Well it’s the third game for the Bucs this Sunday. That means a few things, but primarily that means return of our DUI college rapist (allegedly) TE Jerramy Stevens. He’s coming off the two game suspension for the DUI. I think he had like a one game suspension last year. The Bucs cut another tight end to make room for him. We always have room for one more felon.

That’s one thing I miss about the Dungy era. The offense statistically has been almost exactly the same. Sad.

Honestly there is a place for Stevens in the church. He, just like me, can be made clean and whole. Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 6:

“Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

But a football team is not a church. So it’s sad to say that we’ll see more folks like Stevens until we don’t see Gruden anymore.

I know this will embarrass my wife, but I did get her permission first. Today is her birthday, and like any good husband I asked her a few days ago, “What do you want for your birthday?”

I want a new bible. How about that? I got a good one, eh? I’m referring to my wife, not my bible, though that is also good.

Through her commitment to God’s Word, she challenges me to be more diligent in my time and study. Here’s a verse that popped into my head, and should probably pop up more often.

Proverbs 18:22 “He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the LORD.”

Of course she did request the leather one, (as opposed to the cheaper hardback) so that will be a bit more pricey. But she’s worth it. I got her the Spirit of the Reformation Study bible, which I highly recommend. It has great notes which have been very beneficial for me over the years. It’s always good to learn from people smarter than yourself.

Yesterday we had a legitimate Buc’s Party. Legitimate. Usually a Buc’s party includes myself, a sleeping Amy, and if I’m lucky, one other person. We had 11 this time, including Connar. Since Connar had not had a full night’s sleep for several days, neither had Amy. She was tired and not really in the mood to have a large crew over. It seemed like a big deal. But the kids provided the food and beverages.

In the end, as she and I always do, we had a blast. The youth stayed until 9 pm (game started at 4 pm), playing with Connar and giving us a little break. It seemed like a sacrifice to have people over. But it turned out to be quite a blessing. This is more often than not the case with hospitality. You sacrifice very little at the front end, but you sacrifice a lot of joy in the long run when you only practice hospitality when you feel like it.

Here’s a video of one of our youth entertaining Connar through his “b-boxing.” I think we’ve discovered our next great pacifier.

A woman at the gym (an older woman, just to make sure you know) asked me, “Didn’t you have a baby recently?” I told her that it was my wife who had the baby-and I think she knew that, because she had three herself-and how Connar was doing.

Then I asked her, the only Patriots fan I’ve ever met who is not annoying, “What do you think about the whole Tom Brady situation?” I picked him up in my fantasy football league this year with my first pick. Mistake number one, because he just tore his ACL and is out for the season. While I hate the Patriots, I also like to win. I was torn about Tom’s tear.

Apparently the coach, affectionately known as Bill “Belicheat” Belichik (because he got caught cheating), did something quite out of character. At least the character I notice from afar. Instead of bringing a big name back-up to compete for the job, he told everyone he would stick with their present back-up, now starter, QB Matt Cassell. The same Matt Cassell who hasn’t started A real game since high school. Seriously. No starts in college. Crazy.

His reasoning? Matt had enough pressure on him. Why make him fearful about losing his job? He has enough on his plate. Fear wouldn’t motivate him. Instead Bill felt the coach’s assurance would be enough motivation.

I think that is a great picture of the way God deals with us. Fear may work to motivate some folks in athletics, though it doesn’t seem to work for Coach Gruden (10 QB’s in 6 years). But it doesn’t move us forward in our faith. Fear has to do with punishment and condemnation. And Jesus has taken punishment and shame upon himself. Once for all. Blessed assurance is a better motivator. Thanks for reminding me Bill.

I led a brief devotion time last night at our session meeting on Jesus’ prayer for believers in John 17. I figured that we ought to look at how HE prayed for believers in order to better understand how WE as elders pray for those under our care. Some of Jesus’ prayer requests include the sanctification of believers, that they would be filled with His joy, they would see His glory, that they would be protected from temptation yet still be active in the world, and that they would be unified. The unity among believers, Jesus states, shows that the Father sent Him into the world.

The unity among believers displays the gospel to the world. The lack of unity obviously clouds this picture.

So we pondered briefly what unity would look like. If we pray, how should we expect to see that answered? Some of us thought churches might do outreach and mercy ministry together, pooling their resources. I thought perhaps unity would look like a common cross denominational vision (as opposed to simply a combined meeting or activity, though I’m not opposed to that per se) to love our neighbors, bless them and the community, and share the gospel.

One elder mentioned that some semblance of a unity does exist, and we need to more proactive in recognizing it, and delighting in it. I got to experience that this morning at Panera. Panera, pronounced improperly by some as “Panera’s,” seems to serve as a discipleship “hub.” Every time I meet someone there, I can see people praying, blessing their food, reading their bibles, and meeting with one another for encouragement, bible study, accountability, etc..

