A Great Teacher?

It is interesting as you encounter people from other cultures and other religions that they consider Jesus a 'prophet' or a great moral teacher. Well, the prophet thing always goes away when you point out that the definition of a prophet is 'one who speaks for God.' I had two Muslim basketball players from Bosnia that backed off of their 'Jesus is a prophet but not the son of God' stance when learning of the definition. I have been thinking about the 'great moral teacher' one today as I have been working on the Sermon on the Mount. These passages of Scripture from Matthew 5-7 are where people always think Jesus qualified himself as a moral instructor. This is just another cop out of avoiding his deity. While there is moral instruction to the SOTM, that is not its purpose. Its purpose is to drive a man or woman to the Kingdom of God as defined by God himself.

Let me give you an example. The general public thinks that the so-called Golden Rule found in Matthew 7:12 (Do unto others as you would have them do unto you) is maybe the great moral teaching ever uttered. While that may be true, that is not the main purpose of the passage. Due to our wicked, selfish hearts, it is impossible to perform the teaching, so its purpose is to show us our need for Christ. It is impossible, so it condemns us. Only being indwelt by His Spirit would allow us to be able to truly fulfill this command.

But, the Lord did not issue the command for his people to comment on it; he issued it for it to be carried out.

Thorn in the Flesh

I do not think that I am the Apostle Paul, but I understand some more about him these days since my physical health has just hit the toilet. This has been the lost summer with 3 surgical procedures and around 20 tests, and I am a little envious of folks who have really been able to get out and enjoy the fabulous weather that God has blessed us with. I can assure you that I do not have "an Apostle Paul complex;" my wife says that she has never seen me laid lower or more 'impoverished in spirit.'
Three years ago, I was told that I had fairly significant blockage in 4 major arteries around my heart. That affected everything that I do (diet, exercise, stress) or was supposed to affect everything that I do. Now, a new culprit has shown up on the screen -- connective tissue disorder (some form of fibromyalgia). This is my version of Paul's "thorn in the flesh." Long story short and no list of the symptoms -- I can no longer do physically what I want to do when I want to do it. Pain and fatigue are a real deal here.

God has won two battles by allowing in this thorn in. I have a reduced problem with arrogance. As a matter of fact, I am fighting to stay excited about all of the incredible excitement around me. Second, I have been forced to Sabbath. That has always been my most evident sin, and now there are times when I just have to stop and rest.
"To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.' Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong."
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

I have asked in faith that He take this away, but He knows vastly more about what is best for me than I do. May His blessings flow as we seek His will.

Cardinal Culture

This is an interesting day for me. My life has always been very intertwined with baseball and the Cardinals. My first memory of this was in 1963 when my dad, upon hearing that Stan Musial was going to retire, threw me into a car and we got bleachers seats at old Sportsman's Park so that I would see Stan play before he retired. You see that is just kinda what you did in the Gray family. My Grandpa Lester took my dad, Lester Junior, to see Dizzy Dean, and the rest of the Gashouse Gang in the early 30's. My Grandpa Lester played on a traveling team with Mort & Walker Cooper who were the stars of the 42 & 44 World Series champion Cardinals. He claimed they were good buddies, who knows? But, his passion for baseball was ingrained into all the Grays. We were in St. Louis on the weekend that the Cards traded Ernie Brolio to the Cubs for Lou Brock in 1964. We had been to the game the night before and Mike Shannon had thrown a ball from second base and smashed some of the neon lights out of the giant 'A" over the left field bleachers. What an arm -- he must have won a bet! Some of the glass fell on my shirt. Dad wanted to see if this Brock kid was any good, so I saw his first game as a Cardinal. Later in the year, dad wiped out two full beer cups to garner a home run ball by Brock. We almost fought that night; luckily, for those guys the fight did not happen. Lester hit like Roberto Duran. I knew the batting averages of every Cardinal from Bill White to Ken Boyer as the Cards won the WS in 64. Which brings us to 1966 and why this is an emotional day for me. The Grays bought 22 tickets to the 1966 all-Star game at the new Busch Stadium. I just knew that I would be going since there was no bigger baseball fan on the planet. After all, I had emptied my mom's baking flour from the pantry to re-create the batter's box of the new stadium in the yard. A spanking led me to learn about buying some lime at the local Ace Hardware. After all, I had Juan Marichal's leg kick down perfectly, and Carl Yastrezemski's high batting stance, and Luis Tiant's shimmy of the ball as he pitched from the stretch. I could imitate them all. All of a sudden it was announced that one of the adult cousins had made it into town and there wasn't a ticket for any of the kids. Wow! My chest heaved as I tried to look excited for everyone else. I was told, "We promise that the next time the all-Star game comes to St. Louis, we will buy you a great ticket and take you to the game." Well, that was 43 years ago and the promisers are not around. That day is today. The game has finally returned.

The tickets that day were $8 a piece. I had an opportunity to continue the Gray tradition to experience the love of baseball and take Justin today for the cool price of $1400 for the two tickets. That would be dumb. I chose to send someone to Nicaragua to help some people who eat out of garbage bags on top of the city dump instead. I forgive my promisers also -- may they rest in peace!!! I am glad they all got to go before they went. I will be watching on TV! Go Albert! I will cry when they introduce you tonight!

