I Corr 9-12
I know it's a few days late...but here goes...
First of all, this wasn't quite as riveting as I've been accustomed to. Secondly, my study time wasn't near as frequent. Interesting observation in my life though...my walk with Christ is directly proportional to how much focused time I spend in His word...I know, revolutionary stuff.
Ch. 9 - Take care of those who are in full time service...maybe it's just me, but Duh. Interesting that God had me read this as my Budget Finance committee was reviewing church staff salaries and benefits. And, fortunate that no one on our committee thinks Pastors should take a vow of poverty. But it was interesting the dialogue over market forces and demand in ministry circles, how our younger staff is compensated, how much and how fast should we increase 20 somethings, relative to how sought after they are in the Christian marketplace. I'm not sure when Paul was writing this chapter, that he'd have any idea how marketable he'd actually be in our culture. It's almost ironic that he's like...hey, we should be able to stay the night with you guys and expect to be fed...and he'd have a $10 MM book deal and a $200K salary from some megachurch today. Just funny.
Ch. 10 - Paul's cultural issue of the day appeared to be idols, Diana in Ephesus, and Corinth had theirs too. And he's telling them that no tempation is too strong. But then he shifts gears and gets into a great discussion on how and when to create personal boundaries and mentions the weaker vessel and causing your brother to stumble. To me, this passage late in Chapter 10, although abused in the past, now seems to be cast asside under the guise of grace. To me, this scripture is a call to selflessness...thinking about the other person first and their state of mind and feelings, before your own rights. The church today appears to have this all wrong. We're going through a battle at our Christian School right now, where teachers and administrators used to sign a "no drinking document"...this has now been eliminated by the "grace-crowd" and I'm not sure it flushes out with this scripture...particularly if we look at high school students as "the weaker vessel".
Ch. 11 - Husbands and wives...and the Lord's Supper. Seems to me the first half, husbands and wives is taught a ton in Sunday School...and we do the Lord's Supper, well, religiously, so we see this all the time...not much to add here...accept, I'd really like to have the Lord's Supper like they did...instead of grape juice and crackers...go to a covered dish kind of thing at someones house.
Ch. 12 - Spiritual Gifts. We've been studying spriritual gifts in big church for 12 weeks, so maybe this is why I wasn't drawn back to this each day. My big take away here is...lot's of people serve, and that's a good thing...but not near enough people serve. I'm blown away how many people come to church to be fed only and have no intent of ever feeding. If you spend, I don't know, 2-3 years under God's word...how could you possibly be an eater only. I don't know.
Well, my commitment to you is...I'll do better in May. April was pretty lousy due to my lethargy. Hopefully I can eat healthier too.
posted by Hollywood at 2:25 PM
4 Comments:
Just an aside on the "no drinking" document that was "cast aside" by the "grace crowd": First, what if the document was legalistic? Shouldn't it be cast aside? In other words, maybe the original decision was wrong.
Second, why not treat your teachers as adults? In other words, inherently, they should understand their position. See, if you're teaching grace correctly (and that's where I think you often get hung up) then you'll often make your decisions not on some legalistic rule, but on the "law of love." Or, "What's the most loving decision I can make?" Rather than, "I have to do this because it's the rule." The law of love allows people to grow. Sure, you'll have some abuses, but that doesn't alleviate the responsibility of the overall organization to make the biblical decision. What do they care if a teacher has a glass of wine with the spaghetti at their home with their spouse?
On the Lord's Supper: This is something I've been trying to change. Sure, there's a practicality that demands grape juice in cups and broken crackers passed in brass trays. We do that at our church. But the early church had dinner together and spent time encouraging one another, I'd imagine partly by sitting around after dinner talking about the transformed life of Christ in their lives that week...You're idea of covered-dish dinner is a nice way to accomplish that.
6:21 AM
Oh, yeah. Not every high school student is a "weaker vessel." I know many who outdistance 50 year olds with regard to spiritual growth.
And, wouldn't it be beautiful if one of them instructed a teacher and encouraged them toward spiritual growth? I learned a great deal from young people back in my youth ministry days. I learn a lot from my own children.
6:23 AM
The struggle comes when a family's boundaries clashes with organizational grace.
Case and point: Our pastor likes THE OFFICE, and I think it's funny (SNL funny)...but like SNL, a full 1/3 of the show is inappropriate. We've decided as a family not to watch it any longer. We discussed why, and the bottom line is "If Jesus were sitting in your living room on Thursday night, would you feel comfortable watching THE OFFICE with Him?"
Now, our family policy applies to me and Kristen - we came to an agreement after discussion. As we roll out our stance to our teens (the younger tribe are in bed), they push back with..."...but the Pastor watches it"
So there you have it...insert family standard and spiritual growth struggle of your choice. In our pursuit of holiness, we are finding less and less appealing in the world...
Name one current TV show that depicts a non-disfunctional family (a la Waltons, Cosby, etc.)...you'd be hard pressed to do so.
Name one movie that was worth seeing that didn't have a graphic sex scene...or a recent top selling fiction novel. I'm reading Pillars of the Earth...a recent best seller, and I'm hooked on the story and the historical significance of 12th century Europe, but appalled that the author finds the need to have a graphic sex reference every 150 pages. I'll probably create my own censorship and throw it out when done.
Sorry for the rant...but this is very challenging. Liberty without liscence isn't very easy...no wonder people wrote out lists of do's and dont's.
7:10 AM
"But the pastor watches it..."
You're the parents. You make the call in your home. He makes the call in his home. Sometimes it really is that simple.
Try being the pastor with tattoos.
:)
9:54 AM
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