2 Thessalonians 3:6
When reading the Bible do you apply it to your life today? As I read this verse this thought came
into my mind, what would I do if my pastor, Ray Still, commanded me to do
something as Paul is doing to the Church and to us. It was not a suggestion, it was an order, a command, and
what was its reference, keeping the teaching or the tradition that he had
taught them, and to stay away from those who are living a life of
self-absorption.
In my home on 3738 Liberty Drive, we took great pride in the
fact that we were different from others because we did not have a bunch of
tradition that we had to do, not in our home or in our church. I believe we equated traditions to being
a Pharisee; and we all know that they were self-righteous when it came to rules
and formalities; the Rice’s were not that kind of people.
Looking back on my childhood in the area of traditions, we
had many, most were good I think; like we ate our meals together as a family,
and dad always ask God to bless our home, family, and the food we were about to
eat. We had a tradition of
honoring those who were older than us, showing respect for authority. We had a tradition of reading the Bible
in our home, and worshiping together as a family. We had a tradition of working for our needs and wants, and
never expecting anyone to give you anything. Others may have thought we were self-righteous, but from a
very early age our parents taught us that God loved sinners and at best that’s
what we were, but if we invited Christ into our hearts He would open His word
to us, and the Spirit would guide us into truth.
Now when it came to the Baptist church, we were proud (good
pride not the kind that set a person against God) that we were not like those Methodist.
Do you know that they called
baptism sprinkling? That is
what mother did to the yard or clothes that she was going to iron yes, we
Baptists knew how to get a person wet all over. You may not have known that the Methodist danced, but they
did in fact, they had square-dances in the church fellowship hall, where as a
good Baptist only ate fried chicken in our fellowship halls. Yes, we Baptist had a few traditions,
we did not drink beer or wine in public, and in our home it was viewed as one
of the worst of sins. If you were
going to dance with one of those misguided Methodist, you needed to cross the
county line, and pray that the deacon kids would not turn you in to the
pastor.
Looking back on being a Baptist, we had some very good
traditions, we were taught that God loved sinners, that the Bible was true, and
that in it you would find the mystery of living life on planet earth. We were taught from a child to read and
study the Bible, we were taught to honor authority, and that all authority was
sent by God. We were instructed to
honor our parents, to assemble together, and the Rice’s had that assemble
together down perfect, if anyone was assembling we were there. The best thing I was taught from a
young child is that Jesus Christ the only Son of God loved me so much that He
was willing to become like me, to take the form of a human and pay the price
for my sins.
From the Back Porch,
Bob Rice
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