Seven days. Spoken word. How God created the earth. Tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. How God lived on earth. We can't flee from Him, fool Him, or fight Him. He understands all mysteries and all knowledge. Nothing occurs to Him. Oh, and then He is love, and He loves us. And He designed and established three institutions for this age in which we live: government, family, and church.
We aren't to complain about any of the three. We are to submit to all three. Break down any of the three and society is sent into something worse than a tail spin. God establishes all three in Scripture. Government. Submit yourselves to the higher powers. Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesars. Family. A man will leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife. Husbands love your wives. Wives submit yourselves to your own husbands. Fathers bring your children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Church. Upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. God's Word is sufficient for every good work.
Sometimes the three will clash. Duties do conflict. Government conflicts with church. Obey God rather than men. Family conflicts with church. Let the dead bury the dead. Love God and hate father and mother. In short, Christ is the head of every man.
They each have their unique responsibilities. Family is responsible for training children, not the government. The church is responsible for the truth, not the government. The government is responsible for punishing evil-doers, not the church or the family. In certain ways each is responsible to the other. In other ways, some of the duties overlap.
It's a great system. After all, God set it up and He knows everything. But then, men try improve on it. Why? Well, um, we know so much? Uh, the Bible's an old book and so it didn't cover everything? Because I want to? Do we really think that any reason will be a good one? I hope not. It is possible that this could be something like adding or taking away from God's Word, isn't it? From what I've read in Scripture, God doesn't like that with sometimes very serious consequences.
So what great embellishments have men contributed to what God instituted? "Let's have the government teach children." That hasn't worked out so well, huh? Neither has day care. "Let's have psychologists tell people what's good or bad about their souls." More books than ever by these folks and more problems also. "Let's have something other than the church teach truth. How about para-church colleges, universities, or seminaries? And we'll have them tell us what the Bible is too." I'm sure they're well intentioned. So we'll just let this one slip by.
8 comments:
You changed your picture!
Probably makes you sad that that's the only comment I have to make on this good post. But,,,
Not sad. Glad. I thought the other pic could possibly be a problem for some, too much of an inside joke really.
Way inside joke, Pastor B. I agree Jeff. And you are correct Throwback. I think we all got behind with the children when we allowed prayer to be taken out of the schools. That was the only place some of them ever heard prayer. Then it was the "Ten Commandments". Again we have failed the children. Juvenile delinquency has increased some 40% since then. We have a saying around here that the hands that are folded in prayer can't hold a gun; a hand with a bible in it doesn't kill anyone. True, Pastor we have allowed society to dictate how we raise our children....if we allow them to do that we have failed them and God.
Let's step back and take a good look at our clergy today. What are they doing in the "show and tell" department? I'm still angry over the Episcopal Convention elections and all the "hoop-lala". That is not good intentions...and you can ask anyone here or you can get over to Blessings Hill,there is a post..
Blessings,
Ruth
Ruth
I hurried back so I could comment on your blog again... so that will explain the lousiness of the comment. First, to Ruth. We all got behind with the children a long time before we allowed prayer to be taken out of the public schools. We got behind with the children way back when we started public schools, prayer and all. On the day we founded government schools, government began establishing religion. At first they appeased the majority, and guess what! They still are. I pray for the day when the government schools collapse. Oh, and by the way, do you really consider Episcopals to be anything more than priests of Baal?
Next, Joel... yes, churches encroach on the domain of the Christian home, almost as often as homes encroach on the domain of the local church.
Finally, Pastor B., I enjoyed this. I like your new picture. It reminds of the book you are writing. I can't wait to see you throw it. I liked the style of the post. Good meter. Sentence Fragments. Almost had a rhythme. One thing. A possible cause for the "conflict" in duties would be a neglect of the Lordship of Christ over everything. If we recognize the Lordship of Christ, our duties will be clear, and will not conflict, though the institutions attempt to cause conflict. Institutions create conflict when they attempt to usurp authority, when they make themselves the ultimate authority.
Pastor M, what I consider the Episcopals to be is of no consequence. My point is the message they are sending. Not being of that flock, I am secure in what I believe. Public schools? I absolutely agree. However, again, my point is that praying is a great part of life, and it should be started in the home and continued thru schools, etc.
Thanks for the comments...and Blessings,
Ruth
Well......greetings BROS?? I have been reading these and SI for some time..they are good for laughs and sometimes good for life lessons; scriptural information but, this one is just way out!! The one before was kinda wild! So, this is my second post...first and last. I cannot play in the "good-ole-boys" cornor. 'Cause I am neither " Voegtlinism, Brandenburgism nor Mallinkism.....so enjoy your "king of the mountain" game.Throwback 13 what are you doing in here?
The sinner
Voegtlinism???
I'm offended. I had a following and nobody let me know! Oh well. I guess I better get out and rally the troops.
So much to do, so little time to do it!
At least my "ism" has a name. It's VOEGTLINISM!! Get it right now.
But yours, it has no name. It's anonymous-ism (I'm smiling). It's very hard to put your finger on it, you know.
Anyway, "The sinner" just got me all stirred up. I didn't think I was so influential as to have an "ism" named after me.
Oh, maybe it's not me! There are other Voegtlins out there. But none that post on this blog. So it must be all about me. Ooops! Better watch out for pride, but I just know that my blog and my comments are just tearing the world to shreads and lighting it up everywhere. Pretty soon USA Today is going to be asking for an interview. Oh, just wait, the phone's ringing...
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