IRRESPONSIBILITY IS NOT A VIRTUE!

A hard worker has plenty of food,
but a person who chases fantasies ends up in poverty.

Proverbs chapter 28, verse 19; from the New Living Translation (NLT)

Once again the issue of raising the national debt ceiling is making the news. This issue keeps coming up again and again and again. Makes me wonder: Why haven’t they figured out that fiscal irresponsibility ain’t working? Claims are made that if it isn’t raised, government will have to shut down. This sounds like a great upside and some really good news to me! I just looked at a website that does a second-by-second amount of our national debt. Currently it is 31.4 Trillion Dollars, and rising every nanosecond. In just 2 years it has gone up more than $3 Trillion dollars. In 2 years the government has spent more than $3 Trillion Dollars more than it has taken in revenue.

I cannot legally spend more money that what is in my accounts. If I do, I am charged a fee and expected to make good my overdrawn amount. The bank never says, “Tell you what, don’t worry about the overdrawn amount. We will even put a ceiling on how much you can be overdrawn! And when you reach that ceiling? Oh, we will just raise that ceiling! And what if the bank and every bank did that with every single account holder? The result would be The Great Depression on steroids and performance enhancing drugs. So why not take the overdrawn amount of the Federal Budget each time the government spends more than it has from the Representatives and Senators salaries, even the President’s salary?

OR. . .if I owned a business. Suppose one month I don’t have enough to cover my expenses. So I borrow money to pay my suppliers and employees. And suppose this keeps happening. What happens to my business? It’s not rocket surgery or brain science to know what happens. I close up. Or what if I buy a house with borrowed money–but then don’t make any payments on that mortgage? (This happens more than you may realize!) What will the mortgage company do? They are going to foreclose on that house and I have to get out! Hey! What if we kick to the curb all federally elected officials when they try to spend more than our government takes in? I kinda’ like this idea!

Point is, they can’t keep firing up the offset and Intaglio presses each time the government needs more money. Enough is enough is enough is enough! Raising the debt ceiling is a habit now–a habit that needs to be broken! Otherwise, this nation will go the way of the Dodo bird. These asinine decisions are nothing but fantasies–and unrestrained fantasies leads to disastrous consequences.

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IDENTITY OR ACTION? OR BOTH?

My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

Galatians chapter 2, verse 20; from the New Living Translation (NLT)

Just exactly who are you? What determines the essence of you? What is the bottom line? Fact Time: Everyone has a, call it, bottom-line identity. It is what you are known by to others. Are you identified by your roles? Dad? Mom? Lawyer? Plumber? Preacher? Son? Daughter? Sister? Brother? Accountant? OR is your bottom-line identity in what you do? Kind? Helpful? Patient? Caring? Friendly? Empathetic? Energetic? And when it comes to your spiritual life (and everyone has one of these), what is the singularity that marks your life?

Do you consider yourself a Christian? Maybe I should ask a tougher question: What makes you a Christian? Is it an identity based on things like confessing and repenting of your sins and saying the sinner’s prayer? Being baptized? That you are a member of a particular church? That you read your Bible and say your prayers? That you avoid certain vices? Or is it because you show love to others? That you volunteer at the local homeless shelter? That you support the local food bank? That you demand justice for animals? That you cry out for equality for all people? So tell me, which is it? What you say or what you do?

That it’s both? Being a Christian is more than a title or a label. It’s more than a statement about what you did. And it’s more than actions we think makes us a Christian! It begins with the recognition that it’s something we are totally powerless to become. It requires that admission that we ARE sinners. And more than admitting we ARE sinners, it’s being honest enough with self to say we are tired of being sinners! It demands a total surrender of heart, mind, and will to Jesus. Then, we trust that what Jesus did on the Cross was done purposefully by Him for us sinners. And that a whole new life is now in front of us!

