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Get to Work!
| Get to Work! “We urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you, so that you may walk properly before outsiders and be dependent on no one.”1 Thessalonians 4:10b-11 This past Sunday, I spoke to you about the Lord God commissioning Adam to work before sin entered the world. It is vital to grasp that for men and women, work is nota part of the curse of sin, but a major part of God’s purpose for our lives. We are each gifted for work and should actively, and to the best of our ability, use those gifts in work toward the end that God created us. There is a crisis in America today of young men not entering the workplace in full and skilled employment. Every year the numbers of young men entering college, skilled trade schools, legitimate entrepreneurial business, or entering military or police service continues to alarmingly decline. The doctrine of work certainly applies to women as well, but its application is different and young women are not facing the same crisis as young men at this moment in history. This generation of young men will never reach the full potential God has for them and will never function as the godly husbands they could be apart from fully embracing work. Embracing hard and full-time work is the primary path to financial independence and is used by God to train self-control, diligence, courage, faith, selflessness, and leadership into every young man that will rise to the call of vocational work. I would like to explore some thoughts on this subject. These thoughts relate to parents and their sons. This relationship is joined, and as a rule, rise and fall together. Parents should be raising their sons with a mindset toward independence and marriage. Independence precedes marriage, but independence is not making a way for aloneness. Independence makes a way for a new family to be formed; to leave father and mother and cleave to one’s wife. One of the problem sin our modern day is the over-abundance of choices for young men. I believe it is wise that young men be required to work from their teens forward at some gainful employment outside of the house. This is basic training that work produces income, which allows for freedom of action and the opportunity to give. It’s basic training on punctuality, trainability, financial literacy, and following commands. Once a young man gets working, it’s not too hard to keep the momentum going. After high school, again, the number of options can become overwhelming. College should not be the de facto next step. I suggest you break down the options into basic categories: professional work, corporate business (including military /police / fire), trade work, and entrepreneur. Help your son assess where his gifts and interests are located, and start exploring the options. You can read more about this from a chapter I wrote related to these issues: HERE. Each area can provide full-time career-based work. Each area has a path of requirements that must be worked toward for success. Each is competitive and will involve failures to be overcome. A young man may start in one area and end up in another, but not working full-time should not be an option. A start in the military or police may lead to an opportunity for college expenses to be covered. A trade summer job may lead to apprenticeship and licensure. Working for a small business may give the vision for also pursuing your own business. Each life will be slightly different, but there are basic paths to success. Either way, help your sons think through the options and help them through the first doors to get started. I remember clearly requiring my oldest son to sit through a full interview and application, even though a friend of mine was giving him his first job. It made my son answer tough questions and feel the weight of sitting in the boss’s office. It gave him the opportunity to check the “I’ve never been convicted of a felony” box on the application and consider what would have happened in the interview if he had to check that box. Halfway through each of my boys’ first summer of work, the work stopped being fun and they wanted to quit – but a man of his word and a diligent man does not quit what he has begun before a natural/ respectable point of closure. They each had to finish out the summer and give a proper two-week notice before moving on. Let’s also look at some common pitfalls that need to be avoided. The number one pitfall I see for why young men do not launch properly into full-time work, and thus independent manhood, is that parents enable them to not work by continuing to feed, house, and pay their bills as if they were small children. The Bible is clear, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thessalonians 3:10). This means very basically, if a person is able to work, but due to laziness will not work, their literal hunger pains should drive them to work so they can eat. This is the word of the Lord. If you are a parent enabling an able-bodied young man to work less than full-time (or two part-time jobs joined), so they can lay around playing games (video or otherwise), watch movies, or some other non-productive way of living – you are the primary cause of their laziness. You are enabling their failure to work. The second pitfall to avoid is the failure to press them forward. Pitfall number one is avoiding a problem, but you must counter laziness with intentionally pressing your sons forward into opportunity. Like all of us, it will take time to find their way, but the unbroken expectation is that they will find their way. This involves active conversations, hard deadlines, networking conversations, personal character, person hygiene, and reviews of their life and direction. You must actively push baby bird out of the nest! Not flying, is not an option. Third, parents and sons must work together to avoid debt. Starting the debt snowball at a young age can cripple young adulthood and cause major long-term stress. We live in an advertising, debt oriented, materialistic culture, where we feel entitled to have what we want. Our young men must learn early to live within their means and live with financial self-control and wisdom. This is particularly related to parent encouraged, or enabled, student loan debt. Student loans are debt like any other debt, in that it must be paid back. Consider very carefully the amount of debt that you encourage your son to enter at a young age. Let’s walk by faith believing that work was created by God, and that work is both good and essential. Let’s pray for, love, encourage, and also press, inspire, and launch our young men into independence. May this independence lead to marriage and joyful stable families. Let us parent with courage and by faith, Pastor Vic |
Abortion
“You shall not murder.”
