Abraham Lincoln, one of the most beloved Presidents of the United States of America, is often attributed with the riddle; "How many legs does a sheep have if you call his tail a leg? - Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one." It is an interesting statement, probably founded upon Lincoln's abhorrence of the slavery which he made leaps and bounds toward alleviating in the country over which he ruled. See, Lincoln didn't believe the idea that calling a slave something other than a human made that person anything other than what his Creator had made him, a human being with a soul and every inherent right that his brothers with different colored skin enjoyed. 

     But, what if we took that riddle and applied it to other things? Does calling something a word necessarily mean that the object is that? 

     If I called the computer on which I am writing this a cup of coffee, does it make it a cup of coffee? - I guess the argument could be made that you'd simply be defining the term "cup of coffee" in another way, but let's be honest, it wouldn't change the fact that the computer is a computer! 

     No, what something is matters, what you call it matters little. 

     What about when it comes to faiths? 

     Christ, the leader of the Christians and the Savior of all mankind through obedient faith in Him (Acts 20:28,Ephesians 2:8-9, Romans 8:1, John 12:48, Acts 11:26), stated that there is, in a very real sense, the temptation to call oneself a Christian when in fact denying Him and never obeying Him (Matthew 7:21) and that this will result in the same eternity as the person that never called himself a Christian at all. He later would inspire His apostle Paul to write that the only basis for unity, calling oneself Christian and being truthful in doing so thereby having unity with God and His children, is adherence to the seven things that make up that unity of the Spirit (one body, one Spirit, one  hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism and one God and Father - Ephesians 4:5-6). So, calling myself a Christian doesn't make it true just as calling myself President Lincoln doesn't make it true even though I think I have a pretty nice beard and hate slavery. 

     Let's go one step further, however. Does a person who holds to some facet of those seven ones and has some sort of obedient faith in Christ hold the title given in Acts 11:26 to those disciples and all subsequent disciples of Christ? I don't believe so! The reason is very simple, those seven ones and the name given to the true disciples of Jesus Christ are exclusive in nature. Paul wasn't saying that we can pick and chose a few of the seven things inEphesians 4:5-6, nor was he saying that we can make up our own definitions of those words as if to change a sheep's  tail to a leg. We have to go back to the Bible, the standard, and find out the definitions for those words and there we will find the actual points in which unity is found! 

     But, what are those definitions? Without going into too much detail here are the Biblical definitions for Ephesians 4:5-6 and the articles of unity:

1. Body - The church of Christ for which He died, over which He reigns and through which He lives on earth (Ephesians 1:22-23)
2. Spirit - The part of the Godhead who was influential in the inspiration of the Divine book, the instructions for mankind (Ephesians 1:13-14, 2 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:21, 2 Timothy 3:!6-17)
3. Hope - The earnest expectation of redemption through obedience to the Spirit's word and membership in the body of Christ (Ephesians 1:15-20)
4. Lord - The One which died for that one body, sent the Spirit, brought hope to mankind and is the Master of the Christian's life (Ephesians 6:5-9, 5:22-23)
5. Faith & Baptism - A mental acknowledgment of the facts about the Lord and a physical obedience to the commands of such culminating in one's being immersed for the forgiveness of his sins in accordance with the Spirit's Book at which time he is added to the one body and has that one hope (Ephesians 1:7, 15, 2:8, 3:12, 4:5,6:16, 6:23)
6. God & Father - The Planner of all of the above! The part of the Godhead under which the Lord placed Himself when coming to earth and who told the Spirit what to exercise when writing the Bible (Ephesians 3:2).d

     There you have it, without those definitions and adherence to them we cannot honestly, truthfully, call anyone a Christian. Those that do not meet those definitions may be searching for the Truth, and for that we ought to be thankful and willing to help them in their study and way, but are not Christians. It might be harsh, but it's truth and sometimes the truth hurts. 

     John 12 is probably one of the most magnificent chapters in the entire Gospel account of the Apostle John! Not only does it record the events immediately following the raising of Lazarus and the Jews' plotting to kill him because they were unable to acquiesce to the point of belief in Jesus and obedience to Him (which teaches us a tremendous amount about our own attitudes sometimes when the words of Christ contradict our previously composed beliefs or opinions) but it goes into discussing the triumphant entry of the Christ into Jerusalem and the conversation which ensued and resulted in Jesus' saying that He would be crucified not many days after. 

     But, there is one passage in John 12 that I believe may be overlooked with a cursory reading of this wonderful chapter. That passage is John 12:2-3 wherein the three friends of Jesus are all spoken of doing something. 

