Stop Going to Church! Isaiah 1

Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
(Isaiah 1:16-18 ESV)

Many of us know and have heard those verses above, especially the part about forgiveness. But what precedes it? What is the real context of this call to repentance and forgiveness?

The prophet Isaiah is calling out the people of Judah regarding their heart attitudes. They still go to the temple, they bring their sacrifices. They show up every Sabbath and ‘do the right thing’. And yet, God is not pleased. Why? Because they are not doing it out of a love for God, or even to get closer to God. They are doing it ‘because they have to’. And in doing so have moved far, far away from who God has called them to be.

How many of us see church as that drab building with the hard wooden seats (mine has plastic – but they are still hard) that we visit every Sunday because it is ‘the right thing to do‘. This isn’t what we are called to! Anyone can go to a performance and public speech! They can hear some songs, maybe sing along if they like the tune, and listen to an orator impress them with his public speaking skills and knowledge of his chosen topic. And they can even complain if the orator speaks too long, or about a topic they don’t enjoy, or maybe doesn’t nail the point that Sunday.

This is not ‘church’!

Church is the gathering of God’s people. As part of that gathering, all of God’s people are involved, all of God’s people take part in fellowship with each other, under the one pastor of the church – Jesus. When we fellowship with each other, we don’t attend as mute spectators of a performance, but as functioning parts of the body of Christ!

So next time you feel like ‘going to church because you have to’ – I have one piece of advice. Don’t! Instead re-frame your mind – the church is not a building, not a place to go and ‘keep up appearances’ for an hour, but a gathering of the real church – the body of Christ – where everyone is a part and is involved.

What can we say then?

Stop going to church, and start Being the Church!

Hear the word of the LORD,
you rulers of Sodom!
Give ear to the teaching of our God,
you people of Gomorrah!
“What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices?
says the LORD;
I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams
and the fat of well-fed beasts;
I do not delight in the blood of bulls,
or of lambs, or of goats.
“When you come to appear before me,
who has required of you
this trampling of my courts?
Bring no more vain offerings;
incense is an abomination to me.
New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations—
I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly.
Your new moons and your appointed feasts
my soul hates;
they have become a burden to me;
I am weary of bearing them.
When you spread out your hands,
I will hide my eyes from you;
even though you make many prayers,
I will not listen;
your hands are full of blood.
Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean;
remove the evil of your deeds from before my eyes;
cease to do evil,
learn to do good;
seek justice,
correct oppression;
bring justice to the fatherless,
plead the widow’s cause.
“Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD:
though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow;
though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool.
If you are willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land;
but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be eaten by the sword;
for the mouth of the LORD has spoken.”
(Isaiah 1:10-20 ESV)

Temperance – Striving in the right direction

This is the second of our follow on posts from the video posted here - Unwelcome Words – Prudence and Temperance - if you haven’t watched it (just under 7 minutes long) pause here and take a look!. We want to look at both prudence and temperance (because they are different) – yesterday it was prudence, today, temperance.

Again if we look in the dictionary, we might find something like this -

Moderation in action, thought, or feeling; Restraint

 Though if we are to listen to the video from Dr Kinghorn, his definition of temperance is  ’pursuing things only to the degree that they are valuable – running harder after the things of greater value, running less hard after the things of lesser value’.

Temperance however has changed in meaning over time – it has since come to primarily mean abstaining from mainly alcohol - what we speak of here is a much broader meaning. I think what we are talking about, in context of both prudence and temperance, is a combination of self-control, restraint, and actively choosing the right thing (living intentionally for the Kingdom of God).

What does the Bible say about temperance?

The end of all things is at hand; therefore be self-controlled and sober-minded for the sake of your prayers. Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.
(1 Peter 4:7-8 ESV)

A man without self-control
is like a city broken into and left without walls.
(Proverbs 25:28 ESV)

What does this mean for my life and yours?

I think Dr Kinghorn summed it up well when he spoke of the value proposition of any given action. Taken in hand with prudence (actively choosing to do the right thing), it becomes part of the same decision. When a choice comes before us, we weigh its value in light of the Kingdom of God and the call of Jesus on our life. We see first if it is something that is directly against what we are called to – that instantly calls for prudence to move away from the wrong path. But then when the choice is less clear, we focus our efforts on those things that have a higher value in our lives – we focus on those things that have a higher value in the Kingdom of God.

Let’s go for an (almost) real life example.

Pretend for a moment that like me, you work in computers. You have three job offers on the table (I know, funny joke, stay with me!). The first one is to work for a printer – who is known to print some questionable material on a regular basis. The second is with a local manufacturing company that produces pipes, the third is with a large charity who needs someone just like you. In the first case, prudence might say to you that working for a company that prints questionable material, and you not having any say over that, might be a bad choice. So, you are left with two. There is nothing sinful about manufacturing pipes – they are actually quite useful. But, there is a better choice – to be involved with helping the poor and downtrodden. All things being equal, I know I would then choose the last option, even if there was some disadvantage over the other jobs, if I could – because in that position I am doing something I know God has called us to do – help the poor. No, there is nothing wrong with the other job, but the charity in this case had a higher long term value.

So let’s go back to the quote from our first post.

Prudence and Temperance are perhaps the most critical determining factors in whether we make wise and Godly decisions, day in and day out.

