We are just a couple of weeks removed from a contentious Republican primary in Alabama in which every candidate professed to love Jesus, the Constitution, guns, and President Trump (not necessarily in that order) and about three months away from the general election. I’m not excited about that.  Why?  Because in the recent elections it seems that the church has forgotten our true calling; our first love, so to speak.

              We must remember that the church is not a political organization. In fact, the church should transcend politics. Jesus and the early church leaders were not concerned with how the church affected the governments of the time…and they were harsh, tyrannical governments. At the same time the church in America has an unique opportunity that wasn’t present in New Testament times: the opportunity to vote. I, for one, believe we should take advantage of that opportunity to try and shape a nation whose morals and identity reflect the nature of God.

              What we have to be careful with is our rhetoric. We are to promote truth, honesty, purity, and virtue. (Philippians 4:8) yet speak the truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). The nature of today’s politics makes that difficult. We need to learn to pick and choose the battles in which we brandish our indignity as Christians. In the great scheme of eternity some things are important and some aren’t. I think the command expressed in 2 Timothy 2:23-26 is important to keep in mind these days: “Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.”

Never shy away from Biblical truth but always measure your words.  Will the subject and the way you present it shine light on God’s nature, desires, and purpose? Will it help draw someone to Christ?

Say good things about your Savior and about His Church.

Bro. Tony

              Can you remember when the nation overwhelmingly viewed Christianity as a good thing? In the business world, educational system, and even politics a “person of faith” was admired and respected. Now a Christian can get fired for expressing a Biblical truth in public, displays of Christian faith are forbidden in schools, and people will publicly question your sanity if you express belief in God.  What happened? How did that happen over just a few years?

           Here is a quote attributed to Alexander Fraser Tytler:  “A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; From spiritual faith to great courage; From courage to liberty; From liberty to abundance; From abundance to selfishness; From selfishness to apathy; From apathy to dependence; From dependence back into bondage.”

              While this quote specifically references money and abundance, I believe it also speaks to the issues of “how did this happen” in regards to the place of Christianity.  I believe that our nation entered into that fourth stage of democracy: “from abundance to selfishness” and the people with money and its accompanying power have discovered that they can use the democratic process to bestow upon themselves the “freedom” to engage in any and all perverse behaviors their carnal souls desire. To do this, though, they must erase any remembrance of that first step: “from bondage to spiritual faith”.  And how can that be accomplished except they belittle and disown any sense of the absolute truths  contained in the Bible and espoused by persons of faith?

              What does this realization mean to Christians? It calls us back to the basics. Our call is to share the Gospel and to do it without fear. Peter and John were called before the governing body and commanded not to speak or teach in the name of Jesus and their response should be ours, “which is right in God’s eyes: to listen to you or to Him? As for us we cannot help speaking about what we have seen and heard.” Acts 4:19-20

Say good things about your church and about your Savior!

Bro. Tony

              Two recent decisions by the United States Supreme Court have a direct impact on the lives of Christian businesses. One involved a baker who refused to design a cake for a same-sex wedding and the other concerned a florist who did not want to arrange flowers for a similar wedding. Both cases were decided for the Christian business owners and the media, The LGBT activists, as well as  anti-Christians, went ballistic. They began presenting scenarios where businesses would put up “no gays allowed” signs and people would began a wholesale purge of all things not heterosexual.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

              Both business gladly served their LGBT patrons in the normal course of business, selling them baked good or flowers; there was absolutely no discrimination.  The owners felt, though, that they could not “actively participate” in an activity they (correctly) perceived as violating their Christian beliefs.  Both owners would have sold them anything in their store to do with whatever they wanted, but they would not design special cakes/floral arrangements for the events. 

              Make no mistake about it, it was only because they were Christians.  The services demanded could have easily been attained elsewhere without any problem or trouble. Here was a chance to attack Christians and it seemed to have worked as both business owners lost their businesses.  But the Supreme Court finally recognized the cases for what they were: animosity toward Christians simply because of their religious beliefs.  Our constitution says you can’t do that.

              Many people have wondered how I, as a Christian, could vote for our current president.  Well, this is it: Conservative judges that realize the laws of our land protect people of conscience. He appointed one and now, pray for him as he appoints another. Perhaps, just perhaps, Christians can regain some of our freedoms and our nation will quit drifting toward pure evil of unrestrained humanism.

Say good things about your church and about your Savior!

Bro. Tony

Tolerance. Diversity. Discrimination. These words are in the forefront of cultural ideology today.  Each one has become a measuring stick for people’s belief and actions; a public badge of either honor or disgrace. There is just one problem and it’s a large problem: who gets to decide the acceptable limits of each? For Christians, especially, that question is important.  There are, indeed, some times when we should not be intolerant.  There are situations in which too much diversity can be detrimental to Christian rights.  And Christians should be very discriminate people, when it comes to certain things.

Nowhere is this as obvious and important as in our school systems. I believe in public education; I’m a product of public education. I believe that it is in the best interest of children, as well as the public good, to receive a good education. I also believe it is one function of a good government to assist parents in the education of their children.  There are immutable sciences and disciplines that every child should at least be exposed to in order to give them a chance to compete in an adult world.  Math is important, of course, as is the science disciplines, english, geography, and history. I enjoyed social studies in school and civics gave me a good understanding of how government and politics work.