     Martha often gets a "bad rap" because she was up working instead of spending time with Jesus, Lazarus might be discussed as someone who is in shock given his recent reentry into the physical world after some four days of eternal bliss and Mary is often the one who receives the praise because, after all, she was the one that spent an extraordinary amount of money in order to praise her Savior and Lord. 

     Just for a moment, let's look deeper into those three characters that we have often read about but probably have not discussed in depth in light of their actions within John 12. 

     Lazarus may seem to be basking in the glory of Paradise which he had just left, but I believe there is more to the story than that. No, Lazarus was dining with the Lord! He was spending time with His Master. 

     Although we wish we could, we do not have the ability to sit down to a meal with Jesus and discuss the funny or discouraging things that happened throughout our day. While we dine with Him in the Lord's Supper, remembering His death, we don't have the blessing of being with Him personally. 

     But, we do have the ability to sit with Him through diligent study of the Scriptures (2 Timothy 2:15)! When we sit down to the table with an open Bible and an open mind and search the Scriptures (Acts 17:11) we are doing what Lazarus was doing. The question is, have you taken some time away from service to others to commune with the Lord in this way lately?

     Mary, the woman who often receives the high fives of Christians when studying this passage, was yet another great example of being a friend of Jesus. Instead of spending time serving others or sitting and being served by the Savior through His teachings, Mary actively served the Lord! 

     She took a costly oil, one that she had undoubtedly saved for or sacrificed to buy, and used it to show her devotion to Jesus. She could have easily been doing something else or spent that money on something which to the carnally minded would seem more beneficial but she didn't. She understood that praise and servitude toward Christ means sacrifice! 

     Have you sacrificed anything lately to praise and serve the Master? If not, why not? What in your life is holding you back from denying self and serving the Savior?

     Regardless of which friend of Jesus you look to in this passage you will find an example of someone who was living out the faith in a great way. By serving others, serving Christ and being served by Him we show ourselves like their example and are, in fact, friends of Jesus. 

Worship is presented in the Bible as an intentional action of devotion and admiration toward God. This voluntary service must be fueled by a spirit of meekness and humility to be pleasing to God. We get into dangerous territory when worship becomes corrupted. Our worship can become corrupted by means of pride, entitlement, or lack of love and more.

More specifically for our uses of this blog article, let’s discuss the worship of men and angels as a means of a worship deviation. As odd as it may seem, mankind is worshipping in these ways more and more in recent times. This deviation is a result of ignorance mostly, but can come from a source of emotionalism and the occult in regard to angels, but pride and entitlement in regard to men.

We read of specific situations in the Bible where angel worship occurs and is condemned! In Revelation 22:8 and following, we read of the apostle John bowing down before an angel to worship him. Note the reaction of the angel, “See thou do it not: for I am thy fellowservant, and of thy brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this book: worship God.” Despite this passage and others many people who would call themselves Christians pray to angels and offer worship to them as well. Particularly in the Catholic is the regular practice of offering petitions and thanksgiving to angels. This is a heretical deviation from the worship that God desires and such practice should be avoided and eradicated we wish to be pleasing to Him and offer the worship that He desires; that is, Worshipping God and Him only.

Along similar lines is the worship of men. It has been a long standing practice of the Catholic church and numerous religions across the globe to offer worship to the departed. The Catholic church has deified many departed people as “saints” and they pray to them for petitions and thanksgiving in a similar way as to angels. Still other cultures and religions will offer such requests, prayers and modes of worship to their departed ancestors. Let’s see what the Bible says about worshipping men. Note Acts 10:25-26, “And as Peter was coming in, Cornelius met him, and fell down at his feet, and worshipped him. But Peter took him up, saying, Stand up; I myself also am a man.” Despite Cornelius being a religious and devout man, he was emotional and misguided. He bowed down to Peter for to worship him, but this worship was not accepted! Despite the fact that Peter denied worship, there are millions who have deified Peter and other apostles. If Peter and the apostles were present to witness some of the worship deviations being made in their name, they would do as Peter does with Cornelius; they would deny such worship. Despite Peters denial of such worship thousands visit St. Peter’s Cathedral at the Vatican in Rome to kiss the feet of the statue of what they perceive Peter to look like. They deify Peter so much that the feet of that statue is discolored from the rest of the statue because of the great many times the feet have been kissed.

This is but a few occurrences that demonstrate the deviation that man has taken from approved forms of worship. We would do well to remember Jesus’ words in John 4:23-25, “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.” To God be the glory.

