YES, WE HAVE NO BUTTER

YES, WE HAVE NO BUTTER

A waiter once told me that there was one complaint he'd never heard from a diner: "This has too much butter." We love butter; it adds a flavor that tantalizes the taste. During WWII, the U. S. government rationed butter. "Red Stamp" rationing covered all meats, butter, fat, and oils, and with some exceptions, cheese. (Rationing cheese was a good thing; it's terrible.)  You couldn't walk into a store and buy all you wanted of whatever the government rationed. 

"Yes, we have no butter," was the watchword of the day. Our government decided that the American people would have to learn to limit their use of it. So families, in good patriotic fashion, willingly gave up butter. 

But, did you know that while our government was rationing butter, it sent 217,660,666 pounds of it to the Russia? While our government was saying "Yes, we have no butter," to its own people, it was shipping over 108 tons of it to the Soviets. Say what?

Wait a minute! You mean that we couldn't have butter, but Stalin and his communists could have 108 tons of ours? That's what the record says. This looks like an example of our government's depriving our families, our men, women and children, of what's ours and sending it to a foreign government, a communist regime at that!

According to Stanford historian Norman Naimark, Stalin "had nearly a million of his own citizens executed, beginning in the 1930s. Millions more fell victim to forced labor, deportation, famine, massacres, and detention and interrogation by Stalin's henchmen."

He continues, "In some cases, a quota was established for the number to be executed, the number to be arrested, [which] some officials over fulfilled as a way of showing their exuberance." (Stalin's Genocide)

And that butcher gets our butter!

Let's think about this. If a government can deprive and hurt its own people, can a church do the same? Can shepherds deprive their flocks, not of butter, but of still waters and green pastures?

I would submit to you that pastors, elders, and deacons deprive their flocks of still waters and green pastures with impunity, all for the sake of their "vision." Legion are the visionaries who've declared with with Bible in hand, “God has called us to build a new building, and we need to step out on faith. We need  more space, and God is leading us to build.”

In a quest for more, bigger, and better buildings, many a shepherd has led his flock into debt and, consequently, must put pressure on them to get their wool.

 Here's one sad scenario that happened to the Lookout Mountain Community Church. The pastor left the church and when he did, their debt burden became impossible to carry. Long story short, good-bye edifice. Mr. Banker foreclosed on them.

Their cost was more than financial; the foreclosure took a personal and emotional toll on the sheep. The congregation had worked hard; they wanted to repay the debt. They made sacrifices. They cut the budget everywhere they could. In the end, they said, "We just couldn't pay it back." There were no still waters in Lookout Mountain Community Church as the handwriting on the wall became more and more legible.

A west coast church borrowed millions for a new building. But the giving dropped and the church had to refinance, yet the struggle continued. When the church was late on one payment, the bank moved in and took over the church finances, required budget cuts from the staff and "suggested" that cuts be made in other areas. The church had literally fulfilled the aphorism of Proverbs 22:7, "The rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender."

Some creditors go to great lengths when a church can't pay the money it owes.  The horror stories abound: more than a few church leaders who have personally guaranteed their church's loans have been pursued by the creditors and in a few rare cases, the church members themselves have been billed to pay the bad debt. It's scary when the bank, carrying its shears, comes after sheep.

But we can hear the church shepherds saying at the pledge dinners: "We need to build to attract new people, to expand our parking, to have ministries (i. e. "recreation") for youth, for Sunday school space, for outreach to the community, and to keep pace with the ecclesiastical competition (i. e. "to get our market share.") Shepherds are creative; they can invent many reasons.

There is no need, no ministry, no vision, however pressing, that justifies putting any sheep or all the sheep in a position of being a surety for the debt and of becoming the slaves of the First National Bank. In fact the Bible is clear: Don't do it! The person who becomes surety for the debt of another is likened unto an animal caught in a trap. He is exhorted to sleep no more until he has got out of the trap, or freed himself from this obligation Proverbs 6:1-5. The warnings continue in Proverbs 11:15; 17:18; 22:26.  

