I was going to start off this with saying, “I am such a moron”, but I felt this title is more apt, and also has more foreshadowing. Also, I truly have been very “wishy-washy” as a friend called me, but I believe this is because I was struggling to obey…. but more to come about that.

Sheep are some of the dumbest, stupidest animals on the face of this planet. They can drown in a few inches of water, they will wander without cause, and their eating habits can get themselves into serious trouble. Not to mention that they never seem to learn. Correct them, and a short time later you will find them returning to the same action. Sheep are dumb! And I am a sheep.

The reason for writing this…
I am writing this to not only curb my own future sheep-like actions, but also to give those around me more insight into my own sheep-ness (is that a word?). This is so that they can come alongside me when they notice my sheep-like behavior and help me to avoid my own destructive tendencies. I am also writing this as I believe that more than one person has seen my struggle with obedience on this issue. I have sinned in public, so I will confess in public.

Ok, so to the issue at hand (or why I am a sheep). The (current) issue for me is how I spend my time, specifically my time spent playing videogames, and more specifically my playing WOW (do you see the foreshadowing now). WOW is World of Warcraft, a game that I have previously mentioned here and here. (Should you desire it, you can learn more about WOW here.) I have played WOW off and on for the past couple of years. This will be my third, and final, time of stopping this game. (See the sheep-like behavior) My reasons for stopping have always been the same: “it is taking too much of my time” and “I don’t feel comfortable playing this game anymore”. The reasons were sound, but each time, after the course of a period of time away, I have allowed myself to “push past” my previous reasons for stopping and return to the game again. Each time I returned, I pushed past the unsettled feeling that I felt in my gut. I believe this is very sheep-like behavior, and more than just a person who “likes something, but needs a break from time-to-time”, which was even a past justification of mine.

Actually, the real issue isn’t how I am handling my time, although that is part of the problem; the issue is one of obedience. You see, as many of you know, I am a Christian. This means that the Holy Spirit indwelt me immediately upon my belief in the Gospel (I Cor 15:3-4). The Holy Spirit is God, and one of things He does in the life of the believer is to help guide us in truth (John 16:13). In my life I have felt His leading through the pages of the Bible, as He has reveals truth to me; through the feelings that I have in my gut; as He tears through my own self-deception and shows me how my own actions/reactions are the result of a previous sin; and also through my brothers and sisters around me. (Note: All of the feelings, the understanding of self-deception, and the counsel of brothers and sisters in Christ must be in accordance with Scripture.) My sin has been to disobey the leading of the Holy Spirit. He has been trying leading me (in line with the above qualifications) and trying to impress upon me that I am not supposed to play WOW.

A Gray Area
I believe that WOW is what most would deem a “gray area” of the Christian life. My personal belief is that there are no gray areas for each person. However, there may be differences of conviction between two solid and growing believers, because it is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, and He causes growth differently in each of us. Also, there are things are wrong for me that may never be wrong for someone else because of my background, genetics, weaknesses, etc. For more information about this, see Romans 14. Note: If I ever get around to it, I will link to some excellent sermons and treatises on the subject. WARNING: If you are doing something because it is a “gray area” and therefore “OK” for you, always seek guidance. This is a warning from my own life. Most of the time I get into trouble when I am doing things that are “OK”.

Sin!?!?
So why was this sin. The following are two passages, which I have learned before in response to other “gray areas” in my life, and they fit perfectly here as well.

#1. James 4:17 (NASU)

Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.

I can honestly say the Holy Spirit was prompting me, through my conscience, that playing WOW was not the right thing to do. Or better yet, that not playing WOW was the right thing to do.

#2. Rom 14:22 (NASU)

The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God. Happy is he who does not condemn himself in what he approves.

My conscience was condemning me that playing WOW was not right. The Holy Spirit was convicting me, another one of His jobs (John 16:8), that this was not right. I felt His leading and chose to disobey it. Of course, this is also known as grieving the Holy Spirt, and is another sin (Eph. 4:30).

Further indicators …
There were several other indicators that I have seen in my life that are indicators that something was wrong.

