When Shame was a Good Thing

When Shame was a Good Thing

Warning: My thoughts below will likely offend or “trigger” many. Rather than taking your anger out on me, why not direct that emotion and energy toward the real problem?

Do you feel shame when you ignore God?

Do you feel shame when you ignore God?

I’m in that weird stage of life where I’m not “old,” but I’m not “young” anymore either. I am still young enough to know what’s going on in popular culture today (probably thanks to my children), but I’m also old enough to remember a different time in our nation.

For instance, there was a time in our nation where a bride wearing white was a symbol of her purity. Today, women walk down the aisle for their second or third marriage wearing white. I don’t think most brides even think about whether or not they are “candidates” for wearing white for a wedding. I’m old enough to remember when it was shameful for young ladies to give birth to children without being married. Today, out of wedlock births are not really a big deal. In fact, 43% of children born in America today come home to just one parent. Let that sink in for just a moment—almost one-half of all children born are born out-of-wedlock. Simply put, we are no longer ashamed. Our conscience has been seared with a hot iron.

Instead of feeling shame, young people today lash out at those who might “judge” them. High schools open up nurseries to accommodate the expanding population of students who have babies. Parents get mad at the church for not having baby showers for their daughter who is pregnant out of wedlock. And society keeps convincing us we should be tolerant of everything.

Shame is defined as a painful feeling of humiliation or distress caused by the consciousness of wrong or foolish behavior. But parents don’t want their children to feel humiliation or distress. So instead of instilling strong conscience about things like sexual purity, we relax our morals and values. As a result, our nation has successfully altered what is viewed as acceptable or normal behavior when it comes to sex outside of marriage.

However, God does not change—He is immutable (Malachi 3:6). Whatever He has deemed as good and right is not subject to the whims of our culture. Just because a large percentage of the population is doing something does not make it right or good. Good is what God wills!

God Himself formed the institution of marriage and the family (Genesis 2). The Bible says that he who finds a wife finds a good thing (Proverbs 18:22). The Bible speaks clearly about the sin of fornication (1 Corinthians 6:18-20; Galatians 5:19-21) and keeping the marriage bed pure (Hebrews 13:4). Sexual immorality is something that can keep someone from spending eternity with God in heaven (Revelation 21:8)—it’s a serious subject in the eyes of God.

Why? Because there are huge consequences when a child is raised in a home without a father. (I’m not saying it can’t be done or that it is a sin…I’m saying there are serious consequences). For instance, fatherless homes account for:
53% of teen mothers
63% of youth suicides
71% high school dropouts
85% of youths in prison
90% of homeless/runaway children
And these are just a few of the consequences the child will face.

This also means that guys do not get a free pass. As the saying goes, “It takes two to tango.” How many guys are walking down the aisle pure? How many guys are “manning up” and being father’s to the children they produce? How many young men are setting aside their video game controller and actually assuming the role of spiritual leader?

Rather than Christians getting comfortable with out of wedlock births maybe we should bring back shame. I know that sounds harsh and judgmental given our politically correct climate. But maybe we should develop a Christian atmosphere where anything that God disapproves of is looked at as wrong and sinful. Maybe as a Christian family we should not be supportive of behavior that the Bible says will lead someone to a lake of fire. Maybe we should not throw celebrations for sin. (This doesn’t mean we don’t love children born into those situations. It simply means we don’t celebrate the sinful behavior.)

Instead, maybe we should hold our children and ourselves accountable to God. Maybe we should stop allowing our culture to dictate what is okay or acceptable. Maybe we should raise children who desire to be holy instead of desiring to live like the world. Maybe we should raise children who don’t want to feel shame and displease their heavenly father. Maybe we should raise our children in the nurture and admonition of the Lord…

Posted in Brad Harrub | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on When Shame was a Good Thing

God Will Provide

God Will Provide

In the Old Testament we read the story Abraham offering his son Isaac.  God told Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you” (Genesis 22:2).  So Abraham went, and he took Isaac with him.  When they got to Mount Moriah where Abraham would make the offering, Isaac asked about the sacrifice.  In Genesis 22:8, we read: “Abraham said, ‘God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son.’ So they went both of them together.”  After God stayed Abraham’s hand, and provided a ram for sacrifice the Bible says, “So Abraham called the name of that place, ‘The LORD will provide’; as it is said to this day, ‘On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.’”

God will provide.

God will provide.

