I'm back (I think)

Someone asked me the other day why I didn't have a blog.  They said there are some people that want to hear what I have to say.  Maybe it's my way of just saying what I think.  Or maybe it is my weird sense of humor.  After all I have used comic strips in the past to make a spiritual point.  

Whatever the reason, I did have a moderate following on my blog before.  But I haven't posted since 2013.  Why?  One big reason was parenthood.  

I knew having a kid would change my life but there is no way I could have imagined how much so.  But the answer isn't quite that simple.  I quit blogging because life got quite busy.  

Currently, I serve as Associate Pastor for Berea Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Arkansas.  I handle most of the administrative and educations duties. 

I also currently serve as the President of the AT&T Veterans Employee Resource Group, an employee driven 501(3)c volunteer organization.  

And I work full time and keep up with the house my wife and I bought several years ago and spend time caring for, teaching, and playing with 3-year old son.

I know, excuses excuses.  But there are only so many hours in the day for fixing and eating dinner with my son (wife works late evenings), updating websites, answering emails, prepping Bible studies, packing for work and school the next day, etc.  Don't get my started on chores around the house.

But I decided to try taking on a blog again.  I transitioned it from an old email I don't use any longer to the Google account I use for all things Google.

It's almost 9:00 PM now.  Got home not long ago from an evening at my parent's.  Dinner and some family time...just enjoying our day off for Labor Day.  My son is tucked in bed and my wife is curled up reading.  I'm tired so this first "I'm back" blog is gonna be short.

Before I go though, let me say this.  I've changed a lot since the last blog post.  Learned a lot in just the last two years about life, parenting, and more.  I'll try to share a variety of experiences and thoughts that may appeal to a broader audience.

So for tonight, let me give you a quick thought I had after talking to someone at work last week:

Parent's should be coaches, not referees.  Parent's need to stop just blowing a whistle when your child commits a foul and get personally involved in the game.  

You can shape your child a lot more by demonstrating character and morality than by just punishing them when they try to figure it out on their own and fail.

Driving forces behind the abortion epidemic

I have often been asked this question by church members and pro-lifers: “How did abortion get so deeply rooted in our culture?  How did we manage to let it go this far?”  Abortion is not new.  There is evidence that man resorted to this vile act early in his history; however, we've seen this carried to heights that is almost unfathomable.  There are many contributing factors to abortion, but I contend there are three main movements that pushed us to the extremes we see today.

Evolutionary ideas: The very groundwork for the explosion of the abortion industry was laid when Darwin’s ideas of evolution became more widely accepted.  There are several serious implications if we begin to consider evolution as truth.  (1) If evolution is true, the Biblical account of creation is either false or allegorical (2) If the creation story is false, then all of Scripture becomes unreliable and questionable at best and at worst it is all a giant hoax (3) If the creation story is allegorical, then we can start accepting compromises such as gap theories and long-day theories but (4) if we accept these compromises, we still have to accept death came before Adam’s sin and therefore sin did not come into the world by one man and therefore (5) Salvation did not come into the world by one Man.  Now your entire Bible has been shred and the Gospel torn out.  Furthermore, if God did not create man and woman as a special creation in His own image and we are all here by chance or accident, there is no value to life and therefore no reason why we shouldn't be able to end a life as we please.

Free love and the sexual revolution:  Webster’s defines free love as “the doctrine or practice of having sexual relations or living together without legal marriage or continuing obligation.” Marriage was seen as a form of bondage.  Free lovers did not believe there should be laws or absolutes when it came to matters such as marriage, birth control, adultery, etc.  This movement aided in the destruction of the Christian idea of marriage and family.  Marriage between one man and one woman is sacred because it is a depiction of Christ’s union to His bride, the church.  Webster’s defines the sexual revolution as “a drastic relaxation in general standards of sexual behavior.”  Those caught up in the U.S. sexual revolution of the 1960’s lived by the motto “Make love, not war” and “if it feels good, do it.”  There was only one serious problem with this concept….unwanted pregnancy.  This was especially problematic for men of notable positions in society or business and the wealthy men of society – they couldn't have unwanted children, especially from their one-night stands, ruining their reputation or being a burden to their fame and fortune. 

