Strengthening Our Foundations

Reopening the Leaning Tower of Pisa in 2001 followed an expensive $25 million renovation and kept it closed

for a dozen years. During that time workers removed 110 tons of dirt from beneath the tower, stabilized the foundation, and corrected sixteen inches of tilt. The sandy soil lacked the stability needed to sustain a monument of the weight of the Pisa tower, leaving it tilted heavily to one side.

           

Walking side-by-side with Christ minimizes the effects of eroding foundations like the shifting sands beneath Pisa’s tilted Tower. When Jesus returned with Peter, James, and John, from the Mount of Transfiguration; they found a large crowd in a noisy confrontation. The disciples who stayed behind had been unable to heal a boy with an unclean spirit. A troubled dad had sought their help, but their spiritual formation was such that they could do nothing but await the return of Jesus.

Upon returning, Jesus healed the boy. When finally alone with the disciples, the disciples asked Jesus why they could not heal the lad. “This kind can come out only by prayer,” Jesus concluded (Mark 9:29).             

Prayer adds spiritual dimensions into one’s spiritual formation, enabling one to walk with Jesus and serve in simple trust. Upon returning to Capernaum, Jesus asked what they discussed so diligently while they were walking. When they did not admit their competitive spirits, Jesus went to the source of their striving by gathering them around him and describing the true greatness of leadership.

You want greatness? Serve others! Wait at the end of the line! Assist the least among you (33-37)! Strong spiritual formation results when prayer rises upward out of deep trust in God, Christ becomes our bulls-eye--the target at which we aim (38-50).  We become our message (39). We compliment others, rather than compete with them, because we serve in his name. We anticipate a full and fair reward for each, and the cups of cold water we give in his name make our message more important than the messenger.

This living the life—orthopraxy, brings its own rewards; whereas breaking fellowship--offending the child--offends God. Disciplined living reduces the torments of clinging hindrances, improves behavior, and increases our delight in God’s presence. Following are a daily dozen for disciples wanting to correct the tilt caused by shifting sands.

Confess Jesus as Lord (Romans 10:9-10; Philippians 2:11).

Depend daily on the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 5:18; Acts 11:8).

Pray without ceasing (I Thessalonians 5:17; Luke 18:1).

Search the Scriptures daily (John 5:39; Acts 17:11).

Attend public worship regularly (Hebrews 10:25; Psalm 50:5).

Invest liberally without grudging (2 Corinthians 9:7; Luke 6:38).

Prioritize Jesus’ mission (John 4:35; Matthew 38:19-20).

Deny self and live for others (Matthew 20:26-28; I John 3:15).

Witness to someone daily (Acts 2:42).

Grow in grace (I Peter 3:18; Ephesians 4:12-16).

Memorize a Bible verse (Psalm 119:11; Daniel 12:3).

Carry your Bible as a travelling companion (Titus 1:2; Philippians 2:16).

          

Taste the full flavor of being at peace with one another, united in purpose, and powerful in sharing His-story. And remember: second best always costs more than it saves.

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Keeping Neighborly Relations

I had a thought-provoking discussion with a young medical technician recently as she prepped me for a biopsy. While I quizzed her about her medical career, she responded by informing me that she had no medical insurance. She had to pay cash if she had a medical problem arise.

This young woman works for a prominent medical doctor in our community, a fine Christian man of a different denomination than me but a highly respected gentleman nonetheless. I’ve been pondering that and remembering when my spouse worked for a “Christian” business man who paid no insurance, paid minimum wages although he was quite generous in his personal gifts to some of his management people, and as an entrepreneur he always “operated” on the other guy’s money, paying his bills as late as possible and with other such tactics that supported his entrepreneurial business philosophy.

I am not an economist! However, this all seems to pre-suppose that as an employer if I cannot provide employee medical insurance I am justified in paying only what I can afford, even if I could not live on it. This brings us to the numerous news stories regarding institutions like McDonalds and Walmart and the issue of low level employees striking for a supposedly living wage. Going one step further brings up the issue of CEOs justifiably receiving obscene piles of money while paying only low-level salaries to down-the-ladder employees.

As I listen to economists and other public commentators sound forth today, there is in our culture the recognition that "business is business" and it is all about crunching numbers and the profit line. People issues are only “crunched numbers.”

Having gone this far, I now see my young medical tech as part of a large labor pool at the bottom of the social ladder being manipulated according to the myopic needs of capitalists who may vary from corporate executives to entrepreneurs who have borrowed a “shoe-string amount” to launch into business and travel the highway toward the American Dream.

I must say, by this time in my life I have become very uncomfortable with this philosophy that operates entirely out of one’s personal perspective, without regard for the other person, not to mention the common good. How do I as a Christian integrate the teachings of Jesus into my behavior so that my beliefs and my behavior become one and the same?

Some people answer this by privatizing faith; separating my private life from my public life, especially if I am a politician. This justifies schizophrenic behavior that separates the public me from the private me and produces an unhealthy split personality. This person simply says “business is business … politics is dirty business.” This person lives as a two-sided coin: one side is religiously nice and the other side is dirty – unclean – or whatever is needed, and the two never meet! Their behavioral life becomes entirely relative and controlled by their context—they have no solid creed to live by.

I do not pretend to have the answer! I offer no panacea to cure it all. What I know at this point is that I have chosen to integrate the teachings of Jesus Christ into my beliefs and behavior, because I believe life in Christ is the right way for people to live. So, here I am asking myself how can a self-professed Christian doctor (or whoever) hire and pay a wage for which s/he would not work. We are expecting our employee to work for an income we would find unacceptable, and we do this knowing s/he cannot afford to do better (or does s/he?)

