American Christianity has long been dominated by sentimentalism. With that in mind, I believe that this is one of the single most dangerous things we bring into our worldview, friendships, relationships of all kinds, biblical interpretation--which ultimately builds our doctrine which makes up our foundational stones.
Nearly all christian churches today are filled with this ambiguous sentimental love, which isn't love at all, but an inglorious feeling. False unity is built around the idea that we all just love each other. If you're the poor sucker that disagrees with the majority, it's not the truth of the subject that is debated and worked through, it is your attitude. That's not to say that if you're being a jerk that you shouldn't be called into account for it. I'm talking about people who disagree on issues and want to dialogue them are discarded like the nursery's trash, "because they are not in unity with he rest of us."
Sappy feelings become the axiom to all truth in our lives, and that is what rules us. Feelings are then, in effect, the barometers to all decision making.
Sentimentalism causes us to interpret the bible through a sappy lens, which causes us to ignore the hard passages of scripture where Jesus, Paul and others rebuke people. If you're the unfortunate fellow trying to call someone to repentance, you'll be greeted with, "Judge not lest you be judge" or "remove the log from your eye then take the speck out of my eye." If you happen to cite certain passages where Jesus or Paul rebuked someone, then you are greeted with, "you're not Jesus" or "you're not Paul", but those same people would be happy to imitate Jesus on the more sentimental issues, i.e. love one another (which isn't sentimental at all)... lets just love everyone. That is the result of a sentimentally viewing scripture.
Interpreting the bible sentimentally has plagued the American evangelical church, this is in my opinion one of the single most detrimental issues to our culture, which is ultimately a form of relativism.
Feelings are nature, but the are the reaction of decisions, and ought not to be the axiom to our decision-making. Make a sandwich of substance, and not an ooey-gooey-sentimental, nutritionally void sandwich.
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
Saturday, June 22, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
Good Father
Yesterday I posted an article titled Daddy Issues. Today is Father's day, and as I wrote yesterday, we, as a nation, have some serious daddy issues. This is unfortunate, as God chooses to describe Himself as a good Father; Jesus also revealed God as a good Father.
We need to deal with our daddy issues, and pastors must overcome this, lest the become like author of the shack and choose to ignore God as a father, and portray God as a mother. However that is indeed a blasphemous thing to do.
There are many ways to reveal that God is indeed a good Father. One such way is to look at the very standard God set for Himself in Genesis 22:12. When we look at the story of Abraham and Isaac, God said, "seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." God set this as a standard for himself, to show us that when the Christ had come, we would know that God has not withheld anything from us, rather He gave the most precious thing He had to offer, His only Son.
John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (HCSB)
Your personal story may very well include that of a poor earthly father; but God has revealed himself as a good Father. However this must be judged by what God defines, and not what our relativistic self wants it to be.
Abraham didn't withhold his son because of fear (Gen. 22:12), and faith (Gen. 22:8) that God was indeed good; he trusted that God would provide.
God loves the world; The Father loves His Son - Jesus. Jesus loves the Father. The Father gave his Son a bride; the Son loves the bride and took the responsibility to provide for His bride by laying down His own life in obedience to the Father, and He did it with absolute joy (Hebrew 12:2).
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
We need to deal with our daddy issues, and pastors must overcome this, lest the become like author of the shack and choose to ignore God as a father, and portray God as a mother. However that is indeed a blasphemous thing to do.
There are many ways to reveal that God is indeed a good Father. One such way is to look at the very standard God set for Himself in Genesis 22:12. When we look at the story of Abraham and Isaac, God said, "seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me." God set this as a standard for himself, to show us that when the Christ had come, we would know that God has not withheld anything from us, rather He gave the most precious thing He had to offer, His only Son.
John 3:16 “For God loved the world in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. (HCSB)
Your personal story may very well include that of a poor earthly father; but God has revealed himself as a good Father. However this must be judged by what God defines, and not what our relativistic self wants it to be.
Abraham didn't withhold his son because of fear (Gen. 22:12), and faith (Gen. 22:8) that God was indeed good; he trusted that God would provide.
God loves the world; The Father loves His Son - Jesus. Jesus loves the Father. The Father gave his Son a bride; the Son loves the bride and took the responsibility to provide for His bride by laying down His own life in obedience to the Father, and He did it with absolute joy (Hebrew 12:2).
