Today has been an office day so far.  The big task today? Recording radio shows for the next month.   It has proved to be a very busy week so far, but a good one.  I have spent a lot of time talking to people and praying for people.  This is not the point of my post, just warming up.  :)

My daughter dropped by the office today just to catch a quick hug and an "I love you."  I LOVE That!!  :)  That got me thinking about the last few days.  Even though it has been busy, I have been working hard to make sure that I make time with my family.  Sarah and I captured two whole nights to ourselves which was great.  The other morning, I got up extra early to allow my overtired wife to sleep in and as I sat at breakfast with the kids, we ended up having a great time reading the story of Nehemiah straight out of my daughter's Bible.  They were really interested and kept asking me to read more.  Then we discussed what they had heard and what they thought about it.  A great start to the day.  Then last night, Sarah was again still not feeling well and tried to rest up before a joint counseling session we had last night with someone.  I fixed the kids supper and we sat and had great discussion about their day and life.  Then, before bed, we did our normal family devotions but then, because we were ahead of schedule, we were able to read some more Nehemiah which they were all excited about.  It gave us more great discussion and a great prayer time together at bed.  I love hearing their observations and thoughts on these things.

I share all that to give a picture of how much fun we are having together and the important bonding times.  I doubt that the youngest will remember our reading or discussion.  It is not very likely that my five-year-old son will remember what we read or discussed the last two days.  BUT...if Sarah and I keep this up, they will remember the time, the attention, the love, the connection that we share as we do these things together.  Children bask in love, attention, praise, and above all, TIME.  I continue to believe that my first job in being a pastor is to shepherd the flock that lives in my house.  If I cannot lead them, I have no business leading anyone else.

So dads, I know you're busy.  I'm wicked busy.  But no job, hobby, duty is higher than your wife and your children.  They need our presence, attention, and time as an act of our love.

Love the story in the link above.  A church votes on whether or not to start using "modern" music in their service.  They decided they would, saying, we don't feel those hymns are evil.  That's right.  They're going to start allowing hymns in!

Ever notice how many people invoke the name of God when describing the reason for doing something.  This is especially true in Christian circles.  People talk about God leading them to do this or wanting them to do that.  Sometimes it is a neat way to defend an action that someone has a problem with.  Just say, "God let me to do it," or "I had to follow God's leading."  What can anyone say to that?

A pastor friend of mine the other day had a great quote in response to this phenomenon, "If God told you to do this, than God must be schizophrenic."  I love it!  That goes right to the heart of the matter.  So often people claim to be following the Lord's leading when really this is a god of their own creation.  We reform God into our image and then have a great puppet who says what we want and validates how we feel.  He is most interested in protecting our pride and our well-being.  His primary concern is that we be happy.  Such a nice, loving God.  But that is not the God of the Bible.

God appears schizophrenic when we do things in His name even though there are clear scriptures where God's Word says the contrary.  We need to be very very careful before we quote "what God told me" especially to defend ourselves.  We need to make sure that we are looking at the totality of Scripture and the counsel of God in His Word before we make such brash statements.  Here's a great quote from Steve Taylor in the song "Guilty by Association"

"So you say its of the devil and you've got no choice
'cause you heard a "revelation" from a still small voice (Hey you)
If the Bible doesn't back it then it seems quite clear
Perhaps it was the devil that whispered in your ear."

Remember, one of the ways that Satan deceived Eve was to try to confuse her about what God had really said.  Jesus answers the devil by quoting Scripture.

Check out this great song by David Meece called "Over You".  It starts with talking about all the wars that have been fought "in the name of God."

There are a lot of "Christians" running around.  There are also a lot of people who like to think of themselves as spiritual.  We have seen some great examples this fall.  The pastor who wanted to burn the Koran, the pastor who told his people to close their Facebook accounts but then admitted that he and his wife had been involved in sexual sin.  How about the Westboro Baptist church that protests at soldiers funerals.  We can probably name personally people who say they are Christian, may attend church, may even talk a lot about spiritual things and yet make you wonder.

The Bible says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity."  (Colossians 3:12-14 NIV).  This connects well with the admonition in 1 Cor. 13 that reminds us that without love, great spiritual talk and knowledge is useless.  So, how can you tell if you are dealing with a "true believer" as it were as opposed to someone who is playing the part?  Do they routinely show compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness?  How do they relate to those they consider enemies?  Do they bear with and forgive?  Are they focused on grievances?

We all have bad days where we fall short of that passage, but if there is an established pattern instead of just a momentary slip, perhaps we are seeing someone playing a part.  After all, looking back at Colossians 3:12-14, if the last part of the verse isn't true of you, perhaps the first part isn't either.

The old saying is, "if you can't stand the heat, stay out of the kitchen."    Actually, how it more often seems to work is, "If you can stand the heat, call the stove wrong."  When we don't like a verdict against us, we attack.   We see a good example in Charles Rangel, the congressman from New York who has attacked the bipartisan ethics committee again and again, until they found him guilty, at which time he begged for mercy.  Now another congress member, is trying the same approach.

This is nothing new.  You hear teenagers telling their parents that they are just trying to ruin their lives when the bring discipline.  Of course, that's what every parent hopes for, ruining your kids lives.  You see it when people run afoul of the police.  Sure you were speeding or weaving, but those police were just out to get you.  They should go get some real criminals.

It can often be the same in the church.  When discipline is brought to bear or even advice given that is not what someone wants to hear, suddenly the messenger is the problem.  Maybe you go after the leadership itself.  Maybe you attack the actual Bible, or at least try to twist its meaning into what you need it to say (or not say).  Whatever the cause, one thing that you don't see if submission.  Well, perhaps in this interesting case.

Now I am not saying that authority is never wrong and that it can't either make mistakes or even be malicious at times.  But so often we immediately turn to attack authority rather than listen to it.  We are at our hearts, rebellious.  This can play real havoc in churches when people refuse to humble themselves but instead attack.  Consider these things.

• When Jesus was accused (falsely) He did not fight against the charges.  He was found innocent by Pilate but killed anyway by those that hated Him.  He forgave them
• When Paul was accused he refused quick release but appealed to Caesar, not so he could defend himself, but so he could preach the gospel to power.

Another thing to note is that you can often figure out what is really going on with an accused Christian by looking at the fruit of their life.  The Bible says that you will know them by their fruit.  Is the person showing humility, a teachable spirit, and openness to correction, a desire for reconciliation?  If not, you should take note of these unBiblical reactions.

What if you are accused, falsely or otherwise?  First, listen.  Respond with humility.  Perhaps the accusation is unjust, but there maybe something you can learn and even if you are not completely at fault, perhaps there is a share of fault for you.  I once had a person accuse me of lying.  I listened carefully and respectfully even though I did not believe I had lied.  By listening honestly and being open, I found that what had happened was a misunderstanding caused by something I did say.  The result of the misunderstanding made it look to this person that I had lied.  My response was to apologize for my words that had caused the problem.  The other person and I were reconciled.

How we respond to accusation can say a lot about our maturity in Christ.  Because we are sinful humans, we are sometimes wrong and we need to allow others to correct us.  We need to be respectful to authority and not attack just because we don't like what it says.  If it turns out that an accusation is false, we need to see what part we might play in the conflict, we need to listen, and we need to use even false accusations as an opportunity to share the gospel of Christ.