But What About a Kitchenette?

Several years ago I shared an extended email conversation with a young Christian lady named Casey who had begun attending a Church of Christ in Ohio. She was both intrigued and disturbed by some of the things that she was learning. She really seemed to be serious and committed to Christ, but the more she learned about this church, the more confused she became. She ran across something I wrote on our web site, and so our email conversation began.

The particular “brand” of Church of Christ she was attending believed, among other things, that faithfulness and salvation depended on whether of not you have a kitchen in your church building. (We have two “kitchenette” areas, and I wondered if that sealed our doom or if we get a special dispensation for not fully falling into the sin of “kitchen-ism”). The more Casey learned about such peculiar church dogmas, the more concerned she was that she was hanging her spiritual hat on the wrong hook. She could not believe that anyone was going to hell because they had a kitchen, but she was not going to fit in at that church until she believed that.

What would you tell Casey? Here was an honest soul seeking God through Christ; she wanted more than anything to find group of Christians with whom she could share her spiritual journey. What she found was a Church of Christ that seemed to stress everything else except Christ. Here's what I told her--

The more time a church spends talking about itself and its ideas and why it is right, the less time it will spend talking about Jesus. A church focused on stamping out kitchens is not a Church of Christ; it is a Church of No-Kitchen. My best advice is to find a church that is obsessed with Christ, his cross and his empty tomb... and is not so obsessed with kitchens.

Maybe you would have responding differently. There was a time in my life when I would have responded differently. But the older I get the more I’m convinced that we earn the right to the name Church of Christ only as we find ourselves connected to Christ… not to the traditions, issues and feuds that have at times defined our past.

You Can't Please Everyone...

In a recent response on the blog, I very brought up (tongue in cheek) a song by Christian singer-song writer Chris Rice entitled “The Cartoon Song.” Rice wrote the song 15 years ago as a skit for a Junior High youth group in a church in Tennessee. He intended it as something of a satire on how we seem to make “Christian versions” of everything, “I'm sure someone will try to do that with popular cartoons one day. Here's what I mean...” The kinds loved the song, and he sang it for other youth groups, camp groups, etc. It was finally included as a “hidden track” on one of his CDs. It promptly became a hit.

The song was met with the opposition of people who questioned its “theology.” People waited in line after concerts to explain to him why mentioning “The Smurfs” in the song was wrong because they were demonic. But mostly the song became hugely popular. It was still on the Billboard Christian Top-40 chart in 2005, more than 6 years after it was recorded. It remains the number one most requested song at many Christian radio stations all over the country. Finally, Rice decided to stop doing the song at his live performances and wrote something of an obituary for the song on his website.

Well, you can’t please everyone. Rice writes, “That’s the nature of public work. It’s really true--you can’t please everybody! I want to do excellent work. I want to reach a wide range of people… Well, when you can’t please everybody, you just have to check your own motives for purity, and then follow your own heart, and hope people will try to understand.” Sometimes that is all we can do.

Ricky Nelson’s old song “Garden Party” has the chorus, “It's all right now, I learned my lesson well. You can't please everyone, so ya got to please yourself.” That’s not right. Our job as Christians is to please God, not ourselves. But there will be times when we do our best to serve him with a pure heart and motives, and still some people who will disapprove. Perhaps we need to make our motives or intentions more clear; perhaps it is their own motives and intentions keep them from understanding. Sometimes we simply have to do what be believe God wants us to do even though we are misunderstood by others.

Do We Care About Apathy?

I called a local chapter of Alcohol Anonymous for some information to pass on to someone. When I identified myself as a minister, the man on the phone said, "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that." He was a really funny guy (at least he seemed to think so), so I wasn’t really sure whether he was serious or not when he said, “I have a great deal of respect for people in your profession; I just don't know how you handle all that apathy.” He thought that “church people” were complacent and self-satisfied that they were pretty much good people with things together. On the other hand, the folks who came to AA knew they were a mess and had a vested interest in taking their commitments seriously.

Do you think he has a point? There is an old story of the man-in-the-street interviewer who was asking people, "Do you think that ignorance or apathy is our biggest problem today?" And of course the answer he kept getting was, "I don't know and I don't care." Are complacency and apathy the big problems that the church faces today? Do we assume that we have it so all together that we don’t take our commitments to church or to God as seriously as we should? Listen to these warning from the Old Testament—

• "Woe to you who are complacent in Zion, and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, you noble men of the foremost nation, to whom the people of Israel come!" (Amos 6:1).
• "At that time I will search Jerusalem with lamps and punish those who are complacent, who are like wine left on its dregs, who think, 'The Lord will do nothing, either good or bad' " (Zephaniah 1:12).

Israel had become satisfied with her status God’s chosen that she became fat and lazy and unmotivated to actually serve Him. It was that apathy and complacency that led to her destruction.

Can we become so satisfied with what we know about God that we fail to study more? Can we become so complacent with how we have served God that we fail to seek to serve Him more?

Can we become so smug with who we are before God that we fail to seek Him in prayer or mourn our imperfections or worship Him with all our hearts? Maybe we need to start all over in focusing on God and our need for Him. The twelve steps of AA begin like this— (1) We are powerless over our sin, (2) we believe in a power that is greater than ourselves and (3) We make the decision to turn our lives over to the care of God. Not a bad way for us to begin each day, huh?

A Picture of Worship

I think I surprised some of you yesterday by having Will King (our resident photographer) move around and take some candid shots of us during worship. We have no pictures of ourselves on our web pager doing what we do most (and maybe best). We post pictures of ourselves dressing up to pass out candy at Trunk-or-Treat, dressing up in costumes for a Fiesta VBS or a drama production. But what we don’t have are any pictures of us dressing up to worship God on Sunday. OK, so we don’t dress up so much, but we do worship. I just thought there needed to be some shots of us doing that.

This morning Will emailed three of the pictures he took (8 megapixel pictures do take awhile to shoot through cyberspace), and I posted them on the web site, and I hope to add more pictures later. One thing struck me as I looked at the picture of us singing (besides the fact that we are an extremely good-looking group). It is very hard to sing praises to God and look dignified in the process. Look at the picture. Richard Pittman looks kinda cool, but Richard always looks cool. Sabrina has a great smile on her face as she’s singing. And Lynn is as cute as she can be (that’s why I married her). But the rest of us just look, well, goofy. With our mouths wide open-- we look like were at a guppy convention or something. (At least the rest of you do; I used my editorial discretion to Photoshop myself out of the picture). It is hard to worship and look dignified. Maybe that is the point.

The parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector (does that sound familiar?) reminds us that if we are focused on ourselves (“I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get”) or on others (“or even like this tax collector”), then we have missed the whole point of worship. If we hold back our expression of love and gratitude for God because we are too dignified to get carried away, maybe we’re not approaching praise properly. Worship helps us to focus ourselves on God and lose ourselves in His presence. As we sang yesterday, “It’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus.” That means it’s not about us.

There is one more question this picture raises. What’s the deal with everyone packing in like sardines at the back and avoiding the front several rows as if they were “full of dead men’s bones and everything unclean?” I don’t get it. In every other venue, you pay extra for front row seats. Any ideas?

Not Good to Be Alone

Here’s the other half of my CSI story promised in the last post. I wanted to quote the Grissom speech from the end of the episode, but I didn’t remember enough of it to even summarize. So I do what you do in a situation like that—I googled. I didn’t find the speech (I ran across that quoted on another blog; great minds and all that). What Google did find for me was the “Talk CSI Forum.” This is a cyber-community of thousands of (very) dedicated people who like to talk all things CSI. There were 180 people ONLINE when I logged in, so this site gets slightly more traffic than tucksdenbighblog.

I scanned through some of the the discussions which ran the gambit from favorite characters and storylines, last week’s episode to what would happen in the next episode. Everyone agreed that Eric Szmanda (Greg) did a great job last week; everyone agreed that no one likes Kevin Federline (guest star last week). Many of the posts were written DURING the episode and gave a running commentary on what was happening and what would happen next on the show.

Silly? A huge online community dedicated to following fictional characters and made-up events on a weekly TV show? Yes, it does seem silly for people to get worked up over a TV show. But this drive toward community, the desire to find people with whom to share things, the void within us that drives us to others like us—that is not silly at all! That is something put inside us by our Creator. God did not create us to be alone. His observation in Eden that “it is not good for man to be alone” was not, I think, primarily a statement that Adam needed a wife. What he needed was a companion, a community. It was not good for him to be alone. It still isn’t. We are created for community, to share our lives with others like us.

When God calls us to Himself through Christ, he calls us into a community of faith—a church. May God help us to become the community of faith that we are called to be. Church is not a place to go to do holy things once a week. Church is a relationship in which the people of God share the life of God.

