The Land of Ozz

I got my most recent edition of Dad’s and Mom’s Corner today and found that the Maxwells have added Charleston as a stop on their Southeastern tour this winter.  MrsOzz’s bestest friend, better known in our house as Aunt Addie is th primary contact if you want to come get some encouragement from the Steve and Teri Maxwell from over at Titus2.com on the subject of Homeschooling.

You can see the Maxwell’s full schedule at Titus2.com.  Aunt Addie said I was the first to RSVP for this event.

While I understand the arguments from folks including other Christians for and against how to handle Halloween, the bottom line is this.  Whatever your convictions are, no one has a right to come in and harass you over your decision.  When I get the “what are you going to be/do on Halloween” question I respond with a simple “our family does not participate in Halloween”.  Most folks just say “oh whatever” and move on, but it is often the fellow Christians who rise up at me with a bitter response.  For some reason there are some Christians who seem to be offended that another Christian can act on a different personal conviction.

Explaining convictions to our young children is one of the most difficult things.  Finding a way to say that people who participate in Halloween are not bad and most people are just having fun.  It is hard when you are using the word fun not joining the “fun”.  We tell our kids that Halloween is an activity that we choose not to participate in as a family.  This is just one more way that we build family identity and set ourselves apart from the world.

I want to share a note my wife left on a parenting forum this week concerning this subject:

I have found a good book that we read every year to communicate the spiritual issues of Halloween. It is called Mommy, Why Don’t We Celebrate Halloween? by Linda Winwood. I find it gives enough details about the spiritual side of the holiday without going overboard.

I too have struggled with the balance. As a child, I remember sitting under the kitchen table with all lights turned out (and of course not a word was spoken)! Those kind of actions left me fearful of the holiday and in a sense elevated evil’s power over the power and authority of Jesus. I rebelled when I was older and indeed participated fully in celebrating Halloween. My moral warehouse wasn’t being filled with any reason WHY! I had no idea why we were sitting in the dark except the explanation that “Halloween is the Devil’s holiday.” This was hard to understand when on the outside nothing looked “evil” in fact it looked pretty fun!

A couple of years after my oldest child was born I felt my heart being pulled away from participating in the holiday though it wasn’t until a year later that I learned the origins of many of the rituals of Halloween. Even with that being said, we are very careful to include our own fun. Building a strong sense of family identity makes the perfect opportunity to bring balance to this holiday. There are many things we do or don’t do because of our convictions based on the Word of God. Our children already know (and Riley will tell you) “We’re the Osborne family and we do/don’t do _________” and they know why we do or don’t do things.

The balance? I think that comes in creating our own fun as a family! We’ve had a family movie night on Mom and Dad’s bed before with popcorn and candy. This year we are looking forward to games, movie and sleeping in the living room (which is on the back side of the house !) We’ll put up a little tent in the living room and we have a huge cardboard box to imagine with. We’ve been saving that box knowing how much fun they’ll have!! I wonder how much sleep we’ll all receive….?!

Have a blessed Fall season!
Sherry for The Osbornes

For those Christians who are led to ignore Halloween or find other alternatives, God bless you, you are not alone even though it may seem so on some days even within your own church family.  For those who are led to minister to people during this time of year or just have a good time dressing up and collecting candy, God bless you.  You are not judged by our family either way.  You are viewed as folks with different convictions.

Previous posts on the subject of Halloween:

Halloween II – Why Christians should not celebrate
Halloween – Should Christians Participate?

Should you be tithing if you are in a financial storm?  By financial storm I mean that you may be facing the loss of your job and/or foreclosure on your home or maybe bankruptcy.  You know, the BIG financial problems that are plaguing many families in the USA these days.  Most of our politicians who are currently trying to “relate” to us have no clue what it feels like to face such desperate circumstances.  I have been through a severe financial storm and can tell you that you must be prepared or you will be devastated by the destructive nature of these storms.  You can loose more than your job, home, and credit rating.  You could loose your life as you know it.

Our Story

My wife Sherry and I both were working when we got married. We bought two cars (on credit)¹, our first house that we could only afford on two incomes², and all the fixings that go along with being a first time home owner. The fixings were fairly big ticket items mostly purchased on credit³.  These were things like window coverings, lawn equipment, refrigerator, freezer, lawn furniture, etc, etc.