When that happens, debt dominates everything from the sermons and Sunday school lessons to every hand-wringing business meeting as the slaves try to figure out new ways to get the wool needed for the next payment. Debt can so dominate the church that the sheep violate III John 7 and go after the "wool" of the goats. 

It never occurs to the slaves to ask more basic questions than "Where are we going to get the money?" And, truth be told, by then, it's too late to ask the questions anyway.

But how about asking,"Is it the church's God-given task to provide recreation for its youth and go into debt for a youth center." Or, "Is it the church's task to provide a Sunday school class for the children, or should the church train the parents to provide biblical instruction at home?" (If the churches weren't crushed by debt, the shepherds could write and publish grace-oriented literature for its children of all ages.)

Another thought question: "Is it the task of the church to build a children's wing for children's church, instead of the children's sitting with their parents in the service?" Four and five year old children sit all morning in K4 and K5 classes at school, while first graders attend school for seven hours a day.

But they can't understand the sermons preached in the auditorium. But, if the parents were doing their job of training them, they would be understanding more than we think.

How in the world did churches of bye-gone days produce stalwart Christian adults who never sat in a children's church, in fact, who never even heard of a children's church? Besides that, there is something dynamic about a six-year old sitting with a seventy-six year old. And, we might ask, do the parents even know what's being taught in children's church or their SS class?

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

There is something dynamic about a 6 year old spending time with a 76 year old - See more at: http://www.presentruth.com/2010/03/childrens-church-segregated-churches-and-a-testimony/#sthash.LdESRRlm.dpuf

Here's another thought: Are not these buildings spreading out like a college campus and demanding cash payments every thirty days silent witnesses to the fact that the churches are failures at training their parents to pass on the faith to their own children? Are they not mute testimonies saying to Dad and Mom, "You're such dismal losers, you can't even provide the proper Christian recreation for your own children. Don't worry, we're going into debt to save your children from your pathetic parenting."

I know that shepherds "cast their vision" before the sheep and lead the sheep to vote for the vision, but what about the sheep who baa, "Nay?" If enough of the sheep baa, "Yea," then the Yea group of sheep has just forced the other group into debt against their will. When the payments get hard to come by, the minority sheep become more and more resentful. Angry business meetings ensue.

The shepherds have inflicted damage on the flock Paul charged them to protect. The sheep are restless. The waters are no longer still. The pastures have ceased to be green.

Debt, cruel and relentless with its monthly demands, is now their shepherd.
________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, "Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church," is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

I NEED LOVERS

I NEED LOVERS

I need lovers. There's nothing quite as exciting as a lover and when a lover comes into your life, man, oh man, they're the spice of life. The fine arts, literature, music, TV and movies demonstrate the power of the lover in our lives. Lovers change us, impact us, and nothing is ever the same once a lover enters your life.

The lover I need isn't the one the novelist writes about, not the one the movies and TV glamorize. I'm not talking about the Romeos, the Lotharios, and the Delilahs. I'm talking about the philosophers.

Say what? Philosophers? Yes, the lovers I need are philosophers. In the etymological sense of the word, "phil" is a Greek root meaning "love," and the rest of the word means "wisdom," so a philosopher is "a lover of wisdom." 

I crave friends and relatives who are out and out, certified, card-carrying passionate lovers of wisdom. I want to be with philosophers every chance I get, and when I'm not, I feel as if I'm on Mars, in another world.

This brings us to the next step: what is wisdom? There's a book that answers that question: Proverbs, a book which mentions "wisdom" almost 50 times, a book which tells me that the starting point for a philosopher (a lover of wisdom) is "the fear of the Lord" (Prov. 1:7; 9:10). 