Our Moral Compass

Last Thursday’s episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation ended with a discussion among the CSI team on what is wrong with young people today. Several offered opinions—too much free time, hanging out with the wrong crowd, not having a grandma to whoop ‘em when they need it. Sara thought that those kinds of explanations were “blaming everyone but these kids” who were “perfectly capable of telling the difference between a wild night out and beating somebody to death.” She said that “you don’t get a bye just because you grew up here or your parents are on drugs.” Grissom ends the episode with the kind of sermon you don’t really hear much in prime time--

The truth is, a moral compass can only point you in the right direction, it can’t make you go there. Our culture preaches that you shouldn’t be ashamed of anything you do anymore. And unfortunately this city is built on the principle that there’s no such thing as guilt. “Do whatever you want, we won’t tell.” So without a conscience, there’s nothing to stop you from killing someone. And evidently you don’t even have to feel bad about it.

The Las Vegas tourism board uses the slogan, “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” That has become words to live by for many, whether they are in Vegas or not. There’s no such thing as guilt. No conscience. And so the CSI guys and gals will never run short of crime scenes.

So what is the point for us? We live in a culture that is up to its eyeballs in moral ambiguity. As Christians, we need to make sure that we do not add to that ambiguity. There is darkness and there is light. We need to make sure that what we do in our personal (and private) lives adds to the light and not to the darkness. We must live as people of light who reflect the light of God into a world of shadows. We need to have that moral compass and follow it toward the presence of the God of light, and lead as many people there as we can.

There is another point, here… but I’ve save that for tomorrow.

Tempting Faith

David Kuo was the deputy director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, an agency which channels federal dollars to various religious charities. Like many former political insiders, Mr. Kuo recetnly published a book entitled Tempting Faith: An Inside Story of Political Seduction. He charges that his office became a political tool used to rally evangelical voters to get GOP politicians elected. At the same time, so Mr. Kuo alleges, Bush officials like Karl Rove have mocked Christian leaders behind their backs, calling them “ridiculous,” and “just plain goofy.” He believes that religion was used as a politcal tool to rally support and turn out voters. In a 60 Minutes interview, he said—

It was spiritually wrong. You’re taking the sacred and you're making it profane. You're taking Jesus and reducing him to some precinct captain, to some get-out-the-vote guy.

Now Mr. Kuo is indeed tying to sell a book, and you do that with “shock and awe.” Any tell-all book is to some degree more “based on true events” than it is “the whole truth” because it is always one’s person’s take on the most newsworthy (read seedy) parts of their experiences. I am not suggesting that we take Mr. Kuo at face value.

But this does serve to remind us that there is a fundamental difference between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of men. The kingdoms of the world operate based on exercise of power; men of power use power to gain more power. (I know all about this p;olitcal stuff because I used to watch West Wing). Jesus says that the “rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them” (Matt 20:25). That is not the way of the kingdom of God. At some fundamental level, the kingdom of God and man run at cross purposes. There is a difference between a leader who is a person whose conscience is informed by God (we need more of those ) and the politician who uses the gospel of God as talking points to placate part of the electorate bent on getting their way (we have had enough of that).

Kuo had a brush with death (a brain tumor caused a seizure which led to a serious car accident) that caused him to re-evaluate his priorities. he suggests that core Christian beliefs and values have compromised by the focus on politics. His solution is an interesting one. He suggests that Christians need to fast from politics for two years—everything except voting—and spend that time and money getting inolved with charity work and showing the compassion of Christ. He says, “We need to spend more time studying Jesus, and less time trying to get people elected.”

You might not agree with Mr. Kuo’s assessment of our present administration, but it’s hard to argue with that final point. The power that transforms comes from God, not from politics.

When Fisherman Don't Fish

Will King asked me to recommend a Max Lucado’s books for him to download and listen to from Audible. I recommended a couple, though my favorite is still In the Grip of Grace. Afterward, I spent a couple of minutes looking back through my collection when I was reminded of my all-time-favorite Lucado story. It comes from In The Eye of the Storm and tells the story of a ill-fated fishing trip Max took with his father and best friend Mark.

We arrived late at night, unfolded the camper, and went to bed dreaming of tomorrow's day in the sun. But during the night, an unseasonably strong norther blew in. It got cold fast! The wind was so strong that we could barely open the camper door the next morning. There was no way we could fish in that weather.

"No problem," we said. "We'll spend the day in the camper. After all, we have Monopoly. We have Reader's Digest. We all know a few jokes. It's not what we came to do, but we'll make the best of it and fish tomorrow."

The hours passed slowly, but they did pass. Night finally came, and we crawled into the sleeping bags dreaming of angling.

Were we in for a surprise. The next morning it wasn't the wind that made the door hard to open, it was the ice!

We tried to be cheerful. "No problem," we mumbled. "We can play Monopoly… again. We can reread Reader's Digest. And surely we know another joke or two."
But as courageous as we tried to be, it was obvious that some of the gray had
left the sky and entered our camper.

I began to notice a few things I hadn't seen before. I noticed that Mark had a few personality flaws. He was a bit too cocky about his opinions. He was easily irritated and constantly edgy. He couldn't take any constructive criticism. Even though his socks did stink, he didn't think it was my business to tell him.

It was a long day. It was a long, cold night. When we awoke the next morning to the sound of sleet slapping the canvas, we didn't even pretend to be cheerful. We were flat-out grumpy. Mark became more of a jerk with each passing moment. Dad couldn't do anything right; I wondered how someone so irritable could have such an even-tempered son. We sat in misery the whole day, our fishing equipment still unpacked. The next day was even colder. "We're going home" were my father's first words. No one objected.

I learned a hard lesson that week. Not about fishing, but about people. When those who are called to fish don't fish, they fight.

Indeed! When fishermen don’t fish, they fight! That has been the problem the church has faced from the first century. When we forget who our enemy really is and get distracted from our task, we turn our sights inward and we fight. That has been true of congregations, religious movements and the history of the church across the ages. If we are not using our hammers to work to build the kingdom of God in the hearts and lives of men and women, then we will use them to attack each other. When fisherman don’t fish, they fight!

Vanity and Kentucky 31

A week and half ago, I invested the better part of three days getting my lawn ready for next year. That entailed mowing, thatching, mowing, raking, mowing, seeding and fertilizing. (Did I mention mowing?) Before I began, I bought a 32 count box of yard bags for all the grass I would thatch (or is that de-thatch) and rake out of the yard. When I finished, I had 3 bags left! I watered for three days, and then we were supposed to get rain. Perfect, right?

Wrong! What we got was a 2 day Nor’easter that dumped about 10 inches of rain on our area. Our backyard filled up with water to the point where I thought about going fishing. The standing water seems to have floated all the grass seed I go carefully had sown and has now deposited it in the lowest areas of the back yard… the flower beds! So next spring we’ll have no grass in the yard and I’ll be mowing the flower beds. I don’t think Jesus covered this contingency in the Parable of the Sower! But it does appear that seed in front yard stayed put, and with all the watering of the monsoon, it should produce 100 fold.

So what’s the moral of this story? I am tempted to play “the Teacher” and find a lesson of the vanity of chasing after the wind. Ecclesiastes looks back on his hard work and says this--

22 What does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? 23 All his days his work is pain and grief; even at night his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. (Ecclesiastes 2:22-23)

He had described a great many accomplishments earlier in the chapter, but I choose to believe that thatching his yard was likely implied there in verse 5, “I made gardens and parks and planted all kinds of fruit trees in them.” (Of course, he talks about all of his slaves in the next verse, so we know who was doing the thatching!)

This morning I noticed the little patch of ground beside the door as you come into the church building. There is thick, healthy patch of brand new grass that has sprouted up on its own—without raking, thatching, seeding or fertilizing. That makes me feel so much better. “Vanity of vanity, saith the Preacher!” (Eccl 1:2).

How to End a Book

My sister went on a campaign to England while she was in college and brought be back a souvenir of her trip-- an original edition, first run copy of Mark Twain’s novel Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc. Twain published the novel under the pseudonym Sieur Louis de Conte, (SLC, as in Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Joan of Arc did have a page named Louis, and Twain published the novel in the first person as the memoirs of the page and secretary of the Maid of Orleans. It’s a good read, far different from any other of Twains writings. Don’t take my word for it; tread it. The two volume work is available for free on the web. I can’t imagine reading 750+ pages of html text, but it really is a good book.

Twain had a problem with the story… how was he to end it? Everyone knows how the Joan of Arc story ends. Even if you have never heard of Orleans or Patay, you know what happened to Joan of Arc. The rest of the book may read like a fairly take, but there can be no “happy ever after ending.” It kind of like the last Star Wars movie— you know how it will end and it won’t be pretty! Joan of Arc was burned at the stake as a witch by her English captors in an attempt to discredit her king and undermine the victories that eventually ended the Hundred Years War Years. Not a happy ending. But Twain comes up with a pretty good ending anyway, and the aged Conte reflecting back--

As the years and decades drifted by, and the spectacle of this marvelous child’s meteor-flight across the war-firmament of France and its extinction in the smoke clouds of the stake receded deeper and deeper into the past and grew ever more strange and wonderful and divine and pathetic, I came to recognize her at last for what she was—the most noble life ever born into this world save only One.

