Tag / balanced Christians

by In Light Of The Cross

True, But…..

A few years ago I was visiting family and friends in an Adventist community. Various friends and family members attend various Adventist churches in the area. On Sabbath, I decided to join a particular friend at his church. The sermon was on how we are not to judge others. As I sat and listened to the sermon, I could not help, but in my mind think of texts that say we are to judge, Like 1 Corinthians 5- 6. I thought the sermon was very much one-sided. Then I believe the Holy Spirit spoke to me. William there are about 20 Adventist churches in the area God could have sent you to this morning, but I sent you to this church so you could hear this particular message. This is the side of the topic that you need to hear.

Often instead of bringing up opposing views, we need to just hear what the other person has to say. We don’t have to exhaust both sides of the topic in one conversation. Often the person has a single valid point, and we take away from that point by bringing up “the other side.”

For example, suppose I have a friend in New Zealand who has been battling depression, because she misses her home in South Africa. One morning she gets up and is trying to look at the bright side of the situation, so she posts a picture of a beautiful New Zealand sunrise on Facebook, with the message, “New Zealand sure has some beautiful scenery.” Then suppose all of her friends in America and South Africa start commenting back about how beautiful their land is too. No doubt South Africa and America are beautiful too, but wouldn’t that distract from the point that is relevant to my friend in New Zealand? My friend in New Zealand is already aware that America and South Africa are beautiful. But that is not the point. Instead of commenting back with, “True, but…..America is beautiful too!” maybe I should just agree, “Yes! That is a very beautiful sunrise. You live in a wonderful land” and just leave it at that. It is not going to help my NZ friend battle depression by totally exhausting the subject of beautiful places to live on her post. She needs affirmation, not competition. I have an older friend, who told me when she was younger and would get carried away thinking about all the different ways people might be interpreting her actions, her mother would tell her, “stop trying to play every instrument in the band.” Occasionally I will finish a sermon and some “helpful” saint will try to remind me of all the points on the topic that I left out. Fact is I left them out on purpose. Its not that I did not consider them to be true or even important, its just that in a 20 minute, wait who am I kidding? In a 40 minute sermon I can’t play every instrument in the band. I can’t cover every single point of truth in one presentation. Remember we will be studying the Gospel throughout all eternity and will be learning the entire time, so please do not expect me to cover every point of truth in a 30 or 40 minute sermon. 

Believe it or not Jesus Himself did not exhaust every subject in every discourse. He spoke words that needed to be heard in that particular situation. Over time and by cross-examining Scripture we get the big picture. Jesus’ sermon in Luke 4 is an example of how Jesus purposely left out certain points because they were not relevant to the specific group He was addressing.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come. Luke 4:18-19 NLT

Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1-2 which went on to read, “and with it, the day of God’s anger against their enemies.” But Jesus left that part out!. Jesus knew the crowd He was talking to would become a little too happy about God’s anger on their enemies, so He left that out. It was totally true but not a truth that they needed to hear. So when we accuse a preacher or Sabbath school teacher of not preaching truth, because they leave out the morsel of truth we enjoy feasting on, we are making an unwarranted judgment of “heresy.” We can have unity by listening to what others have to say without constantly bickering and arguing, even with a “true….but.” Sometimes those “true….buts” are a distraction from what God wants us to see. Often times the point in the “true….but” has already been well established, and the other person is not trying to disagree, but just give the topic a proper balance, and if we reply back with a “true…but,” we throw the topic off balance again.

For example we all know the emphases the church has placed on marriage over the years. Considering that my congregation already knew full well how sanctified and blessed marriage is, I decided to encourage some of my widowed, single and divorced friends by sharing the encouraging things Jesus said in Matthew 19, and Paul said in 1 Corinthians 7 regarding the blessings of being single. I affirmed our married members and our single members. After my sermon an elderly lady came up to me and complained that I did not talk about the blessings of being married as much as I did the blessings of being single. The reason I spent 25 minutes on the blessings of being single and only 15 minutes on the blessings of being married is because over the years pastors have preached thousands of sermons on the blessings of being married while rarely if ever preaching about the blessings of being single. I was simply trying to share the teachings of Jesus and Paul that are rarely if ever shared behind the pulpit. Like my illustration with my friend in New Zealand, I did not need a rebuttal. I did not need to hear the other side of the story I have already heard a trillion times. I just needed my single friends to hear an encouraging word from Scripture without everyone protesting about the parts I left out. The goal of my sermon was not to play every instrument in the band. 

