The Kindle and other ebooks

While I was on Christmas vacation I happened to stop into a Barnes & Noble and as I walked in I spotted a large group of people gathered in one area of the store. My heart raced a little thinking that maybe I had stumbled upon some book signing by some popular author. But alas as I approached I discovered it was a class teaching people how to use a Nooke. I thought to myself that is just silly, needing to know how to use a product to read books.

I am diametrically opposed to the Kindle and all e-readers for a multitude of reasons. The first being a matter of practicality because I think it is completely ludicrous to shell out $100 or more so that you can then be able to read books that you have to buy. Of course there are free books you can download but really, why are they free? And I highly doubt that the latest Harry Potter book will be in the free down load books.

I am also opposed to the Kindle because what do you do with it if you take it to the pool and decide you want to get in the pool? With my paperback I leave it on my towel and go get in the water without a care. I usually buy them used for next to nothing and if someone steals it oh well. But if they steal my Kindle I'm out alot of money.

Other issues that the Kindle and other e-book readers pose is durability. If I drop a book it could damage the spine if it gets wet the pages may curl and stick together but it is still readable. But what about an e-book reader? Maybe it will survive a drop out of my hand but what about a flight of stairs, being stepped up, giving a good swat to a naughty child or killing a bug? And what about highlighting a favorite passage?

But the biggest objection I have to the e-book reader is it's impact on property ownership. With any e-book you have surrendered your rights to own a copy of that book. As far as I can tell you can never lend that book, nor sell it to someone else nor even give it to someone else and at some time if the makers of the Kindle, or Nook or whatever platform you read the book on decide that they need more money from you so that you may enjoy the book they can render it unreadable by you until you pony up more money.

Now I'm speculating but I'm guessing that with e-books if you look at the fine print you have not purchased the book but only a license that gives you certain permissions for the book. In short it is a step in the direction for the entertainment industry to move to a pay per use system of distribution. In short the entertainment industry wants nothing more then to be able to charge you every-time you watch a movie, listen to music or read a book. In fact I believe they would love nothing more then to be able to charge you per person just like at the theater.

Now some will think I'm being hysterical or am some conspiracy theory kook. But if you look at some recent court decisions as well as how the entertainment industry determines piracy you might agree with me to some extent.

First the industry measures piracy by subtracting actual sells from what they would like their sells to be. So if actual sells are $100,000 and they want sells to be $200,000 then piracy loss is $100,000. And they take that number to our elected officials and lobby them saying you have to do something about this theft is 100% of sells.

The other has to do with some recent court decisions. One dealt with ebay in which a seller had several copies of a C.A.D. program for sell. I believe the copies had never been installed. The company who had produced the programs sued the seller and forced him to take them off ebay basically because, "he did not have a right to resell them". The other case concerns Omega S.A. maker of Swatch watches and Costco. Costco bought some high end watches that where not to be sold in the U.S. from a third party that were manufactured by Omega S.A. Costco then sold the watches for less then the suggested retail price in the U.S. Omega S.A. had printed a special emblem on these watches to some how mark them. Omega S.A. sued Costco basically stating that Costco had violated copy right law. Costco filed a counter motion and won legal fees however Omega S.A. appealed and on that appeal the 9th circuit court of appeals (big surprise there) reversed the lower courts ruling and agreed that Costco had violated Omega S.A. copy right.

What does this have to do with the Kindle and other e-books? Purchasing those devices and other hi-tech electronics devices only gives the companies more money in which to further erode property rights for individuals. We are financing our own inability to own anything.

Facebook, Boon or Curse?

I started facebooking a while ago after my wife started facebooking. She started it after a stay with her mothers in which a friend of hers helped her set it up. I started so I could answer questions for my wife as I learn best by doing.

I have 62 friends which is a pawltry amount compared to most people I know and probably most people on facebook. Of those 62 only 27 of them I have seen in the last year. If I break it down to those I have had a significant conversation with face to face it drops to even fewer.

If I remove family and the cat the number of facebook "friends" I have drops to 48. If I remove friends that I am friends with because they are my children's friends that number drops to 25.

I used to have more friends but a couple of years ago I un-friended a great deal of them in an experiment to see who would notice. Only a couple sent new friend requests.

