The Phil Conundrum

 

In recent days, it seems that there has been more and more discussion about "Phil"and his rights. Phil Robertson of the Duck Dynasty TV show made some comments in an interview that upset the LBGT community. Everything hit the fan at that point, seemingly polarizing many in our country to one stand or another. I believe that the controversy is far deeper than that being discussed. For it shouldn’t ever be about what are the rights of the saved, but rather, what are the obligations.

There are several issues. First, the obligation of Christians to an unsaved world. Second, identifying whose obligation it is to identify sin. And third, what is the true cause of the decline of American morality.

The first two issues are actually tied together and very important because with obligation　(or responsibility) comes empowering. If we, as believers, are responsible for something, then we are thus empowered by the Holy Spirit. If we are not responsible, then we literally go into the lions’ den without the power of the Lord. The most concise explanation of a believer’s responsibility is the Great Commission given in Matthew 28:

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you" (Matthew 28:19b-20a NKJ)

"Go . . . and make disciples . . . teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you." There are two assumptions within this command. First, that we are only to teach disciples to obey the Lord’s commands, and secondly, that only the Lord’s disciples are empowered to obey Him. So, just like the parable about the pig (Don’t try to each a pig to sing. It only wastes your time and annoys the pig.), we aren’t commanded to try to force the unsaved world to mold itself into the outward righteousness of Christian morality. It is, in fact, impossible to do so and, like the pig, only annoys them. Why? Because they are still the willing slaves to sin, and it is impossible for them to even understand the dynamics of righteous living! "For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness." (Romans 6:20 NKJ). The Greek translated here "free" actually means "free from obligation or restraint." In other words, the unsaved person is free from meeting the moral obligations that come to the Christian who is a slave to God. Why? Because they are incapable of meeting those moral obligations in the full sense of what that means. The unsaved person may look moral or immoral on the outside, but neither is important because the unsaved person is unsaved. Pure and simple. The issue isn’t whether or not we, as believers, can help them clean up on the outside by changing their behavior choices. The issue is—and always has been—if we can make them disciples.

Our responsibility is, then, to go into the world and preach the gospel, making disciples where we can and allowing those others to go their own way. Why? Because it is the Holy Spirit’s responsibility to convict them of sin and lead them to the cross. Once we have presented the truth of the gospel, our responsibility is to watch as the Holy Spirit works. Our responsibility is to preach and pray, but never to "teach the pig to sing." (And I’m not equating the unsaved with pigs. They are, instead, dear souls that need our prayers and presenting the gospel.)

As believers going into the world, we work in partnership with the Holy Spirit. Our job is to preach (both with and without words, through the love of the Lord Jesus) and then, as a soul accepts the truth of the gospel, to instruct that person in the ways of faith so that he/she becomes a disciple. It is the Holy Spirit’s job to convict each of sin:

"Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; of judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged." (John 16:7-11 NKJ)

The third issue, the cause of the decline of American morality, which we so easily place upon the unsaved around us is a much different issue. For some believers, it seems that they believe that the decline of American morals is due to the LBGT agenda, that America is dying because homosexuals can have equal rights, get married, work and live next to them and celebrate their life events. However, what if the decline of America, rather being due to the unsaved around us, is due rather to the decline of the American Church. What if, rather than saying, "You need to repent and change because your behavior is ruining my country," we need to say, "I need to repent and change because my sin is ruining my country." What does scripture say?

"If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJ). This scripture has been preached and proclaimed by many prophets over the past 100 years. God has been speaking to us as a Church. But have we been listening? Are we listening today? Rather than say that the decline is due to the gays or the liberals (or anyone else that’s different from us), perhaps we should be wondering whether or not the decline is due to us and to the Church’s unwillingness to identify and repent of her sin. What sins exist within our lives and our hearts that need to be identified, confessed, and repented of?

A few months ago, I had an opportunity to preach on this passage of scripture. Near the end of the sermon, the Holy Spirit spoke through me and said, "What if it’s your one sin that is restraining God from healing this country?" What if it’s my one sin—your one sin—that is holding back the hand of God from America? Am I willing to give up that sin? Are you? Are we willing to look at the true cause of the decline of America and to take responsibility for it? Are we willing to turn off our TV’s, to put away our credit cards, to give up our leisure time . . . whatever it is that is sin in our lives in order for God to heal our land? The scripture says that God’s people must be willing to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our wicked ways. Are we?

