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But It's Our TraditionBut it’s Our Tradition!
I was producing a recording session not long ago, and one of the songs talked about stepping outside tradition.
According to Webster’s tradition is: the delivery of opinions, doctrines, practices, rites and customs from generation to generation by oral communication.
Once when I was a youth pastor I showed the senior pastor a picture of a Christian music group. He quickly told me these people were not saved. If they were he said their appearance would be different. This group was judged immediately by their appearance.
While talking to another pastor one day I commented favorably about a well known contemporary Christian artist, to my surprise the pastor responded with disgust and said that God might save this artist if he got rid of those ear rings!
Were these Pastors men of God? Yes! It was just that they had been taught by the generations before them what Christians were supposed to look like.
Most judgments are made based upon someone’s tradition.
There was a young couple who had just gotten married. The young bride wanted to impress her husband by cooking for him. She bought a ham and was preparing it. The young man was admiring his new bride’s culinary skills with a smile. Then just before she put the ham in this huge baking pan she cut the end off the ham then put the remainder of it into the big pan. The husband was curious. He asked why did you do that? She answered I don’t know my mama does that. The husband went to his mother in law and asked why do you do this? She answered I don’t know my mama does it. He went to his wife’s grandmother and asks why? She said, well when I first got married I only had one baking pan and the ham was always to big for the pan so I cut it off!
Thus the great ham tradition had developed.
Tradition also means to surrender or betray.
Tradition has the ability to make us surrender our common sense and betray us to a lie.
Once the Pharisee’s got angry at Jesus, because his men ate without washing their hands. They were also angry once because he spat on the ground made clay, put it on someone's eyes and healed him! They were not angry because he healed the man, but because he spat on the ground on the Sabbath day! Why would they get so angry? Tradition! When Israel came out of Babylonian captivity they developed 39 Fathers laws. Things you could do and things you could not. For instance, you could not plow plant or pluck up on the Sabbath. When Jesus walked the earth these traditions had developed into something a mite different. For instance in Jesus time if you spit on the Sabbath you had to spit on a flat rock and smear it with your foot, because if you didn’t it could land in the dirt and make a furrow, and you would have broken the law of plowing! Women could not look in the mirror on the Sabbath for they might see a gray hair and be tempted to pluck it and they would have broken the law of plucking! If Jesus had followed these traditions the blind man who got the mud in his eyes would never have gotten healed!
My wife and I was booked in several churches. The churches were excited. The promoters were excited. However as soon as one of the churches got our press kit they very promptly cancelled. They said we were too worldly. In the press picture they received I was wearing a cowboy hat and boots. We were never asked if we loved God, or did we have any ministry experience. If they had ask they would’ve learned of the Bible College Robin and I founded, or maybe about the statewide youth ministry that saw over two thousand saved in its first two years. They could have learned of the years of inner city ministry and how whole neighborhoods were fed with busloads of food. Maybe they could have rejoiced with us over the behavioral health center that turned four units over to our teams for four years! Not to mention the books I authored for the advancement of bible study. No sadly enough they never got past our picture.
In John Chapter 7 Jesus talking about some of these very things said, Judge not according to appearance but judge righteous judgment.
Jesus said in Mark 7-13 that We make the word of God of no effect through our tradition!
Common sense tells us that if we are going to witness the gospel in China we need to speak the language. The world of music is no different. If were going to reach the masses we must speak their language. My brother and sister God is allot deeper than hats, boots, tattoo's and things!
Congregations are people with diverse backgrounds. They need different things they can relate to. A wise man told me one time, a good shepherd not only knows what to feed their sheep, but they also know where to lead them to get fed!
Jesus was overlooked by a lot of people on earth because they couldn’t see him around their tradition… It seems it’s still happening today. By: Robin D. Bullock Robin is also the founder of the Over The Top Bible College and has authored several books. For more information on their ministry you can visit the Robin’s Nest at For More Information Contact: |
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