What Are You Okay With?

Hello Emmanuel,

Will Hatfield shared an article with me that I wanted to use for this week’s MMP:  The 9 Sins The Church Is Okay With.

http://www.faithit.com/9-sins-the-church-is-okay-with/

I’m won’t review each one here, but I would like to comment on a few of them and invite you to consider your own perspective on these issues:

FEAR is a complicated issue in Scripture.  True, Jesus says ‘do not fear’ more than any other phrase.  Our current sermon series is on being brave.  However, I believe the author might over simplify it.  In the Hebrew language (as you Bible Study students might remember), ‘fear’ is the exact same word as ‘awe’.  And while this may not cause confusion in the texts that were originally written in greek, the Old Testament (which was originally in Hebrew) is known to carry the phrase ‘fear the Lord you God’ many more times than once.

So while fear can be a sin that we can gloss over way too much, it’s important to delineate between the kind of fear that keeps us from being the right kind of disciple versus the kind of fear (i.e. awe) that maintains our respect of the One who is really in charge.

I won’t speak much here on APATHY.  I’m on record many times moaning and groaning about the temptation to just not care enough.

I would very much like to substitute FLATTERY and COMFORT with ‘popularity’ and ‘contentment’.  I’m not sure these are fair substitutions, but his description of flattery seems to speak more about receiving approval from others instead of concerning yourself with pleasing God.  Also, I have no problem with being comfortable as long as I don’t allow it to flow to contentment.  When I become content, then I don’t want to leave my comfortable state to do what God wants me to do. 

The other sin I’ll comment on is CONSUMERISM.  We want, want, want and we’ll go to great lengths to buy it.  I just bought a 5^th television….. a 5^TH TELEVISION!!!  Ridiculous!!!  And I’m embarrassed to say that it embarrasses me.  Add to it the closet full of clothes (1/3 of which I almost never wear… and I got rid of 2 trash bags full this year alone); the garage full of toys that are never touched; the attic that has things that I may never look at again; .. on and on….  Consumerism can be… ummm… consuming….

I invite you to read the article and think on it.  You don’t need to agree with me, of course, but that isn’t the point.  That point is that we stay on our toes and don’t let those attitudes that can block us from God’s will to grow into uncontrollable monsters. 

This concludes my philosophical MMP for the month. 

God is Good,

Pastor Joe