The feminist movement: Evolutionary ideas, the sexual revolution, and the second wave of the feminist movement in the U.S. were the perfect storm for abortionists.  The feminist movement grew from wanting proper treatment of women and equality in human rights to wanting to tear down anything that may distinguish male from female.  A woman had to be able to do anything and everything a man could do.  What is the one thing a man could do in the area of the sexual revolution that a woman couldn't do?  Walk away from an unwanted pregnancy….unless….the woman could “abort” the pregnancy. Abortion became a necessity so that second wave feminists could fully participate in the free love sex revolution and be able to “escape” the consequences just like a man could.  The ideas of free love and feminism are very closed tied together and pour on the de-valuing of human life through the evolutionary idea that we are just an accident, and abortion is not only acceptable but it is desirable. 

How do we combat the vile unrestrained murder of millions (billions?) of babies?  First we affirm the Bible is true, the 6 day creation story of Genesis is literal, that there is a Divine Creator to whom we are accountable, that man and woman are created special and in the image of God, and that all human life is precious and to be protected.  We have to view sex, marriage, and human life the way God views it.

Oh Be Careful Little Eyes

O be careful little eyes what you see

O be careful little eyes what you see

There's a Father up above

And He's looking down in love

So, be careful little eyes what you see

As a child, I remember singing that song. It goes on to say be careful little ears what you ear, little hands what you do, little feet where you go, little mouth what you say. How we live our life is strongly influenced by what we see and hear, and then where we go and what we participate in.

This principle should apply to what we watch on TV and the movies we watch, along with many other aspects of our life. I am not saying a Christian should necessarily avoid all secular music, TV, movies, etc - unless they feel called by God to so. But we must use our ability of discernment, which is given to all believers through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, when deciding what to expose ourselves, and our children, to.

What we watch and what we filter out will often depend on the individuals role in their family and the church and the level of their maturity and understanding of Scripture. Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying that being spiritually mature and knowledgeable in doctrine and Scripture gives you free reign to watch filth.

However, sometimes a film comes along that portrays Christianity or God in a manner that can be dangerous to the church and the spiritually mature and doctrinally sound leaders need to watch or at least be very aware of the film so they can teach their flock and warn them of the dangers.

I recently became aware of one such film that I recommend Christians, especially parents and church leaders, be cautious of. It is called the Golden Compass. Some of the animations looked similar to the Narnia movies, particularly the polar bear, and the movie seemed interesting so we began to watch it.

It wasn't long into the movie when I realized something wasn't right.  Everyone in the movie had a "demon" that followed them around and interacted with them...and some of the demons were portrayed as cute fuzzy playful animals. They also seemed to promoting the rebellious characters in the movie as the heroes.

So I did a little research. Turns out, the movie is based on one of the books in trilogy by Philip Pullman called "His Dark Materials." A quick overview of the book would go like this...God isn't really the creator...He just somehow came out of the "dust" and was the first angel...He told all the other angels to follow He created them...and when He got old and weak he faced a rebellion from the other angels and from mankind.

By the time the trilogy is over, God is dead and two of the characters of the story re-enact the story of the garden of Eden, only this time it saves the universe rather than condemns it. One thing that makes the story so deceptive is the fact that it does make you think of C.S. Lewis and the Narnia story...but that is no accident. Pullman despised C.S. Lewis and said of the Narnia books are "one of the most ugly and poisonous things I have ever read," with "no shortage of … nauseating drivel."

Not convinced that Mr. Pullman is an enemy of Christianity? What if I told you another of his books is entitled "The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ"? One of the press statements about the books reads like this:

In Pullman’s work, Jesus is a charismatic, honest speaker, who believes that the kingdom of God is imminent. Christ, on the other hand, has an eye to posterity, to the need for an organized church and to the requirements of history. “He knows that human beings, being what they are, need structures, they fall into bureaucracy. He knew that the kingdom never was going to come,” said Pullman. See this review and others here

It is important for us to remember that not all things fun, not all things popular, not even all things made for children are things we should watch, listen to, or expose our children to.

Lessons from Get Fuzzy: Anthropology

I was quite surprised at the reaction I received from Lessons from Get Fuzzy.  This won't be a daily thing but it did seem to be quite popular so I will try to update you on the latest with Bucky and Satchel once and awhile.  

Hope you enjoy the below comic and the lesson to follow.  If the strip is too small, right click on it and open it in a new window or tab. 

 Thanks for your support.

Bucky and Satchel's frequent misunderstanding of various words and phrases along with Bucky's wild theories and political views often leads to an extremely funny dialogue with the other characters.


