I Love My Church!**

 

Wow! I’m thanking God for a wonderful “I Love My Church” Sunday. God involved so many people in this experience. I want to say thank you to everyone who said “Yes!,” when God asked them to engage in this week’s unifying, connecting, fun, worshiping, baptizing Gospel event. I would like to follow one particular God story that changed the lives of one family and blessed many others. I am sure there are many stories like this one, but this is the one God allowed me to see firsthand. I watched and listened as the staff talked about and planned the “I Love My Church!” Sunday. First, there needed to be an outreach to invite those people that either didn’t know Jesus or were not engaged in a church. Jonathan had asked us all to be praying for folks who need Jesus during our October Missions Month. A decision was made to make invitation bags available to take to these people for whom we were praying. The bag was simple: a card and a couple of cookies that said, “You belong here.” Bags, cookies, cards, and crinkle stuffing paper were ordered. A crew of several ABC volunteers came to stuff bags, stage them and pray over them before they were to be picked up. People picked up the bags the Sunday before to deliver them to invite friends, neighbors, family and coworkers. One ABC 2nd grader who herself had been baptized just a few weeks ago wanted 15 bags to take to her friends. Her mother said, “maybe a few,” but this little girl was insistent that she wanted her friends to know Jesus. I’m not sure how many she ended up giving away, but one of the bags she delivered ended up in the hands of a classmate. This classmate showed up to ABC for “I Love My Church!” Sunday. I happened to be in the lobby when this 2nd grader and his mother arrived. I was able to take the two of them to meet Rachel so he could join the Children’s Worship, Bible study, and fun. Mom then went to the worship center. The Holy Spirit moved Mom’s heart with the worship music, compelling Gospel message, and the sweet fellowship of 1000 worshipers. At the invitation to be baptized this woman came to the front of the room full of strangers and said, “Yes!” to Jesus. When she went to the baptistry changing room she was met by Adrian, who talked with her and learned that it was her first time to ABC and that her son was in the Children’s wing. Bill, Jo and the baptism team helped her get ready to be baptized. Adrian went to get this woman’s son, so he could watch his mother’s testimony that she belongs to Jesus through the waters of baptism. He watched his mother, then came to see her afterwards and gave her a big hug. He too wants to be baptized. Conversations about that are ongoing. I love how many people were involved in this continuing God story! There were planners, preparers, goers, givers, teachers, servers, cooks, cleaners, children’s workers, table setters, runners, towel washers… all involved in God’s plan to impact the lives of this family and others with the Gospel. 

Pastor Jonathan has been preaching on the Great Commission for the month of October. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “... Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20 ESV) There was a lot involved in the GO-ing (planning, ordering, stuffing, baking, staging, delivering…). But this little girl decided to GO to her friends with bags to invite them to ABC. This young man and his mother came because they were invited. His mother heard the Word of God, the Truth of the Gospel, and was BAPTIZED (and her son may be baptized too). Next in the MAKING DISCIPLES plan that Jesus gave us is the teaching part. This 2nd grader has already connected with the Children’s Ministry director and teachers who are TEACHING him and other kids what life is like when you belong to Jesus. Mom is being invited to an Adult Bible Fellow-ship Group to learn alongside other believers all the blessings, joys, and opportunities of belonging to Jesus. Lord, give us the boldness to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES like this 2nd grader! 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all! 

And The Flames Went Higher!*

 

