Final 52 Weeks Blog

This is the final blog of the 52 weeks Bible study sermon series.  It has been a year.  We have shared a walk through Scripture that I hope has been fruitful.  Remembering that we started with Genesis it is important to reflect upon the condition of the world in that first book.  God had spoken all that exists into being and His words were "It was very good!."  Very good that people walked in relationship with God.  Very good that sin had not yet come into the picture.  Very good that God's clear purpose for people was to glorify God and be a blessing to one another.  As we approach 2012 we will begin with the ending to our study.  Our first 6-7 weeks will be a look at Revelation ... the last book in the New Testament.  Some look at this book and (astonishingly) have some idea that God is taking people back into the time of the Torah and the Law.  This is not only a misreading of Scripture but is in total denial of the tenor of the New Testament.  If you read Revelation to the end you will not find the Torah, the temple and a need for the intersession of priests.  There is no temple, only God.  There is no need for the Law which Paul said held its power in death, for there is no death.  There is no sin ... no need for sun and moon (the light of Christ is plenty).  And God has restored people, the creation and has brought it all down to a new earth in which He is in charge.  I think God will look out on this new creation (which has redeemed all eternal things (Heb. 12)) and say, "It is very good."  Hope to see you there (in January and in the Kingdom) and hope to take a few weeks unfolding God's hope unveiled for the people who have chosen to believe in Him and bear the fruit He has commanded.  Come Sunday, for the table is made ready!  Pastor Randy

Pietism vs Cruciformity

Michael Frost takes on the topic of pietism in his book "The Road to Missional."  In the book he examines pietism and makes the following observations (paraphraised):
1. Pietism (one manifestation is the idea that I can achieve righteousness through methods such as withdrawal from the world, observing the law, judging others [who are obviously more broken that I], self-improvement, etc.) often seems to remove itself from a world it believes is below it's own standards.
2. It seeks to make itself aloft from those 'others' (the very ones Christ went toward) who are evil and victimize the pietists.
3. The above victimization and perceived persecution causes fear and, what Michael Frost believes, laziness.
Pietists seem to hang their hat on the cliches of the faith, using easy one liners, the 'rules' and a huge list of things not to do.  Why engage a person in meaningful discussion when you can hand them a religious tract.  Why engage the world with the light of Christ when you can cut off conversation with an "I just follow the Bible."  Frost says the problem is not that the pietist is too righteous, but is unrighteous.  He/she has missed the idea that Jesus calls us to exceed (not mimic) the righteousness of the Pharisees.  So ... how can this be done?
How about this.  Stay alert to the work of the Holy Spirit.  Discern how Jesus would deal with a situation, engaging incarnationally with our neighborhood, God's people, and our neighbors.  Remember, the cruciform love of Jesus is not always pretty and easy (like those Lifetime movies).  Instead, it is struggle, dirty, bloody and often done with the reward of real persecution.  To understand the universal reign of Jesus you must be willing to submit all things, even false piety, to the God who can redeem even this world.  Let Him use you, lead you and love through you.  You may begin to grasp the humility and the true reign of God in your act of submitting.  Try it ... it is what Jesus did!  Pastor Randy

The Poem of Your Life

Life is a song we must sing with our days ,A poem with meaning more than words can say
A painting with colors no rainbow can tell ,A lyric that rhymes either heaven or hell
We are living letters that doubt desecrates ,We're the notes of the song of the chorus of faith
God shapes every second of our little lives, And minds every minute as the universe waits by
The pain and the longing The joy and the moments of light
Are the rhythm and rhyme The free verse of the poem of life
So look in the mirror and pray for the grace, To tear off the mask, see the art of your face
Open your ear lids to hear the sweet song ,Of each moment that passes and pray to prolong
Your time in the ball of the dance of your days,Your canvas of colors of moments ablaze
With all that is holy,With the joy and the strife
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life
With the rhythm and rhyme of the poem of your life            Lyrics by Michael Card
Thought these lyrics were appropriate as we have an all music service Sunday.  The choir sings at first service and the children will sing at second service.  As we listen to the songs, ask yourself ... does the poem of your life rhyme heaven?  If not, see me and we will talk.  Pastor Randy

Why We Fail

It has been a strange and busy week filled with family visits and lots of issues related to my family and to the families at Good News.  As I have reflected on some of the ongoing issues inside these families I have seen example after example of adults failing to be parents.  They simply refuse to become responsible adults, leaving their children with nothing of substance except the 'image' they desire to paint of themselves.  The irony of it all is that the only person that is fooled by that image is them.  Why do these parents systemically fail?  Two reasons.
First they forget to accept the deity of Jesus (my topic for Sunday).  This sounds like a simple and foundational truth.  Jesus is fully God.  However these people have placed their image in the pace of Jesus as their God.  When stressed they choose their own path, even when they know God's path.  When challenged to be humble they become proud and all-powerful, becoming control freaks.  When life challenges them to submit to God's plan they choose what is easiest, most expedient and (short term) most beneficial to them.
Second, they refuse to be adults.  One story involves the resolve to simply love his family enough to warn them and lead them away from evils that are destroying the lives of a spouse and children.  The evils are evident and known by many inside and outside the family.  Yet, enabling them is simpler, easier and involves less effort.  I am deeply troubled that someone who has chosen to bring children into the world and has promised to love "in sickness and health" would do this.
Jesus gave a warning to those adults that continue to do these irresponsible and cowardly things.  He says "If anyone causes one of these little ones—those who believe in me—to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
This passage tells the whole story.  God is God whether we accept it or not, and those responsible for the 'little ones' will be held accountable.  God is watching.  As Jerry preached about John the Baptist, we are all called to repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.  Believe.  Become the adult God made you to be.  Be real, not some self-created image.  And place God in the rightful position in your family.  AMEN. Pastor Randy

Thanks

I am thankful today for the people of Good News who show their love for God and one another by sharing the burdens of friends.  I have seen it often.  Prayers, time spent in hospital rooms, love shared in homes of the sick, food deliveries and patience in the midst of pain.  They all show a church of people who love their God by reflecting Christ in the best and worst of times.  Thanks to all of you for being there for one another.  May we enjoy serving through many joys and victories.  May we share the defeats and get up off the ground to fight the good fight with a passion that can only come from God.  And may we give thanks to God who gives us strength to endure, live and love.   God bless each of you this Thanksgiving!
Pastor Randy

Displacing God

John's 3 Epistles speak much about the issue of love and God's calling for His people to be lovers of God, lovers of light, lovers of each other and lovers of living to please God.  But I think a major point John is driving home is the call to live as people who are led by their God.  He sums up this life at the end of 1st John by reminding his beloved people to make sure they do not allow things into their lives that displace God.  What a challenge for us.  Every week we have people in our church that 'decide' whether they will go to God's house that week.  This is a decision that should have been made when they became a Christian.  Maybe comfort, tiredness, lives filled with the 'urgent' (but not eternal), football, recreation or something else have caused them to forget ... ignore ... displace God's clear call to his community, the Church.  Every week some of us have chances to make God-centered decisions, do God-centered activities, read God's Word or seek God's path ... but choose something else.  They displace God with things that they have deemed more important.  They come to God's house filled with the stuff of this present darkness and expecting what they want.  God is shouting, "empty yourself so I can fill you with my good things."  Let it be so!  AMEN

Week Off

We have faithfully followed the 52 major stories of Scripture during all of 2011.  Many of these weeks have been spent in unfamiliar, but not unimportant, places.  This week we are stopping alongside the road and looking around at the blessings God has provided.  It is ironic that this week is usually the week when we do our "Stewardship" Campaign, and we will be providing everyone with information that tells all who are interested where we are financially.  But where we will break away from the norm.  We want this to be a week of gratitude and thanksgiving for the blessings God has sent.  For capable and dedicated staff and volunteers.  For the mission work that has been accomplished at a time of scarceness.  For ministry families that sacrifice time and convenience so that ministry can happen at inconvenient times, late hours and when many are resting from their weeks.  For answered prayers and for the prayers God is currently answering.  For beautiful music from our choir and praise team.  For spacious skies and amber waves of grain.  For our veterans.  For all of the blessings God has given us so we can have the blessing of sharing them.
You get the point!  Thank you Lord for all of these and the most beautiful gift of your Son, Jesus.  Amen!

