Midnight Musings

When You’re In The Right Mindset…

Have you ever noticed that when you get into the right mindset, whatever you’re watching or reading comes alive with lessons that directly relate to the Bible?

My kids and I have been watching the Star Wars saga—we started at Episode 1 and finished 4 this evening—and there were so many allegories to the Bible that it was pretty crazy.

It’s true what they say—there’s nothing new that’s unique, and many stories are simply formulas that we place in different settings in order to get the same message across.

The best stories are like that—so take the time to see the Word in whatever it is that you’re doing.  I think you’ll be surprised if you actually start looking for it!

A Brother Caught in Sin

The whole point of the Romans 14 passage is that believers in Christ are bound together in Him.  We will have our differences of opinions, we will disagree with them on issues.  We will believe that they’re wrong and we’re right.

But we’re to remember the grace by which we were saved, and extend that grace to them.  We are to realize that they are living their life out before their maker, and unless they are in a sin which is spelled out in the Bible, we’re to grant them the ability to live out their Christian liberty.

Continue reading A Brother Caught in Sin…

The Stumbling Block

Lastly, is the idea of a “Stumbling Block”.  In the case of Romans 14, this is talking about a Stronger Brother who exercises his liberties, and in the process causes the Weaker Brother to stumble.

The prohibitions mentioned in Romans 14 could lead people to believe that the Stronger Brother has no option but to live like a weaker brother.  Take a look:

But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.

…

It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak.  Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.  And he that doubteth is [dang]ed if he eat, because he eateth not of faith: for whatsoever is not of faith is sin.  – Romans 14:15, 21-23

If you took the first part without the second you could certainly get that impression.  However, it’s the second section I think is worth our attention.

Don’t Cause Your Brother to Stumble

Paul instructs us that it is important for us not to do things that would cause a brother to stumble into sin.  This would include things that are doctrinally wrong as well as things that he has a personal conviction about.

However, if I don’t know that you have a conviction against coffee because it has a drug in it (caffeine) and you believe that you shouldn’t ingest it because your body is a temple to the living God and that would be sin for you—if you don’t tell me this and I offer you coffee, am I causing you to stumble?

If you don’t have a problem resisting the temptation, and you aren’t judging your brother, I don’t think that there’s any problem with the Stronger Brother drinking coffee.

However, if you entered my house and told me that you don’t drink coffee because it’s against what you read in God’s Word and you’ve been working to give it up, and I open up a can of coffee in front of you and proceed to drink it, not only am I inconsiderate, but I’m doing something that could cause you to sin.

Paul says that it’s better to do things in the privacy of your home before God than to destroy a brother because of your liberty.

How Far Does This Go?

Again, I mentioned that some take these passages as believing that it places so many restrictions on the Stronger Brother as to make him into the Weaker Brother.  For if there’s someone, somewhere that could be tempted to sin because of a given thing, then the Stronger Brother shouldn’t do it, right?

I don’t believe that’s what this passage is saying.  I think there’s room here for common sense.  I think that you can drink coffee in the privacy of your home or in public without having to look for Julie from church that might be in the restaurant and has trouble with coffee.

I think that you can respect any day of the week you want, or not respect a day, without looking around for Joe from church that wants you not to do anything on Saturday, since it was the day God rested.

And this extends to topics like modesty.  If we begin to apply “do not cause your brother to stumble” we’d have to figure out whether there are single guys around that would be attracted to you if you wore anything but a big shapeless sack.  The location and the expectations need to be set.

We don’t want people to stumble.  It’s not worth it—whether that means we dress more conservatively, skip the coffee, or don’t go out on Saturday—to cause someone to go into sin.  At the same time, it’s important for the Weaker Brother to know why he stands on what he stands, and to get to the point that regardless of what happens around him he will not fall.

The responsibility, and the liberty, goes both ways in my opinion.

What do you think?

The Two Brothers

There are two brothers mentioned in Romans 14—and they are referred to with terms of strength.  One is called the stronger brother, and the other the weaker.

The Stronger Brother

The Stronger Brother takes on two different types of individuals.

The first individual is the one that stands firm on his understanding of the Bible and feels free to partake in those things that were previously forbidden—and does so to the glory of God.  This is the man (or woman) that could eat the meat offered to idols, because there were no such things as idols and the meat was 50% the price he could get at the local WalMart.  His conscience did not bother him about it, and he had a right relationship to the Lord.