Photo Credit: Google Images

Research: vatican.va

     There was once something on this earth that God placed here for the edification, salvation and benevolence of mankind via His only Son, Jesus Christ. That thing was the church. But at some point man took that beautiful masterpiece of God and started introducing flaws into its engine, if you will. Instead of the divinely inspired ways of worship, organization, evangelism, doctrine and attitude man began to replace these "factory" parts with man-made, and ultimately defective, after-market parts which might have seemed to increase the power and effectiveness of the machine but in actuality did nothing more than harm the inner workings and begin a process which would eventually lead this miraculous institution into something so foreign to the original that it was almost impossible to make a case that the two were the same. 
     
     At some point, cars deteriorate. Paint becomes faded, fabric becomes brittle and tears, exposed metal rusts and starts flaking away and corrosion envelopes battery cables. What was once a brilliant specimen of man's ingenuity and hard work becomes a heap taking up space in the back yard with a small oak tree growing out of the front window. Things break down, it's just a fact of life. 

     And, with these foreign parts introduced into the church, the same began to happen to something that was never meant to even tarnish in the slightest degree. Fast forward some 1,500 years or so and you see the church essentially gone. Sure, some of the original parts had been shared via the swap meet of religious diversity and had been installed into various other vehicles of faith but the original was, essentially, not available anymore. 

     The difference between the diagrams provided by the car company and God's divine diagrams of His church is very simple. One might be open to change if something is seen as defective and a recall is issued, but God's will never require a recall. It's perfect. The same One that created our world in such intricate and diverse organization so that it works perfectly for its purpose built a vehicle that is even more amazing. 

     The fact is, those fake, flawed and fraudulent vehicles are still available in the hundreds if not thousands today. Thankfully, however, a few hundred years ago something happened in the society of man and the mindsets of those that made up that society that led those who wanted the pristine original to start the process of replacing the defective parts with the factory approved parts, the ones that God intended on being in there to begin with.
 
     It took a great deal of hard work, tears, sweat and even a little blood sometimes but eventually all of the major parts had been restored. The paint had been redone and the interior was replaced to the way the Father, its Designer, originally planned. And while there are still some small tweaks that are being done and will continue to be needed in the future in order to have the church run the way it was back when it rolled off of the heavenly show room floor, the vehicle continues to blow away all of its competitors at all of the shows. Not because of what the restorers have done, but because of just how awe-inspiring the original really is. 

     Even more amazing, there are seat belts for everyone that will help to hold you securely in your seat whenever the bumps of life come!

     So, here's the deal, instead of riding in all of the phonies, let's hop in the back seat of the only vehicle that is actually going to the desired destination, whose ride is smooth and whose parts will never break down or decay - the church of Christ! 

     There are many practical commands within the Christianity which was established by the one true Lord of the Universe. There are commands about how one ought to speak with other people, how families interact with one another, practical exhortations against things such as drug or alcohol use and even commands about how we are to help those who are less fortunate then ourselves through this life so that all can have a hand up (not a handout) when difficult times arrive. Aside from the very spiritual commands which are seen in worship or the heart, Christianity is a practical religion! It directly effects how one lives in an outward manner as well as an inward manner. 

     I am a huge proponent of reaching out to the community in which I, as a preacher of the Gospel, live and labor for the Lord. But, whether or not it is your responsibility to mount the pulpit on the Lord's Day and bring a thought provoking or act encouraging message from God's word, it is your responsibility to make that difference! 

     Let me speak bluntly for a moment. Many times, brethren pride themselves, and I suppose rightly so, for sending benevolent funds or some other type of assistance to another area, even overseas, to help the needy and lost - but it is often all to the neglect of those in their own back yard! Whether it is by way of a food pantry, counseling services, clothing giveaways or any other means by which we show the community we love them and want to help them the people in our direct vicinity ought to be on the forefront of our minds at all time. 

     While Paul was going about in his missionary journeys gathering funds for the needy saints in Jerusalem (Romans 15:25), he was also worried about those around him and in the area of the specific congregations (cf. Acts 20:32-35). 

     So, here's the question. What have YOU done lately to impact, in a positive way, the needy of your community? I realize that overseas benevolence and evangelism is very important, but so is local evangelism and benevolence. When was the last time YOU, not the congregation as a whole, tried to encourage your neighbors?

     Remember, it's great to send clothes to the children's home a few hours away, but there are probably children in your area in need of clothing too. It's great to send funds for storm relief or some other type of good work to the state a few hundred miles away, but we should never neglect the members of our community that just had a tree fall on their house or a fire consume their belongings. 