We all have tests and trials to go through in this life.  There are times of uncertainty, trepidation, worry, and fear.  As we live by faith, God promises to be with us as He was with Abraham.  We deny self, empty our lives to God, and become that living sacrifice that He wants us to be.  Before Abraham could offer up his son to God, Abraham had to offer up himself trusting that God would take care of him and his family.  His proclamation to Isaac, “God will provide,” gives us hope that when troubles arise in our life God will be there for us and provide what we are needing for the moment.  It is hard to relinquish control to God, but in doing so, God will conform of us to image of His dear Son, who gave up everything to teach us who God created us to be.  God bless you and I love you.

Posted in Kevin Cauley | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on God Will Provide

Unwanted Items

Unwanted Items

Last weekend was the “100 Mile Yard Sale Tour” here in Northeastern Oklahoma. People throughout several towns for “a hundred miles” around sought to sell thousands of personally unwanted items they had amassed over the years, while bargain hunters by the hundreds went out in search of that certain something that they just couldn’t live without – at a “steal” of a price of course.

Unwanted, broken, without value.

Unwanted, broken, without value?

My wife and I went out and made the shopping circuit on Friday, while sitting at home on Saturday and watching a fairly steady parade of bargain-seekers stopping by a neighbor’s yard to peruse their old and unwanted items. At one point, some folks in a fairly nice pickup truck with a boat and trailer in tow pulled up and parked near the neighbor’s driveway, so that they could get out and take a look at the items for sale there. And I got to thinking…

Just imagine with me for a moment, the following scenario…

A family gets up bright and early on Saturday morning to set up their once a year yard sale. In the process of putting their no longer wanted items out on display, they happen to drop one of the old, chipped, china cups that they were going to seek to sell for a meager ten cents apiece. It hits the concrete driveway and shatters into a dozen different pieces. The person who dropped it picks them all up and casually tosses them into the nearby garbage can. Later on that morning, a brand new, fully-loaded, highly-lifted, heavy duty, top of the line pickup truck worth around $80,000, towing a brand new speedboat worth in excess of $80,000, pulls up to the yard sale sight. The driver gets out, sees the busted cup in the garbage can, AND LEGITIMATELY offers to give those folks both the truck, boat, and trailer – straight up even no less – for just the broken cup!

Now, at first you would probably think this guy was crazy. After all, who would pay such an infinitely high price by comparison, for such a useless, ‘worthless,’ busted and broken vessel? The fact is, that almighty God not only would, but absolutely did – paying infinitely far more by comparison for each one of us broken, empty, and sin-stained human beings, than even the “extreme” illustration cited above would seem to indicate (1 Ptr. 1:17-21)!

And so, the only question that remains is: If a person/family can/will get up that early on a Saturday morning to set out a yard sale in hopes of making a few bucks that will most likely be gone by Monday, how can they or anyone else then, knowing the infinite price that God paid for them, not be grateful and thankful enough to get up on a Sunday morning and come to worship? To celebrate and appropriately say “Thank You” to this all-loving God for the inestimable price He paid for them, and His priceless present that will last, for all eternity (Romans 5+6)?

 

Posted in Doug Dingley | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Unwanted Items

Bible Study Attendance

Bible Study Attendance

We are all familiar with Jesus’ parable of the sower as recorded in the gospels (Matt. 13:18-23; Mk. 4:13-20; Lk. 8:11-15). In teaching that lesson, Jesus taught that although the seed – the word of God – was the same in each case, the soil on the other hand, He broke down into four different categories of acceptance and production. I would like to use His divinely-inspired model in reference to Bible Study attendance in this article.

Where is your treasure?

Where is your treasure?

First off, why is it that so many members, who actually have the health to do so and could come to Bible Study, so often and consistently choose not to? Are they really so naïve, uninformed, and/or self-deceived as to think that God will accept their excuses (Lk. 9:57-62; Matt. 7:21-23)? Excuses which they would never dare give their earthly bosses (Mal. 1:6-14) for being late or missing work on a regular basis – while still expecting to keep their position that is? Do they not understand that all of God’s children are commanded to diligently and incessantly study in order to present themselves approved to God (2 Tim. 2:15)? Do they not see the vital necessity of making consistent and in-depth Bible study the top priority for any and all who want to be guaranteed of entering heaven (2 Ptr. 1:2-11)?

The answers to some of these questions are quite obvious. Apparently some do think that their excuses – family ties, lack of time, being tired, and etc – will be the ones which God will somehow accept; this, despite what scripture says (Hebs. 10:19-38, 12:12-29). Others may choose to stay at home while the black and white truth of God’s word is being taught, simply because they disagree with and/or just don’t want to accept what it says (2 Tim. 4:1-5). They have made up their minds as to what they want to believe – and what they have to believe in order to seek to justify their own sinful pursuits or conclusions – and they just do not want to hear anything that is going to correct or cause them to have to put forth the effort to rethink or repent of their personally-held perspectives and biblically-contradictory errors (Rom. 3:4). Never forget the eternally-sound wisdom of the divinely-inspired truth which King Solomon penned and put forth for us in Proverbs 18:1-2: “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment (*or sound wisdom). A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing His own opinion.”

