Coffee Stains

I like coffee.  I like it rich, dark, strong, and hot.  In fact, I have a favorite coffee mug.  It is not my favorite because of the saying on it, because of the color or even because of the picture on it.  It is my favorite because it is BIG.  I can drink two cups of coffee at the same time with this thing. It’s great!

The other day I picked up my favorite mug and saw, there in the bottom, two dark rings.  Now, when I had picked the mug up, I thought that it was clean.  From the outside, I could not see any stains.  It looked like it had just been washed.  “No problem,” I thought, “I’ll just rinse it out.” Guess what, it would not be rinsed.  The stains stayed there.  This got me to thinking, and that is a big deal since I had not had my coffee yet.  I thought about that stain in my favorite mug.  How did it get there?  How had I neglected something that I hold so dearly to the point that it became stained?

This thought process and line of thinking is what leads someone to more thinking and more questions.  This can be dangerous at early hours.  I started to think about life, about the Bible, and about the “stains” in our lives. 

How does a coffee mug get stained?  First, it has to get dirty.  You use the cup.  Second, the mug then sits for while with a few drops of coffee in the bottom of it.  Third, the coffee evaporates leaving behind residue that stains the inside of your favorite mug.

How do lives get stained?  First, they get dirty.  Second, they get left that way for a while, with just a little bit of sin in them.  Third, when the sinful events are done, they leave behind a little residue on our lives.

Are there “stains” in your life?  Have you allowed sin to sit in your heart long enough to leave a stain?  Is the outside of your life clean but inside, stained?  This reminds me of the words of Jesus in Matthew 23:27.  He tells the Religious leaders that they are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful, outwardly, but on the inside they are full of dead men's bones (paraphrase).

Realize today that it does not matter what the outside of your cup looks like if the inside is stained and dirty.  Realize that man looks at outward appearance, but that God looks at the heart (I Samuel 16:7).  Realize that it is our own fault that we have stains in our lives.  We could have cleaned them out at any time, but yet they remain.

If the truth be told, My favorite mug was still my favorite, even though it was stained.  The stains did not bother me.  Oh, I knew they were there.  And every time I used that mug, I would think that I ought to do something about it.  But I didn’t.  Too often, this same thing happens with the “stains” in our lives.  We don’t let them bother us.  We get used to them.  We may even think of them as a status symbol.  We do not want to change.

Remember, we are God’s vessels. 1 Corinthians 4 calls us jars of clay that carry the message of Christ.  Do we want to carry God’s message in stained vessels?  No! We need to get cleaned, get up, and get going.

There is a way to get rid of our stains.  There is a cleansing that we all can experience.  Jesus Christ died to wash the stains of sin away from our lives.  Hebrews 10:22 talks about being washed with “Pure Water.”  Revelations 1:5 says that Jesus Christ “washed us from our sins” (KJV).  Jesus Christ offers “pure water” to wash and cleanse us from our stains. 

Now, you might be thinking, “I have been washed! I was baptized to have my sins washed away. I don’t need to have my “stains” washed again!”

That makes me think of One of Jesus’ followers, Peter, when Jesus came around at the Last Supper wanting to wash the feet of the disciples. Peter told Jesus not to wash his feet. When Jesus explained to Peter that he needed to have his feet washed Peter replied, “Then wash all of me!”

Jesus’ response was very interesting. He said, “A person who has bathed all over does not need to wash, except for the feet, to be entirely clean” (John 13:10a). You see, sometimes we get our feet a little dirty and need to be cleansed. These little “stains” or sins that we allow to linger will eventually undermine our intentions of remaining remaining clean and compromize our clealiness.

It is no longer a matter of taking a bath (see 1 Peter 3:21, not the removal of dirt from your body). It becomes a matter of the heart. What do we do when our heart gets stained? James 4:8 tells us to come close to God and He will come close to us. It says to wash our hands, purify our hearts because we have been “double minded” having our loyalties divided between God and the world. Our selfishness will make us want to keep drinking out of our favorite cup regardless of the stains. But God wants to give us a new cup, a new vessle, a new heart!

He wants to make us whiter than snow.  Do you have stains in your “Mug”?  Do you need washed? What are you going to do about it?

You Have to Ask Yourself One Question

I have read articles and blogs, watched vlogs, and listened to people in the foyers of churches. There seems to be a trend in complaining about all the things that the church has been doing wrong. One article I read talked about an expert in cultural relevance who came in to give a seminar to help the church change all the things its doing wrong. A Facebook post I read had to do with mistakes in the way “the church” recruits new people. One blogger gave a list of several things that he could see that needed changed in church culture.

I have to admit here that I have joined in this complaining and talking about all the things that should be different in the church. The things discussed were not heretical ideas or even doctrinal issues that people were having problems with. It seems that there is just a lot of people opinionated about the way churches should be run, witness, do worship or decorate. I know these may seem like petty things but to those having these discussions they are not petty. There is some merit to this huge surge of discussion, but you have to ask your self one question...

