Another Drink?

Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise.

Proverbs 20:1

He stumbled, lurched left, lurched right, and then, just as the light was about to turn red, he wandered into the crossing and on across the busy street. At first, as I watched him move, seemingly without purpose as he stumbled and shuffled slowly across, I thought he was suffering the effects of old age or perhaps a physical deformity that caused him to move so. But then I saw it – not even disguised in a brown paper sack – an aluminum can with one of those much-advertised labels indicating that the contents came from some famous brewery. No wonder he couldn’t walk straight; he was drunk.

For centuries, people have pushed and touted alcoholic beverages. In our own age of bright and flashy electronic media and slick magazine presentations, beer, wine and hard liquor all get dressed up and presented as society’s best citizens. “Drink this one,” says the upscale magazine ad for some “velvet” liquor, “and you’ll be sophisticated and prosperous.” “Looking for a companion with a perfect body?” asks the very large billboard, as it presents the newest “light” beer, certain that you’ll make the connection between its product and “sexual” satisfaction. And who could miss the implied promises of prowess and accomplishment in the sponsorship of television sports broadcasts by every beer maker in (and out of) the country. But I can’t get out of my mind the picture of the drunk trying to cross the street; you know, he barely made it without being run over by an impatient driver.

Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who tarry long over wine; those who go to try mixed wine. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. In the end it bites like a serpent and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your heart utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. "They struck me," you will say, "but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I must have another drink."

Proverbs 23:29-35

The Wise Man, king of Israel and writer of many proverbs, paints a picture that all the clever advertising in the world can’t cover over – alcoholic beverages make a mess of peoples’ lives. Check the police reports, the court dockets, the autopsy records, the shelters for battered women and children, the emergency rooms and any other place where humans reveal their suffering and you’ll find a common thread – much of it was caused by alcohol consumption. It’s not pretty, it’s not flashy, and it’s not slick. And it is all the product of one of Satan’s best lies.

Don’t believe the lie. Don’t spread it around. Don’t reach for that drink. And don’t help anyone else reach for it, either.

Bobby Wheat

Influence

You are the salt of the earth… You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

Matthew 5:13-16

It is a fairly common observation that, after several years of marriage, a husband and wife will tend to act and think like one another. It’s even possible for one or both to abandon radically different points of view in favor of a shift toward “middle ground” in political, economic or moral thinking. That’s not really surprising. In fact, it would be more surprising if, after twenty or thirty years of intimate association, neither partner had made any changes in thought, attitude or speech. We expect for one partner to have some influence on the other, for each person to be influenced by that intimate relationship.

Christianity is about influence. Those who are in Christ have been influenced by him to bring thoughts, actions and speech into conformity with his lifestyle. In turn, each Christian expects to somehow influence the lives of those living around him, anticipating a change for the better in his circle of influence. To be involved in the process of influencing others is, for the Christian, both a privilege and an obligation.

When Jesus spoke of salt and light during the “Sermon on the Mount,” he was drawing his listeners’ thoughts to the process of influence. Salt affects flavor, purges undesirable things from the system, and even acts as a preservative. Light radiates into the night, pushing away darkness and providing information and direction; without it, ignorance prevails and people are left to stumble along, never finding their way through life. That is influence! And Jesus, speaking to his followers, said, “You are the salt of the earth … you are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:13-14). Jesus expects his followers to be involved in the process of positive influence, giving flavor to the world and providing light to drive away ignorance of him and his word.

Interestingly, Jesus also warned about negative influence that would affect his followers and drive them off course, ruining their own influence. Matthew tells us about Jesus warning his disciples concerning the “leaven” of the Pharisees and Sadducees. Leaven provides influence, causing bread to rise before it is baked, lightening the texture and changing the flavor of that most basic of foods. Jesus’ disciples at first misunderstood his words about leaven, thinking that he spoke literally about bread. They finally came to understand that, by speaking of the leaven of the Pharisees and Sadducees, Jesus spoke about their teaching, a negative influence that should be avoided (Matthew 16:6-12). Paul, the Apostle, also using the image of leaven in a lump of dough, warned the Corinthian and Galatian Christians not to be influenced by false teaching that would certainly lead them astray (1 Corinthians 5:6-8; Galatians 5:9).

The kind of positive influence of which we speak doesn’t occur by accident. It is the product of hours, days, weeks and years spent in developing the mindset of Christ (Philippians 2:5). It is the result of a decision to influence rather than be influenced. It comes to those who have truly died to themselves and allowed Christ to live in their place (Galatians 2:20).