It's the Word!

I felt for Ben Durbin last Sunday as he was trying to work his way thru my notes and deliver a sermon completely unfamiliar to him. He was absolutely fabulous. I went back and watched it on livestream.com. But, I want to share something with you that he could not have shared with you because this was not in the notes. This is going to be more extensive because you will get the whole thing. One of the great treasures of the Christian world in the 20th century was Ed Cole ("the only scriptures you believe are the ones that you obey"). Right before he died, he wrote the forward to Steve Gallagher's At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry, and I want to share some highlights from this gem with you. His premise is that EVERYTHING about the Gospel being THE TRANSFORMING FACTOR in EVERY aspect of our lives is revealed in the WORD OF GOD. See how many times he refers to THE WORD!

Ed Cole writes,
"The solution of course, as in every thing with the Lord, is in the Word of God. God's Word is where every solution is found to every problem or issue that a man or woman faces. There is no place for help like the Word of God. All God's healing work begins with His Word.
The subjective emotion and thinking of the addict is, "I'm too unclean, too unworthy, too unholy, too undeserving to read the Bible." That is a lie! God's Word is written for such people, to show the way Jesus Christ has made for them to get out of the pit or hole they dug for themselves.
Or they say, "I have failed so badly. How can I ever be good enough again so God can hear me? You don't get good and get to God, you get to God and God makes you good. (Tim: there is one for the bottom of your e-mails) Getting to God is getting into His Word.
The Word does the work!
Read it when you feel guilty; read it when you don't get anything from it; read it in the face of the devil and his accusations against you; read it when you are not even sure you believe it, just read it!
The Word does the work!
The Word of God washes the mind as soap does the hands. The Word is like soap in that it only effective when used.
All you have is The Word!
Life's greatest failure is not your sin, but in failure to read the Word.
The only only way the Word can wash your mind is when you read it. Reading the Word is the only way God can do His work in your life.
Christianity is not difficult to live, it's impossible. It is Christ living in you that is real Christianity. That is where the life of Christ is. Not what you try and do, but what he does in you.
The Word pays no attention to your sin, emotions, or actions; it merely does its work when you read it.
God's Word never changes, we do.
It doesn't make us feel guilty, we do that to ourselves. It gives us a way out of our feelings, habits, desires, and wants. God's Word is our source of life and blessing.
But if we confess our sins to him, he can be depended on to forgive us and cleanse us from every wrong. [And it is perfectly proper for God to do this for us because Christ died to wash away our sins.]
When you do your part, God will do His. You can't do His part, and He won't do yours. Yours is to act on His Word, and let His Word do the work.
The Late Dr. Edwin Louis Cole

My suggestion for you is to put that quote about His role and your role on your refrigerator (I know you will see it there) and look at it all the time. And then pick up your Bible and let God complete the work that He has started in you.
Did you hear Dr. Cole?
IT'S THE WORD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The "Gay Accepting Church"

At The Bridge Community Church, we are now broadcasting our services live on the internet, and then rebroadcast on demand all week on livestream.com. This is amazing as we have invested no money into this at all. A couple of cameras and techie items from E-Bay and the little ole Bridge is running with big dogs. Livestream is completely free for us because we allow them to run Google ads across the bottom our broadcast 24 hours a day. This gets interesting sometimes as Livestream is not a Christian organization. You can check this out at www.bridgelife360.com.

For 12 hours last week, Google's ad at the bottom of our broadcast read, "Gay Accepting Church." Anyone who came across that unaware of how Livestream works would have thought that this ad pertained to our church, and I wondered how people perceived that. Let me start by saying that this writing is not going to focus much on the homosexual issue (the ad could have said 'Heroin Accepting Church' or 'Extortion Accepting Church' or 'Premarital Sex Accepting Church' and the conversation would be the same). Someone watching could have had many thoughts. If they thought to the extreme -- this church believes that a person can be a practicing homosexual and go to heaven; as a matter of fact, the pastor or priest could be gay and be ordained. Or the observer could have thought -- they believe that homosexuality is not a sin and they are actively recruiting people who believe the same. Or they could have thought -- this church is a 'hospital for all sinners' and the homosexual would be welcomed in their midst understanding that he/she must repent, turn from his/her sin, and believe the Gospel. There are many other possible scenarios, but of the three, the latter most accurately describes The Bridge. Quite honestly, we go to the Bible for our stance.

First of all, homosexuality is a sin. Abusing our body with heroin is a sin. Extortion is a sin. Premarital sex is a sin. All of these things separate us from a perfectly holy God and are incredibly offensive to Him. Nobody should lead in God's church while actively practicing any of these sins as though they are not an offense to God. They are an offense to God. However, all sinners are welcome at The Bridge!!! Anyone who is practicing sins that could harm our people or especially our children would not be allowed to attend our public celebrations, but we would find somewhere safe for violent or dangerous folks to hear the Gospel. But, all others will find tremendous hospitality and love as they hopefully seek the truth of the Gospel. And the Gospel message is clear that sinners can be forgiven if they repent (turn from their sin; stop sinning) and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only the repentant, forgiven child of God, who still slips up and sins on occasion, can lead at a healthy, well-balanced church like The Bridge.

