PART SIX OF POST
WOULD JESUS BE WELCOME IN YOUR CHURCH TODAY--- PART SIXI am on my second point of this five part message and in order to begin at the beginning of this second point please begin reading part three, before reading this present blog.
July 4, 6:04 p.m.
Before I begin I would like to wish everyone a happy 4th of July! I also told my daughter (Tammy) that I had just gotten in from work and I saw a list of five things my pastor hates. I told her that I just knew "There had to be a reason I attend there." Just kidding, but it really is a good list of things not to like.
Part five I finished with four statements that are commonly used to try and justify people dressing fancy to attend or lead a service in a New Testament church. I further wrote that I actually agreed with all four statements, at least in their content, but not in what is implied by them: or rather how it is intended to be applied to the argument. Now, let's look at each one.
Preaching is an important work, no argument here, but let me ask you something. Does a construction worker wearing jeans, cotton shirt, and hard-hat do "important" work? If you think not, let me ask you again as you are standing atop the lookout at the Empire State building with your family in tow. Perhaps a thousand feet in the air might cause you to reconsider your hasty answer and I bet you at least hope the construction worker thought what he was doing was important as he was building.
Does a brain surgeon wearing paper shoes, pajama pants, top, and a paper hat with a string attached do important work? Again, if it was your brain exposed to the air and he was touching it with his fingers I bet you would think it was very important work.
You see, I believe there is a lot of "important" work being done all of the time by people who are not wearing a shirt and tie. So, the implication that a tie must be worn to convey something being done is important is a false notion.
Before I answer the second question I need to ask any guy or girl reading this a question. Were you married in a church somewhere wearing formal clothing: guys in tuxedo's, girls in wedding dresses? Or, if you are not married have you ever been a best-man or maid-of-honour that would again cause you to dress in formal attire. If neither of the above, have you ever been anywhere that caused you to dress in formal attire? How many of you reading this owns a tux or formal dress?
Guys: is a tuxedo a notch or two above a regular suit? Girls: is a formal dress a notch or two above a regular dress you might wear somewhere, oh let's say to church: for example?
Did you answer "yes?" A tuxedo is better than a regular suit and a formal dress is better than a regular dress. If you agree to both of those statements then please never again use the second sentence to try and encourage someone to "wear their best" to church. "You don't!"
You already agreed that a tuxedo is better than a suit and a formal dress is better than a regular dress: so, if you are not regularly "wearing your best" then according to the previously posed question you are sinning against God. That is if you hold to the thought that we are to "dress up" for church even though no where in the New Testament is such teaching proffered.
I am going to lump statements three and four together, because in essence they are one and the same. Before I answer those though I have a plea. If you ever see me in a restaurant where they require a coat and tie and probably charge a hundred dollars for a meal... please... immediately take me by the arm and rush me to a nearby emergency room. Evidently I have been struck in the head and I must have suffered severe brain trauma. I would have to be a complete fool to pay a hundred dollars for a meal that I would get no more satisfaction from than a $5.00 cheese bread from Little Caesar's.
Okay, let's say for the sake of argument (and so I can get on with this and prove my point) that "yes" I would borrow from the restaurant a coat and tie (since I own neither) and I would wear it during my meal. And let us say that "yes" if a president of the United States wanted to see me, and if I chose to see him, and if he requested me to wear a coat and tie then I would.
Before I answer to those let me say that I would not even turn my head to look across the road if Obama were passing by, let alone ever want to meet him. And from what I have read with Clinton a tie would not have been requested: in fact, I think he must have had a clothing optional policy for the Oval office. Both of those men are baby murdering sons of Belial and I wouldn't spit on them if they were on fire.
However, let's say that Bush (one or two) or President Reagan (if resurrected, otherwise it would be too scary) requested my presence and asked that I wear a tie, then I would. HOWEVER... Do I really need to state the obvious flaw in such a statement about wearing dress clothes to a restaurant or political office must equate to needing to "dress up" for church. Please... think about the big gaping hole in that logic before I am forced to expose it.
