Monthly Archives: April 2023

CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

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CLEANSING THE TEMPLE

 

 

Scripture Meditation:

 

John 2:14-17

 

14 In the temple courts he found people selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. 15 So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple courts, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! Stop turning my Father’s house into a market!” 17 His disciples remembered that it is written: “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  (NIV)

 

 

Comment:

 

From an economic point of view, the Temple did not need to be cleansed.  After all, how can you have blood sacrifices as commanded by God’s law without sheep, goats, cattle and doves.  God’s word was that those sacrifices be made and they do not just appear magically.  Neither did people come from all over the world bringing their sacrifices with them.  The fact of the matter is that they came with money and bought the sacrifices and took the sacrifices into the temple and carried out the commands of God. 

 

In addition, remember that Jews came from all over the Roman world.  When it came time to buy their sacrifices, they needed money to do it.  When I travelled over the world, when I got to a foreign airport there were always money changing Kiosks where I could convert my American dollars into the coin of the country where I was visiting.  In short, there was nothing intrinsically wrong with the sale of sacrificial animals or the exchange of money in order to purchase those animals.  The issue is not what was going on but instead the issue was where it was going on.

 

Jesus went to the Temple expecting to find a “place of prayer.”  Instead, the merchants had made it a “den of thieves.”

 

Jesus was angry.  And he had a right to be angry.  It was his Father’s house and it is OK to be angry when we see the Father’s house being trampled with pigs.  Jesus expected his Father’s house to be a place of prayer, a place of teaching and a place of love.  He also expected it to be a place of holiness.  I believe that Jesus expects the same things from His church today.  Instead, we have made his house a place of commerce.  Christianity in America has become a place where money is made.  Large ministries are funded, a music industry has grown up around the church, you can buy weight-loss products, self-improvement books, skin care products, and even Starbucks in our churches.  We have compromised with the world.  Our services are often more like night-clubs in an effort to bring in the lost.  We want them to feel at home.

 

We have become so worldly, that we have become no earthly good.  (I am sure that someone has said that before!). We have compromised with the world.  Jesus says that when the salt has lost its savor it is good for nothing other than to be thrown out.  Compromise has cost us our saltiness.  We are like the church at Laodicea.  We are neither hot nor cold.  As Jesus said in Revelation 3:16:  “I am about to spit you out of my mouth.”

 

The “meek and mild” Jesus which the world loves so much, does not seem so “meek and mild” when it comes to the church.  The world loves a Jesus who does not judge and who never gets angry.  Unfortunately, when Jesus returns it is not to be meek and mild but to judge.  God came into the world to save people from judgment.  However, judgment will come.  Our modern world wants a Jesus without judgment and they want a universe where sin is always forgiven even if there is no repentance.  The world is doomed to be disappointed because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.  Jesus shed his blood for us but that gift must be accepted—not ignored or trampled upon.

We live in a world which loves the “never angry” Jesus.  Did Jesus have the right to get angry because his father’s house had been made into a den of thieves.  I believe the answer to that question is “YES!”  Sometimes we say in our family “Not our circus and not our monkeys.”  In other words, in your house you can be as crazy as you please, but you can’t be as crazy as you please when you come into our house.  If it is our house, we have the right to decide what monkey business goes on.

Keep in mind, when Jesus got angry, it was his Father’s house and if it was his Father’s house, then he had the right to decide what did and did not go on there.  Jesus has the right to decide what goes on in his Father’s house.  He also has the right to decide what goes on his holy temple and we, his church, are that holy temple.

I believe that it is time that the Bride of Christ becomes more pure and that involves throwing out the sheep, the cattle, the pigs, the doves,  the money changers and the merchants who are using the Body of Christ to make money for themselves.

We have compromised way too much with the world and have excused ourselves for doing it under the guise of saying that we are doing it to bring in the lost.

 

1 John 2:15-17

15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father[a] is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. (NIV)

James as James 1:27 says:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

 

So…what do we do?  I believe that holiness begins at home.  We seem to be more than willing to begin cleaning up the church but Jesus warns us that we need to get the beam out of our own eyes before plucking out  the splinters in the eyes of others.  Holiness begins at home.  Before Jesus cleansed the temple he had cleansed his own heart.  He had also instructed his followers to deal drastically with sin in their own lives.  Jesus took a drastic and “no holds barred” approach when he dealt with sin.  He told his followers that if your eye leads you into sin then pluck it out.  Now I don’t suspect that most of his apostles walked around only with one eye.  The message, however, was clear.  We must stop compromising with sin.  Moreover if that means shedding your own blood to resist sin, then that is what you must do.  Most disciples got the message and tried to deal with sin both drastically and definitively in their own lives.

