Starving?
by Bill Cook
Every year for my birthday, I used to go to a very special place – a restaurant! Not just any restaurant, but my restaurant. Which one? Why Red Lobster, of course. And, of course, that was pre-heart attack. I remember hardly being able to wait; the anticipation at suppertime was intense. I could almost taste the crab legs and shrimp, the salad with shrimp vinaigrette dressing, garlic-cheese biscuits, and of course the lobster!
Back then, there was not a Red Lobster in town. We had to travel out of town, to Chattanooga, to get to one. The trip only took about a half-hour, and the reservation was made ahead of time, but just getting inside was an exercise in time-dilation. Naturally, at a restaurant, a waiter or waitress brings menus to the table. I don’t require one. Let’s get the ordering done; I know exactly what I want.
So, I kindly allow my guests to order but when the waitress gets to me, I say, “Oh, how about a nice glass of tea? Thanks.”
Now, why would I order just a glass of tea knowing that this would be the only opportunity to feast? Why didn’t I order some food? Perhaps I substituted the drink for food. Or, maybe I just thought the food was unnecessary; maybe that I could just do without it.
We are all spiritual creatures or, creatures with a spiritual nature. That spiritual part needs to be nourished just like the physical part does. Sometimes, Christians may even forget this as we do the things and involve ourselves of this life. Perhaps you have heard that a man can live for many days without food as long as he has water. While this is true, we recognize that Jesus used many physical things to teach spiritual lessons. And, the physical truth of survival also applies spiritually. A Christian can survive for a long time without spiritual food, but he will not grow. Further, once a physical body’s resources are exhausted, that body will cease to function – it will die. The same principle applies spiritually – that is, without spiritual nourishment, the spiritual body dies.
Christianity is not a religion just to be a religion. It is a source of spiritual nourishment. After the heart attack, I was given a list of foods I could eat and another list of foods I could not eat. Some of the foods I had enjoyed before were not good for me physically and would be detrimental to me now. And, just as physical nutrition can be good or bad (that is, there are good foods and bad foods) so can spiritual nutrition. Jesus was teaching his followers (disciples) and the Jews in the synagogue in Capernaum in John chapter 6. In verse 48, He says that He is the Bread of Life. A few verses later He says, “…if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever;” That is some powerfully nutritious Food!
There was also a time when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness. The Lord provided for their needs in the form of manna (the Bread of Life or Bread from Heaven – in a physical sense). It was provided only for that day. And, it was provided day by day. This is important because the Lord did not merely send a one-year supply – He sent it as it was needed. It was not an annual feast, it was daily bread!
Not only must the spirit be nourished often it must be nourished to become strong. David, in the Psalms, says it best -
1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, And in His law he meditates day and night. 3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. Psalm 1:1-3 (NASB95)
The very first Psalm, in the book of Psalms, gives instructions on how to use the instructions that follow in the rest of the Psalms.
If the spirit is fed with the Bread of Life daily, it will grow. As the spiritual man grows he will begin to develop the ability to discern between spiritual food that is good and that which is bad; he will be able to discern between truth and error, right and wrong, good and evil. Paul encourages such growth in the letter to the Philippians-
8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:8-9 (NASB95)
While giving a list of things (analogous to foods of the spirit) that would develop holy habits, please notice the word, ‘dwell’, at the end of verse 8. It is a word in the Greek that means to reckon as in accounting. It is a word that deals only in facts, not suppositions. It is an intense scrutiny of the ‘foods’ and means to take an account of one’s spiritual diet.
Ever tried to make a child eat when they were in a bad mood? They just sort of flop the mashed potatoes on their plate and throw the food into their mouth. When they take a drink, they slam the cup down. They do this to irritate everyone else at the table. They want someone to know they are not happy. If you do this with spiritual food, it doesn’t taste too good. Well, a change in attitude is necessary. Once again, a visit to the Psalms -
33 I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have my being. 34 Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall be glad in the Lord. Psalm 104:33-34 (NASB95)
And, finally, we need to eat spiritually to stay healthy – so we can prevent disease. I might be teaching error, but would never know it – unless you knew the Word, unless you had eaten daily. Many are drawn away and are weak because their diet is too little, too late. So, eat often; eat to be strong; eat to grow; eat with the right attitude; and, eat to stay healthy.
Is your spirit starving or well fed? In Christ it will grow. No other food will do.