To have a fear of the Lord is to have the proper perspective of Him. I require that the starting point for my lovers be that they have a proper perspective of God, a perspective which can only be gained from the Bible. My lovers must be philosophers who place their love of God's wisdom over money and pleasure (Prov. 16:16).

My lovers can't armchair philosophers--I want to see their passion for wisdom in action (James 1:13; 3:17-18). And when I do, I'll see gentle people, not judgmental, argumentative folks, nor pugilists spoiling for a fight. These philosophers show me "righteousness and peace," not drama.

I don't want those who've read Proverbs and said, "Thanks, but no thanks." They're one soap opera after another. Isaiah wrote about them, saying, ["they] are like the tossing sea, for it cannot be quiet, And its waters toss up refuse and mud" (Isaiah 57:20).

What have you noticed some things about Christian youth who refuse to become the philosophers I'm talking about? Look at their lives 40 years later. Look at their arms and see the needle tracks. Look at the broken lives and ruined relationships they've left in their wake; look at the people they've needlessly gashed by word and deed.

Look into their eyes and see the hollow men, men for whom life is now flat, a dull brown; the technicolor is gone. For them, zest is a bar of soap. Their eyes don't have the light of life.

Look at their resume and read of jail sentences here and there. Look at their inflated car insurance premiums or note their use of public transportation because the authorities suspended their driver's licenses. Read the police reports of injuries they caused to themselves and others because they started the ignition non compos mentis.

Look at their bodies, old before their time. Why? After thirty years of rejecting the promise of Proverbs to be "health to their bones," their bones have grown old, and are now eighty year-old bones locked in a forty-year old body. 

Look at their mental landscape--they're not as sharp as they should and used to be. They're like a fighter who's taken too many blows to body and brain, they're the punch drunk pugilist has-been who never was all he could have been who shuffles down the street, the object of pity by all who see him. 

All so avoidable. Such things didn't have to be.

I knew such a believer; he and I, the same age, went to the same school. We both were exposed to the Bible, to Proverbs. He went one way; I went the other. He was smart as a whip, an IQ way up there. 

He began to argue with the Book and with everyone who loved it, developed that angry spirit the Bible warns us against, and put a lot of things into his body he shouldn't. 

Proverbs wasn't for him. Thanks, but no thanks. He was the demographic at whom ad agencies aim their commercials during football games, trumpeting beer, women, cars, and, as always, fun. His response was an ad agency's dream come true.

I'd see him rarely, only periodically, and when I did, I noticed that, as the years went by, he began to look like the picture of Dorian Grey. The years were piling up, years he couldn't get back, even if, he, like Esau of old, "repented with tears." 

He'd made his choices, choices made in spite of the grace of God calling him back to Proverbs, back to the Bible. He had openly scorned the old Book, argued with it and others about it, closed his ears to  Wisdom's calling in the streets to come feast at her banquet (Prov. 9). He preferred to sit at the world's table.

There came a time when, after the countless calls of Wisdom, "that was all she wrote." Proverbs says that Wisdom will call only for so long a time. As the repeated refusals pile up over the years, the "dread comes like a storm, the calamity like a whirlwind, distress and anguish come . . ." Choices become irrevocable (Prov. 1:24-27).

At the end, he'd become a poster boy for the old adage: "He broke all the rules until the rules broke him."

No, thanks. I want philosophers in my life. They bless me, guide me, inspire me, and  encourage me. 

They leave grace in their wake.

I need those lovers. I suspect you need them too. 
____________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. A copy of his book, "Microbes in the Bloodstream of the Church," is also available on Amazon.com. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and other articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

THE ONLY THING WE HAVE TO FEAR IS NOT ONLY FEAR ITSELF

A character on a fictional ABC Network television series said it, and when she did, she hit a nail right smack on its head. Whoever wrote the line has wisdom not often heard on television. 

