A site of special-interest to followers of the Church of God [Anderson, Indiana Convention],--EVERYONE welcome--to chat about healing and uniting our diverse global family. God be with you and yours as we share His Healing.
Wednesday, December 29, 2010
When Transitions Come
John Adams and Jonathan Sewell stood high above Casco Bay one warm July day in 1774. The two men conversed privately. Sewell begged his friend John Adams, the newly elected Massachusetts delegate to the first Continental Congress, to stay away from the coming session of Congress. He believed Britain remained “irresistible,” and feared that she would destroy all opposition.
Adams agreed, acknowledging British “determination on her system.” However, Adams announced, “swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish,” I am with my country, and “you may depend upon it.”
The year 1775 unfolded slowly. The American colonies endured Bunker Hill. Finally, Sewell returned to England. More importantly, the Colonists watched their Congressional delegate persist with iron determination. As circumstances transitioned, supporters saw him not only persevere but become one of the founding fathers of their fledgling nation.(1)
The Apostle Peter understood the importance of persevering through difficulties and failures. He placed perseverance between self-control and godliness, because he valued it as an essential step upward on his ladder of personal virtues (2 Peter 1:6, NKJV).
Years later, Charles Naylor experienced the critical importance of Peter’s insight as he matured in his own spiritual formation and growth. Naylor was an early holiness evangelist of the Church of God, until an unfortunate accident terminated his travels.
Injured while relocating the tent he used in his traveling ministry, Naylor suffered the devastation that comes with losing one’s ability to maintain a career. No longer able to travel, Naylor found himself in the hell of depression and self-pity; “I am only a has-been.”
“For eight long weary years no ray of hope shone for the future. But I learned to make the best of the present, to turn resolutely away from the past and to cease self-condemnation. After I had learned this lesson God opened the door of opportunity to me again in a most unexpected way. He has given me larger opportunity than every before.”(2)
Through persevering, Naylor found a new venue for ministry through pen preaching, and a new ministry of giving encouragement. Now sharing his experience and wise counsel with people he would never meet, Naylor wrote numerous books and hymns. Among the hymns he left the church is this affirmation of faith I learned to sing as a very young child:
Whether I live or die,
Whether I wake or sleep,
Whether upon the land
Or on the stormy deep;
When ‘Tis serene and calm
Or when the wild winds blow,
I shall not be afraid--
I am the Lord’s, I know.(3)
Christmas 2010 is already gradually transitioning toward Calvary and Easter 2011. As Christmas fades from view and the new year grows into the reality of 2011, C. W. Naylor’s music beckons me to once more persevere and press forward in all circumstances, knowing there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and … to all who have loved His appearing (2 Timothy 4:8).
A book I know suggests, Get Ready, God Uses Transitions.(4) It has been a tough time for most folk I know, but “Brother Naylor” knew about those transitions, as did Peter. So did John Adams. So ... with Naylor, I will continue to sing another favorite from Naylor’s pen,
I mean to go right on
Until the crown is won,
I mean to fight the fight of faith
Till life on earth is done,
I’ll never more turn back,
Defeat I shall not know,
For God will give me victory
If onward I shall go. 5
_____
1 David McCullough, John Adams. (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), p. 71.
2 Charles W. Naylor, The Secret of the Singing Heart. (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1974), p. 69).
3 C. W. Naylor, “I Am the Lord’s”, Hymns and Spiritual Songs, Gospel Trumpet Co., 1939.
4 Wayne M. Warner, Get Ready God Uses Transitions. (Prestonsburg, KY: Reformation Publishers, 2004).
5 Naylor, op cite., p. 358.
From Warner’s World, I am
walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Monday, December 27, 2010
Finding Faith That Matters
Phillip Yancey tells the story of the Orange revolution in the Ukraine 2004 to illustrate a point.
Like other parts of the Soviet Union, Ukraine moved toward democracy as the Soviet empire collapsed, though in Ukraine democracy advanced at a glacial pace. If you think our elections are dirty, consider that when the Ukrainian reformer Victor Yushchenko dared to challenge the entrenched party, he nearly died from a mysterious case of dioxin poisoning.
Against all advice Yushchenko, his body weakened and his face permanently disfigured by the poison, remained in the race. On election day the exit polls showed him with a comfortable 10 percent lead; nevertheless, through outright fraud the government managed to reverse those results.
That evening the state-run television station reported, “Ladies and gentlemen, we announce that the challenger Victor Yushchenko has been decisively defeated.” However, government authorities had not taken into account one feature of Ukrainian television. The translation it provides for the hearing-impaired.
On the small screen inset in the lower right-hand corner of the television screen a brave woman raised by deaf-mute parents gave a different message in sign language. “I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don’t believe what they [authorities] say. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yushchenko is our President!”
No one in the studio understood her radical sign-language message. Deaf people, inspired by their translator Natalya Dmitruk, led the Orange Revolution. They text-messaged their friends on mobile phones about the fraudulent elections, and soon other journalists took courage from Dmitruk’s act of defiance and likewise refused to broadcast the party line.
Over the next few weeks as many as a million people wearing orange flooded the capital city of Kiev to demand new elections. The government finally buckled under the pressure, consenting to new elections, and this Yushchenko emerged as the undisputed winner.
When Yancey heard the story behind the Orange Revolution he applied it this way: the image of a small screen of truth in the corner of the big screen became for me an ideal picture of the church. You see, we in the church do not control the big screen. (When we do, we usually mess it up.)
Go to any magazine rack or turn on the television and you will see a consistent message. What matters is how beautiful you are, how much money or power you have. Magazine covers feature shapely supermodels and handsome hunks, even though very few people look like that.
