final thoughts

There's always a final post...

It's time to head off in a different direction, and limit my time on the computer. I will continue reading and tossing out an occasional opinion on your blogs.

Thanks to everyone who took time to read my posts, and those who left so many great comments. I have been blessed to know you; I pray God will watch over you at all times.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ~ Ecclesiastes 3:1

a sobering statistic

Living in an affluent society has a tendency to insulate us from the pain and hunger children experience every day in some parts of the world. God knows and loves every child, and surely as His children we are responsible (to the best of our ability) to make a difference in their lives. If we honestly proclaim Jesus as our Lord, and walk in His path, we can't ignore or side-step our obligation to help these children.

Lifeline of Hope, an international orphan aid & adoption organization, in their Nov 2006 Family Bulletin included this sobering statistic:

By the end of this day...and every day, thirty thousand children will be lost to disease, war, starvation, suicide, drugs and murder throughout our world. The saddest part of this heart-wrenching statistic is that each and every death is needless and preventable!

What else needs to be said!

let the little children come

There must be some way to help children learn about Jesus even when their parents could care less. While I'm not always pleased with the Sunday School System in our churches, I am convinced they are a boon for children who, for whatever reason, may not be reached by any other method.

Recently a grandmother (out of state member of the COC) came into our area for a few months to help her daughter (who is not currently in church) during some difficult times. Grandmother always brought her three grandchildren to Sunday school, but now since moving back to her home state the children no longer have anyone in their family concerned with getting them up and ready on Sunday morning

I mentioned my concern to the grandmother that the children might have a difficult time getting to church after she left, and offered to help in any way necessary so they could continue meeting with us; she thought she could influence her daughter to bring the children on Sunday, but a month later and nothing seems to be happening! I discovered the parents are separated, and the children are bouncing around like crazy, so it may be difficult to form a viable plan that will insure the children have the opportunity to continue their biblical education.

There was a time when parents allowed almost anyone to pick up their kids and take them to church, but since the advent of the religious pervert most parents are shying away from this option...and I don't blame them!

So, what is a good plan to help children attend Sunday School when the parents obviously don't care?

wait for the lord

Job was a shining exemplar of trust and patience, he waited for the Lord to make His point, and trusted Him for deliverance. Americans seem to seldom practice patience anymore; any new trinket that catches our fancy must be seized immediately, even if our pockets are empty, and our checking account has bottomed-out. We circumvent the problem with good old Yankee ingenuity; we grab the plastic monster and charge! Waiting is not the favorite pastime for most of us, we want it right now. Yep, I'm guilty too!

While impatience in a secular society is often dangerous, it can become a major disaster in the spiritual realm if we're not willing to wait for the Lord:

Wait for the Lord; be strong and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord! Psalm 27:14 ESV

Too often we ask favors of God, but when instant answers are not forthcoming we become impatient and frustrated, and doubt God's ability to deliver as promised. Often it's difficult to realize that Gods timetable in no way resembles ours. How often do we give up too soon while the Lord is still in the process of answering our prayers?

Patience is one tough attribute to possess, but we need to trust more in the Lord, and try real hard to get a better grasp of His eternal timetable.

robotic christians

We all know Christians who have thoughtlessly accepted their parents religion as gospel truth, and hoisted the same age-old personal opinions and lifeless traditions on their backs as their parents bore. Not that everything our forefathers believed and practiced is wrong, but anything that effects our eternal salvation should be accepted only after thorough investigation in the light of God's word.

Each of us will stand or fall before God's judgement alone; it will do us absolutely no good to point our bony fingers at some other person blaming them for our failures. Being a Christian is not a robotic existence where we follow blindly the teachings of men, rather an active participation in following Jesus wherever He leads.

Strolling through life haphazardly without sensing God's presence, and doing His work out of habit rather than love can be lethal to the soul. Everyday (24/7) we are in the presence of our Creator as His angels minister in our behalf, and we are beneficiaries of His eternal promises; surely this should inspire us to live vibrant and gracious lives before Him, not following by habit, but by faith and love.

While spiritual perfection will always elude us, we acknowledge the sacrificial blood of Jesus, and our confessed faith in Him certainly gives us abundant hope. Mimicking Christianity as a lifeless robot is not cool, but living a spirit filled life is the answer. There is great news though:

He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. ESV Titus 3: 5-7

We are blessed; God loves us beyond measure.

my way or the highway

Divisions in the body of Christ are wrong!

