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Because God Does Not Want Us to Do Life AloneAugust 2, 2009 Michael Vick was a superstar quarterback. His dream turned into a nightmare when he was arrested and jailed for his crimes. Now he is on the way back. He has not turned it around on his own. One of his mentors is former coach, Tony Dungy. Tony has been a God-send to help Michael get back to doing the right things. It helps to not do life alone. It was the first time in the Bible that God said, “It is NOT good.” He was talking about man’s aloneness. God did not create us for isolation. He wants us to be in community. That is why EVERY growing Christian should be actively relating to some church. That does NOT mean that something is wrong with being Single. Periodically I have to remind people about this. God wants us all to be in a church family but it is okay to be a family of one. Some of the greatest people in the Bible were singles. For years, Joseph, Elijah and Daniel were singles. Jesus was a Single. Paul was a Single (and said it is a superior way to serve God!). It is okay to be a Single and for the church to love Singles. My friend, Dennis Franck, head of Singles Ministries for the Assemblies of God in America, quotes Harold Ivan Smith, a prolific writer and speaker for singles for over 30 years, “Any church that ignores single adults is signing its death warrant! That sounds like a rather strong and opinionated statement. Yet, what else can we say to those churches who treat single adult ministry as only a fad?...” Dennis then gives “five excellent reasons why a church cannot ignore single adults.” He does not include the fact that almost half of our parish population is single.
Singles are those who are not married. I am amazed what people say when you invite them to be a part of the singles ministry:
Singleness is not a curse. Singles are not second class Christians. Singles are significant and are active parts of our church ministry. Hug a Single today. No one has to do life alone! Singles do life with us as God’s family in our church.
Taking the Shun Out of RelationshipsApril 26, 2009 Life is all about relationships. God has called the church to be an “authentic, caring community.” We are to love in deed and in truth, to be open and accepting, to be friendly and generous, and to be courteous and kind. We need each other in healthy relationships. Relationships take work to make them work. Some think there are short-cuts. Some turn to dating services to make relationships work. Once connected, the hope is that the couple in the relationship will make it work. Sites like eharmony.com and match.com have been popular. A new site is FarmersOnly.com; it is a dating service that focuses on singles who prefer the “rural or rustic lifestyle.” Yee-haw! (As good as these may be, it still takes work to make the relationship work—whether you are in the city or on the farm!) One place where the care and prayer of the church family is needed is in the midst of crises, especially those crises that include grief. We often think that grief is only when there is a loss of a loved one, but it can be the loss of a job, failing health, divorce, financial reversal, or any other crisis that involves losing. It can feel like an atom bomb. One of the best ways to cope and process grief is with the help of a friend/ friends. In other words, people need an authentic, caring community. They need the church. But we should not assume that church people know how to care. Jason Cusick, Journey of Faith Church in Manhattan Beach, CA points out three myths of congregational care:
It helps to know how people grieve. We can help the best when we understand where people are hurting. What stages do they experience when the atom bomb hits? Stage 1 – Stage 2 – Stage 3 – Stage 4 – One of the best gifts God has given us is one another. Let’s love in deed and in truth. Reflections Over Some TEAApril 19, 2009 I went to my first T.E.A. (Taxed Enough Already) Party on Wednesday, April 15. There over 500 people including many from our church signed a petition, pledged our allegiance to the American flag, sang the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America and heard some rousing speeches. I thought our own Dr. Frank Hoffman did the best. Although I did not stay to participate in dumping the tea in the Ouachita, Anita and I DID donate some tea for the homeless. It was a great event and I plan to attend the next one. Why did we go? We went partially out of curiosity but mostly out of concern for our country. We want our country to be a great place for our children and grandchildren. We are concerned that the decisions made in the last three months may be moving us in the wrong direction economically, civically and morally. We want a good change. However my hope for the future of our country is NOT the government. In fact the longer I live the more I see that the solution is not more government but less. As president Ronald Reagan is quoted as saying, “Government is not the solution; it is the problem.” I am looking for One higher than the government to intervene. We need Jesus! That is why I think we are approaching things backward. Since the start of the financial crisis of last fall (that has seemingly gotten worse every time the government has tried to fix it!) something has been strangely missing in all the efforts for solutions: PRAYER. Some may react, “Has it gotten that bad?” The answer is: “YES!” The longer things go the more we recognize that we cannot solve this; we need GOD! What would I change about the TEA Party? I would add more prayer. Although the gathering started with an inspiring prayer by Reverend Mark Foster, I felt that we were trying to “take back the country” with rallies, cheers and threats. That approach is the standard approach of the politicians – our side will yell louder, spend more on campaigns and persuade more people to vote than