Then we had our first child and decided that Sherry should stay home with Riley. We did not fully understand back then why God had put it on our hearts to have Sherry switch from being a full-time public school teacher to being a full-time mom, but that is a story for another day.  From a financial perspective this was a very bad decision because we could not afford to live on a single income ⁴.  We initially made up for the nearly $30K per year of lost income by cashing in some 401k accounts and paying for even more stuff on credit that we could not afford^5,6. Then I took a job that paid more via the over-time that came with some required travel.  The over-time pretty much made up for the remainder of the lost income and we got into a comfort⁷ zone with our household budget that as I said “required the over-time” to stay out of the red.

To this point I have noted and marked more than a half dozen major mistakes in our financial planning that would not be fully exploited until we hit our first real financial emergency.  Never mind the fact that we had a zero balance in our savings account at that time.  This emergency would not cost us a significant amount of money out of pocket, but the emergency would shed light into the dark corner of our finances that we did not even realize existed up until that point.  The emergency caused us to fall back on my base salary for a period of nearly seven months.

So how big of a deal could it be to miss some over-time for a few months?  We were in need of approximately $500 of over-time pay per month to maintain our bills.  Our bills included more than $500 per month in minimum payments on credit card payments plus two cars that totaled another $770 per month.  To boot, we were upside down on both cars and could not sell either because we did not have the cash to pay off the balance of the loan even if we could find a buyer at a fair market price.

The emergency we faced was the care requirements of our second child Caden.  He was born with some severe medical conditions that we still battle to this day nearly four years later.  As recently as last week he had another open-heart surgery.  His medical conditions did not really cost us anything directly.  The indirect related expenses were that we ate out more during his extended hospital stays and spent more on gas going to and from the hospital (100 miles round trip per day between MrsOzz and I), but that was about it.  Caden’s genetic birth defect qualified him for Medicaid so that as a secondary insurance paid for all the deductibles and co-pays that my employer provided insurances did not cover.  This particular Medicaid program (TEFRA – Katie Beckett) was designed to help families with children who are disabled under SSI (Social Security Income) standards, but do not qualify for SSI or regular Medicaid due to assets and income.  This program helps families like ours avoid bankruptcy when the deductibles and co-pays reach well into the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So far I have described the climate before the financial storm and pretty well defined the make-up of the storm.  While Caden’s birth did not cause our problems, his birth certainly exposed some VERY bad decisions we had been making in the previous four years working up to his birth.  Our total financial damage can be described by saying that it would have taken $10,000 cash just to get us current on our bills at one point.  We were 30-60 days behind on everything including our home.  Not only that, I would have needed to have the opportunity to begin making the same amount of overtime again just to continue to make minimum monthly payments on our home, cars, and $60K worth of credit card debt if by some miracle we could round up $10k to get us current on everything.

What about tithing?

Tithing is a very touchy subject that I will not try to justify with a ton of scriptures.  While there are plenty of biblical references on finances, they are best digested first hand.  If you have never read the Bible and are in a financial storm, then you picked a perfect time to start.  God does some of his best work on those in need.  Sherry and I not only began reading the bible regularly within the year after Caden was born, but also went seeking advice on our finances.  We enrolled in a Crown Financial class.  We then peppered what we learned from that class with principles taught by Dave Ramsey who credits Crown founder Larry Burkett as a source of some of his principles.

So there we were in a pretty big storm.  Each month, some lenders were not getting paid because we were about $500 short on breaking even on our bills without overtime.  At that point in our life we were not tithing because we could not afford it.  Most would say that is exactly how they would have been viewing tithing.  It was not required to maintain life as we knew it so it should not have been in our “expenses”. Tithe was not included in our expenses then and it would never be in our expenses in the future. More on that in a minute.

It was in the middle of this storm that we finally come to the realization that what we had possession of was not really ours.  We learned from reading the bible that God made every single thing that we could detect with our senses so why were we holding so tightly to it all like it was ours?  Could we take it with us when we died?  Were we ever going to reach the “richest man alive” status and be remembered in the history books for our wealth and possessions? Even if we did, would it matter in eternity? We could not come up with answers to any of these types of questions that justified our continuing to act like we actually owned anything on this earth.  God owns it all and we are just here to take care of it, to be stewards.

