On Heroes

Posted on 26 August 2024 by Richard

At various times in my Christian life, I have been urged to “git [sic] myself a hero” because “we all need heroes”.  As I’ve grown in Christ, I am learning more and more to test everything I’m told by the Word of God. If the Scriptures back it up, then great!  If what is said goes against the Scriptures, then it is wrong…. and, if the Scriptures are silent, we ought to give liberty one to another.

So, let’s consider this topic of heroes. As with many things, definitions are important; I want to define my “hero” as Someone whom I admire and want to be like.

I can see two problems with having a hero as I’ve defined it… first is the last part of the definition: …and want to be like — this inherently wrong. Christians are supposed to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, not “Bro X”. God created us as unique individuals; he wants each of us to submit to His will so that He can grow us into the best version of ourselves.

I have no problem with admiration (there are a number of people I admire for various reasons), but I don’t think admiration is sufficient to merit “hero” status; there are many people I can admire  for their achievements, but that I don’t want to be like.

The other problem is that we are sinners, and have a tendency to sin. If we have a “hero”, it is so very easy to worship that hero, and worship belongs to God alone.

Posted in Christian, General, Thoughts | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Obadiah

Posted on 29 January 2024 by Richard

If you’re not familiar with Obadiah, there is a brief glimpse of him interacting with Elijah.

I have heard messages in which Obadiah was criticized because he worked for the wicked king Ahab and his pagan wife, Jezebel. I’ve heard preachers claim that Obadiah’s place was with the suffering people of God, not staying in some cozy job… and other such criticisms.

This post is a defense of Obadiah.

In the first place, God Himself tells us that Obadiah “feared the LORD greatly”. Moreover, there is no rebuke anywhere, either from Elijah or from God that what Obadiah did was wrong. Elijah could have been upset that he had to drink brook water and be fed by raves, while Obadiah was getting to eat with the king; presumably eating well.

Elijah seems to have understood something that some today seem to have lost sight of: namely, that the race that was set before Elijah was custom-made by God for Elijah. It was not Obadiah’s task to run Elijah’s race. Obadiah had his own custom-made race by God for Obadiah. A lot of bickering over methods and how another person runs his race would go away of we would focus on running our own race, with our eyes fixed on the Savior instead of each other.

Posted in Christian, General, Thoughts | Tagged | Leave a comment

Fatalism and the Scriptures

Posted on 25 January 2024 by Richard

I’ve heard the question asked: Since God knows the future and what He is going to do, what is the point of praying? Whatever will happen is going to happen.

I think the best answer to this is the answer that Jesus gave to the Sadducees – Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, or the power of God.

Let us consider 2 Kings chapter 20: In those days was Hezekiah sick unto death. And the prophet Isaiah the son of Amoz came to him, and said unto him, Thus saith the LORD, Set thine house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live. Then he turned his face to the wall, and prayed unto the LORD, saying, I beseech thee, O LORD, remember now how I have walked before thee in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in thy sight. And Hezekiah wept sore. And it came to pass, afore Isaiah was gone out into the middle court, that the word of the LORD came to him, saying, Turn again, and tell Hezekiah the captain of my people, Thus saith the LORD, the God of David thy father, I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will heal thee: on the third day thou shalt go up unto the house of the LORD. And I will add unto thy days fifteen years; and I will deliver thee and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. 

Hezekiah had a fatal disease; it’s very rough to have a doctor pronounce that one has a fatal disease with little time left, but consider that this was no doctor, but God Himself that told Hezekiah that he would not recover. I would be discouraged in such a situation, wouldn’t you? Hezekiah did not decide that whatever was going to happen would happen; he prayed to God, and God not only healed Hezekiah, but granted him another 15 years. So much for fatalism!