the other. Yet we ought to do it differently. Remember that the “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” While this is no call to cease being salt and light in our culture, it IS a cry to call us back to the powerful resource that we have that the godless unbelievers do not: Humble, earnest, fervent prayer. When we do not pray, we limit God to our ability. We can do no more than we can do. The results are therefore limited. BUT when we pray we are released to do “exceeding abundantly above what we can ask or think” because it is no longer our work but God’s work in and through us. It is time to pray. When God works His perfect will, we are blessed, our country is helped, the future is bright and it suits us to a “T.” How Then Shall We Live in "Post-Christian American?"April 12, 2009 I do not like horror shows. The writer of the scripts will do something early on to show that even God cannot stop the bad guys. That leaves the good guys to fend for themselves against odds that are too strong for them to handle. Those writers redefine reality so that it seems that God is impotent to help and cannot deliver. Some think that a horror show is being played out before us as a nation. A significant role of leadership is to “define reality” and some national leaders are writing God out of the script. For instance, this week we learned that we are not a Christian nation. Instead we are only citizens that are united by common values (Of course some of us think that those values came from the Bible!). At the same time, the cover story of Newsweek magazine hit: “The End of Christian America.” (Wait – I thought we were not a “Christian nation” – maybe the president meant, not any more. That may be the way some want us to go.) The article built on a 2009 survey by American Religious Identification Survey that indicated that the percentage of self-identified Christians has fallen 10 points while the number of Americans who claim no religious affiliation has risen from 8 to 15 percent since 1990. Throughout the article Jon Meacham quotes from Dr. Albert Mohler, the President of Southern Batist Theological Seminary and a former classmate and personal friend. "The most basic contours of American culture have been radically altered. The so-called Judeo-Christian consensus of the last millennium has given way to a post-modern, post-Christian, post-Western cultural crisis which threatens the very heart of our culture." Think about the statistics: 76 percent indentify with Christianity (30% claim to be born again). The Jewish population is 1.2 percent; the Muslim is 0.6 percent. The rumors of Chirstiainity’s death are greatly exaggerated. Also our nation remains clearly “vibrantly religious.” Meacham affirms this. He also rightly quotes Cal Thomas, “No country can be truly 'Christian. Only people can. God is above all nations.” That means that we do not trust ultimately in our president, congress or government; we trust in God. (Hey, that would be a great motto for our country!) Yet this same God tells us as Christians to be engaged in our world as salt and light in our world. We are called to witness to the living Christ that can change a person, a nation and a culture for good. Since every law “legislates moraility” we should speak up and work for good morals to be woven into our laws. We should work for justice. "Jesus Christ promised that the very gates of Hell would not prevail against his church," Mohler wrote. "This new generation of young pastors intends to push back against hell in bold and visionary ministry. Expect to see the sparks fly." On the telephone with me (Meacham), he added: "What we are seeing now is the evidence of a pattern that began a very long time ago of intellectual and cultural and political changes in thought and mind. The conditions have changed.” God has not; He is ultimately ruling. This is no horror movie! In the end Jesus wins! What great news for Easter and for all! Going GreenApril 5, 2009 I like the springtime for many reasons. The sun seems to shine a little brighter as the season changes. I enjoy watching trees bud and flowers bloom. The brown of winter becomes the green of spring. It seems that everything is going green! The only thing I do not like about spring is allergies. They give a new meaning to “March Madness.” By the way I expect UConn or UNC to win the national championship but I am cheering for the underdogs. It would take a miracle for Auburn or LSU to win at this point (especially since they are not playing!), but there is always next year… Speaking of “going green,” a recent report states a record number of college students are pursuing so-called "green technology" degrees. Many of these budding scholars have heard of President Obama's creation of "millions of new green jobs" in his pursuit of investing in alternative and renewable energy, curtailing the nation's addiction to foreign oil, and addressing Amy Watson (sadly, no relation), a senior policy analyst with the Independent Women's Forum, says the green jobs touted by Obama may actually harm the U.S. economy. "Essentially the Obama administration wants to subsidize things like the wind and solar industries in an effort to create these so-called 'green' jobs that they keep purporting they are going to create," notes Watson. "So depending on if that subsidy continues—because these "And what they found is that for every one job created, two jobs are lost in the market." How should a Christian feel about this Green Wave? In Genesis 1:27-30 God created man and gave him the job to be a good steward of the earth. We care about our planet because God wants us to care. We should not litter. We We also should care for others and work for justice (Matthew 25:31-46). Some of the wacky environmentalist idealists care more for the insects, animals and creatures than they do people. (It bothers me that those who are pushing us to be “green” are so willing to support