1 Peter 1:13 Girding up the loins of the Mind

Peter exhorts the believers to dismiss the distractions of this world.  He asks, “What spiritual matters govern your decisions?”  Those who seek to enter the hope brought to believers by Jesus Christ will establish their manner of life such that it reflects the hope they have.  Distractions are the encumbrances of the flesh.  The encumbrances of the flesh Peter specifically references in the letter include:

1.      Conformity to past passions.  Conformity to the passions of the pre-converted life signals a failure to hope in the rescue of the future.  Those who conform to previous passions face encumbrance in eternal matters.  Such is the case for those who struggle with sins of enticement.  Their spiritual mindedness is obstructed by an old habit.  This does not mean they should have already conquered the enticement, but it does mean they must consistently gird up this encumbrance through repentance.

2.      Blissful ignorance.  Ignorance is never a virtue in the Scripture.  Christian people are known by what they know.  The Apostle John remarks repeatedly about the knowledge of the church.  Peter emphasizes the knowledge of salvation that the church hopes in.  Believers cannot endure without proper knowledge.  The former way of life for the believers flowed from their ignorance about God.  Christian people know the demands of God and, as children who know the demands of their father, fear to offend.  Ignorance about God’s demands is an encumbrance.  People don’t always get into sinful relationships because they are attempting to be evil, sometimes they get off-base because they are ignorant.

Girding up (ie. preparing the mind) for the journey demands both determination and careful reflection.  Any who seek to serve God have great hope but always wrestle with the encumbrance innate to this earthly existence.  Popular psychology encourages goal setting.  Peter encourages eternity setting.  Set eternity as your goal and the journey makes more sense.  Think through the eternal reality of situations in order to discover the right decision.

-Pastor Kevin Jordan

Thoughts on Education and Good Reasons for Seeking Alternatives…

Educating children is a top priority for Christian families.  The Scripture teaches that instruction provides a primary pathway for growing faith and understanding:

^{Dt 6:6-7} And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. ⁷ You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”

Sadly, many churches have an improper attitude toward childhood spiritual education.  Some neglect it while others have resorted to entertainment.  The command of God is to train children faithfully, continually, and rightly.  Number one: do not neglect education.

Education is inherently spiritual.  We lie to ourselves when we believe that education will not result in spiritual perspective.  A chief problem in our state schools is the veiling of spiritual content under the guise of “non-biased” instruction.  One of the reasons our education system is doing poorly is because it pretends to be a-religious.  Such an education does not exist.  If your kids are in state schools you will have to spend extra time training them how to hear and learn what the teacher says.  Number two, educate spiritually and wisely.

At this point, you probably think you know where this argument is going, and that I am going to make a demand that will not fit with your lifestyle or abilities.  But hold on, though my family homeschools, it is not mandatory for every family.  In fact, plenty of families do their children a disservice by homeschooling even though the parents lack the discipline or time to accomplish the task.  Neither is the answer necessarily Christian private schooling.  Many Christian schools suffer from the demands of overambitious parents dreaming of a future Harvard grad.  Education, number three, is discipline.  Without discipline, both in behavior and in practice, no child learns.  Undisciplined parents will produce undisciplined children.  Proud schools will produce arrogant kids.  Undisciplined children cannot learn well.  Arrogant kids cannot think well.

Finally, education demands vision.  Negative arguments for leaving state schools include: “Those other kids are a bad influence.  The standards are too low.  My kid is bored all the time.  I don’t like those teachers.”  Negative arguments do not provide enough reason to pull your kids from state schools.  Removing your children only forces you into a decision you have already failed to make.  What is your vision for your child’s education?  Do you expect your child to love learning, be able to handle any problem given he/she has enough information, be able to think and consider the evidence he/she discovers?  Do you see your child increasing in faith and growing more disciplined in the way he conducts his life?  Education filled with vision guides a child in their maturity and discipline.  Parents err when they react to the unhappiness they experience with their child’s current education.  Without vision for spiritual and mental maturity, however, your child will not do better with the change you propose.

Christian parents must educate their children.  It is the command of God that education be spiritual in nature and filled with wisdom.  Disciplined students learn well, so parents must discipline their children.  Educational vision for the kind of education your child needs guides the emphasis you place upon the task.  Be thoughtful and even-minded about your child’s education.  Do not neglect it nor think the solution is inherently tied to the technique.

