God's Incredible Family!

For the month of May I will be presenting a short series of lessons on God's Incredible Family. It is my belief that much of what we struggle with as a church (everywhere) can be traced back to its transformation from a simple family to an institution. Along with becoming an institution the church then became a place, a time, a keeper of orthodoxy and traditions, and the definer of faithfulness, evangelism, giving, and worship. Those were never part of the intended purpose of of God's people getting together. In today's culture of individualism, anti-institutionalism, and consumerism, the more the church protects and pushes that agenda the more the unchurched and marginal members are turned off to "church".
We must recapture the biblical concept of God's family! There is a reason God used the family image to define, describe, and direct his people. It is the natural conclusion of love. It is the the only group identity where people are, and stay, bound to one another, because love is what you are not just what you feel. Families thrive and remain committed to one another even when they get angry, strongly disagree, get irked with one another, and can't agree on what TV shows to watch. They don't split and start the Eastside Smith Family verses the Westside Smith Family. Because they are family they love each other even when it doesn't feel good. They support each other even when they really don't care much about watching soccer, dance recitals, or graduations. It's what families do. They each have responsibilities and they all do their part to take care of family treasures, property, and the family image in the neighborhood. Everyone helps to pay for what the family does. The older or more mature the young ones get, the more they contribute. It's what family do. Rules are sometimes needed and understood, guilt rarely works, pulling together in hard times is a no-brainer, and love is always the tie that binds.
If you want to see what a church family looks like, read Acts 2:47 and remember how those early Christians just wanted to be together and use every tool God gave them to help each other grow spiritually. Instead of trying to come up with a new set of goals, vision statements, and borrowed Church Growth ideas, why not ask the simple question, How can our church be more of a family? How can we be defined by our love for one another rather than a one hour program on Sunday morning that we can't all agree on anyway?
Maybe those people we are trying to reach with the Good News of Jesus are really looking for a family and not a religious corporation. God is "our Father" not our CEO. The Bible, especially the New Testament, makes a lot more sense when we hear the Holy Spirit talking to a family rather than an exclusive Sunday morning club.

Building Integrity

This is the final lesson in this series. This one is already on our web page - I listened to part of it yesterday mainly because I'm getting my next voice treatment this Friday and I wanted to hear how my voice was sounding. I was a little surprised at how much time I spent using Daniel as my example of integrity. Good stuff, but it really is just the intro. I feel very blessed and humbled about this series. I am thankful for the years of experience that God gave me in order to share things I never could have earlier in my live. I would love to share these with any church that might like to have some kind of family seminar, retreat, or workshop.

Building Integrity
Introduction:
A. Examples of "little" things we do that compromise our integrity with our children
B. Read about Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego in Dan. 1-6
C. Integrity is like trust - fragile and hard to repair
D. Integrity or lack of it, reveals the real us
E. How can you teach what you don't have? Yet we all want our children to have it.
F. Where does it come from?
1. Integrity comes from a deep desire for honesty. (Genuine & total!)
A. Integrity is what you are when no one is looking
B. What is your integrity worth to you? An overpayment? An IRS refund? Etc.
C. Keep your word at all cost! Be obsessive about being honest!
2. Integrity comes from a deep desire for consistency.
A. The misery of inconsistency, yet we learn to live with it?
B. Who would question your integrity? Why? Are you okay with that?
C. Integrity should drive you - not anonymity!
D. Build it intentionally! Use opportunities - discuss what is right & why? Pray.
3. Integrity comes from a deep desire for peace.
A. Integrity is the gift you give yourself.
B. There will always be misunderstandings, but there doesn't have to be guilt! Look at the charges against Jesus - misread & misunderstood, but all wrong.
C. Phil.4:4-7 God wants us to be at peace - with Him!
*The best way to teach the value of integrity is to be at peace with God and your kids see it.
4. Integrity comes from a deep desire to please God.
A. The deception of pleasing self:
B. The pressure to please others:
C. The peace of pleasing God first:
Conclusion: Integrity is what happens when we fully embrace the presence of God

A Different Kind of Egg Hunt

It is still amazing that a tornado swept through north St. Louis County, just a few mile south of us, damaging over twenty-five hundred homes - several hundred totally destroyed - and there where no fatalities. The pictures that they are showing on the local TV news look like a war zone. The tornado hit the airport closing it down for Sunday and causing Donna to reschedule her return flight until Tuesday. Another "ripple effect" of the storm was that it turned our Saturday morning Easter Egg Hunt into an indoor activity - without the hunt. It was way too wet, and it did cut the usual number of children who attend by half. It was still a great event with lots of wonderful sharing, teaching, and connecting with scores of families from our community. I took some pictures, many of which ended up being out of focus and had to be deleted. You can see the decent ones on our church web page at http://www.florissantchurchofchrist.org/ and click on Church Photo Gallery and then on the blue "Easter Egg Hunt". I am so thankful and appreciative of all the folks who put so much work into making this great annual event so wonderful. It is one of the best planned and executed events that we do all year, and we did touch the lives of a lot of our community friends.