Aliens

We are in a time when the subject of aliens arises in various forms.  There are the space aliens which, we all know, are divided into those who are peaceful and friendly (like ET) and those who are bloodthirsty and destructive (the Klingons).  My son and I mused that many of these aliens are either bloodthirsty or destructive but few manage both in an effective way.  Hope, though, you get the idea.
Then, there are illegal aliens or undocumented workers, named as such based on your political direction.  This type of alien occupies arguments, state legal arguments and news reports.
Then, there are the aliens in 1 Peter.  These are Christians which Peter (probably from Rome) encourages, teaches, leads and warns.  We are also this type of alien.
Why would I identify us with these outcasts?  Because Peter reminds us of the marginal nature of our life as followers of Jesus.  He calls us to holiness ... living in total belief of Jesus and the sufficiency of the cross, the resurrection and the sacrifice He has made.  He calls us to harmony, living in a way that shows our savior by the behavior we exhibit.  And, he calls us to the humility that comes with a life that will see us suffer and persecuted like our savior.
Most of you are down with the idea of holiness, though we don't really get what the believers in the 1st century would have meant.  We also have some understanding of harmony, though we haven't really implemented it in the Church.  And suffering ... we didn't sign up for a faith that calls us to deny ourselves, our pleasures and our creature comforts.
1 Peter Christianity is lived on the edges and at the margins of society.  It is unsafe because of trials (1:6), unjust authority (2:18), suffering for right actions (3:14), persecution (4:12-14), suffering as God's refinement of Christians (4:19) and suffering because of Satan's attacks (5:8).  Read these passages.  Check out where you are and where you ought to be.  Then follow Christ!  Pastor Randy

Liquid

It was a pleasure to baptize Braxton Barnes this morning.  As I read the part of the liturgy relating to God doing great things through water I was reminded of a reading from earlier in the week.  The author theorized that we, as Christians, should be 'water' in how we do ministry.  We should flow into the low places filling them with God's good things.  We should erode the institutions and prejudices that keep us from God.  We should be life-giving to those needing the living water of Christ as they should see Christ in us.  We should be cleansing wherever we are.  We should be God's agent to do all of these things in the name of the one we follow, Jesus.  Sunday we will study the book of James.  James is pretty harsh as he corrects and confronts the Church.  He reminds us of the image of water when he says that "fresh water cannot flow from an unclean well."
When I read this passage I think of a conversation in the narthex of a church building in which one member said to another she wouldn't forgive, forget and that she would continue to bring up an old hurt again and again.  The unforgiving member was a person that had said they desired to be part of the leadership of that congregation. 
I thought how carefully our Lay Leader Development team has worked to develop a slate of leaders who truly reflect the fruit of the Spirit.  I thought how easy it would be for 'unclean water' to make its way into the fabric of any church.  And I prayed for the meetings of this week ... where we will encourage the staff, listen to stories of the good work of current leadership teams, approve a slate of officers, hear encouragement from our District Superintendent and look forward to a new year.  My prayer is that God takes us to His good place and gives us leadership that is kind, gentle, joyful, peaceful, loving and patient.  I pray that every leader is a lover of God and people.  And I pray that all of our leaders are conduits of the fresh water of Jesus.  I hope you will pray too!  Pastor Randy

Thy Word

Jerry and I were talking today about the fact that over hundreds of years, numerous authors and cultural changes the writing of God's Word has been remarkably consistent.  Threads of theme, direction and purpose follow through the entirety of Scripture.  Stories are connected.  And God's Word shouts one word from start to finish.  That word is Jesus.  Ignoring Jesus leads to heresy.  Failing to view Scripture through Jesus leads to placing improper importance on things and themes that God has not placed first in importance.  Prophecy from Genesis, images from Exodus, words from the Psalms all are clarified and revealed by the life, person and passion of Jesus.  Looking back we see, through the lens of Jesus, that people are more important than power, the oppressed have more value than kingdoms and seeing ourselves through the lens of Jesus reveals both the incredible value of each person and the fallen nature of each person ... an infirmity only healed by the life-giving work of Jesus.  May we learn from the lessons of Scripture so that we can see life through the eyes of Jesus and be taught by the living Word of God that each word of Scripture gives us what we need ... in fact, daily bread to feed us and nourish us.  May you take in some of that bread today as you read, listen and learn from the Creator, Sustainer and Lover of human souls!  Pastor Randy

Rejoice

I know you are reading this and saying, "easy for you to say."  Let me assure you it is not.  I have some sick sheep in great pain. Friends are dealing with cancer and life and death questions.  Marriages are struggling.  People close to me are looking for work.  I could go on, including my last week of our sewer backing up, the sewer people cut our phone/internet/cable like, my truck had to be repaired and we made two trips to Montgomery.  Add three hospital visits and one I could have made.  But I think you get the point.  So, I'm reading another preacher's work, a guy named Paul.  He writes, "Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!"  This is from a person whose problems and trials make mine look like a walk in the park.  He was stoned, imprisoned, bitten by a snake, verbally abused and he writes this?  Why?
I heard it best from an old preacher who told me, "If you don't have God, you don't have anything.  If you have Jesus you have all you need."  Got folks in the hospital, take Jesus with you.  Got illness or pain, pray for healing.  Got inconveniences, pray for patience.  Got trouble, check out the one who said, "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give your rest.  For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Remember ... our great high priest, Jesus, has gone out before us.  He knows what we face.  He has been there.  He will always be there!  So, rejoice! Pastor Randy

Economy

I wonder which economy is most important to us?  This present age has an economy we have been pretty good at manipulating.  Part of the reason for this is that we were born in America, which I consider to be the greatest nation on earth.  I am thankful to be here, live here and have America as a base of operations for the business I am in.  What is MY business?  Make disciples of Jesus who love God, know God and serve God.  America gives me great opportunity to go forward as a soldier in this mission.  I can freely profess my faith, preach God's Word and make amazing connections through physical mobility, usable technology and other resources.  Because of these opportunities, our congregation (and those of our brothers and sisters in Christ) should be able to get God's message out in multiple ways.  So ... why is this so difficult and why aren't results what I would like?  I think there are several reasons.
Yes ... though this economy is struggling it is still vibrant when compared with most of the world.  But there is a dark side to our current economic system.  Jesus said it best when He said you can either serve 'mammon' (this economic system, the world's economy) or God.  We seem to be both servants and subjects of the economy that sustains us.  Our decisions revolve around our finances.  We worry about giving up funds for our church because it might have a negative effect on funding our excessive lifestyle.  We make excuses like "God doesn't need my money" and "they [the Church] is always talking about money."  Here is the paradox.  God's Word also says that if our attitude is focused on 'getting' then our pockets will seem like they have holes and we will try to fill ourselves but will never get enough.  I meet prisoners of our economy every week.
Sunday we will look at the two economies.  We will examine the story of the Free Store in Columbus, Ohio that has given away millions of dollars worth of goods, food, furniture, clothes and even prescription drugs, yet it seems to always have enough.  We will talk of a local ministry that is about to give back to its parent organization because of the abundance of giving.  We will pray to become part of God's economic system and to live under His definition of abundance.  And, we will ask for God's eyes to see His unseen economy in the midst of the falseness, the emptiness and the excessiveness of this present age.  Hope to see you there!  Randy

This week's message is one that can be confusing.  It speaks about two sides of the same coin ... the faith in the unseen promises of God and the actions (our actions) that profess faith.  Notice I didn't say they professed this faith with words.  Look at the list.  Not many great talkers ... but many who risked it all for a God they loved.  They professed it [faith] by following God's calling in complete trust of His promises.  Hebrews 11 is the hall of fame of people who had this kind of faith.  They followed, struggled, failed, had victories and often saw nothing of the end of the promise ... yet they believed.  Many of them were people we would shun or avoid because they were messed-up.  But their lives were invested in a God that saw their risk, their steps and their pain.

Are we like them?  Over the past few weeks I have seen some disturbing images.  People who say they are Christians clap for the number of executions conducted in Texas.  People applaud as debaters spell out that a person who has chosen not to buy health insurance should be allowed to die.  I distinctly remember Jesus talking about having compassion for those in prison and being in the business of healing.  Casting Crowns performed a song that had the lyrics, "If we are the body, why aren't His hands healing,  why aren't His arms reaching, why aren't His words teaching?"  When we, as Christians, are in the forums of our world it should be as if Jesus were there.  And when Jesus comes to town, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim that captives will be released, that the blind will see, that the oppressed will be set free, and that the time of the Lord’s favor has come."  How do these things happen?  Through those who, Jesus said, gave the world flavor and revelation about Him (salt and light).  For is is our task to proclaim (by our lives and by our lived-out witness) that God's kingdom is come.  Our Lord reigns both in the future and the present!

Read Matthew 23.  See if those claiming to be the Church today are known for what Jesus pronounces judgement upon, or if we are known for mercy, grace, peace and a loving spirit.  When I see folks claiming to be God's people that are known for bitterness, anger, vengeance, prejudice, and war, I fear for their souls.  I fear that they will meet a Maker who says to them, (Matthew 25) "I never knew you."

