Fish For Souls

Over the last several years I have started to notice how I do not seem to fit in when it comes to churches.  The church is either too legalistic and dogmatic or they are toll liberal and loose with their doctrine and eccleciastical associations.

Let me first state that I am an Independent Fundamental Bible Believing Baptist.  I believe that the Independent Baptist are the closest to what the Bible teaches with their doctrine.  Where I find that I do not fit in with them is on the area of dress standards.  My wife wears pants occasionaly and I wear shorts sometimes when the weather is warmer during the summer.  This puts me at odds with most Independent Baptists and most probably would break fellowship with me over this issue.  The Lord has never convicted me about this issue of pants and shorts.  If a person were to look at my doctrinal statement they would find that it is very stong.  I WILL NOT COMPROMISE ON DOCTRINE!  However, because I do not have the same convictions as other Independent Baptists about the issue of dress, I am seen as a compromiser.

That brings me to other churches who do make as big an issue over the dress, like elevating it to the point of doctrine.  The problem with these churches is that most all of the ones I know of are very loose and liberal with their doctrine and their associations with other churches.  I like where they stand on issues that are a matter of personal conviction but I have a problem with their stand on doctrinal matters.

I honestly feel like I do not fit in anywhere. Most Independent Baptists will write me off as liberal compromiser with no standards.  Then there is the opposite side that will see me as to dogmatic because I take a stand on dcotrine and refuse to compromise over it. 

I am sure that there will be some of my Independent Baptist "Brethren" who will write me off after reading this.  If they do that is fine, it wouldn't be the first time and I am sure it will not be the last time either.  I am starting to think that it would be better for our family to just start a church, one that is strong on doctrine, but doesn't elevate personal convictions to the level of doctrine.

The older I get the more apparent  it becomes that not only do I not fit in with the world, it seems that I do not fit in with "The Brethren" either.  It is kind of a lonely place to be.

Now that it's summer time, it seems everyone thinks it's a license to be half- or nearly naked. So I wanted to spend a minute or two discussing what modesty is and how you can be modest even though it's super hot outside.

Being modest is quite simply being covered up to the point that you don't have any part of your "anatomy" showing, and I personally think that should include underwear showing.  That means if a shirt is going to show your bra straps or you can't wear a bra with it, you probably shouldn't wear it. The same for a skirt or pants. If you can see underwear through your pants or skirt, that's not modest. If something is tight enough to not leave much to the imagination, then you shouldn't wear it.  I've seen many women wear a beautiful or very professional outfit, only to ruin it because they work a bra that showed through their top or underwear that could be seen through their pants or skirt. Even in our desensitized society, it doesn't take much to make a man look.  And if you're dressing to be looked at, then you're dressing with the wrong motives!  Sometimes, even if you are covered up, men will look.  The whole point is that you aren't trying to draw attention to yourself and you aren't trying to intice a man to lust after you. 

I'm not going to get into the pants versus skirts/dresses debate.  I've seen so many women that showed everything they had, but they had a skirt on.  I believe it's a personal conviction if a woman wants to wear skirts or dresses over pants.  It's also up to the husband what his wife wears. So if the husband feels his wife should wear skirts, then she should joyfully and cheerfully comply. Do I always comply? No, but I'm working on it, and it's the subject for another blog.

So, in a nutshell, if it's not for sale, take it off the shelf!  Seriously, you can truly hurt your testimony just by not covering up and making sure that your clothes won't slip off your shoulder or ride up or flop over if you bend over.  Check yourself out in the mirror before you leave the house, and ask your husband or someone else if you're not sure.  Or better yet, if you're not sure, you're probably better off to not wear it! 

The other week when I was headed to Roanoke I saw a sign that caught my eye.  It said "If it's not a baby then you're not pregnant."  I decided to post this on my wall on FaceBook but I had no idea that it would cause the stir it did.  It was not my intention to post it to start a discussion about abortion with those who support abortion.  I was just wanting to share what this sign said with other Christians in my friends list.

I am amazed how many people in our country support the murder and slaughter of innocent babies.  That is what abortion is, you are murdering another human being.  It also amazes me that many of the people who support abortion tend to value the lives of animals and trees more than they do the life of a human being.

The most common saying that I hear is that a woman has the right to choose and that it is her body.  I am all for the rights of women but what about the rights of the unborn baby?  There was another sign on the way back from Roanoke that said "Everyone that is pro abortion has already been born."  I really have a problem with people playing the choice card.  When two people decide to have sex and the woman conceives and gets pregnant the choice has already been made.  This is why the Bible forbids and condemns sex outside the union of marriage.  If unmarried people were not having sex then there would be no pregnancies outside of marriage.  Our society looks at abortion as birth control which is a big part of the problem.

I am sure there are some who would say that abortion should be allowed in the case if incest or rape.  However, abortion under any circumstance is murder and is wrong.  My heart goes out to someone that has been the victim of incest or rape.  What happens to them is wrong and the people that do those things are sick.  Why should we punish the innocent unborn baby just because something aweful has happened to that person.  The baby had nothing to do with what happened.  When I was growing up my parents always told me that two wrongs don't make a right.  That is exactly what people are trying to justify in having an abortion even when they conceived die to rape or incest.  Even though the baby may have been conceived through aweful circumstances we have no way of knowing what great things that baby might do when he or she grows up.  They might be the one who finds the cure for cancer, they might grow up to be a preacher of the Gospel, or maybe they would become a great missionary taking the Gospel to the world.

I would also venture to say that most people who support abortion have never seen video or photos of an aborted baby.  I have seen video and photos from abortions and it is the most sickening thing that I have ever seen.  I do not understand how anyone could be ok with doing that to a baby.  It is pure evil and it is wickedness.

There is no way that we can expect the Lord to bless our nation when we have the blood of innocent babies on our hands from this genocide.  What we call a woman's right to choose the Word of God calls murder.

“Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men.” – Isaiah 29:13

“He answered and said unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied of you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honoureth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me.” – Mark 7:6

Over the last several years I have come to the conclusion that there are people in the Christian faith that are what I call “Christian Atheists.” These are people who will tell you they are Christians with their mouths and then will deny the Christian faith by their lifestyle. “Christian Atheists” can be anyone from the lay person in the church to the deacons and the pastor.

Many of these people will claim the Bible is the Word and of God and their final authority but they live their lives completely contrary to the principles found in the Bible or they treat other Christians in a manner completely contrary to the Book they claim to believe and follow. You will hear them talking about people dying lost and going to Hell but they have no desire to get personally involved with missions either by giving financially or by giving their time. You will hear them talking about standing before Christ at the Judgement Seat to give an account for their lives but they live as if they really don’t believe that is true, or they just don’t care. These are just a few of the examples that I have personally seen and I am sure there are many more.

The Lord Jesus Christ called the Pharisees hypocrites for doing these exact things. They were paying lip service to God in front of the people but in reality their hearts were far from God. Anyone can pay lip service, so we must keep in mind that our walk is more important than our talk. If we really believe that we are going to have to give an account to Christ for every idle thought, every word spoken, and every action of our lives we should be scared to death. We wonder why lost people aren’t getting saved and why the world has lost what little respect it used to have for Christianity. Could it be that what we are saying with our mouths completely contradicts what we are living by our actions? We say we believe the Bible is the Word of God, we say Jesus Christ is the only way to Heaven, and we say we are going to give an account to Christ for what we did in this life, but then we live our lives as if we were atheists. Something to think about…