Rejoice in the Lord…Even on Sunday

It’s been a busy day of rest here Where We Live. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s easy to rush though the first few hours of a Sunday without even recognizing God’s presence, especially when we are about His Business. The Lord’s Day can easily become the Church’s Day, or My Day.
We have the privilege of meeting each week (and throughout the week) with other believers to worship God and to hear His Spirit speak through His Word and through His people. In many places in the world, believers do not have that blessing…or that distraction. They have nothing but God, Himself. And perhaps they are the better for it. They need not organize or orchestrate or “perform.”
So, where does that leave me…wife of elder, Sunday School teacher, shaker of hands and maker of coffee?
Perhaps I need to take the day of rest more seriously. After all, God did His work in six days…and then He ceased from work and enjoyed His handiwork. He rested in order to fellowship with and enjoy his creation. Perhaps I need to be more conscious of planning the other six days of my week in such a way as to be a means of preparation for rest and enjoyment and fellowship on the seventh.
Perhaps that is why God’s Spirit has exercised His right to set aside my original blog thoughts and has convicted me of my failure to put God first on His Day.

Forgive me, Lord, for waiting to be told to worship You as we sang together. Forgive me for talking of myself, instead of talking of You. Forgive me for looking to others to meet the needs that You wish to meet. Thank you for loving me in spite of my failures. Thank you for showing me that, although I love your people, You must be my first love, and that I can love them best when I have loved You first.

Your Best Life Now... Or Something Like That

Usually I don't forward the kind of stuff that arrives in my email box with promises of blessing or threats of bad luck. This came from a friend today, though, and I enjoyed it so much that I thought others might, too. Here is what she sent:

"Recently, I was diagnosed with A.A.A.D.D. (Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder) This is how it manifests itself: I decided to water my garden. As I turned on the hose in the driveway, I looked over at my car and decided my car needs washing. As I started toward the garage, I noticed that there is mail on the porch table that I brought up from the mailbox earlier. I decided to go through the mail before I wash the car. I lay my car keys down on the table, put the junk mail in the garbage can under the table, and notice the can is full. So I decide to put the bills back on the table and take out the garbage first. But then I think, since I'm going to be near the mailbox when I take out the garbage anyway, I may as well pay the bills first. I take my check book off the table, and see that there is only one check left. My extra checks are in the study, so I go inside the house to my desk where I find a Coke that I had been drinking. I'm going to look for my checks, but first I need to push the Coke aside so that I don't accidentally knock it over. I see that the Coke is getting warm, and I decide I should put it in the refrigerator to keep it cold. As I head toward the kitchen with the Coke, a vase of flowers on the counter catches my eye --- they need to be watered. I set the Coke down on the counter, and I discover my reading glasses that I have been searching for all morning. Then I decide I had better put them back on my desk, but first I'm going to water the flowers. I set the glasses back down on the counter, fill a container with water and suddenly I spot the TV remote. Someone left it on the kitchen table. I realize that tonight when we go to watch TV, I will be looking for the remote, but I won't remember it's on the table, so I decide to put it back in the den where it belongs, but first I'll water the flowers. I pour some water in the flowers, but quite a bit of it spills on the floor. So, I set the remote back on the table, get some towels and wipe up the spill, the, I head down the hall trying to remember what I was planning to do. At the end of the day: --- the car isn't washed, --- the bills aren't paid, --- there is a warm can of Coke sitting on the counter --- the flowers don't have enough water, --- there is still only one check in my checkbook, --- I can't find the remote, --- I can't find my glasses, --- and I don't remember what in the world I did with my car keys! Then, when I try to figure out why I got nothing done today, I'm really baffled, because I know I was busy all day long and I'm really tired. I realize this is a serious problem, and I'll try to get some help for it, but first, I'll check my e -mail. Do me a favor will you? Forward this message to everyone you know, because I don't remember to whom it has been sent. Don't laugh!!! If this isn't you yet, your day is coming!!! Growing older is mandatory. Growing up is optional. Laughing at yourself is therapeutic. P.S. I just walked outside and ----- SOMEONE LEFT THE WATER RUNNING IN THE DRIVEWAY!!!!!!!!!"

Sound like anybody you know?

