Beginning

In the month of January, I am going to preach on 4 B words ... beginning, belonging, blessing and bride.  The first of these words, beginning, really will begin at the end.  The end of the Bible is where Jesus makes what I believe is one of the most beautiful and hopeful statements in Scripture.  Jesus, sitting on the throne in heaven, says, "Behold, I am making all things new! (Revelation 21:5)"  

Let's start our reflection today with that little word "new."  We, in the west, have a habit of reading Scripture and thinking it is written in modern-day English.  We think it is all about our little part of the planet, our needs/wants and our perspective.  As the Apostle John writes these words he has received from God, living in exile on a Greek island, near modern-day Turkey, seeing visions from God, I wonder if he is thinking about the context of America?  Probably not!  So, how does John hear these words?  That will give us some clarity about their meaning!

First, John hears, "Behold!"  It is God saying, listen up ... something important is about to come next, so stop what you are doing and listen!  My dad would say "Alright!"  When my dad said, "alright" all was not right.  We were about to hear something we had better get right the first time, because we wouldn't get a second chance to get it right.  When God says, "Behold" I think it is worthy of our time, attention and focus.

Second, let's get into our heads who is taking action here.  It is Jesus!  He is doing something that is very Jesus-like ... He is creating.  John 1:3 says, "Through Him all things were made; without Him nothing was made that has been made!"  Jesus is creating something.  And when Jesus creates, He doesn't stamp out widgets that are part of mass-production.  Jesus creates with intention.  Psalm 139 says, "You knit me together in my mother's womb (Psalm 139:13)."  Jesus is creating something worthy of our attention and of our respect.  What is He making?

The passage says Jesus is "making all things new."  Here is where we must be careful in our interpretation.  I have people tell me (as we get through and past COVID) "I just want us to get back to normal!"  My answer has always been, "I want us to finish this chapter better, stronger and more Christ-focused."  I don't want things back like they were!  Neither does Jesus!  The little word, new, is kainos. It can mean two things ... renewed like the original creation (in this case back to the Genesis creation where God said, "it is good") or qualitatively new.  Jesus' new things are of the quality, design and function that He intends.  They are not the cheap copies we have made.  They are not the fallen world that resulted with our father Adam leaving the garden in shame.  I think the best English version of this word is "redeemed to God's original intent."

In Revelation 21, all of this happens at the end of all things, but I believe God has another reason for giving us this information.  I don't think that His intent is for us to sigh and pine for the "land over yonder" or trudge through a fallen world waiting for God to eventually "zap" us into newness.  I think our clue is that prayer we pray every Sunday in worship ... "on earth as it is in heaven."

We are exiting Christmas, 2021.  While I have encountered a fairly large group of schmucks during the holidays, I have seen glimpses of intentional good behavior.  Some people let me out in traffic.  I saw a woman being kind to a flustered cashier, saying "It's all right ... I can wait."  The cashier was almost in tears seeing the kindness and patience of the woman, and she was grateful for a reprieve from the chaos.  I saw people helping a couple with a dead battery.  With the usual impatience and snarky behavior, there are glimpses of goodness, kindness and, can we says it, heaven?  Francesca Battistelli sings a song called Heaven Everywhere.  One line on the song says, "Maybe there's a little more of love, and maybe there's a little less of us."  I wonder if the newness, described in Revelation 21:5, is all about us being renewed or recreated into beings that are focused on God ... not self!  I wonder if God wants to make us new so that we can bring a little bit of heaven to earth?  I wonder if that is how we (His Church) shows the world the beauty, newness, grace, power and love of God?  I wonder if this is how we teach redemption? Randy

Journey of Love

Over the past week all of us should have heard the Christmas story.  It is proclaimed in Luke 2, and you will hear it on Christmas Eve as we gather for our Candlelight Communion (come and go from 4-6pm and the candlelight service at 6pm).  You heard it at the Community Tree Lighting Service on December 1st and at our Christmas Musical last Sunday.  I hope you listened.

Verses 4-5 of the story says, "And Joseph also went up from Galilee, out of the city of Nazareth, into Judea, unto the City of David, which is called Bethlehem (because he was of the house of David and the lineage of David): to be taxed with Mary his espoused wife, being great with child."

They went on a journey!  It was inconvenient.  I expect Mary would have liked to have her child in the comfort of family, friends and familiar surroundings.  But God-led journeys are often inconvenient and (no pun intended) taxing.  The journey was required by government regulations and the kicker it was all so they could receive a tax from the Romans.  Many people I know would have complained, balked, said they "are not under the law of the governmental authorities" and won't give up their freedom for such a pointless endeavor.  Mary and Joseph "went up."  And God and God's love was in the journey!

They went on a journey!  Many speculate on the route they travelled, but I believe they would have taken the shortest through Northern Israel, down to the south through Samaria.  Friends would have advised them to avoid the 'no count' Samaritans.  But if you follow the life of this family, the lineage of Jesus (Matthew, Chapter 1) and (later) the life of Jesus, you will not find Jesus avoiding Samaria and you will find some pretty interesting branches in the family tree of Jesus.  There is Rahab, the gentile prostitute.  There is Bathsheba, the gentile adulterer (David was also an adulterer).  The journey of love somehow seems to ignore status, race and religious background.  It seems God really does look at the heart of people.  I believe Jesus, in the womb of Mary, traveled past all of those vineyards that were part of 'the promised land,' past Jacobs well north of Jerusalem, past the valley of Armageddon (where the last battle will happen), past the opulent Herodium (a monument to Herod's kingdom) and on the little Bethlehem, called 'the house of bread.'  God's love sees the past, the present and the future and still makes a way for those who believe!

They went on a journey!  They made their way to a city that was destined (in prophecy) to be the place where God's ultimate promise unfolds in the birth, life and death of the Son of God and the Savior of the World.  The two travelers were nothing to those they passed.  They weren't important to those who rejected them in Bethlehem, sent them to a manger and consigned them to obscurity that we seem to invent for those we deem unimportant.  And there, in a stable, was born a child that would change the world!

Do you grasp the magnitude of the birth?  Do you, and your church, see that His call, His work and His plan/journey ... difficult, expensive, inconvenient, frustrating, unpopular ... is why we are here? ... to travel past the opulence of our society, to see and embrace the other oppressed people who we invite to join our journey, to recognize God's ownership of our stuff/church/mission and place our journey with Him first, to give up the popular, to submit to God's plan when it doesn't fit our politics, to love in spite of our feelings?  Does that little child change our world, or is it 'business as usual?' Are we on the journey with Jesus?  Good question!  Randy

When Love Was Born

Mark Schultz sings a song about Christmas called "When Love Was Born."  As we come to the 4th Sunday of Advent I will share these beautiful lyrics.  On Christmas Eve the song will be sung during the service, but I ask you to read and reflect upon these words:

Starlight shines, the night is still, shepherds watching from a hill, I close my eyes, see the night, when love was born.

Perfect child, gently waits, a mother bends to kiss God's face, I close my eyes, and see the night, when love was born.

Angels fill the midnight sky, they sing Hallelujah, He is Christ, our King.

Emmanuel, Prince of Peace, love come down, for you and me, heaven's gift, the Holy Spark, to light the way, inside our hearts.

Bethlehem, through your small door, came to hope we've waited for, the world was changed, forevermore, when love was born.

I close my eyes, and see the night, when love was born.

It all started because God loved/loves us.  "God so loved the world, that He gave His one and only son, that whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have everlasting light (John 3:16)."  God first loved us, and that started the unstoppable plan for God to come, live, die and save His people.  "The world was changed, forevermore, when love was born!"  It continued as God invites us to, through belief, enter His kingdom through the small door of a baby born to Mary.  We enter by choosing, loving and believing in that little child.

We light the candle of love.  But the candle is an outward sign of something deeper.  We light it to acknowledge Jesus' New Commandment, to love one another ... Jesus' greatest commandment to love God with our heart, soul, mind and strength, and to love our neighbor as much as we love ourselves.

I hope this Sunday, when you hear the music and think about the stories in the songs, you will remember the love that brings us together.  Come for the service at 10 ... one service for the whole congregation.  Stay for food at around 11:20 in the Family Life Center.  Share music, fellowship and love.  For it is the greatest gift of this season ... for God IS love!  

See you Sunday!  Randy

The Source

Have any of you heard of the law of 'transitivity?'  I learned this word as a mathematical law.  Generally stated, the law says if A = B and B = C then A = C.  It is basic logic, and it is a reminder to us that God has a sense of logic since God, as He created how the universe operates, also created the math that explains the universe.

You might be asking why I would bring up a mathematical concept in a theological blog.  My 'logic' here is fairly simple.  Last week we learned about an "if-then" statement made in Isaiah 9:7 ... If God is in authority (if He governs) in your life, then you can have never-ending peace.  If-then statements are often part of the mathematical process.  But God, in His word, gives us His laws that follow similar concepts.  Isaiah 65:18 is all about the transitivity of joy.  "Be glad and rejoice in my creation!  And look, I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness ... her people will be a source of joy."

Let's break this down.  First, there is God.  God has created all things.  Psalm 24 begins, "The earth is the Lord's and everything in it.  The world and all its people belong to Him!"  Isaiah says that God being the source of all things and God's creation are reasons to be joyful!  I went out Friday in my kayak and looked up at a beautiful sunrise in the quiet solitude of moving across the water.  It was breathtaking, but the God who made it is worthy of joy, worship and awe!  Be glad and rejoice that God is the source of these things ... nature, people, life!