The last issue is how we address those around us, how we present the gospel. The apostle Peter taught that we should always be ready to give a defense (an explanation) for the gospel:

"Always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear; having a good conscience, that when they defame you as evildoers, those who revile your good conduct in Christ may be ashamed." (1 Peter 3:15b-16 NKJ)

We are to be ready with meekness and fear. Meekness that comes from humility, knowing that we were once unsaved and that only God’s grace has saved us. And fear knowing that each word we say can determine a person’s response to the gospel. So speaking wisely, softly and in the great love of the Holy Spirit. That certainly doesn’t sound like we are to be ready to blast our way forward, declaring our rights. Most of us know that the LBGT agenda is at the forefront. Are we ready with an answer to points to Christ, rather than pointing to sinful behavior from nonbelievers? We are all sinners and we were all, at some point, among the unsaved. Don’t we remember those days? Those days of despairs and pride and lust? Condemnation of those behaviors closest to us would never compel us to the loving, risen Jesus? But a strong word for the need for salvation for everyone, including ourselves, might turn away the anger.

Homosexuality or gay marriage isn’t the issue. "All have sinned and come short of the glory of God." (Romans 3:23). Being gay and getting married isn’t going to send someone to hell any faster than being heterosexual and attending church every Sunday. (There are the unsaved in both scenarios.) As Christians, we need to become wise in how we think and how we respond when we have the opportunity. And our response needs to always point the way to the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice on the cross. We aren’t here to teach pigs to sing. We are here to make disciples that they may have life and have it more abundantly.

Hebrews 3:6, 12-15, 18-19

"Christ, however, was faithful over God's house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope. . . . Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.’ . . . And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, if not to those who were disobedient? So we see that they were unable to enter because of unbelief." (NRSV)

The first, perhaps most important, part of this passage is the realization that the author of Hebrews was speaking to believers, not to non-believers. "Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God." The author goes on to say: "For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end."

As Americans, we live in a society that is predominantly Baptist in doctrine. Many of us (including me, including many of our pastors) have some of our spiritual roots in the Baptist church. And there’s nothing wrong with that. There is so much that is right about what Baptists preach and practice. That being said, it is important that we understand Baptist doctrine so that we can determine whether or not we wish to believe or follow it. In this case, the Baptist doctrine that is important is the concept of once-saved-always-saved (some call it the perseverance of the saints). This is the idea that once you have accepted Jesus as your Savior, you are automatically going to heaven, regardless of what you do or how you believe from that point on. This doctrine is the foundation of all of our ideas that we just need to get folks "saved" and we are done! It is the basis for most street evangelism and for many other evangelistic efforts in America.

It is my firm conviction that this doctrine is wrong!

How would I, simply a woman seeking God, presume to make such a judgment? It is based on passages like this one in Hebrews and on studying the Messianic/Jewish view of our holy scriptures. I firmly believe that the Apostles did not believe that one simply had to say the sinner’s prayer and their work was done. (If that was the case, most of the New Testament wouldn’t have been written for there would be no need for it.)

That being said, what are the things that keep us from turning away from God?

• an evil heart

• an unbelieving heart

• deceitfulness

• a hardening of our hearts

• disobedience


An evil heart
We know that we have, in the flesh, evil, wicked hearts, hearts that are guided by the lusts of flesh: "But each one is tempted by his lusts, being drawn away and seduced by them. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin. And sin, when it is fully formed, brings forth death." (James 1:14-15). When we follow our own hearts, we lead ourselves into sin for our hearts are evil. The heart that we must follow is the heart of the Lord Jesus. In Him there is no sin; in Him there is no rebellion against God’s law for He Himself is God.


An unbelieving heart
It is entirely possible for us as believers to doubt God, to refuse to trust Him, to look at our circumstances rather than at His character and His promise: "He who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For do not let that man think that he shall receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, not dependable in all his ways." (James 1:6-8). "Not dependable in all his ways." When we refuse to trust God, we trust ourselves and our circumstances. We trust that which is not dependable. Only God is trustworthy; only He is dependable. And yet, when we create an unbelieving heart by looking at our circumstances rather than at His character, we trust in that which is untrustworthy.