Another "ripple" in the storm involved our friendly goose who has been sitting her nest in our back yard for the last three weeks. We've been checking on her several times a day and were looking forward to seeing her little babies swimming behind her in our pond. Not gonna happen. Saturday, I noticed she was gone - for more than just a break - and walked out to find her eggs out of her nest and just on the edge of the pond.

The nest was just off this picture at the lower left corner.

I remembered waking up in the early morning darkness to a lot of honking from multiple geese - or at least it seemed like a lot of geese. It may have just been a very upset mom. I assumed it was another animal that knocked the eggs out of the nest, because we've seen that happen before, but then I noticed that the nest was washed clean without any feathers or nesting material at all. After the worst of the storm Friday night, I stepped out on the back porch and I could hear the pond's overflow spill-way roaring with flooding water. I think the nest just got flooded and washed away. Mom and Dad were gone and they have not returned. I guess we were a lot closer to the storm damage then we thought.

Why Are Churches Declining?

I'm not sure which is more discouraging; hearing folks complain about the widespread decrease in church attendance, or hearing what some think is needed to reverse the trend. I believe that part of what most churches are experiencing has it's roots in the turmoil of the sixties (decade not age group). That was when, I believe, church members first started wanting and asking for changes in the assembly. Words like "relevant" and "contemporary" started being used to defining what people were seeking. And that, for churches that blur the distinction between God's commands and man's comfortable traditions, set the stage for decades of arguing, struggling, dividing, and polarizing as churches gradually began to define themselves by their worship styles, preferences, and purposes. I repeat it regularly every time the subject comes up, but as long as you define yourself by your style of worship on Sunday morning, the less you look like Jesus and represent the Body of Christ.
The second, and bigger element in the "why are things changing" department, goes back several centuries. Even as a historian I don't dare venture a guess as to the date. But somewhere, Christians getting together to grow in love for one another and to help each other grow in Christ was replaced by a passive, non-participatory, one-dimensional, formal worship service, with times, places, and specified rituals to perform. Attendance not only became the definition of faithfulness, the assembly of the saints became a receiving experience and not a giving opportunity. It stopped being about helping others grow, and became the single most important part of our religious experience - and "IT BETTER MEET OUR NEEDS OR WE WILL TAKE OUR BODIES AND OUR BOUNTY TO A CHURCH THAT DOES."
Now we have workshops, retreats, books, seminars, degrees, and experts to tell us how to "meet needs" on Sunday morning and attract larger numbers to our "sacrifice of praise to God." I believe with all my heart that one of Satan's greatest victories was not having so many bars, brothels, and bad people, but simply turning the words of Jesus up-side-down. Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive." Satan got us all to believe that didn't apply to our assembly time.
Today we are seeing, I believe, the natural evolution of "what's in it for me" as people simply say, "I don't need it." In their minds, if it was all about attracting them, meeting their needs, and entertaining them for an hour or so - it's not working any more. Remember, we are the ones that said it's all about the Sunday worship, and we are the ones who grew up believing it's supposed to do things for ME, and we're the ones who expected that worship service to be all things to all people thus making it a perfect prescription for judging, for church-hopping, and for failure.
A simple tool for building love for one another and for God should only be judged by how well it helps people develop a deeper relationship with Jesus. Yes, I know there are mega-churches with tens of thousand of members. I praise God for anything that glorifies Him. But are they mega-churches because they are attracting people to Jesus, or because they've got the "best game in town"? I don't know - I'm just asking.
The Hebrew writer said that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever." If the church is the body of Christ, shouldn't we "really" look just like His body looked in the beginning? Back when Christians getting together was all about giving instead of receiving? We might be surprised to discover how attractive that is to a world with "needs."

The Missing Point?