Basketball player Kevin Garnett, admits Yancey, excels at putting a round ball through a round hoop, and will earn more money this year than the entire United States Senate. What kind of society values one person’s athletic prowess more than the contributions of its top one hundred legislators?
The message of the big screen, suggests Yancey, says Consume! Indulge! Enjoy! Apart from the damage it does our planet, consider the damage we do to ourselves, says Yancey: “Every one of the gravest health concerns in the United States stems from overindulgence: smoking (emphysema, lung cancer); obesity (diabetes, heart problems); stress (heart disease, hyper-tension); alcohol (fetal damage, violent crime, automobile accidents); drug abuse; sexually transmitted diseases. We smoke too much, eat too much, drink too much, work too much, and sleep around with too many people (Yancey/pp 184-187).
As we look to 2011, we are, according to Yancey, literally destroying ourselves with our big-screen export. Democracy, said Jurgen Habermas, requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide.
Yancey concludes his chapter noting that we need a new vision in which we see ourselves not as owners but as stewards of a planet, not as masters of one another but as servants of a God of love and also justice. We need to blot out the seductive message of the big screen and start paying attention to the small screen in the lower right hand corner.
We need to build our house on the rock: to hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice. If we do so, no matter what happens with the stock market, no matter what happens with Iran or North Korea or China or any other threat, when the rains come down and the streams rise up, our house will stand“ (Matthew 7:24-27).
We need to be good citizens, participating in the political process, but we also need to recognize we do not control the big screen and will never control the big picture. But, like Natalya Dmitruk, let us be sure in 2011 that we give the true message from our small picture in the lower right corner of the screen.
As Yancey concludes, Jesus says in effect, “Don’t believe the big screen--they’re lying. It’s the poor who are blessed, not the rich. Mourners are blessed too, as well as those who hunger and thirst, and the persecuted. Those who go through life thinking they’re on top will end up on the bottom. And those who go through life feeling they’re at the very bottom will end up on top. After all, what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
_____
Phillip Yancey, What Good Is God? (NY: Faith Words,2010)
Find faith that matters at Warner’s World, I am
Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Like other parts of the Soviet Union, Ukraine moved toward democracy as the Soviet empire collapsed, though in Ukraine democracy advanced at a glacial pace. If you think our elections are dirty, consider that when the Ukrainian reformer Victor Yushchenko dared to challenge the entrenched party, he nearly died from a mysterious case of dioxin poisoning.
Against all advice Yushchenko, his body weakened and his face permanently disfigured by the poison, remained in the race. On election day the exit polls showed him with a comfortable 10 percent lead; nevertheless, through outright fraud the government managed to reverse those results.
That evening the state-run television station reported, “Ladies and gentlemen, we announce that the challenger Victor Yushchenko has been decisively defeated.” However, government authorities had not taken into account one feature of Ukrainian television. The translation it provides for the hearing-impaired.
On the small screen inset in the lower right-hand corner of the television screen a brave woman raised by deaf-mute parents gave a different message in sign language. “I am addressing all the deaf citizens of Ukraine. Don’t believe what they [authorities] say. They are lying and I am ashamed to translate these lies. Yushchenko is our President!”
No one in the studio understood her radical sign-language message. Deaf people, inspired by their translator Natalya Dmitruk, led the Orange Revolution. They text-messaged their friends on mobile phones about the fraudulent elections, and soon other journalists took courage from Dmitruk’s act of defiance and likewise refused to broadcast the party line.
Over the next few weeks as many as a million people wearing orange flooded the capital city of Kiev to demand new elections. The government finally buckled under the pressure, consenting to new elections, and this Yushchenko emerged as the undisputed winner.
When Yancey heard the story behind the Orange Revolution he applied it this way: the image of a small screen of truth in the corner of the big screen became for me an ideal picture of the church. You see, we in the church do not control the big screen. (When we do, we usually mess it up.)
Go to any magazine rack or turn on the television and you will see a consistent message. What matters is how beautiful you are, how much money or power you have. Magazine covers feature shapely supermodels and handsome hunks, even though very few people look like that.
Basketball player Kevin Garnett, admits Yancey, excels at putting a round ball through a round hoop, and will earn more money this year than the entire United States Senate. What kind of society values one person’s athletic prowess more than the contributions of its top one hundred legislators?
The message of the big screen, suggests Yancey, says Consume! Indulge! Enjoy! Apart from the damage it does our planet, consider the damage we do to ourselves, says Yancey: “Every one of the gravest health concerns in the United States stems from overindulgence: smoking (emphysema, lung cancer); obesity (diabetes, heart problems); stress (heart disease, hyper-tension); alcohol (fetal damage, violent crime, automobile accidents); drug abuse; sexually transmitted diseases. We smoke too much, eat too much, drink too much, work too much, and sleep around with too many people (Yancey/pp 184-187).
As we look to 2011, we are, according to Yancey, literally destroying ourselves with our big-screen export. Democracy, said Jurgen Habermas, requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide.
Yancey concludes his chapter noting that we need a new vision in which we see ourselves not as owners but as stewards of a planet, not as masters of one another but as servants of a God of love and also justice. We need to blot out the seductive message of the big screen and start paying attention to the small screen in the lower right hand corner.
We need to build our house on the rock: to hear the words of Jesus and put them into practice. If we do so, no matter what happens with the stock market, no matter what happens with Iran or North Korea or China or any other threat, when the rains come down and the streams rise up, our house will stand“ (Matthew 7:24-27).
We need to be good citizens, participating in the political process, but we also need to recognize we do not control the big screen and will never control the big picture. But, like Natalya Dmitruk, let us be sure in 2011 that we give the true message from our small picture in the lower right corner of the screen.