This passage is a great encouragement to pray, no matter how dark our circumstances may be — and this is confirmed in many places in the Bible: “…men ought always to pray…” (Luke 18:1) and “…ye have not, because ye ask not…” We have the example of Moses, when he was receiving the ten commandments, and the people turned to idolatry while he was away. God told Moses that He would consume that nation and raise up a new nation from Moses, but Moses prayed and “changed” God’s mind (Exodus 32). These are just a few examples.

Related to this thought is the question: If God never changes, how we we “change” His mind through prayer?

To answer this properly, we must understand God’s omnipresence – not merely that He is in all places at the same time, but that He simultaneously exists in all times, but we live inside time. God has a never-changing plan as to how things will unfold. However, we live one day at a time. So, when the Scriptures say that God changed His mind, this is from our perspective. To take the case with Hezekiah above, Hezekiah would have died if he had not prayed to God, but God, knowing that Hezekiah prayed, has always determined that He would answer that prayer and grant 15 more years to Hezekiah. God cannot be surprised. We, on the other hand, cannot see what lies ahead: let us trust Him… and pray.

Posted in Christian, Thoughts | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Thoughts on Thanksgiving

Posted on 24 November 2023 by Richard

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the United States; I like the holiday more than most: chiefly because it’s hard to commercialize gratefulness. In addition, grateful people are happier people.

While there is a multitude of things to be thankful for, the thing that comes to mind first is the Bible.

Why the Bible?

Because without it, there is so much we would not know.

Consider that the Bible reveals Almighty God to us: without the Scriptures, man would create God as he chooses. And we know what kind of god man would create; we can look at the Greeks and Romans. Their gods were selfish, sensual, mean (even petty), and argumentative… and I’m sure other bad attributes could be attributed to them. In short, they are what man would be were he possessed of their powers.

On the other hand, the Scriptures reveal a God who is all-powerful, holy, and just, but also good and merciful, One who loves mankind.

In addition, the Bible reveals us to us: we tend to think we’re pretty good people; after all, we all know people who behave worse than we do. We’re ready to admit that no one is perfect, yet we think that we are pretty good. The Scriptures tell us the truth – that on God’s absolute scale, there is not one good person; we have all deliberately chosen wrong.

Without the Scriptures, we would not know what God expects of us; we would not know the way of salvation; we probably would know nothing of Jesus Christ and His great sacrifice for all mankind.

So, yes, above all else, I’m thankful for the Scriptures.

Posted in Christian, General | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Benefits of Thee, Thou, and Thy

Posted on 12 October 2023 by Richard

One of the complaints about older versions of the Bible (such as the Authorized Version, along with others) is the presence of the old words – specifically, “thee”, “thou”, and “thy”.

In fact, I used to think that there would be nothing wrong with updating such Bibles to remove these — until I learned better.

In case you didn’t know, “thee”, “thou”, and “thy” are the old words for the second person singular. The words for the second person plural were “you”, “ye”, and “your”. English no longer differentiates between them – we only use “you” and “your”, and it could be either singular or plural.

What I didn’t know until recently is that “thee”, “thou”, and “thy” were already out of date when the Authorized Version was translated; the translators deliberately brought these words in so that readers could tell from the word whether one individual was being addressed or multiple individuals.

There are lots of cases to show this, but I recently ran across this one in Matt 20:20-23

Then came to him the mother of Zebedee’s children with her sons, worshipping him, and desiring a certain thing of him. And he said unto her, What wilt thou? She saith unto him, Grant that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on the left, in thy kingdom. But Jesus answered and said, Ye know not what ye ask. Are ye able to drink of the cup that I shall drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with? They say unto him, We are able.

Note that Jesus said to her, “What wilt thou?” This one one person with a request, and the singular is used. But note that after her request, Jesus said “Ye know not what ye ask.” The mother may have asked the question, but it was to her two sons that He replied. This would not be as clear if the text just used “you”.