Wednesday morning is my usual sermon preparation day. I like to think that my gradual transition over the years, from finishing my sermons on Saturday night to actually having them done four days early, is sign of maturity and being more conscientious, but it's actually more about my shear love of what God has called me to do. This week, since we were in Arkansas the first part of the week, I actually spent part of Tuesday afternoon preparing this week's lesson on Building Integrity. It is the final lesson in my eight part series on Extreme Makeover: Building Better Homes. I knew I'd be on the road Wednesday morning, (again, my usual sermon prep time) and I wanted it done so I could stay on my usual track and routine of weekly tasks.
I've said all that so I could make this point - the down side of finishing early is all the additional ideas that come to me over the next four days. I plan on that, and most of the time I jot them down in my sermon notes and use them on Sunday - unless they are too big and I know I don't have time to include them. Printing a final draft of a sermon, is like sending a manuscript off to a printer. The moment you say it's finished, you find things you wish you could add. Or to put it another way, it's like buying a dozen Krispi Kream doughnuts and telling yourself you're only going to eat one. Later you add the forgotten clarification of - I meant one - at a time.
I don't know if this will make it into Sunday's lesson on integrity, but here is a "Rootism" that has been on my heart today. Our integrity is defined and diminished by what we don't care about. That may not seem incredibly profound - until you start realizing what you DON'T DO THAT YOU SHOULD. If integrity is what you are when no one is looking, what does that say about us when we don't do things we should, because we don't care about them. We do the BIG STUFF - the SEEN stuff, but what about doing what is right when no one sees us? Picking up trash, rather than disgustedly thinking, "Someone needs to pick that up!" What about helping someone who dropped something, or who is having a hard time getting into their car with children and groceries? What about using that turn signal to let others know what you are planning to do? What about wiping off the sink in the public bathroom after you wash your hands?
The list is endless. It's all the little things we see, or choose to ignore, and - without saying it - we just don't care enough about it to do what's right! Doesn't that speak to the very essence of integrity? It's not just about telling the truth and not cheating on your taxes. It's being driven by a heart that is at peace with God. A heart that doesn't see burdens and guilt avoidance, but just consideration and compassion. A heart that truly wants to be like Jesus.
God tells us "As water reflects a face, so a man's heart reflects the man." (Prov.27:19) Head integrity is image management. Integrity in the heart, is instinctive thoughtfulness.

Building Faith

(I am out of town today, so I don't have access to my usual picture file. If you've forgotten what the Extreme Makeover logo looks like, just scroll down a couple blogs and you'll see it.)

Extreme Makeover - Building Faith (The lesson is on our web page)
My Top Five passages in the Bible about family: Joshua 24:15; Eph.6:4; Prov.31:10-31; 3 John 4; and the one I want to emphasis for this lesson, Matthew 16:24(...gain the whole world, but lose your soul) Building faith in our family is the most important thing we will do as a family. Move it to the top of your list before it's too late. Make it important!
Four Principles To Remember About Building Faith In Our Families:
1. Faith building means you are on a journey together!
A. At first, we are kids raising kids - learning and growing ourselves.
B. Recognize it as a process we all must go through on our own. John Westerhoff's, Will Our Children Have Faith, talked about the four levels of faith: Experiential Level, which is faith through your parents our someone who mentors you; Affiliative Level, which is being part of a groups, so it's really a group belief; the Searching Level, which is testing and doubting parents beliefs; and the Owned Level, where we seek God ourselves and know what and why be believe. Unfortunately, in some families, Jesus never left the church building.
C. Keep it a sense of growing together - I'm not perfect, I make mistakes and apologize, and to make it clear it is worth it.
2. Faith building is learning by observation not obligation!
A. There is a danger in fundamentalism, institutionalism, and legalism when they define "church" for young people. Lose respect for externals, rebel & reject meaningless acts or rituals, and they heat the inconsistency of church parents vs. at home parents.
B. Dolores Curran, "Faith is rarely passed on because of nuances in doctrine and theology. It is passed on because of the difference it makes in daily life."
C. Our goal is to guide them from us to Jesus.
3. Faith building comes from a positive and meaningful joy parents have about their faith!
A. What makes you happy makes your kids happy - they adopts our joys
B. Negative beliefs, critical opinions, unhappy & selfish members, and un-Christ-like comments bombard our kids = why they aren't going to church as adults!
C. Meaningful? Do they see me drawing closer to God? Do they see - Col.3:8-17?
4. Faith building supports family bonds, but it is not a prerequisite!
A. Love, support, & inclusion are what families do! Even if they don't share the same beliefs. Even if one or more loses their faith!
B. Open doors bring healing and hope - closed ones don't!
C. Jesus shows us how to deal w/ faith building in his disciples. Patience, love, & forgiveness w/ Peter! Available & understanding w/ Thomas. Grace is who we are, not just what we have!
Conclusion: No parent wants their child to fail. What about lose their soul? Matt.16:26? Move faith to the top of the list of family priorities. Who will pay for your attempt to "gain the whole world" for yourself or for your children?

When Will I Get It Right?