The bottom line says (to me) if I don’t have the money to pay this person the usual expected amenities of society; that makes it okay for me to treat them as I would not wish to be treated and pay them a substandard salary so that I can get started. They will take the job because they need that income, limited though it may be, for they are hungry and they need it. The zinger in it is that Jesus said “in as much as you do it unto the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

This bit of wisdom from Jesus reinforces the story he told about the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). There, Jesus told an enquirer that the way to eternal life was briefly summarized by 1) loving God supremely and 2) loving your neighbor as yourself! Simply stated, if I need a living wage for my family, so does my neighbor; if I need medical insurance (as commonly practiced in our economy), so does my neighbor!

My conclusion: To follow Jesus, and be a Christian employer, I must figure my business operating expenses in such a way that I treat my employee(s) as I would want to be treated. That may not follow the rules of an MBA degree in business management, but it certainly comes closer to living by the principles Jesus set forth for his disciples to follow.

I must live in ethical relationship with my neighbor; otherwise circumstances  do not justify my being in business.Here is a different way of expressing the point:

Christ has no hands but our hands to do his work today,

He has no feet but our feet to lead men in his way:

He has no tongue but our tongues to tell them how he died,

He has no help but our help to bring them to his side.

We are the only Bible the careless world will read,

We are the sinner’s gospel, we are the scoffer’s creed;

We are the Lord’s last message given in deed and word,

What if the type is crooked? What if the print is blurred?

What if our hands are busy with other things than his?

What if our feet are walking where sin’s allurement is?

What if our tongues are speaking of things his life would spurn?

How can we hope to help him  and welcome his return? (Anonymous)

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The House That Hope Built

Noted Black Historian John Hope Franklin owned a Green House where he doted over his magnificent collection of Orchids. Filled with a variety of plants, his plant sanctuary hosted something in bloom during every season. Franklin called this his “house of hope.”

Life in Christ offers us a “house of hope” where eternal spring blossoms perpetually in the human heart. Refreshed and recharged through worship, Scripture reading, and extending friendship without expectation of something in return, He sends us forth to live as windows through which God’s Son-shine warms and comforts.

Across the decades, multitudes have found their faith refreshed and renewed through His “Blessed hope”:              

               Blessed hope we have within us is an anchor to the soul,

                              It is both steadfast and sure;

               It is founded on the promises of the Father’s written word,

                              And ‘twill ever-more endure.¹

              

As songwriter William Schell wrote, Harold Arendt exercised this audacious hope through singing songs of faith that affirmed God‘s love for him. Young Harold grew up in a Church of God parsonage where he watched the people under his father’s pioneer ministry. He saw God filling the lives of Church of God people and filling other people’s lives with hope that enabled them to bless still others in turn. They were a living embodiment of the words written by the Psalmist: “As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight (16:3, NIV).

Translating personal hope into working faith empowered Harold to pursue his dream of becoming an educator. To achieve his goal, Harold drove truck, worked in a bakery, clerked in a grocery store, and did piece work in a nearby factory. His hope-filled faith proved ever dependable and he obtained his education. Receiving that coveted Doctor of Education degree allowed Harold to invest the rest of his Christian life in public education.

He spent his best years investing himself in his pupils; until finally one day he received an anonymous telephone call. The mysterious caller announced, “I’m the boy who started the fire.”

Harold remembered that star football player from a few years earlier. “I’m now a teacher in the public schools,” he announced, “and I thought you would like to know that you are the one who inspired me to be a teacher.”

Harold recalled the fire that ignited in a box of shavings in the school’s brand new industrial arts facility. He remembered quietly but quickly stepping to the sink in the rear of the room, filling a bucket with water, and dousing the flames before returning to his desk - without fanfare.

School authorities only learned of it only when the troubled youth finally confessed, “I had never seen you excited and I wanted to see what you would do when you were excited.” 

Harold’s quiet demeanor and consistent faith somehow fired the aspirations of that young student. He felt inspired to become a teacher, just like the man he so much admired. Through Harold’s years of teaching, the hope he had first seen in the lives of other parishioners eventually became a capital investment in Harold’s personal life. In turn, Harold reinvested that capital and it paid off handsomely in the lives of young students like that young football player.

A quiet demeanor accompanied by consistent behavior very often offers the best of hope to others looking for personal affirmation. Such hope empowers people to stretch themselves. Hope conditions people to reach outward and upward. Such hope elevated Saul of Tarsus to a new level of human achievement as the Apostle Paul. 

Paul's house of hope prompted him to acknowledge that his relationship with Jesus hope kept him steadfast and sure, and caused him to further conclude, “we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who are called according to His purpose.” ²  

^____________

1 William G. Schell, “We Have a Hope.” (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), p. 727.

              

2 Romans 8:28, NASB.

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Characteristically Barney. . .

Ten days before his death, Pastor Ernest Fremont Tittle informed his Evanston, IL United Methodist congregation that while Christianity brings pain it is first and foremost a religion of joy.

Dr. Tittle recalled the persecution experienced by Christians in that first century. They were poor. They were cruelly harassed. Yet, they were notably happy. By the time of the third century, Tittle concluded, a Christian could say “The church is the one thing in the world that always rejoices.”

This is something people of the Church of God Movement of Anderson, IN have always understood. Sixteen year old Barney discovered this unspeakable joy when he experienced a religious conversion in the 1880’s revivalism in southwest MI, led by Joseph Fisher, Daniel Warner and others.

