The Sweet Dropper

REVISIT

Stewardship in Estate Planning: Thursday a combined group of about 35 attended the Stewardship in Estate Planning seminars that we hosted in partnership with Mission to the World. We had good food from Seasonings and comfortable surroundings at the Kosciusko Country Club, and a beautiful spring day. Bruce Owens and Jim Sutton gave informative presentations about the spiritual dimensions of estate planning and how to avoid estate taxes and benefit ministries that are important to you. Many of the attendees have made appointments to meet with Bruce or Jim to discuss putting their “house in order.” Special thanks go out to Sam Potts, who did an excellent job of coordinating the event. Bruce and Jim will be back in Kosciusko in late May. If you would like to speak to one of them then, you can let the church office know, and we will help arrange a meeting to discuss your goals and plans.

REFLECT

Walk away with honor: The biographies of Southern Presbyterians from the 19th century show them bringing biblical teaching to bear on the ethical question of the duel, which was a common means of settling disputes among gentlemen of the aristocratic class. Vice-President Aaron Burr (grandson of Jonathan Edwards) killed Alexander Hamilton in an 1804 pistol duel. Andrew Jackson, later to serve seventh president of the U.S., fought 2 duels. On May 30, 1806, he killed prominent duelist Charles Dickinson, suffering himself from a chest wound which caused him pain for the rest of his life. And what would a good “Western” be without a gunfight in the street?

The situation that led to a duel often went something like this. After an offense, whether real or imagined, one party would demand satisfaction from the offender, signaling this demand with an inescapably insulting gesture, such as throwing his glove before him, (hence the phrase “throwing down the gauntlet”). Once such a gesture was made, a man could not back down without sacrificing his reputation–i.e., his “honor”.

Proverbs 20:3 teaches us, It is an honor for a man to keep aloof from strife, but every fool will be quarreling. And Proverbs 19:11 declares that Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense. In how many useless disputes have participants refused to back down from strife simply out of pride? They believe that honor requires remaining in the strife. But the Bible teaches us something different–that to keep aloof from strife is an honor and that patiently overlooking an offense brings honor.

Certainly, proverbs are general truths and it is dangerous to absolutize them. The prophet Nathan was right to confront the adulterous and murderous King David. The Apostle Paul did a godly thing by opposing the wishy-washy Peter to his face. In church history, Athanasius did not back down from the strife created by the errors of Arius, and Martin Luther did not go away quietly when the Roman Catholic authorities sought to silence him. Having said this, how many interpersonal conflicts and marital spats rise to the level of those faced by Athanasius and Luther? Not so many.

RETHINK

At an Reformed Youth Ministries conference a few years ago, I heard Sandy Wilson, pastor of Second Presbyterian Church in Memphis, point out that teenagers are offered by the world in its rebellion against God:

• Acceptance through performance
• Popularity through conformity
• Happiness through anaesthesia (food, alcohol, drugs, sex, etc.)
• Purpose through selfishness
• Protection through violence
• Provision through dishonesty.

Notice that there is nothing wrong with the ends–God does not hate acceptance, fellowship, happiness, etc. But God hates the aforementioned means–selfishness, violence, pride, etc. All around us we and our children are being told subtly (and not so subtly) that power and money, information and technology, lust and greed, pride and anger, manipulation and management are the ways to get things done. And a clever and determined person can get a lot done by these means. But such is not the way of Christ, who said to Pilate, My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now my kingdom is not from here (John 18:36). You can build a kingdom by fighting. The Romans built a most impressive one. But it was not the kingdom of Christ.

We can build our families or church community through many means, and we can get things done. But are we employing God’s means–prayer, humble reliance on the grace of the Holy Spirit, faithfulness to Scripture, putting others ahead of ourselves, suspicion of the world’s paths to ’success’?

ANTICIPATE

Morning Worship: Last week VISION…this week VALUES. Last week I took you to Psalm 27 and to Philippians 3. Those two passages showed you fugitive David and prisoner Paul focused on “one thing.” David expressed it as dwelling in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, gazing upon the beauty of the Lord and seeking him in his temple. Paul expressed it as forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. This week we’ll see how such a single-minded, gospel-driven pursuit drives how we “do” church. Acts 2:42-27 is a helpful “thumbnail sketch” of the church living out such a pursuit–actively engaged in WORSHIP, TEACHING, NURTURE, and REACHING. Once biblical values are determined and embraced, then creativity is virtually limitless within those boundaries. We’ll exalt the Lord in singing Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, and I Love Thy Kingdom, Lord.