In late 2005, about one year after Caden’s birth, we decided to begin tithing.  We had heard our pastor say along with many others who said similar things, “If you want God to help you with your finances then you are going to have to get him involved in your finances.” So what does that really mean?  To us that meant tithing.  I don’t want to stir an argument, but we do make a distinction between tithing, gifts, donated time, and charity.  I realize that many people don’t see it that way, but they have a right to be wrong. That is another borrowed phrase from our pastor.  I mentioned before that our tithe is not part of our “expenses” and it never would be.  Below is an illustration of how we include tithe in our budget spreadsheet.

Income

Salary NET (Net amount of salary)
Carry-over (Add Balance from last pay period)
Deposits (Add Misc income from Internet)
Tithe (deduct tithe based on gross pay before taxes, insurance)
NOT CLEAR (deduct Checks/debits not yet cleared)
TOTAL Income

Expenses

Mortgage
Utilities
Groceries
Car payment
Car Insurance
Car Gas/Maint
Credit
Student Loan
Phone/Internet
Cell Phone
Childcare
Entertainment
Savings
Gifts
Charity

Total Out (total expenses)

Balance (Total Income – Total Out)

You will notice that tithe is a factor in our income and not our expenses.  We now treat tithing as a necessity to the income of our budget.  We have come to a point of enjoying the tithe check as much as the pay check. We have always had tithe at the top our budget list, but up until the fall of 2005 we just treated tithe like and expense and most often like it was at the bottom of our priorities with charity and gifts.  This is a common theme I see with many Christian families that I talk to about finances.

We got to a point in late 2005 where one or more bills was not going to get paid each month to the tune of $500 per month.  If we started tithing right off the top then that would just mean one or two more bills would end up falling off the bottom of our budget.  Since we saw no way out with an almost certain foreclosure, repossession, charge offs, and/or possible bankruptcy if we could not get out from under the house and at least one car payment, what would it hurt to give God a shot at our finances?  The first few months were just like I said above.  A few more bills fell off the bottom and the mortgage got even farther behind.  It was not until we finally staked the sign in front of our house that we saw things begin to turn.  Sherry and I believe to this day that we were still holding on to the house as “ours” even after the above change in attitude on tithing.

It was at this time that God showed up in a BIG way.  It was to the tune of tens of thousands of dollars in one year.  I won’t go too deep into the details, but there is no other explanation to this day as to why things happened how and when they did to allow us to be where we are today financially.  We are in the same house driving the same two cars (one already paid off) and we will have all our credit cards, student loan, and car loan debt paid off by next fall.  That has all been done without “settling with the lender” on a single debt and by paying every dime we owe to our lenders.

Attitude on Tithing

It is best if you get the right attitude on tithing from the start.  My suggestions are as follows:

• Tithe as an act of worship (enjoy it)
• Tithe to your local church
• Tithe based on gross of all increase

I will add a few notes just to clarify these points. First you must not see tithing as simple a must do act but rather an enjoyable act of worship.  God does not need your money and you can not buy His love. Second you should tithe to your local church.  Don’t have a church? Then that is another problem we can address in another post so just pick one to tithe to for now. Last but not least, you should not have to ask whether to tithe on gross or net income.  If you have to ask the gross/net question then you did not get the first point about enjoying tithing.

In conclusion I will just say that the answer to the title quesiton is not for me to give you, but I can at least share with you how it has works for us.  I don’t think that tithing in itself will fix your problems financially or otherwise, but if it grows your trust in letting God handle your problems then you will come out a winner in the end.

This post was inspired partially by JD over at Get Rich Slowly.  His post titled Could Tithing Lead Some Americans to Lose Their Homes? has some great comments that validate my claims on the attitudes of many Chrisitians on this subject.  Sherry and I enjoy sharing our testimony on finances and have been planning on writing this post for some time now.  I will share some specifics on our financial blessings in the future.

