Tag: Pastoral Epistles

Staying Focused

As a boy, when I arrived home from school each day, two priorities dominated my agenda.  The first was to secure a snack — often something, not so healthy — and the second was to spend an hour watching television before diving into my homework – also not very healthy.   Ted Turner’s fledgling super-station curiously juxtaposed two cartoons starting at 3:35 – “The Flintstones” and “The Jetsons.”  One superimposed modern concerns, attitudes and lifestyles upon stone-aged men and women while the other superimposed futuristic technology and innovation upon contemporary concerns, attitudes and lifestyles.  The curious message of both cartoons was the same.  While the context of life changes radically, people are the same in every age.   The hopes, their problems, their needs are the same whether they are riding dinosaurs in the rock quarry or zipping around in spaceships.

Certainly, those of us who have lived very long have seen this.  People are people, even though the world today is radically different from the one in which we grew up.  We did not have computers, cell phones, video players of any type, remote controls, or even color television.  I was almost grown before I leaned that Gilligan’s shirt was not light grey.   The pace of technological change is staggering, as amazing discoveries are being made every day which fundamentally change our lives.   Scientific discovery is accelerating exponentially.   But the most important discovery sits outside the realm of science.

Curiously, every great discovery has been there all along, hiding in the cosmos and waiting to be uncovered through some unfolding chain of inquiry.  But the greatest truth, the one which affects the hearts and souls of men and women, is not discoverable.   It must be revealed.   This truth alone, expressed in the Christian gospel, has the power to change people from the inside out.  This truth has been entrusted to the Church, whose mission is to proclaim it.  While many great discoveries have improved the quality and quantity of human life, none of these have eternal impact.

But often the Church gets distracted and fails to keep the main thing the main thing.  Programs must be staffed and funded, buildings must be maintained, schedules must be managed, traditions must be observed, controversies must be addressed.  The church may pursue many good secondary things, but if not careful, it may lose sight of the first thing, the gospel.  No doubt Paul recognized this danger as he instructs Timothy how the church is to be organized, who is to do what, how worship is to be conducted, and how the needs of the congregation are to be met.   For this reason, he constantly reasserts the big picture in every discussion of details.   The structure of worship, the establishment of leadership and its qualifications, the concern to contend for truth, and to care for the marginalized all serve the same end – to declare the great mystery of godliness, revealed in the gospel.

Join us this Lord’s Day, October 7, as we examine 1 Timothy 3:14-16 to consider the importance of focusing our ministry as the Church through the lens of the gospel.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions. Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and worship. We look forward to seeing you there.

String Theory

Without music, the world could not exist!  This is not merely a declaration of aesthetic sensibility or support for the importance of the arts.   But quite literally, theoretical physicists have hypothesized that multi-dimensional vibration accounts for all the particular arrangements of protons, neutrons and electrons into the atomic structures that constitute matter.  This view, known as “string theory,” resonates remarkably with how the Bible claims the world came into being.

 “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” Hebrews 11:3

Consider, however, that God did not think the world into existence, but spoke it.  The original language of God’s speaking in Genesis does not exclude the idea of singing – an idea common in the creation accounts of many cultures and in popular literature.  Both Tolkien in the Silmarillion and C. S. Lewis in the Chronicles of Narnia describe the creation of their fictional worlds through the singing of a supreme being.

But there is another singer in each of these stories – a glorious, but prideful, envious creature who sings a different song, slightly off pitch in order to lead creation to resonate with discordant vibrations.  He weaves doubt and dissonance, asking “did God really say?” and introducing a “better truth” than God’s truth – a truth that man himself should be the captain of his soul and the master of his fate.  He does not deny God’s existence or that he has spoken.  He only suggests that God’s word is not enough, not sufficient, not completely trustworthy – suitable only for moral and practical suggestion.  He does not sing a new song, just God’s song off pitch and out of tune.   He sings of man’s essential goodness and God’s overbearing and unreasonable demands.  He sings of God’s justice and implacable wrath or perhaps of his basic apathy toward us and our concerns.

This accuser, this destroyer, this father of lies sings a soul destroying and life depriving dissonance.  For this reason, the scripture commands us to close our ears to his choir of false singers, teaching a different doctrine and another gospel, contrary to God’s Word, the Bible.  When the Apostle Paul writes to his young protégé, Timothy, to instruct him in giving guidance to the fledgling church in Ephesus, he charges him strictly to refute those who are teaching off-key.   In his exhortation he gives one of the simplest, most concise, articulations of the gospel in all of scripture.

“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.” 1 Timothy 1:15

Paul sings out the song of redemption with clarity of voice and perfectness of pitch in order that men might reject Satan’s song.  Join us this Lord’s Day, August 26, as we examine 1 Timothy 1:12-17 and consider why it is imperative to resist those who sing the gospel off-key.  We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions. Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and conversation. We look forward to seeing you there.

Behaving in Church

Behaving in Church

As a child, I remember thinking that no hour passed so slowly as the one that passed between the call to worship and the benediction.  When I got my first watch, it seemed to sputter and stall and stand stock still during the last 10 minutes of the sermon as the preacher would “continue to close.”   The fidgeties kicked in and my legs seemed to swing on their own and kick the pew in front of me involuntarily attracting the unwanted and sharp gaze of my father.  Learning to be still and attentive in church was a challenge.

One of our core values at River City Reformed Church is multi-generational ministry in which all ages study, worship, fellowship and enjoy life together.   We are a family of families worshiping together.   We are teaching our children to worship as they worship with us.  Yet, we realize what a challenge this can be, especially for parents with several young children or children that are not used to being in worship.  But learning to behave and be attentive is a process that does not begin with the call to worship and end with the benediction.  It is learned by living life together as families and as the church.  And, not surprisingly, learning to behave in church is not a problem just for children.  Often grownups need more instruction and training in this than little ones.

The New Testament includes several letters from the apostles addressing the scandals, heresies, and divisions that rocked various fledgling congregations.   These troubleshooting epistles are critical for us, because our scandals, heresies and divisions are not novel.  As Solomon well noted, there is nothing new under the sun.  Be we also need careful, proactive instruction in how we are supposed to behave as God’s household, the church.  A principle of parenting that has served our family well is that the most effective instruction is given in periods of non-conflict.

To this end, the Holy Spirit has given us three little letters from the apostle Paul – 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus – often styled, the Pastoral Epistles.   In these letters, the Lord instructs us in how we are to behave in church as we live in the household of God.  Join us this Lord’s Day, August 12, as we examine 1 Timothy 1 and begin to consider what the Bible teaches us about living life together in God’s household.    We meet from 5:00 – 6:30 pm in The Commons at St. Andrews Anglican Church at 8300 Kanis Rd in Little Rock.  Click here for directions. Come with a friend you and join us for fellowship and conversation. We look forward to seeing you there.