Baby Ruth in the Swimming Pool!

Baby Ruth Purchased Feb. 2005 in USA (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Years ago there was a movie in which someone floated a Baby Ruth candy bar in a swimming pool.  I don’t think I ever saw the movie.  I can’t remember what it was called, who was in it, or what it was about.  But I remember the trailer that showed the floating candy bar, and all the people clearing out of the pool thinking it was something a lot more disgusting!  Yep, you are thinking what I am thinking.  Just like quickly moving away from someone you are swimming next to when the water suddenly gets warm in that spot.  Gross!!!  And you are wondering what in the world this has to do with Christianity.  Fear   not, I am going to fill you in.

The Christian church at Corinth was having some trouble.  For the sake of the faint of heart and those who aren’t raising boys, I will refer to the gross as a Baby Ruth.  The church had a Baby Ruth, or two, or three floating in the pool. Of course, it wasn’t anything fake.  It was the real deal.  Some nasty, ugly sins in the midst of God’s holy church, floating in and among His people.  You know the really yucky part?  They didn’t move away from the Baby Ruth.  They didn’t remove it from the pool.  In fact, they were proud of it!!!  Just like boys!

1 Corinthians 5: 1-2 (NCV) – “It is actually being said that there is sexual sin among you.  And it is a kind that does not happen even among people who do not know God.  A man there has his father’s wife.  And you are proud!  You should have been filled with sadness so that the man who did this should be put out of your group.”

I admit, my first thought was, “Eeew!  Nasty!”  A man having his father’s wife is a definite Baby Ruth in the pool!!  If you read further into chapter 5 and on into chapter 6, you will find more Baby Ruth’s   The pool was full of them!  Those who were sinning sexually, including, but not limited to prostitution, adultery, and homosexuality.  The greedy.  Robbers.  Idol worshipers.  The verbally abusive.  Drunks.  Cheaters.  Liars.  Thieves.

That is not a pool I would want to swim in!!!  It was so full of the filthy Baby Ruth’s it would be next to impossible to not bump into one.  Then you would have it on you!  What’s worse is that after a time, you would become so used to having it all around you, you might begin to forget how disgusting it all is, and be tempted to add a Baby Ruth of your own!!!

Paul told the Corinthians they should have been sad and put the Baby Ruth out of the swimming pool.  The hope was that by doing so the Baby Ruth might be cleaned up and the owner would then be able to return to the pool clean and pure.

Unfortunately the church of today is no different from the church of Corinth.  There are so many Baby Ruth’s floating in the pool with us that we really don’t look any different from the ocean in which the rest of the world swims in.  Our pool (the church) has been cleaned by chlorine (sanctified by Christ).  All of the muck has been filtered out.  When the world looks at us, they should see pristine water glittering in the Son.  But that is not what they see.  We are full of all the same Baby Ruth’s that were in Corinth.  Idolatry, greed, steeling, adultery, homosexuality, pornography, lies, gossip, cheating, bickering, unkind words, and the list goes on and on.  The sad thing is that we let it float.  We allowed our pristine swimming pool, the church, the Body of Christ, to become so contaminated with Baby Ruth’s, filth, dung, that we have begun to accept it as normal, and even right, going directly against the clear teachings of the Word of God!  God is not pleased with this, my brothers and sisters!!!  He is heartbroken, but He is righteously angry as well!!  We have defiled His church.  And even if we haven’t done some of these things ourselves, we have allowed others to do them and not said a thing.  We are equally to blame!

Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5: 11-13 that we are not to associate with the people who are living these lives of sin.  We are all sinners.  But there is a big difference between someone who gossips, or even commits adultery, and repents and never does it again, and someone who habitually gossips, lies, stirs up trouble in the church, lives with someone without being married to them, practices homosexuality (yes, I include this explosive topic!) as a way of life.  Verses 11-13 – “I am writing to tell you that you must not associate with those who call themselves believers in Christ but who sin sexually, or are greedy, or worship idols, or abuse others with words, or get drunk, or cheat people.  Do not even eat with people like that.  It is not my business to judge those who are not part of the church.  God will judge them.  But you must judge the people who are part of the church.  The Scripture says, ‘You must get rid of the evil person among you.'”