So is their a point to my ramblings? Yes. It is my hypothesis that facebook is actually a curse that we perceive as wonderful marvel of modern technology. If it gives us a false sense of importance and popularity by letting us post the most mundane events of our lives and then seeing what kind of feedback we get on them. If people "like" our status or make a comment then it boosts our self esteem because some one cares that we are bored, or the temperature is 60 degrees.

We can look at our friend count and say wow look at all the friends we have. Or we are deeply crushed by what some person we hardly know writes about us or posts on our wall.

Facebook gives us the allusion that we matter, that we are connected to others while in reality it disconnects us from one another. Let's be honest I have 62 "friends" on facebook. But the majority of these people would never invite me over for supper, or to go out to a movie or have a cup of coffee or to a party they are having, a good bulk of them would be horrified if I showed up at some event they where having. My children's friends for example.

Am I advocating that we boycott facebook, that everyone should delete their accounts? No, I just think we should approach it more realistically and realize that while it is a fun time waster that it is not really a "social" network. There's a reason that God came down to earth in the human form of His Son Jesus. Because we are physical relational creatures. For us to truly flourish we need "real" friends that are physically present with us in addition or even instead of the "digital" friends that we have through "social" networking sites such as facebook.

My biggest fear is that we are allowing this technology to have too large of an impact in our life. I can't help but wonder if the young teens who have taken their lives; because of the spiteful, hurtful things that were posted on facebook about them; would have had some "real" friends in the flesh they would have been able to shrug off what some insecure, narcissistic, people wrote about them.

In the end I think facebook allows us to equate popularity with friendship, and self worth and I believe that to be the dangerous seduction that we should be wary of.

Sermon 10-24-10

FBC 10-24-10 Romans 14

At first glance we might think that this chapter of Romans doesn’t have much to say to us today. After all Pastor Paul seems to be dealing with the issue of whether or not to eat meat, specifically meat that has been sacrificed to idols, and on what day of the week to keep holy. But if we dig a little we will find that this text is just as applicable for us today as it was 2000 years ago when Pastor Paul first wrote it.

Paul is writing about things that are causing divisions in the church, things that could very well split the church, and that is the last thing Pastor Paul wants.

Ever since the Reformation and the birth of Protestantism, the church has created new congregations and new denominations. The list of divisive topics that have given rise to new communions runs the gamut. Early Reformation schisms were usually based on scholarly theological disputes over lofty points of interpretation, points often incomprehensible to the uneducated parishioners. Later divisions tended to be based on cultural, political or behavioral differences. Some reasons strike us as profound - such as the congregational commitments first to freedom (1860s) then to civil rights (1960s) for African Americans. But consider some other disagreements that have recently wrenched congregations and denominations apart - card playing, jewelry wearing, dancing, drinking, movie going, TV watching the use of electricity…

Would Paul have felt that these reasons justified pulling apart the body of Christ? What about some of the really hot button topics that stop or start conversations today - abortion, gay rights, economic vitality vs. environmental health, the governments role in health care? Does Paul's advice call us to find a place for an array of "Christian" convictions on these issues? Or are there some simply inarguable points of truth?

Paul does seem to have his bottom line - but it is hardly one that would bring any of us much satisfaction when arguing for our particular point of view on one of these issues. What Paul insists is that all believers are united by Christ's death and resurrection. Accepting Christ's Lordship is Paul's indisputable starting point. With the simple confession of a God-breathed, Christ-centered, Spirit-driven life, we all are welcomed into God's household, and we all share in the same humble rank as "slaves" or "servants" in that household.

Now there are some who use this passage of scripture to argue that the church should be diverse, and should accept every belief of every person who claims to be a believer regardless of what that belief is, there are those who believe that tolerance is what Jesus taught and that Paul is reinforcing that idea here. But I don’t believe that is exactly what Pastor Paul is talking about.

As Christians can we agree to disagree? This is a very tough question and the issue that this text raises is a very tough issue, and one that has plagued the church since its very beginnings, as we can see in this very passage.