Not a bad ending, huh? Some people just know how to end a book.

I can’t help butreflect on the ending of our book. The ending of the gospel story was penned at the end of the first century by an aging apostle John "reflecting forward" through the strange visions and images of the Apocalypse. I don’t think John was predicting the precise details to be played out in an exact timetable right before the end of days. I rather see John encouraging persecuted Christians by pointing to the end of Roman power and by extension the never-ending battle between good and evil. I see the key point of Revelation as, “They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings—and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers.” (Rev 17:14). There are two sides—good and evil, the Lamb and His enemies. We cannot change nor even contribute to the ending of the story; that has already been written. What we can do is choose which side on which we will fight. We know which side will win, so which side will we choose?

How are we going to end our book?

Monday Musings

The Arkansas Razorbacks gave me a rare and unexpected surprise Saturday as they beat the second ranked Auburn Tigers 27-10. Actually, they ran all over Auburn—literally. Both McFadden and Jones rushed for more than 100 yards against what had been the third best scoring defense in the country. Hey, now all we have to do is beat all the teams we’re favored to beat… and then pull three more upsets, and we go to the BCS! I’m not ordering the tickets just just yet.

It was good to see David and Julie Black again yesterday. There were back in the area so that David could perform a wedding. I was glad to finally get to hear him preach (the other times he’s preached here was because I was out of town). I also thought Roger did a good job leading worship, especially since he did not that he was until the last minute. Preparation is overrated!

My major job this morning is restoring my Dell laptop to its original pristine operating condition. Somehow I picked up a virus, and I could not encourage it to leave. My virus program graciously pointed out to me that I had a virus; it even showed me where the virus was. It wouldn’t repair or quarantine the virus-- it just kept on pointing out that I had one. Not only was the virus there, but the virus program popped up ever so often to rub that it! That is like some people who are more than willing to point out all your flaws and mistakes, but they will not help you do anything about them. Hard drives are much easier to reformat than are friends and neighbors!

I Just Want My Child to be Happy

Marc Gellman is half (with Thomas Hartman) of the “God Squad," the priest and rabbi duo who appear on radio and television. They have written several books, and they serve as religion consultants for ABC’s Good Morning America. Rabbi Gellman also writes for Newsweek, and his most recent article is entitled, “Worry, Don’t Be Happy.”

He suggests that the parental mantra of “I just want my kids to be happy” is misdirected and wrong. Bad people can be very happy. He points to images of people dancing in celebration while the rubble of the Twin Towers smoldered. He says, “Because terrible people can be happy, saying that all you want is for your children to happy is either foolish or evil.” He has a point. Why wish for your kids something that bad people can experience?

The word "happiness" in its modern usuage is a synonym for pleasure. When we wish for our kids to be happy, what we may mean is that we want them to have a pleasant life and feel good about themselves. But while that may be happiness in our culture, that is certainly not what the Bible means by happiness. Gellman uses a culinary example—

The reason we have an obesity epidemic in this country is not because we eat too much and exercise too little. It’s because we eat what gives us pleasure.

What we ca;; happiness may really be only pleasure. We don’t eat what is good (for us) but what brings us the most pleasure. That gets us into trouble with our weight and health... as it does in other aspects of our lives. Real happiness is not found in pleasure but in goodness. That is the message of Jesus in the Beatitudes (Matt 5:3-12). We are happy or blessed (“beatitude” is from a Latin word for “happiness”) when we mourn, are meek, are poor in spirit, etc. Why? Because we are seeking God’s goodness. This is often not pleasant, but it is good!

Gellman ends his article with the story of David and Dana who came to him for premarital counseling.

I asked her what qualities David possessed that made her happy. She told me this story: On a blazing hot summer day they were approaching the Triborough Bridge when they saw a man selling newspapers. David opened the window, bought all the man's papers and said to him, “Go home. It's way to hot for you to be standing out here.”

Instead of saying, “I just want my children to be happy,” why not say, “All I wish is that on a hot day my children will buy all the papers.”

Prayer Is Like Sex...

I have been reading through Philip Yancey’s book Prayer: Does It Make any Difference? As always, Yancey has a unique way of approaching things that makes me think. The book explores the question set out in the subtitle, “Does It Make any Difference?” If God knows everything and is sovereign over everything, then how can anything we say in prayer make any difference? It is a fascinating study of some aspects of prayer.

One of the things I always like about Yancey is that he so seldom sounds like a preacher, which he is not. He is a journalist, and he often approaches topics from a totally different perspective… sometimes a surprising perspective. I was a bit surprised when he quoted a friend who compares prayer with sex.

I think prayer is analogous to sex. (Peoples’ ears always perk up when I say that.) Most people would complain about their sex lives; a few do really well. Sex and prayer are intimate and over-glamorized relationships. We are led to believe that we should be in the stratosphere in sex and in prayer. It sets up a false expectation. And breaks down intimacy.

Yancey goes on to observe how many “How-To” books on prayer can read very much like a sex manual. “What sounds so thrilling on paper bears little resemblance to how sex usually plays out between two vulnerable people who approach it with difference expectations.”

I never would have though of that analogy, but I think he’s onto something. Do we expect the “earth to move” everything we pray? When prayer doesn’t work (that is, we don’t get the answer we want), do we assume that we just aren’t doing it right? And so we try to find some different technique or procedure that will work better. Both sex and prayer benefit by giving some thought to improving technique; later in the same chapter, Yancey has a section entitled "Chosing a Prayer Routine." But by focusing mainly on techniques, do we in the process fail to enjoy what it is that God really wants to share with us in prayer—closeness and intimacy with those He loves so intently?

Analogies always fail at some point, but I think he makes an interesting point. I’ll stop writing now before I stumble over some double entendre that I never saw coming!

No One Is Safe

The recent school shootings have really been on my mind. In two of these, men armed to the teeth invaded a school bent on molesting and killing young school girls. My wife works as a special education teacher in a high school, my oldest daughter will soon begin working at the same school. I can’t help but think about the security measurers at Denbigh High. Last time I was there, I couldn’t tell there was any more security than there had been when I was there as an eighth-grader in 1969. But then, it is now much more of an inner city school, which makes it safer. Safer? There have been 29 school shootings in the last ten years, and only two deaths in urban schools (my quick count from a list at infoplease). Statistically, Tressa will be less at risk working at Denbigh than she was working with girls at a small, private middle school in Arkansas!

None of us are safe. If little girls in a rural one-room school in an area people where people are known for their non-violence can become the victims of a school massacre, then it can happen anywhere. No matter where we are or who we are, we are never safe from violence. The Amish made the decision long ago to cut themselves off from the world around them, but that world came crashing in on them a brutal and violent way. We build imaginary walls of protection around us, thinking that things like this only happen to other people. We push out of out minds the possibility that this violent world could ever come crashing down on us, but it is an illusion. The unthinkable is not impossible just because we refuse to think about it.

The only safety that is open to us as human beings is that found in God. David said, “For in the day of trouble, he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his tabernacle and set me high upon a rock” (Psalm 27:5). Paul said, “The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom” (2 Timothy 4:18). God does keep us safe. That does not mean that no violent or evil act can happen to us because we believe. It means that evil loose its power to really harm us. Right after John tells us that God keeps us safe and that the evil one cannot harm us, he adds—

19 We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one. 20 We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. (1 John 5:19-20)

Safety is only found in Christ. This safety does not sheild us from tragedy and death... but from the sting of death. Bad things will always happen to good people, but in Christ, those bad things becomes an entranceway into unimaginable joy and love. In his song “Til My Faith Becomes Sight,” Dennis Jernigan points us to this ultimate safety—

Tho they slay me, tho I fall; in darkness You are light, Jesus.
I will keep my eyes on You til my faith becomes sight.
O Precious holy Lord and King so full of love and grace.
Though I live or though I die I rest in Your embrace!

Ten Minute Rule

I got my hair cut last week. Actually, I got them all cut. Badly. It looked like I had joined the Marines when she got done, but that’s not the part that mad it a bad haircut. It “getting it cut” rather than what it looked like after it had been cut. The girl cutting my hair carried on a conversation with her boyfriend the whole time she was cutting. Not only that, but she usually STOPPED cutting while she was talking. Not only that, she gestured wildly while she talked, her scissors swooshing by my ear as she gesticulated (Has anyone ever died in a haircut accident?) Not only that, but she had a booming voice that was going off within inches of my ear. So I was practically bald and deaf by the time I got out of the chair. Did I complain? No, she was armed and I wasn’t. Besides, if I said something to her, she would probably retaliate by giving me a bad haircut. Wait a minute…

While she and her friend had their own private conversation while ignoring me and my hair, I had a thought. I wonder how many guests to our worship services feel left out and ignored while we carry on great conversations with out friends. I know that we (generally) swing around sharp objects and yell next to their ear, but I wonder how many leave feeling left out of our conversations. Maybe we need a ten minute moratorium on Sundays—no talking with anyone you know well for ten minutes after church is over. For ten minutes, you have to talk with guests or members with whom you generally don’t have conversation. Fellowship is by its very nature inclusive; it brings people closer to God and to His people. When our friendship becomes exclusive, either intentionally or accidentally, then it is not really fellowship at all.

