LIVING IN LAODICIA

I live in a great, very old city. It was begun hundreds of years ago in an area that was, at that time, largely agricultural. Down through the years it was known for producing world-class wool. Over the centuries the city grew, changed its name and became a diversified business community. Located right on a major highway, the city also became a center for transportation, as well as commerce. 

Because the businesses of the area have been profitable, the people who work in them have enjoyed great economic success. In fact, there is no real poverty in this area so I guess it would be okay to say that economically no one is lacking. Pretty cool, right?

The people of this area are interesting and very diverse — many different races and lifestyles — but everyone is exceedingly tolerant. In fact, our town is rich in tolerance and understanding, with a philosophy of “Live and let live.”

While there is lots of acceptance about different philosophies and lifestyles, there are some things we just will not allow to happen here. For instance, we do not allow radical positions nor do we allow anything extreme that would upset the core values of the area. We are a culturally relevant community — let me give you an example of what I mean.

As a community, we are open to churches of all faiths as long as they do not promote extreme positions. If some firebrand with a heated-up message of his own belief system comes to town and tries to trumpet that position, he is firmly told to be quiet and tone down the message or move on. We have rules and laws against that kind of extreme behaviour!

Churches are to serve the people and not to proselytize. Those who go out and try to convince people that their belief system is right and others are wrong are considered extremists, and in a culturally relevant city like this that is a definite no-no! As I said, the churches are to serve the people and let the people come to them if they feel they need some form of religious experience in their lives.

All the different religions get along just fine here because, as we see it, they are all about the same thing. They worship the same God and they are moving toward the same ultimate destination. The churches just have different names and different ways to achieve the same end result.

Personally, I am drawn to the Christian church. I like their people, I like the way they do things, and I like their message. It is a message that makes me feel good about myself. Our church is the greatest place in the world to meet people. There are lots of singles because marriage is considered old-fashioned and same sex relationships are accepted. My live-in boyfriend and I met at one of the mixers for singles at the church and we are planning to have a church wedding next spring. Hey, there are even lots of “grey hairs” among us!

I like the social activities and the way the churches build us up with the emphasis on personal success and how to get the most out of life. I find this kind of approach very edifying.

A little earlier in the article I mentioned extremism and our church is a good example of how that can be handled. We had a couple of incidents recently that our church leadership had to deal with.

One of them was an outside group that came into town and began telling people in our church that the Bible was the final authority for everything that relates to the Christian Church. In addition, this group proclaimed that Jesus Christ, the founder of Christianity, was not the center of our church at all! Well, you can imagine how that went over. The church leadership had to get involved and remove these people by force. In the process there were some pretty strong conversations about Jesus, the Bible and the place they used to have in the church. We are way beyond that kind of thinking now. We still keep the Bible and images of Jesus around but only to remind us of where we came from. I mean, really now, is the Bible, which was written at least two thousand years ago, relevant to us today? I mean — really?

And then there was another group that came and were “way out there” extreme. They started talking about prophecy! Lots of our people are really into prophecy like Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce and all that stuff, but these guys were discussing prophecies about this town. Apparently a portion of the book of Revelation has the name of our city in it. You can imagine how upset the leadership got when this group told us we needed to repent and get right with God. We sent that group packing in a hurry!

The name of our church is “The Door” and one of this prophecy group had the audacity to say, “Jesus wants to come and bless your lives. He is standing at ‘the door’ and knocking.” How weird is that?

Hey, in my rush to tell you all about our city, I just realized I forgot to tell you the name of our great town. It’s Laodicia, one very laid-back place to live!

ANANIAS, SAPPHIRA AND THE TRINITY

The Old Testament is all about Jehovah God, revealing who He is and His plan for His chosen people. Scattered throughout the O.T. are prophetic references to a coming Messiah and some references to the Holy Spirit, but the predominant presence is Father God. 

Through the gospels we are given the story of the birth, life, ministry, death and resurrection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ. In John we learn that Jesus was God: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2).

This had to be confusing for the disciples, who just wanted a Messiah who would throw out the Romans and keep the nation free from foreign domination. Instead, Jesus talked to them about being just like His Father and then He began to teach them about the Holy Spirit.

Jesus taught the disciples that when He went back to be with the Father, He (Jesus) would send them another Comforter (John 14:16). The word Helper/Comforter means “another just like the other” — the Holy Spirit would be just like Jesus and would continue His ministry on earth. As Jesus was God, so would the Holy Spirit be God. God the Father was in heaven and Jesus (God the Son) walked among men, ministered on earth, and gave Himself as the sacrifice for sin. God the Holy Spirit would be in the earth and make His dwelling place in the body of those who believed in Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:16 and 6:19). The Holy Spirit would come to empower and to dwell in those who would follow Christ (Acts 1:8).

This had to be very confusing for the early church, for the disciples. For centuries the Jews had focused on one God, Jehovah. Yes, they had anticipated the coming of the Messiah, but had it ever registered that the Messiah would be God — not a different God, but the same God, just in a different form? And now they are confronted with the third part of what we call the Trinity — the Holy Spirit. Just as it is confusing today and people argue about the Trinity (how can there be three Gods in one?), some maintain that our focus in the New Testament age should just be Jesus. The theological air in the church still has a smell of confusion over the Trinity, just as it did 2000 years ago.

