A Tale Of Ten Virgins

 "Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish." Mat.25:2

Tonight the missionary who preached talked about the five foolish virgins. He talked about them as though they were unsaved or backslidden. I wonder.

First, they were all virgins.

Second, they were all there to meet the bridegroom.

Third, they all had lamps.

Fourth, they all had oil.

Fifth, they all responded to the midnight cry.

Sixth, they all arose and trimmed their lamps.

Finally, it is at this time that we first notice a difference. 

The only difference between the virgins is that five are called wise, and five are called foolish. The word foolish in the original language means foolish. Wise is just the opposite of foolish. So the wise virgins had prepared by bringing extra oil. The foolish virgins did not bring extra oil. Did they not know they would need more oil? Did they think that they had enough oil? Were they evil for not bringing enough oil? They were foolish for not being prepared.

My thought is that the foolish virgins were stupid and did not have enough sense to prepare for an uncertain night of waiting. Or, they were careless and failed to account for how much oil they might need. The wise virgins did think about it and they were prepared. The wise virgins took it seriously.

One thing that I wonder about is that time elapses in the story. This did not happen all at once. Waiting can make us careless.

 Another truth is that opportunities can have time limits. Being ready but too late is as bad as not being ready at all. Once a door is closed that opportunity is gone forever. 

Finally, Jesus ends the parable by telling them to be ready for the second coming of Christ.

"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of man is coming." v.13

I suppose that there could be a salvation aspect to this story. There comes a time when the time to get saved is gone forever. The time is right up until the time is over. Now is the time to take Jesus seriously.

The Buck Stops Where?

 It's never the teacher's problem when children don't do well in school. It's poverty or poor attendance or phones. Never the teacher's inability to teach. It's never the bosses fault for poor performance on the job. It's the worker's fault. It's the economy's fault. It's the market's fault. Never poor management. It's never the manager's fault when a ballplayer is doing poorly. It's the player. It's his poor work habits. Never the manager.

I wonder how many pastors blame the lack of revival on the people in the pews?  It's the people's fault that nothing is happening. It's God's fault nothing is happening. It's never the pastor's fault.

President Harry Truman is reported to have said that the buck stops here. I think that 99.9% of the time the first place to look for answers is in the leader. The person directly responsible for the performance of the children or the people directly under them. 

It's a poor workman who blames his tools. It's a poor leader who blames those he or she is leading.

Captain Obvious Checking In Again

Captain Obvious checking in again.  It seems obvious to me that conference and regular church services are not the same thing. One is highly specialized to minister to pastors and evangelists and missionaries. The other is more wide ranging to minister to the flock of God involving all ages and types of people. One is to keep ministers on track. The other is to care for the regular folks who will never be in the ministry. 

It may come as a surprise to you that a sermon that works in church is too weak for conference. But a conference sermon can often be too strong for church. "The soup is never eaten as hot as it is cooked" is how the old German proverb says it. It is a sign of maturity for a preacher to know the difference.

Can I tell you a secret? There is a time and a season to life. We think that because we can buy strawberries in the supermarket that they must be in season. They are in season somewhere, but not here. We think that because a new church is experiencing explosive growth that God is moving. So that if we are not seeing explosive growth that revival is over. Don't write Ichabod too soon. It may not be a season for explosive growth now. This is where we walk by faith and endure to the end.

Preaching conference sermons works in a conference setting but it doesn't work on Sunday morning. Just saying.

This is Captain Obvious, signing off.

Knowing How and Not Knowing Why

 The biggest problem between science and religion is mostly with science and it's unwillingness to acknowledge God in their studies. Religion has bent over backwards to accommodate science. I'm thinking of the gap theory by which we try to make the 6 days of creation fit into the evolutionary timeline. I do not agree with the gap theory. I believe that God created the natural world in 6 days and rested on the 7th day.

Science works because the natural world was created by God's design to work. Physics works because God designed it to work. Biology works. Geology works. Science is the art of discovery in that they discover how it was designed.