When I comes to understanding God's will, as it's recording in the Bible, everything depends on interpretation - the way you choose to see it. Unfortunately, very few people ever read God's Word with completely objective eyes. Most of us had a great deal of "prerequisite" ground work done to our brains, long before we started reading just for ourselves. And, depending on what kind of ground work it was, you may see or interpret scripture completely different from many others - even whole huge populations of people. (PB = Pragraph Break) If you believe it's a book of laws, rules, and binding patterns, you read it that way - looking for new laws, rules, and patterns that you might have missed, and to reinforce the ones you've always known were there. If you were taught that Christians have an official and formal worship, you will interpret many verses of scripture to be referring to that event, and you will have a basic assumption that there must be acts or prescribed rituals that must take place and must conform to what God expects. Because you started out with those basic assumptions, which you were raised to accept, you will interpret lots of scriptures to be referring to that formal worship rather than just Christian interaction in general. (PB) Others read the same passages and see God simply wanting his people to be together and support each other in their commitment to have a deeper relationship with Jesus. One person sees principles of love building, and other sees binding patterns that can not and must not be changed or omitted if one is to be doctrinally correct, which to many, is the same things as being saved. (PB) It sure does seem that everything depends on interpretation. What if I pick the wrong one? Since I have changed or modified my interpretations many times through the years, how many other, or more, changes do I need to make to get it right? With so many different interpretive approaches to understanding God's Word, which one is right? Are any of them completely right? (PB) Maybe everything doesn't depend on interpretation. Could it be that more than anything else God just wants people to seek him as best they can, with what they have, and with all their heart? No, everything doesn't depend on interpretation. Everything depends on the grace of God.

Building Traditions

It is understandable that folks who have read any one of my three books on worship might conclude that I am anti-traditions. I'm not. In fact, I love traditions! I love family traditions, AND, I even love church family traditions, but what I don't like are traditions that become law and/or are elevated to a position higher than God's will (or made synonymous with God's will). In the family, they can and should be valuable tools to help build family togetherness. Traditions can be a wonderful tool for good or a selfish tool for destruction. A good contrast is Matthew 15:3-9, where Jesus condemns the traditions replacing God's will, and Luke 2:41-42 where Jesus' family honors the customs of God's people.

Here are some thoughts to remember about traditions in the family.

1. Traditions are for bonding not binding! (A good way to determine when a church traditions is good or bad too)

A. This is why some children grow up and limit family ties while others deepen them.

B. The difference between burden and bonding - duty vs. belonging?

C. Bonding is a sense of belonging and closeness.

D. Problem: the potential conflict between "freedom" and "belonging" since they are both powerful emotions that are also direct opposites.

E. Balance: keep it fun, meaningful, and loving (not laws).

2. Traditions should foster family values!

A. Togetherness - enjoy it, plan it, anticipate it!

B. Thankfulness - for each other, for memories, and every day together.

C. Christ Centered - Jesus is an official member of our family. (Eph.6:1-4)

3. Traditions are to be cherished not worshipped!

A. Cherish your uniqueness - our family chooses to do it this way!

B. Use the tool, don't let the tool use you! Focus on the principle or value you want to foster in your family.

C. Keep it simple, memorable, flexible, and doable! Things change, so must our traditions. Remember, it's the little things that count the most, and they will change with age and needs.

D. Warning: age appropriate traditions may not have anything to do with the number of years a child has lived. Their heart decides when they are "too old" for something that means a lot. Try having a Family Trivia Night where children can show how much they know about you and your family history. It's also a great way to teach it. Remember, some traditions are ageless and timeless - if they still bond the family together.

Conclusion: Don't just choose to get married and choose to have children. Choose what kind of family you will have. Use traditions to help build it.

Spring Sprang

This may be more for family than anyone else, but this is our cherry tree nearly in full bloom. It doesn't last long, but when it does, it's a beautiful sight. Clearly Spring is upon us - finally. We had a big thunder storm early this morning that turned the pond brown, and I'm trying to decide if the grass is too wet to mow for the first time this Spring. Decisions, decisions? Anyway, the white blossoms of our cherry tree are always gone by the time any family comes to visit us. Every year, during the week of our musical, the cherries are ripe and ready to be picked. We usually let the birds do it. They love us for that.

Our front yard azaleas only last a short while too, but they are pretty.

These are the three trees on our side yard with the pond in the back. It's hard to tell, but the first one is red, the second pink, and the cherry tree is white.

Here is the real Spring story. This goose has made a nest right at the boarder of our yard and the common property around the pond. She has been sitting on her eggs for a least a week now. She rarely leaves the nest, but when she does, she and her mate will come charging back to protect it if you try to get close to it. So far, no one has messed with her. Not even some people who have walked their dogs back there, but they've all been on leashes so far. (See the white crane on the other side?)

This is as close as she will let me get. A zoom picture from our porch. (Can you see the turtle just to her right?) What worries me the most is what the HOA lawn care workers are going to do when they come to mow around the pond, which they will either today or next couple of days. I thought about putting up some kind of markers or signs, but she won't let anyone get close. I don't think she'll be as courageous with the big riding lawn mower when it arrives. I don't know what to do. I guess it's true, I'm not my goose's keeper.