Our foundation is that Jesus is God’s Son and that he died and rose again to bring us into right relationship with God. Paul says that this is the absolute bed rock the one thing that marks a true believer. And as every house must have a solid foundation so must our faith and that is it. Now some would argue that if you have a good foundation it doesn’t matter then what materials you use or how you build on that foundation. But anyone who has ever built anything or been through a flood and seen a house float off its foundation knows this is not true. As followers of Christ what we need to know then and what Pastor Paul is trying to help the Romans and everyone who reads this passage understand is that in every building there is a foundation and then there are the structural components and then there are the window dressings.

The foundation and the structural components cannot be compromised they cannot be diverse. When I worked at Airparts there was this regular customer who had plans to build an airplane. It was an aluminum airframe and he would come in from time to pick up materials. He would have the copies of the plans with the sizes and type of aluminum extrusion he was needing. On occasion we would not carry the exact type or size of something that his plans called for. Often his plans called for 2024 aluminum alloy and we would only have it in the 6061 alloy. When informed of this his standard answer was that’s okay just give me the 6061. Now the 6061 alloy has about ½ the strength of the 2024 so while they are both structural aluminum alloys there is a big difference between the two and swapping them can prove disastrous.

We must remember that when Pastor Paul wrote Romans the Romans where facing some specific problems the two main ones being the eating of meat and what day they should worship, neither of which I might add are moral issues. Pastor Paul points out that these two issues at their core are merely window dressings and boil down to a matter of taste. He stresses that it is important for us to first remember that we are all servants of Christ who died and rose again. Then he points out that in our discussions we must hold in sight love of the Lord and love of our neighbors. Then he tells us our solutions must keep in mind our love for God and for one another.

But how does this relate to the hot button topics I mentioned earlier and to ones I may not have mentioned? Does this passage speak to these issues? How should we proceed? First and foremost our love of the Lord God with all our hearts, minds, soul and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves must prevail. We must be able to discuss these issues without anger, hatred or shouting. We must be able to state our stand on them without bringing undue pain. Remember the woman caught in adultery who was brought to Jesus? Jesus condemned the act without condemning the woman. Showing up at the funerals of our soldiers with signs saying how much God hates homosexuals does nothing to help the debate, nor does it show God’s love for us sinners. Standing outside abortion clinics with pictures of aborted unborn young does nothing to show God’s love.

Second we must pray and ask the Spirit to guide our thoughts and discussions. Third we must look at the issues and decide are these moral issues? Do they affect our ability to live out the foundation of our faith? Which is ultimately to glorify God. To examine that we must examine the ramifications of these issues. Do they edify people? Do they edify the body of Christ or do they bring destruction and desolation in their wake? We also must look at the history of the issues at hand and the motives of the people promoting the issues and that can give us insight into the nature of the issues whether they be foundational or window dressing and how we as believers should proceed on them.

If we find ourselves becoming angry in the discussion, angry at why others don’t think, or feel or believe the same way that we do we must stop and analyze our positions. If at anytime we are debating out of anger, if we harbor anger towards those who don’t believe the way we do then it is my belief that Satan has found a foot hold in our discussion and maybe even in our belief. We must carefully follow Jesus’ example in these issues and never show anger or hatred towards those who don’t feel the same way. It is my firm belief that homosexuality and abortion are both sins. But they are no worse sins then stealing, or adultery. And while we must label them sins we must allow those who struggle with those sins to come and fall at the cross with us. For we are all sinners, we all stand in the need of the loving grace of God that has been poured out on us through the Spirit because of Jesus’ death and resurrection and at that end day when we stand before Jesus and are judged we are only found not guilty because of our faith and trust in Jesus and no other reason.

I don’t know what sins you struggle with; I only know this that Jesus is able and willing to forgive us our sins if we will simply ask. If you have already done that then I rejoice with you in the knowledge of knowing that you are forgiven. And I remind you that you are forgiven because of what Jesus has done for you and therefore not to be angry with your brother or sister who has yet to receive the forgiveness Jesus has to offer but instead pray for them and show the love of God that that has been shown to you.

If you have not accepted the forgiveness that is offered to us through Jesus, I ask you why not? What are you waiting for? Why do you still carry the heavy burden of it around? Come forward as we sing confess that you are a sinner seek God’s forgiveness and receive it through Jesus Christ.