Science does a marvelous job to discover how the natural world works. From the universe to the atom they can predict how it works with precision. But science cannot tell us why it works. They know that gravity works, they don't understand why it works. They see the light, but don't know really what light is or why it shines.  Because that would require asking the Designer or the engineer who made it to work and science it too arrogant to ask God for the reasons why it works. Science is ungrateful and unthankful and still science works because God set it up this way. God is smarter than science.

Just saying.

A Suggestion

I have a suggestion for our Fellowship. Run with the runners. Too often it seems like the church has grown up but the pastor still treats the people like little children. It's like the mother who keeps having children because she loves babies.  The whole church agrees with you and supports your vision. But the whole church needs more than Go Ye three times a week.

Why not separate out the young disciples for special times of ministry when you can fan the flames of revival for them. There you can set yourself on fire and the disciples can watch you burn. Just saying.

A mature pastor can keep his emotions under control and can minister to people as they are and where they are. He can reign in his "pedal to the metal" fever to lead the young and the old with care.

"But Jacob said unto him, my lord knows that the children are weak, and the flocks and herds which are nursing are with me. And if the men should drive them hard one day, all the flock will die." Gen. 33:13

See, there are consequences to driving the local church too hard. There will be unnecessary causalities.

Jesus separated out Peter, James, and John. He did not treat everyone who followed Him the same.

Anyway, that's my story and I'm sticking to it. Bless your souls.

A Lesson Learned

One lesson that I am still learning at this stage of life is that life must be lived to the end. And that the secret to a good life is to stay engaged in life and to do your best to find some worthwhile thing that interests you. To think that happiness is found in being forever young is foolish. We are only young once in life and that for a very short time.

Life is like the turning of a page. The problem is when you have lived a few years, there are few surprises awaiting you. It is rare for me to discover something new and exciting now. In my grief support group a few years ago they told us to find things that we used to do before we met the spouse who died. I did that. It was fun for a while, but the fun wore off quickly.

Church provides a social connection for us that the world does not have. We get together three times a week. It is time well spent. Even if the sermon is something that I have already heard 100 times before. Even if I get nothing useful to take home, I still enjoy going.

"While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." Gen.8:22

There is an order and a pattern to the natural world. Not everything is amazing all the time. It can be beautiful and interesting. But not always amazing. There is a benefit in going to church. It is not always revival fire. But it is always worthwhile. I always look forward to going.

God's Laws Govern All Of Life.

As someone who has been around for a while I begin to wonder about why things are the way that they are. And then I realize that we live life according to the laws and rules that God set in place in creation. We interact with people and with the natural world according to the way God set it all up.

We start out in life living lives full of wonder and having basic needs. We need food and we need to be changed. But on the other hand everything is new and exciting and full of wonder. Everything is interesting. This is the natural order of things.

We start out in the Christian life in much the same way. We are born again into a brand new life. Everything in the faith is interesting and exciting and full of wonder. Everything is for everyone.

Churches that experience revival go through a similar process. Everything is fresh and exciting and interesting. Every experience is new. Every decision is full of wonder. Every event is astonishing.

But, as we grow up and as we grow older, things change. It does not happen overnight. Rather, it is a gradual fade. We have been down this path before and we have read this story before and we have wrestled with these decisions before and resolved them. And we reach a point when we feel foolish acting like we are young still. We think that we still can, but we can't.

It is not that God has changed or that revival is over. It is that we have changed and that it is rare to be moved with awe and wonder anymore. This is how God created life to be lived for people and for churches. This is why life is about enduring to the end, not being giddy over thing we have see before.

This is why we must keep planting churches. The exciting times are always when things are brand new. This is why the thrust of revival is not in the old churches who pay for it, but in the pioneer churches where new converts are still full of zeal and excitement. Out where everything is interesting and full of wonder. 

New converts in an older church are like grandchildren. All of the excitement of being young, except that you cannot give them back to their parents when you get tired of them!