As a result, he obtained his father’s permission and left home to travel in a musical ensemble with evangelist Dan Warner. Barney began by singing bass in that gospel group and that led him nation-wide into a life of musical evangelism. As a result, he served a long and fruitful life as a preacher-pastor, song evangelist, and prolific song composer. He eventually penned more than two thousand songs, spending his final years in Springfield, OH (His camp meeting cabin can be inspected in Anderson, IN where our friend Dale Stults relocted it).

Characteristic of Barney’s music was the unspeakable joy and the glory of the Christians who joined him in walking with Christ. When sung by faithful Church of God believers, Barney’s music produced a symphony of choral joy.

I never met Barney, although we grew up probably no more than five miles apart in our southwestern Michigan community. We were a few years apart, but he preceded me by perhaps for decades, although our lives overlapped each other. As a boy however, every time I attended church, his name topped numerous pages in the green hymnal from which I sang. I knew him only as the “Chief Singer,”¹ but his lyrics fortified me as my life extended into the adult decades of life and ministry.

One of Barney’s hymns still much beloved is “Joy Unspeakable.” In it Barney assures me that the Grace of God’s is more than mere soft soap; it is vastly superior to the cleansing powers of that liquid I squirt into my dishwater as I wash my dishes. His inspired words remind me that

I have found His grace is all complete,

He supplieth ev’ry need;

While I sit and learn at Jesus’ feet,

I am free, yes free indeed.

It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,

Full of glory, fully of glory;

It is joy unspeakable and full of glory,

O the half has never yet been told.²

 Barney Warren’s songs of joy reinforce those teachings from the Bible teach me that at the very center of God’s great universe there is a deep, abiding, and everlasting joy.

Clement of Alexandria, one of the early church fathers of ancient history may have come as close to the truth as anyone ever did when he suggested that a beautiful hymn to God is an immortal man who is being built up in righteousness, and upon whom the oracles of truth have been engraved.

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            1 This title gave voice to a book by Axchie A. Bolitho, To the Chief Singer, A Brief Story of the Work and Influence of Barney E. Warren. (Anderson, IN: Gospel Trumpet Company, 1942).

            2 B. E. Warren, “There Is Joy in the Lord,” Worship the Lord. (Anderson: Warner Press, Inc., 1989), p.616.

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The Miracle of Forgiveness

Theologian Albrecht Ritschl declared “justification and reconciliation is the central doctrine of Christianity.” Edinburgh Professor, H. R. Mackintosh, said of Jesus, “In His person the Kingdom of God is here” (The Christian Experience of Forgiveness, Fontana Books, 1961, 12-13). Now Catherine Larsen describes colonialism, racism, political manipulation, and genocide as she observed it in Rwanda following the slaughter in that country (Larson/As We Forgive/ Zondervan/2009).

Larsen traces the obvious threads of reconciliation she found woven into public life in post-genocidal Rwanda. She met victims and perpetrators, including widows and orphans, intersecting at that place where Rwanda’s past and future clashed. Tutsi Antoine Rutayesire endured 100-days of Hutu neighbors slashing, bludgeoning, and burning his Tutsi neighbors and leaving one of eight of his countrymen dead.

Conflict became seemingly inevitable in Rwanda when the government released 40,000 prisoners back into society in 2003 and more in 2007. Although suffering, memory, and identity created huge emotional roadblocks to forgiveness, Larson reveals to readers how mediation, truth-telling, restitution, and interdependence played successful roles in initiating healing and in restoring relationships to a renewed level of wholeness.

Writing on a subject that haunts humanity, Larsen offers Biblical solutions that prove practical in a world standing waist deep in violence and separated by generations of hatred. The Old Testament prophet could almost have been writing to our generation when he cried out, “Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by?” (Lamentations 1:12 KJV).

With the new genocidal wave of religious extermination, I see forgiveness as an issue of increasing importance to the church, Christians in general, and to the world at large. It could affect international relationships for generations to come.  Will we persist in using our words like battering rams, denigrating and dehumanizing, dividing and devouring one another? Surely, our explosion of computerized knowledge empowers us to Google resources we can apply to our broken relationships! Is a shared future an impossible vision for our globe?            

In view of the forgiveness that Larsen found following the slaughter of a million African souls of Rwandan families and friends suggests to me that our generation owes it to ourselves and our neighbors to at least explore the social-psychological and spiritual dimensions for achieving a more lasting peace in these war-weary days.

Oscar Romero believed that peace comes not with terror, fear, or silent cemeteries. As more than merely repressed violence, peace suggested Romero promises the “generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is dynamism. Peace is generosity. It is right and it is duty.”              

Shalom, in the Hebrew language, defines peace as looking for the well-being of both victims and offenders, with all flourishing together as God was in Christ. God never erased the scars of crucifixion; He left them to testify to the pain of love, and John 3:16 was the extent to which He could extend himself to conquer evil.

Forgiveness offers active suffering when extended on behalf of victims. Forgiveness creates a pathway of redemption--peace--shalom. Only such love can conquer hostility and mend broken relationships. Thus, George joined the pastoral staff of a Columbus, Ohio Church of God when looking for a place from which to offer people safe Haven.

When I met George at an Anderson, IN Christian Convention he was using the following acrostic as he worked at building bridges with people searching aimlessly, looking for a safe haven from the stormy living that left them stranded:

Help those in need

Adore God

Value God’s grace

Encourage one another

Nurture spiritual gifts 

Forgiveness opens the door to the only real safe haven available for restored relationships. Only in God’s Shalom is there hope for a miracle on our broken planet. Only in Christian circles can you find people like George who can guide you to such a haven.