     Never give up "foreign" benevolence or evangelism, just never give up local benevolence and evangelism to be able to say, "Our congregation helped so-and-so on the other side of the world" in your bulletin or in the weekly announcements. 

Here at Enon, where I preach, we have been enjoying time together on Friday nights. We spend the evening together over a meal and a study of the Scriptures. The subject of our studies has been the parables of Jesus. This has been a very beneficial study on a few different fronts: as a student of the word, a Christian and a preacher. This has aided how I practically approach the Scriptures and this has been especially beneficial in a preaching way. Those of my preaching brethren will certainly understand this concept: studying the way Jesus taught people is some of the most practical material in the whole of Holy Writ. Reading after Jesus and observing the perfection with which He spoke and taught. It is a great encouragement to this preacher. Consider with me some thoughts we shared during this weeks study.

In Matthew 13, known by many as the great chapter of parables, we read of a man in a field, a merchant, and a net that was cast into the sea. In this passage we receive matchless teaching from the Lord concerning His Kingdom. Our text for consideration is verses 44-50. Firstly, Jesus tells of a hidden treasure; a treasure so valuable, in fact, that he buries it again to protect its location and goes, sells all of his property and belongings and purchases the field which contains it. Lessons include the value and importance of the treasure taught in the fact that he buried it again and gave all for it.In a similar way, Jesus continues his teaching with the figure of a pearl of great worth. He illustrates the Kingdom’s value by telling of a merchant who found this particular pearl, and sold all in order to buy it. Lessons for us in this describe the value in a different way: using the merchant aspect of the parable would tell us that the one selling all to buy this pearl was one who understood pearls, their worth and one who had many goods, likely worth a great amount of money. The core lesson in both of these is that the treasure/pearl was much better than anything they had, justifying the selling of all they had for it. Further than this: not only was the treasure/pearl greater in worth to any particular thing they had, but it was greater than everything that possessed, to warrant them selling ALL for it!

Oddly, Jesus follows these parables with a parable about the coming judgment. On the surface it seems out of place, but when you think again, it fits! Jesus teaches those around Him of the day when God will gather all the people of the earth and as a fisherman keeps the good fish and throws away the bad, God will separate for Himself the good from the bad. The way that one is determined good or bad is calculated by the content of their life. If they are as one of the two about whom we read in the two previous parables than we see those who give all for the Kingdom, understanding it’s significance and great value. However, if they are like someone who may think, “this is too good to be true,” or “It’s just another *such and such*,” than they will be like those fish cast aside in the same likeness as those who will be told to depart (cf Matthew 25:31ff).

In summary, these three parables begin with the valuation of treasure and a pearl. What determines value? In simple economic theory valuation is determined by the price one is will to pay for a certain thing or service. God determined the wondrous value of the Kingdom when He sent Jesus to Earth to take upon Himself the form of a servant, becoming obedient unto death even the death of the cross (Php. 2:5ff). In a similar way, He has put a great price upon us. Paul was inspired to write these words in 1 Corinthians 6:20, “For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” What price was this? The same price with which He purchased the church, His blood (Acts 20:28).

Let us strive to see the REAL value in this life. We ought not place high valuations upon temporary, carnal and corruptible things we have in the physical world, but invest our time, energy and money into things spiritual. God bless those who give all to Him, buy the truth and sell it not (Pro.23:23)!

     There are two interpretations of this quote. Either the famous philosopher was speaking as to the individual's power to chose what will be right and wrong in his life, or he was giving that power to the majority in that society decides what is equitable or intolerable. No matter what, he was wrong! 


     Where Protagoras messed up wasn't in implying the ability to chose which is placed in us (i.e. free will) but rather the degree to which he elevated that free will. Solomon wrote it very clearly when he said, "Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is man's all." 

     While we do have the ability to decide what we will do, we do not have the ability to chose whether that thing is right or wrong - it has already been decided. 

      That being said, let's think about that in light of today. It's April 1, 2014 which means today is the day of the practical joker, and I plan on taking my holiday to heart and celebrating it with passion. That being said, there was once another very wise, inspired man who wrote another passage of Scripture stating that the fool, or the wicked man, has determined to reject the overwhelming evidence of his Creator and Lord and deem his own free will as the measure of all things. 

     It's extremely sad to see our world in its current situation. God is mocked as if He were the intended victim of April Fool's Day. He is cursed and condemned even though He is the condemner. And yet all the while He's looking down on us pleading with our race to reject the words of a man (Protagoras or any other relativistic philosopher) and receive the words of the Master. 

     While you are playing jokes today, don't forget that your acceptance of God and obedience to Him is no joke!