Who Am I?

Who Am I?

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

I marvel at entrepreneurship.  Yet, I am a cautious consumer.  One of the current and, apparently, successful marketing trends is DNA testing to discover one’s heritage, cultural identity, and ethnicity.

Several companies are seeking to entice us with discounted testing.  We all like a discount.

Remember, I am a cautious consumer.  I do not fault the marketeers.  In fact, as a capitalist myself, I applaud them.  However, it seems to me that we might be buying the emperor’s new clothes. 

I enjoy family history.  I have several accounts written by my ancestors.  Their lives intrigue me, but do not define me.  Neither can DNA testing define me.

Who am I?

Just like everyone else who has ever lived or will ever live, I am from the seed of Adam.  I got off the ark with Noah.  Everyone who has ever walked upon this planet or who ever will walk upon this planet is, at least, my distant cousin. 

I am an American, not just because my family has lived in this land for 400 years, but because I choose to live here.  I am not blind to the blunders and frailties of our history.  However, the foundation of our nation, the vision, of our forefathers fosters an idealism that we must continually strive to attain.

I am also a Christian.  I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that He died on the cross to pay the death price for my sin, that He rose again and will return to receive His own.  Therefore, I am joined in covenant with everyone who believes the same.  We may not worship the same, baptize the same, or structure our churches the same, but we are brothers and sisters in the Lord.

So, have your DNA tested.  No matter what you learn, just remember that you are part of my family on some level or levels.  I offer to you the right hand of fellowship.

Psalm 133

1.  Behold, how good and how pleasant it is For brethren to dwell together in unity!

 2.  It is like the precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments.

 3.  It is like the dew of Hermon, Descending upon the mountains of Zion; For there the Lord commanded the blessing Life forevermore.

Battling the Sycophant Spirit

Battling the Sycophant Spirit

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

Ephesians 6:10-13 (NKJV) 
^“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.”

John the Baptist preached, “And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.”  (Matthew 3:10 NKJV)  It is time to lay the ax to the root.

Our battle is not against flesh and blood but against evil spiritual forces.  We must lay the ax to those spiritual forces driving the negativity, whining, name calling and blame shifting.

One of the most prominent spiritual forces influencing our nation is a sycophant spirit.  A sycophant is a servile self-seeking flatterer or one who praises influential people in order to gain their favor; a slanderer, a deceiver, or a parasite. A sycophant will say just what people want to hear in order to get something from them—usually money or political support.  Sycophants want others to be dependent on them in order to exercise control.

Satan is the greatest of all sycophants.  Notice what he said to our Lord on the mountain of temptation: “Then the devil, taking Him up on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, "All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if You will worship before me, all will be Yours."  (Luke 4:5-7 NKJV)

            Jesus put the devil in his place, “And Jesus answered and said to him, "Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, 'You shall worship the LORD your God, and Him only you shall serve.' "  (Luke 4:8 NKJV) 

            Later the Lord spoke to a group who believed Him but who did not recognize the bondage they were in because of the self-righteousness in their lives, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.” (John 8:44 NKJV)        

            Every lie is from the pit of hell.

                       

            Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible states, “Flatterers, sycophants, tricking and fraudulent persons, who seek to supplant others, and get into their places; these should lose the favour they had, when detected.”

            How do we war against the sycophant spirit?  The first battle in the war is to make sure that we are not operating under that spirit either as an instigator or as a victim.  Then we can pray in power and authority to rebuke that lying, self-seeking spirit and call forth a spirit of truth and honesty over ourselves, over our media and over our nation.  

                ^“Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, ‘If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.’" (John 8:31-32 NKJ)

           

            Let us speak truth and search for truth from media and our leaders. Let us refuse to be bribed, flattered and wrongly persuaded by those who are seeking our support and our permission in order to erode our freedoms.

The Beginning of Knowledge

The Beginning of Knowledge

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7; NKJV)

I am learning more and more to seek the Lord about the root of the problems we face in our world. I have sensed the Lord saying that a spirit of foolishness pervades our culture when it comes to learning. We have come to despise wisdom and instruction.

While many people are embroiled in surface-level arguments like whether or not we should teach cursive writing in our schools, few are embroiled in a meaningful evaluation of what has actually been written; therefore, sadly, we have become easily distracted by meaningless statistics and fallacious arguments.

As adults, we often neglect to review any of the basic knowledge of mathematics, science, geography, history, and the arts that we acquired during our formative years. We lose the excitement of learning and discovering.

As a result, we also lose appreciation for our historical roots, our ability to problem solve, our appreciation of the arts, and our God-given ability to create, which, as Christians, further impacts our hearts in the study, appreciation, and application of the Word of God.

