Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Great OK Adventure

Friends,

Some this and that from our little journey over the past few days...

We started out Thursday and stopped at McDonalds (what a surprise, if you know our family...not :-) in Bowie for breakfast. It was only our family until a grandma (I'm certain) and a grandson came in after about 10 minutes. The kiddo was a bit rambunctious (understatement) -- quite vocal, actually. He got his meal and it had a toy car in it. As soon as the meal was in grandma's hands, we heard a broken record of...give me the car, give me the car, give me the car -- you get the picture. Grandma made him sit down to eat, and the chorus of "gimme the car" continued. Grandma said, "you can't have it until after you pray for your breakfast." The kid said, quicker than I have ever heard any prayer, "thank you Lord for this food in Jesus name amen...now give me the car." It was funny.

We enjoyed the Tulsa Workshop...many great speakers and classes -- Don, Jeff, Ron, and Patrick among others. We also enjoyed visiting with family. Something struck me while milling around the exchange center with all of the exhibits. I must have a face or demeanor that cries out to exhibitors -- "please stop me and take up a half hour of my time when I come within 20 feet of your booth." This happened...not once, or twice, but thrice. It, too, was rather humerous.

It thundered and rained all day Thursday and Friday, so you would think that we would get a weather break on Saturday so we can have smooth sailing to Dallas, right?...but no. We heard it was actually going to snow -- ha! No way. We went outside at 8 AM...and Kim and looked at each other and said -- look, no snow. That is, until 9 AM, when it started snowing big time...I mean heavy. By 9:15 it was a blizzard that continued most of the day. It was snowing so hard, I couldn't remember the last time I had seen such conditions. It had to be an inch an hour, because when we left at 2 PM, we slogged through many inches to get to the van. Driving in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 28th in a blizzard is a trip, to be sure. We were so glad to get out of the city in one piece, and by the time we were in McAlester, the snow was gone and the precip had turned to rain.

We had a nice visit with our friends in Carrollton. It was nice to see folks at Webb Chapel C of C this morning. They had a good lunch after services, whereby our friend Curtis was flinging chicken (which means serve...but we didn't know it when we first heard it). We thought he was in some chicken throwing contest -- silly us. ;-) So, we finally arrived home this afternoon and prepared for Project Worship -- a wonderful gathering of Christians to sing praises to the Lord this evening. I think that our group was greatly blessed...we all had a good time. Now...back to real life :-) after a few days of wondrous enjoyment. Have a terrific week. Blessings,

Don

Friday, March 27, 2009

Foundation For Life

Friends,

Each year since 1911…nearly 100 years, a professor from the University of Pisa in Italy has gone to measure the slant of the Tower of Pisa. And each year, the measurement shows that the Tower slants a fraction of an inch more. It is currently leaning over 17 feet. Built in 1173, it was constructed without a foundation and was originally only 3 ½ floors high. Instead of tearing it down and starting from scratch, 4 ½ more floors were added to the building that was already leaning. Scientists now say that somehow the foundation will need to be rebuilt or the 836 year old tower will eventually fall. Lots of luck with that!

What we learn from the tower and so many other stories of buildings or houses not built upon foundations, is that...it may not happen today or tomorrow...eventually, not having a foundation is going to turn out to be a very bad thing. Jesus understood this well and even wraps up His Sermon on the Mount with a story about building and foundations. Both builders in this story represent those who hear the words of Jesus and either act on them...or not. The key is…hearing the words of Jesus – and in the case of the man who builds his house upon the sand, he has not fully understood Jesus’ words and therefore is certain to fail.

Jesus calls this man who builds his house on the sand a moros, a foolish man. It is where we get our word – moron, so this is pretty vivid point, isn’t it? Paul tells Timothy and Titus to avoid people who are foolish…Jesus tells the Pharisees that they are fools (Matthew 23:17), and He doesn’t use the word lightly. Such ones claim to know God, but their hearts and lives are not truly with Him. Some people try to build their house of faith upon the sand. They give themselves over to religious or even spiritual substitutes…instead of Christ. They may believe in Jesus, but they do not truly trust Him as Lord of their lives. Commitment fails when testing comes. Whenever trials or temptations threaten, this kind of person folds up his/her tent of faith and packs it in. Those who have professed to trust in Christ, and yet, who have not obeyed God’s will, will ultimately be condemned.