Firefighters let home burn for homeowner who didn’t pay fee

I heard about the following article this morning on the Glenn Beck program.
Gene Cranick’s home was allowed to burn to the ground by firefighters on September 29 in Obion County, Tennessee, because he had not paid a $75 fee to the South Fulton City Fire Department.

MSNBC reports that the fire started when Cranick’s grandson was burning trash on the family’s property. In the country, outside city limits, this is a common practice. There is a $75 fee for residents living outside the city to pay for the fire department’s services.

Cranick said that he forgot to pay the fee, and since the county does not offer fire service, South Fulton’ fire department was the only option. Once the fire occurred Cranick offered to pay the fee on the spot, but was told this was not allowed.

South Fulton Mayor David Crocker said “Anybody that’s not inside the city limits of South Fulton, it’s a service we offer. Either they accept it or they don’t.”

Now some would say this is horrible, how can they stand by and let someone's house burn down? How can they let it burn down after they offered to pay whatever? Well why don't these same people get mad when the insurance company won't let you buy insurance after your house burns down?

Cranick says he forgot to pay the fee maybe he did, but we don't accept that excuse with homework, the bank isn't going to accept that excuse on your mortgage, the IRS certainly isn't going to accept that excuse.

In that area if you want fire coverage you have to pay for it. Why should they expect coverage for free? Oh that right our government has been brain washing us since FDR to expect the government to give us all we need for free.

The bottom line is this someone has to pay, nothing in life is free.

FBC 7-27-10 Romans 3:19-21 It’s A Real Good Thing

The Newsboys have a song entitled Real Good Thing and the chorus goes like this; “when we don't get what we deserve it's a real good thing when we get what we don't deserve it's a real good thing. In our scripture today Paul addresses this very idea of how it is a good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and it’s a good thing when we get what we don’t deserve.

Before we get too far into this mornings text, I want to back up to verse 10 this morning but I’m going to read it from a combination of translations.

"No one is good — not even one. 11 No one has real understanding; no one is seeking God. 12 All have turned away from God; all have gone wrong. No one does good, not even one." 13 "Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave. Their speech is filled with lies." "The poison of a deadly snake drips from their lips." 14 "Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness." 15 "They are quick to commit murder. 16 Wherever they go, destruction and misery follow them. 17 They do not know what true peace is." 18 "They have no fear of God to restrain them."

9 This makes it clear, doesn't it, that whatever is written in these Scriptures is not what God says about others, but to us, (to the Jews) to whom these Scriptures were addressed, and given too in the first place! And it's clear enough, isn't it, that we're sinners, every one of us, in the same sinking boat with everybody else? 20 Our involvement with God's revelation doesn't put us right with God. What it does is force us to face our complicity in sin.

Pastor Paul has laid out plainly that we are all guilty under the law and that the law, God’s word points that out. In fact Paul goes on to say that God’s word, His revelation doesn’t make us right with God, that is not it’s purpose but to force us to face our complicity in sin, it forces us to realize that we are sinners. That is our starting point period, end of sentence. We are sinners. Everyone look here at me, see me, I’m a sinner, look to your left, that person is a sinner, look to your right, that person is a sinner, look in the mirror, that person is a sinner. There is not a person among us this morning who is not a sinner. As sinners we fall under God’s wrath, we deserve His anger and we deserve whatever punishment God deems fitting for those who sin, which is death and eternal separation from God in Hell the place He first prepared for Satan and those angels that followed him many years ago. That’s what we deserve.

However, as the Newsboys have paraphrased It’s a real good thing when we don’t get what we deserve and a real good thing when we get what we don’t deserve. But Pastor Paul’s suggestion that this is how God operates is contrary to our sense of “justice” of what is right and what is wrong. We are at least satisfied when people get their “just desserts”, when the bad guy is punished, when the good girl gets the reward. But what is also important to note is that when Paul talks about being right or righteousness and the grace that Jesus gives us as well as the forgiveness it doesn’t mean that we won’t have to pay the piper here on earth.

To this day many people are infuriated that some would suggest that Ted Bundy, the convicted, confessed and executed serial killer would be in heaven because he has accepted the forgiveness that Jesus Christ offers to all who accept it and follow Him. In his final interview Dr. James Dobson asked Ted Bundy; “Do you deserve the punishment the state has inflicted upon you?” To which he replied, “That’s a very good question. I don’t want to die; I won’t kid you. I deserve, certainly, the most extreme punishment society has. And I think society deserves to be protected from me and from others like me. That’s for sure.” Even King David, a man after God’s own heart had to suffer in this life because of his sin. Yet he and Ted Bundy did not get what they deserved and that is a real good thing for them and for us.

