Don't Get Immunized ... Spiritually

Immunizations are suddenly newsworthy again. Should we immunize our kids or not? Regardless of your answer, immunizations have saved hundreds of thousands of lives.

Here's how it works. You inject a physically healthy person with a weakened or dead virus. The person's body "thinks" it's a carrier of the real infection and produces antibodies. The antibodies then multiply and usually stick around long enough to fight the real virus, if it ever shows up. Instead of being a carrier, the person has become inoculated from the actual virus.

Spiritually, it usually works backward; We become inoculated from the real life God wants us to live. One common spiritual immunization is called "Giving Back".

Giving back sounds like a wonderfully biblical idea. But it's not. It inoculates us from Godly giving.

The phrase, "giving back", is fairly new and reveals a foreign idea that has invaded our thinking. Giving back almost always means giving to our community, because "the community has provided so much." Some even suggest that the community made us who we are. They think that everything we have, every opportunity we have been given, is because someone in the community gave it to us.

In a subtle way, we're worshiping our community by giving an offering to the source of our blessings. But what does scripture say?

James writes, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." Every gift!

Every good and perfect gift that we receive has its origin in God. It is God that has provided the ability to generate wealth, and it's God who has provided finances through our employer. Our children are gifts from God. Your spouse is a gift from God. Every good and perfect gift.

That also means that every good and perfect gift that we give someone else, doesn't come from us…it comes from God and flows through us. We are not the source of the gift. We might have given the gift, but God is the original source.

"Giving back" assumes that someone or something other than God is the source of all of the good things in our life. And it also assumes that there is a limit on the amount of "good stuff." There's only so much "good stuff"; someone gave some to us and we are obligated to give it back, spread it around.

Giving back is also bad theology because we start thinking that giving back is enough. But even giving to God, as a way to pay Him back, is off target.

Giving is an essential element of God's character. The Bible has over a thousand references to giving or tithing. It's such a central theme that many believe the church is only concerned about money. But here's the truth: God doesn't need our money.

Paul told the church in Colossae that, through Christ "all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

God doesn't need our money, but He desperately wants us to be people who give generously, extravagantly! When we truly understand that there is so much more than a fixed amount of "good stuff", that there is no limit, when we understand that "in him we live and move and have our being," then giving will come naturally.

Jesus said, "Whoever believes in me…streams of living water will flow from within him." One of the passages in Ezekiel He was quoting from reads, "…so where the river flows everything will live … Fruit trees of all kinds will grow…Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing."

Instead of simply giving back, God wants us to be "streams of living water" that transport all of the blessings to our neighbors; blessings that constantly flow from Him. They're new every morning!

Don't just "give back"; be a carrier of unlimited blessings from the source of every good and perfect gift! Maybe it will start an epidemic!

Questions or comments? CurtisFerrell1962@gmail.com


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Does It Really Matter What Truth Is?

What is truth? Philosophers have asked that question for centuries. Roman governor Pontius Pilate asked Jesus the same question. What is truth?

In recent years the question has changed. Does real truth exist? Is there absolute truth? Is your truth the same as my truth? Does it really matter what the truth is?

When you go to the bank and ask for your bank balance, do you want the truth? Do you want your truth or the bank's truth? Does it really matter what the truth is?

Imagine that you are in a severe car accident with your family. When you wake up in Recovery, you ask about your spouse and children. Do you want the real truth? Does it really matter what the truth is?

Modern philosophy says that what's true for you may not be true for me; what is really meant is that your perception of truth is different from my perception of truth. In this world there is only One Truth. Everything different from that One Truth is someone's perspective on truth. But eventually perspectives will be compared to the One Truth.

That's what is beginning to happen in climate change science (formerly global warming science). Actually, climate change is not science at all; a leading advocate for climate change studies readily admits it.

Recently, Christian British blogger, Kevin McGrane uncovered quotes from Mike Hulme. Mr. Hulme is founding director of Tyndall Centre and Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia and has prepared climate change reports for the British government, the European Commission, and the United Nations.

Hulme explains that climate change science is not "normal" science, but post-normal science. Post-normal science discards conventional methods of scientific discovery, and advances a pre-determined political or social agenda.Hulme acknowledges that post-normal "scientists", himself included, are not searching for truth, they are searching for power.

