Category: Discipleship

Prejudice

On August 7, 2012

In Discipleship, Observations, Relationships

When I was in high school that word had one basic connotation – racial prejudice. In the deep south the emotions ran deep and often erupted in violence. I would often hear people say things like, “He’s black, but he is a good worker.” right away you could tell what side of the racial divide the speaker was on.

I have recently discovered that prejudice extends to other areas as well. Even people who are educated and progressive often operate out of stereotypes and prejudice rather than listening to what a person is really saying. “Oh, they are only saying that because they are _________________” (fill in the blank with Liberal, Republican, Latino, Conservative, etc.) Not necessarily.

In politics, if you don’t agree with the party in power, you are partisan and just making political decisions. If some one uses a specified code word, they are automatically in lock step with the worst imaginable element of society that just happens to use that word as well.

If a person questions a particular interpretation of Scripture, that person is automatically accused of either liberalism or fundamentalism, depending on the topic, and then all of the negative assumptions about the extremes are attributed to that person. This really makes honest discourse difficult.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have been on both sides of this prejudice. I have made snap judgments and snap judgments have been made about me. When I have been on the “victim” side of the equation I find myself wondering, “how did they get that from what I said?” The answers is preconceived perceptions.

I think the only way to counter this tendency in all of us remember some very important things:

Remain open minded and don’t assume the worse. If you disagree with a person’s position on an issue, seek understanding. Don’t automatically assume you know the person’s complete position, simple because they use a particular word that other more radical persons might use.
Remain teachable. We could all be wrong! Just because I have deeply held beliefs does not mean I am correct. When disagreements occur deal with the issues and evidence—don’t commit the genetic fallacy which condemns a view because of where it came from.
Remain humble. None of us are as smart as we would like to think and all of us have huge gaping holes in our understandings. The only way I know of to keep learning is to be humble enough to examine the evidence. that goes for “yellow dog Democrats” and “Red dog Republicans.”
Seek the truth no matter what. The issue is not, “can I argue the other person into submission,” but am I authentically seeking the truth. If I honestly seek the truth, I may discover that many of my pet views are based more on little more than emotion or political correctness. This point has come home as I have watched all the political rhetoric recently. No matter what news show you watch, the bias is very evident and the real causality is the truth.

Homosexuality and Hermeunitics

By admin

On June 29, 2012

In Discipleship, Interpretation, Theoloical Thoughts

I have taken a long break from posting, but I am ready to begin again.

One of the things that has been quite disturbing to watch in my beloved UMC is the way Scripture has been handled in the debate over the issue of homosexual behavior.

People who know better often throw out scriptural red herrings in an effort to cloud the point. For example I have hear people say things like, “Well if you are going to take Leviticus literally, you will have to kill your teenager when they back talk you.”

Many of the people who make such statements ought to know better. For the most part, these people have theological Master’s degrees and have had training in biblical interpretation and yet they make statements which clearly demonstrate they lack even a basic understanding biblical hermeneutics.

The same people point out that Jesus never said anything about homosexual behavior and use that to justify that behavior. then when Paul explicitly forbids that behavior they claim he was not referring to committed same sex relationships.

Here are the problems I see with such arguments:

Leviticus speaks to a particular context. In this context, God is attempting to bring a people a little further down the road than they were. God wanted them to be a holy people – not like the people around them. In the chapter which forbids homosexual behavior, God also forbids incest, bestiality and child sacrifice. In addition, the admonition to stone a son who curses his parents refers not to profanity, but to invoke a foreign god’s name to curse his parents.
Jesus, indeed, never said anything specifically about homosexual behavior – he didn’t have to! he was a Jew speaking primarily to Jews. They had a common morality. When Jesus opponents tried to circumvent that morality with elaborate legal schemes he called them on it. By the way, Jesus never said anything about incest, bestiality or child sacrifice, does that mean these are acceptable?
Paul mentions homosexual behavior, because as he spread the gospel to the Gentiles, he needed to talk about it because this behavior was acceptable and even celebrated in the Roman world. So, just has God had tell the people, “don’t be like the nations around you,” Paul had to say the same things to the Gentiles who were responding to the message of the gospel.

