I love noses, the many shapes and proportions of bony bridges and nasal orifices. If you catch me staring at you, it’s probably because you have an irresistible nose (if it isn’t your eyes or cheekbones). I simply love noses.

That’s not what I was going to write about. Sidetracked again.

One day I asked Connie, “Where, exactly, do you draw the line between good authority and evil manipulation? I mean, what’s the difference between:

• Christian leaders issuing governing rules for a community, and
• Religious dictators wielding absolute control over a cult?”

That stumped her. For about two minutes.

“The line is drawn,” she finally said, “by whether or not you have personal freedom within the boundaries.”

“That doesn’t make sense,” I countered. “If there are boundaries, then you don’t have freedom. Right?”

“Wrong. Proper submission to authority always includes the freedom to exercise your personal responsibility to God. Otherwise your submission is slavery and authority is tyranny.”

“Okay.” I thought about that for a minute. “I still don’t get it.”

“Well, you have a conscience—a knowledge of right and wrong. And since Jesus Christ has made you free to do good, you have the God-given right to exercise your will to obey God rather than man.”

“So if a Christian leader tells me to do something I don’t like, I can tell him to go jump in a lake?”

Connie gave me that look. “Both freedom and authority can be abused. If you arbitrarily say, ‘I don’t want to do that,’ you are abusing your freedom under authority. You must be humbly convinced of right and wrong by a higher authority—the Bible.”

I blushed and mumbled my thanks as I walked away to think about this some more. It still didn’t make much sense to me. How do I have freedom if someone else is telling me what to do?

Then it hit me.

Freedom under authority is like noses. Noses come in a large variety of styles, but they all perform (unless impaired) the same basic functions of breathing, cleansing, humidifying, smelling, tasting, and so on.

Under God’s authority, we all perform the same duties: to love Him and keep His commandments. Within these boundaries, we have infinite freedom for personal expression, to live our human lives for His glory while growing in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Under human authority, believers all perform the same duties: to love and serve and submit to one another (John 13:35, Philippians 2:3, I Peter 5:5). Within these boundaries, we have infinite freedom for personal expression through our personalities, knowledge, giftings, skills, and so on.

Freedom is not rebellion.
Obedience is not slavery.

True obedience is:

1. applying your heart to follow God, and
2. employing your mind to honor (respect, not worship) the people He has given authority over you.

We don’t always get to choose our authorities, just as we don’t get to choose the noses we are born with. But we do get to choose how we will honor those whom God has put over us.

It is our responsibility and privilege to be aware of how we obey the Lord by following authority. It is our duty to pray for those in authority over us. And it is our God-given right to appeal to an authority, when obeying a man would violate our conscience before God.

Liberty in Christ stands firmly against:

• unlawful demands of authority;
• unreasonable demands of authority;
• unconscionable demands of authority.

Too often we complain about authority when we should pray. We submit when we should appeal. And we appeal when we should obey. As in all things, we need the Spirit of God to help us correctly respond to authority.

“Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; or unto governors …. Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king” (I Peter 2:13–17).

Connie considers the difference between “unique perspectives” and “differing worldviews.” That sounds really dry and uninteresting (don’t tell Connie I just said that), but I promise, this is an article you want to read.

Especially if you’ve ever been annoyed at the way Connie talks about her convictions, or you disagree with her application of the Bible.

Click to continue...

( Analogies,Christ Life )

Connie peels down a common onion and discovers how she can live sincerely and without guile while being discreet with her tongue.

Click to continue...

( Analogies,Christ Life,Modesty )

The problem with putting people up on a pedestal is, it brings their clay feet closer to eye level.

(Filling in for Connie, who’s trying to recover her equilibrium.)

You may not believe it, but all of my articles are somehow related to each other. They come from a natural flow of connecting thoughts that build upon each other. When I go to write, I throw away the more trivial connecting thoughts (they can be very strange), and publish the thoughts that remain. Then I either get praised for writing clear prose, or criticized for presenting outlandish ideas.

I think, however, I may have left out too many connections leading up to Warped Control. It was a continuation of a continuation, which was a bad beginning, and then I left unfinished half of my further thoughts. And I’m too confused myself to go back and clarify it more than I already have.

I’m sorry.

If you like plumb the depths of the written word and come away with no clear understanding of what the author intended to convey, you’ll love this article.

(Hint: Connie is intent on discovering how slight attitude defects mature into huge character flaws when left unnoticed and unrecognized.)

Click to read the article.

(This is a modest continuation of Warped Targets.)

I’ve been thinking about another kind of “target” many Christians (rightly) strive after and often miss—Self-Control. It’s a worthy goal, but too often the kind of “control” we settle for is merely Self-Repression: “I can’t do this. I won’t do that.”

I keep certain guardrails in my life to safeguard my Christian walk. But to remain walking on the road my focus must be on my destination (The Lord our Righteousness), not the safeguards (moral taboos). My feet will follow my eyes. If I only focus on what I MUSTN’T do, I may not see an important mile marker that would guide me onward in the right path. For instance, I might unknowingly reject or repress a righteous impulse, assuming it was evil because it would give me pleasure; or I might believe that someone else’s opinion is wrong, because I never thought of it before. (I blush to admit I’ve done both.)

True Self-Control is righteous moderation—a balancing of good qualities. Self-Control becomes Selfishness when it is not carefully balanced with Discernment (knowing right and wrong), Wisdom (knowing how to act on what is right and wrong), Meekness (yielding personal opinions to Truth), and Flexibility (holding to principles, not rules, in varying circumstances).

Good balances good, to keep all from becoming hypocrisy.

I do have some strange dreams. This article is the by-product of one of those vivid half-asleep dreams I tend to have very early in the morning. While the original dream had a dynamic vocal narrative throughout, it was, sadly, retained in my memory by a few pictures and fragmentary phrases. I need to install a VCR.

Click to continue...

( Analogies )