If you can, be at the Athens Vineyard March 28. It would be really great if some of you who have moved away could be here that day. We’ll celebrate in church, and then have a party for Lunch at Last.
And if you bring dessert, make sure it’s a birthday cake!!
]]>As I drove on to work, the incident made me stop and think seriously about my death. Don’t think me too morbid. I had a NT professor once who confessed that he lay awake at night thinking of his death on a regular basis. He was 38 at the time.
I listened to the song over and over as I drove, imagining the band at the Vineyard, with all the electric guitar players stepping up to play various solos. The song tells the story of a friend who had died too young, but whose work would live on. Here’s the pertinent line in the song: “Ascend may you find no resistance, Know that you made such a difference, All you leave behind will live to the end.”
What on earth am I doing that is really making a difference? And especially, what am I leaving behind that will live to the end?!? Now I understand the sentimentality that accompanies the experience of telling your friend goodbye, and the emotion of wanting to say to them that they mattered. I’ll let you say those words without protest.
I spoke on the parable of the talents this past weekend. That story will get you thinking about your life, and meeting Jesus when you die.
It does you (us all) a world of good to pause on a regular basis, and ask whether you’re living the life you were created to live. And when your master returns and meets with you to settle up, will he refer to you as ‘good and trustworthy’ or ‘evil and lazy/irksome’?
For one thing, it will be pretty hard to answer that if you don’t know what you’re for. Spend time thinking about what you’re made for. What’s your life mission? Or, what’s the fire that burns in your core? If you could really be known for something, what would it be? What do you want to be remembered for? What if you really could make a difference? What would you want that to look like?
A friend once told me that he wanted to live such a life that when he died, no church in town would be able to hold the crowd. His intention wasn’t to be famous, but to be that well loved, which required him to live well. That’s a noble goal.
I’m not sure that’s quite what I’m digging for here, though. I’m not talking about simply being a quality person (which IS worthy) but what are you called to DO?
As I imagined that band playing my funeral, I wanted to think that what I had started in my short days was so important that someone would think, “We can’t let this work stop.” Frankly, I don’t want to waste my life. I have no need to be famous, but thinking about my funeral has been a real motivator to know what I’m for, and not to waste my life.
But in case I’m near the end, we’ve got to get Blackbird covered. Let’s see,
Derek and Taylor should do the vocals
On electric guitar, I want Ryan, Matt, Jonathon, and Chris
Ian and Tim can carry all the percussion
Matt and Josh can carry the bass . . .
Thus the season of Lent begins.
A lot of Christians, on the other hand, don’t observe lent at all. But they’ll hear others talk about what they’re giving up for lent. Usually, people give up something like meat, chocolate, alcohol, or some other type of food. Others give up things like complaining, movies, or maybe Facebook. I even read from a few people who were giving up giving up, or giving up religion. Whatever.
But, what’s the point?
Giving up things for Lent (40 days before Easter, excluding Sundays) is a way of imitating Jesus who withdrew into the wilderness for 40 days, fasting and praying before his ministry began. In denying ourselves some pleasure or good thing, we’re also remembering the sacrifices Jesus made for us, joining him in that self denial. The scriptures teach that Jesus endured the cross ‘for the joy set before him‘ and I think about that whenever I fast, or deny myself something for the sake of Jesus. Whatever I’m giving up can result in a joyous end.
As a matter of fact, Paul talked about how losing all his earthly gains and credentials were worth it as long as they resulted in him gaining Christ. Compared to knowing Jesus, all this stuff we think is important, is rubbish.
So, why don’t you join me this Lenten season, and intentionally deny yourself something, especially something that distracts you from Jesus. All that business about being mortal and all, that’s pretty true. The clock is ticking, and time is passing by. All those opportunities to gain Christ . . . well why not use this Lenten season to give something up that will work to your advantage?
]]>Fletcher is a licensed marriage counselor and brings knowledge and a passion for this extremely important area of our church. He will be letting you know the vision and mission of this Life Team, as well as some of our ideas and plans.
Our first event will be Saturday, February 6th, from 10 AM to noon. It will be a round table discussion of the topic Communicating with the Opposite Sex. Singles and Marrieds are welcome. Childcare will be available (RSVP Robin Wise 706-310-1736).