I believe the early church reeled under the revelation they were being confronted with. Thousands of years of history and tradition were being changed in a matter of days. Thousands of years of “one God” were being replaced by a triune Godhead and the early church was staggering under the call to understand and to change.

This brings us to the moment of Ananias and Sapphira, who were a part of the church right after Pentecost. When did they come to Christ? We do not know for sure; perhaps they were among the several thousand who responded to the first altar call on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41). Or perhaps they came a little later: “And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved” (Acts 2:47).

Those early days in the church were powerful times of ministry and praising God. In Acts 4:32-37 we see a church that was committed to taking care of each other as moved on by the Holy Spirit. If one was in need, others gave of their resources to help.

In Acts 5:1 we meet Ananias and Sapphira. In the spirit of sharing, they sold a piece of property and kept part of it for themselves. However, they told the apostles they were donating everything from the sale, a full 100 percent.

Peter challenged Ananias: “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. . . . Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God” (Acts 5:3-4). What happened after Peter’s challenge to Ananias is the graphic underscoring of the revelation to the church; i.e., the Holy Spirit is God!

I believe that just as the early church grappled with this revelation, so large segments of the church today grapple with the place of the Holy Spirit in the Trinity and the Holy Spirit’s importance to us.

Do we view the Holy Spirit as co-equal with God? How we see the Holy Spirit is important and will become increasingly so in the darkening days that are in our future.

As long as I live I will never forget the words of a much older minister. I was in Bible college, young and impressionable. In a class for those preparing to go into pastoral ministry the teacher, while discussing the gifts and operation of the Holy Spirit, said: “The Holy Spirit will ruin your church if you don’t control Him.” Later in life I came to understand that what the man was talking about was the conduct of people who do and say bizarre things and claim to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. But I walked away from that teaching with a disrespect for and a caution about the Holy Spirit. I carried that attitude with me for several years and that’s a sin. To disrespect the Holy Spirit is to disrespect God.

Sadly, we live in a day when much of the church that was born in a Holy Spirit revival has relegated the Holy Spirit and His gifts to a back room. Even sadder is the fact that some of my friends in the Spirit-filled ministry have relegated the Holy Spirit to the back room of their lives, as well as their ministry. In many churches the Holy Spirit’s work is guardedly allowed and as such they are disrespecting the Holy Spirit and the Trinity.

WHICH WAY DO YOU LEAN?

   

There is a huge amount of political rhetoric flying around in these days leading up to the coming elections. One party is referred to as “leaning to the right” and the other as “leaning to the left.” Often the unspoken question is, “Which way are you leaning?” Please relax because I am not going to descend into the political arena! There is far too much innuendo, blatant untruth and unnecessary personal attack coming from both sides. What we really need is the giant broom of righteousness to sweep through our government. 

In the book of Proverbs, Solomon challenges us to a “leaning” that is a key to releasing the blessing and power of God in our lives. This is far more important than political ideology.

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

I break this wonderful passage down this way.

1. The Challenge

The challenge is presented to us through two statements. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart” and “In all your ways acknowledge Him.” Do you think it appears twice because we are stubborn and slow to learn?

The word translated trust means “to lie helpless, facedown.” It is a picture of someone who has surrendered and is waiting for a command to respond to and obey. It does not suggest that we turn off our brain and ignore our intelligence and common sense. It is an acknowledgement that we are limited in our capacities and abilities — and He is not. He is God — and we are not!

“In all your ways acknowledge Him” is speaking about the entire course of your life. It means that we set Him first and invite Him to be involved in all aspects of our life: personal and professional; public and private; present and future. To acknowledge does not mean to tip your hat to God, to nod as if in agreement; it means to totally and wholeheartedly embrace God and His working in your life. The word acknowledge here also means “to know” on an intimate, personal level. These two challenges are clear in their boundaries; we are to choose to acknowledge/to know Him “in all our ways” and “with all our heart.”

2. The Question

Solomon follows his challenge to trust with “lean not on your own understanding.” The implication here is that we are to lean into Him and not continually retreat back to reliance on our own abilities and intellect.

We lean on the Lord by getting close to Him; leaning into Him allows His strength to become our strength. Sometimes we don’t have the strength to deal with what is happening in our life but He does! The Lord wants us to be close to Him, so close that His strength is there for us to lean on.

The question that each of us has to answer is, “Which way do I lean?” Are we content to make our own way through life resting on our own abilities and wisdom? Are we so arrogant that we believe we have most, if not all, the answers? Have I brought my intelligence and abilities to a place of submission? If not, why not? What would hold me back from letting God’s blessing flow into my life?

Which way do you lean?

