It’s that time again – elections! It is confession time… I am a politics junky. Don’t blame me; I inherited it from my dad. Two things I’m passionate about and they are the things you are never supposed to talk about, and to add insult to injury you are never supposed to mix the two. So where does that leave me - lonely?
This little article is not going to be what you think it might be (about taking into consideration social issues we hold dear such as abortion and marriage between a man and a woman). There is actually a strong movement within the “Evangelical” and conservative “Christian” movements to have their members vote in such a way as to empower the government to be more involved in rectifying “social injustices” (i.e. poverty, curing diseases, et. al.).
The case is made that Jesus commanded “love thy neighbor as thyself” just as much as he did “thou shall not murder.” Therefore, we should vote for people that will empower the government to take money from the people and spend it on curing diseases and ending poverty. That sounds biblical; the only problem is that it is not.
The error in this whole equation is that the fundamental basis has not been examined. The primary question should be this, “From a biblical perspective, what is the role of government?” You know the Bible is not as silent on this as you may think. The book of Daniel teaches that God alone is Sovereign and that authorities on earth are ultimately going to be held accountable to Him. Paul speaks of the role of Government in Romans 13 and expounds about its role. Space does not allow for a full explanation here, however the outcome is that Governments role is bear the sword and bring the evil to justice. No place does the Bible speak of the role of Government being the taking care of the sick and helping those in poverty. The Bible, does however, place that responsibility on you and I as a church, and as individuals.
So much more could be said about these matters but I just remembered I’m not supposed to talk about religion and/or politics, and I’m especially not supposed to mix them. My parting thought to you is this: do you really want to empower the government to force a religion on the nation? A government with enough power to force a religion has enough power to take it away. Or do you want a government that properly understands it's role and freely allows you to worship God? The profound nature of this wonderful country we live in is that our rights come from the Creator and not government, that it begins with “we the people,” not “the government.” We are in a unique position in that “we the people” hold the key to our destiny as a nation. But I digress… speaking of politics and/or religion.
Friday, January 18, 2008
Friday, January 4, 2008
Souls are at stake in 2008
It's a new year! This year I'm going to do my best to blog about once a week. I'm also going to try and do a lot of audio blogging on here. I enjoy speaking... I can't really say I "enjoy" writing. Why? I don't know.
This Sunday will be the start of my third year with the Ripon church of Christ. Wow - what a great family to be a part of. In my humble opinion, one of our greatest assets here is that the leadership stands strongly together. We are in constant communication and always working on projects together.
It's a new year. I've been here over 2 years now. I made it! The statistics are shattered! It's amazing that most preachers don't make it past 2 years. I think I know many of the reasons why. Maybe someday I will share those thoughts with you all. But today what I want to talk about is my new theme for the year in Ripon: "Souls are at stake in 2008." This Sunday I will kick the year off with a message that is designed to inspire the congregation to start thinking evangelistically. Last year we spent a lot of time talking about what biblical church growth is, and this year we are going to start implementing some of those things we talked about. To summarize, the main idea of church growth is to become more like Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). Christ came to preach so as to seek and save the lost (Mark 1:38; Luke 19:10). Therefore, if I am becoming more like Christ I will be preaching to seek and save the lost.
Many times we make "evangelism" way too complicated. We think of it as a program. We think of it as a marketing plan. We look at it from an ungodly perspective of numbers in the water. So we design an "evangelism" program that gets as many people in the water as quickly as possible. It's time for an exegetical theology towards evangelism.
In brief, Jesus described evangelism as showing people who Jesus was, making people disciples (that means they start to become like Christ - Matthew 10:25), baptizing them, and teaching them to endure all things Christ has commanded (Matthew 28-28-20). Evangelism is "good newsing." We take the good news and we preach it, and then we live it, and continue to teach it. Much more is in store as the year moves on! This is just a teaser. I'm looking forward to preaching this message on Sunday.
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb O'Hara
This Sunday will be the start of my third year with the Ripon church of Christ. Wow - what a great family to be a part of. In my humble opinion, one of our greatest assets here is that the leadership stands strongly together. We are in constant communication and always working on projects together.
It's a new year. I've been here over 2 years now. I made it! The statistics are shattered! It's amazing that most preachers don't make it past 2 years. I think I know many of the reasons why. Maybe someday I will share those thoughts with you all. But today what I want to talk about is my new theme for the year in Ripon: "Souls are at stake in 2008." This Sunday I will kick the year off with a message that is designed to inspire the congregation to start thinking evangelistically. Last year we spent a lot of time talking about what biblical church growth is, and this year we are going to start implementing some of those things we talked about. To summarize, the main idea of church growth is to become more like Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16). Christ came to preach so as to seek and save the lost (Mark 1:38; Luke 19:10). Therefore, if I am becoming more like Christ I will be preaching to seek and save the lost.