But what about morals?  Do lifestyle choices need to be taught by schools? At what point does education become indoctrination? Teaching a child that 2+2=4 is good.  That will not change and there will be countless times in our lives when addition will come in very handy.  But should we allow schools to teach children that a male can become a female simply by thinking it to be so?  There is certainly not any measurable science discipline that makes that a fact. To indoctrinate impressionable children with such “pseudoscience” is uncalled for and detrimental to a child’s mental health and well-being. Those things are then responsibility of the family.

There is so much more that should be left to parents.  And Christian parents should be intolerant of schools usurping their family responsibilities.  We should be very wary of including changing morals and mental states as science and fact.  We should discriminate against such teachings.  The government is not our nanny and when it comes to morals, ethics, and lifestyle the government is not our master.  God is. Christians should be allowed to send their children to a school to be taught solid fundamentals without fear of godless indoctrination.

Say good things about your church and about your Savior!

Bro. Tony

                We had a fantastic Vacation Bible School this year.  There were so many “unknowns” approaching the week. Family vacations, sports, others church’s VBS, etc.  So it’s difficult to predict attendance and to prepare.  But God knows who is coming and He knows their individual and family needs and it amazes me how He prepares us for them. Even when things didn’t work out exactly as we planned, God had planned for us.

We had over 25 children enrolled and met several new families.  That, in itself, borders on miraculous.  We often judge the success of VBS by whether or not we “got” any new families from our effort. That is certainly one thing I look at and I hope and pray every year that we do. It’s a joy to be able to minister to new people. But we must also realized that the main focus of VBS is to teach children the Bible.  We did that and we did it well.  Our teachers, helpers, rotation leaders and workers did a fantastic job. On the final night, when we saw the tail lights of cars pulling away with those children inside there was a lot of those “unknowns” about our future ministry with them and their families, but there is one very certain “known”:  those kids were taught about God, about His love for them through Jesus Christ, and about how to live a life reflective of Him. We were obedient to God, we accomplished our task, and those children are better off for it.

But don’t quit praying that we will, indeed, reach some of those new families and bring them into this sweet fellowship of believers! And if you want to pat yourselves on the back for a job well done….go ahead.  You deserve it.

Pray constantly, work hard, and trust God!

Bro. Tony

            I grew up reading superhero comic books. I’m still somewhat of a comic “geek”.  There is just something about someone with amazing powers defeating the evil forces of the world; promoting “truth, justice, and the American way”. 

            One of the storylines in a Superman comic concerned Superman’s realization that he could not save everyone. With all of his abilities and powers he couldn’t attend to every crisis around the world; time and distance were against even him. In fact, it got to the point where he was about to just give up.  If he couldn’t save everyone, what good was he?  Thankfully for all the people in comic book land, Superman came to the conclusion that if he couldn’t save everyone, he could still save those he could reach.

            I think that a great many of us Christians feel that way about their effectiveness in the kingdom of God. We look around us and see so much lostness, so much hurting, and so much sorrow. We see immorality, wayward living, and un-godly influences and we think it’s hopeless.  Be honest, haven’t you wanted to give up?  Haven’t you gotten tired and said “what’s the use”?

            We can take a lesson from a fictional comic book character and realize that while we can’t minister to the whole world individually, we can minister to one person at a time.  We may not save the world per se, but to one person we can be a genuine “superhero”.

Pray constantly, work hard, and trust God!

Bro. Tony

I recently went for my regular 6-month check-up with my doctor. He took a look at all my blood-work and pronounced me fairly healthy. My cholesterol was a little high and I was a bit over weight, but otherwise OK. But as important as all the blood indicators were the questions he asked me:  How do you feel? How is your memory? How is your appetite? Any indigestion or heartburn? Are you experiencing any pain or headaches? You see, there are some things you just can’t measure with a test.

The church is often like that.  Yes, we need to look at some things that surely indicate the spiritual health of our church.  But other things come into play that tell us a lot.  Do visitors feel welcomed and wanted? Is the Spirit of God felt in our midst? Does the family of God love each other’s presence?  Is there a deep feeling of joy in our assembly? 

Of course I want our attendance to continue to grow.  I certainly agonize over a lack of baptisms.  There are several things that I would like to see improve.  But there is, in this church, some things that are so important, though unmeasurable.  The love of God, and each other, is evident in our times together.  The genuine love for, acceptance of, anyone and everyone who walks through these doors, is absolutely a sweet savor to the Lord.

Yes, let’s continue to strive to lead people to the Lord and to find ways to minister to our community.  That is our call.  But never forget that Church on the Bluff is a very special body of believers and I know that the Lord is so pleased with us in many ways. 

Pray constantly, work hard, and trust God!

Bro. Tony

We’ve been studying the part of Genesis where Joseph is the prominent character.  The more I read about him, and think about his accomplishments, the more I admire him.  When asked to name prominent people in the Old Testament, I dare say that Joseph rarely comes to mind. Names like Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Joshua, David, Jonah, Daniel, and others seem to pop into our heads before Joseph. Yet, his is an amazing story.