Today there were a few young men meeting together, and I eavesdropped (after I saw their bibles) enough to hear conversation which had to do with Christ.

Now if there is an outreach opportunity, I’m all for that. But usually when it’s Christians meeting, I let them be. Today, after I walked out of Panera, I felt convicted to go back in. So I went back, bluntly interrupted them, and met these two young gents. A youth pastor and college student. Conversation was short, but encouraging. I’ll probably see them there in a few weeks. At the very least it was an opportunity to see each other as brothers from different mothers, but with a common Heavenly Father. And an opportunity to embrace the unity, despite denominational differences.

This is the conclusion to the “secondary matters” posts. After you first see how clear and often things are presented in scripture, and then look at how the church over the years has understood something to be clear in scripture, you should then move on to the present. This is the THIRD and final step. I apologize for it being so long.

How has the Christian community within your denomination understood an issue? How have those outside your denomination or particular history (Baptistic, Reformed, Ana-Baptistic/Mennonite, etc…) or cultural background (Eastern, African-American, etc…) understood the scriptures to be speaking to certain matters? How have you personally, in your experiences, in your personal time of study, in your reflections understood the scriptures to be speaking to the issue?

The degree to which you find greater agreement among the steps should affect your certainty. The greater the agreement, the greater the certainty. And vice versa.

As you interact with your personal experiences, denominational understanding, those outside your theological/cultural camp you will find some universally held beliefs. Things like the Apostle’s Creed. If people want to argue about Jesus’ real resurrection from the dead, or whether or not He’s essentially the same as Allah, or Shiva the Destroyer (Hinduism), then you ought to “contend for the faith.”

Then there are issues which I believe the scriptures clearly teach regarding God’s ultimate sovereignty and baptism, which I hold to a high (not highest) degree of certainty. So I’m going to pastor or join a church with those things in mind. However if there is no such church with those standards in my area (speaking as if I weren’t a pastor), I will look for one that aligns itself with my highest degree of certainty: Apostles Creed. There are many folks who don’t think I should have had Connar baptized. And they would probably re-baptize them if they could. However, I still learn from folks like John Piper (Reformed Baptist), Mark Driscoll (Reformed non-denominatonal “baptistic”) and Don Miller (not Reformed at all).

For folks like these, I can enter into a dialog with them. But neither will probably convince the other, and that’s fine. No big deal. Scripture just isn’t as clear as we would like to think on these issues. Even though that pains me to say!

And even within denominations there are areas which need to be revisited and thought through today. So that they are as scriptural as possible. For instance, in my denomination, the role of women. Should they be deacons? I personally think so, but I’m submitting myself to the larger body. However, that doesn’t mean that this will always be the case, nor should it always be the case. There is debate and dialog going on. And it is being done with these steps in mind, with people smarter than myself (Tim Keller leading the pro-side). So the stance could change someday.

Finally, there are individual convictions and interpretations of scripture which need to have all three steps in mind. Something that may seem so clear to you could perhaps be due to your past, the way your family did things, the way your church did things, your friends, your enemies, your political party, your socio-economic standing, your exposure or lack thereof to good training, etc..We all need to recognize that we have certain biases which we bring to the scriptures. Some helpful. Some quite harmful. That’s why it is SO important to limit these biases with the help of the church over the years and the wider Christian community today. For these issues, dialog is fine. Personal conviction in these areas is fine. But trying to force these on others, judgment, harassment, isolation, arrogance that YOU hold the key interpretation and application is not Christianity. It’s more gnostic (secret knowledge God gives to an enlightened few) than anything.

We need to keep in mind that even the Reformers who broke away from the Catholic church looked to those before them for their interpretations of scripture. Augustine believed in salvation by grace through faith before Luther, Calvin, Zwingli. And John Huss, said it a 100 years before all of them. And while not perfect examples of fellowship, they all interacted with their contemporaries, in addition to their personal studies. Unfortunately some of their convictions did sourly affect and limit their fellowship as things with lesser clarity were held with higher certainty (view of Lord’s Supper). So the next time you think you’ve discovered an interpretation and application that no one, or only a few have discovered in 2000 years, think again. You’re most likely wrong. In the slight chance you’re not, keep it personal and gracious when you dialog with others.

Tampa Bay Rays mania may start to dwindle very soon. With only 20 games left in the regular season, they are only up one and half games against the evil Red Sox. Most people are just hoping for a Wild Card shot. That seems more likely since they haven’t scored A run in two games. But at least we’ll be there for one game to root for the home team. One game, but four tickets though.