Many times we make "evangelism" way too complicated. We think of it as a program. We think of it as a marketing plan. We look at it from an ungodly perspective of numbers in the water. So we design an "evangelism" program that gets as many people in the water as quickly as possible. It's time for an exegetical theology towards evangelism.
In brief, Jesus described evangelism as showing people who Jesus was, making people disciples (that means they start to become like Christ - Matthew 10:25), baptizing them, and teaching them to endure all things Christ has commanded (Matthew 28-28-20). Evangelism is "good newsing." We take the good news and we preach it, and then we live it, and continue to teach it. Much more is in store as the year moves on! This is just a teaser. I'm looking forward to preaching this message on Sunday.
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb O'Hara
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
I Can Do It!
My blog has been completely dormant. My goal when I started this blog was to add weekly insights in to biblical texts that I have been studying. As you can see that has not happened.
Last week I told everyone about running in my first race. Well we did it! Valerie I made our way down to Visalia and ran in the Thanksgiving 5K. It was a great experience. Our “race team” consisted of: Valerie (my wife), David Boggs (my brother in law), Cliff Sabroe (Good friend who is the preacher in Visalia), Andrea Robinson (a young lady who used to be in my youth group) and Jim Robinson (an Elder in Visalia).
The race broke out like this. Cliff who used to run track took off near the front of the pack and finished with a 22 minute time. Jim ran the 5K in just under 30 minutes. David ran the entire race with Valerie and they finished in around 38 minutes. It was a major accomplishment for Valerie because she ran the entire way without walking. When the horn blew (unexpectedly) Andrea took off. I tailed her the entire race until the last part of the race as she was paced in at an 8:15 mile. When we got to the last part of the race I kicked it up a notch and passed Andrea. I finished with a 25:36 time which was well over 2 minutes faster then I have ever ran this distance. I’m excited because this was a huge accomplishment for me.
The big lesson here is that I can do things I did not think I could. That means that I can blog regularly too! That will be my goal next year. I have purchased the domain http://www.calebohara.com/ and I will begin using that to post more regularly. As I noted in my first blog post this is more of a help for me than it is for anyone else.
I must be going now. I’m taking 3 classes through Regions University this semester so that I can get my accredited bachelors degree in Bible. At the same time I am taking classes through the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver as I work towards my Master’s Degree. When this semester ends I will be able to breathe more! I’m looking forward to it!
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb O’Hara
The big lesson here is that I can do things I did not think I could. That means that I can blog regularly too! That will be my goal next year. I have purchased the domain http://www.calebohara.com/ and I will begin using that to post more regularly. As I noted in my first blog post this is more of a help for me than it is for anyone else.
I must be going now. I’m taking 3 classes through Regions University this semester so that I can get my accredited bachelors degree in Bible. At the same time I am taking classes through the Bear Valley Bible Institute of Denver as I work towards my Master’s Degree. When this semester ends I will be able to breathe more! I’m looking forward to it!
Sow the Seed Faithfully,
Caleb O’Hara
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Running...
Until eight weeks ago I was a couch potato. My day consisted of waking up and going into my office and sitting there studying. It was easy not to find time to engage in any sort of physical exercise. My wife changed my life by getting me into running.
Well this is it. Thanksgiving morning I'm running in my first race. The race is a 5K (3.11 miles). It's going to be exciting because I will be running it with my wife and some other friends. Part of me wants to be concerned about making a certain time during the race. The fact of the matter is that if I cross the finish line I have done it. To think that I went from never having run over a mile in my life to running 3.11 miles is a major accomplishment.
One of the most frustrating things to hear as a preacher is "I can't do it." The lesson I have learned from all of this is that I can do things I never thought I could. God has built us with the capacity to do so much more than we allow ourselves to do. All of the material and ability is there the only thing that is lacking is our dedication to do it.
Sow the Seed,
Caleb
Well this is it. Thanksgiving morning I'm running in my first race. The race is a 5K (3.11 miles). It's going to be exciting because I will be running it with my wife and some other friends. Part of me wants to be concerned about making a certain time during the race. The fact of the matter is that if I cross the finish line I have done it. To think that I went from never having run over a mile in my life to running 3.11 miles is a major accomplishment.
One of the most frustrating things to hear as a preacher is "I can't do it." The lesson I have learned from all of this is that I can do things I never thought I could. God has built us with the capacity to do so much more than we allow ourselves to do. All of the material and ability is there the only thing that is lacking is our dedication to do it.
Sow the Seed,
Caleb
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