It's amazing how easy it is over time to forge a belief system based on our personal interpretation of scripture supported by our dubious common sense.

We often harbor opinions of our parents, relatives, and church family without really understanding the history of these opinions. Often these opinions are embedded in us from birth and have no basis in fact, yet we are primed and more than willing to fuss and fight at the drop of a hat to defend our perception of truth with anyone daring to state an opposing viewpoint.

It's time to reach out to others who don't share our opinions, and let them know we consider them our brothers and sisters without condemning them for what we consider infractions of our "church" rules; not treating them like misguided children, but as equals in God's kingdom.

Many moons ago I honestly believed anyone not professing to be a bona fide member of "our" one and only church (Church of Christ) was apostate; thus only those of us who shared the same personal interpretation of scripture were in favor with God...you can imagine the fate of those who disagreed with us!

There are now, and will be in the future, non-essential opinions that separate Christians in the church, and we can't smugly assume we're always right while everyone else is wrong...we need hours of honest dialogue coupled with an abundance of unfeigned love for those we differ with if our goal of unity is to be realized. We need to completely abandon our my-way-or-the-highway philosophy and agree to extend our hands in fellowship to God's children, even if they (God forbid) only use one cup for communion, or pound piano keys in their worship service.

sowing discord

Erik Tryggestad writing for The Christian Chronicle presents some difficult scenarios American evangelists create in mission fields when they opt to push teachings that are divisive.

Some mission based churches are being divided by the very things that have long divided churches in America. Some quotes from the article:

Some churches in Malawi sing during the Lord’s Supper. Others don’t.

Until recently, the difference never kept congregations from fellowshipping with each other, said Priestly Nkhonjera, a minister in the small African country.

But then some — including missionaries from the United States — started teaching that singing during communion is wrong.

Now some Malawian churches ask visitors about the issue and, based on their response, either welcome them or show them the exit, Nkhonjera said.

The African nation’s woes illustrate what can happen when churches in the United States export their divisions to the mission field, missionaries say. Young congregations in developing countries often find themselves in the middle of controversies among American churches — including divorce and remarriage, the working of the Holy Spirit and how many cups are used in communion.

These problems shouldn't surprise anyone; pushing our opinions on new Christians, and causing divisions within the Lord's body is not a demonstration of Christian love. Read the complete Christian chronicle article for its full impact.

the right ear of malchus

Just some curiosity here!

After Judas applied the finishing touches in his betrayal of Jesus with a kiss, Simon Peter brandished a sword and sliced off the right ear of Malchus (the servant of the high priest,) as described by Luke in chapter 22:49-51 (ESV):

And when those who were around him saw what would follow, they said, 'Lord shall we strike with the sword?' And one of them struck the servant of the high priest and cut off his right ear. But Jesus said, 'no more of this!' And he touched his ear and healed him.

I'm curious to know what actually happened to the servants ear! When Jesus "touched his ear" did he reattach the ear, replace the ear with a new ear, or just heal what was left dangling from his lopsided head? Whatever the healing process, surely his ear was replaced with the perfect match.

Certainly Malchus instantly realized the great power of Jesus when his ear was miraculously restored, and it's hard to believe the arresting party missed this unusual event; they would have to be physically and spiritually blind to overlook such an unusual occurrence, and it's hard to imagine this group thought they were arresting just another average ol' Joe. I'm curious how this might have shaped their future lives.

When reaching old age, could Grandpa Malchus describe his encounter with the Lord that night to his grandchildren while pointing to his perfectly replaced ear without considering the pain of losing an ear, and the subsequent miraculous replacement? Surely the world of Malchus was shook to the core by this miracle, and it must have crossed his mind that Jesus was the promised son of God. I'm curious if he ever accepted Jesus as the Messiah, and his Lord.

And the sword(s) the apostles carried, that's another poser for another time.

a snake story

The Sierra Nevada mountains in California is a beautiful place to live, but being surrounded by all this beauty and quietness exacts a price; like meeting face to face with a two foot long Gopher snake in your silverware drawer while reaching for a fork. A snake this size may not seem large at first thought, but when crammed in a small drawer it's huge!

A snake out in the woods away from the house doesn't bother me, but when its living inside the house slithering through the kitchen cabinets its a major catastrophe, as far as I'm concerned.