abortions. In my book a child wins out over a spotted owl 10 times out of 10.) We know that plants cannot turn green without photosynthesis; that process always begins when energy from light is absorbed by Want Fair and Balanced Headlines News? Stick with the BibleMarch 29, 2009 Growing up at Shades Mountain Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, my pastor, Dr. Charles T. Carter, urged us to read the “Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other.” He knew that the Bible gives eternal perspectives and tested truths to counter balance the transitory events, the passing fads and the shifting opinions of the newspaper. The newspaper gives the aware Christian the opportunities to pray, participate and practice the biblical faith as salt and light in order to make the world a better place by showing the love of Christ. Together they arm us with Yet we live in a day when some newspapers are going out of business. Many people do not read the newspaper in this era of instant news of radio and internet. (Yet I read the News Star and the Monroe Free Press regularly.) More people are watching TV according to a recent report from the Nielsen TV ratings organization. It shows that the average American watches over 150 hours of TV per month, which is the highest level of TV viewing in the history of Nielsen’s surveys. The report also shows that TV viewership is growing. Original Tech-savvy individuals watch more video than average Americans, the report found. Viewers of TV programs via the Internet watch three hours worth of video online per month, while those who watch via mobile devices like iPhones watch four hours by that method per month, on average. The report also found that individuals tend to watch more TV as they grow older; it also revealed that young adults watch most of the programming on the Internet, and teens watch the most on mobile devices. This makes me glad for our church’s TV and media ministry. We hear regular reports of people who first experienced our church on TV or the Internet. Our shut-ins appreciate the broadcast. Have you been to our church’s website? It is www.firstwest.cc. Check out the church media sometime. Tell someone else about it. It is worth watching. The point is that we need to balance our TV watching with regular intake of God’s Word. If we do not, then we will lose our ability to discern truth from error and live out of faith victoriously. For instance I took the boys to see the “Knowing” movie last week; if I did not know what the truth is about the end of the world then I would have been swayed by the story line, the dramatic acting and special effects of that sci-fi thriller. The Bible reveals the truth about the end of the world and it has nothing to do with aliens, prophetic numbers and Nicholas Cage. The Bible not only tells us how things will end; it also tells us how to live today. For example, some of the most important words of Jesus are found in Matthew 18:21-35, where Jesus commands “unlimited forgiveness” by forgiving “70 times 7.” This is a sound bite that can keep our lives fair and balanced… no matter what channel you watch. Harnessing Past Energies for Future PowerMarch 15, 2009 Your life experiences and your walk with Christ have created in you life lessons that need to be passed on to others. We sure seemed to be popular on our trip to Birmingham this past week. As we drove down Interstate 20 we had over a dozen people wave and honk at us. We noticed that many of them we pointing to our van. Soon it was clear that we were leaking gasoline out the back of our van. The liquid trail indicated that we had a problem in our gas line and were losing valuable fuel. After two attempts to get it repaired we drove on without any more problems. As a result, we were about to have a good visit with my weak but hopeful Dad who is battling stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Our adventure on the highway parallels many of our lives. We are My friend, Raymond McHenry, tells about Ellen, who had spent an excruciating afternoon at the department of motor vehicles. Several hours of lines and inane rules had her feeling rather testy. On the way home she stopped by a sporting goods store to purchase a baseball bat for her son. The cashier asked if she wanted to pay with cash or credit. Ellen snapped, "Cash!" She quickly sensed how rude she had been so she apologized and then explained her frustrating day spent renewing her license. The cashier calmly replied, "Shall I gift-wrap the bat or are you going back to the DMV?" Sometimes we feel like that. One of the worst leaks is the loss of the energy from your legacy. Your life experiences and your walk with Christ have created in you life lessons that need to be passed on to others. I want you to capture them and use them to propel others forward to greater destinations in life than they would have gone without you. This week I heard my Dad tell some of his life stories to his grandsons. They will learn from him and be better men. They do not yet realize the value of this legacy that he is passing on to them. Yet this may be the only chance he has to pass his legacy on. We want to help you capture and communicate your legacy. That is why we are hosting the “Leaving a Legacy Day” at church on Saturday, March 21 from 9:00 AM-12:00 Noon. We want you to bring your family to hear you share about your life experiences. Here are some ideas to make it better:
