Christianity

That’s the Way It’s Supposed to Be!

/ Bill Jones

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Our church’s small sign at the corner of Highway 119 and Stilson Leefield Road was in sad shape. The paint was peeling terribly and even some of the wood had chipped away. It didn’t present a very inviting picture for folks looking for the church.

So, the sign company was called and scheduled to come get the sign and repair and paint it. Somewhere communication was mixed, and they not only removed the small sign and took it with them, but they also took a larger one that stands at the corner just up the road from the church.

As we remembered it, (since it was now gone) the larger one looked pretty good and there was some question whether we needed to spend the money to have it painted. But by the time that     conversation was held, it was too late. One of those “I thought you told them to take it. No, I figured you must have told them to take it” conversations.

The signs were fixed, painted and reinstalled. The small one in Stilson, as expected, looked fantastic. It had been obviously bad. And the bigger one near the church? It looked fantastic, too. My reaction was “Wow! It sure needed painting, too, but I didn’t notice! This is the way it’s supposed to look.”

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

We knew the piano needed tuning and mentioned it now and then when a note sounded a bit off. Even put it on the list to send an email and schedule the piano tech guy to come and tune it. But it didn’t seem that bad.

Eventually the tech guy was scheduled, and he came out and tuned the piano. I was messing around in the sound booth at the back of the sanctuary as he tinked high notes here and there on the keyboard, and poked low notes for about thirty minutes.

Then I heard him say to himself, “OK” and he strongly played and held a many-noted chord and let it resound throughout the sanctuary. The goosebumps formed on my neck and arms and I had to say “Wow! That’s the way it’s supposed to sound.” He simply replied, “that’s good” and   started packing up his stuff. It had been more in need of tuning than I thought.

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

Anytime I discuss having an asparagus garden in the backyard, I always get in the                description that when you cut some spears, take them inside, cook them and take a bite, the          reaction is “Wow, that’s the way it’s supposed to taste.” Canned or frozen asparagus isn’t close. Even what you get in the grocery store or from a produce stand isn’t the same.

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

The Book of Revelation includes a letter Jesus wrote to the church at Ephesus. He             commended the church for its diligence, labors, patience and holding to the truth. But, then in verse 2:4 Jesus says, “But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.”  With that statement we have to examine whether the “you” in his words is referring to “us.”

He then says for us to do what we used to do – love how we used to love. Get excited about Jesus and tell someone about Him. Get excited about our church and invite someone to come (or better yet, bring somebody with you.)  Go out of our way to find those in need and joyfully lend a helping hand, in Jesus’ name. And, as we love as we did at first, we will say:

“Wow, I remember! That’s the way it’s supposed to feel!”

We grow used to having things a bit less than they’re supposed to be.

The Gospel and Cheers

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment

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(After some misunderstandings I’ve found I need to say “please read it this to the end. It’s not about how a bar is as good as a church”)
Life can be mighty tough and sometimes it takes all we’ve got just to make it through the day. Sometimes we just want to get away from our worries – you know, go somewhere to be with friends, be where they’re glad to see you and be where everybody knows your name.

You can do that by going to church…or going to the bar down the street. I’m sure many of you recognized the paraphrase above of the Cheers TV show theme song from years ago. Cheers was the bar down the street. “You want to be where you can see, the troubles are all the same, you want to be where everybody knows your name.”

I’m reading the book “The Gospel Driven Church” by Jared Wilson. At one point he             emphasizes a statement by James Gilmore – “The only thing of value the church has to offer is the Gospel.”

When I read that, I felt like telling Mr. Gilmore that the church can also offer, in fact we’re told in the Bible to offer, love for one another, bearing one another’s burdens, laughing and crying together. Then the Cheers theme song started running through my head. And I imagined Mr.        Gilmore agreeing that the people in the church can, and should, provide love, and fellowship and support for each other, but without the Gospel to go with it, those actions might as well be found at a bar down the street, or in a bowling league, or the Kiwanis club – take your pick.

So, as we strive to love one another, laugh and cry together, and bear one another’s burdens, let’s make sure we remember the main reason the church is here – to proclaim the Gospel (the Good News) that Jesus Christ came to earth as a man and died and rose again to save His people from their sins.

