of the parts...

Peace

Ever wondered why you don’t have peace? I’m talking about the strong, warm, placid yet enervating peace of mind, body and soul all creatures seek. Ever wondered why your horse is nervous, edgy, tight and inconsistent?

“When our Lord speaks peace, He makes peace.” ~ Oswald Chambers

The peace that Christians enjoy by relationship with Jesus Christ is a gift, not the result of a transaction. Jesus gives us peace, not as the world gives peace, but a gift that is the undisturbiness of His own peace. [John 14:27]

Horses who are disquieted or in distress receive peace from the same source as we: from the leader. It is the responsibility of the trainer/owner to build a foundation of faith that their horse can rely upon. If one of my horses is nervous I can calm him or her in a moment.

Bo, one of my amazing grays.

Faith and Focus

There are only two things that can remove the peace of Jesus Christ from the moments of our lives. The reason a horse experiences  anxiety will also be found in one or the other. The only two reasons why fear exists in a Christian or horse is a failure of faith or a failure of focus.

Fear enters when faith departs. If you truly believe Jesus Christ can do anything and the Throne is secure, what or whom can you fear? No one and nothing. Yet even those with immovable faith lose their peace momentarily when their focus is removed from His face and fixes instead on something in either the world or in themselves.

My horses only lose their peace when their focus is removed from me and settles for a moment on something in their environment. By regaining their focus I gift them yet again with peace. There will be occasions when I fail as a leader. Jesus Christ never will.

“Forever changed by His amazing grace.”

Denominations and Horse Trainers

The majority of Christians and horse owners will sooner or later find themselves comparing one denomination with another or one horse trainer against another as they seek a place for information, instruction, and fellowship.

There is one criterion in the decision process that stands head and shoulders above any other. It identifies the same point of discernment for both the Christian and the horse owner:

What is the fruit?

Debating the relative value of any particular method or philosophy is little more than mental busy work. What is the fruit, the true and practical result of the actions of the church or trainer?

Sweet or Sour?

If those in a particular church enhance your relationship with Jesus Christ the fruit is good. If the trainer’s methods produce soft, secure, obedient, and peaceful horses the fruit is good.

Horses who are resistant and fearful are evidence of bitter fruit. Christians who practice division in the family are evidence of the same.

• Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. ~ Matthew 3:10
• You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ~ Matthew 7:16
• Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. ~ Luke 8:14
• Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ~ John 15:2
• But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ~ Galatians 5:22

Evaluate fruit with the simplicity of a child. No matter how beautiful the fruit, if the taste is bitter, a child will spit it out and not take another bite. The child doesn’t consider the work or cost of producing the fruit. The child does not care that the grower intended the fruit to be good. The taste is bitter, it is rejected.

Sometimes it seems that humans their first 20 years preparing to be grown up and the last 20 trying to regain the lost simplicity of childhood. Consider the fruit; is it good or bad?  Simple enough.

Contradiction

Where do the observations of scriptural contradiction originate?

Finding Contradiction in Scripture

Neither Christianity nor Bible text  can contradict themselves – they are inanimate. Christianity is both fellowship and a label, and the Bible is the printed word of God. No book contradicts itself. When the words on one page seem at odds with words on another it is not the book’s clarity or authority that is rightly questioned, but the author’s.

Pure contradiction is found in scripture. It is there where the ‘push me-pull you’ contradiction of humans is recorded, but never as a result of God’s inconsistency.

Read Matthew 11:15-19. This generation calls to their companions regarding John the Baptist accusing him of error. He did not dance when they played their flutes or share their lament on cue. John was not joyful or a party animal. The generation condemned him for not fitting in with their pleasure.

Enter contradiction: John didn’t eat or drink so it was determined “He has a demon.”
Jesus came eating and drinking so the crowd concluded that He was a “glutton and wine bibber.”

Contradiction is a human characteristic, not a divine trait. Contradiction is nothing more than a human argument that “I am always right.”  Whatever fact exists is used to prove the rightness of a position. If the matter is black it provides evidence of the human’s argument. If the matter turns white that also is presented as evidence. Black is black unless it needs to be considered white…

Who is it that charges God of contradiction? Humans. No human can rightly charge or convict God. Sure, they try. Whenever a lowly human accuses God of contradiction I am reminded of the gnat challenging the blast furnace.

The only way to understand anything God does or says is by revelation of the Holy Spirit. There is no contradiction in God. It is only the limited understanding of Who He is and a deficit of relationship that brings contradiction to the table. Contradiction is the stuff of humanity, not of our divine and eternal God.

Entirely Personal

Nothing in this life or beyond is important apart from relationship. Christians do not pursue doctrine or philosophy, we pursue a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

One needn’t be a Christian to be a biblical scholar; we simply need to know our Lord.

The sheep hear His voice, and he calls His own sheep by name and leads them out. He goes before them; and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. ~ John 10:3,4

Rationalizing Compartmentalization

The news regularly brings us stories of how leaders in all walks of life compartmentalize their behaviors in an effort to rationalize their latest foible, hoping to sell the myth that a lie or scandalous behavior in one aspect of their lives should in no way tarnish all the ‘good’ they do in another.

One infamous illustration of compartmentalization was the sincere and reasoned disagreement about whether the disgusting and sinful behavior of Bill Clinton with Monica Lewinsky should taint his shiny executive performance as President of the United States. Scholars and clerics alike debated the issue as if there were truly two possible answers. This same debate continues daily with reports about Charlie Rangel and others in office or behind the pulpit.

To continue the point let’s go to the other end of the scale. Does the pen one brings home from the office, the padded deduction on a tax return, or fudging a bit on a resume matter in the life of a Christian?

• Should the rude sniping of a husband and wife receive a free pass from accountability?
• Is the trophy so proudly displayed on the mantle symbolic of any victory at all if it was not fairly won?
• Can any elected politician legitimately claim the cloak of leadership if there were ‘irregularities’ in the voting process?
• Is it possible to be truthful in one area of your life and be a liar in another?

Do the pressures of daily life and family forgive such behaviors? Or are they simply part and parcel of the whole?

My folks never let me get by with the excuse, “All the other kids are doing it.” Cheating is wrong no matter how many cheat. Election cheating is also wrong no matter how commonplace.

What in human life is truly exempt from the statutes and examples of behavior contained in God’s Word?

Virginity and Liar

There are two descriptive labels that are absolute: virginity and liar. Once one has lost the former it is lost forever. You can buy books that tell you how to reclaim it, but I would suggest you save your money. As to the latter, once you lie you are by definition a liar. Like the alcoholic who no longer drinks, he or she is still an alcoholic although in recovery. Once we lie we are a liar although we may continue to live each successive day in truth.

Can you be a virgin at home but not one on Friday night? I have actually had thirty-something folks try and make this argument! How far has the concept of compartmentalization gone?

Choose Light over Darkness

To rationalize the excuse of compartmentalization is to live in darkness. Truth lives in the light. How do Christians live in the light? By being consistent, authentic, and recognizing that we have all failed. The human response is to forgive or excuse lest we be held to the same standard. Forgiveness is a blessing, but remember that the only One who can ultimately forgive no longer walks on the earth.

Separating Christian life into boxes where we exempt bits and pieces from the standards that rightfully apply to the whole is to walk into the shadows.  Don’t make excuses, don’t rationalize, and edify your fellows by your example and your testimony.

Choose Light. Blake Hannah Photography