When I was a teenager, my family owned some property on the lake, with plans to one day build a house on it. It was across the street and down a house or two from the house I grew up in, but we liked it because, “it was on the lake.” My father was trying to determine the best plan to dispose of a large amount of driftwood debris that had floated into our cove and was left stranded there as the water lowered. The idea was to just do a controlled burn. The wood pile was bordered by water on one side, was pretty far from the grass,  and with some shovels and hoes, he reasoned that we should be able to handle any sparks that got upwind on the grass. East Tennessee winters are usually very moist, but for some reason not that year.  Things were very dry on that sunny February day. We ignited the fire and things were going swimmingly until the wind changed and whipped the small fire into a very large fire, a fire larger than any of us had ever experienced.  The embers were jumping several feet into the air and then falling onto the dry grass. Initially we were doing pretty well putting out the small fires with the shovel, but then there were just too many. As the fire began to get out of control, I jumped on my motorcycle and rode quickly across and up the street to my house, while Dad continued fighting the fire. I called the volunteer fire department (with a rotary dial phone that seemed to take forever).  The dispatcher informed me that there were several out of control fires in the county that day, and they would try to get there when they could. I rode back to find that much of the field was now burning and my father was working feverishly to prevent the flames from getting to a fence row which would have involved another large adjacent field and no telling how much of the neighborhood. In the meantime, the flames were headed toward the street and whirlwinds of fire were leaping several feet at a time. Fortunately the wind was blowing away from the adjacent neighbor’s house. But unfortunately, the wind was blowing toward the historic “Harvey Farmhouse” directly across the street. “Rivermont” as it was also called, was built before 1900 and we knew it would ignite like a tender box. We were all praying a lot as we frantically tried to keep the conflagration in check. My mother, sister and neighbors had shown up trying to corral the flames.  All I could do was try to put out a few small flames as the fire devil jumped the road and lurched toward the old wooden house. My sister had brought a fire extinguisher, but wasn’t sure how to operate it. A neighbor grabbed it and quickly put out the largest flames before they reached the crispy, dry, unraked leaves around the house.  Mercifully, after a couple of hours, the wind and the flames died down enough and the old house was spared. God had answered and the fire was contained to only our property.  Needless to say, we never tried a controlled burn again.  We also, for some reason, never built on that property. 

When the prophet Isaiah was telling God’s people to remember Who they belonged to, he also warned them with fiery imagery about what would happen to those who were against God.  Isaiah 66:14-16 says, “When you see this (God’s restoration, protection, comfort, and blessing on His people), your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD.”  I definitely don’t want to be on the wrong side of God’s angry, fiery rebuke.  My experience that day on our lake property makes this picture very vivid to me. This is a good reminder to be sure we know we belong to God, because there is no neutral ground.  Jesus tells us, ““He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”(Luke 11:23) Believe and belong to Him and flourish like grass! 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

When You Can See It Coming, But Can't Stop It?*

Photo credit: spreadricenothate

When my kids were in preschool and early elementary, we moved to Nashville to serve an urban church. The parsonage was situated on a large hill between the Baptist church at the bottom, where I pastored, and the Methodist church at the top. In the Summers we loved that hill for a homemade slip and slide, we loathed it when kicking the soccer ball, which usually ended up in or near the creek at the bottom of the hill. My son, while learning to ride a bike, took an unfortunate wobble then an uncontrolled turn down the hill. Frozen in fear, he forgot how to use the coaster brakes. Fortunately, he was not injured badly.  One of my toddler daughters was in the back yard when I came home from work. She smiled and turned to run to me. I was standing on the asphalt driveway below her and I could see what was coming. She was laughing and running toward me, which in one sense made my day, however,  I knew her little legs would not be able to keep up with her quickly growing head and body as she accelerated down the hill. I started saying, “stop!, stop!” and running toward her, but she was just too excited to see her Daddy.  She was doing well keeping up with gravity until just before the asphalt and then I saw it happening in slow motion, but I still couldn’t get to her in time. She fell face first on the driveway and her little head bounced when she hit. I finally got to her an instant later (which seemed like an eternity) I scooped her up and waited for tears. Surprisingly there were just a few, but she did have a scrape and pumpknot (hematoma) on her forehead.  

