Entering the City

This weekend begins what we call "Holy Week" in Christian tradition.  It is a week where we remember, reflect, regret and rejoice, all in a matter of a few days.  This week we "enter the city" with Jesus.

Paul Baloche writes ... "Praise is rising, hearts are turning to You ... we turn to You ... hope is stirring, hearts are yearning for You, we long for You, cause when we see You we find strength to face the day, in Your presence, all our fears are washed away ... they're washed away!"  This was the attitude of the crowd on that first Palm Sunday. As Jesus entered the city, people extended their praise and joyful expectations.  But they forgot several things.

The first thing they forgot was that their expectations were not in line with what needed to happen.  Holy Week, in modern tradition, is filled with musicals (please come Sunday for our musical at 10:30am, April 2nd) and egg hunts (please come to the egg hunt at Rane Tree at 11am Saturday, April 1st).  We love these times, and we love the thought of singing "Hosanna, You are the God who saves us!"  But salvation comes with a price ... the cost of our Lord's life, "the perfect lamb who takes away the sins of the world."  Salvation comes with sacrifice.

The second thing they forgot was that God had a plan that was to upend the plan of our enemy, Satan.  Jesus didn't ride in on a white charger, ready to battle the enemy (and the Romans).  He rode in on a donkey, ready to sacrifice Himself, and destroy the plan of the enemy that would take us (what Wesley calls Adam's helpless race) into eternal death.  Jesus' sacrifice and death (at the hands of many shouting Hosanna) destroyed Satan's plan and offered all who believe a way for God to "bring us to Himself (Exodus 19)."

The third thing forgotten, is that Jesus' triumphal entry is both an event and a precursor of how we choose to believe.  Jesus wept over the city He is about to enter, because the people missed the point ... that He brought grace, peace and goodness, all wrapped in the challenge to enter God's plan and leave our plans.  Petra, the musical group, sings a song about the Road to Zion.  In the song, that road is struggle, rugged, sometimes dark but always good.  It is the road into Jerusalem, where throngs shout their wrong-headed view of Jesus and victory.  It is the road to salvation that passes right through the darkness in my heart as Jesus shines light and life on my mustard seed of faith.  It is me, becoming willing to see struggle, toil, discomfort and even pain, as God's discipline, as I leave my plans and enter His plans.  Paul said, in 1 Corinthians 1 ... "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved, it is the power of God."  Hope into hopelessness ... power into our helplessness ... life out of death.  "O Praise the name of the Lord our God ... O praise His name forevermore, for all my days I will sing God's praise, O Lord, O Lord, my God (anastasis = resurrection)!"  Randy

Not Camels

Camels are ugly and cute at the same time.  They are known for being hearty, ugly dispositions, spitting and for being able to tolerate harsh travel conditions.  They can survive up to 15 days without water.  They can go for several months without food.  I guess no food or water might make me irritable and prone to spit at anyone who happens by.

We aren't like that.  We need food and water to survive.  And we need spiritual food and spiritual water if we are to thrive in the harsh spiritual climate of this world.  How do we accomplish this?

Ephesians 3:16-19 is a prayer by Paul for his sheep in Ephesus.  "I pray out of His glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.  And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord's holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know that this love surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God."  While my English teacher would call Paul's prayer a "run on sentence," I think it is a beautiful expression of God's desire that His people be filled with God's good things.  How does this happen?

It happens when we don't act like camels and survive long periods without food and water.  It is amazing to me each week, how Nicey takes my meager blog (probably not much nourishment there) and somehow turns it into a meal fit for a king!  She, our music team and the people who do all the little things for worship (including getting it streamed out to the world) make our worship better!  I think all of this happens because these people are seeking nourishment (water and food) during the week, as they send their roots "way down deep into God's love" so that His love comes out when we pray, worship, hang out in Sunday School, and live life.

As we approach Easter, I hope we all ask ourselves if we are trying to just survive in this parched world, taking a sip here and a bite there of God's word, God's teaching, God's message He sends each week and God's people through whom God will bless and grow us.  These are all parts of being rooted and founded in God's reservoir of sustaining goodness ... what Paul prays will "fill us to the measure of all the fullness of God."  Do you want that?  Do you have better plans and more fun things to do each week?  We are not camels and we can't do it without God's sustenance.  So come to the well that never runs dry!  Randy  

Family

Over the fireplace in the parsonage are three plaques that have words on them.  They are "Church, Friends and Family."  The past few weeks have reminded me of these things.  I have encountered many of you at the church.  These encounters have been at odd times ... not at usual service times.  You have been working, preparing and serving.  I appreciate you so much!