First, let me give you and “Ocho Cinco” update. Apparently since so many of the number 85 Chad Johnson jerseys have been sent to stores, the NFL is NOT letting “Ocho Cinco” run free. He will have to remain Chad Johnson on the field. Unless he decides to purchase all of the 85 Chad Johnson jerseys currently in stores. Life is hard, eh?

Anyhow, I learned one valuable thing on Friday night. Enterprise, the company which boasts the slogan “We’ll pick you up,” doesn’t. At least not airport Enterprises. On the way to Rock the Universe (Christian concert night at Universal Studios), the church bus broke down. About 15 miles from the Universal Studios exit.

The kids made the most of the time by cross-stitching, paper meche, and making balloon animals, so that was fine. The caravanning cars following us took their kids and then came back an hour and a half later for the rest of the kids.

Myself, and the bus driver + wife waited for them to return and take us to the Airport Enterprise (only one open at that time) to rent 3 mini-vans. Because if you are stranded on I-4, they will not pick you up. Busch league. Totally.

We finally got to Universal Studios at 11:45 pm, just in time to meet the kids at the check point at midnight. I can now say that I’ve been to Universal Studios, and not be lying. Although I was joking about the paper meche and the like, our kids had a great attitude and one of them led a few games. You know, the kind of games you’d play if a bunch of your peers were broken down on the side of the interstate.

I really can’t complain. The Apostle Paul was shipwrecked. And he didn’t have Enterprise, or a coast guard for that matter. He probably just had a board to float on. I was in my bed at 3:30 am and can blog about this with a smile. A long night, but God safely, and fairly cost-efficiently, delivered us to our homes.

The NFL season finally started last night. Although this been an easy transition with the success of the Tampa Bay Rays. And with the first week of the season, we shall see something of a “first.”

Do you want another example of why it is important to make major decisions in life IN COMMUNITY and NOT by yourself? I would consider changing one’s last name to be fairly large.

That’s what Bengal’s receiver Chad Johnson has done. He officially changed his last name in a Broward County courthouse last week from Johnson to OchoCinco. His number is “85” and instead of going with the exact translation to Spanish “ochenta y cinco,” he opted for a looser translation. Crazy.

Now the NFL has agreed to officially recognize this name by allowing the Bengals to put “Ocho Cinco” (though it is technically one word for legal documents) on his jersey. I think he got fined for having it on his jersey last year at the beginning of the game before his QB ripped it off.

This stunt may last a season. I doubt he will retire as Chad OchoCinco. More likely he’ll be Chad “Ocho Cinco” Johnson. Probably very few folks out there will be inspired to officially change their name to “G-Money” “Scottish Nightmare” or “Dushka” (all of which I’ve gone by at different times in my life.) But regardless, it shows the need for others to speak wisdom into our lives regarding important decisions. Sometimes such decisions may not be as easy to reverse, and have more serious consequences that only others may be able to see.

I want to continue the question: “how do I know if something is a secondary matter?” But I want to expand it to cover a wider arena, “Which things should garner higher levels of certainty?”

The first step is to see how clear it is, how often it occurs, or how central it is to the scriptures. But that does raise the question: what makes something clear? I mean, when A-Rod hit a home run and it was viewed on instant replay last night (first time in MLB history by the way), I thought there was clear visual evidence to overturn it. So did the announcers. But the umpire didn’t. But what if 100 umpires looked at the replay? And 95 out of 100 believed it was a home run? Well, I would hold to my “foul ball stance” far more loosely. I might even be convinced that I were wrong.

Since God has given wisdom to the church, we ought to look at how saints who’ve gone before us have interpreted and applied the scriptures. How has it been interpreted in the early church? How has it been interpreted and applied over the years?

Let’s take a look at something relevant: the role of women in the church. Should they hold office as deacon? Should they be preachers? Preach on occasion? Do anything an un-ordained man can do in worship?

In order to decide on where to stand, and how strongly to stand on this issue, I need to look at how God has instructed His Church over the last 2000 years. Did the early church have deaconnesses? What was their stance on woman preaching? Did Augustine have anything to say on the matter? How about Luther? How about Calvin? How about the Westminster Confession of Faith? How about in the last 100 years?

Obviously the last 100 years has seen some diversity of opinion on this matter. We’ll visit that at a later time, provided you come back to read in a day or two.

But this exercise ought to help us know what’s primary as well. Churches which believe that the bible is the authority (step 1), also hold to the way the Church (step 2) has from early on interpreted that which is primary. The Apostle’s Creed, which is still recited in many churches today, is what we hold with the highest certainty.

While I am 100 % convinced that I was honoring God in baptizing Connar, many other sincere believers would not take such action. The Church has not been uniform on this issue. Thus I hold the truth presented in the Apostle’s Creed with higher certainty than I do on baptism, role of women in church, etc…