Exodus 20:13
This is the sixth of the ten commandments given by Almighty God to guide and direct the moral life of all people. This command does not only stand over Christians, but over all people. The command not to murder is given to restrain the hand of the person that would take another life for reasons outside of justified war and self-defense. Murder has a clear definition that is prosecuted in courtrooms all over the globe every day. Murder is defined simply as “the unlawful premeditated killing of one human being by another.”
The first part of this definition relates to the unlawful nature of killing. In all such cases the moral law of God stands as the foundation for human civil law. No person or court has the right or authority to declare as good what God has declared as evil. The authority of human governments and courts is a delegated authority from God.
The second part of this definition speaks to premeditation – an action taken with planned thoughtfulness. The opposite of this would be striking and killing someone with your car after spilling coffee on yourself and swerving. This would not be a planned action, although you are still accountable for the death, it is not at the level of planned murder.
The third part is killing another human being. Animal life certainly has value, and we should treat all animals with a humane kindness, but killing a dog or a bird is not morally equivalent to killing another human being.
We must face squarely the moral question of whether abortion is murder.
I think this question is most clearly answered by looking at the definition of murder in reverse. First, is an unborn child a human being? The answer is absolutely, yes. From the point of conception, the fertilized embryo has the future potential of full flourishing human life. Dependence does not lessen the humanity. An unborn child is dependent on its mother’s body for nourishment. The child is not less human for this. An infant child is dependent on the constant daily care of mother and father. The child is not less human for this. The elderly infirmed person has their situation reversed, dependent upon their child for care in their old age. The elderly person is not less human for this dependence.
Medical practice understands this, that’s why Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) exist in the best hospitals around the world. Parents with sick, prematurely born children need special care for these ultra dependent children. There is a limit to this care as modern medicine is not able to reach the level of care that only the mother’s body can provide for the first half of gestation. Unborn children are certainly human beings. They are not some other form of being or less than human. Children are human at conception; they do not become human through the willful decision of the mother to give birth to the child.
The second part of the definition of murder has to do with premeditation. Abortion is a deeply premeditated act. It involves discovering pregnancy after a sexual act. It involves considering the life altering consequences of giving birth to a child. It involves willfully choosing to set an appointment, do paperwork, give intimate access to one’s body so that another can take the life of the baby. Abortion is not accidental, but a willful premeditated act.
The first part of the definition of murder speaks to its lawfulness. Currently in the US, abortion is not deemed legal nationwide. Abortion legality is determined state-by-state. The states where it is legal are states that have a majority of citizens that reject basic Christian morality. The people that make up these states have rejected God’s definition of life and personhood, and chosen to find identity in sexuality.
All people root their identity in something. Identity is the foundation by which you define yourself as a person. Christians define their lives by relationship to Jesus Christ and discipleship to His ways. Those who define their lives by sexual expression (toward a certain type or sex of people) or through hedonistic sexual pursuits, do not want their self-expression curbed or derailed by the birth of children. They are willing to change civil law to declare evil as good, and change language to speak of unborn children in dehumanizing ways, and speak of murder as healthcare.
As designed by God, heterosexual sex is inherently related to the bearing of children. A sexual act is a procreative act. Modern secular people are striving through medical technology to harness and control the procreative aspect of sexuality, but this cannot be done without tremendously negative side effects – physical, physiological, and spiritual. Birth control drugs cannot be taken without the risk of serious physical side effects to the woman. The entire fertility cycle of a healthy woman cannot be hormonally stopped without other effects on the body and mind. Methods of permanent sterilization taken upon young people are usually understood, even by the non-Christian, to be unwise. Even those who don’t want children in their younger years recognize that they may one day value children.