The One Left Out

I put together my lesson for Sunday yesterday. My plan is to share the main points on my blog next week, as I have been doing since the series began. This topic is very different from the other seven on the Extreme Makeover list. All the other topics are qualities or virtues what we all need to care about and grow in, but this one is - well, a concept or an idea that can be either good or bad, depending on how we use it. I'm talking about traditions. Traditions are a tool to use that can support all the other qualities on my list. In the family, traditions are a very important part of building togetherness and closeness, and give us warm memories that we cherish and want to pass on to the next generation. I had a lot of notes of things I wanted to be sure and cover in this lesson. I was able to include most of them in the outline, and as usual, it's probably way more than I need to be covering in one lesson, but that's the nature of dealing with huge subjects in just one lesson. The one "note" on my list that I didn't put into the lesson was the importance of respecting the traditions of others. It's just too big a point to make as just a passing sub point in one sermon. Still, I think it's very important. I especially think it's important because I've already made the point in the lesson on Respect that you don't have to agree with someone to respect their opinions and view points. I spent too many years being judgemental, critical, and smug about people who practiced traditions that I didn't subscribe to or doctrinally agree with. I don't have to agree with it, and I have no business assuming that because I don't participate or agree, the ones who do must be ignorant, insincere, or shallow. Gut check! Is it really about the tradition or the heart? Because something looks strange or doesn't make sense to me, does that mean it's not honoring God when it's coming from a sincere heart? Many scream, "It's has to have biblical authority!" Would you like to dissect a Sunday morning communion and find out how much of what we do comes from our traditions and not the Bible? The heart is the most important report card to God. I believe He respects any attempt to seek Him, glorify Him, and become more like Him. As long as the tradition isn't made law and elevated above God's will, I should respect it. Paul did that on several occasions, and no one was tougher on legalism than he was. Maybe I can find space in my lesson after all. (Sorry - blogger's still not accepting any Return/Enter Breaks - hope that's not a new tradition!)

Blog Smog

Okay, before I start getting TOO impatient, for the last two weeks my blog has not allowed me to use any line breaks/returns. It's in the blog, but when I hit publish it takes out all Returns. I've pulled up the Edit screen and re-did the returns multiple times, but it always takes them out when I hit publish. I've tried everything I can think of and could play with, including all the recommendations in the HELP emails section. Any ideas? It's hard for someone who thinks in outlines to see them destroyed by a computer glitch. Hope it doesn't bother your reading of the blogs. Sorry. PS. Just for fun, I have a Break/Return after every sentence in this blog! I'm not laughing.

Building Responsibility

The lesson should be on our web page, but for those who might be interested in a "bare bones" overview of my lesson on Building Responsibility this past Sunday, I offer the following. The Rich Man and Lazarus, in Luke 16, gives us an excellent example of how responsibilities, or lack of being responsible, has consequences. My bud and co-worker Jerry, pointed out to me that if we didn't know the whole story, all of us would have labeled the Rich Man as "responsible". Great point. I did address that, without referring to the story, in Main Point #3 below. What is so important about being responsible? At the very least it includes... 1. Survival = even the world expects it 2. Self-respect = we all know we need it 3. Character = be a person of convictions 4. Maturity = it's value increases as we grow 5. Accountability = there will be consequences My premise is: Healthy parents train and teach their children the joy and self-respect that comes from developing a sense of responsibility. They must see it in their parents. Things to remember about building responsibility: (a primary source was Dolores Curran's, Traits of a Healthy Family) 1. There is a direct connection between being responsible and having good self-esteem. 2. Being responsible is more than doing chores. 3. Being responsible doesn't always mean being neat and tidy. * Typical definition from parents: neat room, done homework, compliant * A responsible child is one who is trying * Do not equate success & achievement w/ being responsible! (i.e. Rich Man) 4. Responsibility must be matched to capabilities. 5. Responsibility must be enveloped by affirmation. 6. Responsibility can't be learned without experiencing the consequences of irresponsibility. * Over-protective parents who accept or cover the cost of their child's irresponsibility are picking the temporarily easy way, the temporarily guilt-free way, the always wrong way. * Mistakes, failures, & poor choices are learning experiences - never made better by more bad decisions. * Be their parent now so they won't need a parole officer later! * Learn soon, save long-term! * Irresponsible children become irresponsible adults * One counselor said, "Either you raise your children full-time for twenty years, or else you end up raising them part-time forever."

2012 Plans

Come with us! We try to take a special vacation every two years - usually a cruise of some type. It takes that long to save for it or to pay off the last one. We tried to brake that rule by sticking in a cruise on this last off year and found out that we, nor any of our travel companions, could afford it. So now we have our next one booked and mostly planned. Since we loved our last vacation so much - due to it being in the middle of Winter - we decided to plan this next one during the same time period. There's nothing like a warm weather vacation in the middle of the bitter cold St. Louis Winter. Our plan is to take an eleven day cruise next February (5th) out of Brisbane and cruising the Fiji Island and other South Pacific islands. Originally we wanted to do a Holy Land/Med Cruise, but with all the turmoil in that part of the world, and with the higher cost of that cruise, we switched to looking for a warm weather trip in February.