Read MoreIt Really Should Be No Surprise
by Bill Cook
It really should be no surprise…really, that today’s athletes use performance-enhancing substances, umm…drugs. But, I am not going to talk about that. It should also not be a surprise that he thought he would get away with it because apparently, now, the news is that he was getting his fix from a clinic like another big star, Barry Bonds, where they thought and were told that there would be no charges pressed and were promised that their identities would be kept hidden. Alex Rodriguez (called A-Rod by the media) finds himself in a predicament he never thought he would have to face. But, I really wasn’t going to talk about that, either. Nor, should it be a surprise that many in the sports world want to run to his defense with a cacophony of reasons. And, as you may have guessed, I was not going to talk about that, either.
The surprise is this-I find it very interesting that many people who have no compunction about taking illegal drugs, find Mr. Rod’s actions distasteful. I find it very odd that those who are seemingly the loudest to condemn him are the very ones who engage in the same activities themselves. Why must a sports figure be held to a standard? Why must there be a standard? The very ones who proclaim that there are no standards for the way one lives, that no one should impose their will on others, that we are all free to live as we please without consideration for others or ourselves, are the same who want Mr. Rod and others to live and be compared to a standard where there are supposedly not supposed to be any.
Certainly the amount of press time that has been given to this is overwhelming, when, if as the ‘standard-haters’ proclaim, it should merely have been a collective sigh and acknowledgement that someone is living their lives the way they want to. Nay, it seems that Mr. Rod must live a life the others want him to. And, this ultimately begs the question-how, if there are no standards to live by, do ‘the others’ know what standard Mr. Rod should live by and where did they find it? If there is no standard, they should not be able to proclaim one. If there are no standards and someone made up a standard that Mr. Rod should live by and he breaks it, how would that standard be anywhere near to another’s standard? It should not be. And, yet, evidently, Mr. Rod is finding that a great many people hold him to a standard that they all collectively have somehow agreed upon.
Further, many evidently do not consider it impossible for Mr. Rod to live by their standard and even EXPECT him to live up to it and not stray from it. And, when he does not, they wish to pronounce judgment on him and say his respect for the game is tarnished, his play is tarnished, his life is tarnished, HE is tarnished, and ultimately he will be banished from the Hall of Fame.
SO WHAT?
Many of those same people who proclaim that standards do not matter and do not exist and yet have made one for Mr. Rod to live up to, are many of the same ones who say that God has no right to expect them to live a certain way.
Could it be that we have exposed ourselves to ourselves when we react in this way? Why do the fans want Mr. Rod to live up to their standard? They want him to be a role model. They respect someone who plays by the rules and is successful. They think if he can do it, perhaps they can do it.
Sound familiar? Christians claim that there is indeed a standard to live by and our greatest Champion is Jesus Christ. Not only do we believe that He committed no sin, but that He was faced with all the temptations to sin that we all face, and He still was able to resist.
“For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” Hebrews 4:15 (NASB95)
Mr. Rod could not live up to one simple rule-’don’t take this banned substance’. In the life of every person, we must all realize that we cannot follow some seemingly simple rules and that we have broken the easy ones and the hard ones. The Bible calls that sin. It may be a religious term, but it is accurate. (Many today try to explain away things that sound religious as if it carried some disease with it)
“… for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,…” Romans 3:23 (NASB95)
And, could it be that we can see the sins that we commit more easily in others than in ourselves? Lest we think too highly of ourselves, we may be given a particularly challenging situation to endure. Paul was…
“Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me-to keep me from exalting myself!” 2 Corinthians 12:7 (NASB95)
Like the ball players of today, Paul was a man who had experienced the esteem of his peers for most of his life. Ball players are told from a young age how wonderful they are and how they are destined for greatness. Some of them make it big; many can’t handle the pressure of the big leagues because they are EXPECTED to perform. Paul was a Roman citizen by birth, a privileged Jew from a noble tribe, a veritable Who’s Who in the Jewish system. But, one day he was blinded and helpless; he was brought low on the road to Damascus (see Acts 9).
And still, we all seem to love the story of the one who had to endure the upbringing from modest beginnings, who had to struggle and claw their way in. We tend to view their journey as more authentic. Why? Who are we comparing that to? Could it be Jesus? Consider how He had to deal with being God and yet submitting to the utter humiliation of being born to a poor carpenter’s family. He worked with His hands to provide for His earthly family. And, when He was of age He began to rise in the Jewish system. It was not magic. He was a curiosity at first and then became highly respected because of His commitment to the knowledge of the Law-the big rule book of the Jews.
