Paul's Passing Thoughts

“The mind of Christ must be our mind; our Lord has not withheld any necessary wisdom from his children. Our works and what we do will flow from that; anything less is the worlds futility at best, and its filthy rags at worst.”

Some weeks ago, pastor Andy sent me some information about training in regard to Men’s Ministries. The primary thesis of the training was that leadership in churches should come out of the Men’s Ministry. Through discipleship, fellowship around  the word, and accountability, leaders begin to take shape and develop ministries. This is critical because churches are defined by ministry (Ephesians 4:11-16).  This information was an important reminder to me at a critical time because the Chapel is growing, and as it grows, this kind of strategic thought to get the Men’s Ministry from point A, to point B, becomes critical.

However, as I have been pondering these things, my mind is dominated by what I believe to be the dominate factor that is the life-blood of  lives that glorify God, and result in real ministry that effects life in real ways; alignment. I fancy myself as one who strives to obtain a deeper understanding of  how God’s word applies to life, and to apply it accordingly. But my propensity to fail at this is painfully apparent at times. Our natural bent is to “lean on our own understanding” and forget that God’s word is all we need for “life and godliness,” and I have a feeling I’m not alone in that struggle. Look, I have been an elder in elder’s meetings where a critical issue was being discussed, and all we were doing was throwing around our own ideas. Isn’t that our first inclination? When a question of life arises, we immediately begin to scan our own minds for the answers.

Overcoming this inclination is the difference between real ministry and the expenditure of useless energy. John 17:17 makes it absolutely clear that the Holy Spirit only operates in the realm of truth. We think that there is all kinds of wiggle-room that God will wink at and play along anyway, and it just ain’t so. When one goes to a pastor’s conference or  “training conference,” the dialogue is fraught with opinions, Christian cliché’s, platitudes, and volumes of thoughts to equip us for an American Christianity that functions on sound- bites.

Therefore,  my focus is alignment (the word of God with life), and ministry will come out of that. Let me demonstrate: Some years ago, I was in a Bible study that was also accompanied by several pastors. The discussion turned to the subject of teaching our children about the “birds and the bees.” For well over an hour, ideas were discussed and thrown about that included best-selling authors and other “experts.” Well, the discussion certainly didn’t do me any good and I confess that as a father, I failed miserably on that wise. I really cared, and knew it was important, but just couldn’t frame it in a way that made sense to me. Then it recently hit me like a ton of bricks: the “Song of Solomon.” Du. Why not a family devotional from that book to accomplish the task? It’s a hard subject, no? So why not invite God into your home to do it for you?  As leaders are formed, and come out of men’s ministries, imagine a Sunday school series on teaching our children about sexuality from the Song of Solomon? It could be titled “Teaching Our Children About the Birds and the Bees Made Easy.” Think any young fathers would show-up for that one? Or, do you think any young mothers would allow their husbands not to show-up for that one? Also, imagine a church where very few fathers failed at that endeavor with the result being that very few children in that church learn about sexuality from the world. Think God could use a church like that?

But let me demonstrate how strong this inclination is to lean on our own understanding. Much better men than us struggled with this. In 2Samuel 7:1-3, Nathan the prophet and King David get together and start throwing ideas around:

“After the king was settled in his palace and the LORD had given him rest from all his enemies around him, he said to Nathan the prophet, “Here I am, living in a palace of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.” Nathan replied to the king, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you.”

This is one reason why I love Scripture so much. This account is so classic. And of all people, Nathan even puts God’s stamp of approval on the idea when there was no cause at all to think God approved of it. Just like us, with disastrous consequences following. The same night, God went to Nathan and stated the following:

“Go and tell my servant David, ‘This is what the LORD says: Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling. Wherever I have moved with all the Israelites, did I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”‘

There is only one way God could ask such a rhetorical question to David concerning history that took place many years before he was even alive. He was referring to the written revelation that was available at the time. Certainly, the question is not based on tradition, rumor, or folklore that David might have heard. In essence, God is saying: David, where do you find it in Scripture that I want a house built for myself? However, I might also mention that God uses this correction of David to inform him that indeed a house would be built for Him by someone else, and that David’s kingdom would be forever. This is known as the Davidic Covenant, and is an interesting study of how Scripture was developed by God over time, as David recognizes that it is new revelation that will be added to Scripture:

“And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD. You have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come, and this is instruction for mankind, O Lord GOD!” (Verse 19). Young’s Literal Translation documents  it this way:

“And yet this little in Thine eyes, Lord Jehovah, and Thou dost speak also concerning the house of Thy servant afar off; and this  the law of the Man, Lord Jehovah. “

God’s word must form our attitudes, thinking, philosophy, world view, behavior, and strategic planning; in short, it must saturate the full spectrum of life. So once again, and from yet another angle, I will impress this on the Men’s Ministry.