Go back to verse 2.  The man with his father’s wife should have been put out of the church.  I recall attending a small church in my early teen years.  A man and his wife were one of the biggest financial backers of the church.  But they used that money to control what was happening.  They were greedy for power.  They should have been asked to leave the church, but they weren’t.  As a result, the church ended up collapsing, and the pastor (who was a wonderful man of God) was never a pastor of another church.

It is time for the Church to step up to the plate.  It is time to clean the pool!!!!  We are a disgrace!!!  We dishonor God by allowing all of this filthy dung to co-exist with us in His house!!  It is time for our pastors and church leaders to stand firm on the teachings of the Bible, not twist them, and mutilate them, and distort them into something that belongs in the dirty ocean that world swims in.  We do not belong in the ocean!  Christ lifted us out of it with His death on the cross, and resurrection from the grave.  Do not forget that!!!!  We have been cleaned up and set in the purified, chlorinated water that is the Church.  And it is time for the Church body to stand behind the pastors and leaders.  Keep them accountable to start.  Support them when they  are standing strong and doing what truly honors God, His house, and the Body and bride of Christ!!

Christianity: Is It Down-to-Business, Or Child’s Play?

Do you take your faith seriously?  I don’t mean, “Yeah, sure I do.”  I mean, “YES LORD!!  AMEN & AMEN!!!”  Do you attend church on as many Sunday’s as you are able?  Or do you skip because the pastor is at a conference (the shepherd is away, so the sheep will play)?  Do you read your Bible every day, or at least most?  Or is it that you skip most days, and read it occasionally?  Do you take time to pray every day? Or do you pray at mealtimes…when you remember?  What does Christianity mean to you?

I was in church this morning, half full.  Perhaps because our pastor was gone, or perhaps because it is summer and it is much more enticing to be at the lake with a fishing pole or water skis.  During the service, I noticed that at least 3 cell phones went off.  And one adult person was using their smart phone for something other than reading an online version of the Bible.  The service is only an hour long.  Can God ask that much time of us?  Shouldn’t it be possible to sit through a one-hour church service without having to answer a cell phone or surf the web?  If church is not important enough to give your undivided attention to, then why attend?  I’m not perfect.  I have skipped church because it is inconvenient, or I am tired.  I have had Sunday mornings when my mind wandered to so many places during that one hour that I would have needed a map to find my way back home.  But I wonder, what does this kind of behavior say about the value I put on my faith, and on what Jesus did for me?  Shouldn’t we all be more than willing, eager to go to church to worship and praise the one, true, living God?  Shouldn’t we yearn to delve into the Scriptures and devour whatever message the Holy Spirit delivers through the pastor?

Speaking of the Scriptures, I see a lot of people being spoon-fed at church.  There are so few people who bring their Bibles to church anymore.  Why?  Too lazy to carry it?  Is it forgotten because it is so seldom opened during the week?  Is it because the pastor always puts the words up on the screen anyway?  Let me ask you something…what if he is putting up the wrong words?  What if he is taking the verses out of context?  Just a thought.

There are a lot of reasons to bring your own Bible to church.  One is to test the words of the pastor. Recently I was listening to a nationally known pastor speak.  He is a true man of God, and I have a great deal of respect for him.  But, as I was following along with his message in my own Bible, I realized that he had taken the verse out of context.  He was preaching a true message, but the verse he was using had nothing to do with what he was saying.  This is bound to happen.  The scary thing is that sometimes it is done intentionally, and a congregation is led astray by meanings twisted and warped to stress a particular agenda.  If we believers do not have our Bibles in front of us, how will we know?  We must be on guard at all times.  Peter warns us of this in 2 Peter 2:1 – There used to be false prophets among God’s people, just as you will have some false teachers in your group.  They will secretly teach things that are wrong–teachings that will cause people to be lost.  They will even refuse to accept the Master, Jesus, who bought their freedom.  So they will bring quick ruin on themselves.”

