How We Treat Each Other Romans 14

     I have been studying Romans 14 over the last week or two and came up some main points that Paul states that I wanted to meditate on and share with you.  Some may seem basic, but that doesn’t mean that we should not consider how we are acting on them to achieve them. 

1.     1.   The gospel is not about what I wear, eat, drink or what day I celebrate.  Colossians 1:16 says, “Therefore do not let anyone be your judge by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.  These are a shadow of the things that are to come; the reality is found in Christ.”   Some believers at that time recognized some days as more important than others.  To Paul, he clearly didn’t think that this was important.  Rather, he says in Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”   The truth is, where people try to pursue the law and legalistic thought tends to kill joy and peace.  While those who walk in Spirit are the ones who truly enjoy the peace and joy of the Spirit.  Paul says in Colossians 3:2 “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.”  The kingdom of God is not just about what we do or don’t do, but whose we are. Also see Galatians 4:10-11

2.    2.    We are under one Judge-Christ and he does not need our help.  He is able to make us stand.  People judge by external characteristics.  They may think you’re holy or good based on external standards alone.  But, God doesn’t judge us that way.  He looks at things like motives and thoughts and what is going on in the heart.  Since I don’t know what is going on in the heart of another, I am not fit to judge others.  Not only that, but the believer is not my servant but God’s servant.  Paul says that he didn’t even judge himself.  The truth is, that God knows us better than we know ourselves. 

Paul says here in Romans 14:13 “Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother’s way” In Luke 17:1-2 Jesus said that it was inevitable that stumbling blocks would come up, but the one who creates the stumbling block would be better off if a milestone was tied around his neck and he was thrown into the sea.  Sounds like the Lord took stumbling blocks pretty seriously, I don’t want to be one.  I think to me this means that our actions and words should point others to Christ and not away from him or discourage others in their walk of faith. Also see 1 Cor 8:9; Romans 14:20; Romans 9:33

3.  3.     We are to act out of love and a desire for mutually building up others.  Romans 14:19.  The Bible makes it very clear that I should consider how my actions help build up or encourage others.  Paul goes into specifics in Romans 14 here about eating meat offered to idols.  We could replace this with a lot of other rules and regulations that are more likely issues of today such as working on Sunday, going to rated PG-13 movies or smoking or whatever.   Paul says that our motives for what we do should be out of love for others  (1 Corinthians 13) and not judge thinking about ourselves.  1 Corinthians 10:25-31 “do all for the glory of God.”

4.   4.    Paul says clearly that if your conscious bothers you when you do something then you shouldn’t do it.   A key verse is verse 23 “But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.”  So, if my conscious is bothering me by watching a certain movie or being in a certain place then I need to excuse myself and leave the situation because I am not acting out of faith.

Some thoughts about the church today

    When I was a pastor in Hull, Texas we ran about 45 in Sunday School and a little more than that if it was a good day.  I think our high the whole time there was around 70 on a mother's day.  That was pretty good considering that there was about 200-300 people in the whole town.  I went to a church today that had about 80 in worship.  That would be fine except that it is in an area where there may be as many as 100,000 people within an easy driving distance from it.  When I see a church like that I wonder to myself what it in the world is the problem?  Why is it that either people are not coming or that the church is not attracting that many to its doors.  I find that there are several reasons for this.
     The first reason is the mentality, "us four and no more".  This is similiar to a church that I attended recently that went from two services to one.  I seriously doubt the churches commitment to fulfill the great commission.  I feel like it is more interested in being comfortable and friendly.  Nothing wrong in being friendly, but the church is to be a people who are sent.  Jesus talked a lot about being sent.  In fact, in the gospel of John he referred to himself as being sent at least 21 times.  Then, after his resurrection he commissioned and sent the church.  But, many act as though the church is a location rather than who they are.  They are saved and satisified.
     The "we never did that before" church.  Many churches are so scared of change.  In fact, when Sunday School was first introduced in the church it was criticized by many saying that only those who had been ordained should be teachers.  It took a while for the idea to take off that others could teach and preach.  In many churches, they are so comfortable with routine that they refuse to do anything new or out of the routine.  Stuck in a rut, nobody gets excited about that church because nothing unexpected happens.  I don't see that kind of church in the book of Acts.  Something different was always happening in the church in the book of Acts.
    The other side of the coin is that people are afraid of change because they don't want to throw out the traditions and the truths of the Bible.  And that is true, that the church must remain committed to preaching the gospel and not adding to it.  There is a passage in 2 Timothy 4 where Paul warns of a time when people will gather for themselves teachers who will tickle their ears and tell them what they want to hear.  They will not put up with sound doctrine.  Those false teachers will one day be held accountable for the lies and half truths that they promoted.  There are many of these types of preachers today in the church.  Many of them probably are not even saved.
    Church leaders, deacons and elders may be tempted to or be attracted to calling this kind of preacher to tickle the ears of their people.  That is because this type of preacher fills pews.  He takes away the hardship of the gospel, the struggle, the picking up your cross and following him and preaches prosperity, pomp and joy without the cross.  It appeals to the flesh and fills the heart with joy, but it is not a complete gospel and it isn't real kingdom growth.  I see many churches, including many mega churches going this way in this day and time.  It is a church that requires of its people no real sacrifice or change or repentance.
    Real church growth comes from people who are sanctified.  Sanctified means to be separate.  The church is called to be the light of the world, the salt of the earth.  It is called to be different and like salt to add flavor and substance to the lives of others.  If the church loses this sense of being sanctified, they it also loses what it uniquely has to offer.  We end up making friends with the world, which the Bible clearly says that we cannot and should not love the world.  In Matthew 5:12-14, Jesus warns that if the salt loses its saltiness then it is worthless and is good for nothing except to be cast out and trampled under foot by man.  This is why we need a revival in the church today.  Because the church is in danger of looking too much like the world and becoming worthless, good for nothing, having lost all its power because it made friends with the world.

