My husband has taken to collecting clocks. He found a lovely grandfather clock on Craig’s List and purchased a clock from Ebay. The clock he bought on Ebay cost $60.00 and it retails for $960.00. Hmm, doesn’t that seem too good to be true? After the clock arrived and it was wound and set we discovered that it wasn’t keeping time. It was consistently fast. So Mike discovered a clock maker in the area and took it to him to evaluate what might be wrong. He discovered that the clock had a pendulum that was too short. The clockmaker had to build a pendulum to fit the clock and now the clock runs perfectly. Keeps time to the minute.
I have been thinking about pendulums and how out of balance life can become if the pendulum swings too far one way or the other. I believe that this generation of Christians may be out of balance because of a pendulum swing.
Let me compare what I perceive as a parenting pendulum to help you better understand what I mean.
My generation was mostly raised by parents that were raised by parents that believed that children were to be seen and not heard. That parents were to be obeyed and that a child’s job was to assist the family in whatever way that was needed. My husband’s grandfather’s father died of pneumonia leaving his wife and children with no financial support so Mike’s grandfather quit school at 14 and started driving a milk wagon to support his family because he was the oldest son.
Now we would never consider doing something like that today.
So as the next generation raised their children, they treated them more as children, not as work force for the family. Once child psychology came on the scene, parents began to accept responsibility for the emotional well-being of their children.
Judith Harris a child development psychologist has this to say:
“In the early part of this century, parents didn't worry about shoring up their children's self-esteem or sense of autonomy, and they didn't feel called upon to provide them with "unconditional love." They worried that their children might become spoiled, self-centered, or disobedient. In those days, spankings were administered routinely, often with a weapon such as a belt or a ruler. Kisses were exchanged once a day, at bedtime. Declarations of parental love were made once a lifetime, from the deathbed.
The gradual but dramatic change in parenting styles over the past 50 years occurred mainly because more and more parents were listening to the advice of the "experts," and the experts' advice gradually changed. Nowadays parents are told that spankings will make their children more aggressive, that criticism will destroy their self-esteem, and that children who feel loved will be kinder and more loving to others. As a result of this advice, most parents today are administering far fewer spankings and reprimands, and far more physical affection and praise, than their grandparents did.
But that's only half the story. The other half is the results, or lack of results, of this change in parenting styles. Are today's children less aggressive, kinder, more self-confident, or happier than the children of two generations ago? If anything, the opposite is true. Rates of childhood depression and suicide, for example, have gone up, not down. And certainly there has been no decline in aggressiveness.”
A pendulum swing in parenting.
What about a pendulum swing in how Christians live their lives?
Ever since I heard the term, The Emerging Church and read Donald Miller’s book, Blue Like Jazz (and in the process raising young adults with differing generational views, even though being raised by us with our world view), I have struggled with the way this generation lives out Christ in the world.
On the one hand, I am greatly challenged as this new generation of believers takes on a grander world view in the areas of adoption, disaster relief, clean water initiatives, child abuse prevention, and feeding the hungry programs. Their sense of social responsibility seems greater.
And yet, their sense of personal holiness responsibility seems lacking.
Their dislike of being identified as being a Christian~particularly a born-again believer. This seems distasteful. I assume because of the failures of noted Christian and as a result of what some might consider being legalists, many followers of Jesus want to divorce themselves from any of these stereo types.
To the place where sometimes I fear, we are too soft on sin. Too embracing of other’s beliefs, for fear of being thought judgmental. A pendulum swing.
Turn with me to 1 Peter 4:1-6.
In the NIV Bible this section is titled:
Living for God
4 Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin. 2 As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. 3 For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do—living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry. 4 They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. 5 But they will have to give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. 6 For this is the reason the gospel was preached even to those who are now dead, so that they might be judged according to men in regard to the body, but live according to God in regard to the spirit. [1]
Once you have accepted what Jesus did on the cross, dying for your sins, you become spiritually alive with Him. This world ceases to be your home. You have a new allegiance. Your allegiance is to Christ and your home is in heaven.
We need to consider ourselves as on foreign soil.
God expects that we will turn from our old way of life. Turn to such an extent that our friends that we used to do those things with will think it strange and may “heap abuse on you.”
I know there are many here that have lost friends because of the way they have changed their lifestyle.
Now there may be some here that have a hard time identifying with this verse, they didn’t live in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing or detestable idolatry.
But wait, what else does verse 2 say? It says that we no longer live our earthly life for evil human desires. But we live for the will of God. What is we took the world evil out of this sentence.
We no longer live for human desires but for the will of God.
Now can you identify with the life and heart change that needs to occur? If you begin living your life for the will of God, the purpose and direction of your life changes. It isn’t as much about what you don’t do, but about what you do.