If David didn’t get what he deserved after he had an affair with a married woman, after he had her husband murdered to cover it up…If Ted Bundy doesn’t get what he deserved for brutally murdering 35 or more young women…then there is hope for all of us and we should all rejoice in the fact that God doesn’t give us what we deserve if we turn to Jesus, if we believe in Him and have faith in Him. In verse 23 this is probably one of Paul’s more famous declarations that, “all have sinned; all fall short of God’s glorious standards.”

You notice how Pastor Paul adds that we fall short of God’s glorious standards. Often times we look at the world and those around us and we see evil, we see evil deeds and we say, “aha they deserve to be punished. They are doing evil, they are doing what isn’t right.” But Paul reminds us that ultimately having sinned means that we have not lived up to God’s glorious standards. Sometimes that is a foreign concept to us. We live in a world where we get credit for effort, for showing our work were 40% wrong is still passing. In College I took abnormal psych, I should have dropped the class when I heard how he was going to grade the class with a true bell curve. Those of you unfamiliar with a true bell curve I will explain it to you. Your grade depended upon the rest of the class. If you scored highest you got an A if scored lowest you got an F. To help ensure that not everyone scored the same the tests were all essay and not only did you need to know Psychological theories you needed to know who came up with them and when. I got an F in the class because I fell short of everyone else. Now you can argue whether that was fair or not, but those where the rules in that class, I knew the rules and I chose to stick it out and I failed.

With God it is the same way. We know the rules, and before you say well not everyone has the Bible Paul addresses that in chapter 1 verses 19 & 20 “For the truth about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible qualities — his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever for not knowing God.”

So according to the scriptures, to God’s very own word we all deserve death and damnation, we don’t live up to His standards and if you don’t then that is what we deserve. But praise be to God we don’t get that, in fact what it is even more wonderful is that not only do we not get what we do deserve, death and damnation, we get what we don’t deserve, being adopted as God’s children, and spending eternity with Him in the place that Jesus Himself is preparing for us. The same Jesus who is God’s Son, who is God in the flesh, who came to earth and took the punishment in our place so that all who believe in Him have faith in Jesus are declared righteous in God’s sight.

I like the way Eugene Peterson translates verse 24 in chapter 3 as Paul describes that we cannot be righteous but that, “God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we're in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.” In verse 22 Paul says that, “We are made right in God's sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” And I want you to hear what Paul says again because it is important, “And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.” There is nothing that we can do to separate us from God’s love, there is nothing that we can do that He will not forgive us for if we turn to Him. That is the caveat, we must turn to Jesus, we must confess our sins to Him, we must ask for His forgiveness, we must believe that Jesus is who He said He is and if we do that He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and grant us right standing with God and eternal life with Him.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your savior, sought His forgiveness then I encourage you to do so this morning so that you won’t get what you do deserve and so you can get what you don’t deserve.

FBC 7-25-10 Romans 6:1-23 Selling Your Soul

One of my favorite Brendan Frazer movies is Bedazzled. In it Brendan plays Elliot Richards, a socially incompetent technical advisor working at a call-center. He has had a crush on one of his co-workers, Allison Gardner, for nearly four years, but Allison barely notices Elliot exists. The plot begins when Elliot meets up with a beautiful young woman, played by Elizabeth Hurley, who introduces herself as the devil and offers Elliot wishes in exchange for his soul. The first one Elliot wastes on a Big Mac and Coke. Satan takes him to McDonald’s places the order and then has Elliot pay for the meal, because, “there is no such thing as a free lunch.” Elliot is finally convinced and agrees to the Devils terms and he quickly wishes to be rich and powerful with Allison as his wife. Satan makes him a Colombian drug lord whose wife despises him. Satan points out that he never wished for Alison to love him. The rest of the wishes go about as good as that one.