So, how are you influencing the people in your world?

Bobby Wheat

Something Different...

My sister and her family live in Shanghai, China. She works for a very large electronics manufacturer (the one based in the wonderful state mentioned in previous posts), and she occassionally sends us these "pictures" of life in China. Here's one she just sent - a wonderful reminder that we take so many things for granted in our very comfortable USA. ("Ash" is short for Ashley, my neice; Nick is my brother-in-law...)

Oh, got another scooter story.... This weekend (on the way home from buying Ash some reading glasses) we saw a guy pass us on a scooter much like Nick's. He had 3 crates on the back that had to be holding about 30 live ducks and on his little "floor board" (for lack of better term) he had 10 live ones corralled between his legs with nothing holding them in place. ~ 40 ducks on a scooter - I'm sure he was smelling nice! Unbelievable - they must have been on their way to slaughter. And we wonder why avian flu is spreading.....

Speaking of Texas...

I can't help it -- regardless of the fact that I haven't lived there in decades, "Texas" still oozes out of my pores. When we crossed the Red River last Friday, I threatened to make everyone get out of the car and kiss the ground (their lips were saved only by the fact that it was over 100 degrees outside). I boldly stated that the Red River existed to protect Texas from the rest of the country, whereupon Steve (who had been my friend until last Friday) suggested that the Red River existed to protect the rest of the country from Texas. Such ignorance!
To add insult to injury, Steve recounted the conversation before the church when he made the announcements before worship service on Sunday... whereupon Terry, when he came up to lead the first prayer, muttered something like, "let's pray the river continues to run." Such ignorance! But what can you expect when you get this far north...?

Oh, the word for the day is: whereupon... (further proof that Texans are not ignorant rednecks...)

Have a good 'un, ya'll!

Marriage Enrichment

Last weekend we travelled to Texas with another couple from the church here to attend a Marriage Enrichment Seminar. Carl Brecheen and Paul Faulkner have been doing these seminars several times a year for over 3 decades, and all the while they have continued to teach university classes, preach, lead churches, counsel thousands of people, and raise families. This is the last year they will do these seminars, so I'm glad we were able to attend this one.
It's hard to objectively evaluate the influence these two men have exercised in my life. Paul taught Freshman Bible (New Testament Survey), and I sat "at his feet" for two semesters. I suspect that his approach to teaching and his own philosophy of Christian living have been an unrecognized framework for my own. Carl Brecheen taught (and still teaches) Family Relations. That course helped me gel a philosophy of marriage and relationships that permeates all my own teaching today. I guess that listening to the two of them this past weekend reminded me again just how much I - and probably thousands of others - owe to the work of these two men.
Lord, help me to imitate their commitment to excellence in teaching and living the faith.
Thank you, Paul. Thank you, Carl.

Through the Church

…that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known…

Ephesians 3:10

Our secularized society has little use for the church. “Church” is seen by many as little more than a social organization, a club where older folks get together and visit, go through some strange rituals, and maybe help out a few needy persons. Even some who claim to believe in Jesus see the church as irrelevant, arguing that their faith is a personal matter to be lived out without involvement (read “interference”) from others. “Give me Jesus,” they say, “but you can keep your church.”

The same New Testament that tells us about Jesus also tells us about the church – his church. Jesus said that he would build his church (Matthew 16:18). In the Ephesian letter, Paul speaks repeatedly of the church, which is Christ’s body. The message is pretty clear – there is no association with Christ unless there is association with the church. Consider, for example this statement in Ephesians 5:29-30: “For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body.” The underlining points out the connection – anyone who is a member of Christ is a member of the church.

It must also be observed that the church is important to God. It was part of his design from the beginning (see Ephesians 3:11) because he intended the church to be the agency through which the world would learn about salvation. Did you see it in the passage quoted at the beginning of this article? “Through the church”, it says, the world will see “the manifold wisdom of God”. To be part of the church is to participate in revealing God’s nature and will to all mankind.

Who then could think that the church is unimportant? Perhaps the more significant question is this: What is your attitude toward the church that God designed and Jesus purchased?

Bobby Wheat

Web Browsers

Something happened to this page when I started doing copy & paste to add bulletin articles as posts.

When viewed in IE, all of the sidebar information only shows up at the bottom of the page, after all the posts. However, when viewed with Mozilla Firefox it appears as it should.