 

It is time for the people in the Body and Church of Christ to deal drastically with sin.  We must cast the sheep, goats, cattle, doves and money changers out of our lives.  As we clean up individually, I believe we will see the bridal garments of the Bride of Christ be more attractive and more pleasing to the Bridegroom, Jesus Christ.  After all, the church is here to do the work of Jesus and to please Jesus, not the world.

 

We are not called to be successful or large.  We are called to follow Christ.  The problem is not that the churches are too small or that we are losing members, the problem is that we are too big and too “successful” because we have compromised with the world.  God has called us to the narrow path instead of the broad, successful highway of destruction.  We are called to the more narrow path of holiness.

  
 

IT IS NOT SAFE OUT THERE

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I have asked my adult daughter to write the post for today.  As men and as members of the Church, we need to do better.  Here is her post.

It’s ugly out here, and your boys need a clue.
 
That’s it, that’s the whole story in one sentence, but the reality is a bit more complex.  Living online has not been helpful to any of us, really.
 
Honestly, being single in the church wasn’t something I ever planned to deal with. I’d been married for nearly thirty years when my (traumatic, awful, necessary) divorce was finalized two years ago. I was a wreck of a human with a whole host of issues to handle, and the church I was in had nothing whatever for singles of any age – much less for single Gen X people. So when my uncle and aunt suggested their church, I gave it a shot.
 
It was the largest Baptist church in the area – not a selling point on either count, for me. But it had a large, active singles department with its own building and its own ministerial staff. Age-guided classes, some coed, some just for women. I was ushered into the co-ed midlife group and immediately felt at home and accepted. And when I was hit on by nearly every man in my class and beyond, it was flattering. At first.
 
Two years later, the male attention hasn’t stopped. It hasn’t slowed down. Some of the same men I said “no thank you” to in 2021 are still asking. Some have gone beyond asking into insistence, mansplaining, and telling me about their “anger issues”. More than one has suggested prayer would help me and offered to do the honors. One very interesting guy messaged me on social media at midnight, several times, to ask me to pray for him. His immediate follow up question was whether I’d be interested in a hot tub party at his place. I could go on, but you get the idea. It’s ongoing. It’s not cute. And I’m editing for my audience, but it gets more graphic from there.
 
Long story short, sexual harassment is a problem in today’s church. A big enough problem that I am meeting with my church leadership this week to talk about what can be done to keep single women like me from walking away from church entirely. And I had to threaten to remove my membership to get even that response.  My initial email went unanswered for most of a week before I followed up with a terse “so your response is no response, then” and only now is that meeting forthcoming. I’m not optimistic.
 
So… what changed? What led me from “oh this is a little weird but it’s fine, I’m just not used to being single” to “I want a meeting or I’m leaving and I’m telling the internet why”?

I said no. Several times. A few of the better guys got it the first time, but mostly… they didn’t. And I don’t like going to church, anymore.
 
It’s long been known that church is where one goes to meet Christian people. And as single adults it makes sense that dating and even marriage will be on the table. There are three dating couples in my class, one of them engaged. One couple is almost certainly living together. We’re grownups over 40, nobody is surprised that the very lax “no dating while you’re in the same class” rule is routinely overlooked.
 
One problem is that newcomers to any singles group are, for want of a better term, fresh meat. Everyone who’s on the market for a mate will check out the new person, male or female. But in the evangelical culture, it’s still men who do the asking, for the most part. There is also the expectation within the church that single people not remain single for too long. If you do, you’re likely to find your ministry opportunities very thin and the side-eyes very intense. Are you gay? Are you just a terrible person? It’s much calmer for everyone to just … be with someone. The peer pressure at any age is real.
 
Single women in particular are relegated to children’s ministry, or a special needs ministry. But any teaching or mentoring of married people is not usually done by someone who is not, themselves, married. Even if they were married at one time. Maybe especially then.
 
More than that, single women are not easily accepted into married groups in the church, be they church-based or home groups. Wives don’t like single women hanging about too much. After a few run-ins with men in my church who turned out to be married, I totally understand why.
 
I wasn’t offended or upset by being asked out. The issue was that when I said “no”, I was blatantly disregarded. I’d tell a man “no” one week and have him sit right beside me the next Sunday, making conversation and suggesting we go out as though I had said nothing at all. And if one guy was smart enough to sit somewhere else, that seat was quickly taken by the next one in line.
 