Most churches that think they are warm and friendly think that because they are warm and friendly to one another. Guests often have a totally different perspective. Think about it.

Exceeding Abundantly

For a couple of reasons, the church here had fallen way behind in our budget. Those two reasons beings we spent too much and took in to little (financial things confuse me, but I think I have that right). The elders did a great job cutting out some things we could do without while not affecting ministry. And they also asked the church to give one-time special offering to make up the deficit. We have been averaging something less than $5000 a week. Yesterday, we received almost $15,000 as the church did (to borrow Paul's words) exceedingly abundantly more than I could have imagined. Wow! Praise be to God!

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Yesterday was also sad as we said good-bye to Greg and Vicki and Jessika Ericksen. They were a big part of our church family way before Greg became an elder. I heard a preacher say one time that when we die we can either fill a hole in the ground or leave a hole in people’s lives. OK, they aren’t dead just leaving for Kentucky. (I’ll resist the temptation to add “same thing” here). But the Ericksen’s will leave holes all over the place at Denbigh. With them leaving so soon after Randall and Bobby, it feels like half our workforce is gone!

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Tressa will be attending the Monday Night Football game between the Eagles and Packers in Philadelphia tonight. I just want everyone to know that I’m not jealous! I wouldn’t even want to drive up to Philly and attend the game. Even if someone asked. Which no one did. But I’m not jealous! Seriously, she better call be from the stadium.

God Moves in Mysterious Ways

In their book False Assumptions, Cloud and Townsend tell of a Christian client named Roy who struggled with depression to the point where he thought of suicide. His Christian friends tried to help him by saying pious things like, “Just trust in the Lord” and “Take some time off and rekindle your walk with God,” and “Just let God’s rod and staff be your comfort.” Roy did spend more time with the Bible and in prayer, but the depression and despair finally got the best of him. One night he sat in his house with a loaded revolver.

What saved Roy was a neighbor who came by to borrow a Phillips screwdriver. He sensed something was wrong, and started asking Roy some questions. And they started talking. Roy poured out his heart to this neighbor who simply listened, asked some questions, and offered no advice. He then invited Roy out to dinner, and they talked some more. When Roy got home, he unloaded his revolver and started down the road to recovery.

What Roy needed was not sanctimonious platitudes about God. He didn’t just need to read more and prayer harder. What Roy needed was to share his life with a friend. He needed people in his life. God was able to work through the listening ear of Roy’s neighbor in a way that was powerful. God moves in mysterious ways. Sometimes He works through our life circumstances. Sometimes He parts the Rea Sea. But often, He works through people and relationships.

If we are not working to deepen the relationships in our lives, then we may be limiting what God wants to do in us. Church is not a place to go, but a community of which to a part. One of the things we do at Denbigh to encourage relationship building is our Body Life small groups. And coincidently, our newest cycle of groups will begin Sunday. If you have not already taken the plunge to get involved in one of these, why not give it a try?

Does God Want You to Be Rich

I usually don’t borrow material for my blog from other people (I save that for sermons), but I just have to share from Mike Cope’s Septermber 21 blog comments. His comments are based on the cover story in Time entitled, “Does God Want You to Be Rich?” The article is an extremely fair and balanced discussion of the health and wealth movement in American Christianity that sees prosperity ("health and wealth") as a goal and motivation of the Christian faith. Mike begins his article like this--

The basic movement of the gospel is clear (Phil. 2:5ff): self-denial and self-sacrifice rather than self-fulfillment. We follow one who had no place to lay his head, who warned us that life does not consist in the abundance of things, who told a wealthy man to sell all and give to the poor, who insisted that we cannot have two masters (God and $$). Followers of Christ in other cultures have often lost all as a result of their faithfulness to him.

But walk into Christian bookstores and there is a different gospel. The gospel of Joel Osteen.

And does it sell! Your Best Life Now has sold over 4 million copies. It finds a welcome audience in the consumerism of America. The authors of the article write:

“What remains is a materialism framed in a kind of Tony Robbins positivism. No one exemplifies this better than Osteen, who ran his father’s television-production department until John died in 1999. ‘Joel has learned from his dad, but he has toned it back and tapped into basic, everday folks’ ways of talking,’ says Ben Phillips, a theology professor at the Soutwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. That language is reflected in Your Best Life Now, an extraordinarily accessible exhortation to this-world empowerment through God. ‘To live your best life now,’ it opens, to see ‘your business taking off. See your marriage restored. See your family prospering. See your dreams come to pass . . .’ you must ’start looking through the eyes of faith.’ Jesus is front and center but not his Crucifixion, Resurrection or Atonement.”

You really need to read Mike’s blog and the article in Time. The question "Does God Want You to Be Rich" is a loaded question, but an important one. What does God want for us and our money?

Are You Legitimate?

I don’t know whether anyone noticed, but things sure were much brighter on Sunday. No, I wasn’t any brighter, but our PowerPoint slides sure were. Projector bulbs evidently aren’t like the 100 watt incandescent bolbs that light our homes. When a bulb at home goes bad, it just pops and dies and quick death. Projector bulbs (at least ours) died a gradual, linfgering death as they get dimmer and dimmer over time.

Our projector finally got so dim that even I noticed it, so I ordered a new replacement bulb over the internet from Bulb and Battery Center in Mableton, GA. They had our particular battery as their "featured special" (if you call a $350 bulb "special"). You never really know how legitimate a place is after they turn up on Google, but I ordered the bulb and put it on the credit card and forgot about it. When it came in and I unboxed it, I left the invoice on Cathy’s desk and forgot about that too. Steve, being his usual efficient treasurer self, found the invoice, thought it was a bill and paid it. So we bought the same $350 bulb twice (which makes it less of a deal). Before Cathy called to try to straighten out the problem, I said jokingly, “I guess we’ll find out how legitimate this place is, huh?” Well, she never made the call. That day we received our check back in the mail, already voided out. I now have the business card for Bulb and Battery Center in my desk drawer; we’ll order from them again. Treat people right and they know that you are legitmate.

So, are we legitimate? Do we live our daily lives in such a way that we legitimize our faith? Do people at work, at school, and in our neighborhoods take God seriously because of the way they see us living? Paul says, “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received” (Eph 4:1). He tells the Thessalonians, “Live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory” (1 Thess 2:12). He tells us to live in such a way we “will make the teaching about God our Savior attractive” (Titus 2:10). What do people see in us? Do we treat others with such dignity, sincerity and courtesy that they respect our faith and our God? Do we legitimize what we claim about faith by the way we live? If you treat people right, then they will know that you are legitimate.

A Day of Praise

Well, I am absolutely exhausted. I’m usually pretty tired on Monday mornings. Not only is the designation of Sunday as “Christian Sabbath” theologically dubious, it is also pragmatically incorrect-- Sunday often anything but restful! But yesterday was a particularly exhausting day of praise. I preached on David rejoicing, so we sang about half of the up-tempo praise songs that we know to emphasize that theme. And then we sang the other half (one after the other) during our special “Evening of Praise” last night. In case you weren't keeping score, we sang 12 songs yesterday morning and 16 last night! I don’t know how the praise team held up so well, but I was completely sung out! The words of an old song came to mind, “I’m tired of words and I’m too hoarse to shout.” (That’s probably the only time I’ll quote Meat Loaf in reference to worship!)

Yesterday was a wonderful day of praise; I truly felt God’s presence in our worship. Now understand that is a statement about me, not about God. Our God is not a genie in a bottle that we can summon to our side if we do worship just right. God is just as much present among us when our singing drags, the sermon is a bit stale and our prayers seem to go no higher than the ceiling. But sometimes the act of worship touches us in such a special way so that we become more aware of His presence. Moses asked Israel, “What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?” (Deut 4:7). God was near to His people, but they needed to be reminded of that.

Worship should always reminds us of the presence of God. The words of our songs and prayers, the teaching of scripture, the symbolism of communion all point us to God being near. But sometimes any of that or all of that touches our emotions in such a way that we feel His presence more powerfully. Indeed, we serve a God who is so near to us. I am so grateful that my church and worship can touch me in ways that allows me to feel and experience that nearness so powerfully.

