Tag: Accountability

Digging in Deeper: Galatians 6:1

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“Brothers and sisters, if someone is overtaken in any wrongdoing, you who are spiritual, restore such a person with a gentle spirit, watching out for yourselves so that you also won’t be tempted.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I’ve been talking more and more often about the church lately, and today is going to follow in that pattern. I was reminded just last night while watching one of the shows my bride and I enjoy together of yet another reason the church matters so very much. This time, though, the reason is hard. It’s hard on both sides of the equation too. Yet in spite of the difficulty of this reason and its expression, its significance to our lives and to the life of the church more generally is hard to overstate. Let’s talk this morning about birthing babies, nearly missed affairs, and why the church is so important.

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Morning Musing: Exodus 32:21-24

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“Then Moses asked Aaron, ‘What did these people do to you that you have led them into such a grave sin?’ ‘Don’t be enraged, my Lord,’ Aaron replied. ‘You yourself knew that the people are intent on evil. They said to me, “Make God’s for us who will go before us because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt – we don’t know what has happened to him!” So I said to them, “Whoever has gold, take it off,” and they gave it to me. When I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!'” (CSB – Read the chapter)

I once got grounded from watching TV for a week. I was in grade school, and I don’t have any recollection of what I had done to be in trouble. On the Saturday morning of that week, though, I was up early and found myself alone in our den…where the TV was. Yes, I turned the TV on, and, yes, I got caught fairly quickly. When my dad asked why I had done that, I remember offering up a reverse psychology excuse that I knew I watched too much TV anyway, and that having the extended punishment duration I knew would be coming would probably be good for me. Much to his credit, I’m pretty sure my dad kept a straight face the whole time. As far as excuses for bad behavior go, that one was pretty terrible. But at least it wasn’t as bad as Aaron’s here was. Let’s talk today about what may be the funniest scene in the entirety of the Scriptures.

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Digging in Deeper: Exodus 21:28-32, 35-36

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“When an ox gores a man or a woman to death, the ox must be stoned, and its meat may not be eaten, but the ox’s owner is innocent. However, if the ox was in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet does not restrain it, and it kills a man or a woman, the ox must be stoned, and its owner must also be put to death. If instead a ransom is demanded of him, he can pay a redemption price for his life in the full amount demanded from him. If it gores a son or a daughter, he is to be dealt with according to this same law. If the ox gores a male or female slaves, he must give thirty shekels of silver to the slave’s master, and the ox must be stoned. . .When a man’s ox injures his neighbor’s ox and it dies, they just sell the live ox and divide its proceeds; they must also divide the dead animal. If, however, it is known that the ox was in the habit of goring, yet its owner has not restrained it, he must compensate fully, ox for ox; the dead animal will become his.” (CSB – Read the chapter)

When I lived in Denver several years ago, the city experienced a wave of high profile dog biting incidents. They were high profile not because of the identity of the victims, but because of the viciousness of the attacks. And in each instance, a pit bull was the guilty breed. Now, some of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever met were pit bulls. But as a breed, they can be very aggressive if not raised properly. The city responded then by banning the breed entirely from being owned as pets within city limits. I thought the move was rather a bit of an overreaction myself, but the city leaders understood they had to be seen as doing something to maintain its generally very dog-friendly image. The driving idea was that animal owners are responsible for the behavior of their beasts. This is not a new idea. The next couple of passages, and the last we’ll look at in Exodus 21, deal with something similar. Let’s talk about goring oxen and unexpected barbecues.

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On Specks and Logs

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The world hates judgmentalism. The idea that someone would loo kat another person, assess their behavior or lifestyle choices, and enforce some sort of negative relational or social consequence on them absolutely makes our blood boil. And there is no institution in the world more associated with this kind of thing than the church. But what if this all-too-common image of the church wasn’t actually rooted in reality? No, I’m not saying the church hasn’t ever been judgmental in the past (or present). It has. A lot. We’ve worked hard to earn our reputation. But what if that wasn’t how things were supposed to be? What if Jesus hated judgmentalism just as much as – or more than – the world does? What if several of the common negative perceptions of the church fell along about the same lines? This week we kicked off a brand-new teaching series looking at this very question. Join me as we look at what the world thinks, what Jesus said, and what this all means for the church.

On Specks and Logs

Used to be, if you wanted to be someone in this culture, you needed to be a part of a church. It didn’t really matter much which one, you just had to have your membership in their record books and attend just often enough that people knew your name and thought of you as a member. Of course, if you wanted to really achieve something significant in the culture, you had to be more than just a member. You had to be an active member. You needed to be on a key committee or two. Bonus points were definitely given if you were a deacon. You also needed to be fluent in the language of faith. Now, whether or not you actually believed any of this was an entirely separate matter. In fact, it was often better if you didn’t, because then you could keep your eyes on the prize you were seeking without worrying about God coming along and messing things up by calling you in a different direction. Whatever level you wanted to achieve, though, being a part of the church was the entrance gate. Today…not so much. 

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Digging in Deeper: Amos 2:4

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“The Lord says: I will not relent from punishing Judah for three crimes, even four, because they have rejected the instruction of the Lord and have not kept his statutes. The lies that their ancestors followed have led them astray.”‬‬ (CSB – Read the chapter)

Are you a good test-taker? Or are you someone who tends to freeze up when you are put in pressure situations like that? Your answer here really doesn’t have anything to do with how smart you are. I had good friend in high school who was crazy smart, but who struggled mightily to get a decent score on his ACT because he wasn’t a good test-taker. Okay, but why do they have tests in school? Why not just teach the stuff and move on? Because, like it or not, tests are the best way to hold students accountable for what they should have been learning. Without tests there’s no way to really be sure we’ve learned anything. Holding students accountable for what they’ve learned is important. Judah learns that here the hard way.

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