Archive - December, 2009

Time to Journal the Converging Process

December 21, 2009 in Christian Life, Faith, Jesus with 0 Comments

I’m convinced Christ is looking for my life to converge with his (Colossians 3:3-4), but I’m not necessarily certain about the “hows” of this process. I do know that the transformation process itself, though, isn’t totally a self-help project. He is at work, doing something to facilitate “being transformed into the same image from glory to glory.” I know this because “this is from the Lord who is the Spirit” (2 Corinthians 3:18).

It’s time I get lost; I need to get lost in him. “For you have died, and your life is hidden with the Messiah in God” (Colossians 3:3, HCSB).

This blog really hasn’t been about a guy “converging with Christ…” I’d like to think that it was, but it’s just not so. But all of that is about to change.

For a number of reasons, some of which are deeply personal, I’ve decided to journal on a daily basis. I want to chronicle my own conscientious effort to take my faith in Jesus seriously and get lost in him. I believe it will happen, and I plan to journal about it.

I’d love for you to join me. Let’s get lost together!

His Inexpressible Gift

December 17, 2009 in Christian Life with 0 Comments

Many things of God are inexpressible, but none as much as salvation. Most of us are at a loss for words to describe it. The best we can do is to find something with which to equate it. Paul does this with the Corinthian church (2 Cor. 9:6-15).

We shouldn’t have to guilt people into giving, but when we do, the giver should never respond out of “compulsion” (v. 7). By divine design, giving is the natural response to having been given an “inexpressible gift” (v. 15). As God would see it, those who give for any other reason are simply ungrateful for what they have received. Now that has to be disheartening to the Giver of “every good gift and every perfect gift” (James 1:17).

And God is able to make all grace abound to you…He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way to be generous in every way, which through us will produce thanksgiving to God…Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift (vv. 8,10-11, 15).

God’s gift of salvation is “the inexpressible gift” that keeps on giving!

Let’s Call a Meeting…

December 14, 2009 in Church with 4 Comments

Bovina Bulletin Board

Bovina Bulletin Board

Well, this is the final bullet point from a great bulletin board found at the Bovina Church of Christ. This last bullet point is a frustrating one. It is a virtual microcosm of congregational struggles across the land. It might reflect the degree to which the modern church has slipped its moorings from God’s original intent, and as a result impeded the church’s effectiveness in the world.

I’ve both seen and heard of church’s that have struggled to help even it’s own members because it was believed that a meeting needed to be called before responding. How unfortunate it is that churches have hobbled themselves to this degree! I’m not against meetings. Believe me, they are quite expedient. But matters as pressing as the mission of God can’t, and shouldn’t, always wait for the last Sunday evening of the month.

I suppose the New Testament church had some kind of “business” meetings. It seems logical. The New Testament, though, is relatively, if not completely, silent about them. In Acts 15 a gathering of Christians from various congregations and areas was conducted at Jerusalem to hash out matters pertaining to Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian relations and implications of Gentile acceptance of Jesus as Lord. But the issues they tackled were of a more doctrinal nature, and not so much about how one church carried out the mission of God. In fact, it is relatively clear that this “conference” actually transcended common church autonomy.

What compounds the frustration is that often, not always but often nonetheless, calling a meeting doesn’t guarantee things get done. One reason congregational business meetings are so poorly attended is because so little seemingly is accomplished by them. Church business meetings, across the board, don’t have the reputations they do because they are adored. In my almost ten years of local work, in churches both with and without elders, church business meetings are the subject of jokes, cynicism, and a ton of sarcasm. The almost universal consensus opinion about them should speak loudly and clearly to us.

My utmost prayer from having considered these bullet points is that we’ll quit making excuses for why things don’t get done in our churches. After all, excuses are all those bullet points are. God is ready to use us, but will we answer His call?

An Instant World?

December 10, 2009 in Books, Christian Life with 2 Comments

Several years ago, a number of books were given to me by a friend now deceased. I’ve thumbed through them a bit, but not given them much attention. This morning, though, I grabbed one off the shelf and began to peruse. What I found therein was pure Greatness.