Don’t you hate it when you see the life choices of someone you care about that will lead to a big crash? You do all you can to warn them: “Stop! Stop!” but they just don’t yet understand all the forces at work in this world. When Paul was encouraging the Corinthian church, he could see that they were highlighting one Spiritual Gift over all the others. Even something as good as a Spiritual Gift could be used as something bad and divisive for the church.  Speaking in tongues became the gift that if you didn’t have it, you were not one of the cool kids at church.  Those who had it considered it so important they forgot that when we belong to Jesus, love is the most important thing.  Paul tells them, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”(1 Corinthians 13:1)  Paul knows what is coming, that the evil forces at work in this world are going to take even this (and other) spiritual gift(s) and use it against the church. Those with the coveted gift will be filled with pride and those without it will feel belittled and devalued. Both, in their immaturity, will forget that love is greater than any gift. They will forget how it is like them to act toward those around them.  Paul tells them, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (1 Corinthians 14:20) Paul loved the Corinthian church, but they were forgetting Who they belonged to. When we see an unavoidable social, emotional, Spiritual train wreck coming in someone’s life, like when an adult child chooses the wrong friend group, or significant other, or career choice, sometimes all we can do is try to tell them to stop. But then we gotta be ready to scoop them up and love them “no matter what” as they heal even if they don’t yet understand why they should stop.   

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

Good Fish, Bad Fish...**

 

During those long Summer days, My Dad would sometimes come home from a busy day at Norwood Medical Clinic and say, “let’s go fishing!” In addition to being a physician he was also an avid sportsman. It was how he unwound after a stressful day of doctoring.  We would hook up the boat and head to the lake. Sometimes we would go right down the street to the boat ramp if we were bowfishing. Sometimes it was a few miles away if we were fishing the mouth of the creeks that fed the Tennessee River and Ft. Loudon Lake. At Stock Creek one evening, I casted my lure and BAM! a fish hit it so hard, I almost dropped my rod. I began to reel and the fish just kept spooling the line…zzzzz… Dad was so excited. He kept saying, "keep his head up!” as I struggled to stay upright fighting the fish.   I would reel a little, then the fish would take off again. My dad was sure by the fight of this fish that it was the biggest bass he had seen come out of that lake. The fish and I fought for several more minutes and when I got it to the boat, we discovered it was a freshwater drum.  Though this fish is the bane of serious bass fishermen, it sure was fun to catch.  It generally is called a trash or “rough” fish rather than a game fish. Drum are not considered a good fish to eat unless you have a Cajun chef close by, because they apparently call it a “gaspergou” and can make it quite tasty. This fish is a freshwater relative of the better tasting saltwater red drum found at seafood restaurants. 

From the Bible we can see that the Israelites are generally land dwellers, sheep herders and farmers from way back. But when Jesus came, He found a handful of Jewish fishermen living on the Sea of Galilee as the first ones He called to be his disciples. He was trying to describe what His Kingdom was like to them and said,  “... the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 13:47–50 NIV) The amazing thing to me is that Jesus loves all of us and can take the trashiest of us “rough” fish and make us good. Jesus is in the business of changing bad wicked people into good and righteous. The truth is, we are all bad (not one of us is good according to Romans. 3:23), until we belong to Him and His connection with us changes our wicked hearts to make us good. He pays the price and suffers because of our badness. Those who belong to Him He saves from an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth in a fiery horrible place called Hell and lets us hang out with Him and all those who belong to Him in a wonderful place called heaven. Gaspergou and Red Drum will all be considered either good or bad. We will either be considered wicked or righteous at the end of our lives on earth and the only way to be righteous is through a real loving relationship with Jesus, He is the only one who can make us right. He died to make everyone good, but we have to choose to belong to Him, He won’t force us to be one of His good fish. 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

