Body Matters

Paul introduces an interesting topic in Romans 6. He's discussing the concept that because Jesus paid for the penalty of our sins on the cross, we are now dead to sin, and because He rose again, we are alive in Christ.

Then in 6:12, comes this thought: Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.

What that means is that our body matters. God is interested that once we become one with Christ, that we don't continue to allow sin to own our bodies. When Jesus poured out His blood to purchase our forgiveness, He gave us the opportunities to put our physical selves in the position to impact the world for the sake of righteousness.

Check out 6:13: Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

I love the picture that paints for us. We have a choice to make:

1. We can offer our bodies to God, for Him to use as "instruments of righteousness." We can be the instrument that God uses to implement righteousness on our family, friends and workplace! Wow!

Like an artist uses a pencil, God uses people to write righteousness on the fabric of the world. And we can be that pencil, channeling God's power, wisdom, strength and resources on the people and circumstances around us - our world can be blessed by God through our bodies, if we choose to make ourselves available for His holy purposes.

On the other hand...

2. We can choose to make our bodies available to sin. Even after we've been purchased by Jesus for heaven's sake, sin can continue to wreak havoc in the world around us, through our own body.

Because of our choices, we can allow wickedness to impact our families, our friends, our church, our community - through our physical selves! Ouch.

The choice is obvious! None of us wants to intentionally put our sphere of influence in danger of being impacted by the power of sin and wickedness! Many times, though, that's exactly what we allow to happen by our poor choices.

We must make a definitive decision to give our bodies to Christ, and allow God to begin writing righteousness on our loved ones through us. And, in truth, this is a daily decision, an act of submission to God's will and God's way in our heart, soul, mind and body.

The truth is this: your life is going to serve a purpose. Your life will either write God's joy and fulfillment and blessing on the world around you, or because of your actions, pain, strife and stress will inhabit your world.

It all depends on who you allow to write with your life.

Romans 6:22-23 - But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Until next time - RevPhil

What's in a word?

I'm going to confess that I borrowed this topic from a friend's blog. I was surfing around yesterday and happened to read his thoughts, and as I began to respond and comment, I realized that my comment was going to be longer than his original post...whoa! You can read his original post here: http://glimpseintotheabyss.blogspot.com/

As you can see, his topic was on our words - why some words are "bad" and others "good." My random thoughts follow:

Wow - what a topic - one that I've been trying to deal with ever since I moved to Texas. It's my observation that many Texans have potty-mouths, and when I got here and started interacting with people, I was surprised to see just how many people used such language so often.

Here's my deal: I understand what you're saying - they're just words - a string of letters hung together - innocent. And some people are offended by them. I appreciate your thoughtfulness in holding back when you know someone's offended, but do you have to offend them first to know that in the future you should use other (less controversial) words of surprise / frustration / excitement?

Would you allow your children to use these words at home? at school? Probably not - "stupid" and "shut-up" are bad words at our house!

So why do we rationalize our own use of these words? Didn't Jesus tell us that our words reveal what is in our heart? (see Matthew 12 for the whole story)

That makes me wonder what is inside of us (me) that drives us (me) to say things that I would punish my children for saying.

If we can adequately express ourselves in ways that reveal the good that God is planting in our heart and life, why do we feel the need to use these controversial words "when we can" (when we're in the company of others who won't be offended by them).

Being a son, I think about it this way: could I use those words when talking to my mom? Would it sound strange if I wished her a happy G*dd*mn birthday?

Being a husband, I think about it this way: could I use those words in a conversation with my wife? Would it sound strange if I asked her to wash the f*cking dishes?

Being a parent, I think about it this way: could I use those words when talking to my children? Would it sound strange if I were coaching my daughter's soccer team and told them to get after the d*mn ball?

Being an employee, I think about it this way: could I use those words when talking to my boss? Would it sound strange if I told him I had too much sh*t to do and he needed to hire some more f*cking help?

Being a pastor, I think about it this way: could I use those words in the pulpit? Would it sound strange if I were giving an illustration and non-chalantly included the word sh*t?

If I shouldn't use these words as a son, husband, parent, employee or pastor, should I try to find other places where I can? Why?

If it's possible that something I do could be offensive (and potentially become a stumbling block to someone else trying to live as a disciple of Jesus), I shouldn't do it. Even if I'm entitled to.

Paul dealt with this concept in Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8. The issue at hand back then was eating meat that had been sacrificed to idols, but I think we can make the connection to our words.

So...that's my thoughts...

Yours?

Until next time - RevPhil

Give us a king!

In 1 Samuel 8, the children of Israel came to Samuel and asked for a king. They were tired of being different from the nations around them, in that God was their king, and not a man. They wanted to be like everyone else and have a human as their leader.

God, though He was the one being rejected as by the people, instructed Samuel to give the people what they said they wanted and to give them the following warning about how a man would reign over them as king:

Samuel told all the words of the LORD to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, "This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the LORD will not answer you in that day."
But the people refused to listen to Samuel. "No!" they said. "We want a king over us. Then we will be like all the other nations, with a king to lead us and to go out before us and fight our battles." - 1 Samuel 8:10-20

You know how that worked out...over the next generations, the kings of Israel (and Judah) did all the things that God warned the people they would - and more! They became murderers, adulterers, idolaters, liars, thieves and led the people into all sorts of terrible things.

Obviously, they would have been much better off to rely solely on God and his leadership and resources. (Duh!)

Where am I going with this, you ask? Election season in our country always reminds me of this situation from Israel's history. We spend so much time and energy (and prayers?) considering who we want to lead our country. We think about it, we read about it, we watch and listen to what others think, etc., etc. Ugh.

This may sound cynical, but at the end of this campaign, we'll have chosen someone to take our sons and daughters and put them into their service, take a bite out of our paycheck and use it at their discretion.

If I could, I would go back in history and tell those people what a huge mistake they were about to make! How great would it be to live in a country with God as your king? I ask you! But, alas, we live in a time and place where there's a choice to be made regarding who will lead us over the next four years.

So, who to choose? Here's my two cents, and the priorities I use when doing my civic duty and casting my ballot on election day:

1. Life
In my opinion, the most important thing I want to know about my leaders is that they will value and protect life at all cost. I need to have confidence that my leaders will stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves - the unimportant, the insignificant, the weak.

To me, this reflects Jesus more than anything. Throughout the biographies of his life, you find Jesus protecting and interacting with people who were overlooked by everyone else - children, lepers, the handicapped, the ill. These were the unimportant people, but not in his eyes. He spent valuable time talking with them, praying for them, healing them and teaching them.

I refuse to vote for someone to whom this attitude is unimportant or "above my pay-grade" to decide.

That thought alone generally makes my decision for me. If I need to go further;

2. Less is more.
I want the government to affect my life as little as possible. I want to keep as much of the money I earn in my bank account rather than Uncle Sam's and I don't want to be dealing with restrictions and bureaucracy every time I turn around.

I realize that a certain amount of that is necessary to protect us from our enemies and to care for those less fortunate, but we're in a situation where the government can get out of control. I want less.

I guess that's it, really. Nothing too complicated! I suppose there's not much question about where my vote will go at this point...

Thoughts? What are your issues / ideas?

Until next time - RevPhil