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.