The Wandering Shepherd

In Mark 10, Jesus answers the Pharisee’s question, “Is it lawful for a man to loose his wife?”

Jesus’ answer includes both an acknowledgement that the Law allows for divorce as well as an admonition that God did not intend for marriage to be that way.

I had a video teaching where I pointed out that God made a Law contrary to His will. I resolved it by pointing out that there are times when you have two bad choices and you must choose compassion. Like God did.

It was a paradigm shifting thought for me.

Today the storm hit. You would expect it from such a legalistic church. This comes from “M” who is the chairman of the elders (I have made some changes for the sake of brevity which I note…if you saw the whole thing, you would thank me…also I added a few comments):

Dear Brother Shepherd (he actually misspelled my name),

I have some concerns I have been thinking about and praying over since our share group viewed the entire video for this past week. I am copying the elders as well to see if they are concerned as well or if it is just me.

The sermon time last Sunday was fine. I thought as you began you specifically laid out the passage and placed into context of what God would desire for people and marriage. Also, the time with C and N was well done, too, although time seemed to cut us short and perhaps you had planned some kind of summarization that didn’t happen in 1st service. But after leaving and thinking over the time we spent together over the day, I wasn’t sure what the real message was. Was it what God would desire or was it to demonstrate the compassion we need to show toward those who are caught in an ugly situation. ….comments about a specific small group omitted…

However, Wednesday evening was our share group in G and the complete video was shown and I think overall your message came through, however, I fear another message came through as well and that is where I am concerned.

In your video presentation you gave examples of a person having not any resources to buy bread for his family and you indicated that if that were the situation with you, if it meant you had to steal to ensure your family was fed you would do so. You also mentioned if one had to have medicine to prevent your sick child from dying, you would lie and steal to ensure you could get the medicine you needed. (I said I would max out my credit cards even if I knew I couldn’t repay.) And a couple more examples I don’t recall at this moment, but that you would do whatever it took, including committing a crime and breaking not only a civil law but God’s laws as well to provide whatever it was that was needed, and that is what deeply concerns me. It seems like the message that came out to me is when we have a great enough need it is all right to transgress any and all laws to obtain it. (Not exactly the point…)

I have been in the position earlier in my life where I truly did not have the money to purchase food to feed my family. It was a terribly agonizing time for me and I spent a lot of time petitioning our Lord for the means to provide. I also right around the same time had a daughter who almost to the day of her turning 2 yrs old experienced severe seizure disorders that lasted for 7 years. It was during that time where my faith was truly shaken, asking God why He would allow this to happen to me since I had been faithful to Him all of my life including the time I was in a dreadful war in Vietnam constantly experiencing death all around me, being wounded myself, yet I remained a faithful example and He brought me home alive. Why would He forsake me now with a daughter who was not expected to live more than a few months? Many of the medicines the doctors wanted to try to help her were far beyond my means to purchase and I was at that point you suggested in your video.

Throughout that horrible time I had many opportunities to cheat, steal, lie, all sorts of things I could have turned to and considered turning to so I could provide for the needs of my family. I spent countless hours agonizing over this and considered many times to resort to crime that I knew was not acceptable before God or man. Yet, I knew I had a witness to many others and would certainly fail in their eyes including my family eyes if I resorted to such behavior and above all I would not be faithful to God. I went thoroughly through many hundreds of Scripture passages trying to find the answers to my dilemmas and I found none that would exonerate me if I were to conduct myself in such a manner.

I have learned a great deal from that experience. When I was about to behave in such an ungodly manner but refused to do it, God provided a way. Not just once but many, many times.

….examples of how God provided in the nick of time….

These sorts of things happened regularly for several years and occasionally happen on a smaller scale these days. I believe with my whole heart that these were cases of direct intervention by God in supplying all my needs due to my faithfulness to Him. And that is exactly what I believe Scripture indicates. Mat. 6:25-34 “For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?….v33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

I know you are aware of this and many texts that indicate that love and honoring and obeying God is our utmost priority and our faith in Him to provide will always bring blessing to us. Certainly the prophet Malachi continues to preach God’s Word that we not shirk our faithfulness to Him and our obedience to His commands and urges that if we are truly dedicated to him in all things He will richly provide for our needs so that we receive much more than we give. To even suggest otherwise I believe is folly. (I must ask, does that promise extend to third world countries where godly men and women starve to death for lack of bread? Surely not. Surely only an American promise.)

