It's a small brain, but come on in!
I've got an interesting but very diverse reading audience. I've got some of you crazy Christians, others of you are the heading to hell in a hand basket heathens, and last but certainly least, some of you kooky kats are planning the Jihad. Instead of trying to write a blog where you can all relate, I figured I'd just let you all inside my mind. It was an hour in time that took place last Sunday and it was one of those times where although there were plenty of others in the Church, the Pastor seemed to be talking directly to me. You Christians probably already know what I am talking about but the equivalent for you heathens is when you are at one of your "gentleman's clubs" and you feel the need to ask the stripper out because you just know she likes you (hmm...it could be you OR it just might be the money you keep shoving in her g-string). For you jihadists it would be like the feeling you get when you know you have enough explosives in your underwear to blow your bazookas off. Anyway, the Pastor was talking about how we should choose to live with the freedom we are given as Christians (2/3rds of you probably don't realize it, but there is a ton of freedom with Christianity). This freedom seems to get one particular blogger in a lot of trouble (mostly with his fellow Christians).
PASTOR: On your notes you'll see a line a solid line boxed in by 4 dotted lines. The dotted lines represent the fence line of your freedom.
My brain (which we'll refer to here as peanut): Cool, I think he is preaching about Braveheart.
PASTOR: The 4 items around it should be used to guide your freedom in light of what Paul told the Corinthians, "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial."
Peanut: I wonder who would have won in a fight between Paul or Braveheart? Hmmm...
PASTOR: Let's take drinking alcohol for example...
Peanut: Even better than Braveheart...Praise Jesus! Uh oh..My wife wouldn't have just elbowed me if I didn't just say that out loud.
PASTOR: You can make an arguement for or against drinking alcohol, but considering Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine, you might be hard pressed to say the Bible forbids it.
Peanut: Mmmm...beer....
PASTOR: However, the Bible is very clear that you should NOT be drunk.
Peanut: Did he just say I should NOT be a skunk? If God didn't want me to be a skunk, he wouldn't have given me such bad gas.
PASTOR: That would be an example of how our first dotted line, Scripture, could be used to guide your freedom.
Peanut: I bet I'd look decent in a kilt. Maybe not as good as Elmo, but decent anyway.
PASTOR: The second line would be love for your neighbor.
Peanut: Uh oh...he must have heard that my response to someone's Facebook question of "As a Christian, are you going to celebrate Halloween? If so, how?" Maybe he didn't like my answer of, "I'm going to take the my kids around the neighborhood and we're going to throw eggs at the houses of all of the Jehovah's Witnesses."
PASTOR: To go back to the drinking...
Peanut: Oh yeah....
PASTOR: ...let's say you have a regular group that you enjoy fellowship with over a glass of wine and you exclude someone because you know they struggle with alcohol. At that point you are putting your love for alcohol before your love for your neighbors.
Peanut: Hmmm...that makes sense, but I've gotta be honest, these days I would probably put having another vasectomy before some of my neighbors. Maybe I better work on this one.
PASTOR: The third line on the box would be your conscience. Is the little voice in your head telling you that you are saying or doing things that you shouldn't be doing?
Peanut: I'm not the only one that hears voices in his head??? Phew! Hmmm...I wonder what he is talking about now. I wonder if an example of this would be when I was driving through Long Beach last week and had to make my Facebook status, "is in da hood? Does anyone want me to pick them up some ho's or drugs?" I think the little voice in my head was trying to ask, "As an ambassador of Christ, is this really what you should be posting?" but all I heard was, "Man, you are one funny dude" and then the rationalizing began, "besides, it isn't like you said the B word or anything. You said ho's...that's much better." Maybe the voice in my head needs to speak louder and clearer and simply just say, "YOU ARE BEING AN IDIOT!" Wait a minute, scratch that, if my conscience started doing that, what in the heck would my wife do?
PASTOR: And the fourth line would be self-control. You don't need to look further than Romans 7:15 to see Paul may have struggled with this as well, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Peanut: Hmmm...this sounds like maybe Paul was hitting the sauce
PASTOR: So if you decide to have A glass of wine that might be okay whereas an entire bottle...