As Yancey concludes, Jesus says in effect, “Don’t believe the big screen--they’re lying. It’s the poor who are blessed, not the rich. Mourners are blessed too, as well as those who hunger and thirst, and the persecuted. Those who go through life thinking they’re on top will end up on the bottom. And those who go through life feeling they’re at the very bottom will end up on top. After all, what does it profit a person to gain the whole world and lose his soul?
_____
Phillip Yancey, What Good Is God? (NY: Faith Words,2010)
Find faith that matters at Warner’s World, I am
Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com
Friday, December 24, 2010
Christmas Eve
TWAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS 2010...
In the late 1950s we all talked about the Russian sputnik. Thirty years later we watched the Spaceship Columbia dock in CA for the third time. Through that time Congress financed huge missile programs: NIKE Missiles, Polaris submarines at Mare Island, CA. President Reagan publicized defending against nuclear attacks via space bubbles stationed in space.
I have a cartoon from the Wheeling, WVA News Register (12-15-58) describing Nancy saying to Sluggo: These Christmas Carols are so pretty. Let’s stop and sing one. “Okay” Sluggo agrees and you see them singing lustily, “Peace on earth.” Behind them are store windows filled with Christmas gifts: toy tanks, missiles, aircraft, and various weapons of massive destruction.
CHRISTMAS 2010 CHALLENGES US TO REEVALUATE WHO AND WHAT WE ARE! No numerical superiority of missiles or WMD will be an effective deterrent without the guiding genius of man’s mind. The U.S. and Russian military programs eventually created enough nuclear weaponry to annihilate civilization several times; yet, America in 2010 led the world (several times over) in creating still more (unneeded) weaponry. None of it can erase selfishness and hatred from a man’s heart or make one man love another, but it does create jobs and make money. Christmas is a call to reevaluate life and look at it through the eyes of God.
Creation at the core was good (Genesis 1:31). War, nationalistic greed, hatred, and debauchery all resulted from a misguided society, led by morally insane men that keep doing the same things while expecting different results. Solomon, that very wise man, said, “God has made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”
CHRISTMAS 2010 REPEATS THE STORY OF GOD’S ETERNAL MISSILE PROJECTED INTO OUR TIME SPACE. Jesus was a guided missile launched from God’s space and time, delivered from the mind of God to the soul of man. More clearly than anything in history, Jesus revealed humanity’s misguidedness (sin). Jesus is yet showing that humanity can be redirected away from destruction’s detour, clarifying that the human heart can be personally transformed and live divinely directed in peace, joy, and good will.
The faith of men of good will, guided by Jesus, although small, has been the mustard seed that conquered mountains as great as the Roman Empire, and has overcome historical obstacles as stubborn as the conniving and scheming hearts of men of ill-will. more motivated by profit and personal gain than concern about others.
Men guided by God’s guided missile have become leaven in the loaf we call life, salt of the earth, and the light of the world. They work through local churches, relief agencies, Salvation Army Bell Ringers, and a host of Godly Messengers of good-will working feverishly to spread Christmas joy.
CHRISTMAS 2010 REVEALS HUMANITY’S DISCOVERY THAT GOD’S MESSENGER CAME TO SAVE US FROM OURSELVES. Christmas is redeemed multitudes from 2010 living in Christ Jesus as new creatures filled with love and hope, no longer captivated and subdued by an old life. Christmas is 2010 homes that possess a love that transforms houses from huts into palaces. Christmas is homes where innocent children of 2010 find space to test and practice Christian teachings and become mighty fortresses against satanic and sinful social forces.
Christmas sees through new eyes of responsibility and accountability and sees womanhood as a sacred trust that means far more than becoming an object for satisfying male sexuality (by no means the only function of womanhood). Christmas sees parenthood as a joint creation with God, and an experience of joy for the child birthed. Christmas becomes 2010 Christianity-in-action, working with native churches in unhealthy and unholy circumstances; Christmas once more remembers the story of how love and good will transform hatred and ill will.
Christmas is the reality of living the love of Christ in 2011, when
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ‘tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong,
Yet, the scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own (James Russell Lowell).
I was deeply moved when I read a local newspaper story that announced “Choirboy gone bad dies in electric chair (Three Rivers, MI Commercial, 12-14-1983). The story told how choirboy Robert Wayne Williams had gone bad. He went to his death in the Louisiana electric chair praying that his execution be a deterrent to future executions. The Reporter acknowledged that
“Williams, 31, also insisted in a brief final statement that he never
intended to kill Willie Kelly, the 67 -year-old A&P supermarket guard
he shot in the face with a shotgun during a 1979 robbery.”
That incident prompted me to contact Pastor J.D. Brown and it became a catalyst helping me redefine my beliefs about the death penalty. Brown conducted the funeral service at Faith Chapel Church of God in Baton Rouge when Williams had sung in the choir. The Eulogy revealed Williams as an 11th grade drop-out addicted to drugs.
The basic warfare of life should never be between Iraq and America, Terrorism versus the West, Hutu versus Tutu, or white versus black. Life’s real struggle is the moral issue between falsehood and truth. As Lowell wrote, Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide/In the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side.
CHRISTMAS 2010 IS YET ANOTHER REMINDER THAT TO EVERY MAN AND NATION THERE COMES SPECIAL TIMES OF CHOOSING BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG. Misguided men have led us toward war and revolution and ethnic hostilities long enough. MERRY CHRISTMAS offers another opportunity to leave the substitutes, the synthetics, and the false and begin enjoying the HOPE that is filled with love, joy, faith, and opportunity for good.
