A Post from Vince.

What the $%#@!  No obscenities?  Yep.

Paul writes:  “Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths” in Ephesians 4:29

A few verses later, Paul says:  “Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk, or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.”  Ephesians 5:4  

No unwholesome talk means no obscenities.  For some of us this is difficult.  The habit is ingrained.  So here are some ideas to help.

First, simply agree with Scripture.  If you believe that speaking obscenities is bad, you’ll be motivated to stop.  If you believe that speaking obscenities is fine, you’ll have no motivation to stop.  So agree with scripture.  Agree that no obscenity should come out of your mouth.

Second, have an alternative in mind.  You’re going to have to say or do something else instead of spewing bad words.  You’re going to have to replace the bad habit with a good one.  You can find a substitute word.  Some people choose silly ones.  Ask yourself:  would I rather sound silly or vulgar?  You can yell:  ARRRRGGGGGG!!!  I find that one works great for me.  But it tends to scare others.  You can simply take a breath and state:  I’m mad.  I’m upset.  I’m frustrated.  That’s of course what we’re trying to communicate, but lazily and poorly through obscenities.  Or you can come up with your own alternative.  But you have to have an alternative in mind.  It’s much, much easier to get rid of a bad habit by replacing it with a good habit.       

Third, ask others to help.  Sometimes people don’t even realize what words are coming out of their mouth.  Ask others to point out when you’re speaking obscenities.  Ask others to help.

Fourth, you can celebrate progress.  The fact you read this blog already is a step in the right direction.  So don’t worry about achieving perfection.  That’s not happening.  Just try to make progress and enlist people to help you who have the same mindset.  If the people you’ve enlisted to help are discouraging and always pointing out your failures, then just tell them to “insert your substitute” off and find some other people to help you. 

A Message from Vince.

One application of loving one another with our words is to avoid speaking obscenities.  We’re also to avoid swearing and cursing.  But while we use these terms interchangeably, the Bible does not.  It’s kind of a pet peeve of mine, so just humor me.

We should not swear.  This means we should not make oaths.  I swear by this I’ll do that.  Jesus teaches us to simply let our yes be yes and our no be no.  No oaths.

We should not curse.  This means we should not wish and call down evil upon another person or persons.  Jesus teaches us to bless, not curse even our enemies.  No curses.

We should not use obscenities.  This means we should not speak “bad words”.  And I think we all have a good idea of what these “bad words” are, so I won’t list them.

I do pretty well on the no swearing and the no cursing--not so well on the no obscenities.  I’ve got a plan but that’s for another post.

A message from Vince:

In Sunday’s message we talked about how to love one another with our words.  My words are not for me.  My words are for you—for your benefit.  That’s what Paul teaches in Ephesians 4:29.

One application of this teaching is to avoid gossip.  Gossip is listed in several sin lists in the NT.  Clearly we are to avoid gossip.

But what is gossip?  Gossip can be defined as idle talk, and rumor, especially about the affairs of others (see dictionary.com).  But I think a better and clearer definition of gossip comes from the Proverbs.

A gossip betrays a confidence, but a trustworthy person keeps a secret.  Proverbs11:13

Gossiping is betraying confidences.  It is repeating what someone has shared with you without his or her permission.  And we are not to do that.

For example:  Joe shares with me some marital problems he’s having.  I then share with someone else Joe’s marital problems without his permission.  They in turn share with someone else who shares with someone else who shares with someone else.  Pretty soon, the whole church knows about Joe’s marital problems.  And of course the details have been exaggerated along the way, so now Joe and Betty are getting divorced due to the outrageous (untrue) behaviors of both parties.  And none of this talk has helped Joe or his wife Betty in the least. 

So the way to avoid gossip is to keep confidences.  If Joe hasn’t given me his permission to share his marital troubles with others, then I don’t have it.  I keep it to myself.  If I don’t know if Joe has given me permission to share his marital troubles with others, then I don’t have it.  I keep it to myself.

