My new look

Some folks here at Mt. Dora feel that I have fit in quite well. They wanted to do something for me that would make me fit in even better. They gave me western boots for Christmas. You can see for yourselves just how western these boots are. Of course we will have to call them southern boots since we are on the east coast. Anyway, now I really look like the "crackers" of Florida.

My Accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: Boston You definitely have a Boston accent, even if you think you don't. Of course, that doesn't mean you are from the Boston area, you may also be from New Hampshire or Maine.
The West
The Midland
North Central
Philadelphia
The Northeast
The Inland North
The South
What American accent do you have? Quiz Created on GoToQuiz

I was exploring other blogs and ran across a link with a quiz that tells you what kind of accent you have. Apparently I have a Boston accent. Let's see if I can explain this. I was born in Colorado, raised in 5 states (Colorado, Texas, Washington, Kansas, and California), schooled in Los Angeles (2 years), lived in San Diego (1 year), schooled in Texas (2 1/2 years), lived in New Jersey (28 years), married to a Texas gal who also lived in Burlington, Massachusetts (outside of Boston for 6 years) - okay, I got my accent from Pat (my wonderful wife of 30 years)! She lived in the Boston area for 6 years, developed her accent, and then gave it to me. Seriously, I wonder if the Boston accent includes people from Northern New Jersey. I hope no one tells the folks here in Mount Dora, Florida that their new preacher has a Boston accent. They might wonder where I've really been for the last 28 years. I was sure that I would have been a more neutral accent. So click the link and take the quiz and tell me what kind of accent you have.

Aiden Robert Mackey

Even though Lisa has posted a picture of Aiden Robert Mackey, I thought I would do the same just to keep in practice of uploading pictures. Kevin was born in California and his two kids were born in North Dakota. Here is Aiden's big sister, Alexis. The first is obviously taken when she was born. The second is a more recent photot. She's a cutie. One of these days I may get to meet her. It's hard to believe that my youngest sister, Andra, is a grandmother - twice over!

Tis the season to be jolly

It's that time of year again. Pat loves the Christmas season. We just finished putting up the lights around our new (rented) house. We've had a couple of traditions in the Bliss household. The first began in Northern New Jersey, On the second Saturday after Thanksgiving (oftentimes the first Saturday in December) we would get up early, make some hot cocoa, put it in a couple of thermoses, and drive to a tree farm in Pennsylvania. On the way we would count the number of cars coming back with trees. Maybe we would sing some songs or listen to Christmas music (usually everyone else but me, I focused on driving). Once at the farm we would begin our search. Sometimes it would be very cold, sometimes rainy, and sometimes slightly mild. Sometimes we would argue over which tree and sometimes we wouldn't. Sometimes it would take us hours to find the right one and sometimes we would find one in a relatively short time. Once we moved to Southern New Jersey we found a tree farm within 10 miles. We kept our tradition alive. But once the kids began to go off to college, our trips to that tree farm grew less and less. We finally we went to the farm stand about 1/4 mile down the road. We usually found a good tree so we were happy. Pat discovered icicle lights and talked me into climbing onto our roof and stringing the lights. So we've been hanging those icicle lights ever since. And we have continued the tradition right here in Florida. I put up a little fuss over doing it but I'm happy to make Pat happy. So we are jolly this season, even though it was 75 today (and probably will be on Christmas day).

Weird is as Weird does

In the spirit of faddishness, here is my list of weird things about me (I was able to use a zip compression program to do 2 months of prayer and research in about 2 minutes).

1. When I dress, the buttons on my shirt, the buckle of my belt, and the button on my pants must all line up. Don't know where I got this from. I remember seeing Roger Moore in a James Bond movie and all three of these were not lined up (yes I noticed it!). I thought, that looks bad. To this day every morning I make all three line up.

2. I want to wear my hair long! How long you ask? Long enough to have a ponytail. I thought my retirement job could be as a tour guide for a historic site where long hair would be a plus - I would look authentic.

3. I get up early (5:00 AM) every morning (all seven days) and go to bed late (usually after 11:00 PM). I don't want to miss anything.

4. I'm nervous about flying. In the 80s I used to lay awake the night before a flight and sweat bullets. When my Mom's Mom died (Grammie) I let my fear of flying get the better of me. I've always regretted not flying out, mostly for my Mom's sake. Pat and I flew almost once a month since November of 2005. I actually think I'm a little less fearful these days.

5. I hate to sweat in nice clothes. Even nice causal clothes. I will avoid doing anything that will break me out in a sweat while dressed this way. But if I can go change to jeans and a t-shirt, I don't mind at all. In fact, I enjoy sweating when properly dressed.

6. I tend to play the devil's advocate in Bible study (not always but occasionally, okay more often than I am willing to admit). It doesn't matter where I go. If I'm in a conservative congregation I tend to play up liberal ideas. If I'm in a liberal congregation I tend to play up conservative ideas. I don't rock the boat, I just jiggle it some to make sure everyone is holding on tight.

Well that's my list. Pat you are now tagged if you haven't already thought of this. Of course your list will be short (yes I do know how to score points with my wife of 30 years). I won't tag my son (Trey), because he's dating right now and I'm sure he doesn't want the young lady he's dating to know that he's got anything weird in his personality. Of course he should keep her away from his family's blogs so she won't find out about all our weird stuff. Who knows how she might react.

