I find the implications of this thought pattern everywhere. Recently I came to the realization that we do this same thing in the church. The body of Christ, our Savior and Lord, the One who left Heaven to take on a body of flesh, the One who suffered and died to pay for the sins of evil, wicked, wretched, and unlovely creatures such as myself told us that He purchased us with His blood. Scripture reveals that it is the duty of the Church through its elders' preaching, teaching, and accountability to not only help us to know the character of our God, but also how to live right and stop the evil patterns of sin that we bring into the church from our fleshly past.
I could cite example after example, but for today we are going to speak in general principles and tackle the tough details later. As we said before about alcohol use, the Bible is not silent. The Bible does not mandate abstention from consuming alcohol, but it does offer many warnings and regulations in specific passages. Elders are disqualified due to excess use of alcohol, and the only time we see it seemingly commanded for use is in the general terms of those who are indeed perishing. When we look to the Scriptures we find that God created our bodies to need food. God made us and told us what to eat. After the Flood of Noah's day, meat was added to the diet.. Israel was commanded to refrain from certain foods, while having certain foods incorporated into the mandatory (and quite beneficial) feasts and commemorative times where God's people recalled the goodness, mercy, and grace of God through the use of food.
I feel like I have gotten to the point of beating a dead horse in my own mind, and our family has learned so much in the days since my last post that goes beyond the practical to the spiritual. However, there is one issue I want to leave you to consider, dear reader, that I had never considered before. It has to do with idolatry, regeneration, and taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Voddie Baucham spoke about his upbringing, how his single teenage mother who raised him in South Central Los Angeles was a practicing Buddhist. Voddie spoke of the sensory effect of idolatry and I just about fell out of my chair as I considered how far reaching the applications of idolatry can be. He spoke about how he remembered his life growing up, never hearing the Gospel until college. As he developed his point on the need to leave idolatry, he spoke of how God should have Lordship not only over who we worship, but how we worship. Again, this has implications in regard to the regulative principle of worship (I need to write a whole post on that) but has daily application in our lives, in every part of our lives.
Voddie tells his story of what the idol of Buddha (a statue) looked like, of the feel and sound of beads used in prayer and meditation, of the smell of the fruit offered to this mute and dead idol, of the smell in the air that reminded him, long after becoming a Christian, that Buddha still had a place in his memory that he could not shake. Now, one must realize that the statue itself does and is nothing, but that memories in our minds are often associated with smells, tastes, touch, sounds, and sights.
In the Old Testament, the priests of Israel were given a specific recipe for things to make incense offered before the Lord. That recipe was exclusively used in the worship of God and was not allowed to be used for any other purpose. God is holy, set apart, and He likes the smell of that incense. He will not share it with others.
The church is to be a place designated to the corporate worship of God in Christ Jesus, given to the doctrine of the apostles, the breaking of bread, to fellowship and prayer. Often, the church instead tries to make itself a relevant, culture-embracing place where we worship self, Satan, and America right alongside God. Don't get me wrong, I am all for patriotism in its proper place, but in my book draping an American flag over a wooden cross is idolatrous in at least two points. This cultural religion is destroying the true worship of God.
When I see a church decorated for Halloween, I cannot help but notice (and hear from my children in agreement) that those beautiful things that God has given that refer to the harvest of God's bountiful blessings, have been generally co-opted for the purpose of celebrating Satan's favorite holiday. Yes, that was kind of blunt, but as those pagans I know continue to laugh each year when churches hold celebrations of overtly Satanic origins and practices, I am not going to bother defending my statements here.
I look at God's gift of harvested pumpkins turned evil, carving scary faces and often showing depictions of death and evil. I see these at churches, and I want to vomit. I want to ask when we started worshiping the Devil in church, but I know the answer. When we disregard the implications of regeneration and God's commands, we find ourselves in bed with the world and its ruler.
Name a time of year that our culture engages in more eating of non-food, usually candy, more than Helloween. See if you can find a time when even moderately conservative church folk will dress just like the world, do exactly what the world does, and then claim to be redeeming a Satanic celebration for God's glory. I submit that on the issue of this Satanic holiday when everyone is dressing their little children up in fake blood soaked rags and watching horror movies, that the church is heading entirely the wrong direction in the fight to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
When did we go so far off course as to actually defend such practices? How ungodly can we get and still proclaim our allegiance to Christ publicly before God pours out His righteous judgement on us? We must not presume on the mercy of God in such ways, and to be honest as I consider my own life and practices, I make myself sick. But I guess that's the point. That's why you are reading this post, because you want to hear me say things that make you think, perhaps that make you uncomfortable. I know this may be the last post some people ever read, and yet that is not my desire.
Rather, my desire is to bare my soul in public, to share with others who struggle in the same ways, who are troubled in their spirit by sin in their own lives, and who rather than disregard the urging of the Holy Spirit to change, will stand up and say "I have accepted my sin too long. Today I repent and by God's grace, I will change." I have so much more to learn about living a godly life, there are probably hundreds of things that I think, do, or believe that are in error. Yet, in this I am not comfortable, nor will I rest until I obey the commands of my Lord in every area. I will not quit until God either calls me home or Christ returns for His Bride. I will examine His Word, heed His calling, obey His commands, and bring honor and glory to His Name until my dying day.
What change is needed? Sadly, the list of my own sins is far too long and troubles me constantly. I have no desire to look at the sins of others unless they are flaunted in front of my eyes, and they often are. When I see sin, in my own life, and that of the church, I will speak out for the glory of God. I will do so because He is worthy of proper, appropriate worship. He has spoken to His people to tell them what He wants, and we must obey. What change is needed? Food is just the beginning.