Second, there is God's claim.  God claims the earth and His people.  I sometimes watch Gold Rush on TV.  These modern day gold miners still need to be wary of the devious schemes of people and the storms that nature sends to derail their efforts.  Claim jumpers are still an issue in 2021.  Have you experienced them?  Are their negative people, national stressors, economic concerns, depression, addictions, anger and jealous thoughts that steal your joy?  These things are claim jumpers that try to derail your focus on the God that says ... "I created everything to be good" ... "I made the people you might be demonizing" ... "I have made the heavens and the earth for my people!"  "All things bright and beautiful,  all creatures great and small ... all things wild and wonderful, the Lord God made them all!"  Be glad and rejoice that God claims us!

Third, God creates a place of shelter, protection, structure and goodness for us.  He wants us to live there.  And God has made our dwelling to be a place of happiness.  Don't let the falseness and rebelliousness of anger, self-righteousness, hatred, paranoia and fear become the message you hear and seek!  Lots of people want to take you to these places, and (in truth), all of these things can provide what is sometimes confused as passion and purpose.  These false doctrines will certainly provide energy for a time.  Then, you will find yourself in a joyless pit, far from God and far from people who love you.  If you are there, cry out to God, for He will lift you out of that pit, set your feet on solid ground and send you off singing joyful praises to the Lord (Psalm 40).  Live in the place God has created ... a place where we can rejoice in God's creation and be happy in the Lord!

Finally, remember where your joy comes from and that you, because you are filled with Christ, become a source of joy.  If Emmanuel (God With Us) = Joy and Joy = The Attitude of God's People/Possession = The Source of Joy Into God's World.  If God is with us and God's attitudes/Spirit are in us, then we should be able to both sing and express (with our life), "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!  Let earth, receive her king!"  In a world filled with claim jumpers that want to steal our joy, we are the people who should BE joy!  That's God's good word ... so how will you respond?  Randy

Never-ending

Non-eternal things end!  I wonder if one of our major issues in the Church, in our lives and in our country relates to placing our trust and faith in things that aren't eternal?  Most of us took the supply chain for granted ... something we see now as a concern.  At Thanksgiving, Walmart had only a few turkey breasts ... we were fortunate to find one of the last ones.  There is a shortage of artificial Christmas trees ... again, we were lucky and found a display model.  I heard this morning that there is even a shortage of Santa Clauses!!!  I guess somewhere in the Pacific there is a boat circling a port, all filled-up with fake Santa Clauses, looking to dock and unload them!  Yep, faith and trust in the wrong things!  But (to quote Dr. Seuss) "He hadn't stopped Christmas from coming, it came!  Somehow or other, it came just the same!"  Christmas is coming and will come, bringing (to all who want something eternal) "peace on earth, and good will to all people!"

Here's my question.  How can we (the people of God) grasp, hold and offer God's goodness, grace and peace ... some of the eternal things of God?  Isaiah 9:7 reminds us that God offers something that isn't conditioned on our situation.  It says, "His government and its peace will never end!"  In spite of all the things trying to derail God's plan (and there are many) and in spite of economic, social, governmental and media reports, Isaiah says "His government and its peace will never end!"  Is God looking at the same world we are looking at?  The answer is, yes!

Two things about this passage.  The first thing is a condition of the second thing.  The word is "governance," but in the Hebrew it is related to the entirety of "judging."  It generally means to rule over all aspects of life.  A judge would make governmental policy (how things are done).  When God governs our lives, God decides how we operate.  I see too many moms and dads who are willing to let others set the policy in their households.  I remember accidently picking up a book from a Belk store in Charlotte when I had picked up the items we had bought.  We got home and I found I had a book on stamp collecting that we hadn't paid for.  We didn't wait for when it was easy or convenient.  We got in the car, drove the 30 minutes back to downtown and took that book back to the store.  My mom made me apologize, even though it wasn't my intention to take the book.  She said, "That's not how we do things!"  It was a good lesson on the 'policy' in the Greene household.  If you want peace that is never-ending and everlasting, you gotta let God set the policy.  His governance needs to be the standard!

The result of God's governance is that you can have a never-ending peace.  Martin Luther King's peace in a Birmingham jail.  Eric Liddell's peace as he would not run an Olympic event on God's day.  Mary's peace (Luke 2) as, in the midst of shepherd visits, conflict with local/national government, a child born in a stable and that marital issue with Joseph, "Mary treasured-up all these things and pondered them in her heart!"  I believe she had peace!

Jesus says, in John 14, "Do not let your hearts be troubled!"  He expresses a sense of peace in the midst of terrible turmoil and strife.  How can He do this and command us to do the same thing?  His life is governed by God the Father.  His policy brings peace that is never-ending.  He is the Prince of Peace, and His reign will be forever for those who are willing to let Him rule the roost and run the show.  So, for this chaotic time where we seem to be running out of a lot, we will never run out of God's peace!  AMEN!  Randy

God Does This a Lot!

One little story from Tony Campolo has a child Jesus creating a flower, admiring the beautiful little flower and saying, "again!"  Another flower appears, as beautiful as the first!  When we would read to our children, and it was a book they liked, they would say, "again!"  Sometimes, because we are led to see the darkness in this world, we forget that little thing about God ... that God is into doing great things again.

This Sunday we will begin Advent remembering the prophetic word of Isaiah, "The people who walk in darkness will see a great light, those who live in a land of deep darkness will see a light will shine (Isaiah 9:2)."  I wonder if God is saying ... "remember what I have done before ... remember the creation story where I spoke light into being 'ex nihilo (from nothing)' ... remember I have power over the darkness."  God does it again and again!

Human history has experienced various periods of darkness, and to be truthful, somewhere in the world there is a pall of darkness hiding good and light.  You see and hear of those places as you listen to the news.  You wonder if we are that land as you see terrible events like the Parade Killings in Wisconsin.  And you/we have a propensity to think things are a bit hopeless.  But then God reminds us ... "you will see a great light!"  God gives hope!

What can we learn from Isaiah's familiar words?  First, stop walking in darkness.  1 Thessalonians 5:5 reminds us ... "you are all children of the light and of the day; we don't belong to the darkness and the night!"  Let's follow God and walk where we belong, walking in light and leading others to that light!  We bring hope!

Second, darkness might be a place to enter so we can rescue others, but it is no place to live.  Ephesians 5:8 says, "for you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  Live as children of light."  The Lord has come to all who call His name, so we live in the light of the Lord!  We live out hope!

Finally, we (as people of Jesus), are people who see things.  We perceive and see both the darkness and the light.  We look for God's leading which always brings us to the hope of light.  We see hope!

All of this is why we, as the Church, must relearn the virtues of hope and light.  We should be the people who are known for positives ... not negatives ... hope, not hopelessness ... light, not darkness.  God has told us this in His word again and again!  God has spoken light, even from the nothingness of the primordial void!  God can (and will) do it again!  AMEN

Grateful

We just celebrated Veteran's Day, reflecting on the wonderful gift of people who serve, live and (some) die for the freedom we enjoy.  Sometimes we get a little jaded as we think about the stresses on our freedom and the challenges we face.  There are certainly many examples of these challenges, and if we enter into the Thanksgiving/Christmas season with this baggage, it can be a long, relentless journey.  But today, I would like to take a different approach.  It is inspired by our Savior, Jesus and a little song by Mary Chapin Carpenter called, Thanksgiving Song.

First, the foundation of our Thanksgiving Freedom.  Paul writes, "Though He was God, He did not think of equality with God as something to cling to.  Instead He gave up His divine privileges and took the humble position of a slave, and was born a human being (Phil. 2:6-7)."  Wesley writes (in And Can It Be That I Should Gain) "emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race." 

I could tell you the history of our American Thanksgiving.  I could share presidential proclamations and legislative actions that 'create' our holiday.  But Christ created our reason for Thanksgiving.  He gave up divine rights, His own security, safety, authority and royalty to become a slave ... all for people like you and me!  He is the 'giving' in Thanksgiving.  You say, "Preacher, we know all that ... what does this have to do with freedom?"

My take is this.  Some of us enter Thanksgiving fearful of the family situations we will encounter.  Our politics, our 'rights,' our personal and factional agendas, our losses, our fears and our stubbornness all work together to divide us as people, families and Americans.  This is not a good context for giving thanks.  So, I want to recommend the little prayer in Mary Chapin Carpenter's Thanksgiving Song.

The song begins with a word we should begin with ... grateful.  The Latin root word is gratus, meaning pleasing or agreeable.  Will you commit to being pleasing and agreeable this season?  Will you be "grateful for each hand you hold, gathered round the table?"  Can you give up 'self' to give thanks for those you should love?

Will you express gratitude for the shelter you enjoy, however lavish or plain it is?  Never forget that our veterans have served and fought for that shelter we call America, however broken we might be at the present time.  And never forget the shelter of a God who said, "He will cover you with His feathers, He will cover you with His wings, His faithful promises are your armor and protection (Psalm 91:4)."  Are you grateful?

Are you "grateful for what's understood, all that is forgiven?"  Jesus did this ("humbled Himself in obedience to God [Phil. 2:8]") so that you could, and would, be forgiven.  Do you, in gratitude to God, pass this forgiveness along, modeling and teaching others about the God you believe in!?