I believe that you were probably rhetorically suggesting that you would disobey God’s commands to make a point but I fear that the unintended message could potentially lead some to believe that Shepherd said it was all right to do these things if the need is justified. I would suggest you somehow clarify these points and retract the statements you made on the video, because I truly believe that everyone needs to seek after God first and foremost in all ways and are obedient to ALL of His commands. (Thou shalt not steal). Certainly I believe that grace will cover all shortcomings we have, but to suggest that if we do those things contrary to God’s commands we can be forgiven for that is precisely what Paul’s question suggest, “Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? And of course we must agree to Paul that “God forbid!” Certainly, faith, obedience, and righteousness ALWAYS trumps sin.

Here is my response, which I will send in the morning.

M–

I understand.

My point was that there are times there is not the option of waiting or of choosing a good option. There are times when compassion trumps law. Man was not made for the Law, but the Law for man.

Here are a few examples from Scripture

David and his men eating of the holy bread

Rahab’s deception/lie

Jesus’ violation of Sabbath laws

Should one violate the Sabbath to save a life? (a direct violation of the Decalogue–and an example )

And a couple from history

Christians who hid Jews in Nazi Germany and lied about it

Christians who plotted murder of Hitler

Is it ok in the course of war to lie to the enemy to protect the lives of allies?

Christians who participated in the liberation of abused American slaves (stealing)

Christians who currently smuggle Bibles into closed countries (lying by mislabeling boxes or directly to customs officials)

Missionaries who gain travel visas by deliberately obfuscating their real reason for entering a country.

And a couple pushes back on the examples from the video

If my child were about to die of starvation, I would indeed steal bread. Not if they were simply hungry.

If my child would die without treatment and all I had to do was slide a credit card, I would do it. Not if it were simply more convenient.

There was a time when my diabetic daughter, E, was in grave danger with a low and continuing to drop blood sugar. To allow her blood sugar to continue to drop risked brain damage, coma and death. Not rhetorical. Not hypothetical. Real. We were at a concert and we were near the end. I took my staggering daughter to the concession stand. There was no one there. I went to the next one. There was no one there. I looked for employees. There was no one there. I had a choice to make.

My choice was, “Do I steal juice and avert a potentially deadly crisis in the life of my daughter, or do I call 911 and hope there is enough time for them to help?” I would not gamble my daughter’s health and future when there was a refrigerator full of juice in my sight. I stole the juice.

Could God have provided another way? Yes. Did I pay for the juice when the crisis was over? Yes. Did I compromise righteousness for the sake of compassion? Yes. Would I do it again? Yes.

YES we should wait on God’s provision. But when it comes to two bad choices–I would choose the lesser of the two.

Should we work to be obedient to all of God’s commands? Of course. But what do you do when one command comes in conflict with another command (or obvious responsibility)?

Everything is not simply black or white. In a world scarred by sin, we are often called upon to choose between two or more bad options. As followers of Jesus, we must choose compassion.

Love is never against the Law.

I don’t understand legalism. I used to be a legalist and I think I was because I was too lazy or too dim to really think about the world in which I live. Knowing these elders, this could accelerate quickly. Tune in, friends.

I would love to link you to the teaching so you could see that I am not a heretic. I guess you will have to take my word for it.

W (the Shepherd’s wife) wanted me to write about the budget stuff at church because there may be a day when I want to refer to it.

A year ago, I went to the elders with a concern about the church finances. We were consistently coming in $1000 a week under budget and I asked what we needed to do to make sure we were not digging ourselves into a hole. They sternly told me it was not mine to worry about.

I guess, in some ways, they were right. It was not as bad as it looked. We only spent $40,000 more than we brought in last year. That is almost 25% better deficit than I figured we would have.

Fast forward almost a year. All of the church’s reserves are gone and we are sitting in a budget meeting. M, the chairman of the elders, is arguing for an increase in the missions budget and the recommendation of the finance team is to keep everything else the same.

I begged them to reconsider. We worked for an hour or two and ended up trimming the budget deeply. I wanted it cut to the point of what we took in last year, but they decided to go for what we had last year plus $13,000 to demonstrate our faith. That amounts to about 5% of our total budget.

Our fiscal year started again the first of last month. The elders made a plea to the congregation and the first two weeks of the new budget year we made budget. The third week we were about $2000 under for the week and last week about $1200 short. We received an email from our treasurer saying we were now holding $2000 of bills that we could not pay.

So I sent a note to the elders that said, “We have to come up with a plan because we have a looming crisis.”

The answer from the elders….silence.

So I sent another email out simply asking for them to voice their plan. Nothing.

I know they have cut salaries in the past. I know that is on the line now. I know to catch our shortfall, it will have to be about 15%. Not pretty.

I Wouldn’t Bet on Me

Love and Law

Jesus Among Us

Budget Mess

Keep Busy

Light in the Dark

Brother.

WanderingShepherd

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