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Faith and Politics

Recalling great personalities of Evangelical History like Wilberforce and John Newton, Jim Wallis writes that “Similarly in the nineteenth century, American religious revivalism was linked directly with the abolition of slavery and other movements for social reform. Wallis references this conclusion from historian Michael Kazin: “From the Second Great Awakening in the 1820s to the 1920s, there was a period where social movements were infused with the evangelical spirit” (Wallis/The Great Awakening, Seven Ways to Change the World/Harper-Collins/ 2008).

Wallis is not alone in such thinking! This does dump him off in the far-away country of theological liberalism, as some would like to believe, and which many to-the-right political conservatives discredit as mere “political correctness.”  I have written about this before in reference to Nazarene Historian Timothy L. Smith, who among others found historical antecedents of the social-gospel in the revivalism of the nineteenth century Holiness Movement, rather than the later social gospel of liberalism.

Whatever current politics may assert, church history confirms “evangelical   Christians fighting for social justice, precisely because of what God had done for them—an activity with which evangelicals have not been associated in more recent years,” says Wallis.

We are reminded that nineteenth-century American evangelist Charles Finney didn’t shy away from identifying the gospel with the antislavery cause. He was a revivalist and also an abolitionist. For him, the two were closely connected. Finney, who has been called the father of American evangelism, directly linked revival and reform and popularized the altar call. Why?

Wallis suggests Finney one reason was, “They would commit their lives to Christ and then enlist for God’s purposes in the world. That’s the way it always is for revival—faith becomes life-changing, but rather than remaining restricted to personal issues and the inner life alone, it explodes into the world with a powerful force. For Finney, taking a weak or wrong position on social justice was a ‘hindrance in revival.”

One cannot read the biographies of such leaders without discovering the “evangelicalism” within their perceived theological liberalism. I cite Martin Luther King who came out of a solid-south conservative experience and did his educational studies in a more theologically liberal northeast school. 

At the height of the Montgomery bus boycott, King was receiving death threats on every hand via phone and mail. I was a young pastor in a small southern town not that distant from Montgomery and aware of the perceived liberalism of Dr. King, among other things. Stewart Burns recounts King’s epiphany in his writing To the Mountaintop, discovering at the midnight hour that ‘religion  had to become real to me’—not merely the hand-me-down family business—and I had to know God for myself. With my head in my hands, I bowed down over that cup of coffee. Oh, yes, I prayed a prayer. I prayed out loud that night ...”

Confessing his weak, faltering and fearful ways, King admitted “At that moment, I experienced the presence of the Divine as I had never experienced Him before. I could hear an inner voice saying to me, Martin Luther, stand up for righteousness, stand up for justice, stand up for the truth. And lo, I will be with you, even until the end of the world. I heard the voice of Jesus saying still to fight on. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone, No, never alone. No, never alone. He promised never to leave me, never to leave me alone.” (We recognize that hymn).

Reading a book like Jim Wallis’s The Great Awakening would do much to help conservative Church of God Christians to revive their faith and filter their politics through the red-letter words of Jesus in the Bible rather than through the left and right sides Democratic and Republican politics. It might even give the reader a better feel for the challenge issued by Dr. Jim Lyons of Church of God Ministries to become involved in a new generation of abolitionism—human trafficking.

Lyon's call is not an enlistment of the weak and the timid; the fearful, the cynic, and the doubter! It is a clear Trumpet note calling for a radical defense of the imago dei and the Christian doctrine that every human being has value, that no matter who or what one is, the church cares, if for no other reason, because we are all created in the image of God.

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Active Listening

Communication today most often means finding the right “gimmick” for grabbing someone’s attention by using the “correct method” of enabling us to give them what we want them to hear. Multitudes of educational media experts teach us how to communicate. We have developed great expertise knowing  how to communicate, but who do we teach to listen?

How well do you listen? Or, are you just looking for the right opening for jumping onto the conversational train that will once more give you direct control of the conversation? Too many of us are like the pastor who had a visit from an excited former member who had become a rural pastor  a few miles distant.

This young beginner-pastor returned home filled with youthful excitement at perceived progress; he couldn’t wait to share his good news with his idol and former mentor. As the younger man excitedly enumerated his successes, the older man sat behind his desk straightening. He put his pens and pencils back in place. He put drawer items back into the proper drawer and quietly rearranged each drawer. Never once did he give the young man the courtesy of even looking up at the enthusiastic youth.

Consequently, the young man told his story, limped to a limp conclusion, and lamely left the office  greatly disappointed and deeply disillusioned. The old veteran communicated his message very well, but he said almost nothing.He didn’t have to speak; his actions spoke louder than words, as he communicated his message of unconcern that caused the younger man to go back to school and eventually spend his life teaching young seminarians The Awesome Power of the Listening Ear (John W. Drakeford, Broadman Press).

Jesus modeled good listening. He listened with his head (ears), his  heart, and his eyes. He listened to both God and the people he encountered. Consequently, he also heard from both God and men, because he listened well. By listening actively, he communicated attentiveness, love, and concern. He practiced his own teaching, which was, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matthew 11:15).

Our most powerful means of communication today is the awesome power of our listening ears. Are you a spouse wanting to communicate with your marital mate? Are you a parent wishing to touch base with your child? Are you a concerned friend hoping to touch a point of need in the life of a friend? Are you a Sunday school teacher hoping to share a lesson? Are you someone who needs to have your life touched?