As humans, we often have a tendency to open our mouth without taking the time to make sure we have a true understanding of the topic we feel compelled to discuss.  The results, when handling Scripture and spiritual matters, are often not humorous and can have serious consequences.

 

As I go about life each day, I hear people trying answer all sorts of questions about the Bible or trying to offer counseling without a solid foundation of their own.  I hear people answering a question with "well doesn't the Bible say....?"  Well...does it?  If you don't know for sure....shouldn't you look it up before creating confusion with wrong information?

People remembering bits and pieces of Scripture and using it out of context has devastating effects.  One such example is the passage that instructs Christians not to be unequally yoked.  I can't count the number of times I've had that used to teach against interracial marriage.   

 

Others have pointed to commands in the Old Testament not to marry those from other people groups in the area when Israel moved into the Promise Land as a command against interracial marriage.

 

Incidentally there is only one race - the human race - but we'll save that for another day.  

The issue with using the "yoked" verse to teach against interracial marriage is the fact that there is more to that verse..it actually says "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers."  And why the command for Israel not to marry from what I call the ites (Canaanites, etc)?  Because they worshiped idols - they were unbelievers. There is no command against interracial marriages - only that Christians marry other believers (again - another topic for another day).  

 

It is important we learn God's Word and when we aren't certain what His Word says, we take time to study it and seek God's answer rather than throw our own theory.

 

Those of you reading my blog and have me on Facebook are welcome to send comments or post on my wall.  If you don't have me on Facebook, feel free to email me at jeff.rudd@bbcjax.net.  

 

By the way, I am in no way endorsing Get Fuzzy or it's creator as Christian.  I just find most of the strips to be quite entertaining. 

Lessons from Get Fuzzy (the comic strip)

Take a moment to look this this Get Fuzzy comic strip from March 13, 2011.  Once you stop laughing, scroll down to see the serious lesson we can learn from Bucky and Satchel.

Now if you have a sense of humor like I do (which my wife says is a very weird one) you probably had a hard time catching your breath after that one.  I think picturing Bucky's reaction on the next to last frame was almost as funny as what the artist actually drew in the strip.  By the way, it is ok for Christians to laugh, and even use humor (in a respectful manner) to teach a point. 

 

I shared this strip with you not just to give you a good laugh but to illustrate my point - how often we read something and assume it's meaning and only to be quite mistaken.

For example...how many wise men visited the baby Jesus?  

Did you say three?  

 

Truth is, we don't know many visited Jesus and his family but they most likely traveled in a group larger than just three.  So where do we get the number three?  Simple - they came bearing three different types of gifts - gold and frankincense and myrrh.

 

Obviously Bucky and Satchel are not real so their mistake was not critical.  And thinking there were three wise men does not have a significant impact on the Gospel message.  But these examples, while humorous, underscore a very dangerous truth.

When we read something, even Scripture, we often put our own interpretation on what it says often times with no regard to context of or the truth behind that which we read.  In Scripture, this can dramatically change a Biblical truth into a heresy.

One example: Colossians 1:15 says "He (Jesus Christ) is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation."  Taken out of it's context and read without understanding the Jewish culture and the original language you could interpret this to mean Jesus was born in the sense of having a beginning.  

 

I know this may be shocking to some, but Scripture was not originally written in English.  When we understand the culture and language, we understand the word firstborn speaks to His rank or preeminence, in other words, it speaks to Jesus Christ being exalted above all creation.

 

Jesus Christ is God and is eternal.  He has no beginning or end.  In fact Colossians goes on to say "For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together."

 

Before opening your Bible, always take a moment and ask God to reveal the truth of His Word each time.

Why cross-eyed?

I've been asked about why I called this my Cross-eyed Pastor blog.  I've seen this idea of being "cross-eyed" many times in Christian art and on Christian t-shirts and have heard it in Christian music.  At first I thought it was a catchy slogan, but then Hebrews 12:1-2 came to mind:

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”

It reminded me that every single step that Jesus took on earth was a deliberate step towards the cross and towards the freedom from sin and death and the new life it would bring His children.   It reminded me also that I was called to pick up my cross daily to follow Him wherever He leads, and to whatever He calls me to do for His glory, His honor, His kingdom, and His children.

I pray that by God’s grace and sufficiency others, when looking into my eyes, will see the reflection of the cross and that sharing the story of His great love will always be the focus of whatever ministry I find myself in.