Never beyond his grasp. . .

    I was reading today in 1 Timothy 1:15-16 where Paul refers to himself as the "chief of sinners".  He did this because before he was saved he was very legalistic and he had persecuted and sentenced to death christians.  Paul tells the story in several parts of scripture where the Lord appeared to him on the road to Damascus and stopped him in his tracks.  He was on his way to Damascus to persecute believers there.
    Paul is not trying to show some false sense of piety by calling himself the worst of sinners.  I believe it was always a motivator of Paul, having learned the truth to do his best to make the most of his time for Christ with the rest of his life.  Paul says that Jesus saved him because he wanted to demonstrated his "unlimited patience" in saving Paul.  He wanted to show Paul and us that there is no one who is beyond the grasp of God's saving love.
    Years ago, I was in Nevada doing a summer missionary trip.  I was in Lovelock, Nevada and the pastor there asked me to go over and invite a man who had some children with him to the VBS the church had planned.  From what I remember (this was the summer of 1988) he was a scary, big looking dude with tattoos all over him.  I did what the pastor asked me to do, though not expecting a positive reply.  In a sense, this is something that God did with Paul.  He picked the worst, biggest, baddest, most legalistic close minded person in the area and reached him.  And it did that to make a point, that God doesn't give up on people.
   Sometimes when people get caught up in sin of all kinds, shame motivates them to walk away from God.  Satan begins whispering to them that God wouldn't love them or that they don't deserve God's forgiveness or if people only knew what you did, they wouldn't let you in the church.  The truth is, that while people might very well give up on you, God does not.  God knew all your sins and shortcomings better than you did before you were born and loves you anyway.  God isn't surprised by your sins or mistakes no matter how much you tried to hide them from everyone else.
   God has a love that goes beyond all that.  He sees the darkness of the human heart better than anyone.  He went and died on a horrible cross and shed his blood for those sins.  He was literally forsaken on the cross for them.  That isn't minimizing the sin.  But, where sin is great, God's love and forgiveness is greater.