The second individual is one that believed that he could eat the meat offered to idols, but he used to go to that temple before he came to Christ, and if he went to the marketplace he might be tempted to return to that lifestyle.  This person chooses not to do something he knows he lawfully can do, but does so because it’s best for his walk—and in that also gives God the glory.

The Stronger Brother has to make sure that his liberty does not pose an opportunity to stumble for the weaker brother.  He also has to be careful not to let his “good be evil spoken of”—meaning that his liberty should not cause problems for other believers.

We’ll cover the whole concept of being a stumbling block in the next post, but the second admonition is something I’ve seen happening on the Internet a lot.  There are many people that have left one church or another for different reasons, and have started labeling the church they left as wrong—for many different reasons.

If it’s not a doctrinal issue, then those that consider themselves strong should not be disparaging those that are weaker.  As long as believers are trying to give God thanks through their actions, we should refrain from judgment.

The Weaker Brother

The Weaker Brother is pretty straightforward.  For him, he understands the Bible to be dogmatic on things of questionable nature.  He believes that he should still respect the holy days, and he won’t go anywhere near the temple.

The Weaker Brother needs to be careful not to judge the Stronger Brother.  It’s tempting for both to want to apply what they believe to someone else, and when that person does not measure up, to use that person or that person’s beliefs as a rallying point for “the one true religion.”

The fact is, Paul is stating that the only things that are definitely agreed upon in the Christian life are the doctrine taught directly and the Bible, and that we will have differences in what we believe.  Some will believe that they should not have Christian Contemporary Music in their services, and others will believe that they can.  Instead of judging each other, we should seek out those services where we can give God thanks.

Christian Liberty

In the book of Romans, Paul discusses at length many different doctrines, but one that he spends a great deal of time is that of sin, grace and liberty.

It is in this book that we find that the law was made so that we would know sin.  It is also in this book that we find that we’re all sinners in need of a Savior.

However, one of the themes that also repeats itself is “What now?”

What now?

What I mean by this question is “what do we do with this knowledge?”  Before, the law was in effect, and in order to have a right relationship with God there were things to do and to follow.  There were ceremonies and sacrifices—and the religious leaders of the day had added things on top of it.

So, the new believers wondered “What do we continue to do?”  In Acts, the council of Apostles only laid a couple of restrictions on the new converts—to abstain from meat offered to idols and fornication.  But that really didn’t really square well, and how do you handle when one group of believers thinks that one thing is sin and another believes it to be something acceptable?

It is in this vacuum that Paul wades in with a new standard—the standard of the point of the exercise:

He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks; and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, and giveth God thanks. – Romans 14:6

That standard being, where the Word of God is silent, there is liberty as long as what is done is done to the glory of God.

So I Have Liberty?

Yes, Paul is saying in Romans 14 that many of the things that were forbidden in the past—like meat offered to idols or holding days sacred—had their mission but no longer are binding.  We are all related to God directly, rather than corporately.

But there are conditions that apply for each person.  We’ll cover those starting tomorrow…

Doctrine from the Psalms?

This past Sunday in Sunday School, we men were in Psalms 51.  This is the Psalm that King David of Israel wrote after his sin with Bathsheba and the ensuing sin that followed.

As we were reviewing the Psalm and talking about how sin effects our lives, two different thoughts were on my heart.

Confess Your Faults

The first is one that I’ve wrestled with on multiple occasions—that of the question of the facade that most Christians wear.  I’m sure that any good student of “the Book” would be able to answer the following question right, but do they live that way?

What is the status of believers:  Are they perfect, or still sinners?

The answer is that we’re still sinners—saved by grace.  And yet we often like to act like we’re the former.  We all have the tendency to want to judge others, and we always use ourselves (or what we think of ourselves) as the measuring stick.  “If I don’t have a problem in that area, Joe shouldn’t either.”

The reality is that we are weaker because we do not share.  But I don’t know that I’ve ever been in a place where people have shared.  I believe that we’re all so concerned about what another person will think of us that we don’t want to risk a break in fellowship.

I mean, what would happen if John that sits a row behind you told you that he’s having an issue with lust with your wife?  How would you react?

I believe that we’re afraid that either one of two things would happen if we were to share what’s going on in our lives:

1. The person we told would minimize the problem—saying it wasn’t that big of a deal.
2. The person we told would start to avoid us and think less of us.

We all sin, and yet we’re all hypocritical, judging people by their sin when God sees us all as sinners.  And yet I don’t know how one could effectively get people to open up in this way.  If we did, I believe that we’d have amazing power.

Really?  Only Against God?