The issue is that various methods of non-permanent birth control are imperfect. As a part of the heavily sexual culture we live in, millions of unwanted babies are conceived every year. Murdering these children cannot be the answer, but America aborts over one million unborn children year after year – every year. We are choosing death rather than submit ourselves to God’s will and purpose related to sexual morality. The conscience of the nation is seared.
We must come to a place of believing in the salvation and goodness of Jesus. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins and enter God’s good ways. This involves for most people marriage, children, and family. Marriage is a blessing. Children are a blessing. Raising children in the context of marriage is not easy, but it leads to sanctification and deep relationships. God uses our children to work in our lives as parents. Through our children God works to teach us selflessness, patience, love, service, humility, character, and spiritual leadership. Through children we gain heritage, traditions, beautiful memories, and shared joy.
As Christians we MUST be a people committed to life from the point of conception. We must not give way to this culture of death and unrestrained sexual expression. We must find our identity in Jesus Christ. We must forgive those who have aborted their children when they ask for and seek forgiveness from Jesus. Our grace must mirror the unconditional grace of Jesus. We must celebrate and remain within the marriage boundaries of sexual expression. We must nurture and protect our children, and we must be willing to take into our homes unwanted and orphaned children.
Let us be a people that cherish, protect, and love children,
Pastor Vic
Note: It should be noted that there are exceptional circumstances where the life of the mother and the life of the child are pitted against each other and a medical choice of life must be made. This circumstance does not fit the definition as framed above. This is an exceptional circumstance, but the exception does not cancel the rule of seeking life.
Examine Yourself
“Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves.”
2 Corinthians 13:5
You should not presume that all is well between you and God. We live in a time where most people have a very high view of themselves and a very low view of God. This translates into many people justifying their own actions and presuming that God agrees with them, without examining or testing their beliefs or actions before God. In normal human interactions, to charge ahead assuming that what you think is what everyone else also thinks, is known as hubris – or extreme pride. With normal interpersonal relationships, we should enter conversation, ask people about their perspectives, weigh their perspective, and examine our own. When we hear the perspective of others, we are often confronted by things we did not consider, or do not understand. When we carefully consider who God is and His purposes in the world, we will be confronted by things we have never considered and by things we do not understand.
Paul is calling his readers to self-examination. First, every person that calls himself a Christian must examine his confession of faith (what that person believes about God and salvation) according to the Scriptures. Does what you believe about God and salvation align with what the Bible teaches about God and salvation? Or did you make up a version of God that fits your own personal feelings and presuppositions? Our belief must conform to the truth/reality of who God is as revealed in the Bible. If in self-examination, we find that our belief is a mixture of Bible truth, personal opinion, and beliefs from other religions this is a serious problem. It is entirely possible that your lack of self-examination has led you to believe a false gospel and in a false savior that is not the Jesus of the Bible. We must not make up what we believe about Jesus.
Second, examine the fruit of your belief. What does the belief structure of your life produce? What kind of person are you? How do you treat the people around you? The Bible is very clear that those who authentically believe in Jesus will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and that God’s Spirit will bear fruit (Galatians 5). It will be evident that your heart and person are changed by believing in Jesus as Savior. Fruit of character will come forth: love, joy, peace, kindness, self-control – to name a few. Do you see these beautiful character qualities in your life? Do others see these in your life? Do those closest to you describe you in these ways? If after self-examination, you find a serious and habitual lack of these fruits it should cause you to return to the first level of examination. Do you truly believe in Jesus? Have you reached a place of earnest repentance from sin in your life? Are you working to justify yourself before God, or trusting fully in the atonement of Jesus to justify you before God?
Third, test the fruit of your obedience. You may have right belief and be a joyful person, but are you obeying Jesus in a way that demonstrates holiness? No person will reach perfection before heaven, but through right belief and the work of the Holy Spirit, you can live in a way that is free from life-destroying sins. In Christ you can live free from adultery, free from destroying the relationships around you with anger, free from addiction to drugs, alcohol, gambling, and/or digital media. You can live free from porn, anxiety, and materialism.
This passage says to examine yourself. This is very important. Often, we want to point fingers at others, while we excuse or ignore our own faults. You are responsible first for yourself (Matthew 7:1-5). When you examine your life in an honest way, what do you find? How long has it been since you examined yourself or listened openly to critique of your actions from others that you trust. Has false belief crept in? Has your belief system ever shed false ideas that require change in your life? Does your life demonstrate the fruit of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit? Are you serious about holiness and surrendering all aspects of your life to Jesus – holding nothing back?