A spoiled, favorite son, he was sold into slavery and declared dead by his brothers.  He earned the trust of a very prominent man and eventually ran the man’s household. Falsely accused, he was thrown into a dingy prison for years.  Yet, Joseph became the second most powerful man in Egypt.  How did he do that?

First, he trusted God.  Because he was human, I can picture him sitting in the midst of his troubles with his head in his hands asking God “Why me? What did I do to deserve this?” But each and every time he did something good he gave God His due credit. He wanted God to receive the glory for working in his life. You can’t do that if you don’t trust Him.

And because he continued to trust God, Joseph always gave his best. That’s not usually how we do things, is it? Most of the time, when things aren’t going well, we seem to put forth less effort; just enough to get by. Imagine Joseph on his first day of slavery in Potiphar’s house and his new “master” commands him to wash his feet (or some other lowly task). I suspect that Potiphar may have gotten the best foot-washing of his life. 

Please note that it didn’t happen overnight.  The record shows there were 13 years of “ups and downs” before his purpose was realized.  So what do we make of Joseph that we should apply to our situation? Three basic things stand out.

Bro. Tony

I was recently reading an article that was not too complimentary of evangelical Christianity.  To seemingly state her credentials as an “authority” on the subject she said that she was a very spiritual person but wasn’t “into” organized religion. That told me all I needed to know about what was coming in her article: it was opinion from a person with no helpful knowledge about the subject she was about to address.

First, simply being “spiritual” means absolutely nothing.  Hindus are spiritual.  Muslims are spiritual. In fact, Wiccan and naturalists are spiritual. For that matter, Satanist are spiritual. A person can be spiritual and yet have no clue about the one true God, let alone evangelical Christianity.  When it comes to a right relationship with God, being “spiritual” just doesn’t cut it.

Secondly, organization is generally a very good thing, even in secular work. I’ve never heard anyone say “I love cooking but I’m not into organized recipes.  I just throw random stuff in a bowl, mix it up, eat what comes out”, or “I love road trips but I’m not into organized traffic laws.  I drive in whatever lane I want to and I’ll decide whether or not to obey traffic signals and speed limits”.  We organize for  both ease and efficiency.

Here is what I hear when someone says he or she is not into organized religion:  “I  do not like going to church and living by a bunch of rules and regulations”.  Yes, it is that simple. Please understand, though, that to a great deal we shoulder the blame for that.  We have, in many cases, taken a relationship with God and traded it for a list of do’s and don’t’s (tellingly, mostly don’t’s). We then tell people, and practice it ourselves, that if they keep that particular set of rules, they will be in a good relationship with God.  While there are several rock-solid ways of living that uphold and demonstrate God’s character and His purpose, we have to be careful not to micro-manage sin.

In fact, though, not to be a part of ”organized religion” violates several of the things God designed to perpetuate the Gospel.  He tells us to gather together.  He tells us that He gives us specialized gifts to build up the body of Christ.  He tells us that we are to exercise those gifts for the common good of the church. He tells us that each member belongs to all the others.  To reject organizing to maximize the Gospel is both selfish and short-sighted. In fact, it is not spiritual at all.

Bro. Tony

Well, the Boy Scouts are not the Boy Scouts any longer. They have changed their name to Scouts BSA (I’m wondering, though, what the B stands for). They took that step so they could begin accepting girls into the organization. How sad, for both sexes. It is yet another misstep in seeking equality for the sexes. Why is it a misstep? Because it confuses equality with sameness.

                Should girls be taught how to tie knots, start a campfire, and enjoy the outdoors safely? Of course they should, if they have a desire to do that. But somehow the “feminist” movement has morphed into a “masculinity” movement for women. That is, they want women to be like men.  Isn’t that the exact opposite of “feminism”?

Although it is increasingly unpopular to acknowledge it, women and men are different. There. I said it: men and women are different.  One is not more or less than the other, they are just different. Are four quarters equal to a dollar bill? Of course, but they are not the same. There are pros and cons to carrying either, but they are different. So it is with men and women. There are skeletal differences, muscle mass difference, and even psychological differences. Yes they have an awful lot in common, there are differences that truly make a difference in things.

In any situation that includes males and females there is a definite sexual difference that will affect them in several ways: sexual attraction.  Sexual attraction is common, normal, and necessary. But because of that, kids react differently in each other’s presence.  You may find it hard to believe (sarcasm) but boys want to impress girls and girls want to impress boys.  In classroom or teaching sessions they may not be as honest and forthcoming about many things when they are around each other.  Their focus can be compromised when members of the opposite sex are present and they may have questions they wouldn’t dare ask.

God created two sexes and in His infinite wisdom designed them differently with purpose and a plan.  It is not being a “sexist” to acknowledge the inherit differences in the male and female identities, nor is it misogynistic to suggest men and women were created to complement each other.  We each have our purpose.  So there are just times when boys need to hang out together and be boys and girls need to hang out together and be girls. What a shame that we rob them of those opportunities under the guise of “equality”.

Bro. Tony