Questions of Life

Over the next several weeks I am going to be asking you all several questions. How you answer these questions six months from now will be more important than you initial answers as you read them.

I won’t keep you guessing. The reason your answer six months from now will be more important than the answer you give today is that, if the answer remains unchanged for six months, it will show that we are headed nowhere. We may talk a great deal about the who, what, when, and where of ministry, but the only thing that matters is if we actually engage in the ministries we have planned.

Here is your first question: Think back on your entire experience at this church and name a time when you felt the most engaged, alive, and motivated. That may be hard for some of your. You may have to search far back in your personal history to find the answer.

I have a good guess as to your answer. I have this guess based on my experiences in asking this question before. In other settings, I can tell you this, most people felt more engaged when they were younger and had kids in the youth group. This is true for most of us. We were in the youth group or our kids were, and that led to us being involved as well.

There are two questions that must come after this first question. They relate to it very closely. First, are you sure that your spiritual activity at the time was directly related to any spiritual depth you may have experienced? What is the difference between spiritual depth and spiritual busyness? Can we recognize that difference in our own being.

Secondly, what happened that you stopped this spiritual activity if it was so grand? You don’t have to stop working with the youth group just because your kids are grown and away from home. If your activity in the church was such a tremendous source of joy and personal satisfaction with the church, I think God may be telling you to rethink you decision to take yourself out of the game.

As long as we continue to make use of the breath God breathed into us and the first human beings he created, I believe he expects us to use that breath to breathe life into the people around us. We do not retire from the kingdom of god. God calls us to be forever ready to “give an answer to the faith that lies within us.” How will you live for Jesus Christ today?

Pastor Craig

Beginnings!

We celebrate two brave beginnings this time of year. Graduations are taking place all around us. In the past week I had friends graduate from high school, college, and had several colleagues awarded their doctorate. All of these are brave beginnings in that they publicly declare that something new is happening, and that this something new is life changing.

The other brave beginning is Pentecost. Imagine the roller coaster for the disciples. Jesus’ ministry takes them to the height of popularity. They are rock stars. People envy them.

Suddenly, Jesus is crucified. He’s dead. These one time rock stars are now huddled in fear that they will be next. The doors are locked; the lights are out. Let’s pretend that no one is home! But, through that locked door walks Jesus, the risen from the dead Messiah. Everything is back on track! Life is good.

Forty days later Jesus gathers them together to say “Goodbye” for real. “I am going away. Where I go you cannot follow just yet. Wait!”

Wait? Wait for what? Haven't we be waiting long enough? We want to start something. We are ready to return to our rock star status. But, the only job they are given is to wait, just wait.

So, they gather together, probably in that very same room where the celebrated the last meal with Jesus and where he walked through the locked doors. They wait for someone or something called “The Comforter.” They wait, and they wait. Then they wait some more. Ten days they wait. They are not exactly sure what they are waiting for, but knowing Jesus, they’ll be able to spot it when it happens. Jesus does not disappoint. A sound, no, more like a thunder of rushing wind seems to descend upon their very spot. They have feelings they are not quite ready to put into words. Their fear is gone. This is The Comforter!

All of a sudden, the need to hide in the upper room vanishes. The teachings of Jesus that seemed so obscure and difficult to understand are starting to come together. Yes, Jesus had to die. Of course, Jesus would rise. Certainly, The Comforter is the next step. Everything is clear, Everything has purpose. Peter walks across the room, opens the door, and leads the disciples down the stairs and out into the street.

Pastor Craig

The Message of the Church?

What is the message of the church? It seemed very clear to first century Christians. They scattered across the known world, and a little bit beyond, to tell people that the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ had removed the curse of the Garden of Eden and made it possible for humanity to be restored to its Creator.

When we look around our part of the world it seems that there are churches everywhere. Everyone we know belongs somewhere, even if the seldom attend. So, is the mission of Christ to the Western world complete? Can we say as Christ said on the cross, “It is finished!”? I hardly think so.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that is so overrun with religious language and messages that we become oblivious to them. People wear crosses as jewelry without any thought of the message of the cross and little effort to follow the teachings of Jesus Christ. What if cross wearing was a punishable offense? Would most of us still hold onto our jewelry? Or, would we abandon it as easily as we do our faith for convenience?

I say “We” because it would be easy to point to celebrities and famous people who pray before performances or point heavenward after the performance of some athletic feat but don’t back up talk with walk! In reality, “they” are “we.” If our lives were put on screen for some reality TV show, how would our witness stand up in our local community?

James 3:9-10 says, With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. It may be that something as simple as our language, I don’t necessarily mean language free from curse words, shows what is really in our heart. When we do nothing but condemn, what does it say about our heart? Even Jesus, when confronted by the worst of sinners, saved his strongest condemnation for the religious hypocrites of his day.

The Gospel, from the first Church all the way to our church, is this. Jesus heals broken people. You and I are broken ourselves. We are surrounded by broken people. There are people caught in addictions of all kinds, a behavior that controls them and will not let them live free. Those closest to us may live amid a tattered landscape of broken relationships, families living in the same house that are separated as far as the East is from the West. There are people who can see nothing good in themselves because they have been told that they are worthless for their entire life.

We carry the good news to those people. We offer the love and compassion of Jesus Christ to them. Our message is not a simple repent and believe, but one of come and be made whole. Yes, that wholeness may involve a large portion of repentance, but wholeness comes as one broken person reaches out in forgiveness and love to another broken person and calls them family!

Pastor Craig

Who is Jesus?

The church I serve is coordinating with the local Methodist church for Vacation Bible School. This was a collaboration that was begun last year and was quite successful. A couple, Ross & Carolyn Clayton, from our church were the classroom storytellers. They did such a wonderful job that they were "asked" to return again this year.

Today I watched Ross tell the story of Peter answering Jesus' question, "But, who do you say I am?" The story time is a 15-20 minute monologue that has the children riveting their eyes and ears on him. He is a master, our own version of Garrison Keillor.

Anyway, it got me thinking. Just who DO you think Jesus is? The answer to that question determines so much of what you do in life and how you view life itself. There can be no flippant answer. To give such an answer sets our life on its own unique course, adhering to the principles we link to that answer.

"Jesus was a good teacher." If that is the extent of your belief in Jesus, that is how you will relate to him. You will take his teachings as proverbs and exhortations on how you could live your life in a more satisfying way. This also means that you can ignore Jesus teaching with minimal consequences, just like you ignored so many of your teachers in school. Oh, your life may not be as satisfying, but at least you won't be going to hell!

However, if Jesus is who he claims to be, if Jesus has done something unique in history, if Jesus has shown himself to be the true and divine Son of God, if he has done something that requires our allegiance and submission, if he has indeed brought the possibility of light where before there was only darkness, then to deny that act, to say that the events of his life were anything else is to deny the light and remain in the darkness. It does indeed raise the possibility that our choice of who Jesus is to us will have significant and eternal consequences.

It kind of makes this question the most important one you will ever answer in your life, doesn't it?