Try communicating your concern by your actively listening to the words being spoken  to you. Communicate by listening! An adventure in good listening may be the most significant key you have for communicating the message you wish to share.

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reminding you that God’s ears are ever attentive to your prayers (I Peter 3:12).

The Test of Faith

Diagnosis made Caryl part of a select group of sixty-or-so individuals around the globe fighting with an extremely rare lung disease. Doctors called it pulmonary lymphangiomyomatosis.  From her diagnosis to her death, she exhibited a strong and intentional faith, wrapped in the arms of a strong and loving family.

She owned and operated a flower shop in our city until forced to retire. Months of rehabilitation followed four corrective surgeries and a lung transplant at University of Michigan Hospital. In between times, she organized a greeting card company and raised awareness of the need for organ donors and transplantation.

In addition, Caryl raised funds to assist with her personal medical expenses. She spent additional time in an intensive letter-writing campaign advocating for increased awareness for lung transplant donors.

As to her own condition, she conceded, “I know God has placed me on earth for a purpose. I look at it as a God-given opportunity.” 

“She had her days,” admitted husband Michael, “but she never wanted people to feel sorry for her.” I was just so proud of her, he added.

Although making excellent progress, Caryl accidentally choked on a pill one day, lapsed into a coma, and died unexpectedly at the tender age of thirty-four. Wife and I first learned of her struggles through her parents. We had become friends with the parents through a mutual friend we each loved.  Our occasional visits often found us chit-chatting from table to table at a community restaurant enjoying Sunday brunch.

Caryl’s parents occasionally shared prayer requests that we carried back to our church family. They carried a heavy load of grief throughout Caryl’s extended illness and ironic death. Yet, they repeatedly shared with us the faith that made them who they were: “we don’t really understand, but God is good.”

“A lot of people take the attitude, ‘Why me?” admitted Caryl’s mom one day, and quickly adding, “Why not me; why someone else instead of me?” The exended family hitched its hopes to that powerful North Star we call faith. It was first expressed in Caryl’s Grandparents, dearly beloved and  longtime pastors of a local Pentecostal church.

The faith of this expanded family takes me back to those decisive words of Catholic Theologian, Hans Kung, who described Christians as “all those … for whom in life and death Jesus Christ is ultimately decisive” (Kung/On Being a Christian/tr. by Edward Quinn/Doubleday/1976/125).

I no longer have occasion to cross paths with any members of the Ted Flo family, and our mutual friend Jakeway went to his celestial reward at the age of ninety-five. In the meantime, I hope when people remember me, they will remember me for a faith that says, as Kung said so well, “for whom in life and death Jesus Christ is ultimately decisive.” A real Christian can hardly be described otherwise!

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The Great Commandment

A diabetic traveler named Snyder headed south on the Overseas Highway. About ten miles south of Homestead, Florida, he reported, “I had an attack and felt myself passing out. I knew I had better stop and wait for help.” He clicked on his flashers and slowly faded into a diabetic coma while hundreds of motorists raced by his parked car, sitting helplessly.

Eventually two men stopped long enough to rob him of $150. Half an hour later, the robbers returned. Discovering their victim was still without help, they added his watch and ring to their collection.

Hours later an anonymous lady stopped, but drove quickly away when asked for help. A State Trooper quickly arrived, acknowledging that an anonymous caller had reported a disabled motorist. An ambulance followed shortly.

Snyder later offered “sincere thanks” to the anonymous caller, admitting he might have been reluctant to stop and help someone in the past. “I think I’d be different now,” he confessed, “I would stop and do what I could.”

Unimaginable challenges dot our landscapes. We can work for people’s best interests, or we can take advantage of them. We can also turn our backs on them, but it is our call. In Snyder’s case, thieves took advantage.

The Good Samaritan models the option Jesus would have us follow (Luke 10). Admittedly risky, the good we can achieve readily outweighs most potential risks. We meet the Good Samaritan following a “hands on” training experience in which Jesus sent seventy witnesses into neighboring towns and villages to preach and teach.

They travelled two by two. After seeing people’s lives changed, and after experiencing God’s Amazing Grace, they returned buzzing like Bees. Jesus praised them for their efforts and reminded them that prophets and kings had waited to see what they had just experienced (23-24).

This unfolding drama prompted a distrustful but inquisitive lawyer to enquire as to how he might become a disciple. Whatever his motivation; he felt their joy. Jesus, sensing his hunger, drilled straight to the bottom of the well: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart … soul … strength, and … mind; and your neighbor as yourself“ (Luke 10:27, NASV).

Feeling vulnerable and “wishing to justify himself, the Lawyer pressed Jesus: “And who is my neighbor?

Jesus responded by describing how robbers mugged a certain business traveler. Two church members found the victim in great need, but ignored him. They were busy being faithful!

Admittedly, the Samaritan had nothing to lose; he was racially-mixed and ethnically segregated. He was a racial and religious outsider, but familiar with life around the edges. He took the risk by doing what the “blue bloods” dared not do - offer help.

Jesus praised this risk-taker from society’s outer fringes with an unqualified endorsement. “Which one of these three,” He demanded, “do you think was a neighbor” to the victim?

The lawyer readily agreed the politically incorrect Samaritan showed the most mercy. With that, Jesus declared “Go and do what he did” (Luke 10:37, NCV).¹ This simple no-frills command reveals the heart of Jesus. It could correct the course of human history, if we would practice it.

The Priest and the Levite avoided this discomfort and ignored both offenders and victim. The ostracized Samaritan took great personal risk, but did what he could.