The Church Renewed

     I mentioned earlier in a post on facebook, that I believe it is time for the church to repent and seek the Lord.  It appears to me that much of the church is weak and that many churches today are dying. In fact, many are dying in America today. Many of those that exist seem to have completely lost their importance in people's lives and power to change people's lives.  The New Testament church was not like that.  People's lives were changed and the power of God was demonstrated in people's lives.
      I believe the church needs to get back to the basics.  I am speaking to myself here as well for I need repentance and renewal.  For too long the church has tried to make friends with the world instead of being sanctified or set apart.  In Romans 13:8 it says, "Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellowman has fulfulled the law."  Later, in verse 10, the writer says, "Love is the fulfillment of the law."  Jesus also mentioned this in Luke 10:27.  Jesus said that to love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and to love your neighbor was the most important commandments that there is.  I believe as a church, we need to get back to stoking the flames of the love of God in our heart because it is at risk of dying out completely.
     When you want to kindle and increase flames on a fire you stoke it and then put fresh logs or paper or something on it to increase the burning.  We need to do this and enflame the love of God in our hearts.  I focus on this first because I know I cannot love other people they way God wants me to until I love Him the way I should.  My ability to love others comes from Him and not myself.  We simply need to make time to focus and love our Lord.   I know we are all very busy in these times, but this is critical to everything else that we do as believers.  I don't want to go back and look at my life like the Laodicean church was guilty of and realize that my love for God was lukewarm.  I believe the steps that are needed to fan these flames are three fold.
     First, I think we need to renew our minds about who we serve.  Many believers are nominal believers only.  They primarily serve themselves and gratify themselves.  This is not being a follower of Christ.  I need to spend time everyday renewing my mind, remember who it is that I serve.  Remember that God is not simply a larger man than myself and his wishes and desires are not optional, but primary.  We serve the God of the universe.  The one who Paul said in Colossians 1:16-17 "For by him all things were created; things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by Him and for him  He is before all things and in him all things hold together."  We owe our existence to God and our continued existence.  It is by his very power that the universe is held together and it is for Him that we were created.
    Second, we need to remember what he has done.  Easter is a great time for doing that, but as a believer I need to remember Easter all year long.  Christ gave up the glory of heaven that he enjoyed before the world began and became a man, suffered rejection from everyone and utterly became forsaken on the cross for your sake and mine.  We simply cannot conceive of the pain and horror that Jesus endured for us.  The sinless lamb of God came for the express purpose of taking your place.  Our lives should be lived in gratitude for this sacrifice that he made for us.
      Third, we need to remember what is ahead of us.  Primarily, I am thinking that ahead of all of us is the throne of God.  We will all have to stand before it and give an account of our lives.  For some people, this will be a very sad experience and they will see that everything they did in their lives amounted to nothing.  That nothing had eternal value in God's eyes.  Worse than that, that they will hear the Lord condemn them and cast them out of heaven because they did not know Him.  But, for the believer, the mind and heart has not conceived of what God has waiting for us.  It is beyond your imagination.  The beauty and majesty to behold led Paul to say in 1 Corinthians 2:9 "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has coneived what God has prepared for those who love him."
      

Soul Detox by Craig Groeschel

    I just got finished e the book "Soul Detox" by Craig Groeschel.  Craig is the founding pastor of Lifechurch.tv and creator of YouVersion bible app.  This is the first book of his that I have read.  Craig has a very easy to read writing style which made this a fast read.  I also liked how he dealt with some issues of great importance and sometimes overlooked.  Such things such as dealing with negative thoughts, envy, fear, comparing ourselves to others and resentment.  He also has a section on toxic influences and materialism which I found very appropriate especially around christmas time.
     One of the verses that I thought of but wasn't mentioned in this book is Matthew 10:16 which says to "be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves,"   I thought of this verse because more than anything else this book reminded me that I am to be intentional about the way that I live my life.  I am to be aware that as a christian I am living a lifestyle that conflicts with the world's values and that there are many stumbling blocks out there. Matthew 18:7 tells us that it is inevitable that stumbling blocks will come.  But, Jesus tells us to deal assertively with them being aware that they will hinder our spiritual growth.  Jesus goes to the extreme of telling us that if our eye causes us to stumble then to throw it out.  That's pretty gross, but the point is not to go around with one eye, but to deal aggressively and shrewdly with it.  Not to see how much sin we can get away with or to settle for a lukewarm attitude toward it, but to be wise about the devil's schemes.
    I was reading this morning about how friendship with the world is hostility toward God James 4:4.  We can't have it both ways.  Soul Detox made me take stock of what areas of my life need to change or where have I made compromises in my life.  There are a lot of sins and areas where christians make excuses or say something like "everyone else does it."  Whether that is watching rated R movies or gossip or greed or envy of what others have or simply holding on to grudges.   In another verse in James it says, "He jealousy desires the Spirit which he has made to dwell in us." James 4:5.  I believe he becomes jealous when we allow other things into our hearts and minds that have no place there while settling for less of his Spirit than he wants to give us.
    One of the gifts I can give the Lord this christmas is all of my heart. Cleansing away those things that I have allowed to creep in and compromised on.  Not so that I can be saved, but in order that the Lord might deepen His relationship with me and reveal more of Himself to me.  Again in James 4:8 it says, "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify our hearts, you doubleminded."  Did you see that promise?  If I draw near to Him than he will draw near to me.  I want that, don't you?