Farewell, Old Friend

I am in mourning this morning, and it’s really hard to type while wearing a black armband! My constant companion for the last year and a half has left me and will not return. Oh, don’t waste too much sympathy on me—someone STOLE my iPod from my car. They took it out of my car parked while it was parked right in front of the church building beside Roger’s car. I usually take it inside with me, but I intentionally left it this time on the charger in the car. (They didn;t take the charger). What I did not intentionally do was to (evidently) leave the car unlocked! So today, I am tuneless. I’m always clueless; what idiot forgets to lock his car? Clueless is OK, but tuneless is tough.

What hurts the worst is not the monetary loss ($250) or the sense of violation or the fact that I was about 3/4 the way through the new Tess Gerritsen audiobook. No, what really hurts the most is that Lynn had just said not long ago, “Someone’s going to steal that thing!” Hey, the KEY was in the car; why didn’t they take the whole car and leave me the iPod? Answer: They WANTED the iPod!

My first reaction when I realized it had actually been taken was, “Hope they choke on it!” Aside from this being logistically unlikely, that was not a very good line of thought or attitude. So I changed both. My new attitude and line of thinking is this— my iPod is filled with Christian music (Casting Crowns, Mercy Me, Hallal, Zoe, and three or four WOW and WOW worship albums) and even has a copy of the audiobook Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice. Maybe they will listen to what is on the iPod before they sell or hock it and learn something. Maybe they needed my iPod more than I needed it? I hope they enjoy it… I really do.

Just in case you are wondering, my lunch hour today will be spent at Best Buy looking at iPods Maybe I can’t do too much about being clueless, but I won’t be tuneless for long!

Church, Change and Controversy

Edward Fudge is one of my favorite writers. He is a practicing attorney in Houston, an elder in the church, and has preached and written for many years. He is best known for his GracEmail that he sends out several times a week. The latest one is the first in a series that looks at changes in churches of Christ.

When my generation was growing up in the 1940's, 50's and 60's, we knew exactly what to expect when we went to church. My town had perhaps a dozen expressions of the Church universal, each carrying forward its own traditions of thinking, speaking and doing. And if people from our town visited a church of their own variety somewhere else, they could anticipate in advance what they would find when they arrived. My group thought it was the only one that did things right, but most other Christian groups probably thought at some level that their ways were also best.

Today, to put it mildly, things are different. It is not uncommon now to see as many independent or nondenominational churches as churches with the old brand names. Also common are what I jokingly call "stealth churches" -- congregations affiliated with traditional denominations or fellowships which omit that association from their name. Within five miles of my house are
"stealth churches" that are really Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist and Lutheran. Other churches use a location or community name, disclosing an affiliation in smaller print on a second line. It is not uncommon to hear people say, in all varieties of churches, "I think of myself as a Christian who happens to attend such-and-such church."

Things really get exciting when one moves about. Within my own tradition (non-instrumental Churches of Christ), one finds most churches singing without accompaniment but some that use instruments now and then. Most of our congregations still limit public functions (leading singing, praying, serving Communion, ushering, passing offering baskets) to the males but a growing number of churches make no distinction between men and women. Some use a song leader;
others feature a praise team. Some celebrate Christmas and Easter while many others do not. Many have fellowship halls, family centers or multipurpose facilities but a minority avoids them all. The issues vary with other denominations but the diversity is clearly present in most Christian groups.

One finds many different attitudes toward change. Any church usually contains an element of people who not only prefer the familiar old ways but believe that anything else is wrong. Another group seems to think that anything is better than what has always been. A larger group -- who perhaps did not grow up within the particular Christian tradition -- doesn't care either way and cannot quite understand what the fuss is all about. Meanwhile those charged with responsibility for leading the church try to balance old and new, to do the most good and the least harm, and to maintain unity while promoting progress.

If you would like to read the rest of the series, you can find it at his web site. Edward is one of those guys who began his spiritual journey with a very narrow spectrum of our very narrow fellowship. His walk with God has brought him among believers of all stripes, and his has been one of the clearest, gentlest and most relentless voices calling us to a wider fellowship within the kingdom of God.

The Power of Prayer

I remember reading of two different scientific studies on prayer, both of which were widely reported in the secular press. Both centered on the effectiveness of intercessory prayer where groups of people prayed for those who were sick. Some knew they were being prayed for and some did not. The result of the two studies was that prayer works… and that prayer doesn’t work. Take your pick.

Well, I doubt that there will ever be an empirical, scientific study that demonstrates the power of prayer. Prayer is just not so tidy and neat that we can demonstrate its power with surveys or point to it at the bottom of a test tube. Yes, we can share stories in which prayer seemed to be so powerful. But face it, even those stories don’t really “prove” prayer, do they. People do get well on their own, right? And we can all also tells stories in which we prayed for a healing that definitely did not take place.

Should it surprise us that scientific studies have difficulty with prayer? The scientific method is limited to the five senses; prayer inhabits the larger world of faith and God. James assures that the power of prayer is to be found beyond the world of the empirical. After telling us to pray to God when we lack wisdom and assuring us that God answers prayer, James says, “But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt.” Petterson’s The Message puts James 1:5-8 like this—

Ask boldly, believingly, without a second thought. People who “worry their prayers” are like wind-whipped waves. Don’t think you’re going to get anything from the Master that way, adrift at sea, keeping all your options open.

The power of prayer is faith. There will be times when we will prayers for things that we will not receive—sicknesses that are not healed, marriages that are not saved, jobs that are not found, babies that are not conceived, churches that are not renewed. Our job is not to understand unanswered prayer; our job is to “have faith and do not doubt” (Matt 21:21). Ultimately God’s promise in prayer is to give you “what you need” (Matt 6:8). The power of prayer is the faith that assures us that He knows that need better than do we.

Good to Be Home

It’s good to be home after a week of wandering in the wilderness (driving to and from Arkansas). It was great spending time with my sister Sonya and her family in Nashville (Darcy is still a hoot!) and with my parents in Little Rock (both of them are doing well). And of course, the point of the trip was to pack up Tressa and move her home after her 6 year sojourn in Searcy (4 in school and 2 working). Her friend Courtney and her children rode back with us, and Tressa will take them on to Philadelphia (or actually New Jersey) where they move into their new place this week. (Then Tressa will spend every waking hour finding a job... so if anyone has any leads in the education filed, pass them on). And I also got to spend a little time with Angelynn too... though college girls have little time for their Dads... though she did squeeze in enough time for me to take her to Wal-Mart! It was actually a fun visit… except for all the driving. I was a little concerned that I was going to be stopped by the police on the way home because the car was so overloaded (think “Beverly Hillbillies” without Granny on top in her rocking chair), but we made it.

It was also good to spend time with Mark Pugh yesterday. Mark was in the area attending his 36th high school reunion at Denbigh High School. Mark is a good friend who preaches in Corpus Christi, Texas, and we enjoy getting together at Pepperdine every year for pie and coffee. Mark is a great preacher, and he graciously volunteered to preach in my absence. And it was even better that I came back a day early and was here top hear him and eat lunch with him. The only problem was that he insisted on showing the picture at right, a 1967 shot from dear old Camp Idlewild. From left to right (back row), Sonny Respess (Clarita Gay’s brother), Greg Hammer, (front row), Tommy Dossett, Bobby Dossett, The Unknown Camper (can anyone help identify him?), me (the one with the gangsta sneer going on) and Robert Pugh (Mark’s middle brother, now deceased). We are a bunch of cool dudes, aren’t we?

My original plan was to stay over thr weekend in Nashville with my sister and go to church with her at Otter Creek (I’ve not yet see their new building), but we decided to come home. When you get right down to it, there is no place that I would rather worship than right here with my Denbigh family. And especially throw in some good preaching, and why would I want to go anywhere else? It’s good to be home.

Tariq the Hafiz

Tariq Khan is in many ways a typical New York City twelve year old. He loves to play Grand Theft Auto on his his Playstation 2. He loves to listen to the hip-hop music of Fat Joe, T.I. and 50 Cent. But what is not typical is that he also just became a hafiz in the Islam religion by memorizing the entire Koran in its Arabic. He doesn’t understand the Koran very well, but he can recite it from cover to cover. He accomplished that feat in less than two years by working 40 hours a week. According to Islamic tradtion, this gives him the priviledge of taking ten people from his family to heaven with him—

Whoever reads the Qur’an and memorizes it, while he regards what it makes lawful as lawful and unlawful as forbidden [practices what it says], Allah will admit him into Jannah [heaven] and will accept his intercession on behalf of ten such persons of his family who were doomed to the fire of Jahannum [hell].

So you get a free ticket to heaven (and out of hell) because your kid memorizes the Koran? I guess that encourages parents to stand over the little tykes and “encourage” them to stick to their studies! We may want to dismiss such a belief as ridiculous, and rightly so. But Muslims believe that the Koran is the word of God and that God's word is something good to know. So they read and even memorize it. Does that really sound so silly?

How about us? Do we believe the Bible is God’s inspired word? How do we show that? Do we read it to find what it is that God wants us to know? Do we teach our kids the Bible and give them a thirst for its truth? Is it possible that Muslims may live more consistently with what they believe about their book than many Christians live consistently with what we say we believe about ours? This is something we may need to think about.