Are you/we people who, because of the freedom we have in Christ, come into this holiday season, so full of Christ that we can enjoy the light and life Christ wants us to experience?  He offers this to us by His example by (as the Philippians passage says) "emptying Himself."  Carpenter writes, "welcome, welcome, share this feast, come in away from sorrow!"  Will you share the 'feast' of the season?  The meals, events, fellowship, family and other opportunities, all present those times we can truly show others the nature of the Savior we call Jesus.  The word is "Grateful" ... pleasing, agreeable.  Paul calls us to the fruit of the Spirit (joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control).  Philippians says give up self.  The little song says, "Grateful for each hand we hold, gathered round the table."  Thank you, Jesus, for the freedom and every hand to hold, gathered round to table!  Randy

The Way They Should Go

Proverbs 22:6 is ageless wisdom for all of us ... "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it."  The Message says it like this ... "Point your kind in the right direction - when they are old they won't be lost."  Whichever way you say it, both of these passages remind us of the Biblical call to plant truth, direction, values, and goodness into the hearts of our kids.  We have been (1st Service) singing a song called "We Bear Witness."  The chorus of the song says, "Pass the promise to your sons and daughters, God Most High, God our Father, we bear witness."  The passages and the song say the same thing ... we, are responsible for teaching and leading our children.

There are (at least) 3 truths evident in the Proverbs 22:6 instruction.  The first is TRAIN.  If you are a parent, grandparent or educational person, you have the call and the responsibility to train those children that come your way.  In a world where it is too easy to place kids on 'automatic' and hope they turn out ok, the Bible says TRAIN.  If you have been involved in athletics, decided to earn a degree, or even strived for a good grade in a class, all of these things involve the work of training.  The amount of effective work you are willing to do is directly related to the results you will get from that work.  In education you study.  In athletics you target your exercise and workouts to the activity you are preparing for.  In life (if you are Christian) you study and seek God's way/direction.  It is one of the reasons early Christians were called "People of the Way."  Training is important.

The second truth is DIRECTION.  We work, study and train ... but we do this in a direction that is proper and right.  Nick Saban (football coach at Alabama) would sum up his coaching philosophy in some very small steps.  The first (after proper exercise, conditioning, muscle-prep) might be "Know your job."  We know what to do by learning the job.  In football this means becoming a clean slate so that good teaching and techniques can take hold.  In life, we must be willing to learn what actually works.  Peers, social media, political groups and ranting people will always have their 'sage' advice to bring you to their side.  But God does have a plan and an opinion.  Proverbs calls this "the way they should go."  It is to be taught, modeled and led by parents, teachers and leaders who want to teach children "their job" as Christians and good citizens.  Know your job/DIRECTION.

The third truth is APPLICATION.  We teach and train and give direction so that our children will 1) remember and 2) not be lost.  In educational and medical circles this is called "good outcomes."  In education it is called achievement.  In life it is called (by Jesus) "abundant life."  Jesus professes the importance of education when he says (Matthew 11:29), "Take my yoke upon you and learn from me."  TRAIN, RECEIVE DIRECTION ... so that (John 10:10), "you might have life, and have it to the fullest."

We TRAIN to learn.  We follow DIRECTION so that our training leads us to know our task.  We APPLY what we have learned because it is good for us and our children.  We 'pass the promise to our sons and daughters' so that when they are old, they won't be lost.  This is God's plan ... What is yours?  Randy

Sharers

One of my Seminary professors said, "You've been told you are what you eat.  Physiologically, that might be right, but your heart and your soul are driven by what you believe.  You ARE what you believe about God!"

In that light, what do we believe about God that is paramount on this day when we think about and remember those who have gone on to be with the Lord?  Do we believe Jesus lived and that God's only Son walked the earth with people?  Do we believe Jesus was crucified and took the sins of the world to the cross?  Do we believe in the resurrection, and that Christ rose, conquering death and claiming victory over Satan?  If you believe these things, then you should believe what Paul said ... "I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience His resurrection power, be a partner in His suffering, and go all the way with Him to death itself.  If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it! (Philippians 3:10 MSG)"

Paul, in his precise, Spirit-led way, sums up why this day of somber remembrance is also a day of claimed victory and beautiful celebration.  "We have heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves, Jesus saves."  Roman 10:17 says, "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God!" Let's take Paul's words and see/hear how God speaks to us through this hopeful message!

Paul's wonderful news here is that as we share some temporary, but necessary, things, we also share in things that are eternal:

1. We share with Paul in giving up the inferior stuff.  I wonder if this is where we often get 'stuck.'  We are reluctant to give up inferior things, even when those things hold us back from God.  Paul says, see them as they are ... inferior, temporary, barriers to faith.

2. We share personal knowledge of Jesus and the experience of His resurrection power.  We are not powerless over this world, because the power and person of Jesus lives in us.

3. We share the suffering and death of Jesus, as our earthly tent passes away ... "For we know that if the earthly tent (our earthly body) which is our house is torn down (through death), we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands (2 Corinthians 5:1)."

4. That passage from 2 Corinthians also reminds us that we share in the 'trading-in' of this earthly tent (perishable) so that we can receive the imperishable and permanent dwelling built by God.  In The Message (Philippians 3:10) Paul says ... "If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it!"

All of the names we will read have "heard the joyful sound, Jesus saves!"  They have shared in the life of Christ as they lived out their faith.  They have shared in the suffering of Jesus, just like He said they would in John 15:20.  They have shared in death, as they gave their faith, hope and earthly tent up, so that they could share in the eternal dwelling God had made for them (Jesus said, "that where I am, there you may be also!" John 14:3). So, as we will sing in Jeremy Camp's song, "Jesus Saves," we will join with heaven's song, to let all the world know that Jesus saves!  

These are the things I believe about God.  So, I hope and pray I become exactly what I believe ... like the Saints that have gone before me!  AMEN!  Randy

Together

Last Sunday we learned that Sainthood is current (not confined to the dead), corporate (Saints gather and work with each other) and Christ-centered (Saints focus on and follow Jesus).  These are good things.  But why does the Bible call us to be saints?  Why is being called a Saint of value?

I heard a Ted-talk about mentoring.  As I listened the speaker reflected on how their pre-success life was filled with uncertainty, isolation and loneliness.  I went to several similar talks about being mentored and found that every single person, before they got to a better place, felt isolated, alone and without any real anchor.  We know what happens to a boat when the anchor is lost?  It drifts, consigned to go where the wind or the current takes it.  All of these people were in that situation before they found someone who would give them time, guidance, discipline and encouragement.  It was almost like they were sleep-walking through life and suddenly a solid and healthy relationship caused them to awaken, become focused and begin to grow into the person they were made to be.

In this context, I looked at Sainthood from a two-edged perspective.  First, it is clear that God desires us to live out our faith with other Christians.  Acts 2:1 finds the pre-Pentecost Church gathered "together in one place."  They didn't know everything that was about to happen, but they were called together so God could speak to them, lead them and send them out.  I can almost imagine that little gathering!  Some were probably arguing.  Some were telling stories and jokes.  Some were probably sharing the local gossip.  The serious ones were discussing plans, schemes and options.  Like a quiver of arrows, they were available, even if they were in a state of inaction.  They were together.

But there was something else happening in that little room.  Matthew 18:20 gives some insight here.  "Wherever two or more are gathered in my name, I am there!" Jesus said.  Romans 8:27 tells us that the Saints have God's Spirit with them.  They are together with each other, but God's Spirit intercedes for them, even when they are weak (actually, I think especially when they acknowledge weakness).  Our earthly friends and fellow believers are wonderful mentors and encouragers, but God's Spirit actually takes our needs straight to God.  That is powerful!

The Christian artist, Michael W. Smith shared a story about this.  He said he was living in his very ample house in Tennessee, doing life by publishing and performing pop Christian music.  He had friends (good Christian friends) who were there for him and who were his community of Saints, but something was troubling him.  That something came to him in a dream, encouraging him to regroup, re-center and re-think what his music had become ... performance.  God's Spirit (connected together with God and with us) continued to encourage a regrouping, rethinking and re-centering.  Finally, Smith relented to the nudging of the Spirit and he and a number of Christian artists gathered and recorded a new album devoted to worship and the centrality of Jesus.  He said that the verse that kept coming to him as he was working was Esther 4:14, particularly the phrase "for such a time as this."  The album was released on September 11, 2001.

Paul's words, God's Spirit and my heart seem together on one thing here.  We need those other people who will keep us accountable and be there for support.  We need God's Spirit to nudge us and lead us to God's plan, not our plans, passions or pet projects.  We need to worship in Spirit and Truth.  And we can do none of those things except through a God who loves it when we acknowledge His Lordship and our need for God and each other.  Romans 8 goes on to say that by this wonderful process, "all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to His purpose!"  Those people ... broken, weak, struggling ... are called Saints.  Praise God!  Randy

Past the Warts

At the end of this month, on November 1st, we will celebrate All Saints Sunday.  During the service (both services) we will read the names of all of our friends/family who have gone to their eternal home in glory.  It is both a somber time and a time of celebrating lives that have touched us.  Please let us know of any people you would like to have on our list, so we can include their names on November 1st.  So, over the next few weeks, I will be talking about saints ... who they are, why we use that term, and how we can see them in a way that is consistent with God's word.

This past Saturday evening we had a large gathering of folks for the Moonlighter Concert, one of our missions fundraising events.  I saw several people I hadn't seen in some time.  It was good to greet them and welcome them, even though I confess to wondering "where have they been?"  But, in the grace of God who models grace every time He uses me to do any good thing, I hope I expressed a heart of gladness.  It truly was good to see the smiles of folks as we shared a night of fellowship, good music and giving!

As I looked out from the sound booth, I thought about Paul's effort to constantly remind the people he loved (the Church) that they were Saints.  What did he mean by that term?