We'd love to have you with us. You can look up the details at Princess.com and click on Cruise Search. Right now we only need a dinner table for six, but we'd love to reserve a larger one to include you. I'm so excited about it that I'm actually looking forward to next winter.

New Command? Yeah right!

I haven't always cared as much about love as I do now. No, I'm not talking about romantic love, or family love, or even love of country. I'm talking about theological love - the love that is God, defines and describes God, and becomes the bench mark of our closeness to God. It was always easier to think of love as obedience or commitment - or even faithfulness, because those are, or can be, visible, measurable, and judgeable. And besides, it was always so hard to deal with love as "doctrine" or "church" because it just didn't "feel" right for "real men" to talk so much about love. I mean, love is for women and chic-flicks - right? Love is that goofy feeling you have when you're so star-struck over a girl you can't even talk straight - right? And then there was all that weird business about loving your enemies! What's that all about? I don't feel like loving my enemies - or the...poor... the unclean...the different... or even that weird-socially-inept-church-member, who just doesn't know how to fit in. And who needs love when religion is all about following established-correctly-interpreted-biblical-patterns. It's better to be right than to be loving - right? I even remember purchasing books on love - because I was "supposed" to have them - and I intentionally shelved them for a future time when I knew (even then) that I'd be more interested in the subject. (What was I preaching back then? Ouch!) Something happened - I mean other than aging! I finally figured God out. Oh He was clear - I was just muddy with doctinal correctness. No matter what I read, studied, preached, taught, or thought about, I kept coming back to the Genesis point that it is all about knowing God - and God is love. No one, from Adam to after-life, can know God without knowing love. The patriarchs were impatient, Israel was legalistic and forgetful, and Christians want to win the debate. We all have done a miserable job of understanding and developing the love of God. When Jesus called loving one another "a new command" in John 13:34, we thought He was talking about emphasis. After all, how could it be "new". It had been around from the beginning - how could it suddenly be new? Sounds more like a rehash doesn't it? The reason it was new was because the pursuit of God no longer had anything to do with laws, rules, Temples, priests, sacrifices, and ceremonial performances. Love was now the only tool we needed to know God, please God, and be like God and "one another love" was the best way to learn it. Once we realize that love (God's love) isn't a feeling but a choice - a decision to act - all that worldly feel-good romance oriented thinking about love goes out the window. We only know God to the extent we know love! Everything else is only tools to use to help make that happen. Now my only question is, how did I miss that for so many years?

Building Trust

Building Trust (Sermon is on our Web page)

Trust is an integral part of our life - from trusting our mechanic, our dentist, to trusting everyone who is driving on the same road as we are. Spiritually, it is the foundation of our walk with God. A great example of trust and loss of trust is seen in Matthew 14:22-33 when Peter walked to Jesus on the water. My favorite OT verse on trust is Psalm 20:7 and the NT is Romans 15:13. I also like the NIV in John 14:1 "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, trust also in me."

As a life quality or as character, trust is the most important, most fragile, and the most difficult to repair. Trust is: a firm belief in the honesty and reliability of some one or thing; a confident expectation and hope placed in someone or thing, and something entrusted to a person. Spiritually, it's God. God is love = trust; 1 Cor.13:7 "love always trusts." It is the message and purpose of the Bible - God can not violate a trust - He is the ultimate in trustworthiness!

My "Dirty Dozen" ways a trust is violated or broken (just to name a few). A trust as been violated when...

1. You don't tell the truth or you misrepresent it.

2. You judge or criticise without communicating and finding out all the facts

3. You don't keep your promise or commitment

4. You break a confidence

5. You gossip (violate the trust of the one talked about and the one talked to)

6. You leave someone out who should have been included

7. You speculate or assume w/o communicating

8. You don't speak up and/or defend a friend or a loved one

9. You fail to respect the feelings of those who expected you to

10. You ignore or forget something that is very important to friends or family

11. You humiliate or demean friends or family in the presence of others

12. You don't practice what you preach

Why is trust so important? There are THREE FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES OF TRUST

1. Trust is the foundation of integrity! A. Every act of distrust destroys character B. Integrity gives inner joy & peace - distrust steals it C. Your values or lack of values define you * Why did Peter "weep bitterly" after his third denial of Jesus?

2. Trust is the foundation of our relationships! A. Closeness is determined by trust B. W/o trust there is no relationship - only co-existence C. Guard trust at all cost! No compromise! No rationalizing! No excuses! * Remember Adam? "The women you gave me..."