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Daddy Issues
There are two holidays that Americans celebrate that I believe are two of the most painful days of the year. These two days have become reminders of our personal failures, the failures of those who were suppose to be there for us, those who were suppose to protect us, those who were suppose to love us, those who were suppose to play with us, those who were suppose to push us on the swing at the playground, those who were suppose to protect us from bad dates, etc. (I believe I could have extended that for an hour). Anyway, the two holidays are Mother's Day and Father's Day.
America has some serious daddy issues.
There is no doubt that there's probably ten-thousand Christian bloggers writing about Ephesians 6:1-4, and there will be probably triple that amount of pastors who will do the shame thing in their pulpits this Sunday. Shame the fathers for not being what God has called them to be.... that will teach them.
Not really, but that doesn't mean that we don't use hard words in order to teach them the hard truths. Personally I believe there is a big difference in shaming someone, and using hard words that are biblical truths. Hard words that are built on real Truth will drive people to repentance, or further harden their hearts. There is a big difference in shaming someone and teaching them hard truths.
I want to focus briefly, although I would like for it to be much more exhaustive, on Psalm 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
I heard Pastor Douglas Wilson making a passing comment on this verse at a family conference earlier this year, "fathers who abdicate their responsibilities, will one day be ran through with their own arrows". Pastor Wilson was making a simple yet profound point that your children are a blessing, but they can also be your curse.
Fathers who raise their children in the wisdom of the Lord, to honor their mother, this is done by loving their children's mother; fathers he love the children in discipline, who teach them, respect them, protect them, I believe can fully expect their sons and son-in-laws to stand with them in the times of trouble, defend them when they are too old to defend themselves. However fathers that don't do what they are supposed to do as fathers can expect to own day be taken out by one of their own arrows.
Traitors are made and not born.
If you've been that poor father,repent to your children. Whether they are young or they are old, God can restore the worst of any situation. If you've been the good father, thank God and pray that you don't become puffed up with pride.
There are loads of things I could continue to say, but think this short post has said enough.
Here is a good read by Mark Driscoll 7 Ways Fathers Provoke their Children.
For those who find these two days to be painful reminders, I pray that you'll find peace and use these days as reminders to pray for your father and your mother. No matter what your individual story is, you are still called to honor them. If you are a Christian, the best thing for you to do is honor them in even simple ways. This of course would take a book to cover, but lets just say, there are checks and balances, there are limitations to what this means depending on your individual story.
Grace and Peace,
Douglas Herron
America has some serious daddy issues.
There is no doubt that there's probably ten-thousand Christian bloggers writing about Ephesians 6:1-4, and there will be probably triple that amount of pastors who will do the shame thing in their pulpits this Sunday. Shame the fathers for not being what God has called them to be.... that will teach them.
Not really, but that doesn't mean that we don't use hard words in order to teach them the hard truths. Personally I believe there is a big difference in shaming someone, and using hard words that are biblical truths. Hard words that are built on real Truth will drive people to repentance, or further harden their hearts. There is a big difference in shaming someone and teaching them hard truths.
I want to focus briefly, although I would like for it to be much more exhaustive, on Psalm 127:3-5
Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.
I heard Pastor Douglas Wilson making a passing comment on this verse at a family conference earlier this year, "fathers who abdicate their responsibilities, will one day be ran through with their own arrows". Pastor Wilson was making a simple yet profound point that your children are a blessing, but they can also be your curse.
Fathers who raise their children in the wisdom of the Lord, to honor their mother, this is done by loving their children's mother; fathers he love the children in discipline, who teach them, respect them, protect them, I believe can fully expect their sons and son-in-laws to stand with them in the times of trouble, defend them when they are too old to defend themselves. However fathers that don't do what they are supposed to do as fathers can expect to own day be taken out by one of their own arrows.
Traitors are made and not born.
If you've been that poor father,repent to your children. Whether they are young or they are old, God can restore the worst of any situation. If you've been the good father, thank God and pray that you don't become puffed up with pride.
There are loads of things I could continue to say, but think this short post has said enough.
Here is a good read by Mark Driscoll 7 Ways Fathers Provoke their Children.
