Technological Woes

As we I write, the office is experiencing minor technical difficulties with Joan’s computer. The wrong thing in the wrong place was checked the wrong way and it created a labyrinth of troubles. Now a dependency on technology has created a lapse in efficiency. Work will still be done, but time has to be expended on solving these problems. The struggle is between a dependency on technology and the problems that it creates. This is true even in our spiritual lives. We have more access to more information than we have ever had access to in the whole of human history, and this information is more diverse and unsubstantial than ever. We have access to diagnostic medical resources, but also have unhindered access to materials that are spiritually damaging to us. Technology has become a blessing and a curse.

                 I will not set before my eyes anything that is worthless. I hate the work of those who fall away; it shall not cling to me. A perverse heart shall be far from me; I will know nothing of evil.

(Psa 101:3-4). We have to make a dedicated decision that we will not allow technology to become a stumbling block within our home. We have to remove the temptation from our presence in order to be secure. Does this mean that we have to remove our computers and televisions from our homes? No. This does mean that we take advantage of the resources made available to mange this technology in an effective manner. Here are a few tips:

1. Place all computers and televisions in public family places: Aside from disturbing the sleep cycle of watchers, televisions and computers in bedrooms provide a secret sheltered place where teens and adults alike are more apt to look at materials that can do serious mental and spiritual harm.
2. Find software and equipment to help with the problem: The legendary TV guardian is a great resource to help block foul language on television programs, and there are even DVD players with downloadable patches that edit movies to suitable standards. There are also computer programs like Be Safe Online that prevent visits to unsuitable websites and notify when the program has been bypassed or shut down.  These are great resources to create a safety net that stops some of the problems that these technologies can bring with them. Also your television probably has a V-Chip that lets you set the ratings of television shows that can be watched. It will require you to make a passcode. Keep it secret or it defeats the purpose of making a code in the first place.
3. Parent must make family limits on technology: You are the parent. You make the rules. This is one of the beauties of being a parent, and I encourage you not to give in no matter how much your child my whine or complain. However, you must understand that the same rules have to apply to you as well because you are laying the foundation for your child’s future actions. Not only do you have to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk as well. Fun Right?
4. Find ways to use time other than computers or TV: Your children want your attention even though they act like the do not 98% of the time. Find ways to spend time together as a family. These do not have to be expensive outings, but could be something as simple as an afternoon at the park together. Quality family time is quickly disappearing in our society, and children need to understand that relationships are more than just being “friends” with someone on Facebook. Pry them away from the XBOX and teach them to interact with people face to face.
5. DON’T GO OVERBOARD WITH IT: Do not send your home back to the dark ages for fear of the evils that technologies can bring! Find a way to keep the good while eliminating the bad. No need to toss the family computer out the window or flush the cell phone down the toilet. Find a way to teach our youth balance and responsibility when it comes to media and technology.

Technology can be one of the greatest blessings in our lives, but it can also be one of the most damaging influences we have. People spend more time in front of and on the computer than they ever have before. They are integrated into our work and now have taken over our home. With some planning, we can prevent any issues that may arise.

Blinded

To say that this summer has been busy for me would be an extreme understatement. I have been every where from Texas to Panama, and still had the chance to have camp with our teenagers. I rushed from one place to another for most of the summer, and it took somewhat of a toll on the focus and intent that I had originally set forth for this year. I had envisioned a summer packed full of youth events with students over flowing at every one, but it panned out quite differently. Why? There was too much going on for everyone who was involved. We had become distracted by the goings on of this life, and as a result we had difficulty to make much time for anything else. Some would claim this is just part of life, but I disagree. We tend to wrap ourselves up in this life in order to avoid what we consider to be a heavier burden. We in essence blind ourselves to the Kingdom of God.

                When I was in Panama, I was reminded that the Kingdom of God goes well beyond me and the walls of a church building in Tennessee. God’s Kingdom has no boundaries or barriers, but we don’t remember that because of our own blindness. We forget that there are Christians elsewhere struggling with the same situations that we are, and they can sympathize with us in that. In fact, we have turned a blind eye as to how blessed we truly are to be Christians in a world superpower. We have clean water, an adequate level of health, and an education that eliminates barriers for us. However, we are soft and weak in the ways that hinder our faith. We are far too comfortable with the world, and we are far too afraid that our “necessities” (which to the majority of the world is luxury) might be taken away. So we blind ourselves to everything else, and create a bubble to live in. As a result, we become complacent and lazy in our spiritual life, and look for pity in how “bad” we have it. We complain because our “rights” are infringed.

