Worn Bibles and Black Belts

While I was unpacking my gear recently, I looked at the condition of my belt.  I have always had a concern over it's use.  This may sound silly, but is it "broken in"?
The ranks of White through about green belt usually go so fast that the belt never gets worn, just creased enough for it to be tied properly.
My mind wandered to a story that was shared with me while I was the member of an aggressively evangelistic church.  The pastor was preaching one morning and talked about how much people read their Bible.  One could tell because the pages were dog-eared or the shiny gold painted gilding was worn from the sides fo the pages.  My friend told me that a new visitor, who behaved in an overtly-religious manner (This is the kind that uses religious and Bible terms with the intent of impressing a person of how spiritual they are) was licking his finger and trying to rub the gold gilding off of the pages.

Silly, isn't it?

But this got me thinking about the three things that are common to both  Karate and Church:

• Wear
• Humility
• Confidence

Wear

When I say wear, I speak of the marks of the, if you will, trade.  For the Christian it is his or her Bible.  It is declared to be the Sword of the Spirit and sharper than any two-edged sword.  For the Martial artist, it is the body, but allow me to give a symbol instead: the Belt.  Both should show some signs of use and wear as they are 'essential'  to the trade.  An unused Bible shows a christian not reading and studying.  An un worn belt shows a martial artist that is probably not practicing and training.  Both are symbols that should indicate wear through "Training". and if not, then is that person ready for the trials and tribulations and may and will come?

Humility

The bible tells us that before honor is humility, but high and haughty spirits will lead to a fall.  To be confident in the word of God and his plan for your life is intellectually easy to do, but quite another thing when you are in the heat of circumstances.  This requires faith and trust.  sometimes we must wade through bad times and bad decisions that make us stronger, because we lack the perspective of humility.  A martial artist may be faced with events that can lead to an altercation, but is it always wise to "test a technique"?  I talked to a friend who is a part-time bouncer and he made the innuendo "I would rather fight a karate guy than a street fighter".  This was meant to say that a lot of martial arts scuffles in a bar, grill or club are due to pride.  We can also say that the martial artists who lose give the martial arts a bad name, and give the fight loser a needed lesson in humility!  True humility in ones abilities come from within, and not an outward achievement in a fight.  The Chinese general Sun Tsu said best:  "To win without fighting is the Zenith of Power"

Confidence

So where does confidence come in?  I like my belt, and oh yes, it does show some sign of wear, with creases worn in as well.  new belts are a bit stiff and don't stay tied at first.  Similar to a new bible, with the pages stuck together, and maybe not book marked with our study passages in place yet.  If they are used both often and correctly, we should have confidence in what we know, and also what we don't know.
Be confident in the fact that if we train and study properly, there will be fruits for our labors

The Biblical Church Part 8

We were discussing Doctrines' affect on the church last time.  What is Outreach ?

This is the point that took me a long time to understand.  Why do we have so many churches that seem to be all over the map with activities, services and outreach?  A friend put it best to me:  “Some churches have a specific ministry they are called to do”

That was the best piece of knowledge I received that year!  A church like the Salvation Army was an offshoot of the Methodist church in England.  Their primary goal was to help the poor and destitute with both the gospel and material needs.  Another way of putting it is “Put your money where your mouth is”         Faith without works isdead

 I personally have struggled with ministries that help the poor.  And the reason is because of my upbringing.  My parents were raised in the depression.  Their parents were proud independent people.  My mother didn’t believe in government assistance and once told me a story that my grandfather was so proud that they almost starved because he did not want a hand out.  In many ways this is good, because St Paul said that if any will not work, neither shall he eat.   Unfortunately, I have carried these teachings into adult life.  I have seen since my teenage years groups of people in Los Angeles that would milk the system and strangers for money and food simply because they “would not work”.  Please note that I stated would not work and not cannot.  They chose to find food by other than honorable means!  This philosophy left me jaded before I turned 25!  But, one day I realized when meditating on Jesus Miracles in John that some people sought him only for the

“. . . loaves and fishes” and others followed him for less than genuine reasons (Read all of John ch 6 in context and compare with Matthew 8:18-22)

So, I have come to terms with the idea that if you have a helping ministry, you must be prepared to deal with the ungrateful, freeloaders, leeches and a segment of poor but covetous people as well! You will also need deep pockets; this is an important lesson! 

Where does this leave ministries?  

There has been a cry from some independent thinkers that we should have a first-century church model of house churches sharing the gospel.  This is fine, provided you have the same miracles of feeding the multitudes, sicknesses healed and the dead brought back to life.  If this is so, I’m all for it!  

When looking at the Biblical model we see three important things:

• Proclaim the Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20)
• Make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20 Titus 2,  2 Timothy 2)
• Support those who are actively involved in the Gospel (Philippians 4:14-18,                            2 Thessalonians 3:7-10,  2 Corinthians8:8-14

Our society is diverse and has different needs even within the same city.  A church in the inner city may conduct their service and behave differently from a Hispanic church in the same neighborhood.  The same goes for a church in the upper class suburbs.  It is just as important to reach the down and out as it is to reach the young upper class professionals.  How is it done?  Different ministries are employed, but the same gospel must be preached!  A Pastor once said that the sign of a healthy church was to have a strong Childrens program, Teens present, adult families and seniors.  A church that did not have youth, adults and seniors was a weak church. He considered it a barometer of church health.   Even in building, finance and manufacturing the lesson of having something structurally unsound or top-heavy is sure to fail.  The same goes with the church.  Now there are exceptions to this rule, because God is in charge,  and he sees and knows infinitely more than we do. 
Aside from this, does he not expect us to use come common sense?