If I’m second, third, fourth or some other link in the gossip chain, and I don’t know if Joe has given permission to anyone, then I keep it to myself and tell the person to stop gossiping.

But doesn’t Joe need prayer?  Of course.  But I won’t betray Joe’s confidence.  I’ll ask him if I can share his trouble with our prayer ministers.  If he says yes, I’ll pass his trouble along.  If he says no, I won’t.  Period.

Often in churches, gossip masquerades as concern:  “Did you hear about Joe?  I’m really concerned about him.  Why?  Let me tell you.”  Often in churches, gossip masquerades as prayer requests:  “We really need to pray for Joe.  Why?  Let me tell you.”

Let’s not do that.  Let’s not gossip.  Let’s keep confidences.  To “help” someone against their will is no help at all.

Are there exceptions?  Of course.  The proverbs offer general wisdom which works most of the time.

But what if the person has confided something really serious?  So serious that you don’t feel like you can or should be silent.  What do you do?

Then you should encourage the person to share with his or her pastor.  Pastors have a lot of experience with this kind of thing.  You encourage the person to share with their pastor.

But what if they won’t?  What if they refuse?  Then, you have a tough choice to make.  You can break the confidence and share with his or her pastor.  Or you can remain silent.  Either way is tough.  But if it were serious, I’d take my chances, share with the pastor, and risk the relationship.

There are times when I’ve broken confidences myself, and I'm a pastor.  I’ve had a few occasions where I’ve had to call the police because the person was in immediate danger to himself or others.  These individuals didn’t given me their permission to share.  But I could not be silent.

Are there exceptions to keeping confidences?  Of course.  But they are few and far between.  So let’s follow the wisdom of the proverbs.  Let’s love one another with our words.  Let’s keep confidences, and not betray them.

I Have Seen The Lord!

In Sunday’s message Jeff Arthurs kicked off our new series:  “I Have Seen the Lord”.  The message series and title comes from Mary Magdalene’s Easter witness to the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  She had seen the Lord.  We have too.  We have seen the sheer power and unsuprassing goodness of Jesus Christ in our lives today.  So let’s share with one another what we have seen.

Share with your family.  Over the next month, I’m inviting families to take time around the dinner table to share where they have seen the Lord.  This is not just for parents.  Let your children participate as well.  But over the next month, let’s share in our families where we have seen the Lord.

Share with your small group.  Over the next month, I’m inviting small groups to take time in your group to share where you have seen the Lord.  Instead of sharing our every changing circumstances with our group (a good thing to do), let’s instead focus our attention on the power and goodness of Jesus Christ today.   But over the next month, let’s share in our small groups where we have seen the Lord.

Share with your church.  Over the next month, I’m inviting all of you to take time and write a blog to share with the entire community where you have seen the Lord.  We’d like to post several each day.  So please try and keep them relatively short (500 words or less).  Long blogs (and I certainly am guilty of this!) can be difficult for our readers.  But over the next month, let’s share with the whole church where we have seen the Lord.

He is Risen!  The power of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is alive and well in lives of the people in our church.  So let’s share our testimonies with one another.  Let’s encourage one another.  Let’s strengthen each other’s faith.  Let’s be an Easter people.  Let’s be a church where we celebrate the sheer power and unsurpassing goodness of Jesus Christ in our lives today.   

1. Practical Challenge #3 of 3: Share Jesus With Those Around Us

Lastly, on a day to day basis, we can share the love of Jesus with the people around us. This is often a risk. We can risk people thinking we are crazy or self-righteous. They may make fun of us for believing in God, or stop associating with you. Maybe your family doesn’t believe in Jesus, my family is not Christian.

We are fortunate to be able to talk openly in America about God, without being beaten or imprisoned for it. But that doesn’t mean it does not have risks associated with it. Take a social risk, possibly suffering some social awkwardness in the process in order to tell people around you about the Gospel.

“Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” (1 Peter 2:12) 

Those are just some of the things I’m being challenged with as I’m going out into the world, working a full time Job, getting married and starting “life” as it is. I don’t want to waste my life day by day slowly slipping into complacency with the way things are. Like Vince was saying, as Christians, Jesus calls us to make a difference. The only way we will see the Gospel go out and change the world is if we as Christians choose to suffer alongside Jesus; but not in act of misery, rather experiencing the Joy that God brings.

“Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church” (Col 1:24)

In his last post James (one  of our college students), challenged our community to suffer for good by giving our time.  In this post, James challenges us to suffer for good by giving our treasure.

Money. Possessions. Homes. Cars. Food. The list goes on and on. The American Church is full of materially blessed people, in fact we are the wealthiest church in history. Jesus doesn’t call us to live a comfortable lifestyle. We are not called to live the “American Dream”. Consider this quote from 1800’s preacher Andrew Murray:

“How different our standard is from Christ’s. We ask how much a man gives. He asks how much he keeps.”

God is blessing us to be a blessing to the world, to those in need. Here’s what I mean: if all American church-goers tithed just 10% of their income, there would be an estimated $168 Billion on top of the currently tithed amount (including charitable giving). It would take about

·         $65 Billion to tackle worldwide extreme poverty

·         $6 Billion for universal primary education for children worldwide

·         $9 Billion to supply fresh water (wells, etc…)

·         $13 Billion for basic health and nutrition worldwide          *(figures quoted from The Hole In Our Gospel)*

You get the picture. Read the Lord’s Prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God wants his will done here, not just in the future. He has blessed us to make this happen. We will have to suffer the loss of a comfortable, wealthy lifestyle (the American Dream) to see this happen. It doesn’t matter how much you make, God has blessed you with something (93% of the world doesn’t own a car). I keep asking myself how can I live such a wealthy life on God’s blessing, and ignore the suffering, the starving, the dying – who He loves and gave me this blessing to bless others. How can I continue to keep it all to myself?

So today’s (March 28^th) talk Vince gave on suffering as the 3^rd function of the cross reminded me of this past summer and what God did (and continues to do) in my heart with regard to suffering for Jesus. Please consider what God has been challenging me with. 

Vince mentioned in his talk something to the effect of “as North American Christians, we don’t get many opportunities to suffer for Jesus”. I think what Vince might be referring to here is a physical suffering (persecution). I agree this is hard to come by for most of us. What I believe God has been showing me is that this is not the only way to follow Jesus’ example of suffering for the good of others.

Last summer God began challenging me with this idea of sacrifice and suffering as a Christian. Specifically, he used a book called "The Hole in Our Gospel" By Richard Stearns, CEO of World Vision. Some of you may have heard of it. The question he asks “is there more to our faith than just going to church, studying the Bible, and avoiding the most serious sins- does God call us to more than just this?” The answer appears to be yes.

“Then he said to them all: "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.” (Luke 9:23-24) 

So, while keeping this idea of daily picking up our cross and following Jesus in mind, I wanted to put forth some practical challenges to present God with a sacrifice of suffering for doing good and ultimately bringing God’s joy and peace to our lives through doing so.

Practical Challenge #1 of 3: Giving our Time

If we want something to happen, we make time for it. Now, I understand that life is busy with work, family, daily chores, etc… but our time is a valuable thing to waste. It will take a sacrifice on our part as the body of Christ to go and serve and love our neighbors (whether that’s literally in your neighborhood or on the other side of the world). If we cling to our own daily life, and making that as “good” as it can possibly be, the world will not see the love of God demonstrated. All we will do is talk about it. So, we have to sacrifice our time to see the Gospel go into the world, and thus “suffer” the loss of an easy carefree life.

“Sometimes I would like to ask God why He allows poverty, suffering, and injustice when He could do something about it.” ‘Well, why don’t you ask Him?’   “Because I’m afraid He would ask me the same question.” –Anonymous

To be continued...

Post by: Jim MacDonald