Posted in Christian, General, Thoughts | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Remembering Ron Hamilton

Posted on 22 April 2023 by Richard

If you read the title of this post and say “who?”, this paragraph will serve as a brief introduction (you can find more on the web). Ron Hamilton was known as “Patch the Pirate” and created more than 40 adventures emphasizing some area of Christian character. He was called Patch the Pirate because when he was 27, he lost an eye and decided to wear a patch. Kids at his church began calling him Patch the Pirate; the name stuck, and a ministry was born that God used and blessed.

In 2017, he announced that he had dementia; on Wed, 19 April 2023, he went to be with his Lord about whom he composed and sang all of his life. His wife, Shelly had a Facebook page and posted information about her life caring for her husband. The posts are filled with the grace of God.

I only saw/met him once, many years ago, but I remember it because God used Ron Hamilton (and his father-in-law, Frank Garlock) to do a work in my life. I think the year was 1981 (it may have been 1982, but I think it was 1981). I was in college, and I was the only college student attending the church I went to. The youth department people kindly allowed me to do things with the youth group. In the spring, they went to a youth conference at which Frank Garlock and Ron Hamilton were speaking about music.

God’s timing is always perfect; I really needed that conference at that time, and God used both of the speakers to convict me about my music listening.

I remember Ron Hamilton giving his testimony; he spoke about going to the eye doctor, who found something in his eye. They needed to do some surgery, and I remember him saying that the doctor told him that he would either wake up with a spot removed or without an eye. Those were pretty extreme options! He discovered that they had to remove his eye, as I noted above. If I remember correctly, it was while he was recovering that he learned his wife was expecting their first child. He wrote the song “Rejoice in the Lord” as a result of this time; I remember him singing it at the conference.

Another thing I’m impressed with is how Ron’s wife, Shelly, handled the transition to his wife: she had already done some composing under her maiden name (Shelly Garlock). When she and Ron married, she used Shelly Garlock Hamilton for a few years, and then was just Shelly Hamilton. It is a small thing, but I was impressed by it.

I am grateful to God that I was able to go and for what God did for me in that long-ago conference.

Rejoice in the Lord, Ron… and may the God of all comfort pour out His grace on Shelly.

Posted in Thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

When the Pastor is Wrong

Posted on 30 March 2023 by Richard

These thoughts come from a message that I was watching / listening to; as usual, the person preaching it is unimportant – the purpose here is not to take shots at people, but to discuss ideas.

It was stated that one should “stand with” one’s pastor “even if you think he’s wrong“.

To be charitable, this could have been a slip of the tongue, but I don’ think so because I’ve heard almost that exact phrase multiple times.

There is a huge difference between disagreeing with what he is doing and thinking he is wrong. Being wrong means that he is doing something, well, wrong – something that violates the Scriptures, either explicitly or in principle. While one can also be wrong by breaking the laws of the land, (that’s involved enough to have a separate entry; we are talking about just and reasonable laws that do not violate Scripture).

Disagreement merely means that two people don’t agree about something that is not covered in Scripture; it is possibly personal preference. There are many such things: the times of the services, the color of carpets or paint; hymnals that are used – there is a huge list here. You can certainly give your opinion, but once the pastor has decided, that’s the end of it; he is ultimately responsible, so, by all means, stand with him in such times.

Before I go on, I should point out that, contrary to what some people think, the pastor is human (can you believe it!!?) He is a sinner saved by grace. He will have areas of strength, and areas of weakness, just as all men do. Some people treat the pastor as an infallible man in all of his pronouncements. Only God is perfection; we human beings fall far short. The pastor will make mistakes; a humble man may use these as times of teaching; a proud man attempts to hide the mistake, trying to convince the members that he has no flaws.

On to “wrong” things: Even with “wrong”, there are certainly different levels of “wrong”; most of us have used the “wrong” word – perhaps these should be called “mistakes” or “wrongs that are unintentional”. As an example, I’ve heard various speakers confuse Noah, Moses, and Abraham — these are wrong, but they are generally minor matters, if they are just incidental slips. It doesn’t bother me if a preacher says in passing that Moses built the ark; however, it DOES bother me if that is a main point of the message.