#1. My desire for the Word and prayer was shrinking. Instead of having a passionate desire to hear from the wonderful Savior who paid for my sins and who wants the best for me, I wanted to play WOW more.

#2. Declining desire to be with God’s people. I felt less and less comfort around God’s people. Should they ask if I was “OK” I would have to “gloss over” how I was feeling. Saying I am OK when I felt under heavy conviction… Note: This happened Sunday morning and I need to confess that to the brother in Christ that I lied to.

#3. No desire for accountability / fear of being discovered. Although I was lying to myself that my playing WOW was “OK”, I didn’t want to be transparent. I also feared being asked about it by one of the members of my church leadership.

#4. My response to my wife and kids. Part of my self-deception that playing WOW was “OK” was that I had been spending more and better time with my kids. However, this weekend I lost my temper with the children several times and was very grumpy all weekend. This demonstrated that I was trying to be a better dad in my own strength, not by the power that the Holy Spirit provides when I am obeying Him.

#5. My own attitude. I have not had any peace, especially this week. As the Holy Spirit was convicting me, He removed that wonderful “peace that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:4-9) that He provides when I am obedient to the will of God.

#6. My desire to be with Christ. As I knew I was sinning, I didn’t have a strong desire to be in Heaven with Christ. This should be my lifeblood each day!

There were other indicators that I was doing something wrong, but those are the “big” ones. All in all, I was left with a very clear conviction that there was sin in my life, and as I played WOW, it was painfully obvious it was the issue.

How I am going to respond …
To start with, I have done the number one thing that must be done. I have confessed my sin to God in accordance with 1 John 1:9 (NASU)

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Secondly, I have cancelled my subscription to WOW and will not play out the remaining days that I have on my account, nor will I return to WOW at a later date.

Third, I am going to be accountable. I gone to my wife and confessed to her my sin. Next I went to my accountabilitys partner and confessed to them what I have done. Should there be any other that I need to personally confess to, I will do so.

Lastly, I am writing this blog post for the whole world to see. I have sinned by refusing to listen to the Holy Spirit. My prayer is that myself, and others, will learn from my mistake.

What this has cost me…
Even though I have confessed my sin, it is not without cost. (Just a few of the costs are listed below.)
#1 My fellowship with Jesus Christ. Sin places a barrier in our relationship with God. Salvation cannot be lost (Romans 8), but fellowship can. Although I have confessed my sin and have been forgiven, it will take time to return to the place where I was.
#2 I have wasted time. I am commanded to “redeem the time” (Eph 5:16) and I have not done that. My time spent playing WOW was time that I will not get back.
#3 My money. The money that I spent paying for my WOW subscription was wasted.
#4 My brother’s birthday present. My brother was so gracious to get me the new WOW expansion for my birthday. That present is now worthless. I am also sure that this has hurt him because of my sin.
#5 My pride. Not that this is a bad thing, but it is very hard to go before someone and confess your sin to them. (In fact, even writing this post has not been easy.) Although this is a good thing, it is very, very difficult to do. (Thankfully the Holy Spirit assists with this!)
#6 The reputation of Christ. Whenever a believer chooses to sin, it brings damage to the reputation of Christ Jesus. My sin, even though it was known to only a few, has still affected how some non-believers view Christ. This brings me more pain than any of the other consequences!

Summary
I am a sheep. I have wandered time and time again, and I know that I will do it again. It pains me to say that, but I know my old nature. My need is to be soft to the Holy Spirit and obedient to His gentle leadings away from the things that are wrong and to the things that are right. I need to be transparent to those around me so that they can hold me accountable to the Word of God. I need your prayers, as I seek to walk by faith in the God who loves me and died for me, and to live each day by the strength that the Holy Spirit provides. I am a sheep! Please dear Lord Jesus, guide me as the great shepherd that You are, into all truth!

Give this link a read: Time article.

It would have been interesting to see this gentleman follow up his reasoning with scriptural support. He says that Christianity has learned much of it’s theology about heaven from Dante and Michelangelo, however he neglects to put much scriptural support behind his supposition that the ‘traditional’ ideas are wrong. I wouldn’t disagree that many people do have a wrong view about heaven, but I don’t agree with the things that he brought up in his interview.