I learned pretty quickly to be sure of events and locations, to be polite but distant when answering texts (and not to answer them immediately), and to refer men needing “prayer” to a male leader in the group.  That helped. For awhile.
 
Over time, the attention became intrusive to my learning and worship. It caused me anxiety and sometimes fear. (Hint: do not back a woman into a hallway or a corner area and stand where she has to duck around you to escape. It’s not a good look.) I began to arrive early to class so I could be seated at a table next to a female friend, or arrive late so I could scope the room before sitting. I began leaving early. And after I had to block a few men off my socials and tell one very clearly to Just. Stop. Asking., I realized that the problem was not me.
 
If a woman says “no”, that needs to be it. No means no, the first time. In church or out of it.
 
Women like me need to learn that being a good Christian does not equal being nice, or saving someone’s feelings in the name of Christian fellowship or peace in the church. Nobody’s been overly concerned with my feeling peaceful. “Single” does not equal “available” does not equal “willing”.

And men in the church need to realize that church is not a bar. Church should be at least as safe as the workplace for women. Especially single women who may be divorced, who may have traumatic reasons for not dating, who are looking for Jesus – not for a man. Because believe me, if I find a man attractive enough, I’ll tell him so and let him decide what to do with that information. It hasn’t happened yet, but it could. Hope springs eternal, I guess.
 
The church is not safe for women in 2023. We are heard less and valued less than at any time in my memory – the incel movement is real and it is very strong among single men. The alpha-male, red-pill, extreme stances of cultural manhood right now are not compatible with empathy, respect or kindness toward the female gender. The societal issues at play are  disheartening to many single women – this is borne out by a simple Google search or an hour on Reddit or Twitter. I’m not the only girl out here having this problem. In fact, I would say that if it’s happening to me, it has happened and is happening to someone you know.

If I’m dealing with this at my great age, what are the 25-year-olds handling? And we wonder why Gen Z is leaving the church en masse?
 
 
But since we’re here, I have two small pieces of advice:
 
If you’re a man, don’t hug a girl or woman without permission. It’s not hard to ask “can I hug you”. Better yet, wait to be hugged. And it’s fine to tell a woman outright that you find her attractive. She may say “thank you” or she may get flustered. But if she says “no thank you” or puts you off or doesn’t answer texts within a day or two? She’s not interested, buddy. Let it go. You are not going to convince her. She has either friendzoned you or no-zoned you and either way you are not getting a date. Be polite, like you would at work, and move on.
 
If you’re a woman, teach the girls and women around you that it is okay to say no. Yes, even in church.
 
 
 

NOT NEGLECTING THE HOUSE

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“We will not neglect the house of our God.”

 

In Chapter 10 of Nehemiah, Nehemiah and the Israelites make a covenant with God.  As part of this covenant, Nehemiah, the leaders of Israel and the people agree that they “will not neglect the house of our God.”  Part of that covenant included items such as not intermarrying with those who were not Jewish believers, keeping the Sabbath, following the commands of the Law and giving to the priesthood and to the Temple. 

 

“Not neglecting the house of our God” includes our giving of our tithes and offerings for the maintenance of those who serve God full time, for the spread of the Gospel and for the simple maintenance of those places where we assemble to worship God.

 

In the New Testament we are commanded at Hebrews 10:25 that we are not to be “giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

 

In my opinion, Satan used the past COVID-19 epidemic to try to shut down the church at least in the United States.  Although, we need to use good sense, it seems to me that to allow people to gather at Wal-Mart to shop for physical items while precluding the gathering together of people to partake of spiritual food was hypocritical.  That being said, in emergency situations it is not unreasonable for there to be precautions.  Christian leaders, considering all of these considerations, often came to different decisions in good faith as to what to do.

 

Sadly, I have seen some who dropped out during the COVID-19 situation, fail to return to the church as the health risks began to subside.  I suspect that some of the failure to return may have resulted from spiritual laziness.  To the lazy there are always clouds in the sky so that they cannot sow seed and a lion in the streets so that they cannot go out. 

 

God has chosen for his people to have an individual experience with Him; yet at the same time He has also chosen that we have a corporate experience with him.

 

My experience during the COVID-19 epidemic taught me that a “Zoom” experience is not good enough.  It is better than nothing, but it is not better than being in the physical presence of one another.  For instance if I am travelling overseas and call my spouse in a “Zoom” call, that is better than not calling at all or just calling on a telephone but not seeing her.  However, a “Zoom” call does not replace the physical joy of being in the presence of the one I love.  That being said, televised services or “Zoom” services are helpful to the incapacitated or who can otherwise not get out.