The reformation in learning, like all reformation, must begin in the hearts of God’s people. As the Church cultivates a love of learning and a value for the process of learning, we become better positioned to speak to the issues facing our world.

We know that we are taught by the Holy Spirit of God; however, the more He has to work with, the deeper He can lead us into truth. A possible starting point might be to apply Benjamin Bloom’s Taxonomy of Learning—an important metric for gauging educational objectives and effectiveness—to our assimilation of the Word of God.

The Taxonomy presents six levels: remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing, evaluating and creating. In our study of the Word, we tend to do well with the first level—remembering. We have been wisely taught to memorize scripture. The more scripture we have memorized, the more the Holy Spirit can bring to our conscious level in times of need.

Understanding the Word is the next level. As students of Scripture, it is important to grasp the need for defining words from original languages and contexts in order to truly understand the message.  

Context is as important as definition. Because reverence for the Lord is the beginning, or foundation of knowledge, God must be the first context we consider. Understanding of the attributes of God is essential to understanding His Word. We realize that we need to know the basic functions of math—adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing—before we can tackle algebra. However, we often neglect the basic nature of God in our Bible studies.

The next level in the Taxonomy is applying knowledge to our lives. Paul’s words to Timothy have not lost their significance: “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15; NKJV).

The more we understand the Word, the more relevant it becomes in our lives. Understanding and relevance open the door for us to analyze other information using the Word of God as our plumb line. Does what we are being told line up with the Word?

Paul cautioned the church at Colossae: “Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Colossians 2:8; NKJV).

Analysis allows us to evaluate what we are hearing, reading, and thinking, and to make spiritually intelligent decisions about the barrage of information that surrounds us.

We do not want to be those who are always learning, but are never able to come to an understanding of truth (2 Timothy 3:7).

Spiritually intelligent decisions will enhance our creativity in the arguments we make, the words we speak and write, the songs we sing, the dances we dance, and the pictures we paint, as well as in our ministries and every other aspect of our lives.

King David, a man after God’s own heart, was also a man who loved learning. The longest psalm, Psalm 119, expresses David’s delight in remembering, understanding, applying, analyzing and evaluating the precepts of God. In that process, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. his creativity soared

May we also be people who love learning, who can sing with David: “I will meditate on Your precepts, and contemplate Your ways. I will delight myself in Your statutes; I will not forget Your word” (Psalm 119:15-16; NKJV).

Thanksgiving Prayer

Thanksgiving Prayer

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

As we prepare the food for our Thanksgiving tables, as we share the gift of hospitality, as our hearts overflow with gratitude, let’s look into His word and allow the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to lead our thanksgiving.  The following prayer is a compilation taken from the psalmists, the prophets and the apostles.

Father, we freely offer to You a sacrifice of thanksgiving.  We joy in all Your wondrous works.  We praise Your name in singing and magnify You with thanksgiving.  With hearts overflowing, we come into Your presence. We are thankful to You and bless Your holy name. Oh, Lord, our God, we praise You.  We shout hallelujah in response to the promise that You are with us wherever we go. Father, we open our hearts knowing that Your Holy Spirit surrounds us and that You are love.

We will be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, we will let our requests be made known to You.  We say: "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom, thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen."

Returning to Gratitude

Returning to Gratitude

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NKJV)
^“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

Many have misinterpreted this verse to say that we should be thankful “for” everything that comes into our life, even the misery, because the misery, too, must be the will of God.  The scripture actually says that “in” all situations that we should be thankful and that it is God’s will for us to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and to be thankful in spite of what might be happening in our lives. 

However, as our culture has moved away from rejoicing, it has also moved away from thanksgiving.  “Thank You” notes are regrettably a part of the past and seldom appear in the present.  We neglect to thank the restaurant waiters because, after all, they are only doing what they get paid for.  Appreciation has all too often degenerated into deprecation.  In that deprecation, we celebrate “turkey day” and get an early start on “Black Friday” by shopping while the turkey roasts.

Our Pilgrim forefathers, after a miserable winter, celebrated their first harvest in the new colony by sharing their bounty with their neighbors.  It was a time of fellowship accentuated with gratitude to the Almighty for their survival.  In spite of the hardships they had endured, they were thankful for the harvest and hopeful for the future. 

   

How do we return to gratitude?  Let’s look again at our scripture. 

1.     Rejoice always.  Our willingness to rejoice is predicated on our free will rather than our circumstances.  Psalm 118:24 (NKJV) “This is the day the LORD has made; We will rejoice and be glad in it.” We should rejoice because His mercies are renewed every morning” (Lamentations 3:33).

2.    Rejoicing focuses our attention upon the Lord rather than on our circumstances.  As we focus on the Lord, it becomes the order of the day to discuss both the ordinary and the extraordinary things with Him.  That is prayer without ceasing.