For those who find these two days to be painful reminders, I pray that you'll find peace and use these days as reminders to pray for your father and your mother. No matter what your individual story is, you are still called to honor them. If you are a Christian, the best thing for you to do is honor them in even simple ways. This of course would take a book to cover, but lets just say, there are checks and balances, there are limitations to what this means depending on your individual story.
Grace and Peace,
Douglas Herron
Sunday, June 9, 2013
Not Some Vanilla Truth
John 8: 32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."
The words of Jesus that you see in this verse is perhaps one of the most abused and misused verses in the bible. In Pulpits, or a stool and small table, all over the world will allude to, read or quote this passage, but the reason they use it is drastically different from what Jesus was saying.
It is all to common for a preacher to use this verse to mean what they are saying to you is truth, and the truth they are saying to you, will set you free. For example: if the preacher was preaching a four point sermon on how to share the gospel more effectively, he would probably give you four points that look something like this:
1. Don't smoke or drink: Those things are bad for you, and you don't want to die early do you?
2. Become active, eat healthy - because if you're in shape and feel good about yourself your more likely to share the gospel with others, because you will learn to love yourself, and you can't love your neighbor if you don't love yourself.
3. Be relevant: this one gets tricky, simply because we want to influence the world, so we want to look like the world without really looking , smelling, acting like the world.
4. Just do it! The only way to do it is to just do it!
Most likely, somewhere in this topical and eisegetical sermon, the pastor will use John 8:32 to tell you that this shall set you free, and if they're charismatic they will probably shout that at least three times, but no more than ten.
However Jesus is making a very clear statement, one the early Jews would've understood immediately. When you look at the verse following Jesus' statement, "They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, "You will become free"?" (John 8:33). Immediately before Jesus says, "the truth shall set you free" he states, " So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. (John 8:28). Jesus is foretelling of his crucifixion, and at the same time saying that he is in fact God. This is the truth that Jesus was saying, I am going to die and set you free from your burden of sin and death. This death is eternal separation and punishment for denying God, and your continued disobedience; the obedience that is required all of creation is incapable of fulfilling (Romans 3:9-11).
Jesus goes on to say in verse 34 "Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
Our problem is quite simple. Our first parents sinned against God and God cast them out of the Garden, which was the first temple where they enjoyed God's presence. They rebelled against him by disobeying the only rule that God gave them. Since that time all of man kind has been under the curse that God gave to them, and no one has be able to please God apart from God working in them, on their behalf. Then in fulfillment of the prophecies, and the first prophecy in Genesis 3:15. Jesus, who is eternally God, comes in the flesh, born of a women, lived perfectly, fulfilling the law, and was perfectly obedient all the way to the point of death. Jesus knew the death that was coming to him and he faced the cross with Joy (Hebrews 12:2), endured it so that we can be at peace with God, resting in the promise land--who is Jesus. Jesus was born, Jesus lived, Jesus was murdered, Jesus defeat death by being resurrected from the grave, and Jesus ascended to Heaven where he is now ruling and reigning until the day the invisible Church will become fully visible and the Kingdom of God is fully restored on earth, and the entire earth will be covered with the knowledge of the triune God and enjoy him forever.
That my friends is the truth that Jesus is talking about, not some simplistic vanilla truth, which says if you smoke you're more likely to get cancer. But rather, Jesus is saying, I am God, you are a sinner against me, and only I can fix the problem that you've created; apart from me (Jesus) you have no inheritance, no eternal life, no peace, no joy, and no hope because "I AM" the way, the Truth, the Door, the Life, and no one comes to the Father except by me!
These lazy preachers of pragmatism need to repent of their neglected study, and failures to preach the real Gospel, as the real Gospel is massively and dominantly present in this small yet over shadowed verse.
Rest in the Truth, who is Jesus.
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
The words of Jesus that you see in this verse is perhaps one of the most abused and misused verses in the bible. In Pulpits, or a stool and small table, all over the world will allude to, read or quote this passage, but the reason they use it is drastically different from what Jesus was saying.
It is all to common for a preacher to use this verse to mean what they are saying to you is truth, and the truth they are saying to you, will set you free. For example: if the preacher was preaching a four point sermon on how to share the gospel more effectively, he would probably give you four points that look something like this:
1. Don't smoke or drink: Those things are bad for you, and you don't want to die early do you?
2. Become active, eat healthy - because if you're in shape and feel good about yourself your more likely to share the gospel with others, because you will learn to love yourself, and you can't love your neighbor if you don't love yourself.