Okay, hopefully you already figured it out... otherwise you are absolutely going to smack yourself for not having already gotten it. A political office holder, and (or) a place of business has every right to make up their own rules... A NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH DOES NOT!!!!!!! A pastor and the leaders of any church should never make any prohibitions upon the people of God for attending or serving in any capacity: unless the Bible has made such prohibitions or restrictions. And believe me, I have many times read all of the qualifications listed in the Bible for any blood-bought son-of-God to serve in any capacity... and a dress code is never mentioned, neither is it in any way intimated!
But, somewhere along the line, the lowly servants of God, decided to become "reverends." Okay, you are going to have to pardon me for a minute because I am climbing on top of my soapbox.... whew, that took a little effort... my head is brushing the ceiling and my desk is far below me... now I'm ready.
I absolutely detest and loathe men usurping both a title and praise that belongs to God alone and they steal it for themselves! The word "reverend" is used only once in the entire Bible. Speaking about God the Psalmist declares "holy and reverend is his name." (Psalm 111:9b) No matter how you read that verse... reverend is His name... or, He deserves reverence... either way the title or worship never belongs to man!
I am so fed up with so called preachers. Especially those who quite literally are fleecing the sheep of God. They fill many pulpits in America and it seems that the very worst offenders are regularly on television. I would much rather listen to a ditch-digger, fresh from his job with dirt under his nails and grime on his collar open the Word of God and expound upon its truths than I would any ten evangelists you find on t.v. wearing clothes worth enough money that it would feed a small village of hungry people.
Men like Osteen are an affront before God. You can never understand Scripture or God's plan by lifting verses out of context and trying to teach truth from those. Any Bible truth ever understood will come by following Isaiah 28:10... there is no other way.
Osteen and others are predatory lost men who make their living preying on people who are ignorant of true Bible doctrine. What is called the "health and wealth" Gospel is false teaching to the highest degree. Look, it is clearly not God's will that everyone be made well. Look, don't take my word for it read Luke 4:27 and see what Jesus said. And it most certainly is not His will that everyone have money. Did He, or did not He say, "For ye have the poor with you always..." I could show a hundred different passages and Scripture which teaches the exact same thing.
Read the entire 11th. chapter of Hebrews and see who God describes as true heroes of the faith. I want to call special attention to verse 37 and 38. Now, I want to ask you a question... are these homeless people being described? Let's see: they wore sheepskins, goatskins, they were destitute, and they wandered about in deserts, mountains, dens, and caves of the Earth. Yeah, I guess they were.
Now Osteen and other deceivers would have you believe that they just didn't have the right type of "faith." Otherwise they could have been well and lived in a mansion. So, in Osteen's eyes they are failures. Yet, God said that these heroes of the faith were so great in His eyes that... "Of whom the world was not worthy." In the eyes of God these sick, poor, and homeless people were so good in His eyes that the world was not even worthy of them.
Osteen is just the opposite, he and his teaching is well deserving of this old world. Can you ever imagine a man like him humbling himself as Jesus did and be in a foot-washing service. Oh, come to think of it, a fancy, Nancy boy like him is probably involved in a foot-washing ritual: only for him it's called a pedicure and he probably doles out $50.00 for a poor girl to wash his stinking feet.
My wife just informed me that we have to take the dogs down to the park... it is their time to make their toilet. For a little while yet I am still planning to be ensconced atop my box. I promise before I finish this point that in a little while I will climb down.
8:50 p.m.
We are back from the park and I will type for a few more minutes before we go out to see fireworks.
Some might consider this next part just picking, but so be it. I also do not like that big idiot smile Osteen keeps plastered on his face. You can search the Scriptures in vain trying to find a laughing prophet. I can though show you a crying prophet.
Are you aware that the Bible records many human emotions that God's people went through, and yet in the entire Bible seldom is laughter involved. Example: we see Jesus angry. I can show you many examples but the clearest one is when he fashioned a whip and went through the temple overturning the tables of thieves who were buying and selling in the house of prayer. Jesus is recorded grieving. Remember when He stretched His arms out over Jerusalem and lamented the fact that He would like to have gathered them into His arms as a mother hen would her chicks, but they would not. Several times we can see Him moved with compassion as He fed the hungry and healed the sick. We can see Him reduced to tears and crying at the grave-site of Lazarus.