 

Our Faith involves loving God and loving one another.  Love always has a greater opportunity to begin, increase and grow as we are close to one another in physical proximity.  When I was a teenager, I could talk on the phone to my girlfriend, but it was always better when I could go out on a date.  Love rejoices in closeness and proximity.  When we are really in love, we are just happy being in the presence of the one whom we love.

 

The early church gave what they called the “right hand of fellowship” to Paul and Barnabas in Galatians 2:9.  Although this may mean membership to some and fellowship to others, I believe it also contains the concept of a “covenant relationship.”  We somehow become part of something larger than ourselves.  In many churches, including the Moravian Church, it means shaking hands all around.  By coming together, we make peace not only with God on a corporate basis but also with one another.  I believe it also takes a face to face meeting to enter into covenants and to make peace.  Perhaps that is why so many “peace conferences” politically involve face-to-face meetings, not just a telephone meeting or a signing of documents.

 

Other churches use other methods to make substantive this relationship of God’s love and love for one another.  For instance in 2 Corinthians 13:12 we are instructed “to greet one another with a holy kiss.”  This is another example of the physical contact that is so essential to us.  Interestingly, I have travelled overseas and have been greeted “with a peck on each cheek” but thus far I have not experienced this in church.

 

When I first visited a Charismatic Church, the pastor who I attended with warned me that I might be hugged at the door going in or going out.  It is a good thing he warned me because I was and I was prepared for the experience.  As time passed I found that hugging was a wonderful experience.  There are times “we just need a hug.”  When we are hurt or lose a loved one, sometimes the best medicine for us is a warm, innocent and loving hug.  An honest hug is healing in nature.

 

God intends for there to be physical involvement in our worship.  We are a loving people and loving people touch.  They hold hands.  We see this often in our worship.  People hold hands and sing “Sweet, sweet Spirit.  They hold hands to pray.  They shake hands to greet one another.  They hug one another.

Even in formal churches we “pass the peace.”  Both in the Jewish Temple, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church we use incense.  Even our nose gets involved with worship.  Our prayer is individual prayer but it can also be a group corporate experience.  We lay hands on one another.  We anoint with oil.  We sing individually but we also sing corporately.  Unfortunately, I cannot seem to sing well while watching television or participating in a Zoom Conference.  My ability to worship is even more limited in those circumstances.

 

As I write these words, I am listening to music on the computer (we used to have radios).  The music is good.  However, the radio or computer experience does not compare to the Concert experience.  People prefer to go to a Lollapalooza Concert or a BTS Concert rather than hear it play on the radio.  Likewise, some prefer to go to a football game in person for the whole experience rather than just watch it on television. 

 

I encourage all of you, if you can, to participate in the “full” church and worship experience.  Other believers can play a role in helping you to draw near to God.  It is hard to confess your sins one to another if you are sitting on your couch watching television.

 

In conclusion, do not forsake the “house of God.”  Engage in both individual worship and in corporate worship.  Come together as the physical body of Christ to love God corporately, to worship God corporately and to love one another.  If we don’t love our brothers and sisters who we see and know locally how can we ever really love our brothers and sisters who are far away and we who do not see.

WASHING OF THE WORD

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THE WASHING OF THE WORD

 

 

Ephesians 5:26 (NIV)—Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing of the water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

 

In this edition of Locusts and Honey, I want us to consider the above scripture.  In one sense, most of us realize that the church becomes clean through the blood of the Lamb.  Jesus takes our sins and makes them “whiter than snow.”  A miracle occurs when we become a Christian.  The filthy rags of our life are washed in the blood of the lamb and through that blood miraculously become white.  Our rags are transformed into the marriage and feasting garments that are supplied by the One who calls us to the feast-God Himself.  That is a miracle.  However, it does not end.

 

We are called for a holy purpose.  That purpose includes becoming a holy people and doing the work of God which is to destroy the work of Satan through men and women who believe and follow Jesus Christ.  Good works will not save us; however we will not become holy without good works.  We are saved for a  purpose and that purpose is to do good works.

 

If you are like me, you want to see the Church become the “radiant” church and to shine brightly in a dark world.  Instead the church has become an object of derision.  We tolerate false shepherds who commit adultery and whose desire for wealth is open and shameful.  We show disunity and fail to love one another.  One must ask how our churches, at least those in the United States, have fallen to such an abysmal state.  Many of our churches put the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation to shame.