What really hurts is that by the time I finished running through the woods, getting as much space between me and the critter as I could, it disappeared. Now my imagination is running wild with a snake in the house that I can't locate. I can't even put my feet under the table to eat without first checking for a snake. Going to bed at night is another story!

Enough snaky stuff; Just wanted to share this lovely experience.

retraction and removal of lark posts

Sheepishly I have removed the posts from my blog based on articles from Lark.

Kendall Ball (and I thank him) made a comment on the last article I posted asking if I knew the Lark site was purely fictional, similar to The Onion, and some of the other tongue-in-cheek sites. While I knew the information was skewed to a point to embellish certain aspects of the story, I honestly thought the articles were based on facts (even after reading their disclaimer,) but they are 100% fiction.

Please forgive my ignorance! I removed them as soon as I received the confirmation from the Lark site which is presented below:

My email to LarkNews on 8/4/06:

Editor of LarkNews Staff:

Of course many of your articles are based on satire, but I was wondering if the information itself is valid, or just based on humor from start to finish?

Larry

And the reply from the LarkNews staff on 8/6/06:

Larry, thanks for asking. The articles are purely made up. They have no basis in reality to our knowledge.

LarkNews staff
larknews.com

So now I sit around with egg on my face promising myself to check information a whole lot better before I toss it on a page again.

The only good thing is the fact that those weird stories are not a part of some churches, for this I'm thankful. Sorry I goofed...

questions, questions, questions

Am I the only person on earth who hates to fill out a questionnaire?

The little COC group where I meet has handed all the members a questionnaire that is a real doozy... it has four categories with seven questions in each category. Each question is to be answered on a scale of 1 to 5; 1 being tops.

A sampling of the questions:

I am motivated to earn as much money as I can to be able to give to the Lord's work.

Meeting obvious needs has special appeal to me, because I respond quickly to needs that I see. Others think that I am being pushy.

I welcome opportunities to do physical jobs thus relieving others in the church to do their work among the members.

When I see problems with the system I am motivated to speak out boldly about it.

Nothing was mentioned about the why of the questionnaire, but I assume it's the brain child of the elders, but who knows! We are allotted two weeks to return them; after that the preacher promises to corral us individually to be sure we respond.

My dilemma is whether to lose the questionnaire, or face the preachers wrath!

disappearing christians

Family Org, a web site of Focus on the Family cites a sobering statistic that should cause us to consider the way we relate, or don't relate, to those in our church family. I have no way of knowing if every detail of this statistic is accurate, but do know that many souls are leaving the church. Below is a quote that is scary, and sad:

Approximately 22 million Americans say they are Christians and made a faith commitment to Jesus Christ, and say that commitment is still important to them, but they have struggled with faith or relational issues and therefore quit going to church. Tens of thousands more will join their ranks this week.

When one considers the value God places on even one soul, and multiplies that 22 million times, it is beyond tragic. What must we, as the church, do to stop this migration from His body? It's easy to always condemn those leaving as being weak, if this is true, what are we doing to strengthen them in an effort to make them strong?

There are many professing Christians who have left the church and no one seems to care. No one in their church family has contacted them, and the one leaving feels that the church doesn't care one way or the other about them. If our blood brother or sister just disappeared, for whatever reason, we wouldn't stop looking until we found out exactly what happened, but if it's our Christian brothers and sisters we often just look the other way and write them off.

Not everyone claiming Jesus as their savior will remain faithful, but when 22 million Americans leave the church, something is definitely wrong!

ADDED NOTE: Al Maxey in his newest Reflections article; Churches of Christ in Crisis, describes some of the problems causing the church to decrease numerically.

unhappy soul

Spending time in a coffee shop sipping their horrendously foul brew is not always a complete waste of time. Many people you never see anywhere else are killing a little time, and looking for conversation.

A gentleman who comes in occasionally is generally ignored by the patrons, and even the waitresses spend little time with him; hello ... your order please ... and the usual hope-you-leave-a-tip smile. He is a rather small man in his mid-thirties with long stringy brown hair way past his shoulders, slightly paunchy, heavily scarred face, and a right eye that seems to meander without any specific purpose. He usually sits across from me at the counter (15-20' ft. away,) but one morning he plopped down on a stool beside me without uttering a word, or looking my direction.