In Perfect Harmony**

Credit Adage.com

 One Christmas my family was to drive across Tennessee from Knoxville to Memphis, then down into Mississippi to visit some cousins. As we passed Nashville we hit a rare Tennessee snow storm. Traffic slowed to a snail’s pace. Because many southern drivers are not used to driving in the frozen white stuff, traffic crawled like sloths on a skating rink. My Dad, who was an exceptional driver, also had an “I-can-drive-through-anything” attitude and a Jeep Wagoneer. He was a very confident driver (with the exception of an infamous ice storm that froze him out of the car and sent him sliding underneath it only able to crawl back to the garage to abandon the trip he planned to rescue someone else, but that is a story for another day) As we traveled we saw some cars off in the ditch, some spinning tires, and others just sitting on the side of the road with their flashers on. As we progressed single file down I-40, the road oil and dirt flung from the tires of the cars ahead of us mixed with the snow and was smeared by the wipers to create a frozen oil slick on our (and everyone else’s) windshield. It was like looking through gray frosted glass, making travel even more hazardous. When we stopped for gas, everyone was trying to wipe and scrape their windshields but only smearing the frozen mess more. Until a northerner, who was used to driving in the stuff, gave some neighborly advice to those of us blessed to be born South of the Mason Dixson line. The fast talkin’ (expletive) Yankee told us what to do. Everyone really wanted to try this fix, but had to wait until he was gone, so we wouldn’t have to say he was right if it worked. However, behold, it worked! After pouring this stuff on, the icy road slime formed a slush and slid right off with a paper towel and we were back on the road with clear windshields. What was this magical solution? Good ol’ Coca-cola. You know the “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony… it’s the real thing…” stuff, developed right smack dab in the middle of the South in Atlanta, Ga. (for you youngsters here’s the famous commercial https://adage.com/videos/cocacola-hilltop/395) Who knew that the phosphoric acid that gives Coke its slightly tart taste is also good for cleaning glass. (BTW this phosphoric acid is now associated with causing low bone density for those who consume a lot of sodas - uh oh! Who knew?) We finally arrived in Mississippi several hours later than planned, but had a blast with the cousins for Christmas. Maybe our prejudices were challenged when this “Yankee” was kind, neighborly, and eager to help people be just a little safer in a challenging situation. 

Jesus told a story that confronted the prejudices of his hearers in which He made a Samaritan the hero of the story instead of the respected ones they held in highest esteem. Luke tells it like this, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”(Luke 10:25–37 ESV)  Let’s go and do likewise people! 

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all! 

HotWired!**

Photo Credit Outdoor Discovery

 When in high school, a church friend and I were excited to go water skiing one Summer afternoon after we got off work. He had a real job… helping run a bearing business. I had the morning shift as a lifeguard at the local pool. We quickly drove the 45 minute drive to the lake, maybe a little quicker than the posted speed limit… at that age, we did everything as quickly as we could to make sure we got every last drop out of our days. People used to say we were either out on the lake running wide open or tied to the dock… asleep, there was no in between. We got to his Dad’s boat slip, threw our skis, vests, and rope into the boat and I started untying from the dock. Then he said, “oh man! I forgot the keys!”  He said, “no skiing today, it will be dark before we get back home and come back up here.” I said, “Hang on! Do you have a screwdriver?”  I had never hotwired a boat, but had watched McGuiver and thought, “how hard can this be?”   He found a screwdriver, turned on the blower to get any flammable gasses out of the engine compartment,  and I went to look under the driving console.  I touched some wires with the screwdriver and a lot of sparks flew out, tried some other wires and more sparks, but then the engine started.  We were in business! We skied hard until dusk, never turning the boat off, and we idled into the dock in the dark. We were quite proud of ourselves until we arrived at his house to see his dad standing in the door with the boat keys in his hand, laughing at us. He said, “you guys didn’t get to ski, did you?” To which we replied, “Sure we did, Bill hotwired your boat.” This, as you might imagine, was not the right answer. He was not happy with us at all. As a matter of fact, he grounded us from using his boat for several days. We were thinking, “how resourceful we are to make this happen.” He was thinking, “they ruined my boat.” 