As for me, I plan to use my opportunity to allow one more death row inmate a God-given opportunity (2nd chance) for redemption. I choose to use every means available to bring peace and to use hostilities (war) ONLY as something that cannot be avoided.
This Christmas Eve, I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTmas and PEACE on earth among men OF GOOD WILL . . .
Warner’s World
walkingwithwarner.blogspot
In the late 1950s we all talked about the Russian sputnik. Thirty years later we watched the Spaceship Columbia dock in CA for the third time. Through that time Congress financed huge missile programs: NIKE Missiles, Polaris submarines at Mare Island, CA. President Reagan publicized defending against nuclear attacks via space bubbles stationed in space.
I have a cartoon from the Wheeling, WVA News Register (12-15-58) describing Nancy saying to Sluggo: These Christmas Carols are so pretty. Let’s stop and sing one. “Okay” Sluggo agrees and you see them singing lustily, “Peace on earth.” Behind them are store windows filled with Christmas gifts: toy tanks, missiles, aircraft, and various weapons of massive destruction.
CHRISTMAS 2010 CHALLENGES US TO REEVALUATE WHO AND WHAT WE ARE! No numerical superiority of missiles or WMD will be an effective deterrent without the guiding genius of man’s mind. The U.S. and Russian military programs eventually created enough nuclear weaponry to annihilate civilization several times; yet, America in 2010 led the world (several times over) in creating still more (unneeded) weaponry. None of it can erase selfishness and hatred from a man’s heart or make one man love another, but it does create jobs and make money. Christmas is a call to reevaluate life and look at it through the eyes of God.
Creation at the core was good (Genesis 1:31). War, nationalistic greed, hatred, and debauchery all resulted from a misguided society, led by morally insane men that keep doing the same things while expecting different results. Solomon, that very wise man, said, “God has made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.”
CHRISTMAS 2010 REPEATS THE STORY OF GOD’S ETERNAL MISSILE PROJECTED INTO OUR TIME SPACE. Jesus was a guided missile launched from God’s space and time, delivered from the mind of God to the soul of man. More clearly than anything in history, Jesus revealed humanity’s misguidedness (sin). Jesus is yet showing that humanity can be redirected away from destruction’s detour, clarifying that the human heart can be personally transformed and live divinely directed in peace, joy, and good will.
The faith of men of good will, guided by Jesus, although small, has been the mustard seed that conquered mountains as great as the Roman Empire, and has overcome historical obstacles as stubborn as the conniving and scheming hearts of men of ill-will. more motivated by profit and personal gain than concern about others.
Men guided by God’s guided missile have become leaven in the loaf we call life, salt of the earth, and the light of the world. They work through local churches, relief agencies, Salvation Army Bell Ringers, and a host of Godly Messengers of good-will working feverishly to spread Christmas joy.
CHRISTMAS 2010 REVEALS HUMANITY’S DISCOVERY THAT GOD’S MESSENGER CAME TO SAVE US FROM OURSELVES. Christmas is redeemed multitudes from 2010 living in Christ Jesus as new creatures filled with love and hope, no longer captivated and subdued by an old life. Christmas is 2010 homes that possess a love that transforms houses from huts into palaces. Christmas is homes where innocent children of 2010 find space to test and practice Christian teachings and become mighty fortresses against satanic and sinful social forces.
Christmas sees through new eyes of responsibility and accountability and sees womanhood as a sacred trust that means far more than becoming an object for satisfying male sexuality (by no means the only function of womanhood). Christmas sees parenthood as a joint creation with God, and an experience of joy for the child birthed. Christmas becomes 2010 Christianity-in-action, working with native churches in unhealthy and unholy circumstances; Christmas once more remembers the story of how love and good will transform hatred and ill will.
Christmas is the reality of living the love of Christ in 2011, when
Though the cause of evil prosper,
Yet ‘tis truth alone is strong;
Though her portion be the scaffold,
And upon the throne be wrong,
Yet, the scaffold sways the future,
And, behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow
Keeping watch above his own (James Russell Lowell).
I was deeply moved when I read a local newspaper story that announced “Choirboy gone bad dies in electric chair (Three Rivers, MI Commercial, 12-14-1983). The story told how choirboy Robert Wayne Williams had gone bad. He went to his death in the Louisiana electric chair praying that his execution be a deterrent to future executions. The Reporter acknowledged that
“Williams, 31, also insisted in a brief final statement that he never
intended to kill Willie Kelly, the 67 -year-old A&P supermarket guard
he shot in the face with a shotgun during a 1979 robbery.”
That incident prompted me to contact Pastor J.D. Brown and it became a catalyst helping me redefine my beliefs about the death penalty. Brown conducted the funeral service at Faith Chapel Church of God in Baton Rouge when Williams had sung in the choir. The Eulogy revealed Williams as an 11th grade drop-out addicted to drugs.
The basic warfare of life should never be between Iraq and America, Terrorism versus the West, Hutu versus Tutu, or white versus black. Life’s real struggle is the moral issue between falsehood and truth. As Lowell wrote, Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide/In the strife of truth with falsehood for the good or evil side.
CHRISTMAS 2010 IS YET ANOTHER REMINDER THAT TO EVERY MAN AND NATION THERE COMES SPECIAL TIMES OF CHOOSING BETWEEN THE RIGHT AND THE WRONG. Misguided men have led us toward war and revolution and ethnic hostilities long enough. MERRY CHRISTMAS offers another opportunity to leave the substitutes, the synthetics, and the false and begin enjoying the HOPE that is filled with love, joy, faith, and opportunity for good.
As for me, I plan to use my opportunity to allow one more death row inmate a God-given opportunity (2nd chance) for redemption. I choose to use every means available to bring peace and to use hostilities (war) ONLY as something that cannot be avoided.