At the end of your examination, rest in the grace of God! You must be assured from Scripture that your salvation comes by grace through faith. The saving work that God has begun, and what He has begun He will complete! May you examine yourself honestly and prayerfully so that Jesus may accomplish His will in your life.
May self-examination result in worship,
Pastor Vic
Truth and Exhaustive Truth
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” John 14:6
“Then Pilate said to him, ‘So you are a king?’ Jesus answered, ‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.’
Pilate said to him, ‘What is truth?’” John 18:37-38
Pilate asked the same question 2,000 years ago that countless people still ask today, ‘What is truth?’ Truth is that which corresponds to reality. Statements that are true of the physical world correctly state what is actually, or objectively, real in the world. It is true that, “Ice is cold. Cheetahs are fast animals. The ocean is filled with water.” Statements that are true of spiritual realities correctly state what is actually real concerning God and spiritual things. It is a true statement that, “God is eternally existing. Human beings are created in God’s image. The Holy Spirit is at work in the hearts of those who believe in Jesus as Savior.” Many truth statements connect the physical and spiritual world. It is a true statement that, “God created the world. Jesus Christ came to speak truth to a deceived world. Jesus Christ rose from the dead. Jesus will one day return to judge the world.”
Can we really know what is true? This is a very important question! In an age of great doubt, cynicism, and skepticism it is vital that people have confidence that truth can be known. Countless millions in the world today believe there is no such thing as spiritual truth, since they do not believe in the existence of the soul or of God. There are millions more that believe an individual can create their own realities (truth) through personal action. There is widespread belief that there is no objective reality; there is only psychology. This is the idea that the only reality is the reality in your mind. The psychological reality of what I believe in my mind is then projected onto the canvass of the world, and I shape myself into what I want to be. This ‘no objective truth’ way of thinking is embodied by statements like, “Through determination and hard work you can become anything you want to be!” This is an objectively false statement. The world is full of realities that I cannot change through my personal determination or positive thinking. I must make choices within the framework of truths / realities that surround me – both physical and spiritual.
In the vast body of knowledge available to us in an information age, and in the midst of endless news cycles of various opinions, can we know truth? Yes, we can. It’s important to understand the difference between truth and exhaustive truth. It is very possible to know aspects of truth, without knowing the full truth about something. It is common to know true aspects of science without understanding all of physics. It is possible to know some truths about nutrition without understanding all there is to know about dietary science. It is possible to know truths about Jesus Christ without fully knowing everything about the Son of God. It is possible to know true things about yourself without fully comprehending even the complexities of your own person.
In the end, no specialist, physicist, medical doctor, theologian, historian, or teacher knows everything there is to know about their field. However, if what they know corresponds to physical and spiritual realities, then they have taken hold of truth. The beauty of this reality and the nature of the human mind is that God has created human beings with a thirst for knowledge. We have an inherent desire to know more and to keep searching and learning. The reality of knowable yet expansive truth keeps the human mind and spirit growing and searching. We can grow because we can take hold of physical and spiritual truth, but we will always be growing because we can never master the complexities of who God is or what He has made. God, and the world God has created, can be truly known, but cannot be fully known.
Jesus came proclaiming that He was truth. All people have to do something with this claim. Jesus’ claims to divinity, the ability to forgive sins, reconcile lost sinners to God, to intercede before God on behalf of those in Christ are true, or they are false. These are not subjective claims. However, these are truth claims that require faith to believe! They are claims that cannot be proven in a laboratory but are true in the reality of the soul. Truth transcends the natural world. There is natural truth and spiritual truth. We strive with these things every day in our own person. We must make choices in light of real physical confines and spiritual moral boundaries.
In a confusing world of information, it is always most important to hear and believe the voice of Jesus. “I am the truth,” Jesus states. He embodies truth. If you are confused or in despair or rebellion, look to Jesus and believe what He says. If the competing realities of this world have your mind and emotions tied up in knots, look to Jesus and hear His voice. By faith believe that Jesus is who He said He was – the Son of God and Savior of the world. By faith read and listen to His authoritative and true words in the Bible. Turn away from the lies and confusion of this world and find a clear way of life in Jesus. Learn and believe truth about Jesus, a journey of learning and worship that will carry on into eternity!
You can know the truth by knowing Jesus!
Pastor Vic