Deceitfulness
A synonym of deceive is delude which means to mislead the mind or judgment. When we turn from God, we turn to delusion, to lies, and to the Master of lies, Satan. We purposefully deceive ourselves when we turn from the truth of God’s Word to the lies of lust and sin. Scripture particularly refers to deceit when we follow the sins of the lust of the flesh, when we involve our bodies in the sin (particularly sexual sins).

1Co 3:17-18a: "If anyone defiles the temple of God, God shall destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which you are. Let no one deceive himself."

Why would Paul tell us that we shouldn’t deceive ourselves regarding the defiling of our bodies? Because it is easy to believe the lies that our bodies are our own, that we should tend to the needs of our bodies. Our society has come to believe that lie that sexual needs are "normal" and that we need to focus on them, to tend to that need.

1 Corinthians 6:18-20: "Flee fornication. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits fornication sins against his own body. Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit in you, whom you have of God? And you are not your own, for you are bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's."

When we commit sexual sin, we sin against the temple of the Holy Spirit. We are telling God that the price He paid for us isn’t enough; it wasn’t worthwhile. The Hebrew word translated as "flee" in v. 18 means to run away or vanish. We are to so distance ourselves from sexual sin as to not be there at all! (The word translated here "fornication" actually incorporates all sexual sin.)


A hardening of our hearts
I live in the desert. While I’m fortunate to live on an asphalt road, there are also near my home many dirt roads. As people drive on those dirt roads, the roads develop ruts from the tires. If the road isn’t maintained, the ruts become so deep that it’s impossible to drive outside of them. That is the same as hardening our hearts. If we think about something enough, if we participate in an activity enough, pretty soon our very brain patterns become hardened and it becomes difficult to change that behavior. Additionally, if we sin enough, our consciences become seared and unable to warn us that the behavior is wrong. Pretty soon the "rush" of the moment becomes more present than the warning of the Spirit. The Spirit’s voice is silenced so a point where we can no longer hear correctly. Our hearts have become hardened to His corrections. It becomes almost impossible to change.


Disobedience
Disobedience to God’s laws follows all of this. Our lives, at this point, are filled with disobedience, not only in the original area of sin, but in other sins. Once the door to sin is opened, Satan comes rushing in with other opportunities to rebel against God’s laws. It becomes harder and harder to trust God, harder and harder to believe His word. Pretty soon, repentance is the furthest thing from our minds.

It is at this point that we may again begin to lean toward the "Baptist" doctrine of once-saved-always-saved, reassuring ourselves that our behaviors don’t earn us heaven, so it doesn’t really matter what we do. We said the sinner’s prayer once and we are covered by His blood, regardless of our sin. But if we truly believe all of God’s word, we can clearly see that simply "saying the sinner’s prayer" once isn’t enough. We have to live out our salvation every day. Otherwise, we may become one of those who "were unable to enter in because of unbelief."

© 2013 Robin L. O’Hare. All rights reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.  

1 Peter 4:12-13

"Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy." (NJK)
Lately, Ken and I have been trying to eat more healthily. As part of that, I have been cooking a lot of onions. (They are very good for you.) Now onions come in many sizes and colors. But they almost all share one thing in common: they are onion-y! You can smell them, even from a distance.

Once you start cutting into an onion, the pungent odor increases, almost geometrically. That odor can make anyone near have tears in their eyes from the fumes that are released. But then, the best part, is to throw the cut-up onion into the frying pan. At first not much happens. But then, after time, the onion begins to soften. It becomes more transparent. And after enough time, the onion begins to sweeten, to carmelize. It gets to the point when you can eat the onion by itself it’s so sweet. Cutting and cooking the onion takes it from pungent to sweet and delicious.

I think that I am often like that onion. I can be so defensive that I repel others with my smell. Oh, it’s not a physical smell (at least, I hope not!), but rather a spiritual smell. I become critical and judgmental rather than exuding the fruit of the Spirit. So Father God, in His infinite wisdom, puts me into a fiery trial—literally cutting me up into pieces and throwing me into His holy frying pan. I may moan and cry, but the result is that I begin to soften and to become more transparent, allowing His Spirit to shine out through me. And eventually, I become sweeter and much more palatable to those around me.