3. Be relevant: this one gets tricky, simply because we want to influence the world, so we want to look like the world without really looking , smelling, acting like the world.
4. Just do it! The only way to do it is to just do it!
Most likely, somewhere in this topical and eisegetical sermon, the pastor will use John 8:32 to tell you that this shall set you free, and if they're charismatic they will probably shout that at least three times, but no more than ten.
However Jesus is making a very clear statement, one the early Jews would've understood immediately. When you look at the verse following Jesus' statement, "They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, "You will become free"?" (John 8:33). Immediately before Jesus says, "the truth shall set you free" he states, " So Jesus said to them, "When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority, but speak just as the Father taught me. (John 8:28). Jesus is foretelling of his crucifixion, and at the same time saying that he is in fact God. This is the truth that Jesus was saying, I am going to die and set you free from your burden of sin and death. This death is eternal separation and punishment for denying God, and your continued disobedience; the obedience that is required all of creation is incapable of fulfilling (Romans 3:9-11).
Jesus goes on to say in verse 34 "Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin."
Our problem is quite simple. Our first parents sinned against God and God cast them out of the Garden, which was the first temple where they enjoyed God's presence. They rebelled against him by disobeying the only rule that God gave them. Since that time all of man kind has been under the curse that God gave to them, and no one has be able to please God apart from God working in them, on their behalf. Then in fulfillment of the prophecies, and the first prophecy in Genesis 3:15. Jesus, who is eternally God, comes in the flesh, born of a women, lived perfectly, fulfilling the law, and was perfectly obedient all the way to the point of death. Jesus knew the death that was coming to him and he faced the cross with Joy (Hebrews 12:2), endured it so that we can be at peace with God, resting in the promise land--who is Jesus. Jesus was born, Jesus lived, Jesus was murdered, Jesus defeat death by being resurrected from the grave, and Jesus ascended to Heaven where he is now ruling and reigning until the day the invisible Church will become fully visible and the Kingdom of God is fully restored on earth, and the entire earth will be covered with the knowledge of the triune God and enjoy him forever.
That my friends is the truth that Jesus is talking about, not some simplistic vanilla truth, which says if you smoke you're more likely to get cancer. But rather, Jesus is saying, I am God, you are a sinner against me, and only I can fix the problem that you've created; apart from me (Jesus) you have no inheritance, no eternal life, no peace, no joy, and no hope because "I AM" the way, the Truth, the Door, the Life, and no one comes to the Father except by me!
These lazy preachers of pragmatism need to repent of their neglected study, and failures to preach the real Gospel, as the real Gospel is massively and dominantly present in this small yet over shadowed verse.
Rest in the Truth, who is Jesus.
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
Saturday, June 8, 2013
Hoping For A Cup Of Coffee
This morning I broke my normal routine of reading, praying, writing (until now) and watched a number of documentaries on Ted Haggard. This compelled in me a number of thoughts, and emotions. If you're not sure of Ted's story you can google it and find hundreds of articles about his scandal, at least that is what they refer to his sin as. There are many disagreements I would have with Ted theologically and therefore practically, but his story compels me on a number of levels.
The first thing that I want to discuss is how they (his former church's leadership) handled his sin. When Ted's sin became public his church acted quickly by contacting his family and informing them that they are to have no contact with the people of his now former church. Ted's wife made a statement in an interview about that decision, saying, "these are our friends and we need them right now". That statement put a great deal of weight on me, as I sat there and thought about it briefly, thinking what should be the response to such a horrible sin from the pastor of any church, let alone a mega-church of about 14,000 people. Ted was the pastor of the church and member of that church, as was his family. That raises the question, should Ted have been removed? I believe the answer is rather obvious, and would simply answer it with a yes. But was ostracizing his family from the community the had been apart of for 22 years, was this best response to a very public failure, was this the best thing for everyone involved?
The Haggard Family needed community. Ted's wife needed her friends to weep with her, pray with her, and to share a cup of coffee. Ted needed men to come along side him to share some hard words, and encourage him to love his family through his sin. His children needed the support and friendship from the believers that had surround that family as long as they have been alive.