We are not going to make job decisions every day, or even be offered three jobs in a day on a regular basis! But every day we are called to make choices about our lives, about what to do with our time, choices about whether we are going to do one thing or another. Some of those choices will involve temptation to sin – and it is up to us to make what feels like the harder call and go with prudence, and resist. It is up to us to live intentionally for the Kingdom of God in every action, so that we might glorify God every day! But we are also offered much more mundane choices on a regular basis – what are we going to do with our time? There may be no answer, or there may be no right answer all the time – but often there is a choice between doing the thing of higher long term value, or not.

This is where prudence and temperance come in to our daily lives.

Prudence – Living Intentionally

This is the first of our follow on posts from the video posted here - Unwelcome Words – Prudence and Temperance - if you haven’t watched it (just under 7 minutes long) pause here and take a look!. We want to look at both prudence and temperance (because they are different) – today we will look at prudence.

What is Prudence? Since we have to ask this question (I struggled to create a definition on my own, I know), we already partially know that it is something that is not spoken of that much anymore! True, part of that is because language has moved on, but I think prudence is not something we speak about in our society any more.

So, in the dictionary, you will get this (or something like it) -

Prudence: The ability to govern and discipline oneself by the use of reason 

So in summary, intentional self discipline. You can see why it is not a popular notion in our current materialistic society!

In the video with Dr Kevin Kinghorn, he defines prudence as ‘Not losing sight of the true value of things. Keeping firmly in mind the relative value of short term lesser goods, and long term greater goods‘.

What does the Bible say about Prudence?

What does this mean for my life and yours?

Being prudent means to live intentionally in the light of the Kingdom of God. It means not just to float along, at the whim of everything and anything that comes your way. It means not just to accept what ‘feels good now’ – whether that is the right choice or not. It means sometimes making hard decisions in light of the facts – knowing that the decision you are making is the right one in light of Gods call on your life.

Prudence then becomes the act of choosing to do the right thing every time. It becomes the act of knowing that one choice may lead to short term benefit – but long term destruction, whilst the other may lead to short term difficulty – but significant long term gain. If you like, prudence is an essential component of discipleship, as making prudent, Godly decisions is part of how we grow in Christ.

What do you think? Is prudence then something we are called to, and something that is worth the effort on our part?

Unwelcome Words – Prudence and Temperance

I came across a very well presented video today, which linked well with yesterdays post – Get up and Do It! It is presented by Dr. Kevin Kinghorn, and brings up some very valid points that I hope to discuss, in light of what the Bible says, over the next couple of posts.

One of his key points was this -

Prudence and Temperance are perhaps the most critical determining factors in whether we make wise and Godly decisions, day in and day out.

So then, pretty serious stuff. I encourage you to take a look at the video, have a think about it, and tomorrow we will take a look a prudence from a Biblical perspective.

(Feed subscribers might need to click through to the full post to see the video)

Get up and do it! James 1:22-25

Why is it so hard for all of us (me certainly included) to just do the things we know we should do?

Lets take a very personal example from my life. I like junk food. I really, really, enjoy junk food. There isn’t much more that I enjoy that a mid morning snack on a box of pringles, or some oreos, or many other assorted sweet and savory treats! But there is a problem. Whilst there is nothing inherently wrong or sinful about these things, I eat too many – and that has a negative affect on my health.

I always claim I am going to do something about it. Sometimes I even get in the swing of eating less and exercising more, and I feel better. But every time, without fail, I do something to stop exercising (like injuring myself), and I go back to wanting more and more of the rubbish food (that tastes so very, very good).

All I need to do is recognize the problem – and do something about it. I know what I need to do, so why can’t I do it?

But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.
(James 1:22-25 ESV)

Now lets take that problem – and call it sin instead.

How many of us, in our lives, have some sin that just keeps coming along and dragging us down? We excuse it (it’s not as big as another one, or someone elses), we hide it (it won’t happen again), we deny it (the devil made me do it), but we never overcome it. We know what needs to happen – we have read God’s word before. We have heard the pastor speak about it. We might have even had a friend or two pull us up on it. We know, deep down, that we are basically disobedient, but we don’t want to deal with it.

Why?

Because just like my problem with junk food, it ‘tastes good’. More often than not, it feels good to sin. You might feel terrible after, you might feel like a horrible person, dirty and ashamed. You crawl back to God for forgiveness and proclaim that you will never do it again.

But, it tastes good, and soon the hunger is back.

So what do we need to do? First, some encouragement – it is not as bad as you think. As a child of God you are NEVER beyond hope.

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
(1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV)

Second, it is going to take some self discipline (yep, ouch). When the ‘hunger’ comes, that desire to do what is wrong, despite all that you know to be right, despite all of your experience, despite all of your memory of how you feel afterwards, when that ‘hunger’ comes you need to put your foot down. It is at these times that you are given the choice – you can choose to sin, and so go backwards, or to resist in the strength that God has given you, and go forwards. There is no standing still, there is no status quo. You can go forward, and grow in strength and faith, or go backwards into sin.

That is a hard word – to sinners and junk food eaters alike. But it is what we are called to do – go forward in Christ to the reward that He has set before us, to grow in His grace, not in our sin.

For through the law I died to the law, so that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
(Galatians 2:19-20 ESV)

So remember – your old self is crucified with Christ. It is gone – and only you can choose to bring it back. But there is always a way out of that sin – a way to a greater peace with God (and yourself). So next time that hunger strikes – choose to say no. Every time you do, the next time will be easier!

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace.
(Romans 8:1-6 ESV)

(Photo flickr:Irene Jorba)