Sitting before me is a book entitled Catch the Dream by Clark Potts. It was published by ACU Press in 1989. It’s a series of thoughts on nature, time, living, God, Satan, judgment, obedience, hope, joy, service, kindness, forgiveness, pride, humility, patience, responsibility, prayer and love. Sounds good doesn’t it? It is.

Here is one of his thoughts on Time.

Ours is an instant world.

We eat instant foods.

He have instant entertainment.

We watch instant news.

We seek instant relief of pain.

And the telephone gives us instant contact with any point on earth. Yet, the really fundamental things cannot be speeded up or slowed down. For example:

…days, months, years (time)

…conception and birth

…deep, long-lasting friendships

…patience, learning, maturity, etc.

But there are those who spend frustrating days and nights trying to spread the “instant” blanket over impossible areas. Those who doubt, ask themselves: “Can we have instant pleasure…or must it be earned and savored like joy and happiness?”

Isn’t this a strange question in a culture that is so bent on pleasure that the minute we feel a pin or are slightly unhappy we pop a pill or drink some joy juice? Can we really have instant relief? Had God put us here on earth to be instant in anything? Is His Creation so drab, gloomy, sad, uninviting, and “yukky” that we seek instant escape?

Maybe we need an instant refresher course in what His dream is for us.

This is so true! We want “instant” results, but some results are derived in an instant. We’ve got to slow down, breath deeply, and be still. The refining process takes time. Trying to expedite processes that take time, only diminishes the good that comes by them.

We’re Fine the Way We Are

December 7, 2009 in Church, Evangelism with 0 Comments

Bovina Bulletin Board

Bovina Bulletin Board

Now we are getting at something for sure. While not always explicitly expressed, I contend that the “We’re fine the way we are” mentality is at the root of a number of church growth problems. This is simply my opinion, and I’ll own it, but there has been very little to disprove it over the years. Not surprisingly, it’s not until the “off the record” moments, though, that it verbally surfaces. But it doesn’t really have to to be recognized.

Church systems often possess the most significant power struggles of all organizational systems. At times they rival the political. Many churches have long established power bases that do not like to be disrupted. Growth often does that very thing.

Most churches, but not all, tend to grow primarily through swelling. People from one religious tradition move to another area and, naturally, associate themselves with a church from their religious tradition in the new town. This is what it means to swell. Consequently, people new to a church often struggle to fit in, especially, if they are viewed with suspicion. If they don’t dress the right way, carry the right bible, or don’t come from a reputable congregation, this is particularly so.  The same kind of thing applies to those who come to know Christ. The baggage they often bring in with them can be very disruptive as well. They, too, find significant difficulty in penetrating the prominent congregational circles.

Ironically enough, the first century church struggled in the same respects. When Gentiles finally were introduced to the kingdom, the Jewish Christian power base was reluctant to let them in without them conforming to certain Jewish practices. The book of Acts clearly attests to this problem.

The situation at Rome, in particular, is especially germane because its struggles were oriented around division on cultural norms. The Roman church went from being primarily a Jewish church to a Gentile church after the Jews were banished from Rome. When they returned years later, they were disturbed by the norms of the Gentile Roman church. They weren’t doing the right things; they were eating the wrong things; they weren’t do things the right way. Sounds eerily familiar to the modern church. Paul’s solution was Romans 14 & 15. Unfortunately, some of us are just now figuring this out. In the end, blame could be put before the feet of those who possessed a “We’re fine the way we are” mentality.

There are churches that are willing to grow, but only if the resultant growth isn’t going to unsettle the system. Fear causes some churches to be content with where they are. A church of 50 that has been a church of 50 for 50 years might be suggesting something without realizing it. I believe they might be saying, “We’re fine the way we are!” But the lack of genuine growth, too, is saying that God isn’t at work there either. That is a scary thought.
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