What Are You A Slave To?

Day 252 in my "Year In My Life Through Pictures" blog series

I'm about 3/4 the way through John MacArthur's newest book, "Slave". I will say that before I began to read the book I already knew we were called slaves, but what I didn't really full get was exactly what that means. Now, being almost finished with the book I can say that I am developing a better understanding on the 1st Century understanding of slavery and how it actually pertains to Christians.

One great passage from the book says, "To 'confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord' (Rom. 10:9) is to simultaneously acknowledge one's own obligation to obey Him with total submission. His will is absolutely sovereign, and His slaves are expected to obey no matter the level of sacrifice required." Pg. 80 - Now that type of language is very rarely said from a pastor these days and is not very popular. Thing is, it';s Bible.

Today's feel good, easy believism, me-centric messages that stream from pulpits is very contrary to slavery. Instead of acknowledging that we are, in fact, slaves of God, it has been turned into "God has a wonderful plan for your life and exists to make your life happy, make you feel fulfilled and give you out of His abundance". Not exactly 100% accurate, just read the Bible and see how the majority of the Apostles had their lives ended. Then compare your life to that of the Apostles whom spent a lot of time in prison for proclaiming the message of their Master faithfully. Not saying that you have to go to prison, but one should at least be joyful about actually sharing the gospel with others.

I would highly recommend and suggest that you read this book from Johnny Mac. As always he brings new levels of understanding to those of us who really need it. God has given us a lot of great minds that have intently studied the Word and faithfully proclaim that Word. Thank God for gifting an using people like MacArthur, Michael Durham, Paul Washer, Ray Comfort, Tim Conway, Bob Jennings, Mack Tomlinson, John Piper, Mike Morrow and Charles Leiter. We have some invaluable assets in these men's work and studies at our disposal. Pray for these men and pray for your pastor that they may continue to faithfully proclaim the Word in truth and in righteousness.

Day 116: Amish In The City

So, I completely "borrowed" the title of this post from a reality show from a few years ago. It was actually really interesting to see the ritual of the Amish as they allow their children a season to move away from their family and Amish life to wherever they wish and do whatever they wish. Of course I'm sure most of these normally conservative peoples live in sin for that season, but not all. I don't want to cast to broad a net that is based on my assumptions. The ones featured in the TV program did like their sins, but not all of them. Some remained in their convictions.

The season I mentions is called rumspringa or translated "running around". As portrayed in the series "Amish In The City" the youth would eventually have to pick between staying in the lifestyle of their rumspringa or return to their family and culture. If the former were the choice, then they could never return and would be shunned. So, this is quite a dilemma - "sinful" lifestyle vs. family. I am sure that most do return to their family and the lifestyle of the Amish.

I'm not sure what the Amish's core beliefs are, but know some of their secondary customs. I also know that they are some pretty good cooks and you can buy their goods a short drive away from my mouse in Marion KY. I have met some of the AMish in Marion at Bro. Mike Morrow's church, Union Baptist, which is a sister church to mine. The Amish folk come to that church on a regular basis and are some of the nicest folks you would ever meet.

This leads me to wonder if the Amish have some things right that us other, mainstream, electricity lovers do not. Maybe not the electricity part, but at least the separation from societal things such as watching TV, going to the movies, listening to music (secular anyway) and constantly feeding in the troughs of fast food restaurants. They do, however, like WalMart like most of us do and must drive cars because I did not see this family get out of a buggy, nor did I see a horse ted to the light pole. So, they do "bend" on some of their older standards, at least some do. I am sure there are those sects out there that would call this family radicals for going to WalMart or driving. To us it is nothing, but to them it could be a really big deal.

I will definitely not say anything condemning of these people. I am sure that a lot of them truly love the Lord, but I am also sure that a lot of them just do things because they always have. They probably have the same issues within their churches as most mainline churches do. There are probably as many false converts in the Amish community (percentage wise) as there are in most baptist churches. A lot of them probably rely on tradition and law keeping for their salvation, just as mainstream church attenders do. So, they are really not that different than we are, only in appearance and speech. I do know that we need to pray for this group of people, that the true Word of God would be preached among their communities. Also that God will use churches like Union Baptist to make an impact in these peoples belief systems.

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I have been informed that the folks in the picture may be Mennonites, not Amish. I'm not really sure. A quick web search tells only that the Mennonites and Amish came from the same religious backgrounds and still share many similar beliefs and customs. In this article it does say the most noticeable difference is that Amish men grow beards and Mennonites do not. The man in the picture did have a beard. I made a mental note of it because it was a strawberry blond color instead of dark or gray as I have seen others with similar beards. The article I referenced may be incorrect, so I'll stick with I'm not really sure.

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Dec. 19 2010
I watched a program on a few nights ago about the Amish that leave their families. One of the people they featured was Mose, from "Amish in the City". He is currently in Missouri and helps kids that are leaving their families and religion find jobs, even giving some jobs himself and letting them stay at his house. So, Mose is out permanently. married and has a business and kids. I did notice that smoking and drinking are big to the kids that leave their roots.