How Is Your Hear?

How's your heart? This is such a very simple question. Yet it has the opportunity to be so intimate, life giving, giving life bearing results. It is a question we don't ask very often. Most likely because we don't really care to take enough time to listen for a real answer from whom we asked the question. it's so much easier to ask How are you? which in today's vernacular really is just a greeting not anticipating a response.

One of the things I have so enjoyed and already learned from sitting under the discipleship of Jim and Mitch  (our senior and executive pastor here at grace) is the importance of bearing ones soul with a few very trusted people who will be praying for you. Not the kind of people that will say "I'll be praying for you," no the kind of people I am talking about are the ones who stop whatever they are doing and say "let me pray for you right now."

One of the realities I knew was coming in becoming a pastor was the ever increasing amount of meetings I would need to attend. One of the things I never expected was how life giving and enjoyable meetings can be! Here at Grace every meeting I have attended over the past month (to many to count) have begun by sharing the best and worst things that have happened to us in the past week. Depending on how many are in the meeting it might be with everyone or just those sitting right next to you. Nonetheless we begin by sharing where we are at Spiritually, emotionally, physically. Then we pray for each other. Not a 30 second token prayer, rather a sincere cry out for our brother or sister to the Father for His intervention and provision.

Sometimes this only leaves a few minutes for the business to get done, but it is amazing how after spending time "being" the church, rather than trying to "do" church, the Spirit gives wisdom and like mindedness so that the business flows and tends to take care of itself.

This is the kind of pastor I want to be! This is the kind of staff I want to lead! This is the church I want to be a part of!

Monday the pastors of Grace left their busy schedules and Jim took us on a mystery day. We started off at a  place in Houston that is the size of an airplane hanger that had various courts for differing games. The cool thing was the floors of each court were trampolines, the walls were trampolines. What ensued  was the ultimate game of dodge-ball much like when you were growing up as a kid in PE only here you didn't run around you bounced, jumped, launched yourself off the floor and bounced off the wall to get the ultimate 10ft in the air (slight exaggeration) throw across the court. IT WAS AWESOME! We then left, everyone having had a total cardio workout, to go eat lunch together. We ended the day sharing 15 minute versions of our life stories. Then the pastors gathered around me and welcomed and commissioned me for ministry here.

Life! It's meant to be lived together! I can't thank you enough for praying for Kim, Max, Joshua, Tate and I!

It means the world to us and we covet your prayers! Without them we would surely fail and fall apart!

Here are some prayer requests for this week:

1. Tate had strep-throat this week. he is feeling better but pray the rest of us don't get it 

2. We REALLY need to sell our house in Carrollton, please pray God's intervention here

3. Pray for continued vision and clear direction as we work through the complexities of starting a satellite campus

4. Pray for Kim and I to continue to fall in love with each other more and more every day

Finally, How is your heart? email us and let us pray for you and what is going on in your life this week! It would be our honor!

Jeff

P.S. IF you would like to keep up with our prayer shield blog you can go to:

http://praywiththedietz.blogspot.com/

Seeking A Biblical Position

I came across this post today:

As a Baptist, I am driven to basing my positions on what I read in the Bible. It is an ideal my denomination doesn’t really hold to much anymore, but a part of the roots of my faith that have me still claiming the label these days. Many Christians in America these days don’t read their Bibles much, and they certainly don’t stop to look to Scripture to determine what they should think on an issue. It is far easier to let your favorite pastor tell you what you should believe… or worse, your political party. Because, as every Christian knows, Jesus was very clear about His political affiliation.

When it comes to the issue of guns, Americans have an even harder time being Biblical. We have a complicated relationship to these killing machines. We have amended our constitution to preserve the ability of normal citizens to remain armed so that we can fight of the Government should it ever get out of hand again.

Of course, the problem with that is that it just doesn’t work anymore. No citizen could ever maintain the kind of armory necessary to defeat the U.S. government, and only cult leading kooks ever even try to do so. When that happens, we all stand behind the Government when it swoops in and puts a stop to it. No one wants those kinds of kooks having an army!

So, we fudge on the second amendment. We say that it really applies to the right of a citizen to defend themselves without having to wait on trained authorities. Even then, we don’t really think that will ever apply. No one wants a return to the Wild West where everyone walks around with a gun. What most really want is the right to collect guns for entertainment. We love everything about guns. Shooting targets. Shooting animals. Playing simulations of killing people. It runs deep in our cultural roots.

