That’s a line adapted from something I remember hearing Jamie Ragel say at one of our state Evangelism Conferences a few years ago. He was talking about drums in worship and how some people react to them. This wasn’t how he said he felt, but how some people do.

Dan Kimball has written about how the organ, in its early days in church, created the same sort of controversy we have these days about drums and guitars in worship. Not only that, but some of the most dearly loved hymns, especially in our Baptist churches, were criticized as worldly.

It’s interesting how we are so embedded in our own culture and how our cultural perspectives influence what we think about worship, doctrine and the like. A hundred years ago some people thought that What A Friend We Have In Jesus was too worldly and unspiritual for the church. Sometimes I wonder if a hundred years from now people in our churches will think we were strange because we didn’t like drums and guitars or because of the songs we use in worship.

(HT: Art Rogers)

The Bible has quite a bit to say about the power of our thoughts.  Proverbs 23:7 says, “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”  In Romans 12:2 the apostle Paul goes so far as to say that we are “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

Needless to say, the things we think on are vital in our spiritual formation and maturity.  If we dwell on things that are objectionable, impure, hurtful, unjust, unlovely and the like it will rob our souls.  I’m not entirely sure why we do those things.  I once had a pastoral supervisor who liked to ask, “What do you get out of that sort of behavior?”  The answer was nearly always, “I don’t get anything out of it.”  But the reply always came back, “Then why do you do it?  You only do it if you think that you’ll get more benefit from it than from not doing it.”

But whatever it is we think we will get out of it, the Scriptures seem to be clear that we will only be losers in the end.  Those negative things we focus on end up being the very things that usually cause division, dissension and strife among us - things that the apostle Paul calls the works of the flesh.  If we are going to build up - ourselves, others, our churches - then we really should heed Paul’s words in Philippians 4:8-9.  They are so important I want to quote them in full:

Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy—meditate on these things.  The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of peace will be with you.

Guest post from Todd Littleton while Paul is away at camp and without Internet access.

A few years ago I sent out a weekly email. Inadvertently I left the “o” off of the end of “Hello.” You can imagine my grief when my good friend, and now fellow pastor, Wayne wrote me making fun of my gaff. While he took it in stride as a typographic error I could only think someone might think I had done this on purpose. Quickly I sent out a follow-up expressing regret that while my “spell checker” did not find a mis-spelled word there indeed was a “mis-spelled” word in my greeting. I had every intention of saying, “Hello!”

Sometimes the electronic mediums create occasions where the slight of finger changes the meaning of everything. Other times there are sinister “dummy” servers designed to sneak into a website material offensive to all.

Paul called me last night. His voice reflected the dread that someone may read his blog and discover one of these “dummy” servers designed to “spam” websites with impunity. He asked if I would help him out as he did not know of this and could do nothing about it while at camp. Of course, I obliged.

With the help of our friend David we have installed some extra measures with the hope this may be avoided in the future. If you are new to reading here you should know those who design these “dummy” servers work tirelessly to “get around” the “walls” we build to keep them out. If you have read Paul’s thoughts for some time, you know well he would never intend for this kind of nonsense to show up on his blog. If you had the thought he may have done this on purpose, you should be incarcerated for ignorance. That is not in Paul’s nature. Despite his occasional foray into the satirical, this stuff is evil and denigrating.

So, in honor of his request, I am glad to pop over here and post something of an apology and explanation. We apologize if you have been offended. Trust us, we have been too. We will continue to exercise diligence to avoid this kind of thing happening in the future. We ask you go give us the benefit of the doubt knowing Paul and his character and that he would never knowingly allow this kind of trash here at his internet home.

Blessings to one and all.

Todd Littleton

This week we’re taking our kids to our state youth camp at Falls Creek. Sleepless nights and hot days lie ahead. Pray for us if you think about it.

The doctrine of the Trinity can seem so….so….incomprehensible.  This is especially true if you read some of the church debates over the Trinity that took place in the fourth century.  Your head will be sure to spin when you begin to see words like “homoousios” and the like.  Was Jesus of the same substance as the Father, or was he of a similar substance, or was he simply a perfectly created being?  And what, exactly, does that all mean?

In our practical day and age the situation becomes that much worse when we begin asking the question, “What does that have to do with this life that I’m now living anyway?”

Well, count me as one who believes that all theology is practical (and if it’s not it simply isn’t theology worth our time and effort).  So what practical value is the Trinity to us?

First, I think it is important for us to acknowledge that the doctrine of the Trinity did not arise simply out of some esoteric theological debate among people who had nothing better to do with their time.  It also didn’t simply arise out of an intellectual or rational difference over the interpretation of the various Scriptures, though the Scriptures certainly played an important role in the ensuing debate.  No, the doctrine of the Trinity arose primarily out of the experiential life of the church.