One Verse

1 Corinthians 12 is an oft-quoted passage with many points about the body of Christ, the Church.  But today I want to focus on one verse.  Here it is: "All of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it."  I am reading Kyle Idleman's book, Not A Fan.  The book relates to the way folks often call themselves the people of God, yet they have issues when it comes to being followers of the Jesus they call their leader.  He uses the example from last week's message in which our allegiance to Jesus is a bit like a husband who has his wife's picture in his wallet with pictures of other women he likes to hang out with.  How do you think this will play out at home with the wife?
In this passage from Paul's first book to the Corinthians Paul is stating two basic facts.  First, the Body of Christ (the Church) is made up of all the followers of Christ together.  No one is better, more important, or more vital than another because we are a unit.  If each part serves its function the body thrives.  If a part goes on strike, chooses to function like another part, decides to take a year off or just says "Let all those other parts be the Church ... I'm just along for the ride"... the entire body fails to be and do its job.  Second, if you are a Christian you cannot opt-out of the Body.  You ARE part of the Body even if you choose behavior that is a poor witness or is detrimental to the whole Body.
Kyle Idleman asks "What'll it be?"  Do you really choose to be part of this Body of Christ?  Or, do you choose to be a fan of Christ (liking Him, believing He exists, thinking His Word is wise ... but failing to put His Word into your life)?  God is waiting for your answer.  Pastor Randy

Stuck

During the past week I have encountered some interesting reading and situations.  A man came by needing some help but lingered as (I believe) what he really needed came to the forefront.  He was stuck.  His questions were the commonly complex questions of humanity ... "why is there pain and hurt? ... can a good and loving God create a place of punishment? ... can anyone stop the pain in my life?"  I spent some time on two of these questions.  As we talked I was taken by how much his common questions and his need for easy answers are just like some so-called experts who try to give cliche' answers to many Biblical questions.  They seek the easy out.  They want a quick fix.  Their arguments are designed to cut off those who don't buy their shallow view of an immense, unfathomable God.  Phillip Yancey addresses these same issues in his book "Where Is God When It Hurts."  His sick friend is visited by Christians who use the 'shallow God' technique with all of the pat terms that come along for the ride.  I thought of how useless those words are when I am speaking to a man losing his livelihood ... a woman with a third diagnosis of cancer ... a teen whose father puts money first and everything else as "fluff" ... a faithful disciple with a terminal illness ... they don't need cliche' arguments.  They don't care about the multitude of translations (i.e., interpretations) of Scripture, the tracking of the races in Genesis, the theories about the authorship of Hebrews or whether or not Jesus used a stick or His finger as He drew in the dirt in John.  They want to hear from Christ ... how His Words speak healing into their pain and how they can have God's peace.  They need the company of the Psalmist who weeps and groans with them.  They connect with Job who lost everything except his life.  They need the story of a Father who saw His Son die to conquer death, once for all of us.  They don't need "what did you do wrong?"  And "God caused this to make you stronger!" drives them running and screaming from their only means of salvation.  Litmus tests of non-essential doctrine that they 'must' believe is an insult to Christ who said we are saved by (and only by) our faith in Him (guess that is why Jesus taught using faith principles).   Let's try another approach ... God's plan is to bring you safely home to Him (Exodus 19) ... God isn't always the source of our hurts but He is always sufficient (Paul's understanding of his chronic pain) ... God's desire is for every person to choose Him and live in eternity with Him, a place with no pain (John 3:16 and Revelation).  God does heal, sometimes using doctors, sometimes using miracles and sometimes through death and resurrection.  Though people make evil choices, do evil things to other people and are sometimes in the wrong place at the wrong time, only God has the ability to turn the evil of this present age to His good (all things work for good to those who place their faith in Him).  God sees the beginning and end of our issues (good and bad) and if we place Him first His destination for us will always be inside the perfection of His leading (though we should not be arrogant enough to think we will always see it or know it in this life).  My heart hurts when we spend energy, resources, time, anger, conflict and life on issues that will mean nothing in eternity.  We could free-up most of the internet, lots of bookshelves, scores of emails and most of our brain space if we got rid of the useless things we know (or think we know) about God.  John relates his take on this as he tells us, "In the beginning was the Word ... and the Word was God and the Word was with God.  Through Him everything was made."  He is saying that the game has changed.  The lens through which we look at the world is now the Word made flesh.  We have been given the true revelation of God in Jesus.  We look back through the lens of Christ.  We see the present through that lens ... we are blessed because of this, yet we continue to seek the wisdom of the Pharisees.  And, praise God, we see and have a future because of that lens.  God's Word says we can store up treasures in heaven or store up wrath in hell.  When we lead people into life-consuming pursuit of doctrines that claim to be "key" when these doctrines place themselves above the supremacy and sufficiency of Jesus, we (in my belief) are not storing up heavenly treasures. Pastor Randy

Being a Disciple

Our subject this week is all about being a disciple of Christ.  Lots of people I have know profess to be Jesus-followers.  In the Hebrew context (they called him Rabbi or teacher) a follower would walk and 'abide' with the teacher, listening, learning, asking questions and emulating.  This is the Biblical context to which we are called.
This weeks blog will be more questions than answers.  We know the Biblical call is to grow into the likeness of Christ ... to reflect Him as we make choices that show our devotion ... to follow with deed, not just words.
Here are those pesky questions:
1. How is my walk?  Do I walk (as the follower would walk with the teacher) so close that I taste the Rabbi's dust in my mouth?  Am I close enough to hear Him?
2. Do I listen to Him?  When I pray do I try to hear what God is saying back to me?  Do I read the things He said in His Word?  And, do I obey or do I find myself ignoring His commands?
3. Do I learn?  Am I closer to Him today than yesterday?  Do I find myself pining for the time when God was close or do I rejoice that my relationship with Him is growing?
4. Do I ask questions like the twelve used to ask?  Am I so bound by cliches that I am more afraid to ask God a question than I am to walk in ignorance?  Am I so bound to my ideology that I cannot think outside the box of my world?  Is Jesus God of my choices even if those choices place me at odds with the folks I hang out with?
5. Do I try to emulate Jesus?  If the truest form of flattery is imitation, how does my life look as an imitation of the person Jesus that I claim as Lord and Savior?  If He is both Lord and Savior shouldn't I be into trying to do the things that Jesus would do?
OK ... I told you the questions would be hard!  Come Sunday and we will debrief these questions and try to come up with some answers to live out every day.  See you there!  Pastor Randy

Resurrection Power

When Jesus meets Nicodemus in John 3 He is beginning the story of the resurrection.  Nicodemus has a great 'institutional' pedigree but Jesus tells him that this means little to his ultimate salvation.  Whether Nicodemus is a great Jewish teacher who keeps the law and leads others to do the same Jesus is clear.  For those who do not believe in Jesus (Jesus says He IS the resurrection and He IS life) will receive judgement ... in fact Jesus says they are already judged.  This does not appear, in context, to be a good thing since those who believe in Jesus are given eternal life and others appear (John 3:16) to perish.  It is also clear that Jesus' desire is for 'everyone' to believe in Him.  But what does this mean?
There is a new book out (I forget the author) about being a fan of Jesus but failing as a follower of Jesus.  This is close to the point being made in John 3 as Jesus talks about the word belief.  The word (in the Greek) does not mean being a fan.  It does imply being a person who is filled with the power of the resurrection, following Jesus and filled with the Holy Spirit.  It is believing in Him to the point of investing yourself in His message.
I find many people who follow the church, place their faith in Scripture and say they 'love' Jesus.  OK ... let me know how this love is manifested.  Show me where your time and energy is spent.  Do you follow in how you do your work?  Do you follow in where you place your priorities?  Is there evidence in your home, your activities, your spending and your living that Jesus is first?  That is what John 3:16 means when Jesus says "believes in him."
The good news is that Jesus is saying that regular people, redeemed Pharisees, single mothers, business people, athletes, and those who are confused and messed up are all invited to the party.  His desire is for all to believe ... but not the shallow "fan-like" belief I see so often.  He invites you and me to a life of resurrection power and peace.  Everyone is born of the water of the human womb.  "But the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life" [John 3:6].  That is the birth and life to which you are invited!  Pastor Randy

A Short Word

This week I will be brief.  Lee and I will be going to Kentucky for the 175th anniversary of the congregation we served in Mt. Olivet, Kentucky.  Pastor Jerry will preach on Sunday.  Mt. Olivet is a small town in Northern Kentucky with only a few people ... but people of God nevertheless.  We will be going back to a place where love, work, family, weariness and life happened.
In Jeremiah's message from Lamentations I'll bet he thought about these things as he saw his home, Jerusalem and Judah, become exiled and destroyed before his very eyes.  He looked forward and couldn't tell the people good things about what was coming.  He probably wanted, like many pastors, to give his people encouragement, love and a prediction of peace.  But Jeremiah's message was harsh, brutal and full of death and destruction.  He said he wanted to hold in some of what he was to say, but it was a "burning in his gut."  God's Word was coming out ... he had to tell.
In Kentucky, Prattville, Montgomery, and Santa Rosa Beach this is the challenge.  As your pastor I have a heart for you as fellow sheep under the ultimate guidance of the Great Shepherd.  He has asked me to lead you, teach you, love you, tell you His truth and give you His good Word.  Sometimes that is easy, uplifting and a message of peace and love.  Sometimes it is giving you a difficult, harsh, distasteful and draining message that I would rather hold inside.  But like Jeremiah it is a burning in my gut.  So I will do my best to tell you what God is saying through the Word for the week.  I will pray that I never need to say the harsh things Jeremiah must tell the people of Judah.  But remember ... it is not my word ... it is His Word.  I,Pastor Jerry and Jeremiah, are messengers of a faithful and true God.  Pray for Jerry and me and anyone else who is asked to preach at Good News.  I will pray for eyes that see, ears that hear and hearts that follow.  Randy