Live your life here in such a way that it will create an interest in what it means to be a Christian.
We are citizens of another land.
We live in a pagan culture.
We are left here on purpose to demonstrate what is like to have a citizenship in another land to create a thirst for that other land.
Chapter 4 begins with a therefore. So we need to go back to see what the therefore is there for? What is the context?
Therefore, since Christ…..
Vs. 18 Christ also died for sins, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God.
Died for sin
Seated at the right hand of God.
Since Christ has suffered in the death we are to arm ourselves with the same purpose He had when He was here on earth.
Arm ourselves with the same mind Christ had during His unjust punishment.
In light of what we have to face, we are to ready ourselves for life lived on foreign soil.
We are not left here to be tourists, to sightsee and relax. Our purpose is the same as Christ.
Just as Christ faced unjust suffering so will we.
When you suffer in the flesh, you are no longer under the control of sin. We have the power now to resist sin because Christ is in our lives. (Romans 6)
Sin is no longer our master
We no longer have to live in the flesh
We now live for the will of God
We have closed the book on Godless living
I feel compelled to take a moment to discuss our responsibility toward our weaker brother or sister. Especially in light of how public our lives have become because of social networking.
1 Corinthians 8:9 says, “Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.”
During this time period in history, food was regularly sacrificed to idols and some Christians, believed that to eat that food was no big deal. They didn’t believe in the idol therefore the food was ok to consume. Other believers had a real problem with it and therefore it would have been wrong for them to eat the food. Paul is saying here that we should never encourage by our behavior something that someone else would find inappropriate for their own behavior. Their conscience would be bothered or they may fall into temptation or sin.
Drinking alcohol is one such example today. You may not have a problem with alcohol. There may be no temptation for you there, and yet we have no idea how someone else might respond to this temptation. For them it could be a real stumbling block.
For example, at a super bowl party you may want to serve beer. Because to the world beer and football go together. But you may have a brother who has a substance abuse history in his past and needs not to go down that road again. You may not know that about him. But I am here to tell you I have been in the church long enough~there are people that have that in their past and some in the not to distant past.
You are asked to give up your freedom to drink out of love for your brother and because if you lead him into sin, you will be held accountable.
When you leave your children with at sitter, you make the assumption that she will forego watching things on TV that would be inappropriate for your child. It is the same with the weaker brother.
And you never know who may be watching.
Why do we want to emulate the world when what the world has to offer is so empty? It doesn’t satisfy.
So, because you no longer embrace your old way of life:
That causes a reaction. People who knew you then won’t recognize you and may not embrace your new life.
In all of this they are surprised and they malign you.
Have you had that happen in your life?
Your former friends will be surprised that you no longer do what they do. You may have to lose friends.
Now I am not suggesting that you shouldn’t try to have non-Christian friends. You need a mission field. But you also need to be careful not to be led into that former way of life or even into that former way of thinking.
You need to maintain your standards, recognize that you may lose friends but keep a tender heart for their lost-ness. Don’t attack their lifestyle.
That’s not the way to win people to Christ. The heart is what needs cleansing and only Jesus can do that. Why should you expect anything other than the behavior you see?
How then should we live?
1. Be Clear minded
2. Be self-controlled (spirit controlled)
3. Be prayerful
4. Love each other deeply
“Deeply” (ektenē, “stretched” or “strained”) was used to describe the taut muscles of an athlete who strains to win a race A Christian’s unselfish love and concern for others should be exercised to the point of sacrificially giving for others’ welfare.
Love covers over lit., “hides”) a multitude of sins. This kind of strenuously maintained love is not blind but sees and accepts the faults of others.
5. Offer hospitality:
Christian love may be displayed through extending free food and lodging, offering hospitality lit., “being friendly to strangers”) without grumbling to those who are traveling. During times of persecution, hospitality was especially welcomed by Christians who were forced to journey to new areas.
6. Use your gifts
7. Live your life to bring praise to God
Be different on purpose
Expect to be misunderstood
Earlier we read that we should all be prepared to give an answer to the hope we have within. Sometimes I think we want to blend in so much that we don’t want to identify ourselves with Christ. Witnessing has gotten a bad rap. We don’t want to be seen as judgmental or legalistic. There is only one way to heaven? How intolerant. The road is narrow and few will find it? How exclusive. But these aren’t my words, these are God’s words.
So how do we know if the pendulum has swung too far in our lives?
A clock needs certain things to keep good time. It needs regular winding and needs to be kept in balance.
We also need regular winding. (Exposure to the Word) and balance.
The only accurate way I know of discerning truth from a lie is to measure it with God’s word. Satan is the father of lies and uses subtlety. He won’t make it obvious. You need to spend time in the Word, it is the only way to keep your path straight.
Proverbs 3:5-7
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.”