Be looking forward to monthly events, along with retreats, workshops, support groups, and more.
]]>So he obviously had enough church background, or Christian family influence, that he knew some biblical principles, but he didn’t know where his thoughts could be found.
Well, he kept rummaging around until he was half quoting 1 or 2 of the 10 commandments. I think he said something like “Thou shalt not cheat on your spouse.” One of the hosts said, “What’s another one?” When he said “Thou shalt not kill” they started trying to figure out why someone would make these rules. “Oh, well, somebody took somebody out, so they wanted to put an end to that. And someone said ‘don’t cheat’ because they got cheated on. What are some more of those? I’ll bet we can figure out why they made all those rules.” Then they started looking on Google because they couldn’t remember any more of the c0mmandments. That’s all I heard because I had to get out of the car.
Look at this article:
While a recent survey conducted by Kelton Research showed respondents know more Big Mac® ingredients than Ten Commandments, taken on the whole the statistics are even more revealing: out of the 1,000 respondents, almost two in five (35%) can recall all six Brady kids, a quarter (25%) could name all seven ingredients of the Big Mac, but only just over one in ten (14%) can accurately list all Ten Commandments.
I’m not criticizing non-Christians for not knowing the bible. I just find that it surprises me when they don’t. Somehow I feel that it’s teachings are more woven into our culture than they are. And I think I would be equally surprised at how little some people in my church know the bible. I had a professor who used to say, “Never under estimate how intelligent your people are. Never over estimate how much they know the bible.”
This story is one reason I am so passionate about teaching the bible. If the only scripture you are planting in your spirit is what you get on Sunday morning, then I’m going to do my best to give you a good solid dose. That’s how important the scriptures are to us. Christians have always been ‘people of the book’. The bible is our source of truth and doctrine. It’s one of the key places we drink for life and sustenance. It is certainly the most reliable source of information and truth about who God is and how we can know him. But I’m hoping you’ll do more than just get a weekly dose on Sunday mornings, but that you’ll also act on my encouragement to apply a ’spiritual habit’ of reading and memorizing scripture as well.
Will you join me in memorizing his word? Like I do with many of the things of life that are good for me, I cycle in and out of being ‘disciplined’ with my scripture memory habit. All I know is that if I don’t plant it in my heart – by memory – I am setting myself up to miss so much LIFE in life.
]]>Lots of my friends have tattoos. Sometimes they ask me if I’m ever going to get one. I always say that it would need to be something that has significant meaning to me. Storms are one of those things, but I can’t imagine being satisfied with a little storm on my bicep. It would have to be huge and intimidating to fit the image I have of a decent storm.
Life has been stormy around here lately. When you’re in the middle of it, you wonder if it’s going to destroy you, don’t you? I was water skiing one time as a boy and my mom was driving the boat. A storm blew in, and we were hustling back to our dock/lodging. I was huddled down on my seat under a towel when lightning struck the water somewhere nearby. I remember it being the loudest sound I had ever heard. I was fully expecting electricity to light us up and throw us onto the shore. Maybe that’s when I really learned to pray! But we made it back safely, and soon the storm blew over.
During Push (our pre-service prayer time) on Sunday, one of the men reported something he saw. He explained that storms around here (GA) usually hug the ground, and all you can see in the midst of the storm is more storm. But he had been places (Texas) where he would see the storm rise up, and when you looked toward the horizon, you could see light on the other side. That’s what he saw; a dark storm, but when you looked toward the horizon, you could see light on the other side of the storm. (click on picture above). As a former farmer from West Texas, I know that picture. We always knew that a storm wasn’t terribly intense when you could see daylight on the other side.
What he saw has been a great source of encouragement to me. The longer I walk this life out, the more confidence I have in our God who loves to rescue, grow, discipline, teach, stretch and shape. And he regularly uses storms to do it. Learning his ways builds trust in him – read faith. Maybe even more than when he makes life easy, storms followed by rescue/deliverance build faith. Storms blow in, and you start looking around for how he’s going to rescue you this time. For him to give us a picture of hope and light on the other side of this storm is quite comforting.
