My Phone's Not Working--Again!

A while back my wife and I decided we could save money by going to an internet based phone. In truth it has saved us quite a bit considering it is about one half the cost of a regular land based phone. Generally, the phone works very well, with no detectable differences from what we had before through the phone company. There is however one thing it does that is very annoying. From time to time the phone stops working sometimes in the middle of a call. While  this doesn't happen too often the drop in service is disruptive because it, as you might expect, comes at an inconvenient time--we either are expecting a call or are in need of making one (Isn't this stating the obvious—if we didn't need to use the phone we would never notice it wasn't working would we?) After several calls to technical support, using my cell phone hoping that the cell call doesn't drop due to the fact we have poor cellular signals in our area, I learned that the problem is that the internet phone device from time to time simply loses the signal and needs to reboot.

Today was one of those days. We were expecting an important call. The phone rang. We answered but there was nothing—no sound—no busy signal—no anything. I called technical support using my the cell phone huddling close to the cell signal booster. The friendly technician told me what I already knew; the problem was not in the internet system but in my receiver I just had to reboot. When I told him I had already done that and the phone still wasn't working, he gave me the old leveler, “How long have you waited? With the phone box you have it can take up to forty-five minutes for the system to reacquire the necessary signal.” Ignoring the fact that forty-five minutes does not seem to me to be a reasonable amount of time to be without a dependable  phone, I waited the prescribed amount of time and sure enough the signal was reacquired and once again we were connected to the outside world with a working “land” phone--which is so much better than the tin cans on strings you find featured on soup commercials (the fact that any one would buy soup from a company too cheap to use real phones is beyond me, but that is an issue for another day).

While this was going on with the phone, I got to thinking (which is something I should do more often I guess) of some spiritual applications to all this. And when I got to thinking I thought of the old formula of how we sometimes lose our connection to our Heavenly Father. We try to reconnect and there seems to be nothing there—no sound—no busy signal—no anything. The problem of course, like our phone is not in the system but something on our end of things. As was the case with our phone, Something has interrupted the signal; we have to reacquire the signal; we have to reboot.

The I began to draw analogies, thinking  (all this thinking can give one a headache you know) of what causes us to lose our spiritual signal. What causes us to lose touch with God? While there is no shortage of answers, simply put, time and again, we get distracted due to circumstances in our lives and come to the point where we take our eyes off the One Who can handle all those circumstances, leaving us to try to work things out on our own. The resulting feelings of discouragement and desertion lead all too often to questions of whether God really does care. Our attempts to reconnect—to reboot—can seem so futile when we try to re-establish a relationship often long in a state of disrepair.

It can take time to reconnect with God. While it is best not to lose connection in the first place, we need to look at what has drawn our attention away from Him. In a world where so many things pull away from the knowledge of God, we need to note these and consistently take time to truly seek Him, spending time in his Word and in prayer, opening ourselves up to His instruction and leading. Only then will we be able to know His presence when things around us do not make sense. But in order to do this we need to reexamine our priorities. Circumstances can and will continually get such a hold of us when these are not right. As long as our priorities revolve around ourselves and not Him we will never be satisfied and are open to broken communication and the destructive domination of circumstances. The answer lies in who is in control of our lives. Only when we willingly submit to His Lordship will we have our priorities right. Accordingly, when we feel circumstances in control and separated from God, we need to reboot by examining ourselves, confess where we have gone wrong and turn it all over to Jesus. The rest will follow.