 

Due to our weak and debilitated state we are experiencing a “great falling away.”  Over the past generations, a number of people have joined the church not because of faith in Christ but in order to further their careers and their social status.  Instead of there being a cost to becoming a Christian they joined for the “benefits” of Christianity.  Some of the benefits were social but others were economic.  Many have hoped to improve their wealth by following the religious formulas for wealth accumulation—“Name and Claim it.”  Now it is true that following Christ is likely to bring wealth by its nature.  For instance, if you are a heavy drinker or drug user and due to becoming a Christian these vices are eradicated, your wealth as a natural principle can’t help but increase.  However, those who “become Christian” to further their wealth will invariably be disappointed. 

 

Many years ago, I sat around a table at my law school and listened to a bunch of senior law students discuss which church they were going to join when they graduated in order to further their legal careers and obtain clients.  These same attorneys had not attended any church while in law school.  It was all done for wealth. 

 

Early missionaries to China saw the same thing happen.  Many Chinese joined the church for the free rice handouts.  They were called “Rice Christians.”  When the rice stopped, they stopped attending.  Today we have many “Rice Christians” and they are starting to fall away.  Jesus predicted all of this when he talked about the seeds that were sown and as the sun came up and there was persecution, those who had joined when things were nice, fell away.  Today, as there is less benefit to being a Christian (and often a penalty for being one) the Rice Christians are falling away.  We are only in the middle of this process.  As persecution for our beliefs increases, we will continue to see more fall away.  On the other hand, they were not really with us anyway.  As the offended and carnal fall away, the church will indeed shine more brightly.

 

Part of our failure to shine brightly results from the fact that we have not been washed in the water of the word.    This has happened for a number of reasons.  One of them is that we individually have not spent sufficient time washing ourselves in the word of God.  By bathing ourselves in the word of God and in prayer, we will shine more brightly in the world.  The reason we don’t do this is our flesh.  We default to God’s grace instead of doing the hard work of making ourselves holy on a day to day basis.

 

The world is our drug.   And like most addicts, we are addicted to the world.  You who have had addicts in your family, know that addicts will do anything for a fix.  They will sell themselves or even family members to get the next fix.  The carnal church has become addicted to the world.  It will do anything to get the approbation of the world and to get the benefits of success.  What steps will we not take to get the next “sinner” through the door.  If we need to act like a nightclub or have our churches be like the Bachelor (Christian, of course), we gladly do so.  1 John 2:15 says:  “Do not love the world or anything in the world.  If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.”

 

Another reason why our churches are not washed in the word of Christ is that after all of this time, we for some reason, cannot understand the ministry gifts.  We claim to understand them and yet constantly confuse the ministry gift of being an evangelist with the gift of being a pastor-teacher ( Note: this edition does not deal with where there is one or two gifts or the differences between ministries and gifts).  Instead of selecting pastor-teachers to lead the church, we love to select evangelists to lead our churches.  The evangelist focuses upon the salvation message.  They get people “through the door” and evangelists are an integral part of the church.  However, instead of utilizing a leadership of multiplicity, we select a leadership model which looks like a pyramid with the evangelist at the top.  We then confuse things even further by calling the “evangelist” a “pastor.”  It is no wonder people are confused.  In the smallest churches, there is often only an evangelist called a “pastor” who leads it.  Surprisingly many churches do not grow.  They find that people are flocking to come in the front door and then are secretly leaving through the back door.  People scratch their heads and wonder why.  The answer is simple, the people are not being fed by pastors and teachers.  They join the church and then are not fed often hearing the evangelistic sermon cooked a thousand different ways but always at the end tasting the same.  In short, people need the washing of the word.  The evangelistic message preached over and over is not the “washing of the word.”

 

People need to hear the word of God regularly preached.    In addition to salvation, they need to know that we are to love one another, we are to work with our hands, we are to give to the poor, we are to lead humble lives and that we are to live holy lives and when necessary endure with patience suffering and tribulation.  These are not popular messages.  In other areas of life we expect discipline.  We know we are to eat right and exercise regularly.  It is not easy.  The same is true spiritually.  To become holy, we must engage in regular and consistent spiritual disciplines and exercises.  Just like we have a nation of couch potatoes, we have developed a church full of spiritual couch potatoes.  It is time for us to get up and exercise ourselves spiritually.  Regular and consistent Bible Reading, prayer and attending worship and washings of the word are a discipline.

To conclude, Christ allows us a role in becoming the bride with a white garment and a sparkling witness to the world.  That role involves being “washed in the word.”  We need to be washed in the word in the corporate gatherings of the word, through the ministry of those moving in the gifts of pastor and teacher.  Also we need to be washed in the word individually through the disciplines of becoming holy by regularly having personal Bible study and prayer.

 

Until next time, keep on hopping.