And, then, when the world waited for Him to fail He succeeded, He did not succumb to the pressure of the world system powered by His Enemy. He won the Ultimate victory and claimed it a win for all nations who would follow His ways. He even allowed Himself to stand in for others’ guilt and shame and took them away and, as the Bible says, “nailed them to the Cross”- Colossians 2:14
So, you, who say there are no standards, how are you living today? Whether you want to admit it or not, you can’t escape the standard. You can say there is not one, but you would not be honest. Deep inside, many struggle to find the standard in life, in all things we hold most dear. Standards-they even exist where things are in the deepest parts of ourselves. None of us hold them perfectly, not even Mr. Rod. And, just as we expect Mr. Rod to keep the standard, God expects us to keep His. It really should be no surprise.
Read MoreWhy Right is Right and Wright is Wrong
by Bill Cook
In the last several weeks, we have all been bombarded by the media with the news of Senator Obama’s association with a man named Jeremiah A. Wright, Jr. Mr. Wright calls himself Reverend, a title reserved for God alone (see Psalm 111:9 -KJV); so I will just call him, “mister.” Mr. Wright has been recorded using some very inflammatory language and much of that has circulated the Web. And, that language tends to polarize the listener to take a position. This was most likely calculated by those posting the excerpts on the web. While taking a position is a good thing (so many have disappointingly chosen to not make a choice), the positions that one may choose in this matter are often missing the point and tend to cloud the issue.
If any are so inclined, a quick visit to the Trinity United Church of Christ’s web site will reveal much about the vision and worldview of this group. They seem to be quite open and honest about it. For instance, their motto is plainly stated, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Christian”. And, it is noted that this ‘motto’ was invented by Mr. Wright’s predecessor, Dr. Reuben Sheares. Such a motto may be taken in many ways and may be open to interpretation. Perhaps Dr. Sheares did not espouse the hate-speech of Mr. Wright. But, their site ensures that you do not misunderstand and plainly states that Mr. Wright fully embodies this stated motto and vision. If one is left to consider the tone and content of Mr. Wright’s discourse in light of the stated motto and that Mr. Wright had demonstrated an understanding and deep commitment to the motto, it would be reasonable to conclude that he was not speaking anything that the vision and motto would not allow – indeed, that his speech was in line with it. So, the viewpoint that seems to be taken by the media that Mr. Wright is a wild and uncontrollable fountain of vitriol is simply not true. Further, Sen. Obama’s claim that he is like an uncle who says things that the rest of the family doesn’t hold as true, doesn’t hold water, either. He is who he is. He has been at the helm of that religious body for over 30 years. Does it not stand to reason that someone in his position does not experience that kind of longevity unless the audience (membership) condones his actions; that they agree and want to hear that kind of rhetoric? If they did not, would they not have replaced him with someone who had different values?
Indeed, if you look on their web site in the ‘About’ link, you will find very plainly how they define themselves. And, they are most assuredly open and, I suppose, this is the ‘unapologetic’ part about it. The difficulty in all this is that Mr. Wright is in line with what this religious group affirms-that is, that they are looking at all things through a Black perspective. They have this right and I kind of admire them for being so bold-even if I disagree with their politics.
So, what is wrong with it?
Ah, this is the meat of the matter. No one denies their right to have such an outspoken person in the pulpit as far as the rights of this free society go. But, the problem is with the rights to teach any Bible doctrine that is shaded, influenced by a particular world view. Yes, a great part of their African heritage (their viewpoint, not mine) has roots in slavery. Personally, I believe that the slavery of the African-American people was wrong and we all know of the countless many that experienced cruel and abominable treatment and I am sure there were many more that we don’t know about. It was a scourge on this nation. I know that many would say that I don’t really understand it fully, but I can perhaps grasp a small part-enough to ask for your consideration.
You see, the African nation is not the only nation to ever experience slavery. There were many other ‘groups’ that were enslaved throughout history. In Roman society in New Testament (NT) times, it was either be a slave or die if you were not in the Elite class; there was no middle class. There was no way to advance.