Or take the recent Arizona Immigration Law. Dozens of people, from politicians to entertainers to clergy, have publicly condemned the law only to later admit that they have not read it. It's hard to believe that they really care about finding the truth. If they do care, how can they criticize something they haven't read?

In the 1981 movie, Absence of Malice, Paul Newman's character debates truth with Sally Field's character. They come to the conclusion that something can be true but not accurate; certain facts are true but they don't tell the whole story. At least twenty years ago we were concerned with accuracy. Today, in many ways, we will trade the truth we know for the lie that we want to believe. In the Apostle Paul's letter to the church in Rome, he calls that sin.

"They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator--who is forever praised."

I can trade juicy information about my neighbor; it's not really gossip. Really?

We can spend our way out of debt. Does that even make sense?

I can commit adultery; it won't really hurt anyone else. Does it really matter if that is true?

God is truth. Everything that is true flows from who God is. Everything that is untrue is opposed to God. At the core of everything we call "sin" is a transaction; we trade truth for a lie. Then we act on that lie and not on the truth.

When we act on a lie, disregarding truth, we sin and there will be consequences. When a church acts on a lie, ignoring the truth, it sins and there will be a cost. When a nation acts on a lie, closing its eyes to the truth, it sins and there will be a price to pay. But, does it really matter?

I believe it does matter. We must be people who seek the truth wherever it leads. We must be churches who are obedient to the truth whatever the cost. We must be a nation who believes that there is real truth, values that truth, and acts on the truth.

Do you know the truth? Or does it really matter?

Questions or comments? Write curt@smdcog.org

You can find me on FACEBOOK at my Facebook Page (http://www.new.facebook.com/profile.php?id=504321719). Here's a link to my Flickr.com Page (http://www.flickr.com/photos/curtisferrell/) Thanks for reading!

It's Time To Think . . .

Courier-Times Article for June 6th, 2009

It's time to think . . .

Earlier this year, a prominent U.S. politician said , "Our moral authority is derived from the fact that generations of our citizens have fought and bled to uphold these values, [life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness], in our nations and others. And that's why we can never sacrifice them for expedience's sake."

The statement sounds thoughtful and profound, but is it? It sounds like a truth that spans generations, but is it?

As Americans, we've gotten lazy. We don't like to think much. Just go with the flow; live and let live; my truth may not be your truth. Unfortunately, in many cases, the church has stopped thinking as well.

We used to be called people of the WORD, but now we spend much of our time debating whether that word is TRUE. Should churches ordain homosexuals or bless homosexual unions? After all, THOSE parts of the bible might not be true. Should we be more concerned about babies who were aborted or those chained by poverty? Let's pick one and ignore the other . . . That's the content of many of our discussions.

The Word of God is the Law that governed the Israelites, and the foundation that birthed the church. At some point, many in the church have become untethered from the Word of God and have now turned around and questioned its veracity. This behavior would have utterly confounded the Christ-followers in Berea.

Dr. Luke records that the believers in Berea, after listening to the preaching of Paul, examined the Scriptures every day to determine that what Paul said was true. To the Breans, scripture was the source of truth, the measuring stick to determine whether the greatest preacher of their time was speaking truth. Moral authority was found in holy scripture, not in the sacrifice of fellow citizens.

The Bible speaks very clearly about the sanctity of life; about our responsibility to the poor, the orphaned and the widow; about God's view of homosexual behavior. The church needs to rediscover the authority found in the Word of God and stand on it. However, that kind of stance could become something more than politically incorrect, it could become illegal.

The U.S. Senate is considering a Hate Crimes Bill (S.909) which could be used to prosecute ministers for declaring God's truth on homosexuality. Will the church "search the scriptures" to find the truth, or will we poll the people to find out what is acceptable?

If we fail to think through all of these issues, and instead follow "thoughtful and profound words" blindly, we will end up in places we never thought we would be. After all, if our moral authority lies in the sacrifices made by our fellow citizens, then both the Palestinians and the Israelis have moral authority. The Nazis and the Japanese had moral authority during World War II, just like the Allied Forces. If shedding blood is the only prerequisite for establishing moral authority then gangs like the Bloods, the Crips, the Mafioso, the MS-13, and the Yakuza each have the same moral authority as the fighting men and women of the U.S. military.

Moral authority can only be found in the author of morality. It's time to learn from the Christ-followers in Berea. It's time to search the Word of God for timeless and time tested truth. It's time to think. Don't ya' think?


Thanks for reading!