The President and CEO of Nelson Publishers Michael Hyatt has posted some observations on the lack of modesty in the world today.  Mrs Ozz and I took Gary and Anne Marie Ezzo’s Reflections of Moral Innocence class a few years ago that helped us gain a perspective on how to lead our children down a pure path.  And yes we have all boys and they need to be taught about modesty too.  Now we teach the Reflections of Moral Innocence classes in our home as a follow on to Growing Kids God’s Way so we can help educate other parents on modesty and sex education.

What are the benefits of teaching parents about modesty and sex education?

• No one can do the job better than properly trained parents, for they are the only ones who have the right to determine what value system is placed into the hearts of their children.
• By training parents it puts the responsibility for this education back where it belongs.
• It reduces moral intrusion into the family structure since the value system of the family is not violated by a secular interest.
• It avoids forcing the institutional morality on family and child such as is represented in various public pro-homosexual curriculums.
• It can be done under the best conditions since parents pick the time and place for its implementation, rather than resorting to a group classroom setting.
• It is more cost effective. As pointed out by Josh McDowell in The Myth of Sex Education, the more money spent per capita on sex education of children the higher the percentage of sexual activity. Expensive public programs are not effective.

Thanks to Shawn Wood for leading me to this post by M. Hyatt.

One of the teaching pastors (Geoff Surratt) at Seacoast Church was pictured on the cover of a recent issue of WORLD Magazine. I follow Geoff and other pastors on Twitter and saw a note from him alerting us twits of some reactions to his picture being on the cover of WORLD.

Before I go any further I would like to say that Geoff and I are not very close and this response should not be taken as me coming to his defense even though it will probably sound like it when I am done. I have not always agreed with everything Geoff has said and done, but then again I do not agree with everything I have said and done either. Geoff and his wife have been a blessing to our family in so many ways. Geoff and Sherry have been a huge support to the GrowingKids parenting ministry and have served as class leaders for Secoast. Seeing a teaching pastor working along side of you in ministering for families in a church as large as Seacoast is inspiring. Geoff’s wife Sherry (also a pastor at Seacoast) was at the hospital with our family the morning Caden was born. Do you know how many babies are born each year at Seacaost? I don’t either, but I don’t think there are enough pastors to go around to all the births. Okay, we all knew that Caden was going to face some fairly unique medical challenges when he was born and the Surratts recognized the need to be there that day. Geoff and Sherry have joined the rest of Seacoast in loving our family through some really tough times in recent years and I am very thankful for that.

Now as for this picture on the cover WORLD Magazine, Geoff doesn’t need anyone to defend him because his response on his own blog does a great job of answering his lameness. I heard about the magazine cover story about a month ago while serving breakfast at a local homeless shelter with some fellow Secoasters. I have been serving breakfast at this shelter monthly for about two years straight. This kind of service is a very small example of the fruits coming out of Seacoast as a result of the leadership of folks like Geoff Surratt. The pastors at Seacoast challenge members to serve and love people where they are at. So while Geoff may look lame to some, the results of how God is using him and the rest of Seacoast is showing up in our community and in our families. I think the picture of Geoff on the cover of the magazine is a fairly accurate representation of who he really is based on my personal interactions with him. In my (not always) humble opinion, you can not pretend to be something you are not if you are going to stand up in front of people and try to help them grow in their relationships with Jesus Christ. In addition to being Biblically accurate, you have to be real, and you have to be believable. Seacoast pastors are all of these and they don’t all dress as lame as Pastor Geoff.

Have you come to the conclusion that Obama’s former pastor had some really bad days in the pulpit? It seems that Obama may have picked a less than stellar spiritual adviser on his first go around. Let’s hope that he does not turn to Oprah as his second choice.

I have received a couple of emails on regarding Oprah’s spiritual activities in recent weeks. The following video does a pretty good job of summing up my concerns over what I have been researching. Oprah Winfrey has an XM radio spot called “Oprah and Friends” that features teachings based on the books by two of these friends of Oprah that are mentioned in the following video.  This video contains footage of Oprah speaking against Jesus being the only way to God even though Jesus told us himself in John 14:6, “…I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

I cannot validate the numbers quoted at the beginning of the video and I have no knowledge of the book promoted at the end of the video.