Two excellent books on Theology are Basic Theology by Charles C. Ryrie and Understanding Christian Theology by Swindoll & Zuck. These books cover very difficult Theological concepts in a way that the average person will understand. Plus, they will take you to scripture so that you can check out what they are saying based on what scripture says.

Above all, beware false teachers, see I John 4:1-6 and many other scriptures.

This morning I happened to read this article by Lou Dobbs. Now I know that Mr. Dobbs and myself certainly differ on many things, and since that is to be expected, his opinion on the separation of church and state does not bother me very much. I think he is wrong, but it really isn’t something I am going to argue with him about.

However, he said something that I certainly do take issue with. You see, I take issue when anyone takes the Word of God out of context and uses it as they see fit. For example, in his article, Mr. Dobbs is arguing that churches (and other religious institutions) should have far less of an influence on the political landscape. He then quotes Romans 13 with the desired effect to show that Christians should not make any efforts to make a change to a political decision because (according to him) that would be rebelling against God’s established authority. Let’s take a look at that passage for a minute.

Romans 13:1-2 NASB Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God. (2) Therefore whoever resists authority has opposed the ordinance of God; and they who have opposed will receive condemnation upon themselves.

By the way, if you read the context of the passage, in the next few verses Paul goes on to talk about obedience to the laws of a nation and paying taxes. Also, in the previous chapter (12) Paul is laying out some guidelines for how we are to live transformed lives in light of the grace that God has shown us in giving salvation to those who believe (and even the ability to believe, but that is a far different topic).

So then we come to this couple of verses, Romans 13:1-2, and let’s do some simple Bible study.
Vs 1 very succinctly states, God is the establisher of all authority (Yes, even Adolf Hitler) and we are to be in subjection to that authority. A brief side note about taking the Bible in context, as scripture does NOT contradict itself, it the dictates of an authority commands that we disobey the very laws that the Bible has given to us, we are commanded to disobey them. But let’s get back on track. So we know that ALL authority is from God and we are to be obedient to it.
Vs 2 defines the consequences of resisting the authority that God has established. Remember that this resisting is referring to laws which do NOT break God’s law. The question in this passage is with the word resist. The definition of the Greek word for resist from Thayer’s Bible Dictionary:

G436
ἀνθίστημι
anthistēmi
Thayer Definition:
1) to set one’s self against, to withstand, resist, oppose
2) to set against
Part of Speech: verb
A Related Word by Thayer’s/Strong’s Number: from G473 and G2476

So to resist authority is to set one’s self against authority or to oppose authority. Ok, so now that we understand this passage, we have to ask ourselves, how this passage applies to our lives today.

We are fortunate to live in a republic (no, the US isn’t a true democracy). A republic where our duty as citizens is to vote and inform our elected representatives about how we think they should act on an issue. If they choose not to act on our input, we have the right to not vote for them at the next election. I think it is pretty obvious that this is not resisting the authority that God has established. Participating yes, resisting no. And as a quick note to those of you who are thinking about extremes, yes there are certainly ways that we can abuse our system of government that could certainly fall under the area of resisting authority.

To sum up, I believe that Mr. Dobbs has taken Romans 13 grossly out of context. My prayer is that those who have read his article will be good enough Biblical students to see this as well.

I just read this article: Robertson says God told him tsunami may hit NW. Why would someone drag the name of Christ through the mud this way?

I noticed an article a few days ago about a high ranking Vatican officials statement that the Genesis creation record and evolution are “perfectly compatible”. I also read a bunch of the modded up comments about this article on Slashdot. The battle for truth in the area of how we all came to be is a fiercely raging war.

First of all I believe the gospel:

1 Corinthians 15:3-4 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, (4) and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures,

Now I believe the Bible is as it claims: inspired by God (II Timothy 3:16-17). If it claims to be inspired by God then it must be without error. It is a very slippery slope for a ‘Christian’ who chooses to not believe in the literal interpretation of scripture, because if you don’t interpret the creation account literally, then how can you interpret the rest of scripture literally. And if scripture isn’t literal, then did Jesus really die? If He did was He really God? Is there really even a God after all?