Embrace?
]]>This article got me thinking about happiness and our unquenchable thirst for it. The article is about online dating, and how it can be risky, esp. since it feeds our insatiable need to follow unrealistic feelings which are built upon scary foundations. Here’s a quote from the article:
We are living in a “Have it your way” culture. When we want it we got it, from on-line shopping with next day delivery, to bootleg movies being sent to our cell phones before coming to theatres. We have created a culture in which we expect to get what we want when we want it, and in the way we like it. It is no wonder then that on-line dating has exploded as a means for finding that special someone. Just log on to the site and search through a menu-list for your perfect soul mate.
What we do, however, is find this perfect soul mate, and a few years later, dump them for a more perfect soul mate. After all, I haven’t been happy for a long time!
But such we are. We have been trained in our world that we deserve happiness and have the right to pursue such happiness, regardless the cost to others around us. J.P. Moreland does an outstanding job of pointing out, in several places, that our definition of happiness is a pleasurable feeling, specifically, a sense of pleasurable satisfaction. He goes on to demonstrate that due to its fragile and volatile core, we can never keep this feeling going. We’re left with longings, tied in with a disconcerting feeling that we’ve been cheated, and we go on our journey in the pursuit of happiness, which we can never ultimately find – at least not the way we understand it. We actually end up depressed in the midst of abundance. I cannot recommend highly enough the two books linked above. You see, people of old (like those who first wrote about the pursuit of happiness during our country’s founding) defined happiness as a life well lived, a life of virtue and character, a life that manifests wisdom, kindness, and goodness.
The implications of our current pursuit of happiness are at least 2 fold. 1) we’ve been duped. Our goal is impossible to attain. 2) it makes us self-centered and selfish. If we had grown up with the classic definition of happiness stated above, we wouldn’t be living selfish lives pursuing feelings of happiness, but we might have a shot at living the kind of life that yields a deeper sense of a life well lived (and feelings of well being, satisfaction, and – happiness?)
Honestly, look at your life, and think of how many decisions you make based on what will give you those pleasurable feelings we call happiness. How often do you feel cheated by life because you don’t have those feelings more often.
Working in the field I do, I am constantly torn by this dilemma. You see, I have a really merciful disposition, so when someone is in my office telling me how unhappy she is with her husband, or he’s explaining why he doesn’t like to sacrifice for people who have less than he, because . . ., well, I feel their pain. I find myself identifying with them and their pain. It’s how I’m gifted. But if I give in to it, I cheat them out of redemptive truth.
Someone close to me recently left her husband for a wealthy man. She’s “happier than she’s ever been.” It’s those fragile pleasurable feelings that make us do whatever it takes to find happiness. She’s being duped. She has left a lot of hurt people in her wake. She doesn’t understand why I’m not happy for her. After all, we’ve been trained to believe that someone’s happiness is what we should wish for them above all else (A major talk radio host has interviewed hundreds of people over the last few years by asking the question, “What did your parents want most for you – success, wealth, to be a good person, or happiness?” 85% said “happiness”)
Would it surprise you to find out that I believe the pursuit of happiness is wired into our very being, and that God passionately wants us to devote our lives to finding it? John Piper explains it well in Desiring God. The difference between our current pursuit of happiness and the biblical call to pursuing happiness is that the scriptures direct us to finding our happiness in and through a relationship with Jesus. In that relationship, Jesus will direct us to lose our life to find it, and take up our cross (die!) and follow him. In studying Jesus’ call to life and happiness, we find out that the ancients got it right. Their understanding of a good life was one lived well, not one lived selfishly.
Jesus designed the world such that in pursuing happiness through him and living like he insists, we find that well spring of life and satisfaction, AND we don’t leave a scattering of hurt people and shattered lives in our path. Instead, we GIVE life, and FIND life. And happiness.
Go get it.
]]>Do you want that responsibility???
In some ways, I’m glad to know it. I’ve heard Calvinists and Arminians argue about what role we humans play in people’s salvation, and it can leave me feeling uncertain. I mean, is God in complete control over who gets in? Or are we going to be standing at the judgment some day, and people on their way to the hot place turn and scream at us, “Why didn’t you tell me?!?!?”