-Pastor Kevin Jordan

Change, Change, Change 1 Samuel 17:33

Change, change, change.

1st Samuel 17:33-37

Many Churches today are feeling the need to “Change with the times.” This is because many believe that the historical way of doing Church is either, “backwoods”, “corny”, or even “bland.” When I say historical, I am referring to the fact that up until recent years, a Church service was about praising and glorifying God. Churches are no longer interested in doing Church this way because they feel it does not “reach the community.” Well, I must disagree. We have been studying First Samuel on Wednesday nights and one of the major themes in the book is that God is the one who gives his anointed one the victory. People feel that they must water down Church and pollute their worship so that it is man centered in order to reach their community.

 
Allow me to ask a question. If Jesus Christ is as wonderful as we say he is then why must we decorate him to be hip, cool, or trendy? Isn’t He enough? There are many fallacies with trying to put Jesus Christ into a costume, but those shall be addressed in later articles, for now we will focus on why people are doing this.
The reason for this is that many of our friends in the Church growth movement have taken the attitude that Saul had when David was getting ready to fight Goliath. “Thou art not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him: for thou art but a youth, and he a man of war from his youth.” While this was a legitimate concern for Saul, what Saul did not realize is that David was already a mighty warrior because the LORD had been getting him ready. Not the conventional way, but ready nonetheless. Many Pastor’s don’t’ really feel that God will move at all today with anything supernatural. That is the major problem with the modern day Church growth. People no longer believe that God will save souls to grow the Church, so they must find a way to attract them from other Churches.

 
David responded to Saul by letting him know what God had done in the past and that God was STILL able to do it in the present/future. “The LORD that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Yes! God is still able to deliver his people, just like he grew the Church in the Book of Acts, so it is that he can grow the Church in 2010. We don’t need fancy gimmicks; we don’t need millions of dollars. What we need is men and women who will stand up and open their mouth, and tell people about the Gospel - not for the sake of having a big Church, but out of their love for the Lord and their love for people.

-Rick Coker, Associate Pastor

A Purpose to Suffering – 1 Peter 1:10-12 Sermon for 10/10/10

A Purpose to Suffering – 1 Peter 1:10-12

The task of knowing salvation requires a great deal of searching and inquiring. The prophets of old searched and inquired carefully. To whom the prophets made inquiry, or in what manner they searched, the passage does not say. One could assume their searching channels primarily through prayer or perhaps through the revealed Word they had at the time, but that hardly finds any conclusive evidence in the text. Peter doesn’t say which prophets he writes about. Presumably, the prophets mentioned account for the whole collection of OT prophets. Peter does however note the identity of the prophets as those who spoke about the grace later to come to believers.

The result of the prophets searching was an understanding of their audience. The prophets knew they were speaking to an audience coming in the future. The kings of the ancients were not the King of kings. They also knew the content of salvation, not in dynasty and succession, nor in land and loyalty, but in divine action. Therefore, the imaginations of an earthly inheritance never carried any true fulfillment. God did not prepare an earthly messiah to lead a nation to rebel, but rather a heavenly Messiah that would end all opposition to God. God’s purposes march forward through history in spite of the evil surrounding the present days.

When believers face suffering, they often think God has forgotten something, that he left something out of his plan or that the believer strayed far enough to thwart God’s redemptive work. The trials believers face are hardly an oversight of God. Peter points out that the prophets knew the salvation coming to believers… and the sufferings. Christians are the evidence that they were right. The fact that Christians suffer means that God continues to control the matters of this earth. He is with you. Though you struggle, His plan flows from that struggle. See the opportunity for God’s glory in all sufferings. Rejoice, redemption is at hand!

-Pastor Kevin Jordan

Thoughts on Vampires, Necromancers, Witches, the Occult and other Spiritual Stuff Promoted around Halloween…

Some have questioned how Christians ought to respond to the popularity of books like Twilight, Harry Potter, and the popular “undead-romance” genre in general.  Some say Christians should abandon all media that dramatizes the supernatural powers of darkness.  Others say these items are fiction and should not be taken seriously, therefore Christians may read them.  The arguments are generally hubbed around notions of what constitutes good Christian fantasy material and what does not.  After all, do we ask the same questions regarding the rightness or wrongness of soap operas?  What about popular fantasy TV shows that do not glorify the undead or witchcraft but do create an engrossing fantasy world for the viewers?  How should the Christian respond to these matters?