Peanut: He didn't say anything about not having a box of wine!
YOU ARE BEING AN IDIOT!
Peanut: Was that my conscience, my wife, or the Pastor???
PASTOR: We'll close with the final verses of 2 Peter 3, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."
Peanut: Okay...maybe I AM an idiot but my Lord offers me his grace and to that I'll say, AMEN!!!
PASTOR: On your notes you'll see a line a solid line boxed in by 4 dotted lines. The dotted lines represent the fence line of your freedom.
My brain (which we'll refer to here as peanut): Cool, I think he is preaching about Braveheart.
PASTOR: The 4 items around it should be used to guide your freedom in light of what Paul told the Corinthians, "Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial."
Peanut: I wonder who would have won in a fight between Paul or Braveheart? Hmmm...
PASTOR: Let's take drinking alcohol for example...
Peanut: Even better than Braveheart...Praise Jesus! Uh oh..My wife wouldn't have just elbowed me if I didn't just say that out loud.
PASTOR: You can make an arguement for or against drinking alcohol, but considering Jesus' first miracle was turning water into wine, you might be hard pressed to say the Bible forbids it.
Peanut: Mmmm...beer....
PASTOR: However, the Bible is very clear that you should NOT be drunk.
Peanut: Did he just say I should NOT be a skunk? If God didn't want me to be a skunk, he wouldn't have given me such bad gas.
PASTOR: That would be an example of how our first dotted line, Scripture, could be used to guide your freedom.
Peanut: I bet I'd look decent in a kilt. Maybe not as good as Elmo, but decent anyway.
PASTOR: The second line would be love for your neighbor.
Peanut: Uh oh...he must have heard that my response to someone's Facebook question of "As a Christian, are you going to celebrate Halloween? If so, how?" Maybe he didn't like my answer of, "I'm going to take the my kids around the neighborhood and we're going to throw eggs at the houses of all of the Jehovah's Witnesses."
PASTOR: To go back to the drinking...
Peanut: Oh yeah....
PASTOR: ...let's say you have a regular group that you enjoy fellowship with over a glass of wine and you exclude someone because you know they struggle with alcohol. At that point you are putting your love for alcohol before your love for your neighbors.
Peanut: Hmmm...that makes sense, but I've gotta be honest, these days I would probably put having another vasectomy before some of my neighbors. Maybe I better work on this one.
PASTOR: The third line on the box would be your conscience. Is the little voice in your head telling you that you are saying or doing things that you shouldn't be doing?
Peanut: I'm not the only one that hears voices in his head??? Phew! Hmmm...I wonder what he is talking about now. I wonder if an example of this would be when I was driving through Long Beach last week and had to make my Facebook status, "is in da hood? Does anyone want me to pick them up some ho's or drugs?" I think the little voice in my head was trying to ask, "As an ambassador of Christ, is this really what you should be posting?" but all I heard was, "Man, you are one funny dude" and then the rationalizing began, "besides, it isn't like you said the B word or anything. You said ho's...that's much better." Maybe the voice in my head needs to speak louder and clearer and simply just say, "YOU ARE BEING AN IDIOT!" Wait a minute, scratch that, if my conscience started doing that, what in the heck would my wife do?
PASTOR: And the fourth line would be self-control. You don't need to look further than Romans 7:15 to see Paul may have struggled with this as well, "I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do."
Peanut: Hmmm...this sounds like maybe Paul was hitting the sauce
PASTOR: So if you decide to have A glass of wine that might be okay whereas an entire bottle...
Peanut: He didn't say anything about not having a box of wine!
YOU ARE BEING AN IDIOT!
Peanut: Was that my conscience, my wife, or the Pastor???
PASTOR: We'll close with the final verses of 2 Peter 3, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen."
Peanut: Okay...maybe I AM an idiot but my Lord offers me his grace and to that I'll say, AMEN!!!
Comments