Conflict

I will admit to hating conflict to the point of sometimes failing to deal with it.  This is a hard admission for me because I love people and sometimes conflict and confrontation are the path to good outcomes.  On Thursdays our Celebrate Recovery meetings include 8 principles based on the Beatitudes.  If you read the Beatitudes closely they are immersed in the conflicts we face in life ... submission to a greater good/power, properly expressed grief, placing ourselves in a position of humility, giving up time and energy to seek God's path of righteousness, having mercy when our spirit wants revenge, choosing purity when more pleasing options exist and (a biggie) making peace when other actions are more natural.

Our Revelation church this Sunday is Pergamum.  The people of Pergamum have many of the conflicts listed above.  They live in a place Jesus calls "Satan's home."  One would think that Satan would embrace and promote an atmosphere of conflict.  But often Satan leads us to just do nothing about issues that internally destroy us.  For example, Christian Life Resources reports that since 1973 there have been over 50 million abortions.  There have been 200,000 drug overdose deaths in the US since 2000 ... some of these have impacted people right here in Abbeville.  The US ranks (in Ranking America) 14th in Education and 23rd in Science Scores among ranked countries.  Do we ignore and tolerate these issues or do we oppose them? Pergamum chose the path of tolerating sinfulness within the midst of the Church.  Maybe they choose to say "Why can't we all get along?" or  "I just don't want to get involved."  I see a lot of that these days.  And what Jesus reminds the Church at Pergamum is that we can oppose these things now (when they are small) or have greater conflict later (when Jesus personally comes to oppose them with the "sword of His mouth"[v. 2:16]).  I remember the old Fram oil filter commercial that says "you can pay me now or pay me later." 

I wonder if we have (in our families, our state and our nation) decided that the path of no conflict is, in itself, a solution.  My dad told me something very wise about this.  He said, inaction is, in itself, a path of action.  Some things are worth conflict.  Let's remember that Jesus found our salvation and redemption worthy of conflict and a "hill worth dying on."

Sharing Christ's Journey

How can we share Jesus' journey?  We talk about sharing the Bible ... God's Word, and that is good.  But remember what John 1 said ... "In the beginning was the Word (meaning Jesus) and the Word was with God and the Word was God."  So ... when we share God's Word, aren't we supposed to share Jesus?  And how can we share Jesus if we are only observers of His journey?  Here is my point.

I hear people say "I love the Bible!" or "He/she really loves Scripture!"  This might be true, but do you grasp what the Bible and Scripture are asking of us?  These are not words on a page to be solely read, memorized and observed.  Jesus desires that we participate and live in them.  For if we share His journey, we walk His path, live His life, see through His eyes and hear through His ears.

The people of Smyrna got this loud and clear.  They understood that God's purpose and Jesus' plan did not deliver us from suffering and struggling for our faith.  In fact, they are commended for their following Jesus (as is expressed in Hebrews 13) "outside the camp."  Here are the words of that passage ... "So also Jesus suffered and died outside the city gates to make his people holy by means of his own blood.  So let us go out to him, outside the camp, and bear the disgrace he bore!" [Hebrews13:12-13].  As I think of all of the pop-theology and "land-over-yonder" thinking about God anesthetizing our pain as a primary part of His plan, I am reminded of John 17's prayer of Jesus in which He asks God NOT to remove His followers from the world but to protect them from Satan.  In this prayer and the words before and after, Jesus tells His followers they WILL have pain, suffering and heartache, but that He has overcome all worldly things on their behalf.  There is nothing the world can throw at us that Jesus cannot redeem.

If you love the Bible and Scripture, remember that our love for God's Word means we love Jesus enough to understand that following Jesus means we do suffer, struggle and strive, because we will eventually arrive at our home with/in Him.  Thanks be to God!  Randy

Conflict

I heard a message on conflict that had some worthwhile tidbits for all of us in God's Church. When Priscilla and Aquila heard a young and brash Apollos speak they did a masterful job of confronting his doctrinal failings in a beautiful and encouraging way.  They called him aside, they expressed encouragement, they did not raise a stink and they DID all they could to maintain his ability to go out and become what God had called this young man to be.  I hope we will learn from their example that the Biblical way of dealing with conflict (going straight to the person) should always be our norm.  We are to bear each other up in life's great times and life's failings.  Thanks for listening!  Randy

Balance

Our spiritual life is truly a balance.  This is true for us as individuals and as corporate bodies (congregations).  Two components of that balance are correct belief and correct action.  As Jesus speaks through John in Revelation 2 we find a description of this balance.

The congregation at Ephesus is given good marks for their attention to orthodoxy and keeping false beliefs and teachers out of the church.  They test their teachers against the foundation of God's Word and they expel falseness.  That is a good thing.