3. Trust is the foundation of our walk with God! A. "I made you - trust me!" Seek Him! B. "I love you - trust me!" Seek Him! C. "I will take care of you - trust me!" Seek Him!

Conclusion: Do you trust Him to sit on the throne of your heart?

Label Busting

Labelling others is so convenient and tidy. You don't have to mess with truth, facts, or interacting - you just label. It's generic judging. You can lump all liberals, can all conservatives, and profile all progressives. It's easy, non-threatening, and universally accepted. Unfortunately, it's disrespectful, prejudicial, and un-Christ-like. If that doesn't give us pause, what about the fact that labeling is illogical, relative, and absurd. Since labeling is judging, the judging is nearly totally dependent on who is making the judgement rather than some absolute basis from which to compare. "I am right - normal - in the middle, where all right people should be," our unspoken brains declare, "and everyone to the left of me is a liberal, to the right are the conservatives, and anyone who thinks they're ahead of me is a progressive." So the labels change, depending on where the one who is doing the labelling stands - at that point in their life.
A liberal is no longer someone who questions the authority of the Bible or the reality of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling among us -it's the folks who do new things in their assembly. The conservatives aren't those loyal to God's Word, but those who refuse to change anything they did in the 50's. The progressives are just the folks going faster than us. They would all be better if they were "just like me."
I've been labelled all three at different times by different people and for different reasons. I think I am all three, at different times and for different reasons. If I had to pick one, it would be the one I've almost never been called. Spiritually, theologically, and as far as church stuff goes, I'm a "dyed in wool conservative." Why? I'm am only driven by one thing, and that is loyalty to God's message. That loyalty has caused me to throw out some things I have been taught in the past, and it has caused me to rethink everything I've ever learned through the years. Some of those things were reinforced, while others where adjusted to fit my understanding of God's will. If the Bible says it, I believe it, but I may not believe your interpretation of it, just like I don't believe some of the conclusions I held twenty years ago. Still, I can't tell you how long it's been since I had a REAL discussion about scripture with someone who disagreed with me or was upset about something I taught. We don't argue scripture anymore, we argue preferences.
Where God allows liberty, I'm all for being liberal. Where God wants growth, movement, and a "living and active" church to match His "living and active" Word, I'm all about being progressive. Ask me to ignore His Word, replace His truth with our traditions, or promote law when He calls for Spirit - and - like I said, I'm a conservative.
Have you ever thought about how much Jesus was a "label buster"? His people were saying, "Those Samaritans are worthless," and He told a story about one who has become an icon of neighborliness and compassion. His people were saying, "Women are not very important - they're just property," and yet He offered "living water" to a women that his disciples were surprised he even talked to. The world labelled Tax Collectors, the blind, the sick, the adulterous, and the thieves, and He said, "Don't keep them from coming to me."
Yes, I still catch myself occasionally using labels to define groups, churches, and others who don't stand exactly where I do. I'm working on never doing that, but old habits and old sins die hard. If I'm going to use labels, I need to use the labels that God uses, like "saved," "Kingdom," and "names written in the Lambs Book of Life." Now that's a label to long for.

THE WEB PAGE IS READY!

While it's still a work in progress, I'm glad to let you know that our new web page is up and running. The long address is http://www.florissantchurchofchrist.org but I'm told you can get to it with just the florissantchurchofchrist.org and not all the front stuff. Many parts of it are underconstruction, but we have a great volunteer who is willing to keep working on it and keep it updated. In fact, it already has Sunday's sermon on it - the one I wrote about this morning in the blog below this. It does have the song before the sermon on it too, but you can move the little dial and it will fast forward past it. There will be a lot of changes and improvements made, so please be patient if you check it regularly.

Building Respect

Building Respect

Respect includes honor, consideration, caring, concern, recognition, courtesy, attention, and regard. For God, respect is worship - a 24/7 life giving in sacrifice to Him. For Christians, respect can easily be defined as the way Jesus treated others.

While the Bible is all about respect (because it's about God), my favorite illustrations of respect include: 1) David's refusal to kill Saul in the cave because he (Saul) was "God's anointed"; 2) The Centurion in Matthew 8 who showed respect for Jesus' power and authority; 3) The Prodigal son, in Luke 15, when he was back before his father.

Some helpful things to remember about respect:

1. Respect must be valued, sought after, and recognized as foundational to all of life's important qualities. It is a Christ-like quality we must want and one we need. All other qualities rest on us choosing respect (i.e. Christian Graces, Fruit of the Spirit, etc. all require it to build on).

2. Respect begins with self-respect. We are God's masterpiece and we can't begin to love Him and others until we truly love ourselves - like He wants us to. That means don't allow others to disrespect you (just deal w/ it in a Christ-like way).