And, we have Bible examples of individuals of those who were slaves and who were also Christians. The apostle Paul wrote to Philemon about a slave of Philemon’s named Onesimus. This letter was written, not from a black perspective; it was written from a Christian perspective-from one Christian to another about another Christian who happened to be a slave. There was no mention of impending doom that would befall Philemon for owning a slave (and I truly hate to use that terminology – but it is the situation), nor any praise for that matter. The letter is a lesson in tact, a communication that expresses the love of one profitable servant (Onesimus served Paul in some way) to another. It is a letter that explains to Philemon that the relationship between Onesimus and Philemon had now changed because of their mutual relationship in Christ – they were now brothers. Paul urges Philemon to treat him as a brother and not as a slave. There is evidence that Onesimus was freed by Philemon because he is mentioned as a valued member of the church in Colosse (Col. 4:9).
The point is that Christians are all slaves (1Cor. 7:21-22; Gal. 3:28; Col. 3:11). There is no mention of race, no mention of anything to be viewed from a black or white perspective, just that all Christians should have the mind of Christ (Phil. 1:27), that servanthood is a very strong tenet of Christianity (Phil. 2:7), that Christ is the penultimate Slave as He humbled Himself to the point of the Cross (Phil. 2:8) for those who despised Him and what he stood for.
We recently had a gospel preacher hold a week-long meeting here who happened to be black. When we were discussing asking him to come, there were no discussions about making sure we met some quota somewhere or that we needed to have him or not have him because he was black. We simply considered those brethren who had heard him preach and those brethren who knew of him and so determined that his reputation as a gospel preacher and fellow Christian was sound according to the teachings of the Lord as found in the Word of God. When we ate with him during that week, we were not afraid that others might see us white folks eating with a black man and his wife. We just ate and fellowshipped as brethren in Christ-nothing more, nothing less. When we conversed with him, we did not try to make our speech black or white, just Christian as we all considered ourselves fellow servants (slaves) to Christ.
On a personal note, I have Scottish heritage, and my grandfather was from Barbados. You might even find some Indian heritage in there somewhere (if I pulled my hair back and you looked at me from the side, I would look like the Pontiac Indian on the old car-maker’s logo). In ages past, I am sure some my relatives did some bad things and I am sure some more had bad things done to them. So, I have some ‘immigrant’ rights and most likely some ‘native-born’ rights. So, I suppose I could claim some affront to my heritage and highlight the atrocities of ages past. But, I refuse to do so. It would only satisfy a political agenda, not a Christian one. We moved a lot when I was growing up. But, we did stay in some towns longer than others. In one of those towns I was one of two white children in my class. The Black Panthers organization was very active in that town. There were streets you did not walk down if you were white. But, we children didn’t really know why. Nevertheless, I had many friends who were black but, I did not think of them as my black friends-just as my friends. I was fortunate that I did not learn the fear that is at the root of racism. The only ‘distinction’ I made, and it was my own peculiar observation, was that my friends who were black were better friends (truer to the concept of friendship) than my friends who were white. When I was in college, I saw my brethren in Christ who were black welcome preachers who were white (not because they were white but because they were sound in doctrine). My black and white brethren lived out their lived in front of me in a truly non-racist viewpoint. True Christianity is color-blind as it should be.
Mr. Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ are making a political statement, not a Christian one. They use terminology like ‘Black Theology’-terminology that you cannot find in the Word of God. In the ‘Talking Points’ section of their web site, Mr. Wright says, “African-centered thought, unlike Eurocentrism, does not assume superiority and look at everyone else as being inferior.” This very statement is contradictory because the very use of the term ‘African-centered thought’ does assume superiority and thereby means that anything else any “other-centered thought” is somehow inferior-and by inference, Christ-centered thought becomes inferior to Mr. Wright. So, how can Christ be served when the whole emphasis of Mr. Wright is this concept of dual doctrines? Is this not what Jesus cautioned against when he taught that Man cannot serve two Masters (Matt. 6:24)? We cannot have dual loyalties and be pleasing to God. The Bible contains no special section called the black section or the white section or as Mr. Wright calls it, the Eurocentric section-nor are there any doctrinal assertions that are peculiarly black or white-this very language is racist at its core-the very thing Mr. Wright is supposedly fighting.
The very premise upon which Mr. Wright rests his world view is flawed. The vitriol is spewed not out of a love for the lost but a hatred…seated in a very controversial and hot-bed of current political rhetoric. It is politically popular to hate this nation. It is politically popular to hate the current President. It is politically popular to play the ‘race’ card. It sells books and brings in the cash to support a racist world view that has nothing to do with Christianity (Gal. 1:10). Perhaps the motto should be, “Unashamedly Black and Unapologetically Political”.
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