So: “Who is our neighbor? And, what kind of neighbors will we be?^” Only at the foot of that old rugged cross is there place sufficient to allow human needs to intersect with God’s Saving Grace.

Nancy Nearing was a working mother with two children. When she learned her boss of six years was about to lose his kidneys to a genetic disease; she chose to intentionally give life rather than simply fret and wring her hands. She concluded, “I had a choice.”

This forty-two year-old Virginia technical writer worked with a team of computer programmers headed by Art Helms. As Helms’ friend and employee, she became his life-giving Samaritan by donating a kidney!

She gave her boss life. Most importantly, Nancy Nearing modeled a behavior consistent with the Great commandment of Jesus. He challenges us to choose between becoming Good Samaritans and become healers, or walk by on the opposite side of the street.                                                                                                                                                    

^{_______________}

               1 Quoted from The Holy Bible, New Century Version, copyright 1987, 1988, 1991 by Word Publishing, Dallas, Texas 75039. Used by permission.

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Great Is Thy Faithfulness

An elderly neighbor decided one day to vacuum her parakeet’s cage. Just then the phone rang. She reached for the phone, but accidently lifted up the vacuum hose. She sucked Chirpy all the way through the vacuum tube and into the dust bag. Frantically tearing open the bag, she pulled out her beloved companion and rinsed him off gently under the faucet.

Dissatisfied, she turned on her blow dryer and carefully blew Chirpy dry. Later, when a friend inquired about Chirpy’s health, she admitted, “Well, he doesn’t sing much anymore!”

Would you wonder? Sucked in, washed up, and blown dry! That is enough to steal the song from the stoutest of songbirds. Can you relate to that? Just when you conclude that life cannot get any worse, a sudden Katrina washes away your neighborhood, an Ebola virus strikes down a neighbor, threat of an Islamic war with Isis seems obvious.

This is about how the God of the Bible often appears on the horizon. He comes in an unexpected place that has a strange name, like Bethel, or Peniel, or Sheckem. Sucked into a dirt bag of crippling circumstances, you find yourself washed in the waters of a paralyzing flood; only to experience the gentle winds of God’s Holy Spirit tenderly blowing you dry. That was life for Jacob.

Jacob began his adult life by leaving home armed with only a limited knowledge of family and friends. It was a long day by the end of that first day out, but he barbequed his goat and lay down to sleep. There quite unexpectedly, he met God, in a dream of all places. God revealed to him, in a way that he clearly understood, that God occupied more of the world than he had previously believed or experienced.

“Surely, the Lord is in this place” concluded Jacob upon awakening, “and I did not know it.”

Encouraged by this new Bethel experience, Jacob vowed promises and commitments to God based upon his new understanding. Bethel became his new house of God. Bethel became the place and time where he and God met in a new and personal way. We all need such times and places where God becomes personal to us.

We leave our cocoon of family and friends and we launch into a fresh new, but sometimes raw, life, where we discover that God far exceeds our awareness. Consequently, we renew our commitment. Bethel becomes our house of God experience and God becomes intensely personal.

I never knew a time in my young life when God was not real to me. I first sensed Him speaking to me in worship as a nine-year-old. When I was approached by my Pastor at the age of twelve, I accepted his invitation and he and I talked to God at the prayer altar. There, I felt a heavenly touch that impacted my life for the decades that followed.

By the time I was thirteen or fourteen, what had once been my fondest wish to become a professional athlete with the Chicago Cubs, now slowly flared up in a new flame of aspiration. A call from God into church ministry flickered within me, slowly becoming a lighted flame. That was nearly seventy-five years ago, but since that time I have experienced Him in strange places, both far from and near to the stained glass windows of a cathedral.

Sometimes God finds us with our heads pillowed on a rock, like Jacob, beneath an open sky. Occasionally, God finds us wading about in a stinking sheep pen. At other times, He appears out of nowhere to reveal Himself in a burning bush, as with Moses. He also comes in the silence of the soul, where no one sees or hears the battle that rages while we wait in ICU for the verdict of life or death during a health crisis. 

Sucked in! Washed up! Blown dry! Somehow God always comes through. Across the years I have found his Blessed Presence in the pardon of sin, followed by enduring peace and fortified with strength for the day. Sunrise waits on the morrow, bringing further promise of His blessings—all mine.

Such is the faithfulness of God! Thus, I sing:

               “Great is Thy faithfulness! Great is Thy faithfulness!

                              Morning by morning new mercies I see;

               All I have needed Thy hand hath provided—                              

                              Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord unto me!” ¹

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                1 The Worshipping Church, A Hymnal. Carol Stream, IL: Hope Publishing Company, 1990);  pp. 60-61, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” by Thomas Chisolm and William Runyan.

I am walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

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Who is Jesus?

Following his long day of seashore ministry, his evening boat ride across the Sea of Galilee allowed a brief respite until an evening squall threatened their vessel. Galilee has a reputation for its sudden storms and this one proved threatening even to seasoned fishermen. Fearful, the disciples awakened Jesus, only to watch with wonder as he commanded the storm to quiet.

The subdued storm departed as quickly as it arrived. Now, the fearful disciples whispered among themselves, “Who can he be? For even the wind and the sea obey him” (Mark 4:41, Goodspeed).

This question troubles us. It was Elton Trueblood who observed, “Jesus Christ can be accepted; he can be rejected; he cannot reasonably be ignored.” The Church has not always understood Jesus. It has, however, always recognized him as different: born to a maiden who never had sex with a man; His very name describes his mission--save his people from their sins (Matthew 1:21).