And as difficult as they may seem for some, it’s only the beginning. Being a Christian isn’t a matter of personal holiness or social holiness. It’s both!!!! (Notice the extra exclamation marks!!!!) This is exactly what Paul was trying to tell the Galatian church. Following Jesus begins with faith. It continues with faith in actions. And to the Church in the United States, Jesus didn’t live, die, and rise up from the death to create a Christian nation. He did all this to call us to storm the strongholds of Satan and reclaim the territory he stole for the Kingdom of God. No, actions don’t save us. But our actions do determine if we are or are not saved.

THE NEW CUSS WORDS! PART 4

³ Dear friends, I had been eagerly planning to write to you about the salvation we all share. But now I find that I must write about something else, urging you to defend the faith that God has entrusted once for all time to His holy people. ⁴ I say this because some ungodly people have wormed their way into your churches, saying that God’s marvelous grace allows us to live immoral lives. The condemnation of such people was recorded long ago, for they have denied our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.

Jude verses 3 and 4, from the New Living Translation

As I’ve been sharing the past few days, there are words that once had a good and powerful meaning–but now in the United Methodist Church have become the new cuss words. They say there are words we just don’t use in public because they sound offensive; at least to them. Today’s new cuss word is Faithfulness!

When I was ordained in the UMC, there was a series of questions asked of me. It was a serious and holy moment for me. I was making a commitment for my future. And I was expected to be Faithful to them. They were the same questions asked to every person seeking ordination. These came from John Wesley, himself. To answer NO to any of these questions would result in denying a person ordination. Here they are:

1. Have you faith in Christ?
2. Are you going on to perfection?
3. Do you expect to be made perfect in love in this life?
4. Are you earnestly striving after it?
5. Are you resolved to devote yourself wholly to God and his work?
6. Do you know the General Rules of our Church?
7. Will you keep them?
8. Have you studied the doctrines of The United Methodist Church?
9. After full examination, do you believe that our doctrines are in harmony with the Holy Scriptures?
10. Will you preach and maintain them?
11. Have you studied our form of Church discipline and polity?
12. Do you approve our Church government and polity?
13. Will you support and maintain them?
14. Will you diligently instruct the children in every place?
15. Will you visit from house to house?
16. Will you recommend fasting or abstinence, both by precept and example?
17. Are you determined to employ all your time in the work of God?
18. Are you in debt so as to embarrass you in your work?
19. Will you observe the following directions? a) Be diligent. Never be unemployed. Never be triflingly employed. Never trifle away time; neither spend any more time at any one place than is strictly necessary. b) Be punctual. Do everything exactly at the time. And do not mend our rules, but keep them; not for wrath, but for conscience’ sake.

Look at questions 6 and 7–do you know the General Rules of our Church, and will you keep them? Now look at questions 8, 9, and 10. Move on to questions 11, 12, and 13. A considerable number of our Bishops and an even greater number of clergy have failed to be Faithful to their answers. I will show some grace towards them and suggest maybe they changed their minds. And if this is the case, then they should have surrendered their credentials and found a place that aligned with their beliefs. I mean, if you join an organization and later found out you disagreed with their actions, then you just quit! Right? Our disobedient clergy and bishops (who are supposed to be clergy also) have chosen to stay and break their vows of Faithfulness.

Now, there is another reason why they may be remaining in the United Methodist Church, even though their answers to questions 6 through 13 are now a resounding NO! They flat out LIED! Now, I’m not judging anyone–but Jesus did say that you would know a tree by its fruit. Many of those ordained in the past few years in our Conference are clearly on the progressive side. Again I allude to questions 6 though 13. They affirmed a Yes with their words, but now their thoughts, attitudes, and actions repudiate what they said at their altar of ordination. And I don’t think they’ve had a change of heart. It was in their mind and heart at Ordination–so the only conclusion one can reach is that they did indeed, LIE!

At the heart of the Body of Christ, the Koinonia, is the requirement, by God Himself, that we, all of us, lay and clergy, be Faithful To The Faith We Affirmed At Our Conversion, and for us clergy-types, that we affirmed at our Ordination! When Faithfulness is abandoned, thrown away like bags from a fast food restaurant out of a car window, then what can possible follow but decline and decay. This is what is happening in my beloved Tribe. We need to remember what Jesus said about making promises:

 Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 37 from the New Living Translation