Thought for a Tuesday

In studying about the early church I came across a story about a pagan actor who becomes a Christian. He realized that he had to change his employment because most plays encouraged immorality and were steeped in pagan idolatry, not to mention that they turned boys into homosexuals so that they could better play the roles of women on stage (women were not allowed to act at that time). *Note: does this sound like present day? This man had no other job skills. He knew he could not act because of the above mentioned so he thought he would begin to teach drama to non-Christian students. But before he did this, he submitted his idea to the leaders of his church to get their thoughts. *Note: imagine if this took place today, how would our lives be different? The church leaders told him if acting was an immoral profession then he could not train others to do it. The church leaders wanted to make sure they had given him good advice so they wrote to another church where Cyprian was the pastor (I've said that I thought the pastor of this church was Polycarp but I was wrong it is Cyprian). Cyprian agreed with their advice, even though it was his sole means of support. But he went further in his advice back to this church. He said that they needed to be willing to support this man, since he was giving up his sole means of employment. If they couldn't, then send the man down to his church and they would support him.

There are a lot of things to think about in this story. First, the man wanted to get away from his profession because of how evil it was. Second, he sought advice from his church leaders on what to do. Third, I believe (the story doesn't say) that he went along with the churches advice. Fourth, the church took care of him since he was giving up his sole means of support. In todays day and age, this is not what happens at all. I don't think any of the 4 things I mentioned above are done, though I believe there is something for us in doing what the actor did.

We don't want to give up worldly pleasures. We do not want to ask the church for advice on what to do or how to handle a situation. Besides, we would not follow the advice given anyway, especially if it is something that we really wanted to do. We are a society that does whatever we want to do. The church is to legalistic, and in some cases this is true, to ask for advice and get a Holy Spirit inspired answer.

How far we have fallen from the early church. The book of Acts sets the example and through the centuries, we have watered it down. The church is not a living breathing body of believers, it is just a building. A relationship with Christ isn't attractive, but burdensome and not worth our time. The Bible isn't living and active but an irrelevant book that has nothing for us today. Praying takes time but if God had a cell phone so I could text Him, it would be better for me. This has become the American Christian's way of thinking. Where is the love? Where is the unity? Where is the one accord that we read about in Acts? It's only a 180 degree turn away. In another words, repentance is what is needed to bring us back to the model that Christ gave us in the book of Acts. What do you think?

Monday, Monday...

Well, get ready to receive your email newsletter. I am on a completely different newsletter program that is offered on the internet and I'm pretty excited about it.

On another note, I received this in an email newsletter that I get from a pastor in Delaware. I believe it will make us all think in a good way. Blessings on this Monday!

Cleaning Up Your Act
by Rubel Shelly

When I was in junior high, a lady offered me some tropical fish. When I told my mother of the offer, she was willing. But we needed an aquarium.

It was actually my mother’s idea to be creative at that point. She recalled an old-fashioned gas pump that was rusting in an open field. Most of you aren’t old enough to remember, but gasoline pumps used to have big glass containers at the top. A manual lever pumped gas from the underground tank into a glass cylinder. Then you put the hose into your car’s gas tank, and gravity did the rest.

Sure enough, the glass in the abandoned gas pump was unbroken. We asked for and received permission to retrieve it. And the two of us set about to create the perfect environment for our soon-to-arrive tropical fish.

Only when we got it home did we realize how nasty the tank was. But we scrubbed and cleaned. Then we put in colored gravel, some plants, and an aerator. I claimed the fish and put them in their new environment. A nasty glass tank had become the ideal new home for seven beautiful and delicate creatures.

The next morning, two were belly-up. By the end of the day, two or three more had died. And by the following morning, not one was still alive. We knew we had done something wrong but had no idea what. So I went back to the lady who had given them to us and told her with embarrassment what had happened.

As I was explaining all our fuss and bother with creating just the right aquarium environment, she interrupted and said she knew what the trouble was. We had washed the tank with detergent, and that is an absolute no-no when dealing with such delicate creatures. Our uninformed efforts at trying to create something beautiful had killed what we were trying to receive and showcase.

Sometimes we do a very similar thing in families, work environments, or churches. In our zeal to clean up our lives or those of others, we use caustic cleansers – harsh criticism, nagging, condemnation, outbursts of temper. We think we are doing right and defending decency. But our harsh treatment of an immature child or fragile personality is more than some souls can bear.
Churches are notorious for being so caustic with a neophyte’s problem with drugs or a family’s breakup that the tender and still-in-formation people involved die to faith from the treatment they receive. Then people on the outside who see all the dead bodies floating to the surface (reasonably!) decide they want nothing to do with church. They don’t want to subject themselves to the same caustic process they have seen kill others.