Christmas in June

Yesterday I finished up a project I've been thinking about for several weeks...setting up an "Everybody Directory" for the people who don't fit into my other directories. This one has everybody from missionaries to long-ago friends to people I may never want to contact, but...
In order to do that, I pulled out the stack of old Christmas cards, birthday greetings and unanswered letters that have been accumulating for a year or two while I knock off quick notes via email or post blogs.
It was a good time to get caught up again on other people's lives...
My friend Kay is a young widow, serving with Wycliffe. She made some really insightful observations in her Christmas letter that keep coming back to my mind. Maybe they will challenge you as they've challenged me.
She says:

• "I've been learning about loneliness as opposed to alone-ness; how to distinguish between the two and how to work through one while growing in the midst of the other."
• "When God is silent on a subject, He does have His reasons. My job is to keep on doing the last thing He gave me to do until He does speak."
• "It's ok to yell for help when things get to be too much."
• "Change is inevitable. How we react to it helps determine whether it is good or not."
• "'Fine' isn't an acceptable answer when you really aren't."
• "Procrastination isn't working for me and practicing it until I get really good at it probably won't, either."
• "It pains God when I give Him my leftovers."

Are you feeling challenged, too? Let me know, so I can let Kay know how she's spoken to all of us.

Wildfires and Sow Thistles

This morning I worked in the sweltering sun, doing a job I’d had on a low-priority list for quite awhile. Pulling thistles is not exciting, even when the weather is cool and the mosquitoes are sleeping. It wasn’t, and they weren’t.

Every year, the border along my shed produces daffodils, hostas, wood violets, pansies, bleeding heart, hollyhock, delphinium and…sow thistles.

Where do those things come from? And how do I get rid of them? Seems the two choices are either pull or dig.

Weeding always gives me lots of time to think without interruption, so I reflected on sow thistles. I also thought about the wildfires raging right now in Alaska. So far, fire has destroyed about 90 square miles of the Kenai Peninsula south of Anchorage.

You might think that sow thistles and wildfires don’t have much in common, but I think they do. Both have the power to destroy beauty. The thistles do it an inch at a time, while the fire consumes miles in a day. Both start from a random seed that is sown. Thistle seeds are carried by the wind or the birds. The seed that started the Alaska wildfire was a mere spark that fell from a grinder being used to sharpen a shovel and ignited dry grass. The Seattle Times said that Alaska’s fire season is just getting started…so is the season for sow thistles.

And both are really difficult to stop once they get started. Just when we think they have been contained, a new outbreak flares up somewhere else. You can see a new fire from a distance, but sow thistles like to hide in the hollyhocks until they get established.

A bit like sin in my life.

Sometimes sin is pretty obvious, burning merrily away so everyone can see it. Sometimes it’s camouflaged in the hollyhocks of “spirituality”. But I think it’s on the Holy Spirit’s “high priority” list to extinguish and root out before it destroys the work He is doing in me and the work He has for me to do.

Are you a gardener? What has the Lord been teaching you as you dig in His dirt?

Commitment for Life

65 years ago today, Eugene Oppeneer and Verna Augustine said "I do!"

Little did they know where those words of commitment would lead them.

Shortly after they were married, Eugene joined the US Army and spent the next four years in the South Pacific, sending Verna letters from Australia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Japan.

Verna waited for him back in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, working at the Kohler Company.

When WWII ended, and Eugene came back home, they moved out to his parents' farm near Hingham, where they began to raise corn and oats and hay and ... children. I am the oldest of their family of five.

Over the years, they shared joys, experienced pain and hardships, some of their dreams crashed, but they stayed the course, for better or for worse.

Crippling arthritis and debilitating health problems (Dad) and Alzheimer's and leg ulcers (Mom) have been a constant companion in their home on the farm for the past ??? years...but they have stayed the course. Dad is Mom's caregiver now, and that care is evident in everything he does.

In my early years, I saw my mother submitting herself to my father--often in difficult circumstances. In these last years, I have seen him submitting himself to her and to her needs--in very sad and difficult circumstances. Much of what God has used to shape me has come from what I have seen and am seeing in them. And I thank Him for it.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Another Game of Tag

As if the blogosphere doesn't have enough to keep me from digging the garden...

Aussie John and Tony Sisk both tagged me today with the latest blog tag--5 Things I Dig About Jesus.