We can encourage oneness and promote unity by listening to understand instead of just listening to reply with our opinion. We don’t always have to bring up the other side of the topic. Maybe God knows you are already grounded on one side and now need a more balanced understanding of the topic by hearing some other truths on the topic. That is what I realized God was telling me while listening to the sermon in my friend’s church that Sabbath.

You may study this week’s Sabbath School lesson here.

by In Light Of The Cross

Raising the Standard

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

I am writing today from the beautiful Tampa Bay area.

My 9th grade algebra teacher graded our tests on the curve. This meant that the highest grade would be counted as 100%. So if the highest grade was 80, our 70 would be considered 70/80 instead of 70/100, thus raising our percentage and grade considerably. There was only one problem. The same girl got 100% right on every test, so we never got a break! The standard always stayed right where it belonged at 100, instead of 70 or 80. The mornings after our tests, we would be anxious to get out results, and to see what kind of a break we got with the curve, and every morning following our tests, we would be disappointed to find that there was no break. Someone kept the standard right where it belonged. That someone was not a popular person with the rest of the class. Why? Because they kept the standard where it belonged, and left the rest of us with no excuse for getting the poorer grades that we got. She was plenty popular the rest of the school year when she acted just like us, but when it came time for tests, her study habits made the rest of us look bad, and it was just easier to ridicule her for her study methods, than it was to actually study ourselves. Likewise, as long as our church blends in the world we will never be ridiculed or persecuted either. Satan has no reason to persecute a church that looks just like the world. As long as this girl was acting like us it was fine, but we found her study habits to be annoying.

I imagine Judas found the woman washing Jesus’ feet with the expensive perfume to be quite annoying. Not that the perfume did not smell good, but Judas clearly had no intentions of giving all he had for Jesus. On the contrary, instead of giving he tried to take whatever he could. But how do you justify your selfishness in the face of someone else’s giving spirit? Easy, you make them look like a fanatic. “What a waste” Judas said, “The money she wasted on perfume could have been better spent on the poor.” I guess Judas considered himself to be poor, since he wanted the money himself. So he makes the woman out to be fanatical. Do we do this today? Someone gives more of their time and effort for Jesus than we are willing to give, and so to make us look balanced, we portray them as extreme. The woman was no fanatic. She was in love with Jesus! But when people are doing more out of love than we care to do, we label them “legalistic,” “extreme,” or “fanatical” when in fact they are just simply in love with Jesus. Judas was not irked by her behavior when she was sinning all over the place. That did not make Judas look bad. But when she gave all she had to Jesus out of love, that exposed Judas’ selfishness and Judas became offended by her converted behavior.

In Matthew 5:1-12 Jesus gives us the beatitudes which are also stepping stones to a complete conversion. Once the conversion is complete Jesus says,

God blesses those who are persecuted for doing right, for the Kingdom of Heaven is theirs. Matthew 5:10 NLT

Once God’s people become filled with righteousness and pure in heart, by God’s grace they will keep the standard right where it belongs, not because they are legalistic or fanatical, but because they are in love with Jesus. Now here is the key. Jesus blesses those who are persecuted for doing right. Sometimes we bring persecution on ourselves by doing what is wrong. We deserve that, and there is no reward for that. I once heard a man who kept getting harassed by creditors, saying he was being persecuted for being a Christian. No he wasn’t! He was persecuted for not paying his bills!

When God’s grace converts  us our standards will rise above the world’s standards, and just like the kids in my algebra class, and Judas, they will not like that. They will persecute us, but Jesus says to rejoice! For ours is the kingdom of heaven.

You may study this week’s SS lesson here.