Blowin' in the Wind

We were all ready for Sunday morning to be “Denbigh unplugged.” Tropical Storm Ernesto blew through North Carolina and Virginia, dumping 9 inches of rain on our area and rearranging power lines to the point that we were in the dark from sometime early Friday morning until late Saturday night. So for basically two days we were without power (at home and church building), and those were the two days leading up to Sunday.

Now I’m not the most organized guy in the world, but I do like a little planning and preparation when it comes to Sunday morning. Unfortunately the sermon I finished writing late Thursday afternoon was still in my inoperable computer in my dark office. So Saturday I threw something together, had Roger pick some other songs (the old ones went with the sermon I couldn’t get to), and we prepared to do church in the dark with Coleman lanterns crammed in the family room. (Neither our auditorium not our family room have any windows, so “in the dark” is no exaggeration). We pulled the pin on Sunday School and got ready to do church like we did when without power for 8-9 days during Hurricane Isabel. But the power came on around 10:00 p.m. on Saturday night. Roger and I came in early enough on Sunday mroning (after saying that we wouldn’t) to have time to throw together a bulletin and PowerPoint slides for church. Worship probably came across much as usual... except the praise team got the week off and I probably used Greek works like “ahhh” and “ummm…” a whole lot more thn usual as I tried to think of something to say next.

There are a lot of things that we connect to church that seem like part of church. The list of these things could go on forever—church buildings, Sunday school, order of worship, four-part harmony, fellowship dinners, adult Bible classes, committees, Sunday night and mid-week services, full-time paid staff, pitch-pipes, communion trays, invitation songs, announcements, and PowerPoint slides (ask angelynn how often she remembers doing church without “singing off the wall”). What if you went to church where they had NONE of those things? Would you even feel like you had been to church?

Church is not about HOW we do things when we are together. Church is about worshipping and serving God, focusing on what God did through Jesus at the cross, and what God does in us through the Spirit that calls us to holiness and service. And it is about how we love and support one another as we focus on all those things together. The way that we do those things matters a lot more to us than they do to God. Sometimes maybe we need something to blow some of those tools-traditions-techniques around a bit so that we can more clearly focus on the heart of the matter.

End of Summer

We spent Labor Day at two Labor Day cookouts. The lunch cookout was at Randy and Betty Tanner’s house (or was it at Nathan and Dawn’s). Wherever it was, it was good! The kids were in the pool when we got there and the parents had just dragged them out as we left; I don’t even think they got out to eat. The adults (I use the term loosely) played a game of full-contact “Spoons.” If you have never played spoons, it is a card game where you pass around cards one at a time looking for four of a kind. When you get four of a kind, you get to grab a spoon… and everyone else grabs a spoon too. Because there is one less spoon than players it is a mad grab and someone gets left withouy a spoon. There is this scene at the beginning of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” where there is going to be a knife fight and Butch says, “We have to get the rules straight” and the reply is “There aren’t no rules in a knife fight!” Well, he was taking about our Spoons game! We had elders diving across tables and people wrestling over spoons. It was great! I have the bruises to prove it!

Then we went to our supper cookout at Bob and Kate Looney’s house. This was more of a young adult gathering (except for the preachers)… so everyone here was much better behaved. The topic of conversation revolved around dachshunds— there were 4 of them at the party, though at times it seemed more like 40 running around! I just think those little wiener dogs are so cute, don’t you? The highlight of the party was when everyone pointed at Kate and were just sure that they saw the baby move through her shirt; Kate missed it, but everyone else saw it. I didn't— I was watching the game on ESPN on the big screen TV in High Def. There was also the pool table, a game of dominoes... at least, I was told that there was! I was watching the game on ESPN on the big screen TV in High Def!

I think it is important for a church family to really enjoy being with one another. Yesterday reminded me that we have a great group of people that do just that. The Westminster Shorter Catechism suggests that “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.” He wants us to enjoy one another as well.

BTW, Tank Daniels made the Philadephia Eages practice squad. That means that he is on the team but will be inactive for games right now. I think that will change. The Eagles are carrying only six active linebackers on their main squad, so I think it is only a matter of time before they activate Tank. Anyway, congratulations, Tank!

Hurricane Memories

I’m writing today’s blog entry from my laptop in my den. Tropical Storm Ernesto blew through last night, and the electricity is off at the church building. The power also went out here at the house for a couple of hours; it came on long enough for us to make coffee (God is good), but it is off again and who knows when it will come back. I know the power is also off at Ken and Alicia Moore’s house… Ken called looking for someone with a working internet connection. I think withdrawal was beginning to set in. Somehow I don't think my little laptop and dialup was what he was looking for!

Sitting in a darkened house with the wind blowing and sheets of rain falling outside bring back memories of Hurricane Isabel. This little storm is nowhere near the same as Isabel, but the experience was enough to serve as a reminder. Most of us went for a week and a half without power, lost (or had to eat in a hurry) all our frozen food, had to wait in huge lines for gas, and had to put up with a great deal of inconvenience. Of course, we didn’t have long to tell our Isabel stories; Katrina and the suffering that went with her battered the Gulf Coast and made what we went through seem like a party.

In fact, in some ways it was a party. I have good memories of Isabel. Having church in the dark using handwritten sermon notes and no PowerPoint. Cooking everything from coffee to frozen casseroles on the gas grill. Reading by Coleman lantern light. And working hard together as a church to process and give away three tractor-trailer trucks worth of food and supplies to people in out area as we worked with Church of Christ Disaster Relief. So our little storm outside today brings back some good memories.

It also is a reminder of the continued suffering brought about by Katrina and two other hurricanes that hit the Gulf Coast almost exactly one year ago. Let’s continue to pray for those whose lives still aren’t the same today.

On Cell Phones and Reader's Digest

Angelynn’s cell phone recently was damaged to the point it doesn’t work. Make a note-- If you drop a cell phone into your fast food bag the Coke in the bag spills, that’s not good for the cell phone! Angelynn’s is the only cell phone on which we have (or need) insurance, so we get to see if Alltel will live up to their bargain. Someone told Angelynn that if the cell phone is damaged due to your own negligence (like baptizing it in Coke), then the insurance won’t cover it. So she had to decide whether to tell the truth about its demise… or simply say that she lost it. I am proud that she went with the truth... and is it turns out, Alltel is going to come through (as sone as Dad coughs up the $50 co-pay). Of course Angelynn, I think, had already figured out that there is a second Alltel store in town and it is pretty easy to loose a non-working cell phone!

Two questions? First, you do think that it would be a great idea for Dad to get the new cell phone and give Angelynn the old, beat-up one, right?

Second, just how honest are we? I mean, honestly now? Sure personal integrity and honesty are high on our list of desirable qualities, but are we truly honest when life gets difficult. Like when you might have to face life without a cell phone! (Shriek! Gasp!). If you would like to find out how honest you are, the nice people at Reader’s Digest have an online honesty test. I would think that Reader’s Digest readers are a basically honest group of folks. Here is their survey (I’ve shortened some of the questions a bit) and the percentage of peole who said “Yes.” The questions is, “Have you ever…”

1. Cheated on a test in school? 48%
2. Misstated facts on a resumé/job application? 17%
3. Called in sick at work when not ill? 55%
4. Taken office supplies from work for personal use? 62%
5. Shifted blame to a co-worker for a mistake you made? 11%
6. Taken something valuable from work for personal use? 13%
7. Sneaked into a movie or concert without paying? 13%
8. Munched on something in a store and not paid for it? 22%
9. Undercharged or received too much change and not told? 51%
10. Found something of value and not turned it in? 20%
11. Taken towels from a hotel or silverware from restaurant? 23%
12. Downloaded music from an Internet site and not paid? 46%
13. Switched price tags to get a lower price for something? 12%
14. Not declared the full value of purchases made abroad? 45%
15. Damaged an unoccupied car and not left a note? 26%
16. Cheated on your tax return? 18%
17. Lied about one’s appearance to avoid hurting feelings? 71%
18. Parked in a handicapped space you weren’t entitled to? 22%
19. Lied to your spouse about the cost of a recent purchase? 22%
20. Driven 15 mph hour over the limit or through a red light 46%
21. Lied to your spouse about relationship with another person? 45%

How would you do on such a survey? You know what the number one excuse for people who admit to engaging in all of the above behaviors? Everyone else is doing it!

Light the Night

I was in CompUSA yesterday buying memory for the church office’s computers, bringing Cathy’s machine up from 256 to 512 meg. (That is “shared” memory; that means some is sliced off the top for use as video RAM. I’m surprised XP even ran with that little memory). We can now all expect Cathy to get twice as much work done since her computer should be running now twice as fast.

