Morning Moments

As I said yesterday extremes are usually dangerous, and we used as an example Tradition and Trend. To be sure there is a place for both, but with balance. I am 67 years old and I can honestly say that I love the praise choruses and the old hymns with both in balance. It just concerns me that we have to have a "contemporary service" for some and a "traditional service" and others and God only knows what's coming next: maybe a service for the "head banging" Christians and one for those who are ready for "the mansion over the hilltop". TRUTH should always be the balance between Tradition and Trend. Harmony in unity is the key, for Trust takes precedence over tradition and trend.

All I am saying is that we have a great need for balance between tradition and trend.

2) LIBERTY should be the balance between Legalism and License. We should rather stick with Biblical standards. Remember that the Roman men wore mini skirts:) Sorry, but don't think I'm gonna do it even if it becomes stylish:) Today many get irritated at longer hair or shaved heads on men, or the length of a skirt or hairstyle of a woman. For example, I always liked long hair on a woman and when we married my wife had long hair, but one day I flew home from a preaching engagement and she met me at the air port with short hair and I LOVED IT. We are to stick with the Word and not allow our personal tastes to trample truth and divide us. The Word of God teaches modesty and that is what we should teach. I have been to some churches where some young girls looked like hookers and some old girls looked like hags:) The old pentecostals ladies did not wear make up and wore their hair in a bee hive style, but even most of them have changed. Someone said, "any old barn looks better painted." The balance is liberty. When we make rules that God does not we are doing exactly what the Pharisees did. If one does not dress appropriately for worship, help them grow, don't condemn them. My wife and I visited a church once that was very contemporary. She is more traditional and I am more contemporary, but in this case the "praise and worship" got a little rocky and the lady in front of us was shaking her booty like an exotic dancer:) It was a little much for both of us.

I repeat, All I am saying is that we have a great need for balance between Legalism and License and that balance is Liberty in Love. "Man looks on the outside, but the Lord looks on the heart." Sometimes the heart needs changing in these matters but it must be done with care and compassion not challenge and criticism.

Just the other day I was standing by a man at a funeral when a young lady walked by. She had on a dress that was just above her knees and boots that came to just below the knees, so all the legs that were showing may have been about 12 inches at the max. There was no cleavage showing and I thought she was dressed appropriately for her age. My friend thought it was too provocative. The point is that we should teach balance and understand that we live in a day when people wear what they wish, when they wish, and how they wish. Some practice legalism and some practice license. I say let's stick with true Christian liberty and as mama use to say, "treat every woman as a lady and every man as a gentleman" and teach that Liberty is not to be used for an occasion to stumble. Paul said men are to treat younger women as their sisters and older women as their mothers. If we did that we could avoid much trouble.

PRAYER: Lord, fashion may change but Father doesn't. Trends may change, but Truth doesn't. Tradition may keep us in a rut, and trend can lead us to ruin, but Truth will teach us balance. Dear God, help us to maintain Christian balance.