                When we begin to blind ourselves from the reality of the Kingdom and life, we create a death trap from which we do not want to escape. We become doubters and unbelievers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We doubt that he is enough because we live like He isn’t. We accumulate stuff to realize it is pointless. We live “freely” from the Gospel by fudging the “rules,” and slowly accommodate a worldly lifestyle to be Christian. We claim to be believers, but we live like unbelievers. 2 Cor. 4:2-4 deal with the fact that we who have chosen to be followers of God have given up these things for the kingdom. If we have not, then we are not part of God’s Kingdom. It is time to take the blinders off, and open our eyes to the reality of the world. Only then can we truly begin to serve whole heartedly.

Spiritual Spring Cleaning....

Over the past few weeks, we have seen a flurry of activity in order to prepare for this new time here at Owl Hollow. Many people have been active in making preparations for the Rayburn’s move to our congregation, and there have been some serious man hours that have gone into revitalizing much of our buildings. First I would like to thank everyone who has contributed to this effort and worked to make our facilities warm and inviting.

The think about revitalization is that you have to let go of the old to embrace the new. We painted my office this last week because it really needed it. The wall were marked and dirty where hands had be run over them over time, and the gray-green paint was beginning to show signs of age in this space that I call my office. Frankly, it was kind of a depressing place, and was not conducive to getting much work done. After cleaning out the room, painting the walls, and reorganizing the area the office feels like a place where I can get much more accomplished.

Our lives are much like this. We feel weighed down and somewhat depressed because things seem bleak and we see the need for renewal. Here are a few steps for renewal and renovation in our life:

CLEAN IT OUT (II Cor. 7:10)- We have to be willing to take everything in our life and set it aside only to bring back the things that are needed. We should realize that we should only bring those things back into our life that are good (I Thess. 5:21), and get rid of the things that are not. Otherwise, our repentance cannot lead to a state of salvation.

CLEAN IT UP: (Rom 6:4)- Putting on Christ is more than a paint job, it is a complete rebuilding of who we are. Christ takes us down to the frame and even rebuilds who we are with himself as the foundation (I Cor. 3:11), and but we have to be willing to participate in this process.

CLEANLY ORGAINZE IT: (Colossians 3:12-17) When we clean out the bad in our life we make ample room for the good to come in and take its place. We are told to put on compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, love, and the peace of Christ. Life becomes easier to handle when we use these concepts to organize our life and how we deal with others.

When we look at revitalizing our life, it means that we have to make some significant changes. We have to be willing to sacrifice wealth (Matt. 19: 16-24), family (Matt. 10:37), friends (Luke 21:16), and even our very life (Matt. 16:25, Mark 8: 35, Luke 9:24, 17:33). We have to make the effort and admission that our lives are junky and we are ready to clean them up before Christ’s blood can have any effect on us as followers. Take time this week and ask yourself if you need to revitalize your life….

The Problem with Hypocrisy

One of the biggest complaints against Christians today is that many lead a life that is hypocritical in nature, and for the most part these allegations can be somewhat true. This is not to say that we are never allowed to make mistakes, but hypocrisy calls out a larger problem that plagues the Church. Hypocrites are leaders of double lives. That is the problem that those in the world have with those who are supposedly followers of Jesus; they pretend to be one thing while truly being another.

The worst part of hypocrisy is that those who participate in it are so delusional that they are unable to recognize that they are living this double life. Jesus had a serious problem with those who led a double life. In Luke 6, Jesus makes the point that one can not help those around them until they are aware of their own situation and condition that is often worse than the person that they are trying to help. Hypocrisy tricks us into believing that our problems are insignificant and do not affect us. In effect, we cannot see the forest for the trees. Jesus said it this way, “How do you expect to get the splinter out of your brother’s eye when you have a log in your own (Luke 6:42)?”

Hypocrisy hinders us from being effective in this life. It’s easy to slip in and out of church going unnoticed and being uninvolved because we are afraid of being to closely knit with a church family. It makes it all the easier for us to live how we want without the repercussions of guilt for leading a double life. Jesus demands that we pick a side. We cannot continue to claim to be a follower of Jesus, but live a life that is measured by the world’s standards. If we have put on Christ, we have to live a life that is according to God’s standards. When we become Christians, we are not our own anymore. That means that we cannot live life as we please, because we have sacrificed ourselves over to Him.

Hypocrisy is crippling the Church today because so many “Christians” claim to be one thing while living in the complete opposite of what they claim to be. Imagine if a charity asked you to join and help them to feed starving children around the world, but you saw that they were doing nothing to feed those children and in many cases were actually starving them intentionally. Would you want to take part in that organization? I wouldn’t! That’s how the world perceives the Church when it is filled with those who lead a double life. IF THE CHURCH IS TO GROW, WE MUST BECOME COMPLETELY DEDICATED TO CHRIST! That is what will set us apart from the rest of Christianity, and will show those in the community around us that we are children of God. It begins when we start to live that way!

