What sound is your doctrine?

My family is pretty musical. Many of us sing, and some of us play instruments. I guess I'm somewhat of an overachiever, since I do both. I lot of my time in ministry was also spent as a worship leader singing lead vocals and playing guitar or keyboards. Now I'm not bragging, since I know that I'm a marginal vocalist and instrumentalist. But I have a little ability and I've always tried to do my best with it and improve along the way.

One way I've improved is learning about music theory and instruments. A drummer friend of mine told me last week that you can actually "tune" drums to register a key signature like an A or E. I thought that was pretty cool. Even intruments as, um, 'primitive' as drums have some level of sophistication to them. You can adjust them so that they can be better in tune with the music being played by the rest of the band.

Now since I have this deep love for music, there are a variety of musical styles I enjoy...from rock to bluegrass to classical (still haven't found a place in my heart for hip-hop, though). And depending on my mood, I can put on whatever style I want. And that's a good thing.

But that is a bad thing when people do that to God. Too often people treat God like XM Radio and tune him to whatever they want to hear. Some people like the "Buddy Jesus" and will tune into a very liberal view of God, ignoring things like law, sin, and obedience. Some people like (or have had forced upon them) "Angry Jesus" and tune into a very conservative, narrow-minded view of God who wants nothing more than to squash sinners into oblivion. Still others like "Open Jesus" and tune into the Universalist Station where there is no right or wrong, sin, or heaven & hell. And of course, there are those who don't even turn the radio on.

2 Timothy 4:3-4 says: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."

Jesus isn't XM Radio. He doesn't have options for whatever you want to believe. He is the (only) Way, the (only) Truth, and the (true) Life (John 14:6). What we need to do is to tune ourselves to the music God is playing and accept all of the dynamics, crescendos, diminuendos, breaks, and solos as the grand opus he is conducting. We need to accept that God is both love and justice. He does both discipline and show mercy. He does judge and forgive. We have to take it all, and not just pick and choose what we like or don't like. If we don't, we really aren't playing along with Him and His song. Instead, we become Jack Black from 'School of Rock' in the beginning of the movie who does crazy solos that don't fit, stage dives where nobody catches us, and ultimately get kicked out.

So please, tune yourself to good doctrine. Tune yourself to the whole of Scripture, the whole of God's character, and then have a great time playing in the band.

Grace & peace,
Ryan

Missing the Point

OK, this has been eating at me for quite awhile now. We all know about and have heard, read, or seen The DaVinci Code. We've also been exposed to all of the controversy surrounding it, and how our "Christian sub-culture" has produced anti-DaVinci books, flyers, curriculum, video series, etc. (just like they jumped on the "Passion of the Christ" bandwagon a couple years ago). Even churches have devoted entire Sunday morning services centered on disproving Dan Brown, former high school English teacher, and his novel chock full of bad theology.

Doesn't this miss the point here? Is "The DaVinci Code" really the problem? Do we need to waste our time and energy exegeting a novelist and his work of fiction for fear of what it may do to people? I read the book 4 years ago after it came out, without knowledge of what the content was. All I heard was that it was a bestseller, a thrilling mystery, and had to do with secrets in DaVinci's paintings. I saw the movie this past Monday, and thought it was decent, Tom Hanks was no where near his best, and felt that it came across as pretty fantastical. The book was much more "persuasive"; but film is the modern pulpit for our society and now instead of plowing through a 400+ page book over a week or so, 2 1/2 hours in a theater near you wraps it up neatly.

Here's what I'm getting at; what's really bothering me. Instead of our churches taking an opportunity to really equip and instruct people on how to identify and deal with false teaching and bad theology, we've made it a witch hunt against a guy and his work of fiction. We've missed the point. The point is to identify false teaching and deal with it in a godly way. There are many more destructive false teachers out there than Dan Brown and The DaVinci Code…so let’s not waste our time trashing him or the book/movie. And by all means let’s not use The DaVinci Code as an opportunity to huddle ourselves as Christians closer together in our little corner and point at how bad the world has gotten (oh yeah, and make some money while we’re at it). Instead, let’s simply identify the false teaching, avoid the useless arguments and engage in profitable discussions, and ultimately leave the judging and vengeance up to God like he told us to.

Here are some scriptures to read in light of this:
Matthew 7:15-23
2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 13-15
1 Timothy 6:3-5
2 Peter 2:1-3
1 John 4:1-6

Grace & peace…Ryan

welcome

welcome to Delta Church's weekly devotional...Delta Church is a new faith community of Christ-followers in Springfield, Illinois...check back here weekly for thoughts on faith, family, and culture, posted by Delta's pastor...me, Ryan