Discerning--part two

The last blog posted on this site, was concerned with the problem presented by Biblical churches getting off track, pursuing new and often strange things. The call was made for renewed discernment with strict scrutiny in relationship to God’s Word when considering any teaching coming our way. The lack of discernment leads to disaster and confusion. We are quick to condemn when we see the fallout resulting from Harold Camping’s false predictions, but fail to realize there are many more heresies being welcomed into our churches through the popular “Christian” press. Online Christian bookstores make it easy to get the latest thing in print. But what is the latest is not necessarily good. Books devoid of the Gospel and promoting a false God and false Jesus are sold right along with those that hold to the Truth. The harm done by Camping’s false predictions pales in comparison to the harm done by more subtle heresies brought into our local churches through popular “Christian” media. There was a time when we could trust a book by considering its publisher. However this is no longer the case. The larger publishers have expanded their offerings to appeal to more people. With this expansion there has come less discernment and sometimes outright false teaching. There is the need for us to return to personal Bible study and the discernment that comes through holding things under the powerful light of Scripture. We need to be slow to throw off the time honored teachings of the past; especially those strongly founded upon the Word, and be very cautious when considering something “new”.

Certainly, we in Bible teaching churches are not above error and are in need of challenge as to how we go about things. Certainly there is much to learn from a variety of sources, some of which we may not have considered in the past. However, there are certain guidelines to consider when evaluating anything placed before us. Does it present the Gospel or give a distorted view of God and His Son? Does it add to Scripture putting experience over the Word of God? Does it adhere to a literal interpretation of Scripture?  Does it use something other than the Word of God to explain the Word of God? Does it lead to some strange illogical   end that leads away from the clear teachings of the Word of God? In answering these questions we can avoid distractions and even heresy that keep us from doing what we have been called to do which is to preach the Gospel in the time we have before the Lord returns to take His Church to be with Him.

The Gospel needs to be foremost in anything that we do as Christians and that includes Christian writing. In fact, if there is no Gospel in it, can it be truly considered Christian or more accurately described as something good in thought written by a Christian? Consider the popular books that promote prosperous “Christian” living. Do they even mention the fact that to live the Christian life you must have a relationship that comes only through recognizing what was done by Christ on the Cross and receiving this gift by receiving Him into our lives? In searching what is argumentatively the most popular of these books, this writer saw no call to placing faith and trust in Jesus Christ. Another such book, one that promises to help us find purpose in life did have a brief mention of the need of Jesus in one’s life—on something like page 173 in a 200 page book. So much “Christian” writing gives lip service to the Gospel, without majoring on it and never seems to clearly define what it is.

Some “Christian” writing, in the attempt to blow away old stereotypes about God and His Son, picture God in new and often strange ways. God is received in progressive Christianity as loving and non-judgmental, and someone Who would never send anyone to Hell. And so when a recent popular book pictures God as a matronly elderly woman and the Holy Spirit as a very New Age Person promoting the welfare of all Mankind, it is lauded by well know Christian personalities as being innovative and thought provoking, but no mention is made that this book is not only devoid of the Gospel, but supports the idea of universal salvation. Other works distort the Gospel by teaching that Jesus procured our salvation by suffering in Hell rather than by shedding His blood on the Cross, yet, little is said. In fact, those who speak out against such heresy are attacked in “Christian” media as being divisive and intolerant. However, the Gospel does divide and the Bible teaches that God is intolerant of those who teach a false Gospel.

Even more subtle, however are the works that teach good ideas but add to the Word of God. Much has been made concerning the comfort received from the testimonies of those who have supposedly visited heaven. A very popular book describes the return of a deceased loved one bringing much comfort to his parents. Another describes heaven as seen by a three-year-old boy. While these works receive praise as offering comfort to those in bereavement, the fact that the Bible already addresses this issue is overlooked. The fact that Jesus says all we need to know about heaven (In my Father’s house are many mansions…John 14) and that Paul tells us “… eye hath not seen nor ear heard…” (1 Corinthians 2:9) what God has prepared for us seems to be ignored. Comfort that is based on experience rather than the Word of God, can only be superficial and fleeting at best. Truth is not to be added to. The Word of God is sufficient or it is nothing at all.