I am not advocating that Ted should have remained on staff, and certainly not as the lead pastor. However I am advocating that the church has a responsibility to discipline its church members, and a responsibility to disciple, encourage, love, counsel, care for, protect and bring back into full fellowship with the Church body.
This was not a case of the leader covering up his sin, or blame shifting, but a man who owned his sin. This takes on a whole new dimension, as we are not used to men owning their sin.
I was impressed that the Haggard family managed to stay together through Ted's sin, and very public "burning at the stake." as Ted likes to Call it. That piece of information changes everything for me.
Ted has Recently started a new church called St. James. He chose that name because of the verse which says, "faiths without works is dead" (James 2:17).
TLC did a documentary of Ted and his journey to start a new church. One show that I watched, Ted got a phone call where the person on the other end goes after Ted by saying, "In the New testament, it strictly forbids you from ever holding a position of authority, ever again." After his exile from the Church his Pastored, Leith Anderson, the man who was made president of the National Association of Evangelicals, stated, "a person at the highest level of leadership has failed with the standards he lifted up for himself." Rebecca Cope, a church employee stated, "as a person at a high level of leadership, he has to fall harder." and Mike Ware, who was on the board of overseers for New Life church, which handled the departure of Ted said this, "He needs to just disappear".
I'm left with the question, should Ted start another church, lead, teach, pastor another group of people? To be quite honest I'm not certain how I would have handled a situation like this were I in a position to make decision about the Haggard's future and the future of New Life's Church. But I do know this, we (American Evangelicals) have affinity for watching people who are seated in the highest positions of authority fall. I believe mostly because of wrong views that anything large is corrupt, and David killed Goliath. But our hypocrisy is revealed when we love to watch some celebrity be restored i.e. Kobe Bryant and Michael Vick come to mind. But for some reason we don't want to see someone like Ted Haggard Restored.
When Jimmy Swaggart had a very public fall, one that was similarly egregious, but was a heterosexual sin, he returned to the pulpit after just three months.
Those two men had similar sins that took place but were two decades a part, but had dramatically different outcomes. One is left with the question, why? As I stated above, I believe that in part, the problem is with what kind of sin there was. Jimmy's was with a female prostate, and Ted had the misfortune of being involved in a homosexual sin; and American Evangelicals still aren't sure how they are suppose to handle homosexual sin - if we are still allowed to say that publicly.
The main point of this article was to give us somethings to think about, not to answer questions, but to ask some.
There are several things I know. First many of those who raise to the highest places of power will surely fall, and when those titans fall they crush everyone under them. Second, Jesus, on whom the Christian faith was built appeared to have failed, but truly he had conquered and that is the story of the Christian faith - Christ builds his Church and He doesn't fail. Lastly, Christ is seated on the Throne ruling and reigning because He didn't fail.
Be sure to meet that friend for a cup of coffee, the just might need it more than you could image.
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
Thursday, June 6, 2013
7 Years of Unexpected Blessing
Today our family celebrates the birthday of daughter, who is now eleven-years-old. There is much that could be said, and someone is always quipping some bizarre cliché on their child's birthday that they don't truly understand, but today I am very thankful that we have had these wonderful years with her.
It has been nearly seven years since Faith was diagnosed with neuroblastoma age the ripe young age of three. There really isn't a word that works well enough to describe the horror that was felt when the doctor came in to describe what the situation was for our daughter. There is much that could be said, but I'm not looking to stir up sympathy, rather taking a moment to reflect and count the years that God has given us with not only her, but our other children, extended family, and friends.
God knows the days we will all have, be thankful for each of them.
Job 14:5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
It has been nearly seven years since Faith was diagnosed with neuroblastoma age the ripe young age of three. There really isn't a word that works well enough to describe the horror that was felt when the doctor came in to describe what the situation was for our daughter. There is much that could be said, but I'm not looking to stir up sympathy, rather taking a moment to reflect and count the years that God has given us with not only her, but our other children, extended family, and friends.
God knows the days we will all have, be thankful for each of them.
Job 14:5 Since his days are determined, and the number of his months is with you, and you have appointed his limits that he cannot pass,
Coram Deo,
Douglas Herron
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