This Christmas Eve, I wish you a very MERRY CHRISTmas and PEACE on earth among men OF GOOD WILL . . .
Warner’s World
walkingwithwarner.blogspot
Friday, December 10, 2010
Celebrating His Peace
12-10-10; I sit at my computer in South-central Michigan midway between Turkey Day and Christ-day. A brilliant sun shines in my west window warming my upstairs bedroom-office. My spouse sleeps quietly, her heating pad on her back, tucked in downstairs, leaving me some moments for reflection.
Our friend La Vaughn wrote the following lines how ever many years ago, which I intended to use on Turkey-day, but was away from my computer. Her reflections fill me with thoughts to consider before I go down to fix dinner. “Reflections On Thanksgiving Day” offers words we all need to ponder:
I not only have joy,
I have peace!
I not only have plenty,
I have abundance!
I am not only free from pain,
I have good health!
I not only have a house,
I have a home!
I not only have acquaintances,
I have friends!
I not only have a mate,
I have a partner!
I not only have an Almighty God,
I have a heavenly Father!
I AM SO BLESSED!
La Vaughn now lives in Roswell, NM with her husband of more than 50 years, Jim Goss. We met in 1947 in San Antonio; she was the preacher’s kid. Her parents, Robert and Alta Ruth Bowden left Missouri, pastored in Kansas and Missouri, but spent their lives pioneering in Texas, in Church of God ministry.
During my final pastoral years, I kept the business card of La Vaughn’s dad, R. E. Bowden stuck in the frame of my bathroom mirror. "Brother B" had carefully crossed out “50” years in ministry and inserted “65.” One of my dearest recollections of this veteran retiree was him making a 130 mile round trip every Sunday to provide a preaching service to a struggling little congregation that could no longer afford pastoral services.
As we approach a very simple 2010 Christmas, we approach it with reverent thankfulness for a lifetime of people like the Bowden’s (and all the others) who became part of our lives and whatever our heritage is. That includes a grandson I hope to live long enough to see fulfill his dream of being one of God’s Prophets.
We have the things we need for this day--not the plenty or abundance people “think” they need these days, but we have a home at our house and it is filled with grace-filled relationships, surrounded by sensitive friends that sympathize, empathize, and spread love and grace everywhere they go.
Our old house is filled with the pain of a mate who has lived on borrowed time most of her life. Yet today, I am thankful to have Someone to thank for her life and for my relatively good health, in spite of current infirmities. I was supposed to outlive her by a lifetime, but we will soon celebrate 64 years--married.
At noon, she talked to her baby, the “preemie,” a gift she could not medically conceive--but she did. Later, we took a call from number one grandson and discussed his growing passion for being a “disciple” of Jesus. He is a “privilege” I gave up hope of having. Although that marriage finally failed, it left us two wonderful grandsons.
I’ve talked to God for 20 years and coveted these boys for God's service. Today’s conversation focused on the journey #1 grandson is pursuing. Time will tell, but I see God leading him into a preaching ministry, beyond the sounds of music he has heard since he was but a tiny fetus.
In spite of war, depression, and political bickering at every turn, La Vaughn’s choice of words in her Thanksgiving Reflections cause me to reflect on the birth of Christ and the year’s end. Joy. Peace. Blessing. These are words Christians experience. They were words that announced the beginnings of Christ’s journey from Bethlehem to Calvary. As such, they launch the beginnings of the Christian Calendar.
What was the angelic music the Shepherds heard when they learned of Jesus’ extraordinary birth? “Peace on earth among men of good will.” O. F. Linn, my beloved Dean, explained it this way: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among men of good will,” says the Greek. Jesus came during an era of universal peace. There has never been so much peace in the world since …
“But from the time of that glad angelic song there has been a deep and lasting peace among men of good will (emphasis added). International hatreds and prejudices may sweep as destructive storms over the nations of the earth, but through Jesus there is a good will that binds with imperishable bonds, the redeemed of all lands. . .” (47-48/Studies in the New Testament/Linn).
We do well to celebrate those words as we once more remember the birth of the Holy Child.
From Warner’s World,
May you be blessed with that peace that passes all understanding, walkingwithwarner,blogspot.com
Our friend La Vaughn wrote the following lines how ever many years ago, which I intended to use on Turkey-day, but was away from my computer. Her reflections fill me with thoughts to consider before I go down to fix dinner. “Reflections On Thanksgiving Day” offers words we all need to ponder:
I not only have joy,
I have peace!
I not only have plenty,
I have abundance!
I am not only free from pain,
I have good health!
I not only have a house,
I have a home!
I not only have acquaintances,
I have friends!
I not only have a mate,
I have a partner!
I not only have an Almighty God,
I have a heavenly Father!
I AM SO BLESSED!
La Vaughn now lives in Roswell, NM with her husband of more than 50 years, Jim Goss. We met in 1947 in San Antonio; she was the preacher’s kid. Her parents, Robert and Alta Ruth Bowden left Missouri, pastored in Kansas and Missouri, but spent their lives pioneering in Texas, in Church of God ministry.
During my final pastoral years, I kept the business card of La Vaughn’s dad, R. E. Bowden stuck in the frame of my bathroom mirror. "Brother B" had carefully crossed out “50” years in ministry and inserted “65.” One of my dearest recollections of this veteran retiree was him making a 130 mile round trip every Sunday to provide a preaching service to a struggling little congregation that could no longer afford pastoral services.
As we approach a very simple 2010 Christmas, we approach it with reverent thankfulness for a lifetime of people like the Bowden’s (and all the others) who became part of our lives and whatever our heritage is. That includes a grandson I hope to live long enough to see fulfill his dream of being one of God’s Prophets.