The plan is to identify five of the things that I appreciate, or dig, about the eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, holy, righteous, pure, perfectly just, perfectly loving, creative, sovereign, invisible, incarnate, empowering, God of Everything. What can I say? "Dig" seems kind of puny next to all that, but here goes...

1. Jesus is both God and Sacrifice
2. Jesus is the Beginning and the End
3. Jesus isn’t afraid to get His hands dirty
4. Jesus loves me!!!!
5. Jesus IS (and how can I ever wrap my mind around that!)

Guess I'll have a lot more to think about as I go out to dig in the dirt.

My picks for bloggers to tag are:
Geoff
Alice Carpenter
Steve Grose
Deb at Life: The Journey
Rose at Rose's Reasonings

Please leave me a comment with your "digs" and tag someone else!

Treasures & Trials

Lately I’ve been listening a lot to an album by Keith and Kristyn Getty, entitled “In Christ Alone”. Great contemporary hymns with lots of meat on their bones, and I’m sure that many people are familiar with the title song. One of my favorites, though, is “Jesus, Draw Me Nearer”. The lyrics are by Margaret Becker. One phrase in the chorus is: “Let the treasures of the trial form within me as I go…”

I’ve been thinking about that all week…the treasures of the trial…

How often do I think of those hard times and trials as containing treasure? Suffering and pain are not just pointless, and they are not just part of the curse of sin. Nor do they just produce treasure at the end…they are bound up in the treasure itself. Just as they were in Job’s life and trial, they are actual road signs that point us to a deeper understanding of God’s grace and His love for me. Without them, I might miss some of His deepest blessings.

“Let the treasures of the trial

Form within me as I go

And at the end of this long passage

Let me leave them at Your throne”

“…form within me as I go…” Those are pregnant words, aren’t they? God is actively involved in both my treasure and my trial, just as He was in Job’s trial. Just as He was in Mary’s trial when she allowed Him to inhabit her body for 9 months, forming a Body for Himself. She certainly endured trial, ongoing trial, for the sake of that treasure.

“…at the end of this long passage, let me leave them at Your throne.”

Mary left her son, God’s Son, at the throne of His Cross, but the things she “treasured in her heart” went with her all the way to Heaven. Was her trial worth it? Can you feel the treasure forming? Can you appreciate it, even now, during the trial? My family and I are living in the midst of a number of personal trials right now, but I can see the treasure forming. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything.

Happy Father's Day

During the early years of my growing up, I did not appreciate my father. He was often an angry, impatient and unpredictable person…not especially sensitive to his wife or children. The stresses of trying to make a 40-acre farm provide for a family of 7 did not help the situation, either, and although I desperately sought his approval, I never felt I measured up to his expectations.
My parents made sure that we children attended Sunday School, and we often attended our local church. There, I acquired a different view of fatherhood. I saw God as a Father…the father I was missing at home…and I desperately sought His approval, but I was pretty sure I didn’t have that, either.
Then, during the middle years of my growing up, that all changed. At the age of 24, married with a little daughter of my own, I finally met my Heavenly Father when I read that I was “accepted in the Beloved”…His own Son, who died for me! He forgave me and loved me in spite of all I had done to Him.
That changed my perspective on my own father…and the ways I had failed to respect and obey him. One of the hardest things I have ever done was to go to him and ask his forgiveness for my failure as a daughter.
Fast forward to the most recent years of my growing up…
Over the past 10? or 15? years, my Dad has been growing, too. My mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s…Dad has had hip replacements and major back surgery, his own health is precarious…and something wonderful has happened. He has met his Father, too, and I can see the resemblance more and more every day.
The impatient, unpredictable man I called “Dad” is now my mother’s chief caregiver. He cooks for her, helps her dress, monitors her medications, changes the dressings on the ulcers on her legs. He is patient, kind and gentle. He is committed to caring for her to the best of his ability. Tomorrow when our family celebrates Father’s Day, we will also celebrate my parents’ 65th wedding anniversary…and I will thank my Father in Heaven for giving me just the right father here on earth.