I whole-heartedly agree with the subject of the email that delivered to me a link to this video. The subject of the email said “Scary video…” I had already been doing some research on Oprah’s recent “spiritual” book endorsements and the XM radio shows that have followed. In particular I have reviewed dozens of the “A Course in Miracles” teachings. I have reviewed them with the intention of making sure that I could not be accused of taking one or two lessons out of the context of the series. This is the chief argument that Obama supporters have used to defend the Reverend Wright’s controversial remarks. I can assure you that it only took one lesson for me to become concerned about the “Course“. I later found a one hour video ¹ that takes you through the first fifty lessons from “A Course on Miracles“. I warn you not to view or read this “Course” material unless you are firmly grounded in what the Bible says about Jesus Christ and who you are in Christ. This “Course” is psychotherapy and brain-washing to the highest order. The “about” page for the “Course” states pretty clearly in their own description of the program that this is psychotherapy. Here is a quote from Oprah’s XM radio site regarding “A Course in Miracles“:

“According to Marianne, A Course in Miracles is a self-study program of spiritual psychotherapy contained in three books. It is not a religion, but rather a psychological mind-training base on universal spiritual themes. The practical goal of the Course is the attainment of inner peace through the practice of forgiveness…

“A Course in Miracles (often called just “the Course“) is an educational program for retraining the mind that is spiritual, rather than religious, in its perspective. Although it uses Christian terminology, the Course expresses a universal experience, and its underlying ontology is reminiscent of ancient refrains, echoing the world’s most hallowed traditions. …”" ²

The about page goes on to quote the “Course” as it instructs its participants to ignore any leadings to question the teachings. I take this to mean that even if the Holy Spirit prompts you to question this based on your knowledge of the Bible, you should defer to the “Course” anyway.

Some of the ideas the workbook presents you will find hard to believe, and others may seem to be quite startling. This does not matter. You are merely asked to apply the ideas as you are directed to do. You are not asked to judge them at all. You are asked only to use them. It is their use that will give them meaning to you, and will show you that they are true.

Remember only this; you need not believe the ideas, you need not accept them, and you need not even welcome them. Some of them you may actively resist. None of this will matter, or decrease their efficacy. But do not allow yourself to make exceptions in applying the ideas the workbook contains, and whatever your reactions to the ideas may be, use them. Nothing more than that is required (Workbook, p. 2).

— Excerpted from A Course in Miracles” ²

Many of the quotes in the YouTube video come directly from the daily mind training offered in the “course”. For instance, Lesson 70 states:

My salvation comes from me. It cannot come from anywhere else.

Then devote a few minutes, with your eyes closed, to reviewing some of the external places where you have looked for salvation in the past—in other people, in possessions, in various situations and events, and in self-concepts that you sought to make real. Recognize that it is not there, and tell yourself:

My salvation cannot come from any of these things. My salvation comes from me and only from me. ³

There are some truths in the explanation paragraph in the center of the quote about where salvation does not come from, but the teaching has the participant drill into their own heads by repeating these sayings that salvation comes from within themselves rather than through Jesus Christ.

This stuff is exactly what they say it is, “psychotherapy…psychological mind-training”. While they plainly state that this is not a religion, the teaching has been heavily peppered with Christian terms that make it sound like it may be associated with the Bible. The “Course” even uses terms like “Son of God”, “Salvation”, “God’s will” and frequently references to “God”. The “Course” even goes as far as to capitalize pronouns like “He”and “His” when referring to God. In fact, the “Course” is based on Dr. Helen Schucman’s claim that she was given this information as some sort of prophesy directly from “inner guidance which she had identified as Jesus.” ⁴ It appears that the content for this “Course” came about much the same way that the teachings of the LDS church came from Joseph Smith. While there are some good sounding Christian like principles in both LDS, the “Course” and many other religions, the core beliefs and more importantly the end results of the sinner do not line up with the Bible.

While Oprah and Marianne Williamson may not want to call this “Course” a religion, they are certainly starting to look and sound like a religion. Let’s just hope that Obama does not convert to this non-religion for his future spiritual guidance.