We must understand that the Bible is a superintended record of  what God is saying to us. It is as if God is sitting right here with us. If God was sitting right here with us, he would not seek to convince us that His instruction was true, necessary, relevant, or effective. This is the way the Bible is written, with all authority, because it is not just a book – it is God speaking. Some paramount questions of humankind are: is there a God? If there is a God, what is God like? How did space, the earth, and humans come into being? Does matter have a beginning? All of these questions are answered in one verse of Scripture:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).

What the world has sought to answer with oceans of ink and immeasurable thought is taken care of in the first ten words of Scripture. The first verse of Scripture is a statement of fact, and God is His own authority, there are no sources that He can cite to substantiate what he says, this is impossible, who would He cite?  This is what amazed the people so much in regard to the teaching of Christ. He cited no source other than Himself; yet, His teaching incited the testimony of God that comes inside of every human being created (Romans 1:18-23), and time after time answered the “oh, that’s why that happened when I did that or thought that.” This is why we read the following doxology at the end of the Sermon on the Mount:

“When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.”

Every word in the Sermon on the Mount carried the same authority as Genesis 1:1. Jesus continually said throughout the sermon, “I tell you” because there was no one He could cite other than Himself. His teachings carried with it the knowledge of how people think, and why they do what they do, and this became immediately apparent to those who sat under His teaching. He told them what to do, how to think, why they did what they did, and what to do about it, and without the support of any source but Himself.

Therefore, the Men’s Ministry here at the Chapel must understand the absolute authority of God’s word, and that its original meaning is preserved and superintended by Him, and that He will not honor any other “truth” but His own, that His holy writ speaks directly to us, that it is all sufficient for life and godliness, and that we have been made stewards of  its authority, and we must implement it with the same authority as Christ did, and that it is the very mind of Christ, and to the extent that we do that, the power of God will be displayed, and that no element blocks the Holy Spirit from understanding His word or the execution of our priesthood as believers.

This is why Christ said the following in Matthew 28:18-20; “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

It is why Paul said the following to Titus: “These things speak and exhort and reprove with all authority. Let no one disregard you” (Titus 2:15).

It is why Christ said the following in His introduction to the Sermon on the Mount: “I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Therefore, when our actions do not align with Scripture, we are not only breaking Scripture, but modeling our disobedience before others and teaching them to do likewise. Future leaders need to keep this in mind.

It is also why Christ ended the Sermon on the Mount this way: “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” Therefore, it is very noteworthy that Christ began the Sermon on the Mount by emphasizing the absolute authority of God, and ended it by emphasizing the absolute necessity and effectiveness of God’s word.”

It is why Christ ended the debate with the scholars of that day concerning the resurrection of the dead with the verb tense from an Old Testament passage: “When the dead rise, they will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven. Now about the dead rising—have you not read in the book of Moses, in the account of the bush, how God said to him, ‘I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob’ He is not the God of the dead, but of the living. You are badly mistaken!” (Mark 12: 25-27).

It is why Paul told Timothy that ALL Scripture is “God breathed” and is the only thing that fully equips God‘s servants for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16,17).

Lastly on this point, Jesus confirmed the truth that Scripture is the very documentation of God’s words to us for spiritual life when He said, “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God'” (Matthew 4:4). Bread nourishes the body (it was the staple food of the day); only God’s truth nourishes the soul. There is no spiritual growth apart from God’s word and His word is: “written.”

In Christianity, the battleground is in conversation. Spiritual renewal is lost or gained in conversation, and how the word of God is used therein. Creation came as the result of a conversation (Genesis 1:26). When Satan sought to topple mankind, he engaged Eve in a conversation (Genesis, chapter 3). When Satan sought to destroy Christ, he engaged Him in a conversation (Matthew, chapter 4). Christ fought and won in that conversation through the citation of truth from the God breathed Scripture of that time. Satan sought to destroy Him with that same truth. Satan used Psalms 91:11,12 to try to get Jesus to test God. In essence, Satan was saying: God has promised the Son of Man that he will protect Him, so prove that you are the Son of Man by jumping off of this ledge. Trust me, if you misapply the truth of Scripture to life, you are in for a hard fall, God does not operate outside of truth properly applied. The truthful application of Psalm 91:11,12 came after Jesus resisted the Devil according to the truth: “Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him” (Matthew 4:11).

Conversation forms life. Christ’s ministry was primarily a ministry of dialogue. Ministries grow or die based on what kind of conversation goes on within its walls.  Marriages are made or destroyed through conversation. In this world, nothing happens until someone thinks something or says something. Question is, what are Christians thinking and saying? In any given church, what is said within its walls will determine its future. The goal of every church should be to align its thinking and dialogue with Scripture only. This must be job-one. The mind of Christ must be our mind; our Lord has not withheld any necessary wisdom from his children. Our works and what we do will flow from that; anything less is the worlds futility at best, and its filthy rags at worst.

paul