Unpacking

Last week's lesson from Habakkuk told us that God does things that are beyond our ability to understand (even if God told us what he was doing).  He was both sending the people of Judah into exile and promising them a return some years down the road (in God's perfect timing).  In Jeremiah and Ezekiel God gets more specific (giving them the time frame of 70 years of exile in Babylon).  Immersed in the predictions of things the people do not want and the surety that God will (and did) do what He says, there is a beautiful theme of redemption, newness and hope.  There is the advice to unpack your stuff and be a blessing where you are planted (lot's of agricultural terminology here).
I want to spend a moment on this idea of unpacking.  What great and perfect advice for a people in spiritual, physical, emotional, political and economic turmoil!  We should be able to identify with this theme!
Unpack!  Sounds simple, but what is God saying?  He is saying that while the nation is here temporarily (in Babylon) they should plant gardens, build houses, have children and become productive/functional in the place they are living.  He is also saying that unpacking means you are setting up a life in a place where you become witnesses of the God you worship.  This God can prosper His people in captivity.  this God can cause His people to become a blessing of prosperity to their captor nation.  These people are of a different sort and of different character, having hearts devoted to their God.
And why not?  Joseph was a blessing where he was a servant and captive.  Israel was a blessing to Egypt giving them livestock, grain and free labor.  We (as Christians) are also to be that kind of blessing.  Work as though you are working for the Lord [1 Cor. 15] (because you are in your witness).  Do your work with excellence.  Make your employer, family and country prosperous, not for your own gain but as a witness to your God.  Set your minds on the excellent things above and allow this to permeate your lives daily [Col. 3]. Unpack and leave behind the burdens, grudges, worries and drudgery of the pagans, for you are meant for better things.  Live, for the Lord is your life [Deut. 30]!  And watch your blessings multiply from a God who overcomes all obstacles, including death!  Unpack ... love ... live ... grow ... become ... witness ... worship!
Thanks for listening!  Pastor Randy

A Stop Along the Way

OK ... some heavy stuff has gone past our eyes over the last 8 months.  We are into the prophetic writings and we have heard and read  some pretty harsh stuff.  Time to stop and think for a bit.
Think about God's overall purpose in His Word.  Some would say it is to instill particular behavior, show His might, or teach us commandments.  These all come out in the Bible, but God has an overriding purpose stated often in the Old and New Testaments.  Exodus 19, Jesus prayer from Gethsemane and the conclusion of John's Revelation state that God desires something impossibly good and unbelievably graceful ... He wants to bring us to Himself (His place prepared for us).  His Word says there is plenty of room for everyone, although it is equally clear that not everyone will choose God's path to His house.  Still, that's pretty good news since we have been getting 'owned' by the words of the prophets.
Yes, God's plan is to bring us to Him, but the prophetic word seems a bit harsh.  What seems to be the pattern of those pesky prophets?  Glad you asked!
They are clearly telling God's people that their actions are not consistent with a people who are supposed to know and love God.  They are saying that these actions will result in bad consequences.  And they are calling the people to repent immediately so that God, who is merciful, might have mercy on them.  Collectively they don't seem to listen, with the exception of Jonah's Ninevites.  But the other side of the prophetic message is that they all tell of a day when God will rescue His people.  God's means of rescue is not what we would like or expect.  God doesn't send an army of angels, a great wind to sweep our enemies into the sea or some other theophanic miracle.  Instead He sends a baby to take on human form, live among us, step into our mess and step into time to rescue us.
The next few weeks will be about the new Covenant, a new heart and some old problems we need to shed.  These include letting God be the authority in our lives, letting God lead us, letting God become our first priority and following God to His place and away from the traps, guilt, sin and hurt the Hebrews says "so easily weighs us down."  I'm down for that!  How about you!  Pastor Randy

The Process

When I was growing up in North Carolina I learned that I was pretty good in sports.  This led me to play golf, basketball and football.  I wanted to be best in basketball (that is THE sport in North Carolina).  But I had a talent and giftedness in football.  I soon learned, from a very good coach, that there was a process in football, if your desire was to become a good player.  In order to excel you had to give up time ... time spent in practice paid off in games.  You had to invest energy, because building muscle and skill meant expended energy, even in the hottest months of the year.  You had to invest your mind in learning and repeating the plays so you could be in the right place at the right time.  The coach told us to live, eat and breathe football during the season and in preparation for the season.  Our work paid off ... we lost one game in our best year and left it all on the field.  It felt good.
It occurs the me that there is a process expected by God.  We learn it in the negative as we learn from the prophets.  Hosea, a prophet in the Northern Kingdom, told the people of Israel that they invested their lives in the wrong things ... their time, energy, and minds were focused on things other than their God.  They thought they had success and prosperity and they attributed this to the things that occupied their misguided lives.  God was angry and called them 'prostitutes' selling out God's good things to gods, idols, practices, politics, empty rituals and false leaders.
We find out God has a process too.  His process is to lead us, and the people of Hosea's time, back to him.  In Hosea's prophecy it is clear that God's action here will be at great cost to the nation of Israel.  Many will die.  Many will be taken captive.  They will be humbled and humiliated.  God says that this is a consequence of their behavior and that their destruction is necessary to achieve their ultimate salvation.
This process is repeated as God, in the New Testament, models the destruction necessary for salvation by sending His Son to be destroyed so that ultimate victory can be won.  It is a mysterious and humbling lesson.  The question for us is ... are we willing to allow God destroy those things we have sold to the enemy so that self can be torn down to the basics.  For it is there that God can do His work of salvation (by the way, the meaning of the name Hosea).  Our lives will be a result of the process we choose.  I am banking that God's way, though my way will be destroyed, will end me in the right place.  What about you?

Broken

I wonder ... at what time in history (of the Hebrews, of the Church, of our nation) do we really think we got it right?  Biblically, there were few times that would resemble this standard.  Some would say "the days of the Torah were 'the good old days.'"  They surely haven't read the mistakes, the failures and the sins of God's chosen who failed their way to the promised land.  The only way they had water to drink, fields to plow, pastures to tend and a place to live was God's provision and grace ... for God's glory.  It wasn't the people of Micah's time who have God's judgement of their legal, political, religious and social systems judged and found wanting in the following passage ...
"With what shall I come before the LORD and bow down before the exalted God?
Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,  with calves a year old?
Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?
Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?
He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.(Micah 8:6-8)."
It wasn't in Jesus' time as He condemned the leaders of His time for their religious, political, social and economic actions.  It wasn't even in Paul's, Timothy's and John's time all of them passed on God's judgement and condemnation of the Church of that time.  This week I read a disturbing article that seemed to be saying the Church of the last half of the 20th century somehow had it 'on the ball' and did great things to teach their children and their young adults (by the way, the children and young adults that raised current generations).  As the 'messenger' to the Church at Good News (language from Revelation) I read Micah 8 and find the Church (present and past) wanting.  People fear the word 'justice' as if it somehow isn't part of the Biblical lexicon of people called Christians.  I find little mercy in the hearts of many Christians.  And humility is looked down upon as weakness.  But didn't Jesus model these traits?  I believe we would do right to repent of our past failures to teach and model these traits.  We should acknowledge that we are broken.  I think we should ask God to teach us more about Micah's "great requirement."  After all ... He has shown (in life, death and resurrection) what is good.  Maybe we should listen.  Pastor Randy

Infinite

Isaiah (in Scripture) is having a difficult time describing God.  I run into people every day who seem to have it all figured out, so if you are that person, please forgive some of what I am saying.  Isaiah, who in the passage from last week saw the train of God's robe fill the temple, seemed to have a very solid connection to God.  Yet, he always seemed to be at a loss to fully describe that God.  On one hand God was so big and majestic that words do not do justice God's omniscience.  On the other hand, Chapter 53 (this week's Scripture) shows a God who has become so small as to be common ... a servant and a despised/abused individual.  Further, all of the abuse and the subject of being despised is because of our rebellion.
THAT is a mouthful and a mind-full.  It describes a God that is infinitely big and infinitely small.  That God is both omniscience (knowing everything infinitely) and transcendent (able to step outside of the omnipotent nature to enter our finite/broken situation).  Michael Card wrote this lyrically in this way "He belonged to eternity, stranded in time" and called Jesus a "human baby bearing undiminished deity."
It is a paradox that has filled books, seminaries, classrooms, Sunday School discussions, sermons and is still far to big to be contained by what John said "all the books in the world."  And it is mystery.  Breathe it in ... grab onto God's love ... marvel at God's bigness ... reflect on the mystery and don't be arrogant enough to think that you have some special ability to understand it all.  Let God be as big and as small as He desires!
Be His!  Randy

Too Easily Impressed

This afternoon Christopher and Benjamin will go see the new Transformer movie.  I am sure that the special effects will be impressive.  But as read from Isaiah 6 I am reminded that these artificial effects would pale in comparison to what a lonely prophet saw as God's robe filled the temple and Isaiah saw him "high and lifted up."  The power and majesty here are really beyond our words to describe.  Yet God does something amazing in the midst of this spectacular event.  An angel comes down and touches Isaiah's lips with a hot coal in an act of forgiveness and cleansing.  One man, one calling ... it seems that God is making a statement here.
Maybe God is saying one man can make a difference.  Isaiah becomes the most prolific and most quoted prophet from that small fraternity of prophets.  He confronts kings and self-impressed leaders.  He predicts and pronounces great judgment.  He tells of the birth, life and death of Jesus is accurate terms.  He IS a difference- maker.  The Good News is he is used by God.
Maybe God is saying that there is a message that must be told.  That message is beyond any man and is about a God that will be revealed and will be known in spite of our apathy, idolatry, ruthlessness, self-focus and lack of understanding.  God is certainly intent on getting His message out and will make sure it becomes known.  Those who tell it and bring it to the people will be blessed with their service and persecuted if they do it honestly.  The Good News is that he has a home in God's house.
And, maybe God is saying something about a process.  In a world where we have been told to pray a prayer and we can get cheap grace from a powerful God, maybe God is telling us there is a process He has ordained for those who will follow Him.  That process in Isaiah is to relate to God (God is big/holy/mighty ... I am totally undone in His presence), see ourselves clearly and repent (I am a sinner and I live with a community of sinners), allow God to touch us with His grace (Isaiah's lips are touched and He is made clean) and then 1) hear the need (who will go out with the message) and 2) respond (here I am Lord ... send me).
Read the story ... feel the power ... hear the call ... respond!