In the movie Elliot’s main problem is that he is a slave to his desire for Allison. He lets that cloud his judgment and it nearly costs him his life and his soul, and he is never happy. It takes Elliot 6 of his 7 wishes to figure out that he can’t win in this deal he has made with the Devil. Now we know it is a bad idea to make a deal with the Devil and Elliot is skeptical in the beginning but the Devil assures him he has nothing to loose and everything to gain and so Elliot signs up and makes a deal with the Devil. What Elliot fails to realize is that part of the reason his wishes fail miserably is because Elliot’s wishes are all about what he wants and don’t take into account what Allison, the object of his desire, wants. The same is true of sin in our own lives. It is seductive, it tells us we can have whatever we want, it clouds our judgment and can cost us our lives.

Towards the end of the movie Elliot is in danger of spending eternity in damnation and needs a way to get out of the deal, to break the contract he has made with the devil.

One of the great things when we accept Jesus Christ as our savior is that we are no longer under the law and we are justified through grace and made righteous in God’s sight not by what we have done but by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ our Lord. The temptation for us once we are saved is that we can then live however we want secure in the knowledge that we are forgiven. But Paul addresses that in our scripture today. In verse 1 Paul asks the very question, “Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase?” and he answers it “By no means! We died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” And again in verse 15 Paul asks the same question in a slightly different form. “What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!”

Richard Hays, professor of New Testament at Duke University, says “By no means” is the equivalent of a strong “Hell no!” In essence what Paul is asking is, should one remain in a situation that is spiritually corrosive and generally speaking, way bad, so that grace might be more abundant? And then he answers No way! Why? Because Christians, through their union with Jesus Christ, have died to sin and been raised to new life, which means not only a new status but a whole new way of living.

Now you might be wondering what all this has to do with selling your soul, and thinking you would never do that. You might be thinking if Satan appeared introduced himself to me and said, “I will grant you 7 wishes if you give me your soul” that you would never do that. But the truth is that we had sold our soul to the devil and we may even still be owned by him because we have been or are still slaves to sin.

Now we might not think that we are slaves or that slavery is even an appropriate comparison to our predicament but it is. We aren’t wearing leg irons or chains; our lives are mostly not restricted. But never the less we were and still might be slaves to sin, sold out to it by our own selfish desires.

Slavery is both unreal and even offensive until we fully understand Paul’s use of the concept in Romans 6. But, we can’t understand that concept until we become aware of the back story hidden behind Paul’s use of slavery and freedom.

When Paul uses terms such as slavery and bondage to sin, he is drawing upon the experience of the ancient exodus, when the people of God were delivered from slavery into the freedom of the promised land. Everything Paul writes about the experience of freedom in Jesus Christ is grounded in this exodus story. To perceive this underlying structure beneath the story of sin and redemption is like looking into one of those Magic Eye photos the moment a whole world that was once invisible becomes apparent.

Just as the people of God were delivered from slavery through the waters of the Red Sea, so Christians after believing in Jesus Christ demonstrate through the waters of baptism having been delivered from bondage to sin into eternal life (6:4). As the people of God, freed from slavery, began a new life under the covenant and tutelage of the Law, so Christians proclaim through baptism a new life of “sanctification,” under the tutelage of the Holy Spirit and the teaching of Christ, the end of which is life eternal (6:22).

Sanctification means “to set apart” and was used in the Hebrew Scripture to describe the sanctity or “set apartness” of the vessels of the tabernacle. They were “set apart” for use only in the tabernacle. They were thus “holy” vessels, set apart vessels. When it is written that we are now sanctified it means that we have been set apart for God’s divine purposes and we are not to be used for any other purpose. We are not to be used as instruments of evil, or wrongdoing. Those who’s lives are characterized by wrongdoing, intemperate living, selfish lifestyles, are slaves. Slaves to their own nature. Slaves to sin. They have sold their soul to the Devil to sin and at one time all of us have been owned by him.

But Paul calls on us to recognize that we can escape that deal, that slavery, that we can be set free or better come under new ownership for our lives are not our own, for those of us who have accepted Jesus, believed in Him, they belong to God and not to sin.

So the question is: Whose servant are we going to be? God’s? Or sin’s?