The dictionary definition is, "a person acknowledged as holy and virtuous, and being in heaven after death."  By this definition, I wonder if sainthood is something that happens after death.  Maybe that is why we read the names on All Saints Sunday!  But this definition clearly doesn't fit with Paul's concept of Saint.

Paul addresses 1 Corinthians 1:2, "to the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be Saints, with all who in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord ..."  Paul puts a lot in a small space.  Let's break it down.

Sainthood is a current condition for God's Church.  Paul says the people to which he writes "are sanctified!"  They are very alive, yet God has sanctified them for His purposes.  God calls them and they call on God's name.

Sainthood is a corporate condition. In a world where we revere people being rogue, self-focused and independent (I think we have truly messed up this little word), God seems to revere and require us to be connected to others He calls His Church.  Paul is reminding the Corinthians that they are connected to others of different ethnicity, different geography and different governance.  Christians in Jerusalem, Rome, Ephesus and Corinth are truly blood-relatives.

Sainthood is a Christ-centered condition.  One of my favorite passages of Scripture is 2 Corinthians 4.  The people and Church in Corinth are clearly suffering.  They struggle against real issues they can see right in front of them every day.  Yet they are called to live as Saints, right in the midst of trouble and conflict.  Paul says (please read the whole chapter) the people are fragile, broken clay pots, fallen, pressured and dying.  Encouraging, isn't it?  But Paul rebukes this negative thinking by reminding the people that the centrality of Christ trumps all of these things, because Christ is leading His Saints to victory.  We are not crushed, not in despair, not destroyed, not abandoned, and we are not dying a permanent death.  We live (and we do life) because Christ lives in and through us!

This week we will talk about living Saints.  They aren't the loudest talkers.  They aren't those we place on a pedestal because they say what we want to hear, act with brash recklessness, treat others with the disdain we feel, and spout our philosophy to the world.  Saints are the ones who have learned to follow Jesus ... submit to God's authority ... depend on the unseen but good things of God ... and rally the troops under the cross of Christ.  They are current, corporate and Christ-centered.  They belong to Jesus, our Lord and master!  Randy 

You Gotta Buy a Ticket!

There's an old joke about Abraham (not the Bible guy).  Abraham believed in the power of prayer, so every day for months he prayed to God that he would win the lottery.  After zero success, Abraham complained to God ... "I have prayed faithfully for Your help.  Why can't you bless me?  Doesn't Your word say to pray and it will be given to you?"  Abraham waited, and sure enough God responded ... "Abraham ... you gotta buy a ticket!!!"

We pray for lots of things in the church.  Better finances ... more children ... better attendance ... some might even pray for a better pastor!  But whatever you/we are praying for, we should remember Abraham's story ... "We gotta buy a ticket!"

How do we do this?  I will offer three possibilities this morning as I write my blog.  But first, a word about investment.  The parable of the talents (Matthew 25:14-30) appears in a section of Scripture about God's judgement and what God expects from His people.  These expectations relate to our hearts, as we risk, invest and live sacrificially to do God's will.  Hearts invested in God and God's people are 'the sheep of His pasture' and these are the people that join God in His kingdom.  Hearts that risk, to allow God's investment in us to multiply, are blessed by God's reward and provision.  Hearts that are anchored to God (Matthew 24) are not swept away like the evil people in Noah's flood.  We invest.  We buy a ticket.

The first thing I believe we must do is realize God cares little about our comfort.  We love how things were in the good old days.  We live our ways of worship, and (I confess) I love many of these things including some of our traditions.  But our traditions are not our anchor.  I believe we can invest in our worship time by doing a little remembering and a little dreaming.  We will be reintroducing corporate reading of the Psalms.  My old friend Mildred would love this I think.  And we will be doing some minimal restructure of the worship services (we actually have done this in the 1st service with the Apostles Creed, the Lord's Prayer and a more connected time of singing).  In doing this we 'buy' a ticket to sharing God's Word and making our worship time flow.  Those of you involved in worship will be invited to share in how this worship will unfold.  We will buy a ticket!

The second thing will place 'our money where our mouth is.'  I hear (frequently) that "we need more children ... they are our future!"  I agree, but in today's world we must be willing to invest in ways to make this a reality.  I will be inviting some of you to share in some intentional children's time in/during the 2nd service and your willingness to help will decide if this will happen ... we must buy a ticket!  All of this will involve some quiet tolerance of little feet and voices in the first part of the second service and those little feet and voices finding some quality children's time with God's helpers after about 20 minutes.  Part of our investment will be 'letting the little children come to Jesus (Matthew 19:14).'  The 'Jesus' these children (and their parents) will see will be loving, patient, helpful people just like yourself.  You will be the Jesus they 'come to.'  We invest in the ticket!

Finally, I invite all of you to respond to some of the emails, announcements and texts that have identified needs in the church.  If we are to 'buy a ticket' we need what John Ed Mathison called, "Every member in mission."  Each of you is a minister, a worker, a servant and a vital cog in the wheel of God's plan here at AUMC.  I will tell you ahead of time, these things we must do will be inconvenient, sometimes frustrating, sometimes difficult and sometimes costly.  But I think the God we worship has an intimate understanding of costly, as God has invested (inconveniently, sacrificially and expensively) in you ... He has bought and paid for your 'ticket.'  And to claim your place in His kingdom, all you need to do is say ... yes, I want Jesus as my Lord (He is in charge) and savior (He is my only way into God's eternal plan).  Abraham ... buy a ticket!

Deliverance ... Keeping the Promise

Chapter 15 of Exodus is a beautiful song of deliverance to God for how He brought the Hebrews out of Egypt.  The song was well-intended and well-deserved.  The people had gone from a state of fear ("It's better to be a slave in Egypt than a corpse in the wilderness!" Exodus 14:12) to rejoicing at God's deliverance from the Egyptian army ("I will sing to the Lord for he has hurled both horse and rider into the sea." Exodus 15:1).  They felt hopeless in the first verse and felt joyful in the second verse.  It is what happens when we live and react out of feelings, but that is a story for another day.

In his song of deliverance, Moses and the people sing to the Lord.  That heartens me as I think of the work done in our music to reflect Scripture, point to God and sing about our own hope of deliverance.  The Hebrews are right, though.  God delivers His people from the enemy in very unexpected ways.  The story of the Egyptians being drowned in the Red Sea is just one of many stories where God keeps and affirms His promise to the people.

In the first service this Sunday, we will introduce and teach a new song that has only been written for a few months.  It is a call to all of us to be vigilant, persistent and passionate about one of our most important tasks.  The name of the song is We Bear Witness and it reflects God's requirement of His disciples to be witnesses of the truth of God's word, the certainty of God's promises and the timelessness of God's plan.  The chorus of the song is "pass the promise to our sons and daughters, God most high, God our Father, we bear witness." The song is all about the nature of God, the hope we have in Him and the need to pass our faith on to our children, our families and our acquaintances.  It is a song about God's power to deliver us from the enemies we face.

When I read Moses' song I was taken by two thoughts.  First, how the people and Moses come together and sing praises.  The song reminded me how we Methodists sing our faith and our theology in the midst of living life in this wilderness we call the world.  We follow and worship a God that (and we can sing about this) has overcome the world and has already established our victory over our enemies.  The end of Moses' song says, "The leaders of Edom are terrified; the nobles of Moab tremble; all who live in Canaan melt away. ((Exodus 15:15)"  It reminds me that 1 Samuel 17:47 is right ... "all this assembly shall know that the Lord saveth not with sword and spear: for the Battle is the Lord's and He will give you (the enemy) into our hands."  We know this in our heads ... but do we know this deep down in our hearts?

My second thought is that the song of the people didn't match the practiced faith of the people.  As often happens, they/we are emotional about faith, but when it comes to practice we let fear, doubt and other priorities sidetrack us.  When the people saw the giants in Canaan, they balked.  When the people saw the harshness of the wilderness, they longed for Egypt.  When the people got hungry, they complained.

Our lesson?  When we pass the promise to our sons and daughters, let's make sure we pass the song and the witness.  For our witness affirms that we really believe those lofty words we are singing.  When we sing what we believe, we follow the song with practice!  I wonder what the sons and daughters of the Hebrews believed when they saw the adult singers standing at the Jordan river, afraid to cross into a place they spoke about then they said ... "You will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain - the place, O Lord, that Your hands have established. ((Exodus 15:17)."  What say we make our lesson better, more faithful and more true by passing the promise AND bearing witness!  That's my take ... read Exodus 15:1-18 and give me yours!  Randy

Tabernacles and Thresholds

Today I want to share a little of my heart with you.  One of my favorite Biblical characters is a guy named Moses.  I think I identify with Moses because he was a flawed but faithful leader of the Hebrew people, as they faced victories and failures.  The people leave Egypt under fire.  They reluctantly enter the desert, quickly forgetting their miraculous delivery from the Pharoah.  Moses struggles as the people balk, complain and invite God's harsh discipline that causes them to wander 40 years in the desert.  If you read the Bible carefully, you will not find Moses as a seamless, perfect leader.  Instead, he fights doubts, stiff-necked people, family struggles and life.  He is my kind of guy!

During October we will travel with Moses and share his struggles.  We will see how he leads through the desert wilderness of the Middle-East.  And we will see how God worked good things through the plight and possibilities of the Hebrew people.  This week we will talk about tabernacles and thresholds.

Three points here.  First, Moses was, though reluctantly, a leader of the Hebrew people.  He was appointed by God, though his leadership qualities were suspect.  He stammered and stuttered.  He was wanted for striking down an Egyptian guard.  He really didn't want the job of leader.  God didn't choose him because of his gifts, passions or strengths (at least visible to others).  God used Moses and equipped Moses so he could lead.