We have the things we need for this day--not the plenty or abundance people “think” they need these days, but we have a home at our house and it is filled with grace-filled relationships, surrounded by sensitive friends that sympathize, empathize, and spread love and grace everywhere they go.
Our old house is filled with the pain of a mate who has lived on borrowed time most of her life. Yet today, I am thankful to have Someone to thank for her life and for my relatively good health, in spite of current infirmities. I was supposed to outlive her by a lifetime, but we will soon celebrate 64 years--married.
At noon, she talked to her baby, the “preemie,” a gift she could not medically conceive--but she did. Later, we took a call from number one grandson and discussed his growing passion for being a “disciple” of Jesus. He is a “privilege” I gave up hope of having. Although that marriage finally failed, it left us two wonderful grandsons.
I’ve talked to God for 20 years and coveted these boys for God's service. Today’s conversation focused on the journey #1 grandson is pursuing. Time will tell, but I see God leading him into a preaching ministry, beyond the sounds of music he has heard since he was but a tiny fetus.
In spite of war, depression, and political bickering at every turn, La Vaughn’s choice of words in her Thanksgiving Reflections cause me to reflect on the birth of Christ and the year’s end. Joy. Peace. Blessing. These are words Christians experience. They were words that announced the beginnings of Christ’s journey from Bethlehem to Calvary. As such, they launch the beginnings of the Christian Calendar.
What was the angelic music the Shepherds heard when they learned of Jesus’ extraordinary birth? “Peace on earth among men of good will.” O. F. Linn, my beloved Dean, explained it this way: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, among men of good will,” says the Greek. Jesus came during an era of universal peace. There has never been so much peace in the world since …
“But from the time of that glad angelic song there has been a deep and lasting peace among men of good will (emphasis added). International hatreds and prejudices may sweep as destructive storms over the nations of the earth, but through Jesus there is a good will that binds with imperishable bonds, the redeemed of all lands. . .” (47-48/Studies in the New Testament/Linn).
We do well to celebrate those words as we once more remember the birth of the Holy Child.
From Warner’s World,
May you be blessed with that peace that passes all understanding, walkingwithwarner,blogspot.com
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Christians Are Bible Readers
My friend John Charter shared recently with me as he sometimes does. He wrote CHURCH DROPOUTS … THE REALITY AND THE REMEDY. I did minor grammatical editing and thought I improved the readability, but I did not change the content of John’s message. Following John’s comments, I added some notes of my own. See what you think.
The current issue of “Christianity Today” (11/10) has an article addressing the question, “Why are the 20-30 year olds abandoning the faith in increasing numbers today?” The article goes beyond those who quit attending Church and speaks about the many now openly declaring they no longer believe in Christianity. ABC news (11/10/10 p.m.) reported another disturbing trend, interviewing Pastors and discussing the fact that a growing number of active Ministers are now atheists, but reluctantly continue to serve their congregations because they are unqualified for other kinds of employment.
This alarming trend represents one of the most challenging issues true Christians confront in these turbulent times. We know from the New Testament that times of falling away are possible in the Church Age, and Jesus even spoke about the possibility that when he returns true faith might be hard to find. Thus, the question--like it or not--confronts us: “What can faithful Pastors and Lay persons do to reverse this tragic trend?” The reality is one of spreading apathy, apostasy and hypocrisy in both the pew and the pulpit. Evangelical Churches concerned with combating this creeping plague need to discern and apply a realistic remedy?
An effective response lies in applying an obvious analogy. We all know one of the basic keys to successful marriage is communication. Communication is essential in maintaining intimacy, physically, emotionally and socially. This same ingredient is essential to true Christianity, for maintaining a vital spiritual relationship daily with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most common reason for dropouts in the pew and pulpit may be the fact that individuals have never had a personal encounter with Jesus as Savior and Lord. Obviously, someone who has never experienced the inward witness that comes with being born of the Spirit, may feel out of place in a dynamic worship setting where others seem to be so intimately involved and blessed. On the other hand, just as in marriage, a truly heavenly heart warming experience can wither and die without a continuing relationship based in ongoing nurturing.
Pastoral priority in ministry must always be about winning and cultivating strong healthy Christians. Central to pastoral teaching, preaching and counseling must be the importance of maintaining a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus, daily. First, the Pastor must set the example. Second, every pastoral leader must maintain a healthy personal daily devotional life through systematic Bible reading and Prayer.
When a congregation becomes aware of the pastor’s private spiritual life, and sees it reflecting a Christ like example, the congregation will respect their leadership and enthusiastically emulate their life style. As shepherds of the flock, Pastors are biblically commissioned to lead the flock, and when they do lead the people will follow them, recognizing that they are loved, encouraged, nurtured and guided in their walk of faith.
Healthy congregations are by-products of spiritually healthy leadership. This is the timeless Biblical plan for combating the threatening “Dropout” syndrome. It is the Divine Antidote for any subtle spirit of doubt, unbelief, agnosticism and even atheism.
The urgent need today is for Pastors to provide leadership and materials for the believer’s daily personal devotional life. A plan to read the New Testament in one year is an ideal goal to get them started, along with a recommended Bible commentary. Prayer helps, such as an expanded outline of the Lord’s teachings, offers a good practical resource.
This is my response to the current dilemma facing Evangelical Churches today! (John T. Charter – Retired Pastor)
SOME RESPONSES...
I agree, we need more bible reading and spiritual formation. The reality, however, is that current trending is not necessarily new or any more threatening than previously. Trends have always offered threats and challenges but they are merely trends, and like fads, they twist and turn. That conflict may make novels and sell magazines but it does not necessarily tell all the truth. A half-full glass of water may be viewed as half full or half empty, depending on your perspective. My years in ministry have not shown me many atheistic pastors in evangelical pulpits, but they have reflected many different lay & clergy responses to how we do church.