The wise person, on the other hand, has faith in the Lord that endures the storms of life and makes his/her foundation even stronger! Jesus says that a person who listens to His words is a wise man; a wise man builds his foundation, his life on Jesus. Wise, here, means not just intellectual knowledge, but practical knowledge – the common sense wisdom that we gain through growth and understanding…anything else is nonsense. This person takes the knowledge that God gives Him and makes it work…he is intelligent in how to live a good life. This is what it means to build upon a rock foundation. The word "rock," here, is petra. It is the same word that is used in Matthew 16:18 by Jesus, when He tells Peter that He will build the church “on this rock”…Jesus’ words, Jesus’ life. Jesus is saying that those who “build on the rock” are those who genuinely hear and understanding what He is saying. It is the idea of listening and responding. Bottom line...we are to hear God’s words and do them (James 1:22).

Jesus’ point – the two men in story had much in common…both had a desire to build a house, both built houses that looked good and sturdy. But, when the storms came, one of the houses collapsed. What was the difference? It was not the external looks, for certain. The difference was the foundation. The successful builder “dug deep” (Luke 6:48) and set his house on a solid foundation…and this is what makes all the difference. So…dig deep. With tongue firmly planted in cheek, I say -- don’t be a moron, settling for some ordinary relationship with the Jesus. He must be Lord...He requires it! God is willing to build us, grow us if we are willing to dig. The two houses remind us that true faith in Christ will last, not only the storms of this life…but also in the final judgment. These have nothing to fear…their house is founded upon the rock and it will stand! Blessings,

Don

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Right and Sound or Righteous and Spiritual

Friends,

I find the latest series "sound doctrine/false doctrine" on my friend's blog very interesting. I encourage you to go read "Who Told You That." As a follow up to my posts..."the Struggle for Righteousness" and "Positively Church," I offer the following. What many brethren have said is "false doctrine" is, most of the time, disagreement over matters of opinion and other minutiae. Rather than try to sort out all of the minutiae and sacrifice love of the brethren over it, we should be more intent in relationship to our principle definitions, as my good brother points out. It underscores, definitively, the struggle we have to find the right focus for our faith and godliness. We cannot throw stones over matters that just do not matter, that is, "don't sweat the small stuff," and most of it is just that -- small stuff. If there are matters of serious import that need to be sorted out, they should be done so lovingly, and the list is probably much smaller than we think. But, the point is -- we cannot dismiss doctrine from Christian living.

I believe that the concept of “soundness,” as in "sound doctrine," like “denominationalism” for example, is a matter of perspective, perception and semantics. I believe that it, likewise, serves as an idol for self-righteousness, as do so many other “issues" that take our focus off of the source of our righteousness — Jesus Christ. Once again, “soundness” puts us in the driver’s seat, in relationship to determining righteousness and, therefore, on shaky spiritual ground…once again, it makes us judges. As we spoke about in our Bible class this evening, it is amazing how judgmental we, in general, appear to be when we begin to consider our thinking and our language. We need to be able to make observations without becoming judges with wrong motives and hearts. This is difficult, to say the least. But, if we are going to experience the Spirit's fruit, we must resist the temptation to sit continually in judgement. Satan so well tempts us to think that being right in our thinking has to be equated with being right with God. This is precisely what the Pharisees and Scribes thought...and it still misses the point now as it did then. We need to focus much more on humbling ourselves before our Father — in short...looking up, instead of looking around. If we love all men and leave the rest with the Lord, we will be the better for it.
Blessings,

Don

Monday, March 23, 2009

Be Careful What You Ask For

Friends,

There's a story of a father and son who had become estranged. The son ran away, and the father set off to find him. He searched for months to no avail. Finally, in a last desperate effort to find him, the father put an ad in a Madrid, Spain newspaper. The ad read: Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you. Your Father. On Saturday 800 Pacos showed up, looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Blessings,

Don

Thursday, March 19, 2009

Faithful to Build

Friends,

We use the word building in a number of contexts in the course of our daily lives. It is mostly in reference to either the noun variety of building, but can also be the verb. If we consider these concepts…the building that is a noun is – a place made of wood or brick, a structure that is complete and serves as a place to live, work, eat, play…you name it! The building that is a verb is a process. It is a course of work and somewhere on that course, usually between point A and point B, is the builder. When a carpenter begins to build a house…he makes a plan, lays the foundation, moves to the walls, and goes on from there. It is a process, and every part of it is important.