Many saw him do miracles. Admittedly, his death brought some unusual circumstances. Some even reported seeing him numerous times following His crucifixion. According to Paul, Jesus was seen by a multitude of more than 500 persons. Paul and Peter agreed that God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19).

Church historians later added four historically definitive statements that help us identify Jesus. Arius first suggested in 325 A.D. that Jesus was less than God, although more than man. The Nicene Creed declared Jesus fully God and fully man. In 381Apollinarius taught that Jesus had a human body and soul but a divine mind, leaving him less than fully human. In response, the Council of Constantinople proclaimed the full humanity of Jesus.

In 431 Nestorius taught that Jesus was two people: one human, one divine (schizoid). The Council of Ephesus affirmed the single nature of Jesus; he was but one person.

Still later, Eutyche taught that Jesus had two natures--a pre-incarnation nature and an incarnational nature. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon reaffirmed Jesus in what is today orthodox teaching: two natures (human and divine) but one personality. Christian Theologians still use these four basic concepts today.

Dubious doubters still ask: “Is he human? Divine? Both? Neither? Is he a lunatic, or a liar? Or, is he Lord of Life? When Martin Scorsese produced “The Last Temptation of Jesus” in 1988, he pictured Jesus struggling with his humanity; living as a depraved, lusting swinger, committing fornication, adultery, and the grossest of sins . These are contrary to church teachings and leave still unresolved, the question of “Who could he possibly be?”

Few willingly concede that Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or a false prophet, but that leaves him as our Lord of Lords. If He was a deluded fool, as some think; if he only thought He was God, he is not only a liar; he is also a false prophet. In this case, Christianity is founded on a colossal scam. If Jesus succeeded in deceiving us through trickery, we have been cruelly deceived and he is guilty of heinous fraud that deserves eternal hell fire.

Jesus leaves us no middle ground! We accept him fully, as God and man; with two natures in one person, as taught by historic church councils; or, he sinks to the level of Martin Scorsese’s 1988 movie.

More importantly, who is Jesus to us? The Bible describes him as our clearest picture of God. To the Artist, he is “one altogether lovely,” to the Architect the “Chief Corner Stone,” to the Astronomer, the “sun of Righteousness.”

To the Baker, Jesus is the “Living Bread,” to the Banker he becomes “unsearchable riches;” to the Biologist He is “The Life,” and to the Builder he is the “sure foundation”

To the Carpenter, Jesus remains “the door.” To the Editor, he offers “Good tidings of great joy.” To the Educator, he becomes the “Great Teacher,” to the Electrician, he provides the “light of the world,” and to the Engineer he offers a “New and living way.’

For the Farmer, Jesus is the “Sower and Lord of the harvest.” For the Florist, he is the “Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley,” but to the Geologist, he remains the “Rock of my salvation.”

To the Horticulturist, Jesus is the “True vine,” and to the Jeweler, he is the “living precious stone.” To the Jurist, Jesus becomes the Righteous Judge of all men,” while to the Juror, he provides “Faithful and true witness.”

For the Lawyer, Jesus becomes “Counselor, Lawgiver, and Advocate,” but to the Philanthropist, he is an “unspeakable gift.” To the Policeman, he represents the “power of God;” to the Preacher, he becomes the “Word of God;” to the Sculptor, he provides the “Stone cut without hands,” while to the Servant, he is the “good master.”

              

To the Sheep-raiser, Jesus is the “good Shepherd,” but to the Statesman, he becomes the “desire of all nations.” To the Student, he is “incarnate truth,” and to the Theologian, he remains the final “Author-finisher of our faith”

The Toiler and workman find Jesus the “Giver of rest,” and need I go further? Indeed: one yet remains, for to the Sinner, Jesus is the “Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).

I visited with a young Dutch woman in Canada. Raised an atheist by unbelievers, she immigrated to Canada, married, and divorced. She shared with me her struggle with life and her desire to be free of her tobacco addiction. After meeting a Christian friend, she went home and sought God, a God who was no god because she was an atheist. He was dealing with her life and she found him real! He brought her freedom from addiction and forgiveness for her sins and she became a dynamic and vibrant disciple of Jesus.

We can accept or reject Jesus, but we cannot ignore him! Reason makes him a lunatic, a liar, or a false prophet. Or else: he is who we believe Him to be - “Son of the Living God, Savior Who redeems us, Lord of all Hope and Glory!

              

Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com … Who else could He possibly be?

Why We Allow Big Pharma to Rip Us Off | BillMoyers.com

Why We Allow Big Pharma to Rip Us Off | BillMoyers.com

Living in Yesterday or Tomorrow

The Church of God stands on two feet: one foot in yesterday; one foot in tomorrow. Will we walk with yesterday’s traditions or go with tomorrow’s truth? England’s Coventry Church illustrates my point. This famed architectural icon was reduced to rubble in WWII. The city, while still smoldering, resolved to rebuild and replace the old Gothic church with contemporary architecture and art forms. The new structure allows one to look through a clear glass West wall and view the old ruins. This results in old and the new structures that are not completely separated. Each originates with the same roots, but each has meaning for its own time; one sees the war years and one views contemporary life.

Acts 2:41-47 suggests four factors validating a vital root system that also produces new top growth:

1) First Church Jerusalem formed when those receiving the “Word” were baptized and tradition gave way to the new truth of the resurrection, which believers began sharing. Jesus was the issue!

2) Believers continued in the doctrine and fellowship of the Apostles, with worship a priority.

