daily java

Daily Java:

They will be unloving and unforgiving; they will slander others and have no self-control. They will be cruel and hate what is good. They will betray their friends, be reckless, be puffed up with pride, and love pleasure rather than God. They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that! (2 Timothy 3:3-5)

There is a blindness in some people that is set into them so strongly they cannot see any other points of view but their own. Sometimes it is just their own wishes made holy by theological association. Sometimes it is misapplication of scripture. Sometimes it is their own past ruling their present.

Whatever the reason, it will tear them up. It is not from God.

And it will not only tear them up, it will also tear up their families and their friends. People like this are so intent on their point that they slander, they will be cruel (most of the time to their own families in that they remove their families from fellowship with others). They are puffed up with pride in that they feel that their own opinion is so good and so holy that they will tear up a church to preserve it.

The Bible always speaks against division in the church. The book of Proverbs has a number of comments about people who cause division. And neither Jesus nor the apostles ever commended anyone for tearing up a church for any reason whatever.

Whether it be alcohol use or worship styles or the way we dress or any other reason, when we turn from the gospel of unity, we are wrong.

The Lord gives freedom and allows us to worship him as best we can. He never allows anyone in the church, no matter how well-meaning, to determine who we do so.

In fact, over and over, he condemns those who do.

And it hurts when it happens. When people sit at your table and eat your food and accept your hospitality and you find that it was simply because they were trying their best to convert you to their way of thinking.

The church is greater than people’s individual thoughts.

And there is nothing that the Lord made – nothing – that is wrong in and of itself. No food is sinful, no drink is sinful, no medication is sinful, no bodily function is sinful – unless it is used wrongly.

But it is foolish to consider that God would make something and then laugh at us and condemn us when we used it.

It is foolish to bind our own thoughts on others and try to tear the church up with it.


And it hurts.

daily java

Daily Java:

If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. (James 3:13-16).

I never could figure out why a person will tear a church up to get what they want. But I have seen it over and over. It is ultimately what drove me from the ministry.

We are dealing with things eternal, things holy, the will and work of God; and yet someone decides that his or her opinions on things are so vital and so powerful that they are willing to kill a church rather than give up their opinions.

And it happens a lot.

It may be the way we worship, or who is in charge of a certain program, or what slant on a  doctrine is preached, or what translation of the Bible is used, or even whether or not a certain program is used. I have even seen someone quit coming because someone drank coffee in the sanctuary.

The pettiness of the complaint makes no difference. It seems, in fact, that the more petty the complaint, the larger the ruckus.

The person says, in essence, this complaint of mine, this desire of mine is so great that it supercedes the will of God for this church. It is so vital, it is greater than the gospel message.

How the message is preached is greater than the message itself. How the praise is sung is greater than the praise itself. How the lost are reached is greater than reaching the lost.

And sooner or later, that which is holy cannot stand before that which is divisive. It is a fact that no matter who holy God was, his power for goodness was eliminated by the fact that Israel insisted on following their own wishes.

A church cannot stand up under this kind of satanic opposition. Sooner or later, people begin to leave. Those who want the control know that, if the church is to survive, it will have to give in to them, or it will die.

So on one level the church survives, but the Spirit of God leaves it. As Jesus said in Revelation 2:5, if this continues, Jesus will remove that church’s lampstand. It may still be alive on one level, but on that vital level – in the sight of God – it will be dead.

i have come to set the world on fire, and i wish it were already burning!

I have come to set the world on fire, and I wish it were already burning! (Luke 12:49 NLT)

This is a side of Jesus we do not see often. We always think of Jesus as a peacemaker, ready to make people feel better.

In fact, the world’s view of Jesus is totally opposite this. The world’s picture of Jesus is a milktoast that allows people to do pretty much whatever they want.

The idea of a Jesus who is actually causing division is one we have trouble seeing.

The Bible talks enough about not causing division that we get to thinking that all division is wrong. It isn’t. Division in the body is wrong. Division in the body is never right.

But Jesus divides in a different way. You don’t have to look very hard to see this.

Hollywood is full of the division Jesus causes. He calls us to God, Hollywood calls us to glorification of self. He calls us to morality, Hollywood calls us to hedonism. He calls us to holiness, Hollywood calls us to debauchery.

You see that division in the world at large, too. Jesus calls us to God through himself. Islam calls people to a false god through a false prophet. The world becomes angry at the call of Jesus and tries its best to stamp it out. Countries all over the world outlaw Christianity only to find it growing even stronger.

In 1 Peter 2:8, the apostle Peter writes: He is the stone that makes people stumble, the rock that makes them fall. They stumble because they do not obey God’s word, and so they meet the fate that was planned for them. This means that just by being himself and carrying out his mandate from God, Jesus becomes divisive.

He is like a stone that sits in the road that people try to ignore and end up falling over. And then those who are too ignorant to see the stone and acknowledge it for what it is, get mad.