All our acts need to be cleaned up. But accountability with patience and gentle encouragement are far better cleansers than judgment and scolding.

Rubel Shelly is a Preaching Minister at the Woodmont Hills Church of Christ. This article is from the July 21, 2008 issue of “The FAX of Life,” his weekly message, found at http://www.rubelshelly.com.

Perception

This past Sunday, I talked about how our perception keeps us going or causes us to doubt and be depressed. So many times we start the day walking in faith and then by the end of the day we are looking at our circumstances and taking our eyes off of Jesus. Even as a church, we can start out with vision for the future but as the struggles come and we don't see immediate results we begin to doubt, get frustrated, and maybe even begin to think the church is dying or just not going anywhere.

We looked at Peter in Matthew 14:29-30 AMP, where it says, "29He said, Come! So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water, and he came toward Jesus. 30But when he perceived and felt the strong wind, he was frightened, and as he began to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me [from death]! Peter started out well but then let his perception be taken off of the Lord and on to his surroundings. This lead to him beginning to sink. Our perception is important in living by faith.

Hebrews 11:1 AMP tells us, "1NOW FAITH is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. Now that last statement that I bolded and changed the color is a note from the Amplified Bible but it paints the picture of how our faith truly works. We cannot look at this world with our natural senses. We must look at everything through eyes of faith. And let the Holy Spirit help us in perceiving our every day situations.

Sunday, we will continue "OVERHAULIN: Rethinking Church" by looking at vision and it's importance. Look forward to seeing you all there.

FRUSTRATED!

Alright, here it is... I'm FRUSTRATED! I am in the process of putting together an email newsletter for our church and it doesn't want to cooperate with me. I am using Microsoft Publisher and trying to send it through Outlook. However, no one uses Outlook here so I cannot get it to send. And I can't figure out how to set up Outlook to make it work. If anyone has any other ideas of how to send out a well done email newsletter that I can use with any email server, please let me know. We are in the process of putting together a web-site that is not quite functional yet, if that would help with anything. Is there anyone out there that can help me?

What a Start!

Sunday we began our series, Overhaulin, which will take us through the summer. I am really excited about this series for what it means for our church. I really believe that we need to change somethings to reach out to as many people as we can and be effective in doing this, as time draws nearer for the return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I felt that things started well this past Sunday and I look forward to how things will continue to progress as the days go on. Please be willing to shake out the man-made ideas that fill our heads of what church should be and look like. We want to truly be a family where no one feels left behind or forgotten.

Also, be encouraged to begin and/or keep on praying and fasting for all of this as well, because we don't want to replace man-made ideas with more man-made ideas. We want the Holy Spirit to intervene and do the changes that He wants to do.

On a more specific note, personalize your prayers as you pray through this time. I'm asking Jesus to fill me with more passion for Him, the lost, and each of you so that I would be able to show compassion and empathy in every situation and not laziness and selfishness. We are in the people business and it is ALL about the people. It's about unity and coming together to see GREAT things take place. Let's OVERHAUL!

Coming SUNDAY, SUNDAY, SUNDAY!

Thanks to Nick Poole for the design of our new sermon series starting this week: Overhaulin': Rethinking Church. We are going to look at what is the New Life Center all about and begin to look at what changes need to be made so that we might be more effective in reaching out to this community. This week we will look at Overhaulin our Perception. Stay tuned for more.

My Favorite Athlete

I have a favorite pro-athlete and his name is Josh Hamilton. I can remember reading about him in Sports Illustrated when he was the #1 overall pick in the 1999 Major League Baseball Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays. He was supposed to be a can't miss prospect. His talent was derailed when he got caught up in going to a tattoo parlor where he began doing more than just getting tattoos. Drugs and alcohol became his life till 2005. He went through many trials during those years but his grandmother was praying for him. He gave his life to Jesus Christ and has not been the same since. After being reinstated into the MLB after being suspended for numerous failed drug tests in those early years, he began to show the promise that made him a #1 overall pick.

He now plays for the Texas Rangers. (Side note: When he is up to bat the song "Saved the Day" by Phillips, Craig and Dean plays over the loud speakers.) He was voted into the All-Star Game that airs tonight and participated in the Home Run Derby last night. He hit a record 28 homers in the first round but then ran out of gas in the final and lost. But when interviewed said he wanted to thank his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ and that the glory all goes to Him. It was powerful. It's always awesome seeing the transforming power of Jesus Christ at work. Someday I will meet Josh Hamilton. What a great day that will be.