One of the characteristics of wisdom is that, when we hear it, it makes us think. Another aspect of wisdom is that it's short and to the point, like the book of Proverbs, like the discourses of Jesus and the Epistles, most of which you can read in twenty minutes or less. Wisdom gets inside you and places a burr in your brain. Wisdom is a stealth bomber which approaches unseen, delivers its payload, and vanishes into the night. Wisdom is a lightning strike. This wasn't a "Christian" program, but I've already told you that since I said it was on ABC.

The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth."

Wow! And double wow! She said into the teeth of a society which believes that there is no such thing as truth which is true for all people everywhere at all times and in all locations. She said this into the teeth of a society that has been soaked in relativism, the dogma that holds that  truth is changeable, depending on time, place, and culture; your truth isn't my truth; what's true for you may not be true for me. Relativism says that what I do one day may be right for me and then the next day, wrong for me.

For example, "In Eskimo culture, and in Holland, killing old people is right. In America, east of Oregon, it's wrong. In contemporary culture, sexual anarchy is right; in Christian cultures, it's wrong." (Peter Kreeft) Relativism means, "Truth, then, is utterly dependent on the way the individual sees his circumstances. The individual can, with supposed impunity, act one way at one time, and entirely a different way at another, and who is to judge him?" (Fay Voshell) The ultimate aphorism of moral relativism is Judges 21:25. Read it. Israel became infected with it.

This statement on ABC was a punch in the solar plexus of a society which fears the very idea of absolute truth.

A college professor stands before his class at the beginning of the semester and says, "My goal this semester is to convince you that there is no such thing as absolute truth." This would prompt one to ask, "Why isn't your purpose to teach whatever subject you're hired to teach and whatever course the students paid (or their parents paid) tuition (your salary) for you to teach?" 

No, he's a man on a mission, a mission to destroy the last vestige of what they learned at the knee of their parents and grandparents, as well as what they learned in their Bible teaching church.

I remember in my American history class at Texas Tech University hearing a professor say, in the middle of a lecture on the War Between the States, "The Jews didn't have a Flood story until they came out of the Babylonian Captivity." He meant by this that the Jews borrowed the Genesis account of the Flood from the Babylonians, late in Israel's history, a long time after Moses' day. 

At the time, I didn't know the false presupposition into which he had bought in order to make that statement (the Documentary Hypothesis of the Pentateuch, also called the JEPD Theory), but I wondered, "What in the world does that have to do with the American Civil War of 1861-1865?" He too was an academic on a mission.

Such an unlofty goal isn't isolated to the university; it's everywhere. The world system is on a rampage against the concept of absolute truth from kindergarten on up. (Go to: http://www.districtadministration.com/article/senate-bill-48-california-sets-new-curriculum-standard) 

Our movies deliver an all-is-relative-message; there's no right and wrong in an absolute sense and the arts seek to ridicule into silence those who believe that truth exists. The sophomoric television comedies delight to stereotype  such the Christian by portraying him as a backwater bumpkin with missing teeth, standing in front of a Nazi or Confederate flag, quoting the Bible. Or the script makes him into someone so unbelievably rude, boorish, holier than thou, devious, blunt, and cruel that the viewer can't stand him. All of this is by conspiratorial design (II Cor. 4:4). In contrast, the everything-is-relative-character is likable, funny, friendly, erudite, polished, and is always, without fail, given the last word.

But back to ABC. The character said, "Our greatest fear is the fear of absolute truth." Why?

One reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then what comes with that is that there is Someone behind that truth and that Someone is higher than we are. Man cannot conceive and deliver absolute truth because he is finite and limited, a being who cannot know all the facts on which to formulate truth for all people at all times everywhere. 

Fallen man comes with a boatload of hubris. Someone higher than he is? Fallen man fears the thought. 

Another reason: once a person admits that absolute truth exists, then, not only is there Someone out there, but also man is accountable to that Someone. Embedded in absolute truth is the loss of our autonomy, a loss fallen man fears. With the loss of independence, man finds that he can't make up the rules. He can't make up the rules about when life begins or what marriage is or what, to get right down to it, truth is. 