Another trend in popular Christian writing is to attempt to teach while interpreting Scripture through some kind of lens or idea foreign to the Word of God. The most notable example of this is Camping’s use of a system of numerology to arrive at “deeper” meaning of biblical passages facilitating his false date setting concerning the end of the world. Others apply non-biblical doctrinal assumptions to explain Biblical prophecy. In like fashion, when the assumption that the Church has replaced Israel in prophecy is applied to America with the result that America is seen as a Christian nation having a covenant relationship with God, the faulty conclusion is made that America is under the judgment prophesied in the Old Testament and the events of 911 are seen to fit under prophecy. The fact that America needs to be warned to change its ways is not to be denied, however to distort the clear teaching of Scripture will only lead to greater distortions, distractions and heresy. The evidence of this is the Christian preppers who are frantically trying to prepare for a social and economic collapse that God's Word gives clear indication will happen during a seven year tribulation that takes place after God takes His Church out of this world. We must resist interpretation of Scripture that uses allegory instead of a literal interpretation of God’s Word.

The churches that still hold to the Word of God need to be discerning. Christian leaders within these churches must be ready to examine what comes our way, testing things with the Word of God. We must avoid those teachings that lead to strange illogical ends contrary to Scripture. In truth there is nothing new. Either the Truth of God will prevail or error will draw us away from our task of promoting the Gospel and making a lasting impact on a society that truly needs the Word of God.

Discerning

There has much that has been said in the Christian community concerning the direction our nation is taking today. Materialism, sensuality, and immorality have overtaken what was once moral and good with the result that living for self is the norm. Violence is on the rise and personal freedoms are being eliminated. The cry for revival goes out as we seek to steer our nation in such a direction that will stave off certain judgment should we continue on our present course. We call for revival but see little change and have even less hope that this change will come. We blame the unsaved world for its attack on the Gospel and actually for being what it is the unsaved world. Some of us shrink back, bracing for the judgment to come seeing it as inevitable. However, we don’t have to resign ourselves to the status quo. There is no reason we cannot expect to see revival in our times. The solution lies in us, the true believers in Jesus Christ—His Church. When we can set aside petty differences we can have a real impact on the unsaved people around us.

The problem is that the Church is getting distracted from what is important and that is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ—that we are sinners in need of a Savior—that Jesus bore our sins at Calvary—and that only through receiving the Lord Jesus Christ into our lives can we be delivered from the consequences and dominion of Sin. Too much is passing for the Gospel today that offers prosperity and a better life now, but doesn’t deal with the issue of sin. Tried and true doctrines are set aside as churches seek answers as to how to bring people in. Churches that were once known for their strong stand on the Gospel are finding their influence waning while mega churches have sprung up in their places offering weekly celebrations and the latest new exciting thing, but doing nothing to deliver from the bondage of sin.  The trend goes on. Bible believing churches appear to be shrinking while Gospeless churches are on the rise.

 We cannot expect that Gospeless churches will change but we can expect that Bible believing churches must hang on to what is true and right renewing ourselves to the clear call of the Gospel, purging ourselves from those things that distract and divide. We must consider what got us into this state of affairs in the first place. We must consider what took our eyes off our primary objective. This writer grew up in churches that preached the imminent return of Jesus to take His Church to be with Him. This doctrine was the driving force that impelled us to preach the Gospel like there was no tomorrow. Today this doctrine has been largely set aside with many strange interpretations of Scripture put in its place. This is the problem. Church leaders have been too quick to accept the latest things put out in print instead of examining them to see how these new ideas stack up to the Word of God. In other words churches are failing because they have set strong systematic Bible study aside and accepting sloppy and even lazy Bible study in its place. Consequently, we have church leaders lauding works that promote the non-biblical interpretations of the events of 911, and the teachings of a three year old that is said to have visited heaven, and a false God and Jesus.

God’s true church has not gone away and can yet make a difference. But we have to stop being distracted. The Gospel must come first.  We need to carefully determine what is in the Book. Our task is to win as many as we can to Christ now and live in such a way as to be a restraint on the evil in our world. We have to be discerning as to what we allow into our lives. We need to stop prepping for an economic and social collapse that is not going to happen until we are with our Savior. We need to get back on course.