Allow me to chase a rabbit here.  What is a leader?  Lots of leadership gurus define leadership.  An influencer, one who directs the mission or one who manages people are all used in this context.  But, in step with the Biblical idea of leading, I like the oldest root of the word, laedere.  It is an old English word that Peter Senge (my favorite leadership guru) says means "to go first across a threshold."  And this, Moses did well!  He went first, but his direction and his path were chosen by God, as a cloud by day and a fire by night led the people.  And, for this week, we will remember part of the whole process was to remember/keep/acknowledge God's presence with them, through the tabernacle.

We think of our tabernacle as the church building, but there are many lessons we can learn from the tabernacle (Exodus 25-31):

1.  The word means "to dwell," the idea being that God would dwell among the people.

2. God gave specific instructions about the tabernacle and the holiness of liturgy, worship, priests.  This included the actual construction of the tabernacle, which was explicitly portable. 

Let's stop on that portable idea for this week!

Tabernacles were not designed or intended to be comfortable, non-movable structures.  They were to be movable and moving on toward destinations that were thresholds.  The leader, here Moses, was to go before the people and lead them toward those thresholds that were God's plan and path.  How did they know where, when and how to go?

1. God gave them His ordained leader, Moses.  He was imperfect and flawed, but God equipped him, spoke with him and, when necessary, disciplined him.  Moses led the people till they were on the threshold of the promised land.  God then appointed a new leader, Joshua, to lead them across that threshold.

2. God gave them a cloud by day and a fire by night (Exodus 13:21-22).

3. God gave the leaders a place to worship and praise God, a place to make offerings and a place for the leaders to receive guidance.  It was the portable dwelling of God, able to go with the people so they never forgot God's presence, provision and power.

4. God, in this design, reminded the people that He was a God on the move.  God calls us to move the things that are good ... music, liturgy, people (most of them), love, prayer, listening, things that connect us to God.  God calls us to leave some things behind ... things that aren't glorifying to God, anger, self, stagnation, comforts that keep us stopped, some people that won't leave Egypt.

God is, and always has been, moving.  God's leaders follow 'the cloud by day and the fire by night' as they go out in front of the people to cross the thresholds God leads us across.

We have some thresholds to cross.  While we have a church building that is located at 100 E. Kelly St., we are called to be a moving church.  God's Word is a cloud by day and a fire by night.  Will you/we be those people that cross over to the places and challenges God has laid out for us?  I hope so!  Randy

Stand

It is almost comical to see people take 'stands' in today's world.  If it wasn't funny, I would recount the Biblical passage about people following their hearts in these 'stands' ... "the heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked! (Jeremiah 17:9)."  Yet, people stand in their heart-felt ideas, forgetting this stark and clear warning.  They stand for political agendas ... they stand for political figures ... they stand for their rights ... they stand for their football team.  But what about God?  What does God's word say about standing, and what we should stand for?

1 Corinthians 16:13 says, "Be on guard.  Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong.  And do everything with love!"  But probably the most quoted verse about standing is from Ephesians 6:13, "Therefore, put on every piece of God's armor, so you will be able to resist the enemy in the time of evil.  After the battle you will be standing firm."

Some of you are saying, "We are warriors ... we must attack."  Others envision themselves in the great battle from Revelation 20, where Satan has assembled a great army to storm God's city.  Guess what God's people do in that battle?  Nothing, except stand!  Guess what God does in that battle?  Everything, as fire rains down from heaven and destroys Satan's army!  Paul reminds us that we have a job ... stand!  Paul describes the tools we need to stand in God's power!

Let me remind you why this lesson and this good word from Paul is needed at this appointed time.  

Paul says the belt of truth is needed!  We have an enemy that needs to be resisted in this time of evil.  Paul reminds the Ephesians that there are "evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world ... mighty powers ... evil spirits in heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12)."  I believe many of us feel something is wrong ... we just blame and label people, rather than seeing past our human frailties to the evil of the unseen world.  And never forget this evil resides in the political right and left ... even in heavenly places (like church gatherings).  So, we must be equipped to 'stand.'

We must have truth (the belt of truth Paul says).  Wesley said we need to learn to discern God's truth by remembering that God reveals Himself in the story of the Church, the experiences of God's people, the reasoning ability God has given us to use our mind, and (most importantly) Scripture.

We must have God's righteousness.  God's word says our righteousness is 'filthy.'  Note that 1 Samuel 17:47 tells us that God does not save with sword and spear.  Instead, Samuel tells the people "the battle is the Lord's."

We need to put on the shoes of peace, even when we don't feel peaceful.  I get that!  I want to do something!  I want to act, and sometimes that is the right thing to do.  But here, God says to stand ... not my preference, but God's Word!

We need to put on the shield of faith, for Satan never stops firing arrows at us.  Jesus demonstrated this during His temptation as he expressed His faith in God by quoting Scripture to Satan.  Paul demonstrated this as he writes of faith, hope and sound doctrine from prison.  We demonstrate this when we look to God instead of charismatic speakers, ear tickling speeches and self-affirming advisors for guidance.  Paul says, in 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight.  I have kept the faith."  Satan's arrows followed Paul everywhere he went, and Paul's life was a testimony to faith and faithfulness.

We are to be both assured and protected, as we wear the helmet of salvation.  For God's work in us and for us, gives us assurance to hope and press on, even when we see an upside-down world.

Finally, we are to wield the sword of the Spirit, which Paul says is the Word of God.  Here is where I invite and caution you.  So many of us think we can get into God's Word by being in church for an hour on Sunday.  Isn't God's sword worth knowing, exploring, engaging and struggling with?  If we want to know God, wouldn't it be prudent to know what He said?

These tools are how and where we stand.  Will you stand beside me and with the one true God?  Randy

Rented or Owned

When I entered the workforce in the 1970's, I was pretty caught up in one idea of the American Dream ... home ownership.  I didn't have the income to own a home (at first) but I had always been told about the need to press toward the goal of moving from renting housing to owning property.  I was told that when you rent you must work with (sometimes pester) the landlord to repair the property.  Also, when you rent the landlord gets both the tax benefits and equity benefits of money spent on monthly house payments ... renters get neither.  So, we worked, strived, and finally purchased our own home.

While I won't go into a long discussion about renting vs owning, this idea brought something spiritual to mind that is worth discussion.  In Ephesians 3:17, Paul puts forth a prayer for the Church and for his people.  He says, "And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts, living within you as you trust in Him!  May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love."  This passage describes his desire and, I believe, God's desire for you, your family, your children and your church.  Here are a few thoughts about this passage.

First, when you read this, what is your desire?  Do you want to be rented or owned?  I think one of the most important and vital issues for the Church today is that we have too many people who like God hanging around, but love the idea of being rented.  If you are rented by Christ, you don't have the responsibilities the come with ownership.  You can call upon God when you need God.  God has an arms-length investment in you, and when something goes wrong, God can come in and fix it.  When the pipes burst, the dishwasher fails or the roof leaks, it is someone else's fault!  But you can still be owned by something or someone else.  While we can talk about this "tongue and cheek" I do have some bad news for the "wanna be" rented ... God doesn't rent.  If you want a rental arrangement, you must look elsewhere.

Second, God's Word expresses, again and again, that God wants an ownership arrangement with you.  Paul prays for God to have a home in your heart.  We have lots of songs about this like "Since Jesus Came Into My Heart." One of my favorites (I believe the oldest song in the hymnal) is "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence," which says, "Christ our God to earth descendeth, our full homage to demand."  Where a renter's roots are shallow, an owner's roots are invested in the responsibility (financial, physical and security) of owning the home.  And the owner expects equity from the investment.

So there it is ... do you want an owner-arrangement or a rental-arrangement from God?  Are you down with God's full ownership, full investment and expectation of equity for what God has invested?  For God has paid the full price for you.  He gave His son.  He erased your indebtedness.  He provides care and security.  And He will never sell you out or leave you.  God wants your roots to go "way down deep into the soil of His marvelous love."  Randy  

For Good

Did you ever taste a meal and get a big blob of salt or pepper?  The seasoning that was meant to make the meal taste better ends up becoming overpowering, and it can ruin the whole dish.  It seems that salt or pepper works better if it is used to season the whole dish.

I think God knows this is a good principle for both cooking and for the work of the Church.  In Acts, God begins small, ascending to heaven while telling a small group of disciples, "You will be my witnesses."  At Pentecost, that small group spreads out into the streets, leading the crowd to a worship service that ends in 3,000 people coming to the Lord.  That number was .001% of the world's 300 million population at the time.  And the 3,000 was .5% of the 600,000 that occupied Palestine.  Those are small numbers that beg a question ... how would God spread the Gospel in the context of a world without mass-communication or convenient ways of moving large groups of people (and probably people who were content to live where they were)?  The answer seems to be a similar answer to the salt and pepper in the dish ... you stir.

In Acts 7 Stephen proclaims the Gospel message in boldness, and it costs him his life.  Some of you might ask, "Why did God let Stephen, who spoke truth in the face of opposition, die?"  In Acts 8 we find these words ... "On that day a great persecution broke out in Jerusalem and all but the apostles were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria.  Some of you might ask, "Why did God allow His faithful to be displaced, scattered and persecuted?"  My thought ... stirring!

In the story of Joseph, we find that wonderful statement by Joseph, now ruling in Egypt, totally in control of the plight of his brothers who had harmed him.  Joseph says, "You intended to harm me but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives."  I believe this is one of the underlying themes of Acts ... God making good out of evil intentions.  There are some great messages here.