Interestingly, and perhaps confusing for those who cherish individual freedom, Paul has a radically different notion of freedom than most. We might sum it up this way: We are set free to be servants of God. Commenting on this notion of Christian freedom, N.T. Wright says “freedom from the slavery to sin involves a new kind of ‘liberated slavery,’ obedience to God who loves us and seeks out our true freedom, our true humanness.” Paul makes the provocative argument that slavery is a fact of human life. The question is to whom will one be enslaved: to sin with all its self-serving and self-destructive habits that lead ultimately to death ... or to God, with habits of life that display the grace of Christ and lead one to eternal life?

You see our souls have been sold, we are given ownership over them, that is our free well, and we are allowed to sell them to what we want. We all have chosen to sell them to sin, to enter into the slavery of sin, and it’s wages are death, eternal separation from God. But even though we choose sin and death, God still pursues us, and paid the price to liberate us to become His children, His workmanship. All we have to do is accept it, believe that Jesus Christ died to save us and we can have our soul purchased back by God and receive eternal life. But the choice is ours which will you choose.

FBC 9-26-10 Romans 12:1-8 What’cha Got to Offer

Those of you who know me know that I like gadgets…a lot. In fact those of you who know me know that is an understatement. I got my first PDA a number of years ago it was a palm100 pretty basic it only had 2 meg bytes of rom, probably could hold 500 or 600 addresses. A few years later I upgraded to the Palm M500 pictured here, it had 8 megabytes of ram 4 times as much and could also take up to a 32 mb sd card making it have 16 times more ram. I really liked how it stored addresses and appointments and even kept track of my mileage but I got tired of carrying it and a phone so eventually I upgraded my phone with a smart phone a Blackberry combining my phone and PDA. For awhile I have been thinking about getting a GPS unit and I had begun looking at them. I wanted one mainly so I would know which side of the river an address is on when I’m paged out in the middle of the night or during the day. But at 3:00am it takes awhile for my brain to start functioning and as I played with GPS units I couldn’t seem to find one that was easy enough to use while my brain was still coming on line.

While I was contemplating and still looking at GPS units I begin to see ads for the new Android phones, specifically the Motorola Droid and I knew my contract was coming due and I would be eligible for a new phone again. So I begin to do my research and I discovered that all Android based phones have turn by turn GPS. And I began to think well that would be handy only needing one thing instead of two. But then I discovered that the Android based phones allow you to speak the address and then it will give you turn by turn directions. Push a button, speak the address and viola the phone is directing me where I need to go. I knew then that my next phone was going to be an Android phone but which one to get.

Now I believe that the Android phones are really cool and they have a lot of neat features and applications, however I’m not ruled by what’s cool, functionality figures prime in my thinking and while I liked a lot of the features on my Blackberry I wasn’t entirely happy when I switched from my old Palm PDA to my Blackberry. I missed many of the Palms features especially its contacts and calendar and the seamless integration with the computer and the graffiti text entry. Granted the Palm has no color screen, no pictures, no bells and whistles so to speak but as an organizer I have not found its equal. So I spent a lot of time at the store looking at the Android phones. I had almost decided on the Motorola Droid when the Droid X came out. To cut to the chase I eventually went with the Droid X pictured here and despite all its bells and whistles and improvements over the Blackberry as a PDA I still find it lacking when compared to my old Palm. In fact while I don’t use my Palm anymore as you can see I haven’t ebayed it yet either.

Our society is quick to tell us that the next new thing is superior to the old one. We were told CD’s were superior to cassette tapes and vinyl albums, until you tried to go jogging and you only heard every other word to your song, and discovered the slightest scratch can make the CD unusable, and we were told DVD’s were superior to VHS, I never rented a VHS tape I couldn’t play, and now digital is better then analog, I never had any trouble with any of the stations until everything went digital, PBS sometimes comes in with no audio and sometimes I run across a station with audio and the picture isn’t moving. And now we are told Blue-Ray is better then DVD and they are beginning to come out with 3-D Blue-Ray players and 3-D televisions. I read an article about this new 3-D craze in a computer magazine and the author wrote that basically it is a gimmick because the brain processes everything in 3-D anyway, it’s called perspective and I learned about that in 7^th grade art class. Granted 2D might not seem to pop off the screen at you, but do you really want Tara Thomas and Ron Steele popping off the screen at you? And besides what happens to the old stuff when we are finally convinced or forced to upgrade them.