With the loss of autonomy, men in government, science, and education lose the authority to determine what's right and what's wrong. In essence, they lose control and they fear the loss. If absolute truth exists, then man is not free to make up his own definitions, categories, morals or ethics by which he lives.

This would explain why Communist officials hunted down and beat an old man holding a Bible in a home church meeting in Russia in the dead of night, confiscating the Bible and some handwritten Christian literature reported to be on the premises. (The Communist official who led the mission describes it in his book, "The Persecutor.") The might of the Russian government coming against one man with one Book? Such is the fear of absolute truth.

This explains why officials shred Bibles at airports in some nations. Danny Nalliah, a Sri Lankan-born evangelical pastor now based in Australia said in an interview, "It's a very well-known fact that if you have a Bible at customs when you enter the airport [in Saudi Arabia], and if they find the Bible, the Bible is taken and put in the shredder. If you have more than one Bible you will be taken into custody, and if you have a quantity of Bibles you will be given 70 lashes for sure - you could even be executed."

This shredding, confiscation, and control of the Bible would indicate, at the very least, that  governments recognize there is something powerful in that Book, something dangerous. Their actions are an example of what the Bible says about itself: "The Word of God is living and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. . ."

In regard to a Book so powerful, what are you to do with it? Turn it loose all over people and watch it work!

On the cover of every Bible should be the words, "WARNING: READING THIS BOOK MAY BE HAZARDOUS TO YOUR WORLDVIEW."

___________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

 

THE NEED OF THE HOUR: MEDIOCRITY

THE NEED OF THE HOUR: MEDIOCRITY

Let's lift our glasses (of lemonade) to mediocrity. We need more of it. Bring on more mediocrity and less A+, Number 1 perfection.

I know. I know. This goes against the grain of 99% of the sermons preached around the world. Whoever heard of a sermon or a book entitled, "In Praise of the Mediocre Man?" Every sermon every Sunday urges the faithful on to excellence. Every homily and every book shout, "If you're mediocre, you're a loser; we want only the best." 

Our military doesn't want the average; it wants "The few, the proud." It wants "The best you can be." Commercials flood from our TVs and inundate us with slogans which use, overuse, and abuse the word, "Excellence."We are sloganeered by the constant use of the word.

But, are we missing something here? I asked a group of long-time church-going, Bible-soaked believers to tell me the number one reason why they never witness for Christ. Their number one answer was, "We don't know enough."

Wait! Let me get this straight: you've been sitting in a church for thirty years or more, a church in which every sermon and every Sunday school lesson come drenched in biblical truth, and you say, "I don't know enough?"The Gospel is baby food, not rocket science. There aren't reams of pages to memorize to evangelize.

All you have to do is open your mouth (that's easy, you do it all the time) and discuss with people the fact that Jesus Christ as the Son of God died and rose again to pay the penalty for their sins and will give them eternal life when they trust Him alone for it. (Count the words in that statement.) Can you memorize John 3:16 or perhaps Acts 16:31? Those verses don't strain the brain.

Maybe those dear people, bless their hearts, gave that reason, because they've been brainwashed to believe that if their presentations of the gospel aren't A+ #1 EXCELLENT, and they can't answer every question every member of the human race might ask, they'd better not try.

How deep does this I-have-to-be-excellent-before-I-do-anything-idea go? How many don't teach anybody anything about the Bible because their Bible study won't be excellent? How many ministry dinners for others have gone uncooked because they might not turn out like Emeril's? How many songs have never been sung?

Dr. Joseph Parker, who was the pastor of the City Temple of London, England, attended a concert by the great Polish pianist Paderewski. The concert was during the day, and that night, Dr. Parker spoke to his congregation: “I have had, today, most forcibly presented to me, the folly of trusting in the power of a great example.  Many of you know that I’ve always been a lover of music, and some of my friends have been kind enough to make me believe that I had some talent as a pianist. 

