Beyond Mediocrity Blog

(Image courtesy of loc.gov.) "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment" (Romans 13:1-2). During the government overreach of the COVID mayhem, we witnessed the limit of government jurisdiction and authority. In short, God never contradicts himself. We do not throw ourselves behind the support of all government edicts, with a sort of blind obedience, for then we might be guilty of obeying man but disobeying God himself. What COVID reminded us was that the Church by her very nature must meet together. It is essential and an apostolic command: "Do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together." Let no government silence the Church. Her Lord is not the State, but Christ.

(Stock photo) “Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them” (Ephesians 5:11).   The author, Paul the apostle, uses the contrast of light and darkness to help illustrate his point that Christians (light) are not to have fellowship with non-Christians (dark). What does this mean exactly? Elsewhere, Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people – not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world Here, Paul recognizes that we cannot disassociate ourselves from the world completely. The only way to do that is to leave this world and go to Jesus, which is not up to us. So, are we to associate or disassociate? Are we to have fellowship or not with the world?

(Image courtesy of birdsandblooms.com.) (Author’s note: I encourage you to open your Bible to Psalm 88, read it, and then read this article with your Bible still open.) During the winter season, sunlight dims and darkens; temperatures drop and winds howl; and precipitation comes in the form of ice. The whole world seems frozen and dead. There is a psalm in the Bible that is known as the most depressing Psalm. In it, the author feels deserted, desperate, as good as dead, and by the end he is in no better place than where he began. The Psalter (the collection of Psalms in the Bible) was meant to be sung in temple worship by the Jews. What is remarkable to me is that, presumably, Psalm 88 – that most depressing of all psalms – was written to be sung during temple worship. This song that ends with no hope and no answer from Yahweh was sung to the Lord by his people, to his praise and glory, and for the edification of the saints.

(Image courtesy of ibelieve.com.)   “Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. He did what was evil in the sight of the LORD and walked in the way of his father, and in his sin which he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 15:25–26). “And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place…. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent…” (Acts 17:26, 30).

(Image courtesy of Associated Press.) It is certainly election season, and we as Christians ought to pray. Not only should we pray for the salvation of lost souls in the land where we live, but I think it is our responsibility to vote. It is a liberty that God has given to us, so we ought to steward this duty well. If I were being honest (which I will be), I am a follower of the Constitution Party. The Constitution is one of the greatest, civic documents ever written, and the Founding Fathers did an excellent job in defining the role of government. The problem is the Constitution is rarely obeyed today.

(Image courtesy of RefToons.) When I was twelve years old, I went on a mission trip to Mexico with some of my family. When we were making our flight down there, my grandma got up to use the bathroom, but instead she accidentally opened the door to the cockpit. I remember seeing the pilots, with their headsets on, turn around in surprise. (I also remember seeing out of the windshield at the clouds ahead.) The flight attendants kindly and calmly shut the cockpit door and directed my grandma to the bathroom door, which was right around the corner. The year was 2000. Fast forward one more year to September 11, 2001, and everything changed for flight travel. Security checks took a lot longer, and if anyone would have opened the door to the cockpit in-flight, he might not make it to where he was going alive. History affects us.