Dangers of Looking Back

In a time for our congregation to have so much to look forward to, there is a temptation for us to look back on the past and make a comparison. The problem with looking to the past is that we tend to romanticize it, and make it out to be so much better than it actually was. This creates a problem of comparison in which the present will never live up to the glorified past. This is especially true when we look to face hard times and situations that make us greatly uncomfortable.
Think about the Israelites when they had just come out of Egyptian captivity (Exodus 14). They were in the wilderness just beginning their journey when the Egyptians realized they had let go of their entire workforce, and they were determined to get them back. The Israelites had see great wonders and miracles from God, but when the armies of Egypt were seen in the distance they quickly glamorized their life in Egypt. They begin to remember their fair masters, filled bellies, and thought it would be better to serve Egypt than to die in the wilderness. In that moment looking back, all the Israelites could see was that slavery looked better than death. They had forgotten what God had done to bring them to that point because all they could see was the unknown.
We tend to do the same thing when placed into a situation where there is a variable of the unknown. It makes us panic and look back to our past to comfort ourselves in a diluted romanticized view of what actually was. So how do we fight this? Moses gave the children of Israel the answer, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord which he will work for you today (Ex. 14:13).” We have to have a full faith in God that he will lead us forward with an established future that will protect us and provide us each with the opportunity to serve him in the best way possible.

Sarcasm

Sarcasm is such a curious device that we often enable in our day-to-day speech in order to establish a particular point or to make light of a situation. Many would argue that there is no place for sarcasm, and that God would never approve of such a usage. However, I know that God has been sarcastic in His dealings with the people of Israel. Take a look at Amos 4: 6-11

6"I gave you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and lack of bread in all your places, yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
7"I also withheld the rain from you when there were yet three months to the harvest; I would send rain on one city, and send no rain on another city; one field would have rain, and the field on which it did not rain would wither;8so two or three cities would wander to another city to drink water, and would not be satisfied; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.
9”I struck you with blight and mildew; your many gardens and your vineyards, your fig trees and your olive trees the locust devoured; yet you did not return to me,” declares the LORD.
10"I sent among you a pestilence after the manner of Egypt; I killed your young men with the sword, and carried away your horses, and I made the stench of your camp go up into your nostrils; yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
11"I overthrew some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were as a brand plucked out of the burning;yet you did not return to me," declares the LORD.
12"Therefore thus I will do to you, O Israel; because I will do this to you, prepare to meet your God, O Israel!"
13For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!

God was blatantly sarcastic with the Israelites, but there was purpose in his sarcasm. Israel denied the idea that these things were happening to them because they had turned away from God. He was making a point that He knew that they were bitter towards him for bringing these hardships, but he still wanted them to realize that they came because they did not follow Him. Would God still be sarcastic with us about our hardships if we were away from Him?

Kyle

Under Pressure

I spent last weekend at Evangelism University with several teens, and was privileged enough to attend some of the adult classes. Throughout the course of study, we discussed evangelism as adults in the workplace and with family members, and then divided those who we would be interacting to into two groups. First, we have those who are lost. This group constitutes the largest number of people we interact with, and can often be the easiest group to evangelize too. Second, we have those who have walked away from God, and need to be restored. This can be the hardest group for us to reach out to, because they have known God but have decided to go elsewhere.
In the midst of the discussion of these two groups, it struck me why we have such a difficult time in reaching these two groups. First, we put so much pressure on ourselves because we feel like we have to know everything about the Bible. We believe that we are expected to have the answer to every question, and that if we do not then we have doomed that person to Hell for eternity. That pressure can overwhelm us and create doubt in ourselves that prevents us from being able to do the type of outreach we need to be doing. Second, we allow discussions about Jesus and the Gospel to turn into religious discussions which for then into religious arguments. This only adds to the fear and confirmation that there is pressure to know it all. We start into a study prepare for a religious battle of wits, and ultimately because of that mentality that is where the discussion goes.
I have come to realize that personal evangelism is not about the religious battle of wits, but about one thing: The Gospel! There can be time for doctrinal issues when this person is a believer open to the commands and examples provided by God. We must first establish the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Gospel is this. We deserve eternal death because of sin which separates us from God, but God gave His Son as a sacrificial gift to become sin so that the relationship might be restored. It’s that simple. Want to sum it up in one verse? Romans 6:23. Do not be distracted by religious discussion, the purpose and aim of a Bible study with a well established friend is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. You must enter in with that being your focus or study will seem trivial and frustrating! Take the challenge and talk to a friend this week…

Kyle