I hate to admit that Ian is right, but it may be time to start using Firefox.
Take that, Microsoft!

Comfortable, or Lukewarm?

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked.

Revelation 3:17

The city of Laodicea, located in the Lycus River Valley in the Roman province of Asia, had a water problem. The city’s water was piped in from several miles away, and it was so tepid by the time that it arrived that the natural reaction of most people was to spit it out of their mouths. After all, who wants to drink water that is not either hot or cold?

Jesus used Laodicea’s well-known water problem to describe the spiritual quality of the church in that ancient city. Those Christians were neither hot nor cold, and the tepidness of their faith led Jesus to threaten to “spit” them out of his mouth (Revelation 3:16). That’s probably one of the more graphic images used by our Lord in all of scripture to speak of his reaction to the lifestyle of those who claim to wear his name. What caused the Christians of Laodicea to arrive at this point of dubious distinction?

In his letter to this lukewarm church, Jesus pointed out that its members did not even realize the depth of their spiritual trouble. They were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked,” (Revelation 3:17) but they thought themselves to be rich and not in need of anything or anyone. They thought themselves to be self-sufficient because of their wealth when, in fact, they were worse off than homeless beggars who could not even adequately cloth themselves. Why were such physically successful people seen by Jesus to be so lowly and helpless?

One answer to the questions about the Laodiceans may lie in the fact that their riches had led them to become comfortable with themselves. Once a person achieves a certain level of comfort, it seems that he or she is unwilling to do or say anything that will threaten to remove or destroy that comfortable situation. It’s not unusual for a person to be willing to compromise an entire belief system in order to achieve or maintain physical comfort. Perhaps the Laodiceans, faced with the loss of their riches and comforts if they spoke too loudly about their faith in Jesus Christ, chose to remain quiet about their faith in order to maintain their precious status quo.

I want to suggest that it is very possible for us to be exactly like the Laodicean church. In fact, we live in a society today that effectively rewards “lukewarmness” on the part of its members. This is true because, as soon as a person begins to speak out and suggest that any behavior of any other person is aberrant or sinful, the person who speaks is barraged with charges of slander and intolerance. Those who try to stand up for truth are often marginalized by those who have convinced themselves that there is no such thing as “truth,” and who have decided that “absolute” is, in fact, a dirty word. Therefore, if a Christian wants to be accepted by his or her peers in society, it is necessary to “tone down” any talk of moral correctness, to take a “middle position” on controversial issues. If you want to be comfortable, you simply can’t afford to be “hot” or “cold” about much of anything.

To those who allow their desire for “comfort” to cause them to draw back from declaring and standing for truth and morality, Jesus says two things. First, “I will spit you out of my mouth,” and second, “Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.”

We can’t afford to be lukewarm and comfortable.

Bobby Wheat

Religious Experience?

Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. James 1:27

I’m amazed at the things heard on the news these days. The report that caught my attention this week is one telling about the results of a study on psilocybin. Psilocybin is a hallucinogenic drug that is derived from mushrooms and which has been the subject of a study conducted on 36 volunteers who took one dose of the drug and were then polled about the effects. Many of the participants rated their reaction “as one of the most meaningful or spiritually significant experiences of their lives.”
Drug induced spirituality? Can that really happen? Of course, attempts to reach “higher states of spiritual awareness” by ingesting various chemicals are nothing new. For centuries, various folk religion practitioners have used any number of substances to induce psychotic experiences that are described as “spiritual.” But do those “experiences” really indicate that a person has been, in the words of one newsperson commenting on the psilocybin report, “closer to God?”
As you might expect, I have a couple of thoughts about all this. First, I’m troubled by the emphasis on personal experience in most current discussions of spirituality. Once again, it seems to me that too many people have confused religion with feelings and emotion, and too often conclude that they are “religiously deficient” if worship or any other “religious observance” leaves them without the expected emotional high (or low). If religion was all about having the right kind of “feeling,” then Scripture would undoubtedly have included some prescription for mushroom extract to be included with the Lord’s Supper! In fact, the clear teaching of God’s word is that religion is all about what we do, regardless of how we feel! Don’t believe me? Consider the statement, quoted above, from James 1:27 about the quality of pure religion that comes from taking care of those who are in need and from living a holy life!
The second thought has to do with the “self-orientation” of this approach to religion and life. Not surprisingly, those who participated in the psilocybin study were told to “focus their attention inward” while under the influence of the substance. This inward focus is actually fairly characteristic of contemporary life and, not surprisingly, modern worship and religious practice. In contrast to that inward focus, consider the fact that Jesus, our model for religious practice, “came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many" (Mark 10:45).
Looking for a religious experience? Try worshipping God because you love and adore him, and then go out and lend someone a helping hand.
Bobby Wheat

Bulletin Articles

My beautiful and very intelligent daughter recently pointed out to me that I could post my bulletin articles here so that she could read them without waiting for the mail. So, here it comes...