I saw my Dad tell the man who has been his mechanic for over 20 years, “I have cancer and I may not ever see you again.” The stunned garage owner and his trusty mechanic came out to thank my dad and wish him the best. My Dad’s life has counted and he is passing the legacy on. How about you? Are you or is yours being wasted? Enduring Truth for Unsettling TimesMarch 8, 2009 There have been plenty of “gut kicks” recently. The news of the Pilgrim’s Pride plant closing was staggering, coming on the heels of the Bastrop IP plant shut-down. National news continues to spiral downward along with the plummeting stock market and hair-brained new laws. Many of us keep saying with stunned amazement and sorrowful disappointment, “What are they doing!?!?” [I always wondered what God’s judgment on our nation would look like. If God judged Egypt in Moses’ day with the plagues attacking the so-called gods of that nation, what god would God attack in our nation? Materialism is what Jesus called “Mammon” (KJV) or “Money” (NIV). No one can serve two masters according to Matthew 6:24. Even when it all seems out of control, God is in control!!] H. B. London of Focus on the Family refocuses our attention on the enduring truths of Scripture. He writes an article entitled, Easter means… Everything is going to be okay. He points to Jesus’ life to give us hope and strength. “As Jesus entered the world, it was in chaos — much as our world is today. When the angels announced His birth, they said, "Today, in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). Everything is going to be okay. When John the Baptist announced the Christ — "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29) — He was saying, "Everything is going to be okay." When Jesus encouraged His people to hold their heads up in a world of tribulation, He told them to cheer up: "I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). Everything is going to be okay. When He went to the cross, it was brutal and cruel, but His act of sacrifice signaled to all mankind that everything was My Dad starts his chemo treatments today. Next week we are going as a family to see him in Birmingham. His cancer has been a gut kick, but by God’s grace (and because he is ready for heaven because of Jesus!) everything is going to be okay! HOPE IN THE FACE OF CANCERFebruary 15, 2009 Thankfully she is not the only one who has been praying for my family (Jack and Merle Watson and my brother, John) this week. It was Monday that the doctors diagnosed that the cancer that they had just discovered less than a week ago on my father’s pancreas had spread. They plan to attack it with a new generation of chemo-therapy treatments. This is a journey that we have not chosen. No one chooses cancer. When the word "cancer" enters a person's life suddenly everything changes. Questions come? How long does he have? What should we do? How is Mom doing? When should I go be with them? Is there any hope? We are already discovering what God’s grace looks like in this journey. He gives us hope every day. He has enabled us to be hopeful, prayerful and peaceful. Here are some things that have encouraged us. I hope it may be helpful. God’s grace comes in the form of friends and family. God’s grace comes in the form of capable and caring medical people. Because of the advancements in many medical fields, this is a great day to be sick. Though none of us knows the future and we are not guaranteed to live forever on earth, people are living longer and better; there are many medical options. God’s grace comes in the form of cancer. God’s grace comes in the form of a life well-lived. God’s grace comes in the form of the life He gives. God’s grace comes in the form of eternal life. Yes, there IS hope in the face of cancer…because of God’s grace. Thanks, Amy, for reminding us. Thank you, Lord, for your grace!
Is Your Soul Fire-proofed?October 5, 2008 The word, Fire Proof has taken on fresh meaning in the past week as a new movie has come out. I want to encourage you to see it (I saw an early screening and the movie is VERY well done and has in it the following: action, adventure, romance, comedy and redemption; be sure to take a Kleenex or two!). Here is what Break Point said about the movie. It captures well the significance of it for us. “Fireproof is a film produced by Sherwood Baptist, a church in Georgia committed to engaging the culture through compelling stories with Christian themes. Like Sherwood's first film, This is something that is worthwhile for a LIFE Group class to go together to see. Yes, it would be a good date night film. It would just be fun to see alone. Why not invite someone to go with your class who does not know our Lord? Maybe they will get fire-proofed in the process. Our pastor (and our LORD!) would be proud of you! Let’s have some more bottom line conversations for Christ!
Disasters Can Be Opportunities...September 21, 2008 This is something that I repeat to myself when I look at my boys’ rooms! Beyond this, there is a reason why God commands us to “count it all joy”… especially when we go through various trials (James 1:2-5). He works in all things for good to grow us in our faith and to use us to do the good works that He has planned for us to do. This week we are drying out from the deluge Gustav brought. In some eastern parts of the parish the waters are just receding this week. (I cannot confirm the reports of a big boat and animals walking around the neighborhoods two by two.) I am grateful for the many volunteers in our church that helped shelter, transport, bag sand, and provide food for our guests from down south and for the local folks who were displaced. Some of our members have joined with our Southern Baptists to provide frontline service in the “Disaster Relief” ministry. Our church has a shower trailer that has been moved and is being used presently in the affected area near Lake Charles, LA. When you hear reports about organizations getting there first to provide relief, many of them are following or are providing help through the SBC Disaster Relief teams of volunteers. I thought you might like to know how your dollars and fellow Baptists are being used by God to help those in crisis. Here is a portion of the report on Disaster Relief:
Thank God for how He is using us together. Now if I could only get my boys to clean up the disaster in their rooms… Go to July & August 2008 Word from Woods Archives >> |