When we choose to believe something that is just one fraction of a degree different than what the Bible teaches, we will quickly find ourselves far away from the truth. I have pity on the Christian who does such a thing, because they are setting themselves up for great sorry when they someday stand before Jesus. I know that I have already done many things that I will be ashamed of, and I fear my brother or sister in Christ who will feel more so because of their belief in the subtle twisting of scripture by our enemies, and the things that such theology will ‘allow’ them to do.

This is quite a battle and the stakes are very high!

*edit* 12:20 pm - Some edits for clarity

Thanks to some hard work by Pat, Von, and myself, we now have a Sermon Archives page on the Salem Heights website. Right now there is only this weeks sermon, but in the future we hope to go back a few months to get older sermons on there as well. Check it out!

Well, the reason for my lack of posting over the last few weeks is that my wife and I have been very busy doing the final touches to get ready for this year’s AWANA club at Salem Heights Church. I am the “Commander” and my wife is the un-official “secretary”. Basically I am in charge of the program which has about 40 adult leaders, and 130 clubbers ranging in ages from 3 to 18. My wife does an excellent job of helping me get everything done. If it wasn’t for her I don’t know how I would be able to get everything scheduled. As we work as a team, the things get done.

I love AWANA because I love to see the Lord Jesus work in the lives of children and young adults. It continually amazes me what the Word of God will do in lives when children commit to memorizing and applying it. It truly is amazing, and wonderful to see!

Tomorrow is our kick-off night. The Lord has provided the volunteers to fill all of our open positions except Worship leader. We are all praying that the Lord will bring that person forward. We are trusting that He will do so, and that His plan will be accomplished in our lives as leaders, and also in these children’s lives.

God is gracious, and it is an awesome, even fearful, thing to be used by Him.

Not all that much to say today. My wife and I are busy prep’ing for the upcoming AWANA year @ Salem Heights Church. I am the AWANA commander, so leading/organizing/enabling the club is my responsibility. The Lord has provided me with an excellent helper in my wife, and together with the Lord’s strength, we are able to accomplish this enormous task. So far the prep to this year has been an exercise in faith as we have 24 out of the 50 leaders that we need for a fully staffed club, and at our first leaders’ meeting we only have 5 people show up, counting us. Praise the Lord that He is going to provide for this ministry. Not only will the Lord’s will be accomplished in the club year, but the Lord is also continually teaching us to be humbly dependent on Him, which is the only place I want to be.

Please pray that the Lord will be bless this AWANA club year. That He will bring the children to the club whom He wants to be there, and that He will provide the leaders to work with these clubbers. Also pray that the Lord will continue to teach me how to be an effective shepherd of His people.

Pastor Ron’s sermon today was excellent. He has been preaching through the book of 1st Peter for the better part of the summer now, and this week we were at 1 Peter 2:13. The topic was ’submission’. Pastor sure preached on a fun topic, though one I know that I certainly needed to hear.

This is my brief synopsis:

Submission is almost a dirty word today, even in Christian circles. Many Christian husbands wrongly use 1 Peter 3:1 to say that their wives are supposed to be submissive to them, while not even truely understanding what the Bible is really talking about.

Submission is NOT:

Instead, it implies:

Thus submission is defined as:

To make yourself available with a good attitude, so that you may receive what is offered.

Pastor’s ‘Final Thoughts’ were what hit me the most.
#1. Our submission to Christ really does determine how the rest of our Christian life is developing.
#2. Spend more time praciticing your submission to Jesus Christ and less time worrying about submitting to others.

Pastor’s goal was to show us that if we being properly submissive to Christ, that will line up everything else in our lives. If we are obedient to God and His Word (Bible), then we will be submissive to the others whom we are supposed to be submissive to: Christ, church, spouse, government, etc..

I really appreciated the encouragement and exhortation of this lesson. Not only did I better refine my idea of what Biblical submission is, but I also was powerfully encouraged to be obedient to Christ and be submissive as he has commanded me to be.