Does God Speak?

Does God speak to us?  You might get differing answers to that question according to who you ask.  I will not speculate on answers from other people ... just my experience and the experience recorded in 1 Kings 19.
1 Kings 18 and 19 are important moments in the history of God's people.  They involve a clear demonstration of God's (Yahweh's) power and a clear demonstration of the power of worldly gods.  They show a people who clearly see God show His power yet they are still torn between pleasing their earthly king and pleasing the one true God.  We even see the Lord's prophet (Elijah) feeling the loneliness and solitude of serving God.  We reflect on how we sometimes feel when we are faithful to God and are, therefore, shunned by those we interact with daily.  Elijah ... after seeing miracles right before his eyes ... asks ... "Where is the Lord's voice here?"
In 1 Kings 19 Elijah is hiding in a cave and he goes out to see a whirlwind, an earthquake and a fire pass in front of the cave.  The Lord's voice isn't in any of these apparent examples of theophany (a physical appearance of God) because God sent them but is not 'in' them.  But then the Lord speaks in a whisper giving the depressed Elijah instruction, a replacement (Elisha) and assurance that God always has a remnant (a group of people who do not bow to the gods of this world).  I have heard that whisper.  It doesn't come at my command but at God's direction.  It leads, guides, gives strength, points out my many weaknesses and gives hope when my energy is spent.  Sometimes I would not hear it if I wasn't listening for it.  I've never heard it in a whirlwind, an earthquake or a fire.  I have heard it in a whisper, spoken through other people, voiced by the words of my children and shouted from the pages of Scripture.  Yes ... God speaks!  The question then becomes, are you listening?

Seeing Clearly

As I go through my day I interact with a variety of people.  Bankers, real estate people, retired folks, youth, up-and-coming young people, children, parents, sales people ... every kind of person you can think of.  They all think that the world as they see it is reality.  Then I read about a man God calls "his servant Job."  In the oldest book, the oldest story and maybe the most complex theology in the Bible.  The story of Job cries out over the centuries saying, "Open your eyes ... see the world with the clarity of God's eyes ... there is more than meets our human eyes."
C. S. Lewis understood this when he wrote an amazing story called "The Great Divorce."  In this story the characters live in a place much like "The Matrix" of our modern movie.  They survive in a world that has a simple structure ... if you can imagine it you can have it.  Problem is, 'it' is always of low and diminishing quality.  The houses are alright but soon the owner longs for a better one.  The neighborhoods are alright but soon the resident begins to imagine a place where the grass is greener.  The neighbors are fine until you get to know them. You find they all have problems.  So you move out to the next neighborhood, always 'better' and always not quite enough.  This is Lewis' description of hell.  A bus arrives that will take everyone who boards to heaven.  When they arrive in heaven the fireworks begin.  It seems heaven is real ... too real for the likes of the ghostly crew on the bus.  The grass is so hard it hurts their feet.  The water is so hard the wraith-like hell dwellers can walk on it.  But that's not the worst thing.  The people of heaven are real.  They speak truth.  They live out love and forgiveness.  They are better than no one and are, in their heavenly form, so beautiful it is hard to look at them.  They can enjoy the reality and stark beauty of heaven because they buy into what God has told them.  They really believe the stuff people today call mythical, "good philosophy" and 'story.'  At the end of the bus trip all but one of the wraiths get back on the bus.  They cannot deal with reality ... it is too transparent and they don't like it one bit.
Job is a story of a good man having his view of God transformed.  He enters righteous, proud, demanding an audience with God.  He departs broken, silent and humble, seeing a true and Holy God in a clarity that completely disarms Job.  Maybe if the people I see every day would see God in His Holiness, they would do what Job does ... place their hand over their mouth, just listening to God speak through His Word, His creation and His power.  I too will place my hand over my mouth.  I will listen and watch for the reality of God to happen all around me.  May I have eyes to see and ears to hear!  Pastor Randy

Who is Wiser?

Last week we asked if your 'god' was bigger than you?  This week we will follow suit with another question ... is your God wiser than you, your friends, your news sources or the ads you see on TV?
On the surface you would, of course, answer YES!  But how do you answer the question in how you live your life?  I will be speaking, today, to a world that has become obsessed with all the wrong things.  I will be pleading with people who think their political perspective has the right answers.  I will be reasoning with folks who think God is on their side.
Solomon, and his writings from Proverbs, are part of the Bible called "wisdom literature."  It is God's Spirit-breathed advice for all people that will benefit them each and every day.  I have marveled when science or modern psychology arrives at a 'truth' that they have discovered from years of research and case-studies.  I usually can recall that truth from God's Word in Proverbs.  I can assure you that God is smarter and wiser than me!
One reason I believe this issue is a problem of great magnitude is that watching any 30-minute segment of news or other TV will yield the following ... explicit sexual references, Betty White being 'cute' by making a suggestive sexual remark, a commercial or news report about how one of our political parties is following the 'true' American way, demeaning of adults by children, young people being portrayed as mindless party animals, and the newest/best/necessary device that will change your life.  I could go on.  Proverbs, on the other hand, provides guidance that, if applied, will truly change your life for the better.  You will prosper, life a fuller life, have self-respect, have integrity/dignity, be more content and have perspective on where you have been and where you are going.  You must decide whether you want this life for yourself and for your children.  You must choose whether you will happen to life or whether life will happen to you.  You must evaluate whether your 'god' is really God and whether He is wiser than you.  Choices, choices ... which way will you go?

Who is Bigger?

Who is bigger ... you or God?  This should be an easy question but in the context of the Biblical story of David and the current story of our culture, it is not so simple.  I want you to read 2 Samuel 11 and 12 and Psalm 51.  Hear and feel the intrigue.  Experience the deceit and the agony both bring to King David.  We find here a good study of sin, consequences, a heart of repentance and a proper approach of unholy people to a holy God.
But that question should haunt us.  If God is bigger than us, then we should logically put God first in our lives (not our checkbooks or our recreational opportunities).  If God is bigger then His requirements should preside over our needs (not sex, food, or 'being fed' [baby birds need feeding]).  If God is bigger then He should be our first thought when we face a decision (Would God like what I am doing?).
David's contrition in Psalm 51 expresses a right orientation of a sinful person to a pure and holy God.  David understands that he has violated the plan and the path of someone bigger and more important than even his deepest desires or needs.  David considers this betrayal and rebellion against God.  He is mortified!  He makes no excuses, offers no rationalization, gives no reasons for his action.  He just owns his actions which, according to David, are against (in opposition to) God.
What if we felt this way about our own sin?  What if we understood that each time we choose to sin, go against God's plan, or ignore God, we are saying that we (our will, our needs, our intellect, our 'life') are bigger and more important than the God we say we worship and love?  What if we looked honestly at our own depravity rather than highlight the depravity of others?  Wouldn't that free us to a pure, honest and open worship of God (I think this is true worship in Spirit and truth)?
As long as I am bigger than God, He is not the true Lord of my life and he is not really God at all.

An Ironic Event

I just spent the first part of this week at the Annual Conference of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.  The event is filled with some preaching, some teaching, some reporting and a lot of voting (I have emailed updates to you if you are interested in knowing what happened).  One thing that happens each year is the reading and approval of property resolutions from the Conference Board of Trustees.  Just days before Pentecost (read Acts 2) we are invariably voting on the closure of several congregations that have been declared "legally dead."  People still live near the building, life goes on outside of the 'structure' that we call a church ... but there is no life inside the structure.  I always wonder what happened.
In a short blog, this week I want to put forward my take on what happens when a church closes.  I believe the people inside the building have decided that they don't need to speak the language of the people outside the building.  In the story of Pentecost in Acts 2 the disciples (especially Peter) come out of the upper room into the world of their time and begin telling the Gospel story.  People heard it in their own language and thousands believed after that simple sermon.  A few observations ... 1) the Holy Spirit did this work through the disciples after they left the safety of the upper room (God calls us to risk for the Gospel), 2) they spoke God's message with the boldness of those who were convicted themselves (God uses us when we follow His leading), 3) they spoke to any and all who would listen (no criteria for entry ... just come and hear).  I think those churches that were closed had lost the ability to go out, tell the message with simplicity and risk it all for the God who saved them.  It became about them ... not about God.
I will close with a question that I can answer with multiple examples for Good News ... I wonder how the closed churches would answer it.  Here it is ... "Who, other than members of your congregation, would be harmed if suddenly your church was gone?"  For Good News I think lots of folks ... for the closed churches, maybe nobody.  That's my take ... Pastor Randy