There are a plethora of churches and ministries, but they don’t seem to fit into a Biblical model, where the Gospel is De-emphasized, or the name of Jesus isn’t preached at all!  This is dangerous, because Jesus is the gospel!  If new and old converts are not trained and taught, false doctrine can come in, and once again, anything can go on even to the extent of blasphemy and apostasy!  If we do not support the active propagation of the gospel, what will happen to churches and missionaries? 

Sincerely 

Your Brother in Christ

And  Senpai in Karate 

先輩

 

The Biblical Church Part 7

We were discussing Doctrines last time.  So, how does Doctrine affect the church?

How does this affect the Church?

The list i shared last time is meant as a guide and not all inclusive.  I have seen churches get hung up on their favorite version of the Bible, others on a dress code, and others on music, and one in particular was hung up on Church governments that can vote a pastor out of a church. (Oh, I have deep psychological scars from that one!!)

In the Christian church, there arises a problem that is well seen from the outside.  That is division.  Sometimes there may be slight differences in belief, but as time between the generations and  traditions progress, a divide grows between how a church movement started and where it is today.   From my observation,, it appears that the church founders prayed and trusted God that future generations (If they were trained correctly) would seek God and make the best decisions.  One reason why we have so many different branches in the protestant faith was the Protestant reformation starting in Europe in 1517. Geographical and cultural barriers segregated the European Protestants for the most part.   In the last 200 years we see that the closer to the break with the Catholic church, the more traditional and ritualistic some denominations tend to be.  Other differences today are caused by disagreements, wars and just plain old sin.  A more important reason for divisions is the fact that people forget about Jesus.  With Jesus Christ at the center, we have love, control, and sound judgment; or we should have. St Paul spent most of the first Epistle to the Corinthians dealing with divisions and calling their attention to real love!

A view of where some of the branches of Protestantism came from

I once heard a story about how two Baptist ministers were discussing the beginnings of the Baptist church.  One said ti started with John the Baptist.  The other minister stated “No do you remember when Abram and Lot argued about the land before them and they parted ways? . .  . that was the beginning of the Baptist church”  Yes, that is a joke that is better understood by Baptists but it makes a point. Divisions over trivial things and the natural human propensity to drift away have made the church, to outsiders, a place of hypocrisy and division.   I have seen a lot of division over small doctrines that were constantly brought up, then covered over with statements like “… well The Bible says”  or “…I'm’ just saying that . . “  or “Well, those that are perfect in Love nothing shall offend them”  A lot of scriptures can be thrown out in a conversation that are true but out of context.  Even when the intent is well meaning, the wisdom seems to be gone!  Some of the arguments seemed to create a moral higher ground for one party and a way of making another group conform.  Some doctrines are highly damaging to the church, such as the belief that we may live in a life of habitual sin, even to the point of no return and still be Biblically right.  I cannot support this doctrine due to the overwhelming amount of evidence in the Bible that says to do!  The extreme of this would be that we must live a life of such sanctification that we behave and look so different that we drive people away.  I have seen both extremes.  It makes us look silly, spiritually bi-polar and disorganized before the world. We will probably never overcome our bias towards traditions, but the very least the church can do, as a whole, is get along, play nice and not bad mouth another church.

Sincerely 

Your Brother in Christ

And  Senpai in Karate 

先輩

The Biblical Church Part 6: Doctrines

This week I would like to look at the tangible things that make up the Biblical Church.

                                          Doctrine   -   Outreach   -   Education

Doctrine

When the word doctrine is used, it almost sounds odd, but in this post I would like to discuss three things:

• What is doctrine
• Why is it important
• How does it affect the church

The Theologian D.C Hodge once stated:  “Let no man think error in doctrine a slight practical evil”   Doctrine is a word that many have heard, but can be often misinterpreted.  A definition I was given in Bible College, by an older minister with a heavy South Dakota accent told us “Brothers… if you remember nothing else, remember that Doctrine, simply put, means teaching”.

These are not just any teachings, because post-modern America is rife with cults and movements that take one Bible verse and use it out of context for reasons other than true faith.  The teachings we speak of are those revealed in the divinely inspired word of God (The Bible).  Now it is easy to say that anything that men put together is a doctrine, and that may be true to some extent;  But interpretation and doctrine are not the same thing.

And now we enter into the mind field of semantics!

Doctrines, as I stated are divinely inspired truths in the Bible.  These are the things that there is an abundant amount of evidence in the Bible to support. 

These doctrines can be:

1. Spelled out literally IE thou shalt not....
2. An Example  "... I rise early to meditate on thy precepts"
3. By inference  ". . .  “Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire”

Why is it important

 

An illustration I read compares doctrines in a church to the course and direction that a ship is sailing in.  A ship with a clear objective and course will result in a crew that is active and disciplined to reach a destination, compared to a ship that is drifting with no course or objective.  If we consider that I stated in my first article that love keeps a church bound together, then let us think of that glue as the caulking and joints on the ship that keep it together, and doctrines as the course. These teachings define who we are, what we believe among us, and what we intend to teach and pass on to the future generations to continue the work of God.   

There are certain fundamental teachings (doctrines) that all Christian churches should believe in.  I do not claim that this is an exhaustive list, but here we go:

•  The Bible is the absolute Word of God
•  God is sovereign
•  Jesus is the Only-begotten Son of God
•  The Trinity
•  Salvation in Jesus alone
•  We should become more Christ like as we progress through life

 Tomorrow, I would like to finish this article and discuss how it affects the church

Sincerely 

Your Brother in Christ

And  Senpai in Karate 

先輩