So, leaving mistakes (or unintentional wrongs) aside, when you think the pastor is doing something wrong, you need to get it resolved. Go to him and explain and listen. Remember that the pastor, by virtue of his office, should always be treated with respect. Having said that, I can think of four possible outcomes: First, he will admit that he was wrong and plan to correct it (this is, of course, most gratifying to anyone: to discover he was right). Second, you may learn that you were wrong – that’s fine; you’ve grown and learned. Third, it may turn out that the matter is one of disagreement instead of right and wrong (disagreements were discussed above). Fourth (which hopefully is rare), no agreement is reached. In this case, it may be better to separate instead of continuing to support something you think is wrong.

We see Biblical examples of the first and second when Paul confronted Peter, discussed in Galatians 2. We also see an example of the fourth when Paul and Barnabas separated in Acts 15. I’m not sure about the third one – those may be causes when one party says “the Lord judge between thee and me”.

Posted in Christian, Thoughts | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Long time

Posted on 30 March 2023 by Richard

I just checked this web site, and was disappointed to find that I haven’t written anything since November. I need to work at writing something more frequently. It’s not that I lack material; the real issue is that I am busy with the daily vocabulary blog, and so this tends to get pushed back.

However, I ran across something that I’d like to write about, so I hope to have something posted later today.

Posted in General | Leave a comment

Growth Process

Posted on 17 November 2022 by Richard

Mark 4:27-28 are part of a parable depicting the mysteries of growth. In the farm world, a single kernel of corn germinates, grows up into a tall stalk, which typically has one or two ears; each ear has between 800 and 1200 kernels. Wow! That’s quite a return!

No less amazing is the work of the Holy Spirit in the human heart (the ground). When a person is  converted, the Holy Spirit begins a transforming progress that occurs as the Lord Jesus Christ described it in this passage.

First, when the seed germinates, life begins; there is a change, but an outsider cannot see it. So, too, when one is saved, there is a change; there is new life, but it may not be apparent to others.

Second, the “blade” appears relatively soon. It is a small thing, but it is evidence of growth. Similarly, with the Holy Spirit of God residing with the person, there is some change that others can see. It may be a small thing, but it is something. Generally, blades may not be noticed by the casual observer, but one looking for it can spot it.

Third, the “ear” occurs – this is evidence of more to come; the plant is well beyond the “blade” stage. This stage is pretty well evident to everyone. So, too, in the believer’s life; the believer has grown quite a bit, and the change is noticeable.

Finally, there is is the “full corn” – this is the fruit. This is a stage in which the believer is bearing fruit, which honors and glorifies God.

This growing process takes time; in believers, each may grow at different rates. Let us not compare ourselves to others, but do what we can to be fruitful to God.

Posted in Christian, General, Thoughts | Tagged | Leave a comment

Lessons from Romans (wisdom)

Posted on 19 August 2022 by Richard

To God only wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen. (Romans 16:27)

The above is the last verse of the last chapter of the book of Romans.

My curiosity was caught by the phrase “only wise”… I don’t know why, but for as long as I can remember, I always thought that this was a phrase that meant “alone”. But it doesn’t… like many things in the Bible, it means what is says: that God has true wisdom.

Over the years, I’ve heard multiple preachers define “wisdom”; it is usually tied to knowledge, such as “the practical use of knowledge” or “the proper use of knowledge” (I like the latter one).

However, in looking up the phrase “only wise”, I saw that the root idea behind the word for wisdom is “clear” or “clarity”… and that just really impressed me. It felt like when one crests a hill or rounds a corner, and sees far more stretching out in front of one.

I love this idea: that God can see clearly all the way out to eternity. We, on the other hand, are like extremely near-sighted people, or people dwelling in a thick fog: we can barely see beyond ourselves, and what we can see isn’t completely clear.

Such is the wisdom that God possesses; little wonder that glory is due Him!

Posted in Christian, Thoughts | Tagged , | Leave a comment