Well, this passage teaches that, mysterious as it may be, when we properly open the door, we find that God was there all along, directing the whole thing. If we use our keys, he’s working alongside us. And yet, if we mishandle the gospel, people will be hindered from entering. Somehow he’s designed it so that we work together with him.
What are you doing with your set of keys?
Now don’t roll your eyes at me, I’m not trying to be manipulative. It is the honest question that I am asking myself. I honestly doubt most of you have really considered the fact that you have that big of a role to play, that you have keys to the kingdom of heaven. But I believe you do.
How are you going to use them? Well, I think God wants all of us at the Vineyard to step up and use our keys to reach children in our city.
I believe in the sovereignty of God enough that I am confident he has put in our midst (our church family) who he wants to be here. Since he is calling us to prepare a place and program for children, I have to believe that he has a role for each of us to play in this work. Doesn’t it make sense that you could use your gifts/talents/energy/time/etc. in joining the effort to reach children in this city? You don’t have to evangelize. Just look at your gifts and think about how they could be used as keys for opening the door to the kingdom.
I’m also influenced by these points:
Come one Vineyard! Get your keys out!
]]>But we do.
It’s hard to let God be in charge. That’s what being Lord is all about, but most of us want to control our lives, our circumstances, etc. And we try to control God. We even insist that he come through for us in certain ways, or that he perform a certain kind of miracle, prove that he cares, prove that he heals.
It’s the attitude that Jesus identified as the leaven of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Herod.
Oh, we may call it faith. “I’m believing God for ______ miracle.” Or making a deal. “If you’ll do this, THEN I’ll do what you say.” Either that, or we are trying to make sure it’s God we’re hearing and not just our own thoughts, so we try to make him answer in some specific way. But any way we turn it, we’re trying to control him so that we can – feel secure? – feel power?
Any way we cut it, Jesus called it leaven – or yeast. You know how yeast is. Just a dab ‘l do ya. A little will permeate through your whole being, affecting how you interpret life.
I’ve recently had the opportunity to deal with a really difficult person. He did something to me that was wrong, and it hurt me financially. I’m having to forgive him. That’s plain enough.
But what about my life philosophy? God is in control of my life. How do I interpret this situation? Shouldn’t I be able to expect God to protect me from things like this? Haven’t I been serving him? When I am faithful, shouldn’t I expect people to give me favor? On and on it goes. The yeast of the PS&H is insidious. I want to control how God deals with me. But he’s God and hasn’t invited me to be in charge. He has the remote control (except he’s not so remote). (I know some of what he’s wanting me to learn through this!) So, ultimately, I say, “Thank you God for being in control. I can’t imagine how life would be if you weren’t.”
]]>The most overriding one is how God fills us with his Spirit in our time. Through his presence in us, he transforms us, guides us, heals us, prompts us, speaks to us, and leads us.
But we leak.
I guess I’ve been thinking about it quite a bit this week. Shouldn’t we be ashamed that we leak?
I noticed several people on Sunday talking about being Spirit filled and apparently didn’t feel the need to get filled again. Honestly, if I don’t get filled, like at least daily, then I can really tell a difference. I mean, I’m more fleshly, more prone to sinful thoughts and actions, more irritable, less patient, less obedient, on and on. Am I really worse than everyone else. you wish
In Eph 5:18, Paul gives an order – “be filled with the Spirit”. That tells me at least 2 things.
Well, at least I need not be ashamed when I leak. Nor should I pridefully pretend I am when I’m not. AND neither should I pretend I’m not when I am.
What works for you? What do you do to get filled? I’m thinking at LEAST ask. Jesus said God gives the Spirit to those who ask. You may want to wait after you ask. You don’t necessarily have to feel anything, but I do believe that he gives us those occasional powerful experiences partly so we will know what being full of him feels like. Go after it. Does music work for you? Reading the Word? Getting alone? Getting around contagious Christians? Listening to message podcasts?
It’s too important. It’s how God is working in our time. Get filled with the Spirit. At least every day.
]]>