I am not the creative one in the family. That would be my kid sister, and this, ladies, is a dress she made for the “World of Wearable Art” competition. Out of bicycle tubes. She had to make it using some rules, and that restriction led to her making something beautiful, which is now on display in one of the local shops in Howick (Hence the reflections). Rules spur creativity. If you write scholarly papers, you have to conform to the rules of the journal — down to, for some funds, Font. point size. and programme used to process the words.
[Which is another reason that holding my nose and having microsoft office on a mac is needed. It is by no means the best word processor out there and I can work much faster in a xfce environment, But it means I can keep editors happy]
The first passage here refers directly back to yesterday. One does not have a right to lead worship because equality or because anything else. There are qualifications to this. The second passage gives us a hint about who can worship: and it is not the wealthy but the righteous.
20Then the LORD spoke to Moses and to Aaron, saying: 21Separate yourselves from this congregation, so that I may consume them in a moment. 22They fell on their faces, and said, “O God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, shall one person sin and you become angry with the whole congregation?”
23And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying: 24Say to the congregation: Get away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. 25So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram; the elders of Israel followed him. 26He said to the congregation, “Turn away from the tents of these wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, or you will be swept away for all their sins.” 27So they got away from the dwellings of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram; and Dathan and Abiram came out and stood at the entrance of their tents, together with their wives, their children, and their little ones. 28And Moses said, “This is how you shall know that the LORD has sent me to do all these works; it has not been of my own accord: 29If these people die a natural death, or if a natural fate comes on them, then the LORD has not sent me. 30But if the LORD creates something new, and the ground opens its mouth and swallows them up, with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into Sheol, then you shall know that these men have despised the LORD.”
31As soon as he finished speaking all these words, the ground under them was split apart. 32The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, along with their households – everyone who belonged to Korah and all their goods. 33So they with all that belonged to them went down alive into Sheol; the earth closed over them, and they perished from the midst of the assembly. 34All Israel around them fled at their outcry, for they said, “The earth will swallow us too!” 35And fire came out from the LORD and consumed the two hundred fifty men offering the incense.
23Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” 25When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astounded and said, “Then who can be saved?” 26But Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”
27Then Peter said in reply, “Look, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” 28Jesus said to them, “Truly I tell you, at the renewal of all things, when the Son of Man is seated on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. 29And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life. 30But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.
There are two principles here
- Only those who qualify by the clear word of scripture can lead. That was the Aaronite priesthood in the Old Covenant: that is those called to eldership, and who meet the rules Paul laid down in Titus, now. Including the ability to rule your household well and have a godly wife and children. Most of us males do not qualify. No woman can.
- The agenda of the powerful and the elite is not the agenda of Christ. The liberal projects of the elite have to be regarded with suspicion, and their favoured groups almost always are in opposition to the law of God, the law of nature and the Gospel.
Since I am a Presbyterian, and the apostate folks from the USA, have a good example of what to do, a few illustrations.
The 1.8 million-member Presbyterian Church (USA) voted Thursday (June 19) to allow homosexual ‘weddings,’ making it among one of the largest religious groups to take an embracing step toward openly supporting homosexuality.
By a 76-24 percent vote, the General Assembly of the PCUSA voted to allow their pastors to perform homosexual “marriages” in states where they are considered legal. Delegates, meeting in Detroit this week, also approved new language about marriage in the PCUSA Book of Order, or constitution, altering references to “a man and woman” to “two persons.”
This change will not become church law until a majority of the 172 regional presbyteries vote to ratify the new language. But given the lopsided 3-1 ratio of the vote, approval is expected.
Homosexual activists within the PCUSA rejoiced at their victory, which was remarkable for its margin of victory after multiple years of razor-thin defeats.
If you are a Jesus-loving, Bible-based member of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), unless God has called you to stand as a prophetic voice of rebuke to the denomination, or unless your ministry commitments to individuals make it impossible for you to leave, now is the time to make your exit.
The PCUSA has made its rejection of the Word of God official.
According to the denomination’s statement, on Thursday, June 19th “the 221st General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) approved a recommendation from its Civil Union and Marriage Issues Committee allowing for pastoral discretion to perform ‘any such marriage they believe the Holy Spirit calls then to perform,’ where legal by state law.”