Too Important

For this year I have written a weekly blog for those who would like to go deeper with the Scripture we will be teaching the next Sunday.  I will continue to do so but I felt this Scripture is far too important to bury in a blog that is not universally read.  So here goes ...
We will be preaching and teaching the great commission which is widely viewed as the 'great suggestion.'  I want to approach this Scripture from Matthew 28 simply, Biblically and in a way I hope gets the message across.
First, the Great Commission says we go throughout the world.  Some of you have expressed disagreement with this using cliche's like "charity begins at home" and "we should care for each other first."  Yes, we should be charitable to each other and care for those at home, but Jesus specifically addresses other places here.  The apostles and the early church took this to heart.  They started communities all over the Mediterranean Rim that so expressed God's love, mutual respect and spiritual fruit that they were contagious. As we have heard repeatedly, if your view differs with God's view, it is you who are in a spiritual crisis and it is you who need to make a life-adjustment.
Some of you are already preparing your learned response that we are to preach, teach and baptize.  I agree totally.  Preaching and baptizing are relatively self-explanatory.  It is that teaching thing we get confused about.  Why do you think that almost all of the epistle writers have a statement that generally says, "live lives becoming of the gospel so no man will have anything against you."  Jesus said, Matthew 5, "let your light shine so before men that your Father in heaven is glorified."  While we are having high-tone discussions about the second coming, the meaning of the symbols in Revelation, doctrines that aren't even central to our faith, and who will and won't get into heaven, God's people are walking away from these discussions.  I met a person that bragged that he loved to engage in discussion about doctrines of the church (none of them seemed central to the main thing).  I don't know of a single person that man has brought to Christ but I know many who walked away from the faith because of his witness.

We preach the gospel.  We baptize under the authority of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  We teach by living Christ out in a world that needs to see an alternative to the confusion, pop psychology and false (or at least wimp) Christians that we are wont to be.  We show an alternative that sees the bottom line yet has the faith to step into the river or fight the giant.  We know a God who is into rescue.  God and people are watching.
We go down into the dark places where light has trouble shining.  Are they dangerous and inconvenient?  Yep! That is how we express contagious faith.  Sometimes it takes years before a soul trusts enough to say, "I want some of what you have!"  God and people are watching!

We get the ministry job done!  We don't drag our feet because of imagined barriers and we ask God to knock down the real ones.  For we read the Word which leads us to learn and place our faith into action.  The church has lived for the last fifty years inside the heads of scholars, high-ranking church leaders and even preachers who are impressed with their eloquence.  The only scholars I have met who have had their faith survive the onslaught are those who know they cannot KNOW God (mind) without loving God (heart and soul) and serve God (strength).  We place our sweat where our hearts are.  Because God and people are watching!
I want to shout "let God's people go" because we are enslaved, entangled in the things of no meaning.  So one lady tells me, "I won't give up my lifestyle for anyone."  Another says, "I will redefine God's storehouse to the places I want to give."  Another person says, "I would send the check, but I don't know what tomorrow will bring."  Do any of these folks believe God will be with us, even unto the ends of the earth?"  If not, I wonder if they really have a real, living God.  Isaiah said, "why do you seek the dead on behalf of the living?"  God and people are watching!
Be the called-out ones who live by and in the power of God.  Learn.  Tell.  Bring people to a saving faith.  Preach (or at least let those called preach).  Teach by your witness.  God and people are watching.
Go with God!  Pastor Randy

Warnings

The book of Hebrews is known for several things.  First, we don't know the author.  There is a lot of speculation but it wouldn't solve much so let's just say the author targeted a Jewish Christian audience that seemed intent on drifting back to Jewish connections and were forgetting that Christ had called them to greater things, namely His message and story.  Second, they seemed in need of a "centering" on who Christ was and His teachings as the author cautions them to remember the centrality of their new high priest, Jesus ... greater than Moses, greater than angels, the one through which all was created and the one who is heir of all things.
Tonight I want us to focus on one of many warnings in Hebrews.  The author warns in Chapter 5 for us to listen to the message and to guard against spiritual dullness. Chapter 6 warns that those who have accepted the message and have rejected God cannot be brought back to repentance.  Chapter 10 warns us to not neglect meeting together (that means with other Christians, presumably in worship).  Chapter 12 warns that everything will be shaken and that only eternal things will remain after God causes this to happen (I'm reminded of the words in a Rich Mullins song, 'the Lord will take by its corners this old world and shake us forward and shake us free [I think from those things that falsely bind us to this world]).  Chapter 13 warns that we should be in unity with our spiritual leaders and to give them joy (lots of folks seem to dislike this chapter).
But the warning I want to focus on tonight is one that seems gentle an non-threatening.  It is in Chapter 2 and the Greek term is the word for drifting away.  That doesn't sound so bad, does it?  Until you realize the drifting away here is like being swept out in the tide or into the current of a stream ... just far enough so that the life line no longer reaches.  It may be a slow, gentle movement, but when the tide or the current has you in its grip, you are in trouble.  This is a real problem for a society that is not willing to live in spiritual reality.  Instead we see the things on TV ... we hear the things on radio ... we click on a site on the internet ... and we are very willing to accept what I believe is a false reality.  So we attack another Christian brother because it is easy to do it via email, and the conflict can't be resolved because someone can't defend against your dreams.  We see the story on TV and buy in instantly to some false premise and some false truth that inspires our ire, and we move from reality to a world we have dreamed up.  We think because one church makes a bad choice that all Christians are tainted ... and we drift.  We find some obscure belief we want to be true, so we let it into our belief structure (no matter that it doesn't fit with Scripture) ... and we drift.  We begin to construct God as we want to see Him rather than follow Him as He is ... and we drift.  The author of Hebrews says this drift can become so great that we fall away and are swept away.  That is a warning I want to heed.
So we study.  We become faithful in our following.  We serve.  We remain in the communion with outer Christians, even when they annoy us.  We try to see and do life through the eyes of our Savior, who is (in Chapter 12) the author and perfector of our faith.  We see the drift and choose not to participate.  What about you?  What will you do?  Pastor Randy

52 Major Stories: Learning From Sheep

52 Major Stories: Learning From Sheep: "I have learned that we can gain knowledge from many things we do not understand in our society. As I re-read the 23rd Psalm it is evident w..."

Learning From Sheep

I have learned that we can gain knowledge from many things we do not understand in our society.  As I re-read the 23rd Psalm it is evident we can learn from sheep.  Yes ... those dumb animals that are known for strange behavior ... those things that get fleeced pretty often ... those creatures that will follow one another off a cliff.  These are the creatures God clearly identifies with His people.  Flattering, isn't it?
On the other hand, it is clear that we accept that analogy from God since the 23rd Psalm is probably the best known and favorite (if we take a poll) Psalm of all.  It comforts us to know we have a God on which we can rely.  It gives us peace to know that we have a God that leads us to places we can rest.
I want to keep this blog short and to the point today.  So I will dwell on one peaceful place in this work of poetic art that is a treasure for the rich and poor, for the weak and strong and for the lost and found.  That phrase is, "through the valley of the shadow of death."  First, this is a real place in the ancient world.  It is on that road where the good Samaritan finds the beaten man, between Jericho and Jerusalem.  It is just below the Mount of Temptation where Jesus spent time in the wilderness.  It is not a place to stay but a place to get through to the safety on the other side.  Second, like Jesus this place is a temptation.  We are tempted to give up ... to stop ... to let the shadows get the best of us.  God wants us to know that they are shadows ... scarecrows that want to mess with our minds and break our spirit.  I think God would say what an old Petra song says ... "where there is a shadow, there is a light."  Finally, we, like those led in the Psalm, are to keep trucking through and past that valley.  So many are caught up in depression and other ills that grow so freely in the fertile fields of minds imprisoned by the false gods of the world in which we live.  David understood this and I think as he penned these words as a respite and refuge in his confused world of politics, extravagance, failed alliances, sin, sorrow and bad choices.  I think we need this refuge too for many of the same reasons.  We need to hear the words that God has told us ... we have a place that we can go ... where there are green pastures, still waters and the eternal presence of God.  I don't know about you, but I long for that place and want to live as many days there as possible.  Let's start now! Pastor Randy

Failure to Live Dangerously

In Richard Adams' book, Watership Down, the author creates a story in which a group of rabbits learn the dangerous truth.  They were given the gift of strong hind legs, their story of creation and speed in a world that will be an 'enemy' to the rabbits.  Their world will always be dangerous.
Most of you are saying, we aren't rabbits (though I sometimes wonder if this analogy might be more on target than we would like).  True, but we, too, live in a world full of dangers for our species, Christians.  Some of us would like to withdraw (clearly not Jesus' intent in John 17), some of us would like to build walls and fortresses (also not the witness of the one we call our leader, Jesus).  But what I think God calls us to do (it is spelled out clearly in Michael Frost's book Exiles) is to thrive in this culture by relying on the skills and gifts given to us by our leader, Jesus.  We are to even "bear much fruit" in this dangerous world.  But how?
David gives us an example of this and I want to rely on only one phrase in David's story from 1 Samuel 17.  That phrase is "The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from this Philistine [Goliath]."  Let's break it down.  David knows he is going into a danger that is impossible for him to defeat ... this is why he must be rescued.  But David does something I see few modern-day Christians do ... he goes into the battle knowing he cannot win in his power.  He must count on the greatest gift his maker has given him ... the might of the maker.  I see this real life example (we often reduce it to 'story') played out every day.  We can't do this because it is dangerous.  We can't spend that money because I can't make the numbers work.  We can't do that ministry because it brings up new liability.  We can't ... we can't ... we can't.  Of course we can't ... because if we could in our own strength then the power of God wouldn't be shown to the world so that our Father in heaven would be glorified!  The point isn't my security ... it is God's glory!  Living the life of a Christian in this world can only be done with the might, the gifts and the power of God.  In the words of an old folk song, "when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?"  That's my take!  Pastor Randy