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What’s The Cost?
You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men (1 Corinthians 7:23).
I just read again a piece that floats through my e-mail inbox about once a year. The writer of the article summarized the effect of the Revolutionary War on those whose signatures can be seen on the Declaration of Independence. Few of them came through those years unscathed. Many of them lost their families or their property, or both. Some of them paid the ultimate price for signing that document and for standing up for what they believed.
The amazing thing is that, apparently, none of those men turned back. They did not recant their declaration when they realized what price they might have to pay. What was the reason for such firmness and dedication? They were convinced that freedom from oppression and the opportunity for a nation to chart its own course were worth whatever price they might pay. And aren’t we glad they did?
I don’t know if those patriots of two hundred and thirty years ago realized the potential cost to themselves before signing the Declaration of Independence. I do know that someone else was keenly aware of the personal cost of his contribution to freedom almost two thousand years ago. In fact, the inspired writer, Paul, made it abundantly clear that Jesus deliberately paid a price that is beyond our comprehension. Jesus, he wrote, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped” (Philippians 2:6). To make it possible for us to escape captivity to sin was so important that Jesus “made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men” (2:7). Then, because further action needed to be taken, “he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (2:8).
Jesus left his home, even though it was the most comfortable “place” anyone could ever exist. He left his father in order to do the work his father asked him to do (John 4:34 & 9:4). And he paid, from the human point of view, the ultimate price by giving his life for the freedom of those who would believe and follow him. The cost was high, and Jesus knew in advance what the cost would be, and he still did what was needed.
The appropriate response to the sacrifice of those patriots of the American Revolution is to value, uphold and share the freedom provided to us through their actions. The appropriate response to the sacrifice of Jesus is to value, uphold and share the freedom provided to us through his actions. Or, in Paul’s words, we must continue to “work out” our salvation, “with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12) so that we do not again “become slaves of men” (1 Corinthians 7:23).
I’m sure you’ll agree that winning and maintaining freedom are worth the cost.
-- Bobby Wheat

Hard things

Last week was a time for hard things. On Monday, a young couple called to say that a routine pre-natal checkup revealed that (at seven months) there was no heart beat. Up until then, there had been no problems. The mother-to-be is a nurse-in-training, and she has been as careful as a first-time mother should be. We went to the hospital, sat with them, cried with them, prayed with them. Labor was induced Monday night, and she finally delivered on Wednesday at noon. It was hard -- hard for her, hard for him, hard for all the wonderful family members that stayed with them, hard for everyone standing on the sidelines. Everyone wanted to know -- "What went wrong?" Then the hardest thing -- there was really no way to tell what went wrong. The baby looked fine; a sonogram revealed that everything was there and in its proper place. We expect to be able to know the answers to every question, the solution to every problem, and its hard to accept the fact that, often, we just won't ever know. Speaking of hard things -- the graveside service was held Saturday morning, and the mother and father were on time for Bible Class on Sunday morning, and they came back for evening services. God is good, they will heal, there will be more children -- but it will always be hard.

More hard things: I checked the Christian Chronicle website and saw an article publicizing the deaths of two missionaries. Dan Hardin was a pioneer and a mentor to many younger missionaries. When we were in school in the early '80s, we watched Dan cope with severe arthritis, thinking that he wouldn't be able to keep going much longer. He did, even though it was hard, and God used him to do good things for the kingdom.

Harder to read was the report of Cyndi Chowning's death in Benin. Though we had not been in close contact for several years, we still keep up a little with the Chownings. This death is really hard, because it was so senseless -- she stepped back after reaching into her vehicle to retrieve something and was struck by a motorcycle. My heart aches for Richard and for their children. I suspect that he will go on working with the people of Benin, teaching them about a God who loves them, but it will be hard.