These concepts can apply to many matters in relationship to life – including church. As I have shared before, we talk about going to or meeting at church. This is an interesting misunderstanding. In actuality, we are church that goes to building. The building is not the church…the people are. But, because of cultural contexts and semantics, it is easy to get this confused. As church…we need to be concerned about the building. We need to take care of the noun variety. There needs to be regular upkeep and updating. These matters are important. But, it is far more important to be building church…as in the verb variety. We need to spend time building people. Paul talks about equipping the saints for service (Ephesians 4:12); this is precisely what we need to be doing…and are seeking to do.

We can look to Nehemiah for some good lessons in rebuilding and in building. There are some important things to learn from him. Preparation is necessary no matter what projects we choose to undertake. Nehemiah understood just how critically important it was that he prepare to return to Jerusalem. He approached his efforts with prayer, preparation and proper communication. As we see with him and as we learn in life, the better the preparation, the better the results…whether remodeling projects, sermon preparation, rebuilding the wall of a city, or...church organization. It does not work any better to measure once and cut twice in relationship to church projects or organization than it does in carpentry. I think that it is easy for us to get or to be impatient in relationship to what God is doing in our lives individually or collectively, but we need to wait on Him. He is not slow to help us or to reward us for waiting on Him to do His work. Much more damage is done by running on ahead of the Lord, than waiting on His wisdom.

The story is told about a sailor who found himself shipwrecked on a South Sea Island. He was seized by the natives, hoisted to their shoulders, carried to their village, and seated on their throne. Little by little, he learned it was their custom each year to make some man king for a year. He liked this tradition a lot – until he began to wonder what had happened to all of the former kings. Soon he discovered that when the king’s one-year kingship ended, he was banished to a nearby barren island, where he would then starve to death. The sailor didn’t like this idea at all, but he was smart, and decided to enjoy his year as king. Meanwhile, he was putting his carpenters to work making boats, his farmers to work transplanting fruit trees to the island of exile, and other farmers growing crops there, as well as masons building houses on the island. When his kingship was over, he went not to a barren island, but to one of abundance. Blessings,

Don

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Bad News, Good News

Friends,

Defensive Tackle, Albert Haynesworth is perhaps the best at his position in the NFL. He just signed with the Washington Redskins recently, because the Tennessee Titans, his former team, would not come up with enough money for him to stay. He asked the Titans for a four year $34 million contract and the Titans would go no higher than $32 million for four years. Haynesworth says that he was frustrated and almost took the deal...but is happy that he didn't do it. He said, now he could set up all of his family and kids with what he got and that it worked out pretty well. Ahh...the wealth of riches. I imagine I could muster up some pity for Mr Haynesworth and others like him, but -- no, it doesn't seem to be working. :-) Why quibble over such things...or two million dollars for that matter(?). I am happy for him that he was able to get the deal he was looking for, but as with A-Rod and so many others...we get a bit tired of hearing the sob stories of the rich and famous not getting their extra millions.

On a brighter note...the U.S. Team came from behind in the 9th inning last night to win 6-5 against Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic and move on to the semi-finals in the tournament. The U.S. team has been disparaged and all but left for dead by the sports media who have been saying -- the U.S. professionals are not into this...they have no heart...it doesn't mean anything to them...they would rather be in Spring Training. At the end of the game last night there were 25+ guys running out onto the field like a bunch of little leaguers, jumping up and down and dog piling each other out of total excitement for their victory. In the interviews afterwards, the passion for playing for the U.S and the thrill of moving on in the tournament were very apparent...and so, kudos to the U.S. national team of professional ball players and thanks for showing your patriotism in a way that even the media cannot ignore. Blessings,