The gospel – the good news of Jesus Christ – is open to “whosoever will” but for those who accept the invitation a commitment is required. Commitment is to align their lives with the life of Jesus Christ. That means that sinner – liars, gossips, adulterers, murders, those involved with pornography, slanderers, those who practice pre-marital sex and homosexual sex have a choice to make: do I choose to follow my own desires or those of my Lord and Savior?

Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.

– Matthew 7:13–14 (ESV)

Do people struggle with behaviors which lead to sin? Of course, we all do. but the answer to that struggle is not to baptize it and call it acceptable, but to speak the truth and support those who are trying to align their lives with the life of Jesus Christ. Except, perhaps those who are struggling with rape and murder.

Dr. Ben Witherington, III has an excellent video which addresses the biblical material on this matter.

A Leadership Devotional

By admin

On April 15, 2011

In Devotions, Discipleship, Leadership

This devotional thought comes from Ken Blanchard’s “Lead Like Jesus” email devotional. It was worth sharing with you all!

Click the image below to go to the website and sign up for these devotions and other information.

DAY 105 | April 15, 2011

What does God expect of you as a leader? He doesn’t keep it a secret. First and foremost, He asks for your wholehearted devotion, a devotion that flows out in a life of obedience, love and service. He looks for men and women who fear Him alone, who do what He tells them to do, and who serve Him wholeheartedly. As God seeks someone for His next leadership assignment, will He find someone who meets His requirements when He looks at you?

And now, O Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good? Deuteronomy 10:12-13

Prayer

Lord, I want to be a leader You can use, like Moses, like Jesus. Shape my heart and my soul to meet your standards. Help me keep first things first today, fearing, loving and serving You, walking in Your ways and observing Your commands. Thank You for remaking me in Jesus’ image. In Jesus; Name, Amen.

The Apprentice

By admin

On October 23, 2010

In Discipleship, Newsletter Articles

I have never watched a full episode of the reality TV show, The Apprentice, but I can imagine the pressures the people are under to perform well. They are each competing for a promising business position. However, being an apprentice was never about competition, it was about learning.

Typically, in medieval Europe, a master craftsman agreed to instruct a young man, to give him shelter, food, and clothing, and to care for him during illness. The apprentice would bind himself to work for the master for a given time. After that time he would become a journeyman, working for a master for wages, or he set up as a master himself. ^{^[1]}

In today’s world an apprenticeship has given way, for the most part, to Vocational Schools, however some highly skilled occupations still employ a modernized version of the system.

Dallas Williard in his book, The Great Omission, says that in fact every Christian should be an apprentice of Jesus. Just as medieval peasants would bind themselves to a master to learn a trade, we are to bind ourselves to Jesus to learn (the meaning of “disciple”) what it means to live as a citizen of the Kingdom of God in a fallen world.

Sadly, Willard goes on the say, for many professing Christians today “the assumption is that we can be ‘Christians’ forever and never become disciples” (p. xi). This happens when we talk more about forgiveness than obedience and stresses making a decision for Christ over becoming disciples.

The first disciples were apprentices of their Master, Jesus. They spent time with him every day for about three years and learned who he was and what it meant to submit to the Father in heaven in every area of life. They learned to incorporate the practices of Jesus’ life into theirs. On the day of the Pentecost, those disciples who lived with Jesus and learned from him, were filled with the same Holy Spirit which energized them to act Jesus. They, then began to do what Jesus did.

But how does that happen? It’s not like we can move to Jerusalem and take up residence with Jesus and allow him to teach us. It happens because we do what the first disciples did – spend time with Jesus, incorporate the disciplines of his life into ours and choose obedience over comfort.

In short, if we are to become disciples in deed, instead of disciples in name, we must plan for it. Being a disciple does not happen automatically. Discipleship happens when we deliberately incorporate the disciplines of Jesus’ life into our own lives and grow in obedience to him.

Let me encourage you to not to live the normal Christian life, but to become a disciple, an apprentice of Jesus Christ. Then, go another step and ask, “What can I do to help others do this as well?”

Pastor Alan

^{^[1]} ̌ Paul Lagass and Columbia University, The Columbia Encyclopedia, 6th ed. (New York; Detroit: Columbia University Press; Sold and distributed by Gale Group, 2000).