Wednesday was spent cleaning the house for company. Pastor and Mrs. Ogle from EBC in Kings Mountain were here for James Parker and Stephanie Starin's college graduation so we invited the Ogles over for supper. It was fun to talk about Emmanuel and catch up with each other. I sort of undercooked supper so the new recipe didn't taste all that great in my opinion. It was edible though. My brownies got burned too. :-) Oh well. I choose not to worry about mistakes since they can't be helped.
We arrived at church and I fed Anna (who was kind enough to nap the entire time I was cooking and eating supper). When it was time for the preaching during the church service, Pastor Woody said that he had asked Pastor Ogle to preach! I was surprised and excited - and Pastor Ogle was surprised too - he had three minutes notice that he was going to preach. Always be prepared!
He preached on building a wall with standards to keep from sin from Exodus where God told the children of Israel not to touch the mount or they would die. Any animal or person of any age would die if they touched the mount. I have always thought that this command was extremely tough when I read it in the Bible. Someone Lily's age could accidentally touch the mount and they would die. But it was pointed out that God told them to build a bound to protect people from touching the mount. Pastor Ogle asked five volunteers (including my brave James) to tell him where they would build the wall. The answers varied from 1 mile away, to 5 miles away from the mount. Then he asked them how tall they would build it. Then he asked them how wide, then asked what material they would use. The men were funny in their answers trying to be different from the others with random amounts or materials. Pastor Ogle clearly demonstrated why we have standards - to build a wall or boundary a distance from actual sin to protect our families from disobeying God and reaping the consequences. It also showed why each family's standards can be so different - they built their wall in a different place. Pastor Ogle pointed out that standards aren't Biblical commandments - standards are protections to keep us from sin. He pointed out that "breaking" a standard by climbing over a wall isn't "touching the mount" but it is disobeying your authority. You create distrust in your teens when you teach that breaking an arbitrary standard that is not taught in Scripture is a sin against God. Let me hasten to say that disobeying your Dad's commands for your family is a sin against God's authority, but be clear with your children about the difference between standards and sin. I learned a lot and was excited to hear Pastor Ogle at my church.
The above could be confusing. Let me clarify with one example: how long should your skirt be ladies? I will start by saying that I believe women should dress differently from men. That is taught in the Bible. So with that settled from Scripture, how long should my skirts be? The length of my skirt is an arbitrary bound that can be set within families following Biblical guidelines. My church's by-laws says that the skirt should cover the knee when sitting. Okay. But if my husband likes longer than that for us, that is his bound for me and my girls but it is not a Biblical sin to wear less than ankle-length skirts.
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| All dressed up for Wednesday church |
Thursday was a quiet day - my first really quiet day in three weeks. :-)
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| Lunch with Lily Thursday |
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| Chatting with Daddy when he got home from work Thursday |
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| Playtime with Daddy |
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| Anna loved the crinkly bag |
Sara, I wasn't able to attend church on Wednesday and I was trying to find the passage that you mentioned in your post. Do you happen to remember what chapter it was in? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteI believe it was Exodus 19:12-13 and Exodus 19:23
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