3. Respect must be consistently modeled if it is going to be successfully taught. Model a person who possesses self respect. Remember what is seen is more powerful than what is said. Always show respect to and for your children. Deal w/ disrespect immediately! If you don't expect it and require it, your children won't give it to all other authority figures (i.e. police, teachers, elders, etc.). God command them to show it, that means parents MUST model and teach it!

4. Respect for others has no exceptions! It's for all (1 Pet.2:16-17) and we must have it to please God. Remember His lesson to Peter in Acts 10 = NO PARTIALITY! Don't pass on your prejudices to your children. Grow w/ them! Respect differences in personalities, interests, and opinions. Respect individuality in each child/person. Respect individual decisions.

5. Respect is not approval! Jesus showed that with every person he met - regardless of their sins - even sexual sins. But he never approved their sins! Sin does not negate respect no matter what culture has taught us about some sins ( i.e. homosexuality). Respect, but don't approve all groups, those who are different, different beliefs, and the property of others.

Conclusion: We always think about Moses having to show respect for God at the burning bush encounter. Have you ever thought about how much respect God showed for Moses? He was reluctant, unwilling, full of excuses, whining for help, and weak! What would you have said to him? God answered and dealt with every concern. Have you ever thought about how much God respects you? Especially when you consider what we really deserve?

Street Gangs In Calgary

Roving street gangs in Calgary, Alberta. They're looking for trouble.

Here they have commandeered the front yard of a peace-loving suburbanite.

Isn't it amazing how many things in life people look at totally differently? For twenty-five years I've spent countless vacation days and thousands of dollars traveling to Colorado to hunt elk and I've had years where we never saw any. I have come home with elk for the freezer four times, but some of us (who shall remain nameless) have never brought home any delicious elk meat. I'm just saying, it's a quest, a goal, a hobby, and an adventure - and just a fun time for a bunch of guys to be together hunting in the mountains of Colorado. In the suburbs of Calgary - elk are pests, and the homeowners get upset when their shrubs and gardens are eaten, and their green yards get fertilizer that is un-spread and unwanted.

Everything depends on your perspective, and your values. One persons pest is another persons prize. Have you ever looked around your house and thought about all the little (and sometimes big) things that you wish were improved, fixed, replaced, or just different? Whatever it is, there are whole nations of people who would feel like they were living in the lap of luxury to have that very thing. With affluence comes complacency, and with complacency comes ingratitude and with ingratitude comes ungodliness. When that happens, we are a long way from seeing things with God's perspective.

Maybe we don't need to "stop and smell the roses" but stop and count our blessings. That pesty elk in your yard would be considered "yard art" in some places, just like that dripping faucet would be considered a life saving spring in some places.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." James 1:17

Building Affirmation

Building Affirmation

Affirmation is an essential part of our self-esteem. It includes encouragement, reinforcement, praise, support & acknowledgement, and a steady diet of "I'm with you" (security), "You're important" (significance), and "You can do it" (competence). For biblical illustrations I used
1. God's patience and repeated reinforcement of His covenant with the Patriarchs.
2. Abraham and Isaac climbing up Mt. Moriah w/ the knife, wood, and fire, but no sacrifice. Abraham's answer to Isaac's question about where it was, "God will provide." He had come a long way - with God's guidance and affirmation for many decades. Now he was affirming Isaac.
3. David in all of Psalms 23 - talk about feeling God's affirmation?
4. The ultimate - God's affirmation of Jesus at His baptism and transfiguration
5. Paul - over and over - Phil.4:13 & 19, and many more.

Another fancy title: Mike's Five Proverbs of Affirmation
1. The best way to receive affirmation is to give it to others. The personal affirmation we receive from guiding & helping others is simply the principle Jesus taught when He said, "It is more blessed to give than it is to receive." Acts 20:35
2. Criticism that is not deeply rooted in affirmation is destructive and deadly. Oft forgotten by church folks. It was always Paul's practice to praise and encourage first. "Misery loves company" so there will always be folks who tear down rather than build up. Eph.3:29
3. Affirmation is an unselfish act, but when it becomes self-serving - it's only and act. (Nuff said)
4. Affirmation is the easiest and purest form of giving. It's not about money, but caring, giving effort, time, and thoughtfulness for others. It's doing what Jesus would/did do. (Matthew, Zaccheus, Woman at the well, children, etc.)
5. Affirmation is the joy of sowing followed by the rejoicing of reaping! Plant seeds of "I'm with you," "You're important," and "You can do it," and then water, feed, and protect. The results are maturity, strength, confidence, and new affirmers. 1 Cor.3:5-9
A family that only shares a house, food, TV, bills, and nothing else is sick and dying. The same is true for a church family. If we are not affirming one another, which is one of the main ways we help one another develop a deeper relationship with Jesus, we are just a house.