An Interesting Definition

As I listen to the words of our Bible teacher in this series, Dr. Bill Mounce, I am reminded of the humanity of each of us.  Dr. Mounce is a renowned Bible scholar and expert in Biblical Hebrew and Greek.  Yet, in his presentation for this lesson, Dr. Mounce clearly misuses a term which I will clarify in this blog.  I don't do this to be critical of Dr. Mounce or to say I know any more that he knows.  I point this out to say we each are responsible for learning all we can about what we hear and take in from all sources.  And it reminds me that each of us, teachers included, are human and make mistakes which should not be demonized but defined.
Dr. Mounce says that Israel, to this point, was a "Theodicy."  A Theodicy is (by the Wikipedia definition) is "a
theological or philosophical study which attempts to justify God’s (largely in the Monotheistic or Abrahamic sense) intrinsic (or foundational) nature of omni-benevolence (all loving), omniscience (all knowing) and omnipotence (all powerful), despite the existence of evil which, in the view of some, would otherwise stand to refute one or more of these qualities."  Bill Mounce means that Israel has been a "Theocracy" which is a governmental system in which God is in charge in the number one position.   Dr. Mounce is stating that God envisions a system in which we place Him in charge (i.e., God saying "I will be your God [Hebrew 'hessid']"  God is steadfastly loyal to us and totally faithful to keeping covenant with those who are faithful to God]). 
Remember ... God has envisioned a people who place His first. As we looked at Judges last week we found a fickle people who place God first only when they realize they are lost and need Him.  This should be cutting and challenging to us who often place God first only when we cry out and need Him.
Dr. Mounce spends time this week on the prayer/song of Hannah, a beautiful expression of thankfulness, love and acknowledgment of our dependence on the strength of God (something to remember this week when we are feeling pretty strong).  Hannah places God first in her words and then she expresses her submission to God's rule by giving God her most valued thing in the world ... a son named Samuel. Samuel becomes the last Judge and anoints the first king of Israel ... a move from "symbolic Theocracy" to monarchy ... God giving the people what they want, but far from what they need.  This begins stories of great and bad leaders and a nation that, yet again, become more like the nations around them.  This is viewed by God as a rejection of His rule.  That is still the case today.  Please think on this during the week.  Who is in charge of your life?  Pastor Randy

For Parents and Leaders

When I read the book of Judges I can't help thinking about who should be the reader.  Though Judges is a bit weird and has some of the strangest characters and events of the entire Bible, it is pointed in what it says about God's nature, the nature of people and the sharp warning for God's people.  In Judges we see the instrument of foreign, pagan people used to visit deserved punishment upon the Hebrew people.  We see imperfect leaders used by God to deliver His people yet you know as you read that they will again fall into the pattern of idolatry and sin that caused the need for a great leader.  Phrases repeat, the most memorable of which is the last sentence of the book ... "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as he saw fit."  The Hebrews didn't have an earthly or a heavenly king.
As I think of what we should learn from Judges (I can't even come close to making a good list in a blog) I will give you my best short summary.  First, it is clear that good leaders are hard to find.  Gideon has barely the faith of a mustard seed ... Samson is a womanizer ... some of you would add Deborah because she was a woman (I think she may have been one of the Judges that showed faithfulness) ... Abimelech was a murderer ... you get the point.  But before you chastise God, look at our track record in selecting leaders.  Good leaders seem to be very hard to find as we find ourselves going to the voting booth and holding our nose.
Second, God's people then and now seem very forgetful.  They repeated behavior that brought trouble and oppression and we seem to do the same.  We think we can do life "as we see fit" and deny God's power and kingdom in our lives.  Then we get upset when things don't go well.  Somewhere in Scripture it is said that the hearts of kings are like streams of water in the hands of God.  The idea is that God has power and is more at work in the events of the world that we would like to think.  The point is, God cares how we lead our families, our governments and our affairs.  God isn't passive if we, by our idolatry and sin, bring calamity upon ourselves.  His pattern is one that calls us back. If oppression, slavery, loss of our position in the world and loss of the witness of the Church bring us to the brink so we call out to God, so be it.  Don't think God hasn't (by example after example in His Word) told us what would happen.  Finally, I believe there is a message here for parents.  We, as parents and teachers, are always teaching by our actions.  We teach our children about what we think of God as we make daily life choices.  When we give God no power in our lives, why should we expect our children to "know" Him?  My call to the people of Good News is to read the history and the lessons of Judges.  Then ... if you really believe ... let there be a King over the kingdom in which you choose to live.  Tell them and show them that Jesus has power in your life.  Pastor Randy

Completion

The Bible uses a theme that is not often used in our world.  We live in a world of sound bytes and interruptions.  One study said that the average American worker is interrupted every 11 minutes and that re-focusing after these interruptions causes a massive loss of productivity every day.  Most of us give the excuse that we are good at multi-tasking but in reality the constant shift from one project or thought to another is costly and, I believe, has a profound effect on the work being done.  As I look at my life I find I am guilty of this and often have several unfinished projects going at the same time.
Then I think of Christ.  His birth, life, death and resurrection was all toward a purpose that God had planned from the beginning of all things.  God's desire was that He would be glorified by bringing His creation to a place and time of full redemption.  God's focus through Scripture was to bring people to Himself through His work in the world.  He does this relentlessly using prophets, powers, kings, good events, not so good events, beautiful writings, ugly lamentations, Scripture, His Spirit and His only son.  The watershed event of this redemptive process happens partly on a cross between two criminals and partly through God's intervention as His son walks out of an tomb in the middle east.  Nothing is ever the same after that and we, as His Church, wait praying the prayer, "come Jesus come" knowing that His return will be both a terrible day for some and a wonderful day for those who He knows as His.
In this redemptive process God has never lost focus.  He has turned bad choices to his good purposes to the point Jesus even singles out His killers from the cross and says "Forgive them Father because they don't know what they are doing."
Sunday we will celebrate the God who said from the cross, "It is finished."  Translated, "It is completed."  It was a financial term meaning that the debt was paid and full and the obligation has been canceled.  He is talking about removing our sin which removes the barrier between us and God giving us the ability (as it says in Hebrews) to boldly go before the throne of God.  As promised He brings us to Himself.  As promised the seed of Abraham becomes a blessing to all the nations.  As promised we are given a new heart and a new hope for this life and the life to come.  Thank you Lord for never losing focus and never losing your love for messed up people like me.  Let all who have eyes and ears see and hear you and accept your offer of complete salvation.  In Jesus' name, AMEN! Pastor Randy

Remember, Give Thanks

Our subject this week is Holy Communion or the Eucharist (meaning giving thanks).  Communion (meaning union with) was instituted by Christ at the last supper at the time of the Jewish Passover, celebrating the day when the angel of death passed over the Hebrew people and caused the death of all of the firstborn of Egypt.  It was a terrible day of deliverance for the Hebrews and a time of great mourning for the people of Egypt.  So, why did Jesus choose this day and this time to institute what he called the New Covenant?
First, the Passover was a time of deliverance of the Jews from captivity and slavery.  It was the watershed moment in Hebrew history when God came in power to set them free from the Egyptians. Now Jesus comes and fulfills the law of the Torah by living it out perfectly and bringing a new law of forgiveness through His blood and His body ... this sacrament is a remembrance of Christ's life, death and (soon to be) resurrection.  While it remembers the Passover it points forward to Christ.
Second, this New Covenant is completed in Christ and expands God's work to the gentiles.  No longer are the Jewish traditions and customs the focus of faith (as if they ever should have been the focus ... they were meant to point to God).  So the New Covenant points to the sufficiency of Jesus as the focus, the path and the person of our faith.  In Ezekiel and Jeremiah God promises a New Covenant that changes everything from that point on.  Joel said God's Spirit will be poured out on all people and that all will have the capacity to know Him.  Paul continues this idea as he takes the message to the gentiles and has the audacity to suggest that the New Covenant is sufficient apart from the Jewish traditions.  Knowledge of these traditions continue to inform our understanding of many New Testament passages but Paul defends the new Christians from the Judaizers who (in clear error, in fact called a heresy in the early Church) said we must continue Jewish traditions to be true Christians.  Paul said everyone was invited to the party called Christianity.
Third, this New Covenant lives out the blessing God spoke about to Abraham when He said Abraham would be father of a nation who would bless all people and all nations.  Jesus is that blessing.
The shame of it all is this.  Where this Sacrament was to bless and unify God's people it, through the centuries, has become a point of divisiveness.  Some refuse to accept the Sacrament of the New Covenant and insist on going backwards to the Passover.  Some think we should only celebrate Communion once a year.  Some believe the bread and wine are the real body and blood of Christ, ignoring the obvious symbolic nature of Jesus' comment in that room at the Passover before His crucifixion.  In short, this time of Christian unity has become a way to divide and confuse rather than a way to celebrate our thanksgiving for the forgiveness offered in His "once for all" sacrifice on the cross of Calvary.
What should we do?  Come on the 21st and we will celebrate what Jesus did that Thursday night before He gave Himself up for us.  It is called "Maundy Thursday" and comes from the word mandatory ... Jesus said "Do this in remembrance of me."  We'll look back, look at that night and look forward with shame (He died for my sins) and thanksgiving (He purchased my forgiveness).  We will remember together, hopefully in unity.  I'll see you there!  Pastor Randy