I appreciate so much those unsung people that are willing to invest their time to make Abbeville Methodist Church better, stronger and more vital than it should be based on numbers alone.  There are CR workers that make ministry happen each Thursday night ... thank you!  There are folks who feed a hundred children each week by dropping food off at the elementary school ... thank you!  Many people planned and implemented the missions auction ... thank you!  There are the folks who worked behind the scenes so that homecoming would be awesome, fun and prayed-up ... thank you!  There are people who make sure that programs are available for our children and youth ... thank you!  There are folks who make sure we are far too well fed ... thank you!  A group meets each week to pray for needs, hopes, dreams and leaders ... thank you!  We have Sunday School teachers who prepare lessons and tell us the stories of Jesus ... thank you!  Also, people come by and clean the church, fix things that are broken and maintain the property ... thank you!  Amazing musicians meet to practice and plan music for each Sunday ... thank you!  Food is prepared and the kitchen is cleaned during and after each weekly and special event ... thank you!

I think sometimes we get caught up in the nuts and bolts of doing, and we forget we are building something greater and bigger than we could ever imagine.  Wayne Watson says it like this ... "We work the field of souls, together you and I, some fields are blooming now, and other fields are dry.  We are not the same ... but differences aside.  We will work the field of souls ... together you and I."  Important work!  Jesus said, "Wake up and look around ... the fields are already ripe for the harvest (John 4:35)."  We are a family working to bring others into God's family.  And God wants a family!  Friends ... faith ... family!  These things are important!  Randy

Expectations?

One of the most self-focused views of God and what God is doing happens within our expectations.  We pray for what we desire and paint a "my will" version of what God is going to do.  We seek God's will for "my" life, rather than seeking God's will that is the perfect plan for all of us.  We read Scripture and ask what it means to "me," rather than seeking God's will and allowing God to open the very storehouses of heaven!  The box of expectations confines a big God to our small plans.

A week or so back, I went to speak to a church in Enterprise.  It was a great little church with much promise and some really good and gentle people.  I loved the spirit in that church!  But I couldn't help being reminded of a trip Lee and the family made a few years ago.  We lived in Mobile, Alabama and we decided it would be fun to go and see the Boll Weevil Monument (why, I don't know).  We hopped in the car in west Mobile and made the 3 hour trip to see the monument and the splendor of Enterprise, Alabama.  You all know what we found.  Instead of the expected imposing monument that towered over everything else in Enterprise, we drove up to see the "Muggsy Bogues" of all statues, barely taller than myself!  Oh well ... it was a good day with family and Lee got to see the place where her parents were stationed when her dad was in the Army.  Great expectations ... painted pictures ... dreams and reality colliding with a whimper!

Zephaniah prophesied in the period just before Jerusalem is sacked and the Jewish leadership is taken off to Babylon.  Arrogance, greed, false religious leaders and false prophecies of prosperity flourished.  What the people were telling themselves didn't match the warnings given by Zephaniah.  What the people wanted and the inevitable consequences of their behavior did not match.  They all want to live their lives in independence and freedom, but they are submitting to the patterns that bring slavery and, ultimately, exile.  So most of Zephaniah foretells the destruction of the people ... the result of false dreams and expectations.  But then God paints a picture of what life in God's kingdom will be like.  In Zephaniah 3:9-12 God tells them the true dream ... 1) that God will bring His people to a place of unity, 2) that God's people will worship and bring offerings acceptable to God, 3) that God will forgive and not shame the people, though they deserve it, 4) that God will not tolerate the haughty, 5) that the remnant of Israel will have a spirit of meekness and humility, 6) that the people of God who remain (after self-imposed destruction) will trust God.

So ... some questions.  How do your expectations match with the description of what the remnant of God's people will be like?  How do you feel about our worthiness of God's forgiveness?  Are we tolerant of arrogant and haughty leaders?  Do you think humility and meekness are strengths or weaknesses?  Do you trust God's plan?

In the song, I Will Listen, Twlia Paris writes ... "Could it be that He is only waiting there to see, if I will learn to love the dreams, that He has dreamed for me?"  What are you expecting from God?  Are you following your dreams and passions, or are you submitting to God's plans, doing what God dreams in Zephaniah 3:10, "my worshippers ... my scattered people, will bring Me offerings?"