As Jesus was talking to the crowds about his cousin, John the Baptist, who had been imprisoned, He highlighted his extraordinary ministry as a prophet. Jesus said that John the Baptist was the greatest man to ever live. John was a rough and tumble prophet who told it like it was, and didn’t pull any punches. He said what he was going to say, regardless of how it landed. John the Baptist carried a heavy mantle to further God’s Kingdom.  Jesus says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it” (Matthew 11:12) However, Jesus also told the crowds there is an easier and better way.  He told them, ““Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”(Matthew 11:28–30)  Sometimes we can try to force our lives to give us what we feel we need or deserve. We can force our faith on ourselves and others. We say, “life is only what you make it.”  We hotwire it, jumpstart it, and fake it ‘til we make it, but Jesus says, simply connect your life to me and you no longer have to go around kicking down doors and hotwiring boats to find what faith and life are really about. Jesus says, “I’m gentle and humble in heart.” There is an easiness to our faith life when we connect with Jesus.  When Simon Peter connected with the fact that Jesus was, “the Christ, the Son of the Living God,”  Jesus told him, “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”(Matthew 16:19) We gotta quit trying so hard to hotwire life and faith and remember that Jesus not only holds the keys and He gives them to us to share with others. Real life is more about connection with Jesus than a forceful determination to make our faith happen.

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!

A Visitation!**

 Back when churches did Tuesday night visitation to meet the people who had come as guests on the Sunday before, sometimes those doorstep visits seemed to make a difference in the lives of our guests, but sometimes the visits could seem ineffective and even annoying to those we visited. Some people would not come to the door, pretending not to be home, even though I could hear them telling other family members to be quiet until I went away. One particular Tuesday night, I had collected a handful of names and addresses to go visit.  I went to several homes and no one was home. I had one more visitation card in my stack, but I was already late trying to get home and tell my kids “goodnight” and this house was another 30 minutes from where I was and another 45 back to my house. So, I started to head home, so I could join Anita in the bedtime routine of  reading, rocking, tucking-in, and praying with our 4 preschoolers.  I decided I would visit this couple the next Tuesday. However, I got this overwhelming feeling that I needed to go to this particular house that night. I tried to ignore it and then began arguing in my head with God that I needed to go home. God, of course won the argument, and compelled me to go.  So, I turned around to go to this house that would add another hour plus to my evening.  I would have to trust that God would give Anita grace, once again, to put all four kids to bed by herself. When I got to the last visitation, the house was huge, but it was dark. I was miffed… thinking that I came all the way out here to visit an empty house. I said a prayer and walked to the door to ring the doorbell; it was worth a try, maybe they were in another part of the house. When I  did, lights came on and a young couple came to the door with a somewhat surprised look on their faces. I told them who I was and they invited me in. There were large, dark, empty rooms sparsely decorated. We found some chairs and sat down.  They explained they had planned to sell the house, so there wasn’t much furniture left. They also explained that they had visited the church on Sunday in a last ditch hope to save their marriage. They said, “we just prayed at dinner tonight, that if God didn’t show us something, we would be filing for an amicable divorce tomorrow.” I was able to talk with them and tell them I believed the solution was a real and vital relationship with Jesus Christ. They both were saved that night! A few weeks later, they were baptized and invited their friends to come watch. Their friends, who had noticed a dramatic difference in their marriage and lives, became curious, came to church with them and were saved too. All in all about a dozen people began to follow Christ. Wow! And to think that I almost didn’t go that night! I know God didn’t need me to go to their house that night. He would have accomplished His will in their lives in any way He wanted, but He invited me to join Him in that work and what a blessing it was.  

The apostle Paul was telling the leaders of the church at Ephesus about how God had urged him to keep going even when it meant sacrifices on his part. He told them, “And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the gospel of God’s grace.” (Acts 20:22–24) My being late getting home that night was definitely worth it. God chose to use me to lead that couple to hear and receive the Gospel. My being inconvenienced one night seems silly compared to the hardship, beatings and prison Paul endured. I’m humbled that God had compelled me to join Him and testify to the Good News of His grace.  If you feel compelled by God to do something, don’t miss it. God is including us in His plan to save people, their marriages, their lives, their friends!   

Hang in there people! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!