These are negative times! This only makes it the more important for Christians offer the needed glimmer’s of hope. With John, I believe the Christian faith offers the best expression of hope for our times and I find that hope in the Bible.
Mega-church pastors like Bill Hybels at Willow Creek recognize they have fallen woefully short of producing biblically literate and spiritually disciplined members in their attempts to reach the masses, so John’s point is well taken! It is true, “The Bible is our rule of faith.” It may be seriously questioned as to how serious a "non-reader" can be about living a Christian life.
Yet, some always look for other means. However, any achieving athlete knows there are no substitutes for team practices, learning the plays, and building physical endurance. Ours is not a culture of discipline; thus churches are filled with couch-potato Christians, biblically illiterate and theologically infantile.
For one thing, we threw out the baby with the educational bathwater when we minimized Christian Education and went to more culturally popular “touchy-feely” small groups (and I don‘t minimize their worth). Both approaches are needed, but people will continue to challenge the status quo of religious faith. I suggest we use our opportunities, teach the enduring truths of Scripture. If need be, learn how the youngs and post moderns process life and develop new insights for developing pro-active spiritual maturity. Without a return to more disciplined bible reading and spiritual formation, we will fail to develop as mature Christians and our witness will eventually dilute into the nothingness of ritualism.
We face very different times from those of our forefathers and America is a very different nation today. They had little comprehension of the kind of nation we have become, but they left us with a Constitution and a basic biblical understanding that gives us the tools we need to build a nation in which we can maintain our national unity while allowing for religious diversity. Only with our Judaio-Christian rootage can we find the common good where all people can live together in a national unity in spite of our diversities.
Another thought to consider is this: perhaps those departing 20-30 year-olds are not leaving the faith as much as they are the institutional forms of their faith. Some of our institutional forms frequently fail to be little more than “sacred cows.” If we were more biblically sensitive, we might just find that some of those sacred cows are not that much of a loss in terms of offering spiritual healing to the world.
From Warner’s World,
this is John Charter and yours truly
At walkingwithwarner.com
The current issue of “Christianity Today” (11/10) has an article addressing the question, “Why are the 20-30 year olds abandoning the faith in increasing numbers today?” The article goes beyond those who quit attending Church and speaks about the many now openly declaring they no longer believe in Christianity. ABC news (11/10/10 p.m.) reported another disturbing trend, interviewing Pastors and discussing the fact that a growing number of active Ministers are now atheists, but reluctantly continue to serve their congregations because they are unqualified for other kinds of employment.
This alarming trend represents one of the most challenging issues true Christians confront in these turbulent times. We know from the New Testament that times of falling away are possible in the Church Age, and Jesus even spoke about the possibility that when he returns true faith might be hard to find. Thus, the question--like it or not--confronts us: “What can faithful Pastors and Lay persons do to reverse this tragic trend?” The reality is one of spreading apathy, apostasy and hypocrisy in both the pew and the pulpit. Evangelical Churches concerned with combating this creeping plague need to discern and apply a realistic remedy?
An effective response lies in applying an obvious analogy. We all know one of the basic keys to successful marriage is communication. Communication is essential in maintaining intimacy, physically, emotionally and socially. This same ingredient is essential to true Christianity, for maintaining a vital spiritual relationship daily with the Lord Jesus Christ.
The most common reason for dropouts in the pew and pulpit may be the fact that individuals have never had a personal encounter with Jesus as Savior and Lord. Obviously, someone who has never experienced the inward witness that comes with being born of the Spirit, may feel out of place in a dynamic worship setting where others seem to be so intimately involved and blessed. On the other hand, just as in marriage, a truly heavenly heart warming experience can wither and die without a continuing relationship based in ongoing nurturing.
Pastoral priority in ministry must always be about winning and cultivating strong healthy Christians. Central to pastoral teaching, preaching and counseling must be the importance of maintaining a vital relationship with the Lord Jesus, daily. First, the Pastor must set the example. Second, every pastoral leader must maintain a healthy personal daily devotional life through systematic Bible reading and Prayer.
When a congregation becomes aware of the pastor’s private spiritual life, and sees it reflecting a Christ like example, the congregation will respect their leadership and enthusiastically emulate their life style. As shepherds of the flock, Pastors are biblically commissioned to lead the flock, and when they do lead the people will follow them, recognizing that they are loved, encouraged, nurtured and guided in their walk of faith.
Healthy congregations are by-products of spiritually healthy leadership. This is the timeless Biblical plan for combating the threatening “Dropout” syndrome. It is the Divine Antidote for any subtle spirit of doubt, unbelief, agnosticism and even atheism.
The urgent need today is for Pastors to provide leadership and materials for the believer’s daily personal devotional life. A plan to read the New Testament in one year is an ideal goal to get them started, along with a recommended Bible commentary. Prayer helps, such as an expanded outline of the Lord’s teachings, offers a good practical resource.
This is my response to the current dilemma facing Evangelical Churches today! (John T. Charter – Retired Pastor)
SOME RESPONSES...
I agree, we need more bible reading and spiritual formation. The reality, however, is that current trending is not necessarily new or any more threatening than previously. Trends have always offered threats and challenges but they are merely trends, and like fads, they twist and turn. That conflict may make novels and sell magazines but it does not necessarily tell all the truth. A half-full glass of water may be viewed as half full or half empty, depending on your perspective. My years in ministry have not shown me many atheistic pastors in evangelical pulpits, but they have reflected many different lay & clergy responses to how we do church.
