Worrisome Words: A Spiritual Study

By Terrie L Knox

We often define words through our own experiences and not according to God's wisdom. Worrisome Words is a spiritual study of selected words that without a deeper look often mislead us.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Terrie L Knox
• Release date: Jan 19, 2012
• ISBN: 9780984809929

Book preview

Worrisome Words: A Spiritual Study

Terrie L. Knox

Published by Flying Scroll Publishing at Smashwords

Copyright 2012 by Terrie L. Knox

Scriptural quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture marked NIV is taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Steve Hart and Sue Callender

To my Lord, Jesus Christ,

Without whom

I would have never been able

To see through the pain.

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my gratitude to my family. They lived with me as I walked through all that God had to show me so that I could choose life. I thank them for their patience and their honesty and most of all, I thank them for loving me and allowing me the freedom to choose my own path to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

I want to thank Nancy Bienfang for being there for me with instant prayer and understanding and with more support and guidance than I ever knew I needed. I also thank her for sharing her knowledge of the Bible and for editing this book and much of my other writings.

I also want to thank all who have prayed for me, especially those with the Red Shield Ministries newsletter, for without their spiritual support, this work, not to mention much more, would not have been possible.

But most of all I thank God for His faithfulness. His mercies are truly new every day.

Ezekiel 37:13-14

And ye shall know that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves,

And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord. KJV

Table of Contents

Chapter1: Respect

Chapter 2: Fear

Chapter 3: Power

Chapter 4: Dignity

Chapter 5: Stewardship

Chapter 6: Tithe

Chapter 7: Divorce

Chapter 8: Prayer

Chapter 9: Reality

Chapter 10: Relationship

Chapter 11: Sacrifice

Chapter 12: Judgment

Chapter 13: Authority

About the Author

Another View

Books By Terrie L. Knox

Chapter 1:Respect

Romans 13:7

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour. KJV

The meaning of Romans 13:7 is pretty straight forward with the payment of taxes and the observance of authority. But the honor and respect part begins to get a bit gray.

An obvious question comes to mind. To whom is honor and respect due? The church sports a variety of different opinions. The status of saints, bishops, and clergy are quite varied and when the realm of individuals is added, the opinions are legion. But there is one within the church that we should all agree deserves respect and honor. That is God… and one way we respect and honor God is by respecting and honoring His house, the church building.

The real problem enters when we try to define the ultimate meaning of respect. It is one of those floating definitions that drift with the flow of society and society does not always flow in the same direction as the church. Thus the church has to define its limits and draw its line of acceptability.

Setting those limits is not as easy as it looks. As with so many issues, there is no one step that takes you over the line to the other side. Respect, like other issues, tends to be an elastic barrier that stretches one way or another until it reaches an extreme. Respect has two opposite extremes. On one side is disrespect and on the other side is idolatry. When the elastic is stretched to the limit of either end it breaks and leaves you standing in the middle of a bad situation wondering how things got so far.

An unfortunate example of the extreme of disrespect is the 1996 scandal where homosexual Episcopal priests in Long Island were portrayed in the December issue of Penthouse magazine. It is pretty hard to argue that their stand was not a strong statement against the invincible authority and ultimate Holiness of God. It was an act of total disrespect to God and His house.

We Episcopalians look on with feelings of absolute horror and helplessness. How did this happen? How did things get this far? These questions, as in other situations, soon progressed to the next step of demanding that something be done. Cries like these start at the bottom and climb up the hierarchal ladder where the church leaders turn it back into a question. What can be done to safeguard the church so this will never happen again?

Policies are discussed, tougher regulations are passed, and warnings are issued. The leaders send out the messages to the people of the parishes and greater precautions are taken.

An environment of fear takes over. The shadow of this abomination overrides every situation and decision pertaining to the use and care of God’s house. Caution turns into paranoia and obsession turns into reverence. The vestments, silver, and building are no longer used to beautify the worship service. They are fervently guarded and literally worshiped themselves.

This is not only a problem for the Episcopal Church. We have to remember that every denomination and group of Christians since the beginning of time has faced the same problem and has been forced to find ways to deal with it. Any ‘thing’ used to help us remember God’s supremacy, whether it be bronze, silver, special clothes or covers or even people, is still a thing of this world. Those things cannot replace God. And more important, they can and eventually will be replaced themselves.

Churches run into trouble when they rely on a human view. Our eyes see only through our own experiences, our culture, and our understanding, all of which is very limited. We see the signs of respect and righteousness which are set by our society. But as we all know, those outward signs can be donned by anyone. A suit and tie does not make a man respectful and displaying vestment does not make a priest righteous.

Dress a person in rags and then in robes. The appearance will certainly be different. But the person will be of the same heart. If respect and