1) Good is always opposed ... it has been that way since people came upon the earth.  In the New Testament (read it for yourself) God's good is opposed by Satan, but God's good wins out.  It doesn't win out by our might or powerful warriors (except prayer warriors) ... it wins when we give God control and apply what Jesus had taught us.

2) God intends good for His people.  "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and give you a hope and a future (Jeremiah 29:11)."

3) God is accomplishing something that is currently being done.  This is God's work ... and we can join God in this work.  I say (often) if we want to do God's work, get into God's plan and get out of our plan.

4) God's work saves people.  Who would wish persecution on the Church?  Who would want Stephen killed?  And who would think good would come out of those situations?  But God sees a bigger picture.

In the Acts 8 passage, did you note that those who were scattered did not include the apostles?  Did you note that in Acts 9 God uses the guy in charge of persecuting the Church, Saul/Paul, as His head evangelist in most of the rest of the New Testament?  Do you think God knows something we don't know?

We are all worried about the plight of the Church in America, Afghanistan and all over the world.  I get it!  But, when we are being persecuted and scattered, don't we follow Jesus?  Don't we go to our book of instruction, the Bible, and seek guidance?  Don't we pray and watch for what God is doing?  And, don't we tell everyone about the message of salvation ... that the Jesus who commissioned Paul, raised Stephen to eternal life ... is the same God who will lead us out of darkness, even today?  That's what I plan to do ... what about you?  Randy

My Boys and Girls!

My family and I have a little game we play with each other.  We 'give' each other people ... famous people, sports figures, other family members, historical figures.  For example,  Lee is 'given' all the people whose names begin with strange combinations of 's' words (she gets Brandt Snedeker, Xander Schauffele, both golfers).  It is a silly game, but funny at times, especially when someone begins a sentence with "Your boy, Adolf Hitler made history again today!"  It is all in good fun and we try not to get our feelings hurt (very much a no-no in today's world) by which person we are given.

But in the Church, things are different.  Acts often describes the believers as being "together."  In Acts, it seems that the one requirement for being a person's boy or girl is a shared belief in Jesus.  I love that, and I think that is as it should be.  We belong to each other, even if we sometimes do things to 'fry each other's bacon!'  God understood this principle well.  In Exodus 32:10 God says to Moses, "Now leave me alone with My anger, that my anger may burn against them, and then I will make you into a great nation."  Translation, "I brought them into this world, and I can take them out ... and I can make some new people who are not so stiff-necked."  Needless to say, God was mad and disappointed with disobedient people!  But Moses makes a very wise plea.  In the next verses Moses (again paraphrased) says, "They may be stiff-necked, but they are yours!"  Our lesson? The people that make you mad in the Church may be stiff-necked (or maybe you are stiff-necked) but they are yours.  They are all "your boys and girls!"

Acts has some great advice here.  If we are to ever have both the unity and power of the early Church, we have some work to do.  It starts with understanding we are the Body of Christ.  Hands, feet, fingers ... even some armpits!  But we are part of that thing that God has sent us to transform the planet.  "I am the Church, you are the Church, we are the Church together ... all who follow Jesus, all around the world, we are the Church, together!"  I may be an armpit, but I am still your boy!  And Jesus, in John 17:21, prays that all the believers are one, just as Jesus and the Father are one.  That prayer should mean something to us.

A second "we can do this" is to get rid of the unimportant.  I have to brag about our congregation for a minute.  All of you seem to be gently centered on why we are here.  We have had a good many small children in our midst and it has taken patience and grace.  You have stayed the course and stayed in focus.  I wonder if the early Church learned to "go with the flow" of life, people and a very diverse group of people.  Peter and Paul had some discussions about this in Galatians 2 and concluded that as diverse as people were, the people were all their boys and girls.  They put aside the unimportant for the work of the Church and the witness of the Gospel,  

Finally, I think the early Church had a pretty good handle on being centered on the one thing instead of their own things.  In Colossians 3 Paul writes, Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other and in step with each other.  None of this going off and doing your own thing (Col. 3:15, The Message)."  One of the hardest things to get right when playing in a band is getting in step and in tune.  No matter how "good" each musician plays, it will sound terrible if the instruments are out of tune or the musicians are playing the piece differently.  To sound right, we must play together.  In the praise band, this means we play in consideration of all the other players and parts of the band.  It is the same with the congregation.  We must be willing to let go of a little of 'self' so that the 'whole' can be healthy, vital and in step.  For the 'whole' is the witness of the Church and the representation of Jesus in our community.  It is not giving up our individual self as much as it is growing beyond the limitations of self into something bigger and better than we are individually.  We sing about this in America the Beautiful when we say, "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life."  

In Matthew 16, Jesus refers to Peter as a rock.  More accurately, the term means 'little rock.'  The idea is that we are bound together by a strong bond (Jesus) in an amalgamation that is less like a pile of pebbles and more like concrete.  The whole is far stronger than the individual parts.  We are each others 'boys and girls!'  We are brothers and sisters, friends, bearing each others burdens and sharing each others difficulties.  That is the Church that Matthew 16 says will prevail, even against the gates of hell!  Randy

My Boys/Girls

My family and I have a little game we play with each other.  We 'give' each other people ... famous people, sports figures, other family members, historical figures.  For example,  Lee is 'given' all the people whose names begin with strange combinations of 's' words (she gets Brandt Snedeker, Xander Schauffele, both golfers).  It is a silly game, but funny at times, especially when someone begins a sentence with "Your boy, Adolf Hitler made history again today!"  It is all in good fun and we try not to get our feelings hurt (very much a no-no in today's world) by which person we are given.

But in the Church, things are different.  Acts often describes the believers as being "together."  In Acts, it seems that the one requirement for being a person's boy or girl is a shared belief in Jesus.  I love that, and I think that is as it should be.  We belong to each other, even if we sometimes do things to 'fry each other's bacon!'  God understood this principle well.  In Exodus 32:10 God says to Moses, "Now leave me alone with My anger, that my anger may burn against them, and then I will make you into a great nation."  Translation, "I brought them into this world, and I can take them out ... and I can make some new people who are not so stiff-necked."  Needless to say, God was mad and disappointed with disobedient people!  But Moses makes a very wise plea.  In the next verses Moses (again paraphrased) says, "They may be stiff-necked, but they are yours!"  Our lesson? The people that make you mad in the Church may be stiff-necked (or maybe you are stiff-necked) but they are yours.  They are all "your boys and girls!"

Acts has some great advice here.  If we are to ever have both the unity and power of the early Church, we have some work to do.  It starts with understanding we are the Body of Christ.  Hands, feet, fingers ... even some armpits!  But we are part of that thing that God has sent us to transform the planet.  "I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together! All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together!" I may be an armpit, but I am still your boy!  And Jesus, in John 17:21, prays that all the believers are one, just as Jesus and the Father are one.  That should mean something to us.

A second bit of work is our need to get rid of the unimportant.  I have to brag on our congregation for a minute.  All of you seem to keep centered on why we are here and not get too distracted by the small things.  We have had extra children and you have embraced them, distractions and all.  I wonder if the early Church just went with the flow of life with a very diverse group and didn't sweat some of the differences and distractions.  Peter and Paul had some discussions about this (Galatians 2) but they came to the conclusion that as diverse as the people were, they were all their boys and girls!  They were willing to put aside the unimportant for the work of the Church and the witness of the Gospel.

Finally, I think the early Church had a pretty good perspective of being more centered on 'one thing' than on 'their own things.'  Paul, in Colossians 3, says we need to be tuned with one another, kind of like instruments in an orchestra. "Let the peace of Christ keep you in tune with each other, in step with each other.  None of this going off and doing your own thing (Colossians 3:15, The Message)!"  One of the hardest parts of playing in the praise band on Sunday is getting in step and in tune.  If our instruments aren't tuned together, we will sound bad, no matter how well we think we are playing.  If we are on a different musical page, we can play beautiful notes and get a horrible sound.  To sound right/good we must play together.  Sometimes that means Andy, Rachel or I must be willing to play differently than we would like, so the whole piece of music sounds good.  It is the same in a congregation.  While we are a diverse group of people, all of us must be willing to give a little of 'self' so that the 'whole' can be healthy, sound right and express the witness of "The Church."  Some of you are saying, "So we have to give up our individuality to conform to the whole?"  My answer is ... NO!  What you must do is grow past and beyond 'individuality' to become part of something bigger than you are.  We sing it in America the beautiful ... "who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!"

In Matthew 16 Jesus refers to Peter and his confession as a rock.  The Greek idea here is not as much a piece of quartz or granite as lots of little pebbles (Peter means 'little rock') that are bound together into an amalgamation that is larger, stronger and more gifted than any individual could possibly be.  What about all the other pebbles, stones, chunks of brick and clay?  They (you) are my boys and girls, my brothers and sisters.  And what is stronger ... a pile of rocks or a block of concrete?  So ... I claim you and I hope you claim me.  For we are bound up together in Christ ... the Church that will prevail against the very gates of hell (Matthew 16:18)!  Randy

Not Anti, Just Non

You might be looking at the title above and saying, "What is the crazy preacher up to now?  That doesn't make sense!  What does he mean?"  Glad you asked!

In our series on the early Church (Acts 2 stuff), I have tried to look at that Church in the light of today, asking the question, "How were they different?"  Here are my observations.