As I was buying the memory, the guy at the upgrade desk asked me if I wanted to donate a dollar to the “Light the Night Campaign,” an effort to raise money to fight leukemia and lymphoma. I said “sure,” and the man practically lit up. Evidently he had been turned down several times in a row, and so he vented his frustration in thanking me for my “generosity.” He said, “I can’t believe how many people come in here and spend hundreds of dollars on themselves to upgrade on their computer but won’t give a dollar to help fight a deadly disease. A dollar! People are so selfish. It’s just a dollar!” I was glad that I had decided to spring for the dollar.

But the man is right, isn’t he? We can be so selfish. We can clearly see what we “need” to get, and be blind to the needs of others. We can generate what amounts to moral outrage if we find we have been overcharged on a bill or not given credit for a discount for which we qualify. But we have a great deal of difficulty getting too upset over the suffering and injustice suffered others. One of the recurring themes in the prophets was God’s condemnation on a nation that denied justice to the poor (see Isaiah 10:12, Amos 5:12). How many times have I been so focused on me that I didn’t see opportunities to help others? I’m glad I coughed up the $1 last night, but how many other times have I been too selfish to notice need?

But in thinking about what guy behind the counter at CompUSA said, it dawned on me what he didn’t say. He didn’t say anything at all about CompUSA matching donations or even making donations. There is only one mention of the program on their web site, and it is not mentioned on their main page. It says “CompUSA customers can support the Society's mission by contributing a $1 donation to the Society.” And individual stores are organizing tam to walk in the fundraiser. But isn’t CompUSA itself participating in the event? After all, “It’s just a dollar!”

Here is another application, boys and girls. It is always easier to think of good things that others should do (like CompUSA matching funds) rather than get involved doing good yourself. Right?

Update From Blogville

It’s almost time to go home, and I forgot to write something today. So how about a quick update on two past blogs? Remember Tressa and Angelynn’s friend Tank Daniels who was trying to make the Philadelphia Eagles? (see My Wife and Football, Tuesday August 8 ) Tank’s wife Courtney is a member of a very exclusive club—people who have replied to my blog!) Well, anyway Tank is still playing with the Eagles and still doing well. He survived a couple of big cuts and is fighting hard to make the team. We saw him get quarterback sack and force a fumble Friday night at the Kings after small group. And thanks to the magic of TiVo, we saw it over and over again!

I just remembered that I had said that I’m was going to buy Tank's Starter Jersey if he made the Eagles. Well, I just checked NFL.com to check on that and wow!!! This could get really expensive! Maybe I can get Tank to change his last name to "Owens." They have those really CHEAP! Maybe I can borrow money from Art Edlow who is a huge Eagles fan; Coutney told him they would get him tickets! Either way, go Tank!

Also an update on Maggie (see What Do We Expect from August 2). Maggie had a really good successful last night. She got to go crazy on our walk chasing another cicada up and down the street… with me trotting behind laughing at her (while the neighbors no doubt were laughing at me). I was surprised when she gave up the chase so easily and trotted back home. It made sense when she spit out the cicada that she had been holding in her mouth on the kitchen floor and went to chasing it around the kitchen! Fortunately, Lynn was upstairs and missed all that excitement.

OK, that’s all for today.

Good Lesson from a Bad King

My Bible class last Wednesday night was on King Manasseh. It wasn’t supposed to be (only) on Manasseh, but we didn’t get as far as I planned. But then, we never get as far as I plan. (I had this great fear when I started preaching of getting half-way through a class and running out of material, and I still generally prepare too much material). But Manasseh was an interesting fellow. He ruled longer than any other king of Israel or Judah, and he was sandwiched between the two greatest kings of Judah— he was the son of Hezekiah and the grandfather of Josiah.

Despite this pedigree, he was also the most wicked king of Judah, undoing all the reforms of Hezekiah and going even further in introducing pagan evil into Judah than Ahab and Jezebel had done in Israel (see 2 Kings 21:2-9). There is some question as to whether the worship of Molech that he re-introduced included child sacrifice. The NIV rendering of “he sacrificed his own son in the fire” is more literally “he passed his son through the fire” which may indicate a pagan fire dedication rather than burnt offering. Whatever it was, Manasseh was one bad dude who led his people so far from God that not even Josiah would be able to stem the slide into oblivion.

It is the depravity of King Manasseh makes the little story that the Chronicler throws into the mix seem a bit out of bounds. After Manasseh was humiliated and taken prisoner by the Assyrians, “he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers (2 Chron 33:12). And God restored him and the Chronicler says “Then Manasseh knew that the LORD is God.” And Manasseh even evidently started some of the reforms that Josiah would complete (2 Chron 33:15-16). Was Manasseh’s conversion what led the young Josiah to also seek after God with all of his heart?

No one is beyond redemption. No one is so evil that they cannot seek God; no one is so depraved that God will refuse to forgive them once they do repent. As Manasseh sat alone in his prison cell and calling on God and promising the moon if God would save him, most of us would likely doubt his sincerity. We may dismiss his repentance as “You are just sorry you got caught!” But God knows genuine repentance, and He always honors it. No one is beyond God’s mercy. That is the good news part of the gospel!

Two Big Changes

There are two big changes around the Tucker house. First, today was the official end of summer as Lynn went back to her job at Denbigh High school. There was a moratorium on me mentioning anything about this impending certainty, but ignoring it didn’t help-- Lynn is back to school. (The good news is that the students won’t be there for another week and a half.) But Lynn going back to work is not the big change.

No, the big change is the boomerang. Tressa will be moving back home in early September. The plan is for me to drive to Arkansas on September 12, help her pack up, spend some time with my parents and sister, and be back by September 18. Of course, Tressa has a couple of job irons in the fire, and this timetable will be accelerated if one of those jobs works out sooner. She is looking for a teaching job in high school or middle school Social Studies. So if there are any school principals out there in blogville...

How do I feel about Tressa coming back home to live? Well, Lynn and I thoroughly enjoyed our empty nest. (We didn’t exactly throw a part when Angelynn joined her sister at college. Or did we?). But at the same time, we are also thoroughly excited about Tressa moving back home too. We were happy when she went off to school; we’ll enjoy her for as long as she’s back home. And when she gets her career going, moves out on her own, makes her first million and buys her Dad a new truck to make up for the one she blew up, we’ll be OK with that too!.

Circumstances change. Even in the relationships that we treasurer the most, the circumstances always change. The secret to a happy life is being happy right now, and not looking to the future waiting for the circumstances to change. Paul said, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation.” But in the very next verse he said, “I can do everything through him who gives me strength.” (Phil 4:12-13). That secret of contentment comes only when we rely on God’s strength.

Fiesta!

Another year’s VBS has wrapped. This was an interesting year for several reasons. Some of the folks who would normally work with VBS weren’t available this year, so we had to break in some newbies this year. Also we decided to have VBS early in the summer so it would not compete with our big Mexico Mission trip. For a variety of reasons, we moved it back to the middle of August, so once again VBS and our Mexico trip were practically back to back. But this year it made sense, at least— the VBS theme was Fiesta!

We had about 50 kids (ages 2- 5th grade) each night, most coming from our community, and it seemed that the largest attendance was on Friday night (unusual). Our kids had a blast, and it was good that they could share their fun with friends and neighbors. We had a ton of people working, and it seemed like everything went very smoothly. A month ago we were talking about calling the whole thing off; by Friday, we were talking about next year!

My highlight was on Tuesday when I helped Lynn teach the Bible adventure. The Bible lesson was actually a new mini-play each night. Though she did the lion's share of the teaching (and memorizing lines), she did have helpes each night. So Tuesday night I got to play Lazarus (Jesus is our life, Viva!) I knew they had Bible costumes here at the building, so I didn’t think much about it. Right before we went on, Lynn told me that I shouldn’t wear my tennis shoes. Well, I don’t own sandals and I wasn’t going to borrow any. I insisted that the kids weren’t going to notice. But right in the middle of our first session, one of the little darlings yelled out, “Hey, if he is Lazarus, why is he wearing tennis shoes?” I wonder if Sir Lawrence Oliver ever had that problem!

Thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make VBS a success. We are looking forward to next year. I think we are also thankful that it is next year and not next month!

If We Are the Body

If there has ever been a better album than Casting Crowns self-titled debut album, I don’t know what it would be. Some of my favorite songs ever are on that album. And I’ve been playing it a lot this week because I’m using one of the songs in my sermon Sunday (reading the lyrics, not singing it!). One of the songs on the album gently chastises the church for accepting an identity that is less than that of the body of Christ. The song is entitled “If We Are the Body.”

It's crowded in worship todayAs she slips in
Trying to fade into the faces
The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know

CHORUS
But if we are the Body-- Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing-- Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body-- Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way. There is a way.

A traveler is far away from home He sheds his coat
And quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances tells him that his chances
Are better out on the road

A bridge that is sung before repeating the chorus says, “Jesus paid much too high a price, for us to pick and choose who should come, and we are the Body of Christ.” Has the church been much too apt to “pick and choose who should come?” Are we more about “me and my friends” than we are reaching out and including others? The song hits the nail on the head, doesn’t it? If we are the body, then why don’t we look more like Jesus? Why aren't our arms reaching, hands healing and words teaching?