The question is: What is the correct, Biblical, position on guns for a follower of Jesus? Would Jesus carry? As His people, should we?

Seriously. What do you see in Scripture about this? Be sure to use a good hermeneutic. Go.

This was my short answer (non-hermeneutic because of time) response:

The danger I see in reading your questions following your comments is that you make some assumptions or statements regarding the issue to which you yourself do not provide hermeneutic too. This then frames the question in such a way that what you are asking for is for someone to use scripture to defend or oppose your position.

In your statements you ascertain that guns are “killing machines” and that Americans have a hard time being biblical when addressing the “issue.”

If we are to indeed be scriptural and use good hermeneutic we must approach this without any framing or context. This is why after the recent events the church has taken such a hard-line stance on either side, because we are allowing our emotions to give us a biased framework or context in which we are going to the bible to try and then defend.

That being said, I will try and take a stab at answering the best I can what I see in scripture.

What is the correct, Biblical, position on guns for a follower of Jesus?

The short answer is there is no mention of guns in the bible. I know this sounds like I am being trite or trying to be funny, but plain and simply there is no mention of guns in the bible. So we must look at what weapons or other killing things were used.  Swords, spears, axes, slingshots, there might be more  in the way of weapons. Then there are things used to kill for food, protection or financial gain such as nets, clubs and much more.

Now in your statements you referred to guns as “killing machines” and indeed they can and often are used for such a thing, to kill, but we need to be careful if we are to jump to conclude that because they can kill that they are immoral. All throughout the Old Testament we see God sanction the use of violent and even deadly force in war, sometimes to defend against nations seeking to overthrow His people. At other times we see Him command His people to not only advance on another nation but to kill every living thing, people, livestock and on.  In the New Testament we see Jesus command the disciples to cast nets in order to catch fish, to kill these fish for food. Sometimes we see them catch so many fish there is no way they could eat them all. As fishermen it is only logical that they would sell what couldn’t be consumed. God commands the Jews to kill for sacrifice to atone for sins in the Old Testament. What we see is that killing and death entered His creation as a result of sin but that doesn’t mean that in every circumstance it is immoral.

Guns themselves are inanimate objects used for a wide Varity of things. Target shooting for fun, Hunting, war, and murder amongst other things.

Are we to assume that because the disciples cast nets and killed fish that they are immoral? Would this make anyone who used a fish net immoral? That when they used a knife to apply the final death blow or to gut a fish they were being immoral? Then why would we assume that a man who owns a gun and hunts and is a Christian and an American is any less biblical? The argument could be made that many hunt today for sport and not out of need for sustenance but the disciples fished for more than just food. They were fishermen and sold much of their catch for profit.

Am I to suppose that Daniel the young Christian man who loves the Lord with all his heart and just returned from Afghanistan is immoral because he used his gun in war to defend himself and fellow man? God sanctioned war in the Old Testament and Christ himself said he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. Yes I know that has a whole set of hermeneutical meanings that don’t directly pertain to war but Chris and God are one and God commanded His people to go to war many times for various differing reasons not just to defend themselves . The bible says He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.

Specifically pertaining to the recent events of last week, I think we need to look deeper and realize the immorality wasn’t gun ownership, it was murder. And to take such a broad brush and say that all guns and or ownership is a morality question because one used guns to commit murder which is a very clear morality issue is quite irresponsible from a hermeneutic response.

To me this likens to the same argument as Alcohol. Scripture clearly tells us not to be drunk on wine as in Ephesians 5:18 yet it does not condemn wine itself. Jesus himself drank wine and miraculously made it!

 Does the possession of wine therefore make one immoral? Are we to assume as you did above that one ignores scripture if he has a relationship with these "drunkenness machines"?

The fact that guns can kill, does that make those who own them immoral or less Christ like? That is an assumption that in my opinion is as much ignoring scripture and just going off of what "ones favorite pastor or political parties says."

The possession of alcohol and consumption of alcohol are not frowned upon by scripture, rather the misuse of alcohol is.

Because the misuse leads to heinous sins we like to take it a step farther and call the whole thing immoral but it the end that is adding to scripture. 

What happened this past weekend was horrible, down right evil and immoral! Murder is immoral but to paint gun ownership and murder under the same brush and to say one who supports gun ownership is supportive in any way of murder is painting with far to wide a brush stroke.

What do you Think?