What am I doing about it?

I read one article about how unfriendly churches typically are to “outsiders.” I identified the behavior in others quickly—how quickly people will go straight to their group of friends as soon as they get into the church building. If there is a stranger they might greet them heartily with a firm handshake and even a few questions, but in reality they didn’t come to church to make friends they came to see the ones they already have. It’s nice to see your friends. It’s nice to share stories from the week. But when we put the focus on ourselves and what we want to get out of being at church then it is easy to brush over visitors, only give them a surface greeting, or avoid them altogether. Philippians 2:3 tells us “in humility consider others as more important than yourselves.” So here is the question you should ask the next time you complain about how your church treats visitors: “How am I treating visitors?”

Another complaint I have heard is that the church is too judgmental of each other. This is very true! In fact, this is probably one of the biggest turn-offs for outsiders. They see the squabbling and quarrelling going on in churches and think, “Why would I want to choose to be a part of that?”

The interesting thing about this complaint is that it is a very judgmental complaint. Then there is the other side too where the person being judged by others asks, “Well, who are you to judge me?”—yet another judgmental inquisition. Then the judgmental attitude continues to cyclically propel the church culture into a bickering clash of opinions.

We always go to the scripture that says judge not, that ye be not judged (yes you have to say it in King James Version to give it more power, Mat. 7:1). This part of the verse gets taken out of context all too often. Because it goes on to say that the way you judge others is the way that they will judge you. So it is not saying that we should not judge anyone but we need to be careful how we judge. 1 Corinthians 11:31 talks about examining one’s self (or judging ourselves) rightly. This makes me think about the plank in the eye situation. If we have a beam sticking out of our eye then how can we see to help someone remove their speck? This finishes off the context of Matthew 7’s “judge not” statement. It goes on to say remove the plank from your own eye and then you can see to help your friend remove the speck from their eye. It does not say “remove NOT the speck from thy brothers eye!” It encourages us to remove it, but first remove the log/beam/plank from our own eye first.

Jesus talks about judging rightly or justly in John 5:30. His standard for righteous judgment is by measuring it against what God tells him. He says that He can only do what His Father tells him to do and that makes His judgment just. When we align our heart with God’s then our judgment can also be just. But when we judge out of selfishness or personal opinion we become hypocrites with planks in our eye (Mat. 7:5). So here is the question you should ask when you start complaining about how judgmental churches are becoming: “What plank do I have in my eye?”

I hope you get the idea of what I am getting at here. These are only two examples of the issues that are being talked about so much these days, but I have to ask myself, “What am I doing about it?”

James 4:17 tells us, “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it.” There are many things that we are doing wrong, but if all we do is talk about it then we are like the man who looks in the mirror and then walks away and complains about the way he looks all day long! We can obviously see the problems, so if we have discerned that they really are things that be changed then we ought to be the first to jump at it.

One pastor friend told me that he was tired of people coming to him and bringing up an issue or complaint and saying, “The church needs to do something about this!”

He replied, “You’re right, the church should do something! So what are you going to do? After all you are a part of this church as much as anyone else is.”

The church needs to focus on discipleship more; are you discipling anyone? The church needs to have a better presence in the community; are you representing Christ in your community? The church needs to be more forgiving; are you forgiving? The church needs to have better accountability; are you accountable to anyone? The church needs to change this or that, etc.; are you changing?

This is the reality—if we are not happy with the church we have to realize our own responsibility in the matter. We cannot stand around pointing fingers and expect things to change. Change is hard, but if it needs to happen then you are the perfect person to start it. If you expect anyone else to change then you are going to be unhappy all the time because you cannot change people. You can change yourself.

You are the church. I am the church. We need to look into our own lives and ask ourselves one question: What am I doing about it?

Entering the Blogosphere

Hello to all! I have decided that I will finally enter the blogosphere. To give you an introduction I'll start by telling you a bit about myself. I have a beautiful wife and I am a father of two amazing children. I have been a student of the Bible for about eight years now.

I am sure that most of my blogs will consist of the loose rambling that come from my thoughts, readings, and studying. I love to read. I read blogs, books, FB posts, and sermons. I may or may not solidly stand behind what I post or I may just post something to start a conversation.

For instance, I recently read about the connection within the Trinity at the point of Jesus' crucifixion being held together through the power of the Holy Spirit as the Father turns his back on the Son who willing and knowingly took the punishment of the world on His shoulders. I immediately thought of the leadership of churches. The pastor often takes on the weight of the troubles of his congregation while the people of the church turn their back on the him for one reason or another. So, who should be holding them together?

So stuff like that will fill these glowing digital pages as you jump from post to post. Please, pause here for a moment and reflect on these fleeting words. Hey, even comment and state your position also. I am starting this blog to learn as well as to share my own thoughts. So your comments will be gladly accepted. I do, however, reserve the right to delete any post for any reason, so keep it clean and within reason.

I am looking forward to this. Thanks for reading!