1. In Scripture, I don't see a Church that was trying to be popular.  P.T. Barnum once said, "Without promotion, something terrible happens ... nothing!"  That seems to be the mantra of some of our congregations that want flash, charisma, loudness and other ways to entertain us.  Luke 6:26 says, "Woe to you when everyone speaks well of you, for that is how your ancestors treated false prophets."  Jesus is reminding us His message isn't going to be popular with any of what we call our "perspectives."  Liberal or conservative political-correctness isn't our goal or our mission.  Our call is to "follow."  If you read Acts you will see a Church that is 'good' but not 'popular,' especially with the high-ranking religious and political leaders of that day.

2. The early Church, and I have misstated this before, wasn't "anti-culture" as much as it was non-culture.  This is an important distinction, because we (the Church) too often become immersed in the rhetoric of being against so many things.  There are truly things we SHOULD oppose.  Micah 6:8 says, "practice justice."  We often take this to mean yelling to the world about what we are against.  The meaning is deeper that that.  This passage means to oppose those things that harm and destroy God's people.  In the 70's I was a municipal planner, and we had the bright idea to bring an enclave of people to live in government housing in the suburbs.  The idea was to remove the folks from substandard housing, build new housing and place them in middle-income America, thus raising them out of crime, poverty and all the social ills we saw in the inner-city.  It was a typical governmental solution that we thought was brilliant!  It was not brilliant, not beneficial and not just.  We removed the people from all of the infrastructure they needed to get groceries, have social interaction and have some sense of community.  All the negatives moved along with the people ... crime, poverty, social ills (with new ones to boot!).  The idea was a great failure, but it taught me (and this is why we keep history HONEST and never rewrite it) that we must look at things from a lens that reflects God's view of what is just, right and good ... we are FOR that, not against the world.

3. The early Church was FOR a lot of good things.  It was a) FOR salvation, and Peter's sermon in Acts 2, in which he says, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins,"  b) FOR healing, as Acts 3 begins with Peter's healing of a lame man, c) FOR emulating Jesus, Acts 4 finds Peter and John (in trouble for healing and preaching) before the Sanhedrin, astonishing the Jewish leaders because "they took note that these men had been with Jesus," d) FOR being the Church, Acts witnesses of many cases where the Church is focused on ministry issues (never the divisive politics of their day), and FOR people ... have you read anything in Acts where the Church was not open (and expanding that openness to gentiles) to just folks, anyone wanting to find Christ and enter into His grace, healing, service and love?

There is a telling verse in Acts 2 that needs to be repeated right here in Abbeville, Alabama.  It says, "they (the people) were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other Apostles, "Brothers, what shall we do?"  It is a great question, but they asked the Apostles ... not self-professed charismatic speakers ... not high-ranking church officials ... not peers immersed in their political perspectives ... not the government.  There are lots of people asking this question to all the wrong people ... and the answers make them angry, nasty, loud, and just plain obnoxious.  The Acts Church was known for goodness and the fruit of the Spirit.  That attitude and personality isn't anti-culture, it's just non-culture.  Yes, we will look different.  Yes, we will be persecuted, and chastised by even our friends.  But maybe we should try it!  Randy

The Real Thing

When I was growing up Coca Cola had a commercial saying ... "It's (Coke) the real thing!"  My dad worked for Coca Cola so I pretty much agreed with this.  Later I learned that few things were truly authentic.  And for the Church, it seems that we have lost or forgotten our roots.  Whether it is from our affluent society, our propensity to be comfortable in stasis or our tendency to grab on to every wind of doctrine that affirms our political view, something has been lost.  As Waylon Jennings so well put it ... "Maybe it's time to go back to the basics of love!"

I hear a lot of talk about the early Church.  They were sent out just after the resurrection and ascension of Jesus.  The Church was rag-tag, diverse, humble, repentant and outwardly-focused.  I hear lay preachers, members of my congregation, charismatic instigators, colleagues and internet preachers all extol the virtues of the early Church.  "We need to be like the early church!"  I hear it all the time!  So ... if this is a virtue (and I believe it is) how do we become more like the early Church?

I've been thinking about this and have arrived at several basic practices we should consider restoring if we, in fact, want to reclaim the authenticity of these new believers.  This will be my sermon focus from now till the end of September, and I hope (me included) we can learn some truth that is worth knowing.  My topics will include 1) our view of Bible Study, 2) our view of power, 3) our view of fellowship, 4) our view of money, 5) how we view people (including other Christians), and 6) how we are 'impressed' (what brings a sense of awe?).  Some of these topics will be found in Acts, Chapter 2 (feel free to 'cheat' and read ahead).  Others will be found elsewhere in Acts.  I hope you will want to explore and dialogue with me on these important topics.  And I hope you will join me in the passion for restoring the idea that God can change and mold us into a people that can (by following Christ) become a Church that even the gates of hell cannot prevail against.

This Sunday we will start with the easy stuff ... how do we become those people that hunger and thirst for God's Word?  How can we make the Bible a priority and a true passion?  And how can we allow God to bring us out of our desire to find teachings that fit our lifestyle?  Paul told Timothy (2 Timothy 4:3) that this would happen, and it was happening at the time Paul wrote those harrowing words.  Jesus said (in John 7) "come to me and drink!" So let's have a cool drink of "the real thing" as we study together!  Randy

River Questions

I was listening to an old Garth Brooks song the other day.  It is called "The River," and the song, like the river, flows with my heart.  It made me think about movement, destination, beauty, and lots of other great river-related thoughts.  Two Scriptures came to mind as I was thinking about rivers. 

The first is the river flowing from the Temple in Ezekiel 47.  That river, I believe, represents the Church as it flows out of the Temple and heals and renews as it flows to its destination, the Dead Sea.  When that river enters the Dead Sea, it restores life and makes the water fresh and new.

The second river (and I think it is like the first) is the river from John 7:38. Jesus is teaching on the final day of the Festival of Booths, a harvest festival in which the Hebrews remembered God's provision as they traveled through the time of the Exodus.  It was a high and holy time for the Jews.  Jesus says, "Anyone who believes in Me may come and drink!  For the Scriptures declare 'Rivers of living water will flow from His heart!'"  I believe this river references back to the Ezekiel verse, and both remind us that Jesus is the source of living water that heals, renews, refreshes and gives life to dead things.

We will sing a song Sunday called "The River ... Come on Down."  It is a light and happy expression of Jesus' invite to come ... "Anyone who is thirsty may come to Me! (John 7:37)."  So, let's all come on down to that river of living water that:

1. Is all about the Church, taking in Jesus and giving out words and actions that bring about healing;

2. Is us following the model of Jesus, doing what John Wesley said ... "Offer them Christ!" (it is really the think of value we have to give);

3. Is ever-changing (never stagnant) and flows where it is needed and wanted;

4. Has a source, the Holy Place that is Christ ... the place where God is worshipped, proclaimed and praised;

5. Is a place to gather and drink in God's goodness and the water that gives life;

6. Is alive ... because if we have Jesus we have life, and life to the fullest;

7. Has a destination ... a place where it is going to become whatever God has made it.

The late John Prine writes that "old rivers grow wilder every day" as they pursue their course to the place they are going.  Do you have that river of living water in you?  Does it flow out of you?  What is it's source?  Does it bring life and healing to the people and things you encounter?  Is it founded in the Temple of the Lord?  Where does it get its power?  Is it going somewhere and is that direction from God or something else?

These are the river questions I would like you to consider as we move through this week, flowing into worship on Sunday.  I hope we are honest with ourselves.  I pray we will let God correct our course if we are blocked, misdirected or meandering.  And I hope each of us are willing to take that drink of living water that comes from believing INTO Jesus' life, plan and purpose for us.  Come on down!  Randy

His Mercy is More

Sunday we will do a new song called, "His Mercy is More."  The word in Greek is eleos. Where grace is forgiveness that is extended to people in their guilt, mercy is a bit different.  Mercy is God's suspension of the consequences of sin.  Our word might be pardon.  Matthew 5 says, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy."  Where grace is something that is only given (and can only be given) by God, mercy is a behavior in which God models and we can follow God's lead.  

A friend of mine, just gone to be with the Lord, used to say, "Justice is getting what we deserve ... mercy is not getting what we deserve ... grace is getting something good from God we don't deserve."  I like this because it allows me to see these three things a bit more clearly.

In Micah 6:8 God puts all 3 of these things together.  In the NIV, the prophet says, "Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with your God."  I will focus today on that middle one ... love mercy.

When we love someone/something, we spend time with it.  We become intimately acquainted with it.  We embrace it.

One Biblical example of this is the story of the woman caught in adultery.  John 8:1-11 describes a woman clearly guilty of the sin of adultery.  Justice demands punishment, in this case stoning.  Jesus does something remarkable in this story.  He does what I think He does with us every day.  He is challenged by the Pharisees to make a call (they are out for blood, and they want Jesus' participation).  Jesus just writes in the sand with His finger.  The Word doesn't say what He writes.  But it seems like Jesus is providing some time for thought by everyone.  The woman considers her fate.  The Pharisees are choosing rocks.  The onlookers are wondering what this crazy preacher will do.  Then, in total obedience to Micah's prophecy (which flowed from the mind of God), Jesus says those amazing words ... "let the one who has never sinned cast the first stone."  The men walk away, in order of the oldest to the youngest.  WOW!

Let's stop here and consider what is happening.  Our western educational perspective says, "Go with what is in your head."  But Hebrew education is participatory.  You teach. You model.  You invite the student to apply.  This is learning in Jesus' culture and time.  It is effective and good education.  Because it invites the student to spend time with the problem, embrace the problem and incorporate the solution into life.