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:22-25 NKJ).

The fruit of the Spirit is kindness and gentleness, self-control and longsuffering. These are the things we develop as we go through suffering and trials. It is only then that we surrender to the Lord and allow His sweetness to shine through us.

I don’t know that I will never stop being an onion (until heaven). I’m strong and stubborn. But the more I surrender to the trials that the Lord brings, the more I will become like Him and allow His glory to be revealed through me.

　
© 2013 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

Jeremiah 23:9-14

My heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome, because of the Lord, and because of His holy words. For the land is full of adulterers; for because of a curse the land mourns. The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up. Their course of life is evil, and their might is not right. 
"For both prophet and priest are profane; yes, in My house I have found their wickedness," says the Lord. "Therefore their way shall be to them like slippery ways; in the darkness they shall be driven on and fall in them; for I will bring disaster on them, the year of their punishment," says the Lord. "And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria: They prophesied by Baal and caused My people Israel to err. Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem: They commit adultery and walk in lies; they also strengthen the hands of evildoers, so that no one turns back from his wickedness. All of them are like Sodom to Me, and her inhabitants like Gomorrah." (NKJ)

Jeremiah was originally a priest. He was a religious leader of the people. And as such, he was able to see the leadership from the inside, to know the heart and soul of those who lead the nation. The priesthood worked closely with the monarchy-leadership to rule the people of Israel and to guide the nation.

Jeremiah was a contemporary of King Josiah, the young jewish king who recognized very early in his reign the corruption of the religious leadership and strove to clean up that corruption; unfortunately, both the majority of the priesthood and the majority of the people wouldn’t have it. They wanted their corruption; they wanted to live in their lusts. And Jeremiah was tasked by God with the responsibility of prophesying the result of their sinfulness. The enormity of what he saw was so great that he felt physically and emotionally off-center, out of control in the sense that one might feel when they are drunk. Not because he was drunk, but due to the weight of the truth.

It’s both amazing and sad that Jeremiah was so isolated in his grief, in his anguish over the state of the nation. Everywhere existed people who knew what God’s standards were, who knew the scriptures and the demands of righteousness upon their lives. Early in the experiences of the children of Israel, God had commanded them to build altars (e.g. Joshua 4) to remind them of their own history with Him and what He required from them in the way of righteous living. They had weekly synagogue meetings and religious training for the young men so that every family would be led in God’s ways. There was an entire tribe of the nation set aside as priests so there would be no lack of religious leadership. And yet, with all these provisions, Jeremiah felt so alone in his despair over the nation’s sins that he wrote, "My heart is broken because of the prophets." Even the leadership had turned against God.

When someone truly loves the Lord, it is almost inconceivable to them that a "leader from God" would turn against God to the point of turning their back on righteous living. Jeremiah saw the truth, but couldn’t believe his eyes. And yet, he knew in his heart the truth because the Lord had impressed it upon him. He was weighted down with what God was revealing.

In the Old Testament, adultery is often a word picture for idolatry. Here, Matthew Henry confirms that the priests were involved in both religious and physical adultery, that once a person has given their heart and mind over to the love of other than God, their body may soon follow the lust of their mind. And then what followed was "a curse" which involved both lying and common cursing. Everything righteous was gone as the priesthood told (and believed) one lie after another.

In Romans 1, the apostle Paul gives a kind of "sin hierarchy." He describes the process by which beliefs give way to thoughts which give way to practice and then which give way to lifestyle. He begins by saying, "because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." (Romans 1:21-23 NKJ). One way in which we have "changed the glory of God" is by believing in evolution. We no longer believe that God spoke creation into existence, using His very glory to give life where nothing existed. Our society now believes that creation came as a result of animals mutating from one form into another. This results in many believing that animals are equal with people (or even believing that animals have more rights than human beings). I even know of Christians who are more concerned that their pets will be in heaven than they are that their unsaved neighbors might not be.

