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Category: faith
Church culture and hip-hop
Jeff Johnson from BET gave a great speech on the church and the hip-hop sub-culture.
“To often urban ministry is nothing more than suburban ministry in black face – where we have these huge suburban churches that have created these huge sophisticated curriculums that are opposed to dealing with the nuances of what people are dealing with in the urban communities. They just slap an Asian person or a black person or somebody that looks broke on the cover of the book with some graffiti in the background and then everything is all good. But the reality is – hip-hop is nothing more than a language. And if the people of God would be able to affectively utilize that language they would be able to speak to a nation of young people that think Christians are punks.”
Proverbs 18
Solomon has a lot to say about the mouth today in Proverbs 18.
Oh the mouth. Such a small part of the body – yet it reveals so much about a person. I’ve heard that dentists can pinpoint many things about your overall health just by examining your mouth. I think Solomon, along with other writers of scripture, would say we can judge a lot about your spiritual and mental health by looking at what comes out of your mouth.
4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person, sets the whole course of his life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell. – James 3:4-6
Solomon writes:
2 A fool finds no pleasure in understanding
but delights in airing his own opinions.
4 The words of a man’s mouth are deep waters,
but the fountain of wisdom is a bubbling brook.
6 A fool’s lips bring him strife,
and his mouth invites a beating.
7 A fool’s mouth is his undoing,
and his lips are a snare to his soul.
8 The words of a gossip are like choice morsels;
they go down to a man’s inmost parts.
13 He who answers before listening—
that is his folly and his shame.
19 An offended brother is more unyielding than a fortified city,
and disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel.
20 From the fruit of his mouth a man’s stomach is filled;
with the harvest from his lips he is satisfied.
21 The tongue has the power of life and death,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
That’s a lot to chew on (pun intended). We can do so much damage with our tongue and mouth. We can destroy a relationship in seconds if we are unable to bridle our tongue. Yet with that same mouth we praise God.
How much easier life would be if we could each learn to control the overflow of our heart. And of course there’s more to it than just taping our mouth shut. We have to strive to fill our hearts with Godly things rather than ungodly things if we ever hope to change the overflow of our heart.
I’ve said this before, but if I spend the weekend with Laurie – guess what I’m talking about Monday through Wednesday at least – Laurie. If I spend the weekend watching things I shouldn’t be watching, hearing things I shouldn’t listen to, laughing at things I shouldn’t laugh at – guess what I’m going to talk about the next week?
The same goes for our mouth with Godly talk. If we fill our hearts with God – He will naturally overflow.
Lord, fill my heart with you. Help me strive to want more of you and may my life be an overflow of your love.
A few words on self-control
I was really smacked around yesterday at church. Brian spoke right to me it seemed. We’re continuing to look at “add-i-tudes” and the things we should be adding to our faith as we grow as Christians. Yesterday Brian spoke on self-control.
Sure made sense to me.
He made the (maybe obvious) point that through self-control, we logically can’t do that on our own. It takes something outside ourselves to gain self-control.
He related it to a story about his beloved dog Ranger.
If Brian brings a plate of steaks outside and sets it by the grill and goes back inside, the dog will naturally do what they’ve always done – grab the steaks and eat them. Something outside of Ranger has to tell him not to do it.
It’s the same with us – if we are truly going to learn self-control – it will take a power greater than us to do it.
He took a close look at Colossians 3 and shared all the things we’re not supposed to do as Christians (Col 3:5-11). It’s easy to stop there at that list and simply check off the things we do or don’t do and compare ourselves to everyone else by that list.
And it’s easy to get in a cycle of temptation, sin, guilt and then promising not to do it again. Then being tempted, sinning, feeling guilty and promising not to do it again. We walk ourselves into a rut.
“Rules and laws will never break the power of sin.”
But if we keep looking at the passage (Col 3:12-17) we realize there are things we should do instead. And it makes perfect sense – if you focus on doing what’s right – you have a lot less time to do what’s wrong. I have several issues I have very little self-control on. Some of them I’ve been convicted of more than others.
But as I’ve mentioned before, let’s take my diet. If I walk into Chili’s and Laurie orders chips and salsa – if they’re sitting there – I’m going to eat them. But if I’ve already wet my appetite with something healthy before coming into the restaurant then I’m a lot less likely to reach for those chips. Or maybe if I pop a piece of Extra Sugar Free Gum (as seen on the Biggest Loser :-)) in my mouth I’ll avoid the chips all together. After all, who wants to mix mint gum with chips? Gross.
Brian pointed out that in Col 3, Paul lists 12 things that we should avoid. But then he lists 12 things we should be doing instead.
I love that they line up with each other. We should mortify or put to death the one and replace it with the other:
| Sexual immorality | Compassion |
| Impurity | Kindness |
| Lust | Humility |
| Evil Desires | Gentleness |
| Greed | Patience |
| Idolatry | Bear with each other |
| Anger | Forgive |
| Rage | Love |
| Malice | Peace |
| Slander | Thankful |
| Filthy language | Word of Christ |
| Lying | Truth/Wisdom |
I pray that I can put to death those areas I struggle with – not by making a promise to quit but by replacing it with the things of God.
The podcast will be posted in a couple minutes if you’d like to listen to the full message.
May God bless you
From Craig Groeschel:
May God bless you with discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart.
May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace.
May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation, and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and to turn their pain in to joy.
And may God bless you with enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done.
God bless me and your church.
Proverbs 17
Lots of nuggets of wisdom today in Proverbs 17.
This one stings right to the heart:
5 Whoever mocks poor people insults their Creator; gloating over misfortune is a punishable crime.
I know there have been times I’ve laughed or made fun of people different than me. It’s easy to do. It’s easy to try and make yourself look better at the expense of others.
I talked with a friend recently about our Junior High days. He said that he was at the bottom of the social ladder and always felt tormented, was beat up and ridiculed because he was different. I admitted that deep down I was just like him but I fought and clawed to keep up my appearance and to find someone who was “worse than me” to keep the attention away from me. I would point out the flaws of others just so my own flaws wouldn’t be picked on and pointed out in the “all important” social hierarchy of things.
Yet as this verse says, when we make fun of the creation – aren’t we really making fun of the creator?
If you were to make a painting or a sculpture and I saw it and started laughing and saying, “Oh that’s ridiculous. I can’t believe you that.” You’d take that pretty personally. After all it’s not just a painting, it’s a painting you made. You spent your time creating it. It only makes since then that if we mock the poor (financially, physically, mentally or others) we’re simply insulting the Creator Himself. Ouch. Makes me really want to examine my thoughts and comments throughout the day a little closer and fill my mind and heart with Godly things instead.