“…there will be false teachers among you. They will cleverly tell their lies about God, turning against even their Master who brought them; but theirs will be a swift and terrible end.”  2 Peter 2:1 TLB

References:

1 – http://www.brightcove.tv/title.jsp?title=823374042&channel=422544479
2 – http://www2.oprah.com/xm/mwilliamson/mwilliamson_about.jhtml
3 – http://www2.oprah.com/xm/mwilliamson/200803/mwilliamson_20080310.jhtml
4 – http://www.acim.org/AboutUs/FIP/PublisherTrustee.htm

Should you tithe on your tax refund? The short answer is yes. The long answer goes back to another question. Do you tithe on gross income or net income? This is a question that I have heard discussed a few times, and I was even asked point blank by a co-worker once. My response was something like, “If you have to ask then you probably already know the answer.”

I believe that you should tithe on gross income before Uncle Sam, your 401k, or your health insurance provider gets their cut from your pay check. This is not the most popular answer, but I believe it to be the correct one. It is not your first fruits if someone else has already been nibbling.

The long answer to the original question is that it depends on whether you are a:

• Gross Income Tither – Then no, you have already tithed on this “refund” money when you earned it.
• Net Income Tither – Yes, you now have new spendable income that is flowing into your wallet that has not been tithed on already.

There is a fairly large international Christian radio network broadcasting in the local area that exclusively plays hymns and classical Christian music. This radio network plays absolutely no contemporary Christian music (CCM). Several months ago the early morning broadcast included a short sound bite calling attention to an active stance against CCM. It should not come as a surprise to my regular readers that one of my pet peeves is to hear a self proclaimed Christian rant over the practices of other Christians. It is even worse when the complaining party resorts to name calling and scripture manipulation to emphasize a position against the fellow Christians that they are criticizing. I really did not mind the fact this station avoided CCM. I akin this to Southern Baptist who are not comfortable with laying on of hands, healing prayer, and speaking in tongues. Just like I was fine listening to this particular radio station who I thought was simply avoiding CCM, I am also comfortable attending a Southern Baptist church where certain subjects are simply avoided by the pastor and congregation. But, I will not support a church or ministry that openly criticizes these things. In the instance of the radio station, the sound bite included a reference to Mathew 6:7. The person on the radio said “when you pray and sing, do not use vein repetitions.” The following is part of what I emailed to the radio network later that day.

“There was a short explanation this morning explaining your position against Christian Contemporary Music (CCM). The man speaking used Matthew 6:7 as a reference for not saying vain repetitions when praying and singing. I agree with the praying part, but I have been through over a half dozen translations of the Bible and can not find the word sing in that verse. Where does he get his reference? I am also of the firm belief that Jesus was teaching us a model on how to pray in Matthew 6.”

Now I am no theologian, but I believe these folks did get a little ahead of themselves with the use of Matthew 6:7. I ended up having over a dozen emails pass back and forth between me and a man who has worked for this network for a couple of decades.

He remained firm on his stance against CCM. That did not surprise me. What surprised me was that he also remained firm in his crusade to criticize those who listen to and sing CCM even though his own “vain repetition” argument could easily be applied to the hymn that was played immediately after the above mentioned sound bite. What follows are snippets from our email exchange as I challenged his criticism of other Christians us heathens who listen to CCM. We’ll call him Radio Joe for the purposes distinguishing his emails from mine.

From Radio Joe:

“Thanks for your comment. Matthew 6:7, as you know, is a teaching on prayer and comes just before our Lord’s teaching of the model prayer for Christians. Albert Barnes has an interesting commentary on that verse:

“Verse 7. Use not vain repetitions. The original word here is supposed to be derived from the name of a Greek poet, who made long and weary verses, declaring, by many forms and endless repetitions, the same sentiment. Hence it means to repeat a thing often, to say the same thing in different words, or to repeat the same words, as though God did not hear at first. An example of this we have in 1Ki 18:26: “They Called on Baal from morning until noon, saying, O Baal, hear us;”*

The heathen do. The original word is one commonly translated Gentile. The world was divided into two parts, the Jews and the Gentiles; that is, in the original, the “nations,” the nations destitute of the true religion. Christ does not fix the length of our prayers. He says that they should not repeat the same thing, as though God did not hear. And it is not improbable that he intended to condemn the practice of long prayers. His own supplications were remarkably short.

{q} “as the heathens do” Ec 5:2
{*} The following is a specimen of the vain repetitions of the Romans.