Those early Christians were firmly rooted in the Jewish belief in God as Father and Creator of the universe and all that is in it.  They would have heartily agreed with the Jewish prayer/creedal statement, “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”  They believed that this God created the world and rules over it in loving providence and sovereignty.

But they also knew that God had encountered them in the person of Jesus Christ.  This was the Jesus who said, “The Father and I are one.”  This Jesus said and did things that he could have only done by special divine power.  When God promised in the Hebrew Scriptures that he would personally come to deliver his people, to restore righteousness, to establish his rule, to pour out his blessings on the earth, they knew that God did this in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.  In him they encountered God.

Then this Jesus ascended into heaven, no longer walking the earth being physically present to his people.  Nevertheless, he had promised to send one who would continue with us just as he had.  There would be one to be with us and in us to empower us in God’s kind of life.  This one was the Spirit who was poured out on God’s people at Pentecost and beyond.  The very real, abiding presence of God’s Spirit in the lives of those believers was more than some vague spiritual influence, but was the very presence of God himself alive in them.

Thus, those early Christians experienced God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  This was much more than a theological debate.  It was a matter of how they experienced God in the regular grind of life.  This life.  In this world.  It wasn’t some remote doctrine at all.  Yet they still believed that God is one.  Thus, this mystery that God is three and yet one.

It is somewhat unfortunate that the word we use in English to describe God is three “persons” in one Godhead.  I say it is unfortunate even though that word “person” is a good translation of the Latin word “persona” which was used in those old church debates.  However, it is important to realize that the Latin word “persona” meant something a little different than the English word “person” means to us today.  When we think of “persons” we think of autonomous individuals who are distinct from other autonomous individuals.  I am a person and you are a person, but we are independent and distinct from one another.  The word “persona” in Latin did not carry with it the idea of an autonomous and distinct individual but instead was closer to what we think of when we use a word like “personality” or “character.”

This is not simply “modalism” which states that there is one God who simply appears to humans at different times as Father, then at other times as Son and still other times as Holy Spirit.  The three exist in unity together, but not independently of one another.  They are neither independent in their being nor in their purpose.  Distinct, yes.  Independent, no.  Mutually dependent, yes.

And this is where much talk in current theology has headed - to the mutual interdependency within the Godhead, which, at the same time, gives us a pattern for what it means for us to be invited into God’s life and into that kind of life as we share in it, not only with God, but with all of those others who are “in Christ.”  Thus, it is also very practical in terms of what the Trinity means about how we live out this life with all those others who call on him as Savior and Lord.  We are not mutually independent autonomous selves, but we are an interdependent community of God’s new people.

And you just thought that the Trinity was beyond your comprehension.

Some years ago an old high school friend was serving as Youth Minister at a church. Not being there I don’t know all of the details behind the story, but it is a church where I have friends and family, so I heard about it from their perspective. The Youth Minister was leaving the church. In the process he stood up in the service and began to verbally roast certain people from the floor, including the pastor. From all accounts it was pretty ugly.

I was appalled. I remember telling some of those people that when someone does that sort of thing it was like being at a wedding and punching the bride in the eye. After all, the church is the bride of Christ. Now, if that were a real wedding and someone went up front and punched the bride in the eye as she was waiting on the groom, he’d better get out of there quick, because when the groom arrives he’s going to give that boy a thumping like he’s never seen. What do you suppose Jesus’ response is when people blacken the eye of the church?

That happens in a variety of ways. It’s not just when disgruntled staff go out in a bad way. It’s not limited to what goes on in public meetings, either. Probably more often than not it happens in day-to-day life when we fight and squabble, say unkind things about one another and to one another, express ill will toward one another and sow seeds of division. It’s no longer just a Baptist thing to say that the most common way to plant a church in America is to split one that’s already there.

There’s often too little patience, too little kindness, too much envy and boasting, too much arrogance and rudeness, too much insisting on my own way, too much irritability and resentfulness, too much rejoicing in wrongdoing and too little rejoicing in the truth. We don’t bear all things, believe all thing, hope all things or endure all things. In other words, we lack love.

Jesus said that the world would know we are his disciples by our love for one another. Not by our rightness. Not by our skill in defending our positions. Certainly not by our strife and discord. Do they know? Are our words seasoned with understanding? Do we seek more to be heard than we do to listen? Or are we like those Paul mentions in Galatians who bite and devour one another? In that same passage Paul admonishes us:

16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17 For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19 Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21 envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24 And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

May we be people who walk in the Spirit, not the kind who give the bride of Christ a black eye.