50 shades of Lent

This past week  is celebrated for being the week of Mardi Gras, but what was and usually overlooked is the fact that it also marked the beginning of the more orthodox season of Lent

I did not need spell check, I said lent.  The Lenten season is a 6 week observance in the Catholic and closely tied protestant churches which are supposed to be marked by prayer, fasting and affliction. 

More on this later.

When I became born-again, and accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and savior I began reading the Bible.  This led to Bible College and a serious and lifelong study of God’s word.  I departed from many of my Catholic upbringings and teachings.  But now, after over 20 years in “this way” I have noticed that Protestants whether they be Baptist, Pentecostal or any other, tend to be just as ensconced in some traditions as the orthodoxy.  At one point, when I saw a Muslim man I know celebrate Ramadan, I was saddened that all the world’s religions seem to fast and pray but it doesn’t seem to do any good, and for “Christianity to have a mandatory season of fasting makes us look like everyone else”   instead of different, set apart and a Peculiar (special) people unto God (1 Peter 2:9).  I had been in a church organization whose senior pastor frowned on fasting and said “. . .  that’s only to get control over your flesh” and discouraged people to practice it.

The fact is that there are wonderful health and spiritual benefits to fasting- provided it is done properly.  It all comes down to a matter of where our hearts are.  There are people that will enter into the season of Lent begrudgingly, not realizing it is to reflect on Easter and the greatest event in human history: the resurrection of Jesus Christ!  There are people that think that lent and fasting makes them holy or more honorable than their neighbor, and they have their reward (Matthew 6:16)

Believe it or not, in the Philippines a group of people called the Flagellants will crucify and whip themselves as an attempt to grain favor with God.

The flagellantes in practice

Often we look at movies like the recent “Fifty Shades of Grey” and are appalled by the content of strange sexual practices on the big screen.  It seems to normalize the aberrant and the degrading of women.

Is there much of a difference between people who seek sexual gratification from bizarre acts and people who think they will gain favor with people by bizarre religious acts?  My point is simply this:  devotions with no understanding and improper motives should be viewed in the same light; unacceptable and sacrilegious.

Right is right, wrong is wrong and sin is sin.  Call it all for what it is.

But before we speak, Let’s make sure  we have the higher moral ground to stand on, and it can all be done in love . . .  uh. . .  unlike the kind that 50 shades if passing for!

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