In verse 4, David makes an interested statement:

Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. – Psalm 51:4

Is all sin only against God?  I mean, certainly David sinned against Bathsheba, against his unborn child, against Uriah, against Joab…  All these things were sin, and yet we have this verse.

I think this is part of the problem of trying to extract doctrine out of an emotional response.  I’m sure that David felt so far removed from the Lord, and his emotion was such that he was begging for mercy.  But I also know that, as king, whatever David said was law.  In that way, David’s sin was against God—it was God’s law that was violated, not man’s.  But he still sinned against the others, and he still reaped the consequences.

To me, I would take the Psalms like I would take many of the prayers or statements by people—in context of course—where I would expect that they’re pouring their heart out, but it’s not necessarily “the Word of the Lord”.  Just as our prayers do not always form good doctrine, I wouldn’t suppose theirs would either.

There are great lessons to be learned, aren’t there?

Make Good As Soon as Possible

A lot of what the Bible says is practical, and today’s musing is no exception.  It’s always best to take care of situations when they are little, because the longer you wait the more it grows.  What started out as something that could have been handled can easily mutate into something that you’ll never get back again.

Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.

Verily I say unto thee, Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing.

Matthew 5:25-26

Continue reading Make Good As Soon as Possible…

Is This Too Hard to Read?

Ok, I’ve written off and on here for quite a while, and it’s depressing how few comments I’ve been getting.  It’s either because this blog is hard to read due to the background, etc. that I just haven’t been that consistent here, or that my writing stinks.

So, what is it?  If I changed the theme, would you be more likely to read and comment?

Am I just talking to myself here?

Do We Miss Out By Saying No?

In the film that just came out on DVD, Yes Man stars Jim Carey as Carl Allen, a man that’s stuck in a rut and always says “no.”  He avoids responsibilities, he refuses to try anything new, so when a friend of his brings him to a conference and he’s challenged to say “yes” to any and every query, his life turns upside down.

Now, there are clearly objectionable things in this movie—at least one scene where his acquiescence yields immorality (that takes place off screen but with his reaction), and the climax of the movie doesn’t have our couple wondering about getting married, but moving in together.  But I’m not musing as much about the video—which I wouldn’t advise watching without something like Clear Play running—but I am thinking about how often we say “yes” and “no.”

It’s so easy today for us to not take that chance, to not do something that we don’t want to do, and for us to miss out.  I heard on the radio someone say something along these lines when he said that opportunities are the same as challenges or problems.  Personally, I like to avoid problems when I can—I would like it easy!

But this life isn’t meant to be easy.  Making friends or building your marriage takes work!  There will be things in your job, or the way that you raise your children that will make you wonder why you’re there in the first place.

The truth is that if we’d try things more often, we may find that we like more things, or that we can make friends.  However, it’s so easy to be like how a kid is going to the park.  They don’t want to go up that slide because it seems that it is so high, but if you encourage them (or compel) them to do it once, you’ll find they love it and want to do it again and again.

What are you putting off or saying “no” to because you fear the work or the rejection, when you should try it anyway?

Is Your Temple Smoking?

One of the vices that Christians have recently joined the culture in protesting is that of smoking.  The scriptural passage that is invariably used to preach against smoking is the one that speaks about your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit—and that a Christian would not want to have that temple polluted with smoke.

The only problem is that the Christian is not consistent in the application of this verse, if this is the way that it should be taken, because all kinds of things that the Christian permits or does not preach as strongly against that he should.

For example, when was the last time that you heard a preacher tell you that if you’re overweight, you’re in sin. 

Yes brother, that extra 50 to 100 pounds is sin.  Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Lord?  Do you think that He wants a flabby body full of excess fat?  Do you think He likes living in their, squished with all those Twinkies?

Actually, if this ever did happen, I’d expect that the pastor would have some plan for $19.99 to help get the weight off.

Or what about the inconsistency when it comes to drugs.  We use the same passage to tell kids to stay away from drugs, but have you ever heard this?

Stay away from that Tylenol, sister, and put back that morphine.  Yes, those drugs that they prescribed to you to pick up the pharmacy are from the devil!  They pollute that temple that is your body, effecting your thinking, or they contain alcohol!

Surely some of these are helpful in some circumstances, but under a doctor’s supervision.

The point that I’m trying to make is that sometimes we try to make things into sins using passages that are convenient, but don’t really fit.  We don’t want our kids smoking or doing drugs, so we find a passage that “works” but then don’t think through it to how it could be applied to other things.

Are there better passages or principles?  Undoubtedly.  They’re just not as quick and easy to find.