Can I take a break for a minute and vent on here? Oh wait, it’s my blog! I can do whatever I want on here!!!
We are in the process of trying to buy a house – UGH! When you think of buying a home you think of taking a step in the right direction towards fulfilling the American dream. Before you engage in the process you picture it as a fun time. You think of big houses, cool colors and carpet, all those things you have always wanted in a house. You think of it as fun, exciting, and everything you have been looking forward to for years. Then reality strikes when you go see a lender. It strikes harder when you go see houses. The rose colored glasses quickly come off.
Buying a home in California has not even been an option for us up until now. Real estate prices in this part of the country have been through the roof. In fact, they still are in my opinion. The median sale price on a home in Ripon, California is still $413,500. Thanks hundreds of thousands of people buying houses they could not afford the market is being flooded with foreclosures that fall into our price range. Some of them have been absolutely disgusting: spray painted every wall, garbage in all the appliances, ripped out crown molding and baseboards, peed in the carpet, ripped out toilets… I think you get the picture. Others have not been as bad.
What has been so frustrating is the bump after bump after bump. We got certain finance numbers one day and completely different ones the next. Without knowing what you are going to get in financing you can’t even make an offer on a house! I AM GOING HOUSE CRAZY!!!!!!
OK, I feel better now that I have vented. In the mean time everyone who reads this blog needs to pray for us. If it’s the Lord’s will we will find a home soon. Noah Hackworth used to always tell me that it was imperative that a preacher buy a house as soon as possible. He served the Lord his whole life through preaching the gospel and was only able to get a home late in life. I can still see him gazing right into my eyes and adamitly stating the necessity of buying a house. It was completely out of love though; he didn’t want my family to have to go through the struggles his did – and I love him for that. So Noah, thanks so much for all this stress and heartache we are going through trying to buy a home. I owe you one pal :)
Sow the Seed,
Caleb
p.s. Speaking of houses, tomorrow I end my sermon series “This Old House: Taking Another Look at the Church that Jesus Built.” The text is 1 Tim 3:14-15 – WOW how do you do this text justice? Just preach it I guess….
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
It's All Just Tradition - Right?
The constant drumbeat of those claiming to want progress for the church is that everything doctrinal is just “tradition.” Things like a capella music in worship are just the “tradition” of the American Restoration Movement is the mantra. Tradition is "our" curse.
The next component to all of this is that tradition is just tradition and everyone knows you can’t bind tradition. The “C”hurches of Christ (as they would say it) have been evil and terrible sexist racist the last 400 years, and we built a tradition that we won’t abandon for the sake of unity (if you think my sexist racist comment is over the top I challenge you to underline every time Shelly and York mention it in their book the Jesus Proposal). The only thing standing in the way of unity amongst all “Christians” is that nasty word – Tradition. The greatest sin of the “C”hurches of Christ is their obstinate clinging to tradition. If only we would abandon tradition we could all get together and smoke the peace pipe. Sounds good – but is it possible someone has been smoking some other kind of pipe to get here.
First of all, what is tradition? Everyone knows what tradition is right? An important lesson still unlearned by many is the need to pay close attention to the way people are defining the words they use. If we want a biblical answer to the question “what is tradition” I think a logical place to start would be the Bible right? For the sake of not making this blog a noval, the word tradition used in the New Testament means the thing “handed down.” Take a peak at Bauer, Danker, A & G and verify.
The next question that must be asked is this… are all handed down things equal? Is tradition good, bad, or neutral? The biblical answer is yes. Listen closely; tradition is neither a curse nor a virtue in and of itself! The origin of the handed down thing makes all the difference in the world. Whether or not something is received depends entirely on WHO is handing it down.
The Bible speaks of the traditions handed down by God. Traditions whose origins are with God must be followed. Notice what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (NASB). This is called “belief in the truth” (2:13). Those who were accepting anything else besides this tradition believed a lie and were unrighteous (2:11-12).
A little later on in 2 Thessalonians Paul talks about tradition “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us” (2 Th 3:6). This tradition is called “the word of the Lord” (3:1). It is commanded and must be done (3:4) It’s allowing the Lord to direct the heart (3:5). Anybody want to step up to the plate and tell God that tradition is what is preventing the world from getting closer to him?
Part 2 soon to come if anyone is interested…?
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb
The next component to all of this is that tradition is just tradition and everyone knows you can’t bind tradition. The “C”hurches of Christ (as they would say it) have been evil and terrible sexist racist the last 400 years, and we built a tradition that we won’t abandon for the sake of unity (if you think my sexist racist comment is over the top I challenge you to underline every time Shelly and York mention it in their book the Jesus Proposal). The only thing standing in the way of unity amongst all “Christians” is that nasty word – Tradition. The greatest sin of the “C”hurches of Christ is their obstinate clinging to tradition. If only we would abandon tradition we could all get together and smoke the peace pipe. Sounds good – but is it possible someone has been smoking some other kind of pipe to get here.
First of all, what is tradition? Everyone knows what tradition is right? An important lesson still unlearned by many is the need to pay close attention to the way people are defining the words they use. If we want a biblical answer to the question “what is tradition” I think a logical place to start would be the Bible right? For the sake of not making this blog a noval, the word tradition used in the New Testament means the thing “handed down.” Take a peak at Bauer, Danker, A & G and verify.
The next question that must be asked is this… are all handed down things equal? Is tradition good, bad, or neutral? The biblical answer is yes. Listen closely; tradition is neither a curse nor a virtue in and of itself! The origin of the handed down thing makes all the difference in the world. Whether or not something is received depends entirely on WHO is handing it down.
The Bible speaks of the traditions handed down by God. Traditions whose origins are with God must be followed. Notice what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 2:15, “So then, brothers, stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught by us, either by our spoken word or by our letter” (NASB). This is called “belief in the truth” (2:13). Those who were accepting anything else besides this tradition believed a lie and were unrighteous (2:11-12).
A little later on in 2 Thessalonians Paul talks about tradition “Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us” (2 Th 3:6). This tradition is called “the word of the Lord” (3:1). It is commanded and must be done (3:4) It’s allowing the Lord to direct the heart (3:5). Anybody want to step up to the plate and tell God that tradition is what is preventing the world from getting closer to him?
Part 2 soon to come if anyone is interested…?
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb
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