In point of fact the Lord displayed and had recorded many emotions that He went through as a man... with the exception of one: He never laughed. In fact, it is nowhere recorded that He even smiled: though I like to imagine that He might have. Perhaps when he called a little child to Himself and declared "Suffer little children to come unto me and forbid them not: for of such is the kingdom of God."
Why do you think we know Christ as "a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief... (Isaiah 53:3) and yet men like Osteen, who purport to represent Him have a permanent clown smile tattooed to their face. Do you think they do not see the whole picture?
Look, the Gospel is "Good News" and that needs to be shouted from the rooftops: yet,
(Time for fireworks... back in a little while.)
11:14 and we are back and just finished devotions. Almost always we finish all of our reading and prayers very early in the morning. Today though we could only get in about half of what we normally do so we finished tonight.
As we were walking the floodwall to the river downtown we saw a real UFO. Unidentified Flying Object. I described it on FaceBook.
Christ saves is a wonderful message that needs to be carried to all people. And I am not trying to say that people should walk around continually and appear to be sad or act morose. What I am saying though is that any person is either a blithering idiot, uncaring, or uninformed, if they are truly born again and they are still able to go around smiling all the time.
What do you see when you drive from Southern Indiana across the Second street bridge to Louisville? Late at night as I drive to Louisville to pick up one of my daughters, with Virgil by my side, I don't see the tall buildings and bright lights. I see more than a million souls in the metropolitan area who are waiting to draw their last breath and the vast majority of them will begin their eternity in Hell. And there are only a handful of churches in the area with a strong Gospel message and a good outreach program. Do you still feel like smiling?
You, who are reading this have loved ones that you would die in their place if it were possible... and yet you know that if they die in their present state God will send them to Hell. Still feel like smiling all the time. That is one very easy way to know that Osteen and others like him are fakes. If they truly believed there was both a Heaven and a Hell, they would not laugh their way through life and they would not be nearly as concerned with material wealth and only what happens in this flesh. They would be far more concerned with the soul of men and women and their eternal destination.
Alright, give me a second... I'm getting down... I'm weary with talking about men like Osteen anyway. Okay, I'm off my high perch and I will finish the point about clothes. Keep in mind: the axiom is dead-wrong: "clothes do not make the man."
In finishing this I would just like to point out that the clothes (one set only) that Jesus wore in the desert place was the same clothes he wore when He walked on the water, and the same ones He wore when He went to sleep in the boat and the same ones He wore when He got to the other side (Gennesaret) and began to preach and to heal again. Since it was only one set they were the same ones He then wore when He went to synagogue and taught the people.
Peter preached in fisherman's clothes, Matthew in tax-collector's clothes, Luke in physcian's clothes, and Paul in tent maker's clothes. Look, if you wear a coat and tie, may God richly bless you. I only pray that you are not foolish and spend a lot of money on them. A five dollar tie is much better than a ten dollar tie. And a ten dollar tie is infinitely better than a twenty dollar tie, etc. And I firmly believe that you ought to be able to "ush" with the best of the ushers while wearing said coat and tie: and you ought to be able to "deke" with the best of the deacons, so on and so forth. But please, if you are a tie wearer, don't practice some manmade rule with no Scriptual basis as a reason to stop anyone who chooses not to wear a coat and tie from "ushing" "deking" etc., so on and so forth.
The Lord strongly rebuked the Pharisees for practicing their manmade traditions while laying aside clear teaching from God. I will finish with these thoughts.
For years, Texans, whenever they needed to rally the troops they would cry, "Remember the Alamo." Every red-blooded American who needs to stand strong against Muslim tyranny only needs to say, "Remember 9/11." And you, church member who needs to fight against manmade traditions which do nothing but hinder the Gospel of God... needs to have as your rallying cry, "Remember the ham!" And, you are just going to have to read the whole blog to understand what that means. (LOL)
I might wait until Monday to begin my next point in trying to expose some of the sacred cows that are entrenched in many churches. Goodnight... and God bless.
posted by Robin Johnson @ 6:07 PM
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