To Do and Not to Do

That's the gist of Matthew 25, our Chapter for Sunday.  We will be talking about the end times and I know some of you want me to get into the meanings of the number 666 or the identity of the anti-Christ or the nature of the beast in Revelation.  All of these are things we would like to spend time on, and I have spent considerable effort on each of these.  What I have learned is that there is so much misinformation, confusion, argumentation, divisiveness and disunity in these subjects that I am certain God would not be honored by my adding to this confusion.
One interesting point from the online message by Bill Mounce (http://www.biblicaltraining.org/eschatology/major-stories-bible) is that he and I have come to a similar conclusion about the end times.  We both believe we are in the end times (if you want more information research Dr. Robert Mulholland, The Revelation of John) and we both believe that preparation is the key to our appropriate response to this Word from Matthew 25.  I will ask each of you to read this one chapter of the Bible.  Watch for two things ... things to do and things not to do.  I will give you the simple version of this but here goes for the things not to do.  Don't predict.  We are told that only the Father knows the day and the time so why waste precious time.  Don't procrastinate.  The bridesmaids that were not prepared had a bad last day.  Don't 'pull out of the market.' I'm not talking about of the stock market.  I'm talking about the market where you invest your time, your energy, your stuff, your talents and your life.  God desires to use all of these things for His Kingdom and He doesn't bless those that bury their talents in the ground.
Now the things to do.  Do prepare. God has a plan for us that He has given in His Word.  We are the ones He has asked to take that plan out into the culture.  By doing this we prepare ourselves and the culture for the greatest event of all time, Christ's return.  Do practice.  By this I mean, practice your faith.  Your faith is a great gift from God.  Take it into every aspect of life for that is why it was given to you.  As I said this week, it should be obvious who and what you are as you go about life.  The world should be better because you have come this way.
That's it for now!  Pastor Randy

3,500 Years, and Still Trying!

If the original Shema (the basis for the Greatest Commandment) was written at the end of the Exodus (maybe the mid-1,400's BC) then Jesus would have spoken the greatest commandment (Mark 12:28-34) almost 1,500 years later.  The words are almost identical and express the unity and uniqueness of God (The Lord your God is one ... God alone) and that we are commanded to love God with our heart, our soul, our mind and our strength (all we have and all we are).  Jesus adds that we are to also love other people as we love ourselves.  He concludes that knowing and grasping (by following) this truth bring us 1) close to the kingdom of God and 2) into compliance with the totality of the commandments.  WOW!  What a statement to a people who had never been able to get even close.  How do we appropriate this truth?
First, lets state what Jesus is not saying.  He is not saying that we are to go back to the Hebrew law, the sacrificial system or the Jewish tradition.  We are specifically and repeatedly told that this is not Jesus' desire or direction.  He is not saying that we should love God by loving the Bible, the Torah or even Scripture, though we should love and seek the author.  He is calling us to a love relationship with God and with other people ... a relationship that is reflective of that taught, modeled and lived-out by Jesus.
He IS saying one other thing that is woven throughout the Gospels and throughout the writings of the New Covenant (the New Testament).  Jesus is telling us that those who follow Him belong to a different kingdom with a different way of doing life.  The kingdom of the world is confused and confounded by the presence of economic, religious, political, social and false kingdoms.  Each of these kingdoms have a ruler over them.  Respectively these would be money, power structures, kings/presidents/dictators, celebrities, and other humanly appointed authorities.  In His kingdom, the ruler is God (in the form of Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and He has chosen His people to be the agents of this kingdom here on this earth.  Our only power and authority comes from Him and our only allegiance is to Him.  Herein lies what I believe is the primary reason the Church seems so powerless in the world and so ineffective in bringing God's kingdom "on earth as it is in heaven."  We, according to Dr. Tony Evans, seem to believe that we can use worldly keys to unlock the doors of God's kingdom.  But God's keys are only activated for people who are sold out to His authority and to kingdom ways ... like loving God in completeness and loving people that seem unlovable ... people like us.  This is the greatest commandment because (I believe) it is the greatest key to God's kingdom ... so great that if we sacrificially and submissively apply this commandment I believe our lives, our church, our families and even our country will be forever altered ... toward God's will.  For in applying this commandment we become moved by God from the superficial to the spiritual and from the false to the real.  I don't know about you but I'm down with a life of God's power, God's Spirit and God's truth.  How about you?

What's First?

This weeks message is both distressing and hopeful to me.  The passage is pretty simple.  "seek first His kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well! (Matthew 6:33).  It is distressing because I can see the evidences of what we place first all around me. One great example of this is the current concern over the organized church that we have been co-opted by forces and appetites that are neither God-led or righteous.  Many congregations have fled poorer areas to set up shop in the places where affluence rules the roost.  We have been anesthetized by a barrage of slick Bible studies, amazingly orchestrated worship services, radio preachers that we can access at will ... and it all happens while we drive to the store, sit in our homes, worship in pretty snazzy buildings and rest in the comfort we are sure God desires for us.  I am not saying these things are necessarily bad or even ill-intended.  What I am saying is that right here in Walton County we have people starving for real and spiritual food.  The same is true in Montgomery where I served before coming to "the beach."  Less people are finding their way to a church and less people in the United States say they are part of a community of believers.  These are facts that are beyond dispute.  That's the distressing part.
So, what do we do and how can we respond.  I believe that we must first be willing to grasp solid Biblical food like this passage.  Sunday I'll tell you the Greek words and dazzle you with the knowledge of the use and context of this good word from Matthew 6.  But today, let's get serious about action.  Seeking is striving for something that we really want to attain.  If we believe what Jesus is saying and if we call ourselves Christ-followers then this passage is a start to take God seriously.  Go after His stuff first.  Jesus said that those who believe Him and are His true followers do what He asks.  He says, seek His kingdom first ... and His righteousness (not my works-based righteousness but Him).  How are you seeking?  Is Jesus coming to life in your life?  Are people mistaking your actions for those of those different people called Christians?  Does your time speak the word, Jesus?  Does your giving reflect God?  Is your computer seeking Godly-Googles?  Is your day spent worrying about things beyond your control or doing things God has commanded?  I believe these questions will tell us more than a thousand sermons.  If you are a serious seeker, become the salt and light you were made to be.  And just maybe, your life will take a turn upward!

As It Is In Heaven

One pastor called the Christian life "lived" prayers.  I like this image because if I had one desire for my life it would to be the answered prayer of God to someone or some situation.  In ministry there have been many times that people have told me I showed up or responded just after they had prayed to God for help.  I didn't have any clue about their prayer.  In many of these cases I wasn't even aware of a need.  Yet God somehow worked through a very inadequate person ... me.  I think this is why God has called us, the Church, to be the agents who are to bring His will "on earth as it is in heaven."  It's not that we are worthy.  It's not that we always do the right things or make the right choices.  I think it is a reminder that God desires a peculiar people called Christians to light their world with a little heaven.  I know this is a high calling but what higher authority could there be than God?  Who could have spoken these words more forcefully or more appropriately than our Lord, Jesus?
"Lord ... today may thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.  Here I am Lord, send me!"

Blessed

The term 'blessed' is one seldom used in the book of Matthew (where we will be looking into the Beatitudes this coming week).  As I look at this word in New Testament usage I am reminded of the vast difference between the word we use today.  If someone today says "I'm blessed" they usually mean that they are in a good financial or life situation where they have lots of creature comforts.  They have plenty of food, time for recreation, a solid bank account and a good house.  When we think of blessed I believe we most often think of material possessions.What does Matthew, writing to the Jews of his day say?
The poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers and the persecuted are "the blessed."  Why is our list so different from the list Jesus talks about?
I think that it is because our values are upside down.  Jesus is constantly trying to turn our messed-up values, our self-focused lives, our quest for comfort and our lives in the direction of the cross.  The cross is God-centered and selfless.  The cross seeks God's plan instead of my plan.  The cross calls us to believe in blessings beyond our vision.  It is living other-worldly in this place of our sojourn.
So we sometimes take the hard road that isn't easiest for us because we pray we are making the right decision for our church. We are persecuted and insulted because we upset the status quo.  We are seemingly in a no-win situation until we remember that only one scorecard counts ... God's.
Today you will be faced with decisions.  Such is life.  Pray.  Listen.  Discern.  Invite God into your decision and be attentive to the fullness of His Word.  Then, do what is consistent with where God always leads us ... to His place.  You may feel poor in spirit, meek, and you might need to mourn loss of one thing so you can rejoice in the newness of God's plan.  You will probably be persecuted and rattled by the act of trying to bring peace to your situation.  But deal with life by being merciful to those who love you and those who curse you.  It is life in the Kingdom and in the end, Jesus is more than sufficient to lead you forward.  Praise God from whom ALL blessings flow!