The mad takes several different forms. Some try to outlaw Jesus and all of his teachings. Some try to lessen what he had to say and put him in a category with a bunch of others they claim are like him. Some take him and try to make him into a poster boy for their cause. Some try to bend him to their wishes. Some ignore him altogether.

But they all trip over him because he is there no matter what anybody may say or do. His influence is all through the world and will continue to be until he comes again.

Jesus is real, and one day as Philippians 2:9-11 says, all will know it. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

He will be acknowledged by all the world one day, but for too many it will be too late.

The world is already burning for Jesus. Those who know it and accept it are purified by the fire. It makes them that much holier. Those who do not are burned up in the fire.

As Hebrews 12:29 says, our God is a devouring fire. And the fire that devours is Jesus, the Great Divider.

daily java

Daily Java:

Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the :body” of Christ. Each of  us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:12-13 LB)

In the church, we fit together.

I have always said and I still believe it, that God has put into each church those parts of the body that are needed to make that church grow. Now people may not use them, or acknowledge that they are there. But they are.

It stands to reason that a God big enough to speak light into existence is also big enough to make a church grow.

The problem comes when people will not acknowledge their gifts. They do not want to do whatever it is that God gave them.

Maybe they want to do something else, or don’t want to do anything at all. But when they refuse to do what God has given them to do, they will never be blessed in their lives. It is only through obedience to him that we are really blessed.

Of course, some churches have destroyed that relationship God has with them by constant fighting and division. In those cases, it is better that the church die and start again than continue.

A church can get these bad things into its spiritual DNA so that any time they get any size, they will come into an argument or power struggle. When that happens, they break up again.

God will never bless a church that tears or breaks apart that holy structure, and he will never bless people who do so.

The church might get big for a while, but underneath it all is that unholy root of division, or desire for power, and sooner or later it will come out.

It is like building a skyscraper on a fault line. Sooner or later the fault line will shift and the building will come down.

That is what Jesus was talking about in Matthew 7 when he told his people to pay attention to God. Those who paid attention, he said, were like those who built their buildings on solid ground. When the storms of life came – and they will – the building would stand firm.

Those who built their buildings on shaky ground, sand he called it, would have nothing but destruction for their trouble. The sand, the shaky ground is the bitterness, division, church politics, those who desire power to the point that they will destroy the church.

A church with those attributes is at odds with the fruits of the Spirit and cannot grow for long. Again, sooner or later, it will have something happen to it.

No church founded off a church split has grown for long. It may get big and look exciting, but there is cancer at the base. It will come out one day.

When we work together, we do what God wants and we honor him. And the Spirit works in us.

what is the church

God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself. (Ephesians 1:22-23)

What is the church? Talking to people, it is one of two things.

One group says that it is a bunch of whiny people who insist on having heir own way no matter what the damage to the greater body may be. In these people’s minds, they want to run things so badly that they will destroy the church if their “needs” are not met. They see the church as their church and you are not allowed to mess with it.

They get mad at the drop of a hat, are offended easily, especially by the preacher, insist that their ideas of what church or worship is supposed to be are consulted at all time.

In other words they are people who seem to care not a whit what God says, or what the Bible says, or anything else. They just want you to do what they say or they will tear that church up.

The second group see the church as a fortress, battened down and needing to be defended from those who would tear it down. They see Christian life as a constant fight, as Christianity as grimness, as a struggle, as a fight.

The third group looks at the church as the body of Christ, the sole sphere of his influence on this world. They see the church as a group of people who are taking the love and grace of God to the world, sharing his message and bringing people back to God. They show love and compassion and consideration for all.

The church is full of people. That means that it is also full of flaws, because all people are flawed.

That also means that those people mentioned in all three parts are all there in full force.

But the church is also full of people who love God. They are also there. But sometimes they cannot be in full force because the first group is killing the church.

What did Jesus see when he was thinking about his church? In Matthew 16:18, he said it was his church and it didn’t matter who came or went, who lived or died, it was not going to be stopped.

And he was right. Although no one needs to hear me say so. The church has endured. People have come and gone for almost 2000 years and the church is still here. It is the largest faith in the world, larger by far than the next ones, which would be Muslim and Hindu.

It has been here and will be here until he comes again. But you wonder if it is really healthy.

Look at the church today. Consider the people who proclaim the name of Jesus today.

There are those on the one side that think that all you have to do is call yourself a Christian and you will be fine. They believe in abortion, they are happy with homosexuality, they see the Christian’s job as fighting for energy conservation and animal rights, they are doing everything they can in the wrong direction. Yet they call themselves the church.

On the other side are a group of people who don’t like much. They hat drinking and dancing, they hate fun of just about any kind, they see their jobs as bringing a picture of the grim duties of “Christianity” to those who are lost, in other words, everybody else.

Which is it? The apostle Paul said that God was not the author of disorder but of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33).

If Christianity is that divided, how in the world can there be any real peace? How can people from so many different ideas of what God wants all call themselves Christian?

I don’t know. And it bothers me.

But I know that while Jesus was being killed, and it was by those who later became the church, he forgave them.