I decided to make an effort to engage him in conversation:

"Hello, how are you today?"

No response. Okay, perhaps he didn't hear me, lets try again;

"Hello, hows things going?" (spoke with a little more gusto.)

This time he mumbled something; have no idea what. Okay, were gaining, lets try once more;

"Nice day huh?"

His first decipherable words were softly whispered;

"Not bad!"

Within minutes he was conversing quite well, and I discovered he had been in a car accident when he was only seventeen years old that put him in a coma for two years. He said it was his fault; he had been drinking. As a result of the accident the right side of his face is completely paralyzed (reason enough for a meandering eye.) He still doesn't say much to anyone, but he will nod in my direction when he's in the cafe, and occasionally speak to me.

Bad choices we make, even as teenagers, can often haunt us throughout our remaining days. This man knows other people ignore him because of his appearance, so he responds with silence. Over time perhaps God can work through me (or some other person) in such a way that this man will understand that Jesus died for him, God loves him, and his future can be unimaginably wonderful.

the church gossip

Anonymous email

Mildred, the church gossip, self-appointed monitor of the church's morals, kept sticking her nose into other people's business.

Several members did not approve of her extra curricular activities, but feared her enough to maintain their silence. She made a mistake, however, when she accused Henry, a new member, of being an alcoholic after she saw his old pickup truck parked in front of the town's only bar one afternoon. She emphatically told Henry and several others that everyone seeing it there would know what he was doing.

Henry, a man of few words, stared at her for a moment and just turned and walked away. He didn't explain, defend, or deny. He said nothing.

Later that evening, Henry quietly parked his pickup in front of Mildred's house . . . walked home . . and left it there all night.

freedom from tradition

The Sunday School System, Sunday night services, and Wednesday night study have great merit, but they are not scripturally binding on Christians, they are merely based in tradition. Anyone insisting that you must participate in a Sunday School program in order to be a child of God is wrong (not that it's unscriptural to go to Sunday School,) but it is unscriptural for another person to bind their personal opinions on other Christians.

Any group of believers who bind their traditional viewpoints on other believers rob them of their freedom in Christ, and enslave them like puppets to a human religious system.

"For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery." Gal 5:1 ESV

Many Christians honestly believe that every time the door to the "church building" is ajar, you absolutely must be present in order to be a true follower of Jesus. Any person not attending these meetings are often considered unfaithful members, and soon find themselves on the outside looking in, even if the reasons for not attending these meetings are valid (not that they have to be valid.)

Enjoy your freedom in Christ, and don't allow anyone to hamper your relationship with Jesus because of their Pharisaical pronouncements on your Christian walk.

summertime hiatus

Summertime = less posting + more time to hang around the lake with my trusty hound dog.

discussions with a pentecostal preacher

Recently I had the opportunity to engage in a candid conversation with a Pentecostal preacher that revealed some interesting thoughts regarding how he, and other "pastors," perceive the Church of Christ.

He was curious why COC ministers always refuse invitations to work with the local Ministerial Association in supporting their efforts to create a better community, and especially to promote Jesus in the community. Evidently all (or nearly all) local churches partner in this work.

This group (by his definition) does not set any rules that govern churches; it is an informal group with the goal of making an impact in their city by working together to promote Jesus, and in no way geared to promote any particular church, or agenda.

According to many in the COC it is unscriptural to join such organizations based on their interpretation of 2 Cor. 6:14-16:

"Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; ..."

These verses serve as proof-text for many in the COC for refusing to unite with other denominational groups for any reason, even when these groups are trying to better their communities by introducing Jesus to the unchurched. By twisting these verses into something not intended, we are insinuating that members of the Ministerial Associations are unbelievers, lawless, in darkness, in accord with the Devil, and not a temple of God.

Combining resources and working as a team with "denominational churches" has usually been taboo for the COC regardless of the situation, or the good that could be accomplished. Is it any wonder that in some communities the COC is viewed as cultic, isolationistic, and self-centered!

How can it be wrong for Christians from different "churches" to unite in a concerted effort to help their community? In the wake of Katrina many Churches of Christ did unite with other religious groups to help their communities, but it usually takes a full-blown catastrophe for this to happen.

Just wondering!

seeking unity as individuals

If any hope for unity (even within Restoration churches) is forthcoming, it will most likely occur because of individual effort rather than as a group.