False teaching aside, how can we learn from the Bible if we do not study it?  I don’t know about you, but when I was in school and had a test coming up, I hit the books.  If I needed to rely just on my memory of the lectures, I would have been a straight F student!!  I sat down with my notes, and my text books and read.  I poured over the words.  I jotted notes.  And re-read what I had read before.  The same is true of studying the Bible.  Even in church, you can be studying.  Look at it as school.  A college class that had a fee to attend.  You didn’t pay it, but Jesus did, and it was a high price.  Don’t waist the opportunity to learn!  Pour over the Bible passage that the pastor is preaching from.  Read the verses before and after.  Write notes in the margins.  Underline.  Highlight.  Re-read.  Make that time worth the effort it took to get out of bed that morning.  Get down to business in church.  Come to worship.  Come to praise.  Come to learn!!

Take your faith seriously, Jesus did.  He died for your faith.  Dig in.  Get down to business.  Stop the child’s play.  It is time to grow up, and stand firmly on the promises of God, and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is coming again soon.  Would you rather be caught studying His Word or reading a text?

Come Lord Jesus, come!!!

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My Goal, God’s Plan

I own a number of Bibles. Different versions. Some study Bibles. Some pretty basic. Some large, some small. I have marked in a few. Others could be re-sold as new. When I bought an iPad, I downloaded a Bible app…then another, and another. Different versions. You get the picture. I began using the iPad Bible exclusively. I highlighted verses and recorded notes. Then one day I heard a song, or read something. I can’t remember anymore, and it was only a few months ago!!! The words talked about a man looking through his mother’s Bible after she had gone to be with The Lord, and how blessed he was by that. It occurred to me that by recording all of the things God has taught me in His Word on a digital Bible, I would really be leaving no tangible legacy for my 4 boys.

I felt driven to go back to the good old fashion paper Bible. I have read through the Bible completely one time. I wish I could say it has been more considering I accepted Christ as my Lord when I was four! But it is what it is. I have made a new goal, though. I am going to read through the Bible at least 3 more times, each time in a new Bible. I will highlight, and jot notes, etc. And when I go to be with Jesus, there will not be just one Bible for my boys to share, or decide who will keep. Each boy will have a Bible that God taught their mother through. They will have the verses that spoke to me, the lessons I learned, the messages I felt led to share with them as I studied.

The thought did occur to me that, with all the driving I do, I may not be able to complete this goal. (Morbid, I know, but a possibility none-the-less.) But as I considered that, God gave me a real peace about it, and I knew that He will give me the time to complete this for my boys.

God has revealed something else to me, though. This may be the point where I lose some of you. The point where you say, “That’s it. She’s flipped a wig, gone wacky, white coat and rubber walls.” But maybe you won’t. Either way, I will write what God has put on my heart, because I have promised Him my obedience as I seek to be a faithful servant with this blog.

I won’t get into all the prophecy stuff. I will say that the end of this present age is drawing ever closer. Whether you are a pre-tribulation, mid-tribulation, post-tribulation whatever…it doesn’t matter. Jesus will be returning soon. I do not say that Jesus will return tomorrow, next month, next year, or a decade, two, three or more from now. But the time is coming, and it is coming sooner than what we all may think. Here is what God revealed to me today. The Bibles I intend to leave for my boys when I leave this earth, are Bibles that God intends to be used when all of His people, the Church, are gone. I think my idea of a legacy for my boys is a good one. God wants to take that so much further than I would have ever imagined. He continuously leaves me in a state of awe and wonder. Praise be to the God who’s ways are higher than my ways and thoughts are higher than my thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9)!!!!!

Isaiah 55:8-9 (NCV) – The Lord says, “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.