Before Romans Chapter 1

Bobservations Column
By Pastor Bob Lawrenz

Growing up in the 1950’s, there were many temptations around the neighborhood. We learned who it was OK to play with, and who it was not a good idea to play with, and where we could ride our bikes, and how far we could go. Sometimes those limitations were based in common sense, and sometimes they were established “Because I said so,” to quote our parents. 

Behind the houses across the street from me was a small wooded glen with a shallow creek that ran through it. The glen ran up to a steep embankment, so in the heat of the summer, the glen was a cool place to play, or to fish, or just to catch crayfish from the water. And in the winter, the embankment made a great hill to ride our sleds down to the frozen creek. Of course, every ride down we’d be dodging trees, rocks, and maneuvering at the bottom to avoid the creek. 

The glen, and the corner lot where there was always a baseball game going on in the summer were places where all the neighborhood kids played together. But there was an underlying bigotry when it came to being real friends with anyone. Catholics had Catholic friends, Protestants had Protestant friends. It became really pointed when a Jewish family moved into the neighborhood. They had just one daughter. She dutifully rode the school bus with everyone else, but never had a playmate, and never invited anyone to her house. Socially, there was a separation that was never breeched. I didn’t understand it, but then, there was a lot I didn’t understand in the 1950’s. We had been taught in school that the USA was a “melting pot” where all could find a home and cultures would be blended. 

But 30 years later, in the 1980’s, I began to understand some of the limitations. God does not want His children to live in a melting pot where everything was mingled with everything else. He calls for us to be uniquely His among all mankind. It is a provision from God to protect our faith in Him, and guard us from false gods and the doctrines of men. 

“Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what
fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what
communion hath light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14)

Called To Holiness

Bobservations Column
By Pastor Bob Lawrenz

Today in our reading we read what I think is one of the scariest verses in the entire Bible. God’s chosen people, whom He has called the apple of His eye, have turned their back on Him repeatedly, and He says He leaving them until such time as they come to their senses. He’s leaving them!

Reading in other passages, we know God draws them back, but how could we live without His daily presence, especially after once knowing Him? 

What is it that keeps us turning away from God? We have read it in the Bible: it’s that lie that Satan spoke to Eve. Genesis 3:5 – “For God knows that in the day that you eat the fruit of that tree, your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be like gods, knowing good from evil.“ But such Godly knowledge must first be accompanied by Godly wisdom to make it apply to daily living!

Rejecting God takes place everyday. We hear it among our youth and among the strong-willed. Feeling immortal in so many ways, they say “You’re not the boss of me; nobody’s getting hurt here, we’re all consenting.” It is the rejection of authority, and the rejection of God’s warnings. 

Our culture has barred God from having access to our children, our next generation. And even among churched families, Sunday School is not enough; the parents must hold true to teaching their children of God’s plan of salvation, and His laws regarding Godly and ungodly behaviors. There is an epidemic of sin in today’s world: heroin and opioids, crack cocaine, marijuana, and an array of sexuality choices like we’ve never seen before. Yet God’s Word stands as it is, giving warning. Those that eat the fruit of THIS tree shall surely die. 

I wonder how many fentanyl victims, how many heroin victims, how many users of LSD, cocaine, practitioners of a free-love lifestyle and AIDS patients might ask for a “do-over” had they just seen the consequences of their choices. 

“Being as a god” is beyond the finite human mind, but some are not convinced until it’s too late. There’s too many choices, and too much wisdom that we lack! We can be grateful that Christ Jesus saved us from all that, and from His wrath in the future, and we find that God’s Word is absolutely true:

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the
knowledge of the holy is understanding.”  ~~ Proverbs 9:10

Treachery to Triumph

Bobservations Column
By Pastor Bob Lawrenz

Just as our families have all been touched by the hand of the Lord, we have seen the devil at work there as well. Too often, the blessings of marriage have been dissolved due to unfaithfulness and/or the waning of affection between husbands and wives. Divorces and separations within the Church are as numerous as in the general population. How fickle the human race can be! Being of one mind one day can turn rapidly into being double-minded the next.

This problem in humanity is one of the weaknesses of the flesh, and it is universal, as statistics show. The reasons can be multiple, and complex, but unless maturity, ethics, and shared goals are in the mix of a relationship, every relationship can be headed down hill! 

As a Pastor, it’s always a blessing to officiate at a wedding. And conversely, it is a horrible disappointment when one of those marriages falls by the wayside into divorce. I’ve married couples whose marriages have lasted 30 years, and others whose marriages lasted just two weeks. And in retrospect, I can truthfully say that the ones that have endured life’s storms, have enjoyed the “staying power” of the Lord Jesus Christ at their core. Each party of those marriages has had a commitment to Christ resulting in His blessings, and their longevity. 

This spiritual relationship is what Jeremiah is speaking of to the northern and southern tribes. But when God impresses this upon them, they are dull of hearing, and filled with hatred towards God’s messenger, Jeremiah. As the Apostle Paul wrote of a Godly marriage relationship in Ephesians 5:20-33, his words should reverberate in our own hearts: “This is a great mystery; but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” (Eph. 5:32) 

Jeremiah reminds us today that for the sins of backslidden Israel, God has “put her away,” and given her a bill of divorcement. Yet, God’s promises to the nation remain in-place: “I will bless those that bless you, and curse those that curse you,” (Gen. 12:2) and “Your numbers will be as the sand upon the shores of the seas” (Gen. 22:17). God’s mercy and grace is defined here: Whether we are worthy or not, God stands by those that are His!
“I will be your God, and ye shall be my people.”  ~~ Lev. 26:12, 2 Cor. 6:16