However, it appears that the church had become a bastion of doctrinal correctness but also inattentiveness to God's first priority, love.  Paul, in 1 Cor. 13 tells us that without love our prophecy, eloquence, knowledge and even our faith is lost in nothingness.  Jesus said that WITH love of God and people we would be true to all of the commandments of God.  I think they are onto what the Ephesians had lost ... the true # 1 thing.

I believe what is being said in Revelation 2, 1 Cor. 13 and Jesus' "Great Commandment" is that the flow of our faith, our ability to teach, our ability to win others to an understanding of God and our worship must necessarily flow from a love of God and people.  This is the foundation upon which our doctrine and our orthodoxy rests.  Without love it all blows away like (to quote a famous song) dust in the wind.  That is precisely why Jesus Himself tells the Ephesians that failure to get this right will result in Jesus removing their lampstand ... they would cease to be part of the Church.  WOW, love must be really important as the foundation of correct action!

The Artist

Will you watch the Potters hand moving in and through the clay
a vessel not yet born, through His gift transform, into a thing of beauty.

Do you love the way, a summer sunset’s painted on the sky
oh how the eagle dances when he flies, and if you find you’re silenced
by the beauty that surrounds us, wait until you meet the Artist.

You come from a secret place, where fear and wonder meet
woven together, in the image of our Maker, you are His masterpiece.

Do you love to hear the poetry of a mother’s lullaby, or the music in a newborn babies cry
and if you find you’re humbled by the beauty that surrounds us, wait until you meet the Artist.

Do you love the way, a summer sunset’s painted on the sky, or the music in a newborn babies cry
and if you find you’re humbled by the beauty that surrounds us, wait until you meet the Artist.

These beautiful words by Geoff Moore (The Artist) are from a wonderful, classical song in which God is viewed as an artist molding the people and world around Him.  As we prepare for God's double-edged sword of words to the 7 Churches of Asia, we see the stark contrast of how each church views their world and how God sees their life-context and their witness in the world.  Those who are proud are brought down.  Those who are tired and weary find a God who sees and praises their work.  Those who are trying to straddle the fence find a God who is angry at the clay pot he has formed.  Jesus has invested His life in forming and equipping His Church.  Let's listen together as the Master's hand forms and shapes ... encourages and warns ... reveals and exposes ... tears down and builds up.  Solomon was right ... there is a time for every purpose under heaven.  Randy

Beyond Sight

As Christians we are believers in things that are beyond what we see with our eyes.  We believe in faith, "Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).  We transcend the obvious to see people with the eyes of Jesus, seeing past their flaws and into their possibilities (Jesus told the woman caught in adultery that He didn't come to condemn her).  We believe that God can forgive and change us, claiming God's designation of us as new creations.  And, we believe that God wants us to find Him, though that search is sometimes clouded by daily events or our idols and priorities.

John (Revelation 1:10) is worshiping "in the Spirit" on the Lord's Day (Sunday for these new Christians).  John hears a voice commanding him to "Write in a book everything you see."  The vision that John experiences is vivid, textured and difficult to describe (note that John uses the term "like" often because he does not have words that adequately describe what he sees).  This vision has appeared out of a normal worship time and a normal worship experience.  But sometimes we forget something beyond our sight happens every time we gather for worship.  God is present, active and available in the context of worship.

I wonder ... what would happen to this people called Christians if we grasped this truth and lived accordingly?   What if we really believe and are really open to the God who is truly present in our daily lives and especially in our times of worship?  Would this knowledge allow us to see visions and dream dreams (Joel 2)?  Would it bring us to our knees, shunning the pride that keeps us "appropriately dignified" in our worship?  Would we or could we describe the experience?  Would we fall at the feet of this God who has come to us, emerging from the fog of this world into what we might call reality?  Or ... has He been there waiting for us to emerge from the unreality of the daily grind into His glorious presence?  I hope this is a good and piercing question for all of us.  Randy

In the Title

I have been amused at names and titles that desire to tell one story and end up saying another thing entirely.  On the way to Foley, Alabama there is a church called the "Overcoming Faith" iteration of some Christian denomination.  As I processed the name I decided I would never go there.  My faith is overcome by too many daily distractions and world events ... I certainly don't need training for my faith to be overcome.

This week we will begin our first week of the Sermon Series "A Wild Ride."  The series will explore the Revelation in depth and I will be devotion time and energy to provide some extra resources.  Most of these resources will be in blog form or will appear on the Abbeville United Methodist Church website. I invite you to look for these resources each week.

As for today, I will just remind you that John, in the Revelation, makes a point to address the main point when he says,  "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants" (Rev.1:1, NKJV).  The book reveals the nature ... the mission ... the passion ... the cross ... the victory of Jesus Christ.  Jesus, and the story of Jesus imbedded in the Jewish narrative, is the point.  So come to hear about Jesus.  Come to learn and dialogue.  Come to hear, not about the end of all things, but the beginning of a reality that will go on for eternity.

I am excited to take this journey with you.  I pray you are excited too!  Randy