A Flag Flown High

The largest flag flown on the tallest flagpole in the U.S. is visible just a mile down the road from my house, even though it is 10 miles away. Last week, that flag hung limply at half-mast as a tribute to the Virginia Tech students whose lives were snuffed out by a deranged shooter. It was not the only U.S. flag lowered in their honor.
I think it is right for us as a nation to stand back and recognize their deaths. In some way, the act that robbed them of a future robbed us, too. I'm not so sure, though, that lowering the American flag is the way to do it.
It is right to lower the flag to honor those we have elected or who have been chosen to serve as our governing officials. Presidents, Supreme Court Justices, and others have been chosen to represent us. They have offered to serve the public, and have been taken up on that offer. We lower our flags to honor them at their death.
Today there are thousands of men and women who have chosen to represent us in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan and other locations thoughout the world. We do not have a draft system, so they chose to represent us. And yet...when one or two or ten of them fall before a deranged shooter, our flags fly high. Why is that? Should we not honor them, at least in their home states, when their lives are shortened in the cause of freedom? Should we not lower our flags for them?
Whether or not we support the war in Iraq, or Afghanistan, should we not support those who represent us there?
On a related issue...
Our society has become so infatuated with numbers...more and more and more has come to mean more meaningful. If only 3 students had died instead of 33...Would we have lowered the flags for only 3? Does a single human life still count?
I wonder.

The Pastor's Wife

Since returning from the RHMA conference for small-town pastors yesterday, I’ve been catching up with many of my favorite bloggers. A current meme that has been circulating among blogsites is “the …. formerly known as …” A particularly poignant posting by Lyn Hallewell at Beyond the 4 Walls is called: “The Women Who Have Been Known As The Pastor’s Wife.”
After spending the last three days in the company of pastors’ wives, it saddens me to realize that a significant number of them are suffering from the same wounds experienced by Lyn Hallewell. Some of those wives were young—still in their 20’s or early 30’s. Some were still full of ideals. Some had already been sliced in pieces and didn’t know who to turn to for help. Some of the older ladies had built walls for protection. And some, I’m sure had made peace with their “calling” or their martyrdom. And I never even got to know them.
Even though the theme of the conference was to measure our ministry by God’s standards rather than by man’s, I wonder how many of these women will allow isolation and criticism and unrealistic expectations to destroy them. I wonder if anyone ever gets to know them.
Then, as I read the news headlines tonight, “Tennessee Preacher’s Wife Convicted,” hit me between the eyes. Only God knows the back story here, but there are many pastor’s wives who can read between the lines. They feel deserted by both God and their churches and become vulnerable to Satan’s lies.
How can you and I reach out to the pastors’ wives in our communities? What positive things can you do today to build up them up?

Measuring Your Ministry

This past week, I’ve taken a 4-day blogfast as my husband and I spent our days at a conference for the pastors of small-town churches. We were an anomaly there in some ways.
First, neither of us are pastors.
It’s an unusual twist on the usual problem that pastors and their wives face in the congregation—social isolation. In this case, we were the “isolates”. Actually, we did have some peers in the group—the other two elders and their wives from our church. We are not a typical pastor-led church, so it’s always a bit dicey when we introduce ourselves and get rather blank stares from the clergy. Often, they seem to be a bit embarrassed to see us there, like finding a second-stringer elbowing his way into the starting line-up. We are on the same team, but not part of the inner circle. And I think most pastors (and especially their wives) deal with that “differentness” in their own lives, in their own churches.
On the other hand, our church is decidedly small, and we do have many of the same concerns for the ministry God has given us.
The conference theme was “Measuring Your Ministry”, and the speakers really did address the pitfalls of trying to measure God’s work against men’s standards. Kent & Barbara Hughes, authors of “Liberating Ministry From the Success Syndrome,” were pretty transparent about their own struggles in the numbers and expectations game and shared some practical ways to avoid falling into the same traps.
Phil Tuttle from Walk Thru The Bible spoke on thriving and surviving and did a super session on rediscovering the joys of ministry. He, too, was very real in telling about his own struggles with the success thing and how God led him to recognize real successes.
It was a refreshing time, and I’m glad we were able to go. RHMA will host another conference in Lancaster, PA, in May. I’d recommend it to any pastor of a small or small-town church—and perhaps even for the success-driven pastor of a large one.
What do you think is success in ministry?

RHMA Conference

In just a few hours, my husband and I will be on our way to the RHMA Small Town Pastor's Conference in Morton, IL. Tax Season is history...Life resumes!
And blogging ceases...at least for a few days.
Tony Sisk did a partial blog fast a couple of weeks ago, and now I'll see if I can take it cold turkey.
I'll report on the conference when I get back.