3.    Then, as we pray continually, thanksgiving will flow from us.  We will desire to thank God for all that He has done.  We will feel gratitude for those who serve to make our lives easier.  We will see the thought behind the gift rather than the price tag.    

Father, we thank You that You are joyful and that the desire of Your heart is for Your children to be joyful as well.  We rejoice in Who You are and the blessings You pour upon us.  We thank You for Your loving arms.  We thank You for Your peace.  We thank You for Thanksgiving Day.   

We love the food; we love the fellowship; we love the family.  Give us strength to walk away from the lure of merchandisers and simply rest in the bounty You have provided.  Our hearts sing with joy in the knowledge that Your Son has made it possible for us to rejoice always, to pray without ceasing and in everything to give thanks.  Amen.

Godly Justice

Godly Justice

By Rev. Lonnie C. Croweesign for Compassionate Justice

April 4th,

Take away from Me the noise of your songs, for I will not hear the melody of your stringed instruments. But let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream. - Amos 5:23, 24 (NKJV)

God is just; therefore, He desires justice for and from His church. Influenced by the world’s system, we often equate justice with punishment alone, demanding to see the perpetrator suffer, and once that suffering is exacted, we walk away.

There is a passage in Matthew that is often used to justify this harsh way of dealing with people, but the overall context and purpose of these words get lost. God wants us to have His perspective regarding the compassionate justice and reconciliation He desires. Let’s look at the larger context:

Take heed that you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you that in heaven their angels always see the face of My Father who is in heaven. For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost. What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. Moreover, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that “by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.” And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:10-17; NKJV)

Several points are worthy of examination:

1. “The little ones” are not necessarily children. The Greek word translated “little” could also be translated “least.”  The little ones, therefore, can be those who are new or immature in their faith; it could also be those who are weakest or most vulnerable. In some respects, we are all “little ones.”

If one of us goes astray, the heart of Father God is for that one to be rescued from the rocky perils of worldliness and to be restored to His flock.

2. In this passage, God gives us the process for reconciliation. We are just as accountable for following this progression as the wayward sheep is for his actions in leaving the fold of the Shepherd.

Unfortunately, we frequently follow another path: we gossip over coffee, take one or two others with us to “ambush” the offender, which humiliates the “lost sheep.” Then we quickly spread the word that God will remove blessing from the church if that wayward one remains. This is neither compassionate nor just.

3. God tells us that, if the offenders do not repent, we are to treat them as we would treat a heathen or a tax collector. We have generally taken that to mean cutting them off or dismissing them, but what if we were to consider what that means in the context of how God Himself treated the heathen or tax collector in Scripture?

Remember, Abraham came from a family that worshipped false gods (Joshua 24:2), but God revealed Himself to this heathen and made a profound covenant with him.

In the New Testament, Matthew, who is sometimes called Levi, was a tax collector, yet he was called out to be one of Jesus’ disciples. Zaccheus—another tax collector—was sought out by Jesus and invited into a life-changing encounter.

The heathen and the tax collector represent those regarded with great disdain in the Hebrew culture, yet the Lord loved them, pursued them, and entered into relationship with them.

4. Godly justice requires not only that we are held accountable for our decisions and our actions, but we are also to be loved, counseled, discipled, and brought back into the fold. And while it is true that sometimes people resist this process, still God’s unfailing love never writes anyone off.

Since the Fall, God’s plan has been to redeem and to reconcile a people for Himself.  True justice—compassionate justice—requires making a pathway to repentance and restoration. Reconciliation, rather than ostracism, will create an atmosphere where justice can run down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.

Becoming an Instrument of God’s Peace

Becoming an Instrument of God’s Peace

By Rev. Lonnie C. Crowe

The gospel of Matthew records Jesus speaking of the wars and rumors of wars that will come.  We speak often of these wars on a global scale and just as often neglect the root of those wars.  The root is a spirit of strife and anger that rests in the hearts at the community, regional and national levels.  We are witnessing this not only in our own country, but globally. 

 Unfortunately, many have reacted with anger and bitterness which only breed more anger and bitterness.

We accomplish nothing but the breeding of more strife by sitting over our coffee cups and grousing and blaming.  The media breeds strife on a global scale, but still accomplishes nothing.

We say, “What can I do?  I am only one person.”

Speaking through the prophet Ezekiel, the Lord said, "So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one” (Ezekiel 22:30).  

Are you willing to be one person to stand in the gap against the spirit of anger and strife?

How should we stand?  “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8).

Personally, we must “let justice run down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” (Amos 5:24.)

It is time to humble ourselves and pray with St. Francis of Assisi:

“But Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy. 

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive, 
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned, 
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”

Amen and again I say, Amen.