Don

Saturday, March 14, 2009

March Madness

Friends,

They call it March Madness...and I am sure that it is not all about the weather. :-) In fact, the big NCAA Basketball Tournament gets under way next week following the conference tournaments. I do not really watch much college basketball, and it fact, generally consider it the bane of winter existence...but, it all changes with the round of 65. It is always so unpredictable. Who can forget George Mason making it all the way to the Final Four a few years ago? This is one of the wonderful things about the tournament. A mid-major (conference) team can get hot and make a deep run in the tournament. I am always rooting for Gonzaga, from Spokane, because they have been good for a long time now and always seem to be a lot of folks' favorite mid-major underdog. Also, they seem to be peaking at the right time, so maybe they can get to the Elite Eight or Final Four...it would be cool. It would be great if the football schools would be so brave as to have a sixteen team playoff and invite some of the best teams from their mid-majors. If a Utah or Ball State could get hot, you never know. Anyone remember Boise State over Oklahoma? Any national champion should have to earn it...and not have it bestowed upon them because they have had the best record. So...we'll see what happens with the Big Dance. Go Zags. Blessings,

Don

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The Struggle for Righteousness

Friends,

Observations…this is part three of a sort of a discussion on a friends blog. I do not think that self-righteousness is easily detectable. Humility often disguises itself as false humility…even while having the appearance of the former. I don’t believe that anyone is exempt from this struggle…but the degree that we display false humility is directly and genuinely related to our closeness with the Lord. In relationship to this, false humility is exemplified in that we are not so much betrayed by what we say, but in how we say it...although what we say can be in error, as well.

To the point…so much of what we call "reasoning"…as in trying to discern or determine, for example, "what denominationalism is" or "what denominationalism is not" is more a revelation and exercise not only in semantics, but is a reflection of an attitude of the heart. What is revealed is our attitude toward others…as to whether we are really being Christ-like or not. It is easy to say…I love other "believers" including those who are different from me, but if I am set against "how they live, move and breathe" within their religious framework, I have already sat in judgment of them — and therefore am not going to be capable of loving them sincerely and fully. At the least, I am going to be displaying pity, rather than showing "love" or some other of the fruit of the Spirit which they need to see in me. The forest is not as easy to see when we are facing individual trees on a regular basis — and I am guilty of this, depending upon the argument. When we are so cocksure of our argumentation, we have abandoned humility and are likely staring at the trees. There is room for all argumentation, but, I am likely going to be persuaded by those who have taken the panoramic spiritual journey.

There are individuals in our brotherhood who do not believe in unity, but uniformity. Any deviation from the uniform norm is met with consternation, at least…and condemnation, generally. This is a trust in self-righteousness and in our own understanding, rather than living "grace through faith." Such ones become judgmental, unloving because their theological, spiritual focus is in the wrong place. Faith broadens our scope, spirit and understanding, without making any doctrinal sacrifices. We need to allow ourselves to be stretched and shaped. It is easy to argue in order to defend "what I already believe," but not so easy to approach matters and issues without pretense or prejudice. This is what humility calls us to do. Blessings,

Don

Saturday, March 7, 2009

The Latest and Greatest Satellite

Friends,

We get word today from N.A.S.A (Need Another Spending Allowance) that it has launched the new Kepler spacecraft (named for 17th century German astrophysicist Johannes Kepler). This is a high tech telescope with the ability to see distant star systems. The goal is that it will soon be able to tell us if there are other earth-like planets in a section of our Milky Way galaxy. It will train its gaze on the Cygnus and Lyra portions of our night sky and is expected to discover up to 1200 new planets or planetoids (Jr planets :-), which will about quadruple the number of such planets presently known. Considering that the first planets outside of our solar system were discovered just a few years ago, the rapidly changing ability that we have to find these new planets is pretty impressive. The goal is to find some planets where liquid water could be present on then surface. On the other hand if none are discovered, this may prove that the earth is really one unique big blue marble in the vastness of the universe. This could get interesting before it is all said and done. One person on the Kepler project said that if we don't find any other earth type environments out there, that it would be the end of Star Trek as we know it -- very funny. Well...here's hoping that the Kepler can keep the Star Trek dream alive. Live long and perspire. Blessings,

Don

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Green Visitor

Friends,
Given the hoopla regarding UFOs over the past year, one might not want to hear any more about green visitors. :-) Yet, this one is of a different variety. It is a rare green comet called Lulin. The coolest thing that I have seen in the night sky was comet Hale-Bopp about a decade ago. It was a big blue traveler that passed close enough to the earth to be clearly seen for days with the naked eye and easily photographed. Although Lulin came closest to the earth about a week ago, it was barely visible to the naked eye...still such things are a wondrous sight. Most of us probably missed it, so...enjoy. Blessings,
Don