“Pious Antonine, the Gods preserve thee. Gentle Antonine, the Gods preserve thee. Gentle Antonine, the Gods preserve thee.”

I would submit that a CCM tune could be put to the above phrases.

One of the reasons we criticize CCM is that it robs the Christian of the great teaching in the hymns. I had a sample CD sent to me and it had 14 songs on it. Only one identified the Lord by name. Those other songs could have been song to a lover or sweetheart with the same result. Isn’t it amazing that in crisis times, people turn to the hymns and not CCM?”

My response:

“I agree with you that many of the CCM songs out today “could have been song to a lover or sweetheart with the same result.” I agree that there is value in “the great teaching in the hymns.” Our church “Seacoast Church” does incorporate hymns in the singing. However, I believe [the network] takes there position a little too far in calling Christians heathens for singing CCM. Some CCM may be unacceptable, but that does not justify stereotyping, name calling, and twisting of scripture to justify your position.

For instance, you have once again left out the three words that lead into the that part about vain repetitions in Mat 6:7. “When you (or ye) pray…” Not “when you sing”. Not “when you give praises to God the father”. It is “WHEN YOU PRAY”. Please do not try to twist this scripture to fit your man made rules on church music.

I call it a loose apples and oranges example at best in your 1 Kings example. These people in 1 Kings were praying to Baal and Elijah was warning them, the heathen, about praying to their god. This was not a command from God to avoid praising Him with CCM music.

I submit that even if you want to try and tie prayer to singing like you are doing with Mat 6:7, then think about the numerous verses where you find, “pray without ceasing”. Look at Romans 1:9 in particular where Paul says, ” For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers” Would you call Paul a heathen too? I do not believe you would. I know this verse is not about vain repetitions in singing, but it does illustrate that repeating even prayers is a practice of the apostle Paul.

I don’t believe I am far off here in illustrating that the apostle Paul was admitting to repetition in his prayers even though it appears to go against what Jesus said in mat 6:7. Let’s see what Barnes has to say on Romans 1:9, ” That without ceasing, adialeiptwv. This word means constantly, always, without intermission. It was not only once, but REPEATEDLY. It had been the burden of his prayers. The same thing he also mentions in regard to other churches, 1Th 1:2 2:13.” (my emphasis of all caps added)

The bottom line is that what ever we do, if truly by the leading of the Holy Spirit, whether we are praising, praying to, or worshiping God, how can any man criticize it? I encourage you to stand on James 4:11-12 in your feeling against CCM.

“Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you-who are you to judge your neighbor?” (NIV)

I also encourage you to stand on Titus 2:8 as a fellow believer:

“Teach the truth so that your teaching can’t be criticized. Then those who oppose us will be ashamed and have nothing bad to say about us.” (NLT)

I truly believe that your critical spirit can be more damaging to the body of Christ even if you were correct. You and [the network] have not been sent to earth to judge.

As [the network] continues to criticize other believers who listen to and sing forms of CCM, then as one of those Christians, I will stand on Ecc 7:5 (NLT) It is “better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool.” Notice I am referring to you as a wise person as in being characterized by scholarly knowledge. I believe you are certainly misled in some of your interpretations and uses of scripture just like any of the rest of us are subject to at times.”

Response from Radio Joe:

This will be my last reply to you, as I have a lot of positive emails to answer. You agree that the people in First Kings are Baal worshippers. Why, then, would CCM imitate them by repeating the same words over and over? Does Baal worship honor God?

Praying without ceasing does not mean repeating a Rosary type prayer over and over. Would you talk to another human, like your father, that way? Did Jesus ever pray that way?

Paul did not say that he prayed the same exact words over and over, but brought the same requests to God in prayer.

If you believe that Paul never criticized anyone when they were wrong, read Galatians 2:11 “But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him to the face, because he was to be blamed.”

That was not his last email. There were eight more (4 each) after that one.

My Response:

It might be best if we do drop this subject. I have never won a person over to Christ by arguing with them and I do not expect you or [the network] are going to change policies regarding on-air criticism of fellow Christians based on one man’s input. I am confident that I am not the only one who has voiced these types of complaints to you regarding your criticism of CCM.