A second category of people when it comes to Bible Study attendance would be those who actually do manage to attend with some semblance of consistency for at least a little while, but yet their heart is not truly in it. Being so very often distracted, and even at times consumed, with other, more worldly influences and events going on in their own lives, they never really allow the truth that is being taught to sink fully down into their troubled souls and produce the kind of life-changing repentance that would be obvious to all on the outside if they did. Hence, many, having no true root depth, will eventually, progressively, start missing more and more Bible study time with the church, until they just simply drift or slip away completely (Hebs. 2:1-4). This, while others of the same mindset might stay in attendance for years, but yet never really progress in their knowledge, understanding, and obedience, much beyond what most of those who allowed their bodies to follow where their hearts and minds had already gone did.

A third grouping of people when it comes to public Bible Study attendance, might be those who attend not necessarily to learn anything new or expand their own Bible knowledge, but to make sure that everyone else there – the teacher included – absolutely conforms to their previously-arrived at conclusions – whether correct or not. They certainly don’t appear to want to put in the hours and hours of time and effort it takes to study, prepare, and teach a Biblically-accurate Bible class, but on the other hand, they seem to have no problem seeking to correct or admonish anyone who has.

Fourthly and finally though, just like in the parable of the sower, we come to the faithful Bible students; the forward-thinking learners; the penitent fruit producers. These are those who can’t wait for, nor would they let much of anything else get in their way of getting to, the public Bible study of the church. These are some of the private, personal, and most consistent Bible students (Deut. 6:1-8). Bible study is a top priority to them. And it thus shines through brightly in their public Bible Study attendance as well. They know that it is just such studies of God’s word which brings them ever-closer to the Lord their God, as they become ever more like Him through the daily renewing of their mind (Rom. 12:1-2; 2 Cor. 3:17-18; Col. 3:1-17). They understand, accept, and live and believe with all of their heart, that it is only those who “hunger and thirst after righteousness,” that will be filled according to His promise (Matt. 5:6). And they wouldn’t miss that for the world. …I mean, who would, right?

Posted in Doug Dingley | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Bible Study Attendance

Sheep Without a Shepherd

Sheep Without a Shepherd

By and large, Americans know so little about sheep, yet the Bible is filled with references to shepherds and their flocks. My nearly ten years of living in New Zealand allowed me to be around them. When I went to New Zealand, there were three million people living in that beautiful land and there were eighty million sheep!

Sheep are hopeless without a leader.

Sheep are hopeless without a leader.

I remember driving to conduct a Bible study at a residence on one of the large sheep farms (in New Zealand they were called sheep stations), and found the road blocked by a vast flock of sheep. Some of the stations in New Zealand had flocks that had over 15,000 sheep on them. There were not this many on the one where we were headed to teach the gospel, but it did not take us long to discover how “dumb” sheep are. There was no leader among them as we attempted to drive through them, so they aimlessly meandered around but never moved off the road to give us a path. Sheep will follow a shepherd and his dogs, but they are hopeless without a leader.

In Mark chapter six, Jesus saw a similar disarray, but it was not with sheep. “And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things” (Mark 6:34). Neither sheep nor people do well without a shepherd. They are hopelessly lost without someone to guide them.

There were shepherds in the Old Testament who needed to care for God’s flock (Israel). The problem was that they received the honor of being shepherds, but they never actually did the work of a shepherd. “You eat the fat and clothe yourselves with wool, you slaughter the fatlings, but you do not feed the flock. The weak you have not strengthened nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought when was lost, but with force and cruelty you have ruled them, so they were scattered because there was no shepherd” (Ezek. 34:2-4). God looked down and saw exactly what Jesus saw in Mark six. His sheep, His people were scattered because there were no shepherds

What better illustration could there be about the importance of the work of elders in the church today? What a joy it is to see shepherds in our day who truly care for the sheep. They not only care for the ninety-nine sheep who are doing well, but they especially focus their attention on that one sheep who has wandered away. Without shepherds, Christians struggle, for we need godly men to lead us. Thank God for those men who have hearts of compassion for those of us who are part of His flock!

Posted in Dan Jenkins | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Sheep Without a Shepherd