Cold Case... Closed?

It would appear that the nation’s most famous "cold case" is finally on the way to being solved. John Mark Karr, a 41 year old school teacher, was arrested yesterday in Thailand and confessed to the 1996 murder of JonBenet Ramsey, one of the most high profile cases in memory. He has confessed to the crime, saying that he killed the girl "accidently" during a kidnap attempt.

So maybe the “umbrella of suspicion” that had been over JonBenet’s parents, John and Patsy Ramsey, has finally now been lifted. They had always said that they would be proven innocent and that their daughter's killer would be caught. Sadly, Patsy Ramsey did not live to see it; she died earlier this year from ovarian cancer. William Gladstone once said, “Justice delayed is justice denied.” But sometimes justice delayed is the only justice there is.

Surely Jezebel thought that justice delayed meant that justice was denied... and that she had gotten away with murder. Queen Jezebel orchestrated the murder of the righteous Naboth so that Ahab could have a new garden. Elijah confronted the two and pronounced God's judgment on the wicked Ahab and Jezebel (see 1 Kings 21). But nothing happened. Well, Ahab was killed in battle and the dogs licked up his blood—that is something. But Jezebel remained alive as the power behind the throne for two other kings for twenty years. What did elijah know? As it turns out, plenty. Justice had been delayed… not denied. 2 Kings 9 tells of the rise of King Jehu and the ignoble demise of Jezebel in a most un-queenly way. No one was sorry to see her go, especially not the dogs who had dinner on her (2 King 9:35-36). Justice had been served.

God is in control. Even during times when things look completely out of control, God reigns. We struggle with his methods and timetable, but we can have faith that God is in control. Larry King interviewed the Ramsey’s along with their chief accuser, Boulder police detective Steve Thomas in 2000, when most people still saw the Ramsey's as the chief suspects. At one point in the interview, Patsy says this—

God knows who killed JonBenet Ramsey. Steve Thomas does not know, Patsy Ramsey does not know, and John Ramsey does not know. God knows, and the truth is going to prevail.

And God does know. Now maybe we will know as well. The TV show Cold Case always ends with the poignant and surreal scene of the victim watching as the killer is carried away in slow motion with some haunting tune playing in the background. I can imagine that scene being played out for JonBenet, except this time she’s there in the arms of her mother. Maybe we will see justice done. But then, justice was always going to be done-- it had been in higher court all along.

The Big Stick

We spent a very long day Saturday taking a little cruise-- and I’m not talking about tooling around the harbor on some dinky old party boat. we were able to go on the Friends and Family Day cruise aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier. Randy and Better Tanner invited us and served as our hosts and tour guide. God blessed us with perfect weather, and the Navy treated us to a great show.

The church at Denbigh has always had a high Navy presence, but this is the first time in our 26 years here that I’ve been on board a ship. And in case you haven’t seen one of these things up close, it is REALLY big! And I think we walked up and down and around most of it! Randy spent two tours aboard the Teddy Roosevelt and just got off her sister ship the Carl Vincent. So he knew the boat really well… and made sure we saw just about every square inch of it (except the parts where nice young men with guns suggested that we not go). By the way, trying to keep up with Randy up stairs and down passageways is a great way to get your exercise… or have a heart attack!

The highlight of the day was an air show. We saw a F18-Hornet land (after several touch-and-goes) and take off. Several did bombing runs and a mock dog fight. And we heard one of the last sonic booms that will ever be made by a F14-Tomcat. The Tomcats are being retired to the desert; this last cruise by the Roosevelt was their last hurrah. If you want to see a Tomcat from now on, you’ll have to rent Top Gun.

I appreciate Randy and Betty taking us on the cruise—I learned a lot. I have always had a great deal of respect for the men and women who serve and defend our country in our armed forces. But I’m sure that I have taken them for granted as well. It was good to get this up-close-and-real reminder of some of what goes into defending our freedom.

This Is For All the Lonely People

An article on CNN.com suggests that there is an epidemic sweeping our country. This ailment affects people in all walks of live and social strata from “nursing homes and vibrant college dorms, in crowded cities and spread-out suburbs.” In often goes by such designations as social isolation or disconnectedness. This epidemic is that of loneliness. That is not to say that loneliness is a new problem, but it is a rising problem given the increase in one-person households and the shrinkage of our circle of intimate friends.

We may think that we are connected as never before— we have cell phones, e-mail, instant messaging, text messaging, and blogs (read through all the replies to my blog recently and you see why I’m writing about loneliness). Even though we have the technology of connectedness in place, we are more isolated and separated than we have ever been.

The article suggests several reasons for this. Time: we are busier and more programmed than ever before, and intimacy and friendship take time. Mid-Life Singles: Divorce has created more single middle-aged people than we’ve ever seen before. Shrinking Circles: One study shows that the average American today has 2 people with whom they can confide on important matters; in 1985, that number was 3. And 25% of Americans have no one with whom they can confide. This all makes me think of the old song by the group America--

This is for all the lonely people,
Thinking that life has passed them by
Don't give up until you drink from the silver cup
And ride that highway in the sky

God designed church to be a one-another fellowship in which we share the ups and downs of life as we encourage, support and hold each other accountable on our trip to heaven. The language of scripture for the church is not institutional but familial and communal. We are a family. We are a community. We need to do better are offering support and encouragement to those who desperately need it. God today is pointing to his church and saying, “This is for all the lonely people…”

A Wild, Heroic Ride

Charles Edward Ives is considered as one of the first American classical composers of international significance. He was not a widely known musician during his life, but he was a very successful in the insurance business. He was once asked how he could justify selling insurance instead of pursuing his art full time, “If one has a nice wife and some nice children, how can he let the children starve on his dissonances?” Eventually Ives would be regarded as an American original, combining American folk music with the classics.

Darrryl Tippens tells of Ives being with his father when they heard a stone mason singing church music while he was working. He was singing enthusiastically, but “irritatingly off key.” Ives’ father told him something he would never forget—

Watch him closely and reverently and hear the music of the ages. Don’t pay too much attention to the sounds—for if you do, you may miss the music. You won’t get a wild, heroic ride to heaven on pretty little sounds.

I wonder if we ever get too wrapped up in the “pretty little sounds” and miss the “wild, heroic ride to heaven?” Can we find ourselves focused more on the traditional or the technical than on the theological? For example, I once played a 2 minute video clip from the Matthew video to make a point in the sermon. One person complained because the video had an instrumental track playing in the background, and that has to be wrong. Someone else complained that the actor playing Jesus just didn’t look Jewish enough. Somehow I think both of them missed the point… and perhaps missed coming to see God more clearly.

We can become so obsessed with the mechanics of worship that we miss the One to whom worship points. We can focus on the fact that the worship is too draggy, too spirited, too contemporary, too traditional... We can focus on "the pretty, little sounds" andf miss the “wild, heroic ride to heaven.”

My Wife and Football

To suggest that my wife has never been a football fan would be an understatement. Lynn never has liked football. Her father and brothers watched football all the time, and she decided she would never marry a football fan. God really does have a sense of humor, doesn’t He! Perhaps the greatest declaration of Lynn’s love and devotion to me was agreeing that we would watch together the second half of Arkansas play Oklahoma in the 1978 Orange Bowl… while we were on our honeymoon! Arkansas won in a 31-6 rout, and she seemed to enjoy the game… or she enjoyed me enjoying the game. With that one exception, I don’t think Lynn has ever really enjoyed football.

Until Sunday night. She thoroughly enjoyed watching the Hall of Fame preseason NFL game between the Eagles and Raiders. We watched the whole game. Even when she dozed a bit near the end, she didn’t want to miss anything and had me wake her up when the Raiders got the ball. Why? Torrence “Tank” Daniels is a rookie free-agent linebacker for the Eagles. He was a four year star at Harding University, and he is married to Tressa’s best friend Courtney. Lynn still doesn’t really care about football, but she cares about Courtney and Tank and their kids. She wasn’t really pulling for the Eagles, but we were both cheering for Tank. Oh, yeah, Tank had a great game—at least three solo tackles for losses and forced a fumble and recovered it. (The fumble was reversed by instant replay, but it was worth it to watch them replay Tank smacking the guy over and over in slow motion and then hearing John Madden ranking about how “in the old days, that’s fumble!”)

When you care about someone, then you care about what they care about. And what God cares about is His family. The church is at times is a motley crew of very different people with very different backgrounds, expectations, needs and interests. And yet we have been brought into relationship by the greatest unifying force—the blood of Jesus Christ. The wall of partition has come down, and the differences that once kept us apart no longer make a difference. We become important to one another because we are all so very important to our Father.

If Lynn can get excited about a football game, then it is a simple thing to get excited about our relationship in Christ and live together as a committed family.