This is my old weed-eater. It’s around 20 years old. They don’t make this style anymore and a couple of years ago it wasn’t running at all and so I bought a new one, I used it once and hated its style so much that I took it back. I took this one up to get it fixed. The guy told me I could buy a new one for at least what it would cost me to fix this one. I said fine you have any that are this style? “No, they don’t make them like that anymore.” I said then fix this one.

In a world where computers double in speed and memory capability every 6 months, we are constantly bombarded with the message new is better, you need to upgrade, replace, get with the times, and we can began to feel that perhaps our time has passed. As we get older we might begin to think well the younger ones, they are better equipped, they know more, they are wiser, more able to cope, deal, lead…and so we might start to think, “What do I have to offer? Maybe it’s time for me to go out to pasture.”

Well Pastor Paul has some words for us on that subject, and perhaps it seems a little strange to have them right here after we have gone through all the heavy tricky stuff of the previous 3 chapters, but I think this is a perfect place because after the previous 3 chapters we might be tempted to think, “what have I got to offer, I didn’t really grasp all of what Pastor Paul was writing about, maybe I just can’t get it so I’ll give up.” And Pastor Paul says this to encourage us as translated in “The Message” “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.”

There is no shame in who any of us are. There is no shame in what any of us do for a living. There is no shame that some of us are older. There is no shame that some of us are younger. There is no shame that some us have less “book smarts” then others. There is no shame in me being a pastor of a small church in a small town, in rural north eastern Iowa. Just because 1000’s of people don’t hear me preach every Sunday doesn’t mean that I haven’t done anything for God. It doesn’t mean that I don’t count. There is no shame in being just a mother, a father, a homemaker, a daycare provider, a farmer, a bus driver. There is no shame in being just a grandparent, a librarian, a store clerk, a nurse, a janitor, a secretary, a garbage collector. Just because no one here has gone off to preach the gospel in the heart of Africa doesn’t mean you haven’t done great works for the Lord. Just because your job is not glamorous, that you don’t affect the lives of 1000’s or even 100’s of people, maybe you only affect the lives of 2 people. Just because in the eyes of the world you are not superstar doesn’t mean that you don’t count that you don’t have anything to offer the Lord that the Lord is not pleased as punch with you.

You notice Pastor Paul doesn’t say to the Romans you worthless lazy Christians, why aren’t you out traveling the world preaching the gospel? Why aren’t you planting churches? Why aren’t you out getting arrested and beaten in the synagogues? Why aren’t you finding a more glamorous job instead of pumping septic tanks? No Pastor Paul says “So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life — your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life — and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him.”

God doesn’t want us to be “successful” people as the world defines it. We don’t need to be the CEO of a mega corporation, or teacher of the year, or even a pastor of a mega church. What we need, what God wants from us is to do everything to the best of our ability and do it for the Lord. So if you happen to be a custodian by trade then what Paul says you should do is to clean as if you are cleaning the mansions of heaven itself, do it as if you are cleaning the Lord’s house. If you are sandwich artist then make your sandwich as if you are making it for Jesus Himself, if you are a daycare worker look after the children as if they are the infant Jesus Himself. But it’s not just our jobs that we are to do for the Lord it’s our entire everyday life. You see some of us are retired, some of us are on disability and unable to work some of us may have been laid off so we are also to take our sleeping, our eating and our walking around life, that’s why I like how it is translated by “The Message” living sacrifices means that we are to take all of our lives every aspect of them. Sleeping, we are to sleep for the Lord, and to eat for our Lord and to walk around all for Him. We should take joy and pride in all that we do from the exciting to the most mundane. In short what each of us has to offer to the Lord is our complete self and the Lord will receive it with great joy, for we are His workmanship, His children, we have been made by Him in His image and purchased by the blood of His Son. We are immensely valuable to God and each and everyone of us has great and wonderful things to offer to Him, if we will simply allow Him to work in us, as it’s translated in “The Message” God will bring out the best in us and develop a well formed maturity. And so as God’s children and heirs with Christ we should never feel that we are past our prime that we are obsolete that we do not have anything to offer, never forget that you are God’s workmanship, He is transforming each of us into His good and perfect sons and daughters.