“And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.”  Matthew 1:21

 

Black Widow Bite

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment

black-widow-spiders_thumb.ngsversion.1482872403820.adapt.1900.1My wife, Sharon, is the only person I know who has been bitten by a black widow spider. One day she took her sweater from the coat rack, put it on and felt a sharp sting on her arm. She smashed her hand on the stinging spot, shook her sleeve and the flattened spider fell out. The telltale red hourglass-shaped marking on its shiny black body confirmed what it was. Sharon sealed her attacker in a plastic bag and took it with her as she drove to the hospital.
Everyone at the emergency room was excited because no one had ever seen, much less treated, anyone with a black widow bite. It seemed to Sharon the entire hospital staff stopped by to inspect the spider and the bite marks on her arm.
I was excited too when summoned from an out of town meeting to take a phone call. Sharon told the story and assured me the doctor said everything was okay. The anti-venom was on its way from Atlanta and would be at the hospital in a few hours. Most importantly, she had no extreme symptoms. I trusted her assurances, but it was still a long trip home to see for myself.
The doctor administered the anti-venom when it arrived that evening. Sharon spent the night in the hospital for observation and was released the next morning. Thankfully, the worst effects of the bite were the five days of mental fog she endured from the prescribed mega-doses of antihistamines.
“How did a black widow spider get in her sweater?” I claim the dubious honor as the agent of that. It was winter and we were using the fireplace. At times, I brought in pieces of wood and stacked them on the floor next to the wall. If you picture the wood piled on the floor next to the wall, and move your gaze up, you come to…the coat rack. Apparently, the spider hitchhiked inside on a piece of wood, crawled up the wall looking for a dark hiding place and chose Sharon’s sweater sleeve.
Like most people, it wasn’t our practice to bring poisonous spiders into our house. However, the one that got Sharon was sneaky – we didn’t notice it because it was hiding in something useful that we often brought inside.
Spiders aren’t the only sneaky things we need to watch for. Every day we bring useful things into our homes through television, books, and the internet. These can help us learn and grow, make us think, or simply entertain us. Most importantly, these media are powerful tools that can help us as we seek to be closer to God.
But there is a negative side to the words and images they contain. Those that are blatantly evil are more easily avoided, but we might miss the sneaky ones unless we’re diligent. Subtle messages can hide among the action, information and laughter.
A scene can have a funny line, but the action may portray sex outside of marriage as not only acceptable but expected. Scripture can be taken out of context or given a slight twist to make a misleading point. Tolerance of sin (sin, as defined by God) may be constantly presented as a greater virtue than living by Biblically based standards.
As subtle messages like this sneak into our mind, they can eventually harden our heart to what is truth. Thus, we should constantly watch for them and as Proverbs 4:23 says: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.” ESV
Sharon and I don’t have poisonous spiders sneaking into our coats or sweaters anymore because I carefully examine all the wood before I bring it in. Perhaps that’s the process we should follow with all things we bring into our homes.

Joseph and Our Hard Times

/ Bill Jones / Leave a comment

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Last week my Bible reading included Genesis chapters 39 and 40. Joseph’s brothers had sold him to a caravan of travelling merchants, and he ended up in Egypt as a slave to Potiphar, an official in Pharaoh’s court. Potiphar’s wife “cast her eyes” on Joseph and tried to seduce him.    Joseph refused her over and over but one day she caught him alone in the house and grabbed him. He pulled away and ran but she held onto his coat and he left it behind. Potiphar’s wife yelled out and lied that he had tried to assault her. The result was that Joseph ended up in prison even though not guilty.

After two years, Joseph was released from prison because God enabled him to interpret  Pharaoh’s dream about seven good years and seven years of famine that were coming. Joseph told what the dream meant and also gave a plan to deal with the famine. The plan pleased Pharaoh and his advisors, and Pharaoh made Joseph second in command because it was obvious to him that     Joseph was wise because God was with him.

About that time in the chapter, my brain began wondering about a possible scenario. Say, two or three months after Joseph became second in command, he called his administrative assistant. “Here, Hapusenaram, take this note over to Mrs. Potiphar. Tell her to come to Pharaoh’s palace, where I’m second in command, by the way. I’d like to talk with her a few minutes.”

Wouldn’t that get her excited about what Joseph might do and say? I have a hint of what I might do and say in that situation and it might not be nice (We can deduce that because my mind wandered in this direction in the first place). But I also think we can deduce what Joseph would say based on what he later told his brothers about being sold by them: “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good.”

Those words can easily roll off our tongue, but it takes a work of the Holy Spirit and much work by us to have them come from our heart. So, we pray and work against our wandering mind so that we can mean it when we say “God is good—all the time!” – no matter what situation we’re in.