The New Crusaders

Christian bloggers in the US tend to think that the most important theological issues today revolve around the “Emergent” vs. “Modern/Evangelical” perceptions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and its outworking in the Church today. Is the Church missional…attractional…or…is it…dangerous? As some theologians move to deconstruct entrenched hierarchies and creeds, another movement has arisen while we were looking elsewhere.

A front-page article by Andrew Higgins in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal, entitled “As Religious Strife Grows, Europe’s Atheists Seize Pulpit”, explores the rise of militant atheism in Europe. Although Europe’s churches have been in decline for years, the influx of adherents to Islam has made religion a growing issue. A dying religious brand of Christianity was not a threat, but a growing and more committed Muslim population is. That combination of religious ideology and a growing demand for political voice has brought the atheists out into the playing field.

France, in particular, has experienced both civil unrest because of Muslim discontent and a rise in what Higgins calls “zealous disbelief in God.” In fact, Michel Onfray, the French “high priest” of atheism, has written a book entitled, “Atheist Manifesto”. It is a best seller in France, Italy and Spain. In it, he suggests that “change is at hand and the time has come for a new order.” Since the meaning of “atheos” is “godless”, Mr. Onfray is opposed to any representation of God or a god, such as Allah, Buddha, or any other worshipped being.

The French are not the only ones promoting the new atheism.

Last month there was a public debate in London in which British atheists contended with defenders of the Christian faith. Tickets cost nearly $40 each, and the event sold out…with the atheists declared the victors.

What does this mean for Christians here in the US? Will we demonstrate classic American myopia and spend our days debating each other over denominational politics, definitions, and methodology? Will we even support our European brothers and sisters? Atheist thinking has undermined much of our culture and even much of the church. Will we wait for a declaration of war by American atheists before we realize that while we’ve been fighting among ourselves, there is a battle to be fought right outside the Church door?

Uppers and Downers

Yesterday, many churches sang the wonderful words, "He arose a victor from the dark domain, and He lives forever with His saints to reign." Soul-stirring words, weren't they?...yesterday...

Easter is a soul-stirring day, an emotional "upper" for the Church of Jesus Christ--His Body here on earth. Many of us rose early to greet the sunrise (if there was one, and even if there wasn't), and we sang "Christ Arose." We believed it then.

And we filled up on sugar (Easter breakfasts and Easter candy)...and on spiritual sugar, too...eye and ear candy to seduce us into believing that what we were doing was "worship". The music was great, even if there were none of the old hymns, and the beat was a trifle loud and we stood looking at lyrics on the wall for 40 minutes. The pews were cushioned, even though we had to sit a lot farther back in the sanctuary than usual. The dramas were, well...dramatic. The message or reflection or meditation was short enough so that we could get home in time to change out of our church clothes and prepare a "Martha" meal for the extended family. Appetizers, salads, an interesting entree and plenty of yummy dessert. Insulin, adrenaline and somnolance. Now that was a great Easter...wasn't it?

Or was it?

It's Monday morning, and where is the resurrected Christ now? And where are His saints? Are they truly reigning? Is He reigning in them? Is He reigning in me? Are today and tomorrow and the tomorrow's after that downer's? Are we living in the reality of Christ's resurrection? Or are we all just a little sick from all that sugar? Too much sugar is bad for the heart...and maybe for the soul and spirit.

If we truly believe what we sang as the sun rose yesterday, we'd better let Christ reign in us today.

http://where-we-live.blogspot.com/2007/04/uppers-and-downers.html#links

For Sale: Easter

For the industrialized church, Easter is the greatest marketing opportunity since Christmas. Re-enactments of Christ’s Passion, Seder for Gentiles, Tenebrae, Taize, Cantata’s…all are employed to fill the pews and to reinvigorate the faithful. Each year we have been conditioned to expect something just a little more spectacular or a little more “spiritual” to satisfy the vague discontent we have with the product offered each week at our local house of worship. Why?

Is it because we are so used to media hype in every other area of life that we have come to expect it in our spiritual lives, too?

It is a great temptation for church leaders to follow the world’s example and to use Easter (and Christmas, for that matter) as a sales pitch…a public relations opportunity to get their name out before the public at a time when it is politically acceptable to do so. We’ve all gotten the catalogs offering Easter press kits and door hangers and bulletin covers and posters and DVD’s and… We are a nation of consumers, so I guess we expect people to respond to advertising, but I don’t see that as a Biblical principle in evangelism. There is more to making disciples than persuading people to wear team t-shirts or lighting candles or walking a labyrinth once a year or packing a pew.