We have sat around waiting for some sort of unification plan to unfold for years without success. This statement will probably get me in hot water with a few elders, but when you go for years and years with little, if any, plan to rectify our disunity problems, seldom hearing a word about our need for unity from the pulpit, or privately for that matter, I can't help but suspect that many of our leaders are too busy protecting our fenced-in position, and see unity as a low priority endeavor.

Perhaps this approach is oversimplified; but as individuals within a church, we need to find ways to seek unity, even when our church leadership apparently disagrees. It would be great to have our elders leading the way to unity, but my experience (along with many of my brothers and sisters in other RM churches ) give no reasons to believe unity is something being discussed, or pursued, by our leaders.

Rather than waiting for our "church" to initiate (which seldom happens) some sort of unity seminar (or whatever) focusing on drawing divergent churches together, we need to take the proverbial bull-by-the-horns, and within our own hearts have the courage to unite (especially with those we share RM roots) with our brothers and sisters who sport a different name on their "church sign."

I don't know how others approach this disunited mess, but when I talk to my friends in churches with different names on their signs, we discuss our positive feelings about our relationship to God, not accusing each other of our failings, but accepting each other as a part of the Lord's body with love, knowing we are truly brothers and sisters united in His cause.

Unity is certainly an attainable goal that Christians can strive toward without attempting to create every church into a carbon copy of what we think it should be, but with the realization that none of us are perfect (including us,) and we can all dwell together in peace and love fully recognizing each other as children of God; thus brothers and sisters.

crooked halo

The most visible, and stunning example of bad judgement in a person professing to be a Christian, I have ever witnessed, occurred several years ago in a combination restaurant/bar in my home town.

Many of the local church groups in our community formed a church baseball league, and the elders of the COC after long deliberation decided it wasn't unscriptural, or a known work of the Devil, so with their blessings we put together a rag-tag baseball team, and fought gallantly against the Baptist, Mennonites, the Church of God, and the champion Pentecostals.

Following one of the games a baseball player decided he was in dire need of something to drink, so the place he chose to sate his thirst was a local bar, and what he chose to drink was several bottles of beer. As he was mingling with the drunks he became loud enough for me to hear his distinctive voice in the adjacent restaurant. I casually and carefully walked over to the door leading into the bar, and much to my chagrin ... it was one of the baseball players. He was celebrating a victory with a bottle of beer in his hand while wearing a dirty baseball jersey with; "CHURCH OF CHRIST" written in big capital letters on the back.

Needless to say "church baseball" is no longer a popular subject with this particular church.

More than likely all Christians at one time or another have been guilty of hypocrisy (yep! even me,) but for some reason this incident of my brother wearing his "church jersey" in a bar while getting drunk has left an indelible mark on my mind. You may know of worse indiscretions by Christians in public, but the jersey incident has to be ranked rather high on the bad judgement list.

where's the joy?

Christians should display more joy in their everyday lives than any group on earth; sadly this is not always the case.

Our days should be filled with joy, not walking around wearing mugs that would blend right in with the wanted posters in the Post Office. Christian joy should translate to smiles and friendliness, not frowns and gloominess.

Christians are not excluded from many of the same problems that weigh-down all humans, we often find ourselves in the same morass as unbelievers, and bear many of the same burdens, sadness, and guilt. Thankfully, those in Jesus have an ever present help that we can bet our lives on, and this alone should cause us to overflow with joy.

The first century church had a ton of joy even during one of the worst periods of Christian persecution in history. A few of our "church" tribes believe they have captured the essence of the early church, but seem to have neglected to restore the joy of being a Christian.

As His children, we realize God loves and protects us, yet we often mope around looking in every nook and cranny for the negatives, while the obvious blessings that surround us escape our notice. Counting our daily blessings should give us all the incentative we need to express ourselves in a joyful manner.

Like most Christians, I fail miserably at times to possess the joy that Jesus gives, and certainly don't always reflect a joyful image as I should, but one thing I have discovered; if I start out each day with a smile and a kind word (even if I'm dying inside,) people respond with a tidal wave of kindness and joy.

Perhaps if we spent a little time in quite contemplation we might realize the blessings we reap daily as children of God; our sins are forgiven, we have a God who listens to us, we possess the Spirit of God within us, we are blessed with a Christian community, and finally we have the promise of eternal life in the presence of God...surely this is enough to promote an occasional smile.