"It has often been my delight, when weary of other things, to sit down at my piano and play some of the classical selections, or improvise according to my mood.  But, today, a friend took me to hear that great master of the piano, Paderewski. 

"For two hours, I listened, enthralled.  I heard music that I had never heard in all my life, and when the last lovely note was struck and the applause had died away, I felt I wanted to slip out quietly, speaking to no one, with the thrill of it still stirring my soul.”

“An hour or so later, I was standing before my piano, when my wife called me to dinner.  At first, I didn’t hear her, and when she came to me, I turned to her and said, almost in anger, ‘Bring me an axe!’ 

She looked at me and said, 'What do you mean?’ 

I said, ‘You know, I’ve always thought I was something of a pianist.  But I’ve heard real music today, for the first time, and I realize now that what I thought was musical talent amounts to nothing.  I feel like chopping my piano all to pieces.  I never want to touch it again.”

Dr. Parker came to his senses; the axe never met the piano.

See what's going on? The Cult of the Excellent paralyzes us. If we won't step out for the Lord until we and everything else are perfect, we'll rot in atrophy. The Type A personality is the person most easily paralyzed by excellence because of his drive to the point of perfection. "If what I do can't be as good as what _________ does, I'm not going to do it," Mr. Type A says. (We often find this Type A personality highly competitive, a no-no in the Christian life. Phil. 2:3 )

We have a cliche: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing right." How about changing that to: "If it's worth doing, it's worth doing."

This idea that we must show excellence in everything we do is a debilitating distraction. How about Paul? He made tents. Do you think his tents were the best in the land? Probably not. Were Peter, James, and John the best fishermen on the Sea of Galilee? I doubt it.

We live in the cult of the professional and the celebrity. Everyday, television brings into our homes those who dazzle us with the artistry of their craft. Their speaking, acting, and singing drips with expertise. The one who brings us the nightly news does so with perfect pitch, diction, timing, and elocution. His pear shaped tones impress us. He is beyond good.

Then there are the awards shows for "The Best." The best movie, best song, best actor, best TV comedy, drama, and documentary. You name it, and there's an awards ceremony for the best. These awards shows brainwash us, making us feel that we're competing with other believers, just as the world competes. We must be better, or we don't enter the "contest." In the the Cult of the Excellent, if they can't be the best, the most excellent, they don't do anything.

Is this a plea for the shoddy? Not at all. Hebrews 6:1 tells us that we should be maturing in our service for the Lord. Those who teach the Word can mature in their teaching by listening to excellent speakers and teachers; they can read good books on communication. Those who evangelize can mature in their  presentation of the gospel and their people skills by observing others and immersing themselves in the gospel. Those who write can read good authors and build their vocabulary. They can put their minds to telling the old, old story in new ways with the written and spoken word.

No, this isn't a sonnet for the sloppy or a laudation of the lazy.

There are no statistics, but I'd be willing to bet that a huge percentage of the service for the Lord is done by mediocre people like you and me who are filled with the Spirit, under the control of the Word. You and I will never win awards for giving the best SS lesson, delivering the best sermon, writing the best book, singing the best song, showing the most appropriate mercy, having the most faith, being the best leader, cooking the best dinner for the sick, giving the most money to help the most people, or being the the best evangelist, but, . . . . so what?

If something is worth doing, isn't it worth doing?
________________________________________________________________

Dr. Mike Halsey is the chancellor of Grace Biblical Seminary, a Bible teacher at the Hangar Bible Fellowship, and the author of Truthspeak. If you would like to a receive a copy of his weekly Bible studies and articles of biblical teaching and application, you can do so by writing sue.bove@gmail.com and requesting "The Hangar Bible Fellowship Journal."

Other recommended grace-oriented websites are:

notbyworks.org
literaltruth.org
gracebiblicalseminary.org
duluthbible.org

competitiveness, drive, perfectionism

competitiveness, drive, perfectionism