Perhaps a more pervasive problem to that vague spiritual discontent felt by so many believers is that we are also a nation of spectators. There are far more people in the stands at a football game than there are on the field. From a spiritual standpoint, there are far more spectators in the congregation than there are vibrant players in the field—and I don’t mean the worship team or the Sunday School teachers or the pastor. We all have the option of becoming spiritual spectators instead of participants in the Body of Christ. And spectators become bored and dissatisfied when the team isn’t winning.

So, every year it becomes a greater challenge to motivate people to appreciate the Ultimate Sacrifice. Where does the answer lie? Should we quit celebrating the Resurrection as a one-time event, and begin looking at it as a present reality?
What do you think?

Check out bob.blog's The Dangers of Easter”
http://bobhyatt.typepad.com/bobblog/2007/03/the_dangers_of_.html
and Greg Laughery’s Living Spirituality at

http://www.livingspirituality.org/index.html

Is There an Atheist in Your Closet?

Geoff Baggett’s blog today referred to a news article about Congressman Pete Stark from California, who has just come out of the closet as the highest-ranking government official to admit that he is an atheist, or non-theist as they call themselves these days.
It’s true that Americans have a right and a responsibility to determine the values of the people they vote into office, so there is benefit in knowing the core beliefs of those who would be our leaders. At least, with Pete Stark, Californians know what they have endorsed as representing them.
On March 14, the San Francisco Chronicle ran the story about Congressman Stark and made some observations by a pollster about the importance of religious beliefs in the democratic process.
Pollster Ben Tulchin stated, “California…, is probably one of the most nonreligious states in the country -- maybe the most nonreligious state.'' He went on to say, that in polling in California "we rarely target voters by religion.''
That doesn't mean Californians "are not religious, don't believe in God, or don't go to services,'' he cautioned. For example, he said, "you have a fast-growing population in Latinos, and religion does matter to them, and religious issues matter to them. But on a day-to-day basis, religion doesn't play a significant role in most Californians' lives in a way that shapes their politics on a daily basis,'' he said.
In other words, people who have always voted for Stark will vote for him, anyway.
They may be “Christians” by profession…but atheists in practice.
It’s easy to criticize California voters, but I wonder how many Christians are doing the same thing. Every time we leave God out of the equation when we make choices in our own lives, we are practicing atheism…even while we profess Christ. Most of us really don’t let God play a significant role in our lives in a way that shapes our actions on a day to day basis. We live as though He does not exist.
Is there an atheist in your closet?

Tax Season and Theology in Life

In just twenty-seven days, Tax Season 2007 will be over!

What is tax season? And what does it have to do with theology? Well, at our house, it has a lot to do with it. My husband is one of three elders in our local church…and he is also a Certified Public Accountant with both corporate and individual accounting clients. At our house, January 1 marks the first day of tax season, and that means work weeks of up to 90 hours until April 15.

For people in bi-vocational ministries, as we are, there are stresses and time crunches that threaten to erode both personal time with the Lord and planned times for study and ministry. And, when Sunday is one of the focal points of public ministry, it can be more draining than refreshing.

That’s when plurality of leadership within the church is such a blessing.

Although my husband has been responsible for most of the Sunday morning preaching, one of the other elders will taking over that ministry. The third elder has been teaching the adult class, as well as planning fellowship activities. He also meets with some of our men for a weekly Bible study, and my husband teaches a mid-week study at our home.

Bi-vocational ministry—working in the secular world (as our elders do)—and also ministering to a body of believers is far from the norm in our area. As churches grow, they are hiring more and more staff people to take the burden of leadership off the pastor. And that’s okay, but it does tend to build a protective barrier between the “clergy” and the “laity”, a bit like the barrier the secretary provides between the CPA and his demanding clients.

When the members of the body know that their leaders are facing the same kind of pressures on the job that they are, when they can sit down with them in their homes, when they see them cleaning the floors and changing light bulbs in the place where they meet…Then they are seeing their theology in action. They can see how Christ meets the leader’s needs when he faces tough situations or uses opportunities to share God’s grace in the secular world. They can experience hospitality and real servanthood.