All of the men walked away.  All of the men got the lesson (they passed the test).  The woman and the crowd got the point too.  And maybe we all learn something about love here.  Loving mercy is hard.  It defies our nature of categorizing right and wrong, and demanding justice (usually for the other person).  Love sometimes catches in our throat and causes us to be silent and draw in the sand.  Love places kindness at a premium.  And loving mercy makes us see ourselves more clearly than we would like.  We drop our rocks in the dirt.  We walk away.  And we hear our Savior extending mercy to us saying, "Go and sin no more."

Mercy is not getting what we really deserve.  And do you really want what you deserve?  "Blessed are the people who extend/love mercy, for they will receive mercy!"  That's good news for today!  Randy

Welcome Table

In 1922, the Florida Normal Quartet introduced a song with Biblical roots that connected with a related African-American spiritual.  The song was reintroduced numerous times, and is currently on YouTube recorded by Courtney Patton's Southern Gospel Revival.  It is a great song with lots to say.

Two Scriptures come to mind when you hear this song.  The first (and what the original song was based upon) is the wedding feast of the Lamb in Revelation 19:6-9.  Christ's bride (the Church) has been brought to the wedding feast and is referred to as "Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb (Rev. 19:9)!"  The other passage is the Parable of the Great Banquet in Luke 14:15-24.  In the parable many of the invited guests are too busy with their lives to attend the great feast.  The owner of the great house is angry that the 'invited' are so self-focused that they must make excuses and beg out of the feast.  So, the owner says, "Go out quickly to the streets and alleys of the town and bring the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame (Luke 14:21)."

Lots of 'meat' in these two passages.  First, we have a myriad of people who feel they are 'invited,' in fact guaranteed, a place at "The Table."  And it is true that many are invited to God's table.  I would venture to say that we (the Church) are to invite everyone to God's table.  But the point of the parable is that being invited isn't choosing to be at the table.  Our free will, our pension for being self-directed and our propensity for placing our priorities before God's priorities can have eternal implications.  To sit at the table, to enjoy God's company and to join in the wedding feast, we must choose God over other stuff.

Second, God is pretty good at calling our bluff.  He hears us sing the songs about 'the land over yonder' and he watches us on Sunday morning as we worship.  But God looks deep.  Is our worship 'in Spirit and Truth' as God clearly desires ("God is Spirit and those who worship Him must worship in Spirit and Truth [John 4:24]")?  So, God, in the parable and in the verse from Revelation, calls us to account.  Will we be able to meet on God's terms at God's place in God's time?  The big question here is, "How are YOU prioritizing God right now, today?"  Are you checking out property, buying oxen or focused on personal events?  God is asking, "Tell me where I fit in!"

Finally, God isn't a respecter of our categorizations of people.  God values our brokenness more than our stature.  I wonder if this passage is saying what Matthew 11:28 is saying ... "Come to me, all who are weary and heavy laden."  I wonder if the invitation to these two banquets have a little note at the bottom of the invite-card that says "The unbroken need not come."

Back to the song.  The lyrics say, "I'm gonna sit at the welcome table ... I'm gonna sit at the welcome table one of these days!"  That table requires me to place God before self.  That table requires me to confess brokenness.  That table is for those who need God.  In Matthew 5:3-11 God (I believe) lists many of the requirements for that welcome table ... go read them.  Many of us wouldn't place much value on the people God views as "blessed."  But I guess that table, the banquet hall, pretty much everything, doesn't belong to us.  It is the owner's house.  Wanna go?  Randy

Protect and Serve

When you read the words "Protect and Serve" you may think of law enforcement ... and rightly so.  In 1955 the Los Angeles Police Department sought departmental input regarding a motto that could be both remembered and foundational for their department.  The winner was named and in November of 1963 Protect and Serve was adopted and the motto for the LAPD.  I like it, and we see that same motto appear on law enforcement vehicles all across America.  But what I discovered last week was even more informative.

In Genesis 2:15 God's word uses 2 Hebrew words ... avadh and shamar.  Shamar means to protect and avadh means to serve.  While these words are meaningful coming from the perspective of law enforcement, they mean so much more coming from God, especially since God is using these words to describe human responsibility and purpose.  Let's unpack them a bit!

Why would God ask Adam to protect (shamar) the garden?  What can he do?  If you look deeper into the word, you find that the word here is a little like tending a flock or being guardian over something that is unable to fully protect itself.  My brother is one of the people in charge of forest-protection in California.  They have been working, through proper management and control-burns, to have enough fire-breaks and underbrush-control to keep forest fires at bay.  But California is a massive state, and it has been virtually impossible for them to achieve even minimal protection for the forest there.  Wildfires have been disastrous.  Solutions have not been easy.  The garden is big ... our efforts are small.  I wonder, in Genesis, if God is pre-warning Adam of other intrusions into the garden, such as serpents?

Adam is also asked to serve (avadh) the garden.  Isn't it interesting that God asks Adam to place himself in the position of a servant in relation to an inanimate garden?  Or is it inanimate?  Does God view the garden, even the world, as something that has order, life and purpose?  God does tell Adam to subdue or govern the garden.  But in Hebrew the idea of rule and governance is caught up in the idea of being responsible for the welfare of the thing you govern.  Judges were to provide for the welfare of their people.  Micah described God's 'Great Requirement' as loving justice, doing mercy and walking in humility with God.  Jesus said, in Matthew 22:11 "The greatest among you will be a servant."  Do you think God is (through the fabric of His Holy Word) trying to tell us something profound about His intention for us?  We are not bigger that our garden, the world we live in, the people we are given, the context into which we are placed!

Someone asked Nick Saban why his process of leadership worked so well.  He said ... "Don't think about winning the SEC championship.  Don't think about the national championship.  Think about what you need to do in this drill, on this play, in this moment."  Translation ... "Do your job!"  I wonder ... if Adam, Eve, Randy, Sally, Nicey, Angel, Jason, Tina, Ryan, Andy, Jane ... all of us ... just kept this mantra before us ... "protect and serve the garden" ... how would that impact our little part of God's creation?  The truth is (whether you agree or not) God's instruction to Adam has implications about every one of us.  Environmental implications.  Social implications.  Spiritual implications.  Business implications. Life implications.

We have been given governance over 'the garden.'  We are to protect and serve.  Maybe if we took this task seriously and, on every play, just did our job, we could make a difference.  God seemed to think so!  So should we!  Randy

Work and Order

I know you are looking at the blog title and saying, "Wow, what a fun topic!"  Most today don't seek out work and don't like the perceived restriction of order.  We have convinced ourselves that freedom is somehow connected to "doing what I want."  But do you ever wonder if we are all somehow connected to a larger plan, a larger purpose and a bigger dream than our own wants?

If you start the Bible from the beginning, you will find that it doesn't take long for God to proclaim some of the reasons He created humans.  In Genesis 1 we find that we are made in the image of God.  I have thought that if we somehow took all of the good things in all of the people who have ever lived and put them on display, we might get a small peek at a reflection of God ... like the moon reflecting the son or a child reflecting a bit of its father/mother.  This is, by God's account, a good thing.  But there is another thing happening in Genesis.  The story of creation is being told in simple terms so that we might grasp some of what God is like and what people are like ... how God created us.  That calls me to one verse in Genesis 2.  "God took the man and set him down in the Garden of Eden to work the ground and keep it in order (Genesis 2:15, The Message)."  So much about God and people is contained in that short verse.

1. God's placement - Did you note that God "Set him down in the Garden of Eden?"  God, in His purpose and wisdom, placed the man in the garden.  The Bible talks about God moving nations, kings and events ... and we find a singular person, Adam, placed by God into the garden.

2. God's priority - God has 2 things Adam is supposed to do.  First, he is to 'work' the garden.  The Hebrew word is Avadh.  It implies both toil and serving.  The King James Version uses the word 'dress.'  I understand this well, since, as a child, I worked many hours in my father's garden.  I hoed clods, pulled up weeds and sweated in the hot North Carolina sun.  I liked the fresh vegetables, but wasn't so keen on the work it took to get them!  The second priority we find is 'order.'  Keeping the garden in order means that God had a plan and an intent as He created the garden.  It wasn't random.  God seems to want order.  The very first thing that happens in Genesis 1 is God brings order to what the Bible calls, "formless and empty."  God fills the emptiness and gives order to the formless.  And God gives Adam instructions to 'keep it that way.'

3. God's beautiful plan - I remember planting, working, growing and picking vegetables from my own garden.  It was hard work.  But if you worked hard enough and came to the garden as a servant of something bigger than yourself, it would produce good things.  You might even come to the realization that God had created the things you were planting to have the right amount of care, the right amount of water and the right amount of sunlight.  The plan for a good garden is something designed long before you were born ... it goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

Here is our disconnect.  We think our freedom is the license to place ourselves wherever we want doing whatever we want.  We are in charge of placement and we even tell ourselves, "I can go anywhere I want!"  We establish our own priorities, ignoring the things that are important to God.  We have our own plans and forget the plans of one who desires to give us a hope and a future.

I say all this to remember the Biblical beginning and end of things.  If you read Revelation carefully, you will see that God brings things full circle.  In Revelation 22, the chapter begins with "The Restoration of Eden."  It is a stark reminder that God will bring to pass what God desires and has designed.  God has a place to which He brings His people (His Bride), a priority that will certainly be realized and a plan that will happen.  So ... will we serve/dress God's garden ... will we work to make God's plan happen ... will God's priorities become our priorities?  In the formless, orderless void we see swirling in this world, will we be agents of working God's fields so that God's order will be restored?  Randy