So many things are hard -- but I can't help but think of passages like Romans 8 (God is for us; who can be against us?) and Isaiah 40 (those who wait for the Lord will renew their strength). God is a master (of course) at using hard things to make us stronger. By enduring the hard things, by actually facing them and walking through them, he makes us know more fully the joy of the good things. What a wonderful God we serve!

Poke at the Giant

I write a weekly article (at least, I do most weeks) for the church bulletin. It always seems like current events provide something to focus on for writing -- current news, current church issues, etc. Sometimes, I really get fired up about something, as I did over all the nonsense and speculation surrounding Matthew Winkler's murder. Below is what I did not put in a bulletin article. This is my "poke at the giant." I sent this letter to CNN on Tuesday after reading the transcript of Monday's Nancy Grace program...


I am writing to register my disgust at the unbalanced approach to "journalism" taken by your network and, specifically, by Nancy Grace in her interview of Tom Rukala concerning churches of Christ. Mr. Rukala grossly misrepresented churches of Christ (and demonstrated his own ignorance of New Testament teaching in the process).

"Churches of Christ" came into being on Pentecost Day in the year that Jesus was crucified and resurrected, not some 150 years ago as Mr. Rukala suggested. Nor is baptism merely a sectarian requirement for membership, since it is quite clearly presented in the New Testament as God's requirement for membership in His church, along with the other requirements such as faith, confession of Jesus as Lord, and repentance from sin. None of these things goes beyond Mr. Rukala's statement concerning the need to "call on the name of the Lord" (Acts 2:21); they are in fact, all the things that the first converts to Christ were doing in response to that charge.

Ms. Grace indicated that she was having difficulty finding much information regarding churches of Christ. I find that remarkable since there are many areas of this country where one would find several congregations, some of them very large, with numerous members who are very ready and able to explain who we are. Why go to a Baptist minister, and especially one who seems to have an axe to grind?

Finally, I find the whole presentation offensive in light of its apparent intent to demonstrate that Matthew Winkler's murder had something to do with the character of churches of Christ, and in light of it's timing (the night before Winkler's funeral).
I intend to suggest to anyone in reach of my voice that CNN should not be regarded as a trustworthy source of news and information until such time as I hear that you have allowed some knowledgeable and competent representative of churches of Christ to present the other side of Mr. Rukala's and Ms. Grace's story.

Sincerely,
Bobby G. Wheat
Winfield Church of Christ
P.O. Box 158
Winfield, KS 67156

Undoubtedly, others wrote similar letters. I did notice that, on Wednesday night, Nancy Grace included Rubel Shelly in her program. As you might expect, consistent with her "sensational" approach, she hardly let him finish a sentence.
Oh well, I suppose we should never really expect to get fair treatment from the press... I am confident, however, that truth will prevail, whether or not CNN ever catches on...

people in my life...

My life is full of people -- after all, ministry is a "people" business. While there are some people who seem bent on making my life difficult, I honestly have to say that most of the people in my life bring joy in one form or another.
There is that group of older ladies at church who never fail to tell me how much they are glad we are here and how much they miss us when we are gone (as we were for a few days last week). They even declare my preaching to be the best they've ever heard (I just haven't preached too much to them on prevarication and dissemination....)
Then there is the group of 40-somethings that we spend some of our time with. One couple came over last night, brought pizza and watched a movie with us. We can laugh together, cry together, tease each other, and talk about real-life issues, and I always feel better when we have been together.
Of course, above all these comes my family. No man could be more blessed than I am with parents, spouse and children. My wife, Nancy, is my hero. She's the person who holds our family together - with conversation, scripture on the mirrors and cabinet doors, food prepared abundantly and deliciously, and heaping doses of love and acceptance. She is my best friend and much more. She is my spiritual barometer, often my teacher and counselor, very often the person who picks me up when my spirit falls.
My children are joy. To have them all living and learning in the same place right now is a delightful serendipity (is that redundant?). Stefanie, Chris, Ian -- you make me smile, even when you're not here!
Well, there's more, but no time for it now. Sometime I'll pour out more about the people in my life...

unless a seed falls...

Okay, I gave in and started a blog. Just so you know: I can't type without capitalizing proper nouns and pronouns, nor can I keep from editing my own sentences. Sorry kids, you'll just have to deal with it...
The connections between Wheat and seed are obvious, but I think I had in mind Jesus' statements about seed representing the Word of God and also, from John's gospel, about the necessity of a seed dying before before reproduction takes place. May whatever ramblings I produce here act in some way as seed, for my own heart and for others...
Bobby