Jesus Knows Our Hurts

    I realize that it has been about two months since I wrote on this blog.  I changed jobs with the agency I work with from an intensive in home  team lead to outpatient therapist around the beginning of August.  I have been trying to build up my case load and get to know my new clients the last two months.  I have been continuing at times my study into Romans and found a passage in Romans that struck me as interesting.
    In my work as a therapist, I meet people who have experienced intense rejection.  Parents who neglect their children or children who have experienced trauma.  It is unfortunately more common than you may realize.  What I found from my reading in Romans 10:13-21 is that the Lord Jesus has also experienced rejection.  He can understand us and minister to our hurts and dark places because he has been there.  Not only that, but as the perfect son of God He did absolutely nothing to deserve it.
    Unfortunately, this rejection of the Lord runs throughout scripture.  From the time when the people said they wanted a king over them in 1 Samuel and rejected God as their king.  To multiple times through Israel's history when they chose idols over God.   It led John to say in the gospel of John "He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him." John 1:11.  It led Jesus to cry over Jerusalem because as Jesus said, "you did not recognize the time of your visitation."  It led the Lord to say here in Romans about Israel that they are a "people who continually provoke Me to my face." Is 65:3a.
     The guilty party is not just Israel.  Every time I turn my back on God and want to do things my own way I am guilty also.  Our own pride, as it said earlier in Romans, doesn't want to obey God and doesn't even know how.  I think this has its foundation in human pride.  Our pride holds us back from feeling indebted to God by accepting salvation as a free gift rather than something that can be earned.  Would pride cause us rather to try to find a way to earn it, even when our good deeds are filthy rags to God?  Do we realize that our pride alienates us from God?
    I find it comforting to know that Jesus was willing to become the "man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief" Is 53:3  He was willing to identify with his creation.  I should realize that if I have experienced rejection from others, he has experienced far more.  He knows exactly what that feels like.  Yet, his overwhelming grace and love provides mercy for me instead of unforgiveness or anger.  He keeps reaching out to us despite the fact that we fail Him so often.

Jesus and the deaf and dumb

31 Again, leaving the region of Tyre, He went by way of Sidon to the Sea of Galilee, through[m] the region of the Decapolis. 32 They brought to Him a deaf man who also had a speech difficulty, and begged Jesus to lay His hand on him. 33 So He took him away from the crowd privately. After putting His fingers in the man’s ears and spitting, He touched his tongue. 34 Then, looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!”[n] (that is, “Be opened!”). 35 Immediately his ears were opened, his speech difficulty was removed,[o] and he began to speak clearly. 36 Then He ordered them to tell no one, but the more He would order them, the more they would proclaim it.

     This story above is in Mark 7:31-36.  It tells the story of a man who was deaf and also had a speech impediment.  I was thinking about this story and how sometimes Jesus spoke a word and people were healed.  Other times, the person who was healed wasn't even there.  There really is only one common component to all of the miracles and that is that someone had faith that Jesus could and would heal.
      We don't know how much this man himself knew Jesus.  But, the story goes that they were begging Jesus to touch this man.  The man himself could not hear the begging on his behalf.  After thinking about it, I think this is why Jesus healed this man in such a unique way.  More than him being healed, he wanted the man to know who it was that was healing him.  So, that there is no mistake about it since the man cannot hear he touches him.  The man knows more than anyone that it was Jesus touch that caused the healing.
      To me, this says that Jesus meets us where we are.  As a young christian you may need the neon sign and sign post that tells you God is near.  He will indulge sometimes and give us signs and impressions to let us know He is near. As a mature believer, we shouldn't need the neon sign from God to know he is near.  We walk by faith and get aquainted with his quiet voice and moves with the Spirit.  We put aside childish things to grow in faith.  But, God still meets us where we are.  He knows when you need more and how to touch you uniquely.
    More than anything else, he doesn't just want to heal you.  Healing the body is temporary.  All of us at one point or another is going to die.  The body gets older and it starts to break down.  Like a tent, it is temporary.  Jesus wants more than the healing of the physical, but also the healing of the spiritual.  He wants to touch you, but touch you in your spirit and soul.  He wants to invade your life and touch every part of it.  He wants us to be willing not to hold anything back.  To be able to trust Him enough to give Him all of us.  Be that unique believer, the one who radically trusts Him with everything knowing that you are in good hands.