Church Life
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An Ancient Empire, A Former President, and Some Recent Concerns
If you are familiar with Daniel (the book and the man), you know that his enemies looked for a way to get rid of him. The plan they devised was to get the king to issue an order that would prohibit the worship of any god other than the king himself for thirty days. Those who violated that decree were to be cast into a den of lions. The thinking was that Daniel’s enemies knew that he regularly worshiped the one and only true God and that this practice would/should result in them no longer having to deal with him. They also knew something else. In that empire (the Medo-Persian…
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Acceptance
I was blessed to hear one of our young men lead our devotional thought Wednesday evening and to capture a quote I hope I never forget. Lane Garrett spoke to us about the dangers of distractions and the choices we make concerning who we choose to be around. He discussed his summer where he was able to be more involved with his youth group and participating in his first mission trip and how much easier it was for his faith to feel strong during that period of time. He then said something like … and then school started. Whether it is school or a job or a social situation where…
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The (True) Church Didn’t Leave You
Recently, I have seen posts on social media that are very similar in their wording. I am not sure if you would call it a true “trend,” but I have seen more than one (without really searching it out), so it at least has some traction. The posts are from people who used to be part of the Lord’s Church, but have left. The few that I have seen are from those who have left over a couple of different issues, but the one that (from my limited perspective) seems to have the most traction are those who have left over issues pertaining to sexuality. Because the church does not…
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What Does the Lord Require of You?
I’ve been doing something this month that I’ve never done before. For the first time in my life, I’ve been wearing jeans to Sunday morning worship – and even been preaching in them. I’ve made this change for two reasons. The first is because I have been blessed to preach before an audience including a handful of new Christians recently. All of them fall into one or both of the following two categories: they either have no spiritual background at all prior to meeting members of the church, and/or they are not what the world would call wealthy (though I assure you, they are spiritually wealthy, and a conversation with…
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Two Recent Conversations (and a Lot of Thought)
I’ve had a couple of conversations fairly recently that, in some ways, seem to be totally unrelated. The more that I’ve thought about them, though, I’m thinking that there might be more of a connection than is readily apparent. On a recent Sunday morning, Donna was doing what she normally does before our period of worship begins. She was “making the rounds” to try to greet those who were visiting, having short conversations with some of our members, etc. I had finished “my rounds” (or at least had stopped when I realized that it was about time for the announcements before our worship to be made). As I was waiting…
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Mob Mentality
I hope you will forgive me for posting a re-run. I wrote this post several years ago, but I feel that it is most appropriate at this time in our country. The happenings (for lack of a better word) in our country in the last few years, and, in particular, the last few months have brought this topic back to my mind. Please consider it carefully… I read about this the other day and it broke my heart once again. I read about it from time to time and I have the same response every time those words are read. In my mind I always think they just had a…
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Commonly Held (Non) Qualifications for Elders
Central is in the middle of a search for additional elders. As such, thinking about elders, their role, their qualifications, and the future of our congregation has taken up a lot of my mental space lately. One of the things that I have been reflecting on is how, over the years, I have heard people talk about the qualifications for elders and say things that “disqualify” a man, but that are not found in the actual Biblical qualifications (found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1). Here are four of those. “He Has Never Taught a Bible Class.” This one often comes up when people think about the qualification that…
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Stand and Wait
As the summer of 1655 drew to a close, England’s greatest poet had a problem that left him restless. The legendary John Milton, who was then serving under Cromwell’s Protectorate government and would later become most well known for his masterpiece, Paradise Lost, was going blind. It was and remains unclear why the poet lost his sight at such a young age (he was not yet 50 by the time his blindness was complete), though he himself attributed his ailment to overworking. His writings from this period make clear his frustration and fear as a result of this development. How will the poet to the nation, known for his writing,…
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My Church
I understand what people mean when they use the phrase “my church.” I guess that you could say that the phrase is used in somewhat of an accommodative sense. They are basically talking about the people with whom they worship on a regular basis. At the same time, all of us might want to consider the fact that “my church” is found only one time in The New Testament. As devoted to spreading the gospel as Paul was, he never used that expression. As close to Jesus as John was, neither did he. The same thing could be said about all of the men who were inspired to write the…
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Light Over Darkness
As I write these words, millions are mourning a sad day in America. Along with other senseless acts of violence that did not garner headlines, an activist and author was shot and killed and high schoolers died from another school shooting today. There is no denying that this was a dark day. And it comes on the eve of another dark day in our history – 9/11. Both of these days are dark because it seems as though evil won. This post is a call to refute that in how we focus our thoughts and how we live our lives. Make no mistake: evil is dark, and the devil does…