In other words, regardless of what the Scriptures plainly say, as a PCUSA minister, if you feel called to violate God’s Word and perform a same-sex “marriage,” follow your conscience, not the Bible.
This is a recipe for disaster and is nothing less than rebellion against the authority of the Word.
The statement continues, “They also approved a recommendation to change language in the Book of Order to indicate that ‘marriage involves a unique commitment between two people, traditionally a man and a woman.'”
Not only is this completely unbiblical, since marriage in the Bible and throughout history requires a man and a woman rather than “two people,” it is also completely illogical, opening a Pandora’s Box of new possibilities.
After all, if marriage is not the union of a man and a woman, why does it require two people? Who not one or three or five? What is so special about “two”? (For a debate with a college professor where I repeatedly raised this question without receiving an answer, go here.)
Remarkably, the original language of the proposal only stated that “marriage involves a unique commitment between two people.” The words “traditionally a man and a woman” were added as a concession to conservatives and in order to secure their vote.
To address this plainly, any “conservative” who voted to approve this amendment based on the addition of the phrase “traditionally a man and a woman” needs to do some deep soul-searching and some serious repenting.
But none of these developments surprise me in the least, since the PCUSA had already capitulated on two other issues, first abortion and then true justice in the Middle East. And as a general rule, any group that compromises on one of these areas, going the way of the spirit of the age, normally compromises on the other two as well.
Now, New Zealand has not done this. We have but two Presbyterian denominations, The PCANZ and Grace. The latter is very reformed. We have recently rejected Gay marriage and Gay ministers by about three-quarters of delegates. But I would jump to Grace — there is a local one — if this happened. My Church, praise God, is not Apostate. The PCUSA has become very liberal and is. If I was in the USA, I’d probably look for a bunch that is more like this church.
Leaving a congregation is painful, but when it goes Apostate, get away from those wicked people. IF you are not reformed, the same advice applies: find the faithful congregation. One hint: they will probably be poorer and less powerful. A second hint: they will have young people and familes, But the main thing is that the gospel will be proclaimed.
Ooh dresses on Chris’ blog! This is exciting. It makes me think of the black swan in Swan Lake.
Hey, it was my Sister’s work. Allow me to have some pride in the family!
Eventually you will have to flee to Grace Presbyterian; it is the way of things these days; count on it.
But one fights the rearguard action. Because apostate churches destroy souls. And the liberal generation is dying off
Of course.
I had to flee the liberal mainline United Church of Canada.
Later, I left evangelicalism for a variety of reasons, and embraced the Reformed faith.
The churches I’ve been part of broke away from other churches themselves, in the past; it is necessary, sometimes. As Protestants, it’s part of our heritage; the idea shouldn’t surprise or scare us.
The United Church is appalling: the Daughter attended and it drove her away from the faith. (The Aussie one is little better).
Interestingly, the PCUSA lectionary is broken today. Is that significant? Had to find an alternate site — which looks better and has longer readings.
Sorry that happened with your daughter. Yes, it is awful, and I’ve heard the Uniting Church of Australia, just like America’s United Church of Christ, is about the same…
Ah! Which lectionary are you using now? The OPC? The PCA? They’re both more solid Presbyterian denominations than the ghastly mainline pro-homo PCUSA.
I addressed this issue when I got home in a separate post, as you know
I need to research this and will put the findings up when I have had time to look at the various offerings. I was using the PCUSA as it was the only one I knew of (and most others link to it). However, when it was down, I found that the ESV website has the daily readings from the book of common prayer (which are in effect the revised common lectionary) up. I’m not sure who they are affiliated with.
To my knowledge, the OPC and the (Evangelical) Presbyterians tend not to use lectionaries but follow the tradition of working through books of the bible. If you have links, send them through: this will need more work.
I think the comment I wrote in the dashboard is lost. I used the ESV website’s lectionary (which links with the Book of Common Prayer). I don’t know of any reformed lectionaries — I will need for research this.
I have a soft spot locally for Grace Presbyterian: if I was in the USA I’d look for something like the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches in America.
Yay for dresses! Bicycle tubes? Nice job! She really used it to best effect, you get the “plastic/post-apocalyptic” thing going and you get elegance, very ’80s. Sweet!
But the local judges think it is not “arty” enough. I can see it being used as a steampunk ball dress.
Serious wearable art shows tend to aim more for “art” than “wearable”. Her dress could have been worn to a real party.