July 2018 – Simple Authentic Loving

Heaven, We Have a Problem

According to Pew Research, America has a literacy problem. “When was the last time you read a book? For almost 1 in 4 of us, it was more than a year ago, according to Pew Research. That’s three times the number who didn’t read a book in 1978.”¹ The problem is even worse than that because, although Christians claim to believe the Bible is the Word of God, we aren’t reading it.

“A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day.”

What about Great Britain? The United Kingdom Bible Society surveyed British children and found many couldn’t identify common Bible stories. When given a list of Bible stories, a staggering 59% didn’t know the story of Jonah came from the Bible, and almost 1 in 3 didn’t know the story of the birth of Jesus was in the Bible! Parents didn’t fare much better. Around 30 percent didn’t know the stories of Adam and Eve, David and Goliath, or the Good Samaritan are in the Bible! Worse, 27% think the story of Superman is in the Bible. 1 in 3 believes -Harry Potter is a Bible story and more than half (54%) believe The Hunger Games is or might be a story from the Bible!

It shouldn’t be this way! Nine out of ten American homes (Christian or not) have at least one Bible in them. The average American (Christian or not) owns at least three Bibles.

What can we do?

We need to confess our lack of study and ask God for forgiveness.
Set aside a regular time – even five minutes a day – to read the Bible.
Use a Daily Bible Reading plan to guide you.
Join us for Wednesday night Bible class. A recent study “shows that as Christians increase their participation in small groups, their Bible engagement scores go up.”

¹ http://www.smallgroups.com/articles/2015/epidemic-of-bible-illiteracy-in-our-churches.

We Have Met the Enemy

A few years ago, Jan and I were driving home after services. I told her “I just didn’t connect with the worship this morning.” At the stop light, I continued. “The prayers seemed more like performances, and the songs were so disjointed! On top of that, the sermon just didn’t seem relevant. I wonder why I even bothered to get up this morning.”

My sweet wife smiled that knowing-wife smile and chided me. “Maybe you were the problem. Did you take time to prepare for worship?” I sulked as I pulled away from the light and then had to admit, “You’re probably right. I hadn’t thought about that.”

So how do we prepare for the most important meeting of the week?

Shift Gears. Early on in driver’s training, you learn to shift into a different gear when you start to climb a hill. Before we can truly worship God, we must take a moment to “shift gears” and center our thoughts on Him.

Discover the Power of Gratitude. “Christians aren’t perfect – just forgiven.” As you are preparing for worship, take a moment to appreciate the gift of grace.

Drop Your Inhibitions. A lot of people are afraid of their own voice. They are too self-conscious to sing. We have so many wonderful singers here it can be tempting to sit back and listen, but the Lord loves a “joyful noise” and who are you to argue with God?

Tap into the Fellowship. There is an energy in corporate worship. Have you felt it? It’s always there, but sometimes our “receptors” are out of order. Reach out and tap into the power!

Confession is Good for the Soul. Sin and guilt make it hard to worship. Confess your sins by name and feel the power of forgiveness.

Be Filled with the Spirit. Paul told the Ephesians (and us) not to get drunk on wine “be filled with the Spirit. Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,” (Ephesians 5:19, 20).

Finally, expect great things! What you receive from worship is equal to what you put into worship. If you expect the singing to be bad and the lesson to be boring, I suspect that’s what you’ll receive but if you come expecting great things I promise you’ll receive even more blessings that you anticipated.

John McKeel

Balance

So how hard is it to steer a boat in a straight line? It’s much harder than you think! Our oldest granddaughter, Rachel, loves to steer, but she thinks it’s all about turning the wheel. Hang on! If Rachel is at the helm, everything is in chaos.

Navigating is mostly about holding a steady course, but the wind and the waves and the boat itself can conspire to work against you. Sail handlers will talk for hours about the different forces that react with the sails. There is the “center of effort” and overlaps and exit angles and aspect ratios. Helmsmen will talk about angles of attack and how to steer through a set of waves. What they are saying is, if your boat and sails aren’t balanced, you can’t steer a straight line. On an old cruising boat like Santa Teresa, with her long deep keel, if you set the sails properly, you hardly need to touch the wheel at all. She’ll hold her course, and you can relax and enjoy the ride.

Likewise, people need balance in their lives. Some people are experts at organization and time-management. They remind me of a well-organized hat rack. There they are, all the hats neatly arranged and on display. I can grab my daddy hat, my work hat, my husband hat, my social hat, my guy’s night out hat, and my church hat. They are all there. Unfortunately, I often have to wear several of them at the same time, and that looks a bit silly.