I can sum this up in a story of a test I received within just a few weeks of becoming the lead pastor at The Bridge. We had two young ladies (one of them with a small child) who began attending our church and they communicated on their Connect Card that they were gay and wanted to visit with me about my feelings about that. We met after church one Sunday and I told them that I loved them very much and I hoped that they had felt welcomed at The Bridge because I hoped that they would continue seeking God at our church. They very gently, but boldly, asked my opinion about their relationship. I, lovingly but directly, told them that I would have the same answer for them if they were a man and a women living in a sexual relationship outside of God's plan for His people and that answer was that they were practicing sin and they would have to repent to be forgiven by God. I told them that my job was not to judge them (except about their roles in our church), but that my job was to love them and proclaim the Gospel to them. I explained that I hoped that they would stay and experience Christ with us for a long time to come, but they would have to truly become convinced of a need for change before they would be allowed to join the church. However, they were looking for a different kind of "Gay Accepting Church" than the one I described. Very respectfully, they explained to me that they had gone to Bible college and that the Bible did not teach that homosexuality was a sin and that a good church would agree with them. I knew at that point that I would not see them again, but I was not angry and I hoped that I would and I still hope to see them this Sunday listening to the teaching on the Sermon on the Mount that requires us to set aside our human pride and with humility accept God's plan for life.

Summer on the Mount

Whew! I have the first sermon written from Matthew 5 as we are going to delve into the SOTM throughout the whole summer. This is going to be really challenging because I do not think that there is a stronger example of God's teaching that OUR ways are not HIS ways. Every week is going to be this brutal awakening that we actually have been taught by the human race to live far from the way God thinks. The question is: will we be willing to change?

What I thought I would do as I study to present this challenging text is to blog some of things I learn that there will be no time to present. So, this morning's topic is the Talmudic law. As Jesus begins speaking on the hillside that morning, one set of his listeners was the Pharisees. They had created the Talmudic law because as they became more and more self-righteous, or depending on their abilities to keep law, instead of a dependence on God, they realized what a miserable failure they were. As a result, they started whittling down the law into manageable traditions. Instead of putting their whole weight on God (Commandments 1 & 2), they became RELIGIOUS with the legalistic following of some man-made fence laws that were much easier to show off with their 'outside-of-the-cup' efforts. As they scream about protecting God's law to Jesus, what they are really wanting to protect is their peripherial efforts that looked good to the public while actually they were terrorizing God's true law. We don't do that today, do we?

Yes!
God's #1 command is to love him constantly by being obedient. We lessen that immediately by claiming that we don't steal (but we covet), don't lie (that's a lie), don't commit adultery (never lust?) while we spend large portions of our day setting aside the Gospel, setting aside the cross, setting aside Christ and doing life in thought, word, and action on our own. You know what that is called? IDOLATRY, and it makes us no different than those who killed Jesus three short years after having their world first challenged on the side of that hillside. We have whittled down what is acceptable to God from, "Do, think, and say everything from a wellspring of the Gospel" to "I am a law abiding person most of the time." The American church has developed its own Talmudic law because we don't like the difficulties of Scripture. We must repent and believe the Gospel. Only God can empower such change from the wicked deception that we have been taught.

I Apologize...

...for not having written anything in a while. My life is always on the accelerator. I am always in overdrive. I have really enjoyed my job at MAC this past year -- relationships have been developed and I have really been trying to do my job there "as to the Lord." But it has taken away from some of my teaching opportunities such as writing to you on this blog. I am not going to teach much today either. I am blind in one eye and I have not been able to study much recently. However, I have been reading At the Altar of Sexual Idolatry by Steve Gallagher. This book is worth getting simply to experience the forward which is written by the late Ed Cole ("The only scriptures that you believe are the ones that you obey"). But today, I am just going to share with you a letter. Meg Reiner wrote the forward to this magnificent letter, "The Bridge Community Church has received a special letter from one of our friends at the CSC. We began our relationship with Scott last December, and he has become a part of our lives. His neatly penned letter was given to us on his birthday. Thank you, Scott - we love you too!"

Dear Bridge Members,

You may not see the progress that I’ve made throughout the last few months, but you have all made an impact on my life, which means the world to me. The little things that you all continue to do has helped me change my outlook completely. I know that God is working in my life through you. I had given up all hope and was ready to die when I started attending the Bridge months ago. Nothing seemed to matter to me but everyone, and I mean everyone, offered their love and God’s unconditional love to me, even the wreck that I am. You have shown me hope and helped me in ways that my family wouldn’t help any more because they had given up on me. At times I felt worthless, but even through my dark times you stood beside me and loved me as God would want and I want to thank you all for everything that you’ve all done. Every one of you has helped save my life and I love you all for it. May God Bless you all.

Thanks and love you
Scott Joseph

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