First, spiritual darkness does exist therefore it must be taken serious.  Evil spiritual beings have real power and exert real influence.  In 1 John “the world” is all human and demonic powers united to oppose the kingdom of God.  Necromancy, divination and sorcery are medium techniques to consult these dark spiritual beings that maintain rebellion against God.  There is no such thing as contacting the dead, so anytime you try you are calling out demons.  Believers should not tamper with these dark spiritual forces through any means.  Scripture identifies divination and necromancy as off-limits to God’s people (Dt. 18:10, 1 Samuel 28:8, 2 Kings 17:17).

That said, reading Harry Potter is not the same as performing a séance.  Reading fiction of any kind has its good and bad.  Some fiction is important social and political commentary.  Some is just clean fun.  However, glorifying demonic forces who oppose God is somewhat like singing the words of the North Korean National Anthem to the tune of the Star Spangled Banner.  It’s a problem of allegiance.  Any fiction that glorifies demonic activity is sin.  Harry Potter or Twilight included.

Second, fantasy itself is problematic.  Most vampire, ghost, sorcery, etc. books combine the reality of dark spiritual forces with the fantasy of the undead.  This fact makes them particularly enticing and sinister.  Saint Augustine taught that fantasy is the least beneficial subject matter on which to spend mental energy.  In other words, Augustine thought it was a waste of time.  He would say the same about cartoons, TV, or other fiction/fantasy material because it is fantasy.  Along with the waste of time, the conflicted allegiance and romantic fiction many fantasy books take toward otherwise vicious spirits precludes them from Christian reading lists.

So the rubric believers ought to use to determine the “should or shouldn’t” of such material seems to work like this:

1.       Does the story glorify good or evil? light or darkness?

2.       Does the fantasy benefit the reader in some way?  Could you learn what you need to learn without the fantasy?

3.       Does the fantasy misconstrue the vicious nature of evil, calling it good or noble rather than sinister and wicked?

If the believer can answer these questions in good conscience toward God then the fantasy story may be worthwhile.  Otherwise, if at any question your conscience cries foul, leave the book on the shelf and read something worthwhile.

-Pastor Kevin Jordan

Suffering Hurts but Rejoicing Heals

1 Peter 1:6  "In this rejoice..."

The Greek nuance translates “rejoice exceedingly” or “be exceedingly joyful.”  The word occurs only in the Bible and one other minor reference.  The word often occurs within the context of some physical expression of joy.  Acts 2:26 (quoting Ps 15:9) “my tongue rejoiced”, 1 Pt 4:13 translated with the intensity of the word, “that you might shout for joy”, Jn 8:56 of the man rejoicing that he received sight.  So here, rejoice with your voice, hands, and expression.  Give high praise for the content of salvation and the reward it brings to your soul.  The charge to rejoice carries the section thematically to 1 Peter 1:8 bracketing the trouble of the churches’ present trials in rejoicing.  Peter knows, at least in part, the trouble the members face.

Peter highlights, by comparison, the light trouble of suffering in this exiled state.  When suffering compares to glory in the imperishable inheritance and the sure hope of its security, little can be made of suffering.  Suffering hurts but rejoicing heals.  The product of suffering is despair but the product of hope if rejoicing.  Peter makes a statement of fact: the church rejoices with overt praise overflowing from their situation because the Lord appeared.

What This Blogging Business is all About

Welcome to the blog site for the ministers at Parkview Fellowship.  Each week the various ministers at the church will post articles about church related stuff.  Some of the postings will be little more than announcements, some will be stories of God's great work, some will be theological content requiring deeper reflection.  Whatever the actual content, this blog represents minor reflections on a vast category of thought that require more space to discuss than a blog can provide.  We hope you will apply yourselves to deep reflection on things of God.  To the extent that we help you do that, and stay connected to a church, we'll consider this blog a success.

Thanks for reading - Kevin Jordan, Pastor