The very music played on [the network] repeats phrases so your vain repetition argument goes out the window pretty quick anyway. Once again, go back and listen to the song that played just after the sound bit that I have been referring too. I counted at least 12 instances of “Take me gently”. No I would not speak to another human that way either. I really did not want to split hairs to make my point, but you are being very hypocritical. I have no problems with [the network]’s use of hymnal music, and in fact like that it is used it in our church from time to time.

We are Christians singing and praising God with the music and instruments that we feel led of the Lord to use. We are not heathen praising and worshiping a false god as referred to in 1 Kings. You are either comparing apples to oranges, or you are questioning who I am praising with my use of CCM. Either way, I believe you may be on dangerous ground with God. Stop going by what your religious teachers taught you and ask God to speak directly to you through the power of the Holy Spirit. You may not even be aware of how God can use you if you will just surrender yourself to him.

As I said, this went on for a while and then he closed one of his emails with this phrase.

From Radio Joe:

“… God bless you, Hank. If CCM is your thing, that is between you and your God, not between us.”

“You and your God”? Like MY God is different from the God that other Christians praise and worship?

I will skip a few emails to one that neared the end of our exchange.

My Response:

You did it again. In your last line you wrote to me as if my God were different than yours. It is as if you are speaking to me in a condescending way based on my choice of music. It is a shame that you think God can only be worshiped your way with music. Believe it or not, I do understand your point at some level even though I do not agree with it.

I have never in my emails with you requested that you start playing CCM on [the network], not once. Play the hymn music and enjoy it. It is great. Even promote your support of hymn only music. What I request is that you stop criticizing the things you do not play. Stop criticizing Christians who sing and listen to CCM.

Through our conversations I have come to a sobering realization that you have not yet disputed. It appears that you are questioning the salvation of others based on the fact that they sing and listen to CCM.

The conversation pretty much ended as we exchanged a few pleasantries and went on about our own business. Unfortunately, [the network] can easily be replaced with [a church or pastor] and the term CCM can be replaced with at least a few dozen other items like: what you wear, the translation of the Bible you reference, your religious denomination, whether you get your baby baptized, what parenting philosophy you choose, whether you have tattoos or nose rings, and the list goes on and on.

Can’t we Christians all just get along without criticizing things about each other that have nothing to do with our personal relationships with Jesus Christ? If you have turned your life over to God, it doesn’t mater what you look like, what tunes you sing to praise God, or whether you attend a particular church. All that matters is that you have Got Jesus.

How much information is too much information? I have struggled with this quesiton for a couple of years. How much is too much when sharing information about myself on the Internet?

One of the blogs I watch in my RSS reader touched on this subject a few weeks ago. Below is an excerpt from “Privacy of the priesthood”: Keeping our sins to ourselves by The Evening with Kent.

“Secrets are chains, and Jesus has come to set us free.

Anyway, once I realized this, the chains came off. As you may have noticed from the blog, I’ve got nothing to hide. (Well, other than B’s identity, which is none of your business anyway.) I’ll tell people anything if they just ask… and sometimes even when they don’t. I’ve been advised many times, “Don’t tell people that! They’ll just use it against you.” Well, they’ve tried… and failed, ’cause I admit to it, and confess it to everyone long before they can. Or they’ll say, “If you tell people too much, it’ll weird them out, and they’ll never look at you the same.” That’s partly true… but how were they going to look at me before? Unrealistically? To hell with that.”

I like Kent’s blog for a number of reasons, but mainly because of what he says in this paragraph. He represents himself honestly and then has nothing to hide.

I have a similar attitude towards sharing information.  I feel like people get a little weirded out around me when I share some things about myself or my past, but I have to ask the same question that Kent asks. Do they have an unrealistic view of me if I am not transparent?

So what is my conclusion? There is no such thing as too much information when you are trying to gain someone’s trust. The timing of when you expose a person to some bits and pieces of your past might need to be considered, but there is no danger in honestly and confession of your sins to your fellow man.

A little history how I ran across The Evening with Kent.  I found Kent’s blog when searching for blogs on Smith Wigglesworth. I am a huge fan of the Smith Wigglesworth Devotional.  Kent runs a separate blog called the Smith Wigglesworth Blog.  Those who believe that God is still performing miracles today through the power of the Holy Spirit will love this devotional and the Wigglesworth blog.