There are twenty-seven more days til the end of Tax Season. Twenty-seven more opportunities to show people how to experience God’s grace through the high-pressure days of life. Twenty-seven more opportunities for God to show us how to live so that others can see Christ in us.

I wonder if twenty-seven days will be enough time for the lessons to be learned?

What are your thoughts on bi-vocational ministry? I’d love to hear from you.

Re-Thinking the Lord's Supper

Alan Knox, over at his blog, The Assembling of the Church, recently published the following post: The Assembling of the Church: The Lord's Supper as a Meal? Since then, he has posted a series of reviews on some of Watchman Nee's teaching, including one on The Breaking of Bread. In the first, he posits the celebration of the Lord's Supper as an actual meal (instead of the appetizer-sized elements that most of us utilize). In the second, he brings out the command for the unity of believers as we come to the table. Some interesting and thought-provoking stuff.

At Living Hope Bible Church, we have varied the times and manner of our celebration (although it is all too easy to fall into a pattern of same-ness. Sometimes we include the Lord's Supper as part of a Sunday evening supper. The one that made the most impact on me was a "Bread and Water Supper", of which the menu consisted of....bread (any kind, as long as it was bread), butter & honey, and water. We did use matzoh and grape juice as the elements for the time of remembrance, but our focus was on Christ as our Bread of Life and Living Water.

I guess one of the things the Lord has been impressing on me is the need for His Supper to be central when we celebrate...the focus for the morning (or whenever we gather for that purpose) instead of it being the "closing act". Perhaps everything should point to that as the reason we are gathered instead of its being an accessory.

Read what Alan has to say, and stop back here to share your comments. I'd love to see what you think. How can we make the Lord's Supper meaningful for children? Any ideas?

The Bible as Textbook

Possibly as early as next Monday, the Georgia legislature will take a final vote on revisions on a bill to establish elective courses in the public schools in both the Old Testament and New Testament. The bill has already passed both houses of the legislature overwhelmingly. If the revision passes, it will make Georgia the first state in modern times to establish the Bible as part of its public school curriculum. The state's Department of Education will have a year to create these elective courses.

The Bible is already being used as a course study in as many as 1,000 American high schools, and has been allowed by the US Supreme Court, as long as it is presented objectively and not taught as fact. The option to use the Bible has been open to local school boards, but Georgia is the first state to implement Bible courses throughout the entire state, although individual school districts may opt out if they wish. Apparently Alabama and Missouri are also considering statewide Bible courses.

Sponsors of Georgia's bill say that students need an understanding of the Bible to better understand the foundations of Western culture. Much of Western literature and art, from Michelangelo, to Shakespeare, to contemporary writings draw from Biblical sources.

In the late 1700's Congress actually printed 40,000 copies of the Bible, and it was the most quoted source for the writngs of our Founding Fathers. Early textbooks relied on Scripture text to teach both reading and comprehension, as well as moral lessons.

As more states consider adding the Bible as literature and history courses to their curriculum, there will be a much wider debate about its scope and the intent of its Author.

What do you think about it? Should the Bible be taught in this fashion in public schools? Why or why not?

Show Towels

Recently, a guest in our home asked an innocent question after visiting the powder room. “Do you mind if I use your show towel?” she asked. I guess the towel in question had a holiday theme, but we do use it, not just look at it.
After she’d left, though, I started to wonder how we treat different areas of our lives. We decorate our houses…but some areas are off-limits to regular family use. They are the “show rooms”. They are what the world sees, the public places, not the places where we really live. Those places aren’t always color-coordinated, stylistically consistent. We tend to have a lot of unfinished business in those rooms. Stacks of papers (at least in mine) and projects that never made past the planning stages. They are the places, too, where real relationships are forged.
And that brings me to the show towel…
When people look at Christians, when they look at me, what do they see? Do they see an authentic life, or do they just see a show towel that cannot be touched? Our “working” towel gets used for all kinds of stuff. Spills on the floor. A grandchild with a nosebleed. The mud that didn’t quite get washed off. It gets stained by life as we live it. Because life IS messy, and when I invite someone to share mine, their messes affect me.
Jesus has invited me to share His life, and He has taken on my mess.
If I am to communicate that to others, I have to be willing to do Jesus as well as to tell Jesus. He was no unused show towel. I don’t have the right to be one either.