3. The Promise

“And He will direct your paths.” This is God’s promise to His children. God says, “I will direct or make straight/successful the paths of your life.” When I study this verse, I keep going back to a mental picture of a bobsled run. Most of us have seen bobsled races as a part of the Winter Olympics on TV or perhaps on ABC’s Wide World of Sports. On each side of the track are eight- or ten-feet-high banks of ice and snow that keep the sled on the track where it is supposed to be. The slickness of the ice, the accumulating speed, and the downhill slope make it difficult under the best of circumstances to keep the sled centered on the track. Even though the sled may bounce from side to side, with the safeguard of the banks the sled will stay on the racing track most of the time.

So it is with our downhill race to the finish line of God’s purpose for our life. God makes a promise to us: “You put your trust in Me and get it off yourself and I will keep you on track.  When you start to slip and slide, I’ll be there and I will keep you safe and on course.”

Which way do you lean?

“The weaker we feel, the harder we lean. And the harder we lean, the stronger we grow spiritually.”  J.I. PACKER

OUTRAGEOUS MONEY TALK

“Jesus looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the offering box, and he saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. And he said, ‘Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on’” (Luke 21:1-4, ESV).

We are not told in this story how much the rich actually put in the offering box but we do know from a parallel passage in Mark that the widow put in two coins that together made a total of less than one cent. I’m sure that whatever the rich put in was hundreds or even thousands of times more than one penny. Why would Jesus make this statement, “This poor widow has put in more than all of them”? Pretty outrageous statement, isn’t it?

Plain talk about money, giving, and possessions is often in short supply within the church. Usually there are just a few well-defined camps in the church when it comes to what I call “money talk.”

One group doesn’t talk comfortably about money. They teach that you must tithe or you are cursed. Their approach is legalistic and pharisaical. Plain talk about money and being generous almost never happens in this group. It’s as though it is beneath them to talk about financial things but most of this group feels the same way about sex, and they certainly never talk about that!

On the other side of the spectrum are those who talk about money all the time — consumed with money, wealth and possessions. They have developed whole theological positions about God’s responsibility to make you rich. This group is into material things and anyone who doesn’t agree with them is “living beneath their rights and privileges.” They consider financial success to be an indicator of spiritual well-being.

From church history we learn that it has been a challenge for the church to find a balance in its approach to “money talk.” It was the church’s foolishness over money and selling “indulgences” to get people out of purgatory that irritated Martin Luther and led to the Protestant Reformation. The selling of “get out of hell passes” was a scheme by church leaders to raise money for a new cathedral.

Jesus was never silent on “money talk.” He taught and spoke more about money and possessions than He did about heaven and hell. Why did He speak so much about this? Because He understood that the human spirit would struggle to find and stay in balance about money and possessions.

The story related in Luke 21 about the poor widow and the rich giving their offerings seems to be out of place at first glance. At second glance, however, we begin to learn some very important things about money and giving.

One of the reasons some people never want to talk about giving is because they don’t want to think that the Lord actually pays attention to what they give. Yes, that’s what I said: “Some of us don’t want to think that the Lord is aware of what we give.” When Mark tells this story, he says that Jesus sat down and watched what was happening. This was more than a casual glance! He was studying intently what was happening because it was important to Him

Why was this important to Him? Giving and our approach to it is a key indicator of how solid our relationship is with Him. Our Lord is a giver and is generous beyond measure, and grace is but one indicator of that. When people claim to be saved and Spirit-filled but are stingy, as the rich men in Mark 12 and Luke 21 were, it’s an indicator of what a poor understanding they have of their Savior and how little of their life they’ve actually let Him have. “Freely you have received, freely give” (Matthew 10:8).

The rich men gave God a tip. After they had taken care of all their expenses and paid all their bills, they looked to see what was left and their offering was out of that “abundance.” This is the pharisaical spirit that gives to be seen of others, to be appreciated for being “a big giver.” This is not generosity, this is not freely giving, and it did not impress the Lord.

This poor woman who had little in life was more in love with the Lord than the rich men. She was more grateful and appreciative than they were. She gave everything she had because she understood how much God loved her and in her impoverished way she wanted to give back. The poor woman honored the Lord with her two coins that didn’t add up to much, but for her it was everything she had and she was delighted to give it. Jesus was impressed with her gift and her willingness to give. Her generosity delighted the Lord.

We learn something from Jesus’ outrageous comment. We learn that He does not look to see how much you give but He looks to see how much you keep back for yourself! The rich men gave God a tip, which is better than what some of us do, but the poor lady gave Him everything she had. She threw herself into God’s love and mercy and said, “This is the least I could do. I know you are my Father and my God and You will watch over me.”

Why do we give to the Lord? We do not give because must, because we do not have to! Instead we give because:

            1.      We love Him and our giving pleases Him (2 Corinthians 9:7).

            2.      We are following His model and God is an outrageous giver. “For God so loved the world that He    gave His only begotten Son” (John 3:16).

            3.      He has asked us to be wise stewards and not lay up treasure on earth but in heaven. When we give into His kingdom we are laying up treasure in heaven (Matthew 6:19-20).

           4.      Everything on this planet is His and when we give we are acknowledging His lordship over creation and over our lives (1 Corinthians 10:26).