3) Believers shared daily, involving the whole church in ministry--They became a missional church.

4) Growth resulted … the Lord added daily to their number.

THREE LIFE APPLICATIONS APPLY.

-ONE-

THE EARLY CHURCH SHAPED ITS WORSHIP, STUDY, AND ORGANIZATION AROUND ITS MISSION.

The truth of the resurrection brought new life to old wine skins of tradition. Secular thinking by current public media slowly batters today’s Christian Church into submission by slowly crumbling its moral foundations through venues such as enlightened TV. If society is to survive this cultural assault of reason, the church must provide more of the divine that created our humanity.

This cultural confrontation challenges the church with awkward moments, such as the young soldier found himself at Redstone Arsenal’s Guided Missile School. The Colonel’s troop inspection went well, until … he stopped, looked down at a young soldier and snapped, “button that pocket, trooper!”

               “Right now, Sir?” he stammered.

               “Of course, right now,” shouted the Colonel.

               That said, the soldier discreetly reached up and buttoned the flap on the Colonel’s shirt pocket.

Tradition will define issues such as human rights but only “Truth” will lead to God, and in this time when the human rights doctrine reigns supreme, we should remember that human rights have little meaning without their Creator. In biblical days, Jewish worship came at the end of a week lived in service. As the poet said:

If I can do some good today,

If I can serve along life’s way,

If I can something helpful say,

               Lord, show me how.

                              If I can right a human wrong,

                              If I can help to make one strong,

                              If I can cheer with smile or song,

                                             Lord, show me how.

                                                            If I can aid one in distress,

                                                            If I can make a burden less,

                                                            If I can spread more happiness,

                                                                           Lord, show me how (Kleiser).

                             

I like Sam Rayburn’s definition of worship: devotion, determination, and boyant hope. The Psalmist expressed his devotion in worship when he wrote, “Come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. Isaiah (6) found worship is initiated by God. Worship results when the created responds to the Creator with personal offering, prayer, praise, and present Judgment.

Genuine worship is worthy action … worth ship. Further worship results from firm commitments of belief. It is more than the pseudo-religion that says “Every time I hear a new-born baby cry, then I know why I believe.”

Worship becomes corporate in our common thoughts, devotion, and appreciation, and we find our hearts “strangely warmed” like the Emmaus Road disciples. Worship that is honest, worthy, and creatively based on faith, will result in action, interaction, and reaction on the part of the participant. So, while Jesus died, people saw the rent veil and for the first time they saw looked into the holy place—they saw God (Mt. 27:50-51ff). Said, C. T. Studd:  “Some people want to live near Chapel Bell, but I want to run a rescue mission six yards from hell.”

-TWO-

THE EARLY CHURCH INVOLVED THEIR FOLLOWSHIP IN MEANINGFUL MINISTRY AS LAITY.

Clergy and laity stood shoulder to shoulder, without distinction. Each believer became part of the Priesthood of Believers. The Protestant Reformation acknowledges every individual as having direct access to God. This means each Christian has direct entre to God on behalf of others—this being the true meaning of the priesthood of believers.

Recent years have observed society moving from centralization to decentralization, from denomination to local church. All the while, mobile Americans reshape our country. Three great mega-centers hold forty-four percent of the population.. Mega-trenders describe Chipitts going from the Great Lakes east to Pittsburgh. Thirteen percent of our nation’s 300-million live connected to the I94 corridor as part of Chipitts. Boshwash snakes its way down the East Coast from Boston to Wash, DC, with twenty-five percent, and Sansan serves the 475-miles from San Diego to San Francisco--six percent.

While Vocational Chaplains have become something of an industrial specialty in recent years, it should be recognized that there should be no need for clergy to go where laity already are. A Texas tourist parked his car in Acunia, Mexico one day. Immediately, a little fellow ran up and offered to guard his car for a fee, seeing only an “ugly American” with money. This young boy then offered to pimp his sister and use sex to increase family income. He offered an opportunity of forbidden fruits “where no one will ever know.” 

What a prime opportunity to witness to the saving grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the worth of a Christian family!

-THREE-

THE EARLY CHURCH BROUGHT ITS FAITH TO BEAR ON PUBLIC AND POLITICAL ISSUES OF THEIR DAY. Luke is an excellent resource for evaluating human rights. Or, consider how Paul faced issues of slavery, marriage, monogamy, and the role of women. The Church is more than a social institution and it should offer more than mere political structure. Jesus described it as salt, and leaven. Christians add flavor to a culture that needs the leaven to make the life bread to rise.

Christian witness is not a specialty for the few; the church is Body of Christ--God’s witness to Republicans, Democrats, Catholics, Protestants, Communists, Capitalists, you name it. We dare not leave our social problems to Public Agencies that are not “God-fearing…” Technology requires our human touch more than ever. Education requires Christian theology for its a-moral society.

Too often, the church resembles the lady I heard of in Wheeling, WVA. She slipped while mowing her yard. Stunned by her fall, she heard a childish voice say, “Mama, why is that lady lying down with her lawn-mower?”

Why, son, that’s a hillbilly. If they work at all, they always do it the easiest way they can find.” Let that never be said of the church!        

OUR WORLD NEIGHBORHOOD FACES CRISIS that offers expanded opportunities for those willing to take the risk. We no longer live in the world of DS Warner, but if we have the rootage, we will find ways to relate to our world just as he did to his. 

From Warner's World,  we are known by the company we keep, the causes we represent, the commitments we prioritize, and we should never give up on being part of the solution! 

Walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

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