At every turn, there are parallels between our society and that which Jeremiah encountered. Many, many Christian leaders have committed adultery, either by having sex outside of marriage or divorcing without Biblical grounds in order to marry their new "soulmate." Many pastors spend more time with their televisions than their Bibles. And a vast majority spend more time on the Internet than they do in prayer. In 2005, a study was conducted about how much pastors pray. These are the results:
"The typical pastor spends 12 minutes per day with prayer requests, eight minutes in quiet time, seven minutes giving thanks, seven minutes in praise and five minutes confessing sin" (from http://www.bpnews.net/bpnews.asp?ID=20918). This averages out to about 30-39 minutes a day or about 210-280 minutes a week. That sounds like a lot. But when you balance that with the amount of sin within the pastoral community ("One recent poll shows that 51% of all ministers admit to having at least occasionally looked at pornography on the net, and some 37% admit to having a problem with this matter." from http://benwitherington.blogspot.com/2006/09/pastors-and-pornography-dirty-little.html), it’s obvious that 30 minutes a day either isn’t enough or it isn’t sincere prayer.


There is adultery in our nation and it has invaded the Christian leadership! The divorce rate for pastors is about 25%! That means one out of every four pastors has been divorced (and usually remarried). And while some of these divorces are based on Biblical grounds (usually adultery by the spouse), that still means that adultery is rampant within the leadership family.

When did it become okay to leave one’s family simply because you fell in love with someone else? In fact, when did "falling in love" become some kind of guarantee for happiness (rather than obeying God)? Jeremiah wrote: "Their course is evil and their might is not right." Just because someone’s in power doesn’t make what they say right. We need to begin to become smarter believers and begin to look at the lives of our leadership. Is this person really following God or simply mouthing the words? Those who refuse to live righteously will eventually lead us into error. We have no business following them!
© 2013 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.

The Day of Trial in the Wilderness

Hebrews 3:7b, 12-13

"Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: ‘Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness . . .’ Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin." (NKJ)

We live in the day of trial in the wilderness. Each of us if we call God Lord and Jesus Savior, we live in that day of trial. We live in the wilderness. We know that our citizenship—our true home—is in heaven (Philippians 3:20). And so, this life, this day, we live in the wilderness.

And it is a trial.

Strong’s defines "wilderness" as a solitary, lonely, desolate place, being deserted by others, being deprived of the aid and protection of others. In other words, this is a place where we are not comfortable, where we are not at home. We are in a strange land and are considered strangers, outcasts, outlanders. We don’t belong here and many around us know that! They do what they can to make us feel that way.

And our response should be very different from what would normally be expected. One would think that an outcast should react with self-preservation at the least and angry attack at the most. Instead, we are placed in this foreign place to love those around us with the love that Christ Himself gave to us when He gave His life for us. Christ loved me when I was His enemy (Romans 5:8). His love was so vast, so overpowering that He could do no less than to die for me, than to take upon His pure body the full force of punishment for my sin. And now He calls upon me to love the world with that kind of love as the Holy Spirit Himself loves through me.

"But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8 NKJ).

While an enemy of God, He demonstrated not His holy judgment, but His love toward me. And now I’m called to demonstrate His love toward those around me.

We were strangers from God when we belonged to this world. Now we are God’s family and have become strangers in the world. We went from living in a comfortable place to now living in a wilderness. And sometimes in our discomfort in that wilderness, we attempt to make the wilderness into something comfortable. We think that if the culture around us or the political climate or the social morals fit our new lifestyle, that the wilderness will not be so bad. And yet, if we work to change the wilderness into something for our own comfort, are we perhaps wandering from God? Are we disbelieving that God Himself has the power to change people and places and circumstances? Have we given up on God and taken the "power to change" into our own hands?

I’m not saying that Christians should refrain from social or political activism. But when we lose sight of the fact that our mission is to share the gospel with people rather than to spiff up the wilderness, I believe that we lose sight of who we are and Who God is. When we think that our efforts to change the wilderness will do what God cannot do, then we become those who are departing from Him.

Every effort in my life should be toward the goal of sharing the love of Jesus Christ with those around me, with those who think that His love is meaningless and that His sacrifice wasn’t for them. Nothing else has meaning; nothing else matters.

© 2013 Robin L. O’Hare. All Rights Reserved. Permission granted for nonprofit and church groups to use this article in its entirety (including this notice). For other uses, please contact servinggodalone@yahoo.com.