[It's November 14th and as I logged in to post two quick thoughts, I saw the post below sitting in my "draft folder". I had totally forgotten about it...so it's been cool to read through it again and taste the emotion of that night.]

It's almost 1am. The guys from the freshman Bible study cleared out of the house about an hour ago. What a night...I was very encouraged with how the discussion went, how the guys are beginning to bond and see one another as familiar friends and not anonymous faces. Walls are coming down...I hear it more and more each week as I watch these guys gathered together. Every time I hear one of them ask a question, laugh at a joke, revel over a shared interest...I hear walls coming down. I hear trust being built. The sights and sounds produced by a group of believers gathered together in fellowship are especially sweet to me. Joy punctuates every exchange!

So I find myself in a quiet house now...no more noise, no more insessant opening and shuting of the front door. No more overheard conversations peppered with outbursts of laughter. Just silence. And this rare silence gives me an occasion to pause and let tonight's lesson penetrate my mind, my heart. You ever led a small group and found out, half way through it, that you're learning 10 times more than anyone else in the room? That's how I felt tonight. We looked at Romans 6:14 - Romans 7:4. In case you don't have that memorized, it's where Paul continues his argument that Reality is that we Christians have died to sin (i.e., it happened in the past...it's established history). As I prepare each week to lead this group, I'm seeing more and more that Paul is a master of turning the tables on his readers. He did that to me...tonight.

In asks us in verse 16, "Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?" I think this is absolutely revolutionary! Paul turns our view of sin UPSIDE down and rattles our worldviews in the process. Have you ever thought of your sin as OBEDIENCE? As obeying something? As submitting to and serving and minding something? I never have until tonight. Paul says when we sin we are obeying something. What do you OBEY when you sin? Do you obey the lustful passions of your body? What about obeying your behind-the-scenes desire for attention and acclaim? How do you serve your pride? What foreign alters do you worship before? The questions are piercing...and they prod my heart as much as yours, I promise.

Paul is saying here that every single human being is a SLAVE to something. He lists two masters and two masters only. Sin and Righteousness. I have to admit...I think I have control of the sins I engage in and continually run back to for the false, fleeting, and fickle pleasures they offer. But the Bible says they control me. They dictate a strict, tyrannical regimen of living to me...and when I sin I submit to their draconian fiats. I obey their orders. I worship at their altar. This same Paul will write only minutes later through the cries of an aching heart, "Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God--[He has saved me] through Jesus Christ our Lord!" (Romans 7:24, 25).

"As long as Christ’s kingdom comes not by the sword but by the Spirit and the Truth, I will resist the unholy union of conscientious church and coercive state. I stand with those who believe that Christ is the best foundation for a view of the state that refuses to enforce Christ."

-John Piper in his recent article, 'Meditations After a Monday at Barnes and Noble'

-----

My first allegiance is not to a flag, a country, or a man
My first allegiance is not to democracy or blood
It's to a king & a kingdom

There are two great lies that i’ve heard:
“The day you eat of the fruit of that tree, you will not surely die”
And that Jesus Christ was a white, middle-class republican
And if you wanna be saved you have to learn to be like Him

-Derek Webb, "King and a Kingdom"

This is the last hymn penned by Charles Wesley. While dying, he wrote this for his wife:

"In age and feebleness extreme,
Who shall a helpless worm redeem?
Jesus. My only hope Thou art,
Strength of my failing flesh and heart,
0, could I catch a smile from Thee
And drop into eternity!"