When I was a boy, I loved my bicycle. It gave me my first taste of freedom. I could ride to school, to a friend’s house, to the movies and deliver my newspapers. I loved my bike, but I also enjoyed taking things apart to see how they worked. I remember one day I completely disassembling my bicycle on the driveway. It was carefully arranged with all the spokes in a neat row. The frame was there. The rims and the chain were carefully laid out side-by-side along with the seat, the handlebars, and the pedals. It looked great but was worthless. It couldn’t deliver papers or jump over garbage cans.

Some people are like that too. Their lives are neat and in order but aren’t going anywhere. To do that, the spokes need to be firmly attached to the hub. There must be a center to your life. Just like sailing, if you are not going to be continually making course corrections, there must be balance.

So what – or better – who is the center of your life? What holds it all together? If it’s your job, what happens when you retire? If it is a person, what happens if that person leaves? Hobbies are too transient, and causes are too nebulous. Only God is a worthy center. He gives my life meaning. God advises me not just about what is right and wrong, but also about what is good, better and best. My faith isn’t just worth living for; it’s worth dying for.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” (John 14:6).

A Giant Pile of Sand

Are you one of those people who may not admit it, but finds Bible study boring at best and irrelevant at worse? If so, I think you are missing something special. Andy Deane, author of Learn to Study the Bible (Olive Tree, 2014) shares this hypothetical situation.

Imagine you have been assigned the job of shifting a mountain of sand with a teaspoon. Can you think of anything more boring? Day after day, hour after hour, you shovel sand with a spoon from one giant pile into another, but what if you were guaranteed to find a nugget of pure gold every hour? Would that make a difference? And what if you were told, the longer you dig, the more often you will discover treasure? You will be rich beyond your wildest imagination.

“The same analogy can be made of Bible study. With very little effort, great riches are ours to discover and keep, as we carefully sift through the Word of God each day,” Deane writes. “Exactly what kind of treasure can we expect to find in the Bible? I’ve heard Psalm 19:7- 10 rephrased by someone this way: ‘The revelation of God is whole and pulls our lives together. The signposts of God are clear and point out the right road. The life- maps of God are right, showing the way to joy. The directions of God are plain and easy on the eyes. God’s reputation is twenty- four- carat gold, with a lifetime guarantee. The decisions of God are accurate down to the nth degree. God’s Word is better than a diamond, better than a diamond set between emeralds. You’ll like it better than strawberries in spring, better than red, ripe strawberries.’”

Here are eight blessings of -Bible study:

It assures us of salvation, 1 John 5:13.
It cleanses us from sin ,John 15:3 /John 17:17.
It gives peace, John 16:33.
It brings joy.
It guides our decisions, Psalm 119:105.
It helps us in prayer, John 15:7.
It strengthens, 1 John 2:14.
It leads to success, Joshua 1:8 John 15.

Better Not Bitter

Things hadn’t worked out the way Naomi had planned. She, her husband, and three sons made a move they believed would provide them with a new life. Things had started well, but then one disaster after another befell her. Life had become so hard she wanted to change her name from “Naomi” (which means “pleasant”) to “Mara” (which means, “bitter.” See Ruth 1:20.)

Life is hard. The world is full of injustice. Bad things happen to good people, but is it inevitable that age sours us? How can we become better instead of bitter?

Cut bitterness off at the roots.

Some people feed their bitter roots, but the Bible teaches us to get rid of bitterness as soon as possible (Hebrews 12:15; Ephesians 4:31).

‘Fess up!

Of course, that’s not always possible. Circumstances often blindside us, but Helen G. Lescheid wrote, “Coming to terms with bitterness seems to be the first step toward getting rid of it.” That’s a two-part process: (1) admit your pain, and (2) stop making excuses for what happened. How many times have you heard someone you love say through clenched teeth, “I’m not angry!” Come on! Admit it before bitterness bites you.

Become a forgiver

Here is the Christian key: Don’t let anyone tie you to the past. Stephen forgave his killers even before they threw the first stone! (Acts chapter 7) Forgiveness is liberating! But if that’s true, why don’t we forgive people? A simple answer can be, “They hurt me. I want to hurt them” or “I forgave them once, and they didn’t change. Why should I let them continue to hurt me?” We forget that we have been forgiven!

So what’s included in forgiving? Forgetting for one. Let it go, but there is a time for confrontation. God doesn’t expect his children to be doormats. Sometimes we hurt the ones we love, and we don’t even realize it. Confrontation doesn’t have to be hostile. In fact, confrontation always has the goal of restoration. We value the relationship. Love can conquer.

Finally, forgiveness is empowering. Refuse to allow anyone to crush your spirit. Forgive and prove you are indeed a child of God!