These are negative times! This only makes it the more important for Christians offer the needed glimmer’s of hope. With John, I believe the Christian faith offers the best expression of hope for our times and I find that hope in the Bible.
Mega-church pastors like Bill Hybels at Willow Creek recognize they have fallen woefully short of producing biblically literate and spiritually disciplined members in their attempts to reach the masses, so John’s point is well taken! It is true, “The Bible is our rule of faith.” It may be seriously questioned as to how serious a "non-reader" can be about living a Christian life.
Yet, some always look for other means. However, any achieving athlete knows there are no substitutes for team practices, learning the plays, and building physical endurance. Ours is not a culture of discipline; thus churches are filled with couch-potato Christians, biblically illiterate and theologically infantile.
For one thing, we threw out the baby with the educational bathwater when we minimized Christian Education and went to more culturally popular “touchy-feely” small groups (and I don‘t minimize their worth). Both approaches are needed, but people will continue to challenge the status quo of religious faith. I suggest we use our opportunities, teach the enduring truths of Scripture. If need be, learn how the youngs and post moderns process life and develop new insights for developing pro-active spiritual maturity. Without a return to more disciplined bible reading and spiritual formation, we will fail to develop as mature Christians and our witness will eventually dilute into the nothingness of ritualism.
We face very different times from those of our forefathers and America is a very different nation today. They had little comprehension of the kind of nation we have become, but they left us with a Constitution and a basic biblical understanding that gives us the tools we need to build a nation in which we can maintain our national unity while allowing for religious diversity. Only with our Judaio-Christian rootage can we find the common good where all people can live together in a national unity in spite of our diversities.
Another thought to consider is this: perhaps those departing 20-30 year-olds are not leaving the faith as much as they are the institutional forms of their faith. Some of our institutional forms frequently fail to be little more than “sacred cows.” If we were more biblically sensitive, we might just find that some of those sacred cows are not that much of a loss in terms of offering spiritual healing to the world.
From Warner’s World,
this is John Charter and yours truly
At walkingwithwarner.com
Saturday, December 4, 2010
WHO is Us ... ?
Bryan McFarland wrote lyrics called, “Enough for Everyone.” He asks the question,
How long will it take ‘til “us” means, “all of us”?
Planetary, universal, all of us?
And how long before we see what we throw away?
And then thousands of children die, each and every day.
Even though there’s enough, enough, enough for everyone,
more than enough, enough for us, enough for everyone (bold added).
McFarland believes we can produce enough for everybody, yet he says we have a food problem in our world.
It seems to me that more than anything else, we have a moral problem. Our problem is not just a redistribution problem of wealth, or a forced version of socialism; it is a social problem of huge moral and ethical proportions.
His lyrics are not advocating socialism, or some form of equal distribution. Nor is he seeking a free market economy or some other utopian ideology. He is advocating that we practice in our politics the moral precepts of the one true prophet of the Bible, the one who said, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me" (Matthew 25:45, NASV, italic added).
This exercise of faith crosses the political lines of Democrats, Republicans, Tea-partiers, Green party, dictatorships, democracies, socialist states, and any other kinds of egregious national, ethnic, or religious demographic by which one categorizes people.
This lyric goes to the fundamental core of true religious faith that confesses "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear ... If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also" (I John 4:18-21, NASV, italic added).
It goes almost without saying that the US Congress today makes a mockery of this truth, with its blasphemous play-acting, positioning, and politicking while playing its game of “its our vote” this December Saturday. Most congressional partisanshipl today is simply protecting their individual abilities to retain electability, while they pad their own pockets at the public trough.
What has happened to the Soul of America? We no longer have any right to offend God by calling America Christian, and absolutely no reason to deny help to Hamid Karzai because of Afghan corruption; we have too much corruption of our own in halls built for justice and integrity, but where putrid partisanship and myopic self-interests reign supreme.
From Warner’s World,
we are
walkingwithwarner,blogspot.com
How long will it take ‘til “us” means, “all of us”?
Planetary, universal, all of us?
And how long before we see what we throw away?
And then thousands of children die, each and every day.
Even though there’s enough, enough, enough for everyone,
more than enough, enough for us, enough for everyone (bold added).
McFarland believes we can produce enough for everybody, yet he says we have a food problem in our world.
It seems to me that more than anything else, we have a moral problem. Our problem is not just a redistribution problem of wealth, or a forced version of socialism; it is a social problem of huge moral and ethical proportions.
His lyrics are not advocating socialism, or some form of equal distribution. Nor is he seeking a free market economy or some other utopian ideology. He is advocating that we practice in our politics the moral precepts of the one true prophet of the Bible, the one who said, "Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me" (Matthew 25:45, NASV, italic added).
This exercise of faith crosses the political lines of Democrats, Republicans, Tea-partiers, Green party, dictatorships, democracies, socialist states, and any other kinds of egregious national, ethnic, or religious demographic by which one categorizes people.
This lyric goes to the fundamental core of true religious faith that confesses "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear ... If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from Him, that the one who loves God should love his brother also" (I John 4:18-21, NASV, italic added).
It goes almost without saying that the US Congress today makes a mockery of this truth, with its blasphemous play-acting, positioning, and politicking while playing its game of “its our vote” this December Saturday. Most congressional partisanshipl today is simply protecting their individual abilities to retain electability, while they pad their own pockets at the public trough.
What has happened to the Soul of America? We no longer have any right to offend God by calling America Christian, and absolutely no reason to deny help to Hamid Karzai because of Afghan corruption; we have too much corruption of our own in halls built for justice and integrity, but where putrid partisanship and myopic self-interests reign supreme.
From Warner’s World,
we are
walkingwithwarner,blogspot.com
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