Evangelism

Years ago a prominent figure in our brotherhood came to speak to our preacher's group in North Jersey. During his talk he made the statement that our exclusivity was killing our evangelism. Afterwards I happened to be in the car next to him headed for lunch. I took the time to disagree with his statement. I said that our inclusivity is killing our evangelism. I pointed out that ever since I've become a Christian (1973) I've heard that Churches of Christ were one of the fastest growing churches during the 50s. I have often wondered why no one suggested that we recapture the attitudes and message that was present back then. Some may not have liked that our brotherhood was decidedly exclusive in its message but back then we knew who was lost and who was saved. I don't believe that this alone made us evangelistic, but it certainly helped. When we become overly inclusive there is no need to evangelize because everyone appears saved.

Our society today as a whole has moved to the left in its quest to be tolerant. Tolerance means that we accept everyone and their message. No one is lost. So if we evangelize any group we insult them and society jeers at us. Remember when the Southern Baptists were lambasted in the media because they believed that Jewish people in general were lost? I believe firmly that if we don't know who is saved and who is lost then we won't evangelize. I'm not suggesting that we necessarily believe that we are the only Christians but I am saying we must have a clearly articulated message that gives a clear indication of what we believe is the message and the response to it. Without this as a minimum we will have an unclear path for evangelism.

God's dwelling

In going over the Scriptures on the Holy Spirit I noticed something that I had never noticed before. I don't know if any author has ever pointed this out. I don't remember reading it anywhere before. Well here goes.

In the Old Testament God tells Israel that He will be their God, they will be His people and He will dwell among them (Ex.29:44-46; Lev.26:12). When Jesus came to the earth, John records that the word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). And lastly, the Holy Spirit dwells in us (Rom.8:9,11). I think this is significant that each member of the Godhead took turns dwelling with us. I also believe that this should have an impact on how we understand the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit."

I mentioned in an earlier post that in our fellowship there have been two distinct teachings concerning the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. One believes that the Spirit indwells us representatively through the word. The other believes that the Holy Spirit is personally dwelling in us. I think both teachings miss the point of "dwelling." Dwelling isn't about location, it's about relationship. In the Old Testament God isn't telling the Israelites that He is only located among them (He's omnipresent) but that He has a special relationship that He has with no other nation. The same is true of the Christian. The Holy Spirit dwelling in us isn't about His location it's about Him having a relationship with us.

Look at Num.5:1-4 God has the Israelites send out unclean people from the camp because He dwells in their midst. When they send the people out of the camp, these people really haven't been removed from God's actual presence since He's omnipresent but they have been removed from Israel, with whom God does have a relationship.

When Solomon completed the temple, God demonstrated His presence by filling the temple with a thick cloud just as He did with the Tabernacle (1Kgs.8:11-13). Solomon later said that heaven and earth cannot contain God much less this temple (1Kgs.8:27). Surely this has to impact out thinking about the Holy Spirit. We must understand that when the New Testament speaks about the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, just as the Old Testament spoke about God dwelling in the temple, that what is in view is not location but relationship.

We might also look at this from another perspective. Instead of dividing the Bible into three historical dispensations (patriarchal, Mosaic, Christian) why not see the Bible in terms of ministerial dispensations - the Father's with Israel, Jesus' with the apostles, and the Holy Spirit's with the church. This is why each member of the Godhead dwells with us - it is part of His ministry.

I do believe that the miracles performed in the early church were proof of the Holy Spirit's dwelling in God's new people the church. The miracles in the Old Testament (the plagues in Egypt, the miracles during the period of the Judges, and the thick cloud in the Tabernacle and Temple) were proof of God's dwelling among the Israelites. I also believe that miracles are no longer necessary. But I believe that in the Old Testament God empowered people for service in non-miraculous ways (Ex.35:31-32) and the Holy Spirit continues to empower us in non-miraculous ways today (Rom.12:6-8). The continuing proof today of the Spirit's dwelling in us is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23). This is the Spirit's continuing ministry for the church.

Flustered

Yesterday I experienced something I've never experienced in the pulpit, I got so flustered I had to stop, say something, regain my thoughts, and then continue on. Now, I've lost my train of thought before, I've gotten flustered before, but I've never felt the need to say something. I've always just pretended like it was all part of my lesson. In essence I bluff and find my place. But yesterday I felt so lost that I was sure everyone else was seeing it as well. So I stopped and said something like, "I'm sure Barry Bonds has stepped up to the plate and not been able to swing, and that's what I'm experiencing." Then I got back in the "game" and continued on. Everyone afterwards was quite sympathetic and gracious. Some told me that I shouldn't have said anything because they certainly didn't notice. A lot of them told me it shows I'm human. Of course I already knew that. I just don't like my humanity popping up in front of the congregation. One visiting preacher shared with me a gaff of his from last week. It turned out to be a good experience - for me and the congregation.

Bob's Intelligence Type

Here is the result to my intelligence type.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

Sermon Preparation

Kent Anderson brings up an interesting survey from Thom Rainer (Surprising Insights from the Unchurched), some preachers only spend two hours a week in sermon preparation. It sometimes takes me two hours just to find the images I want for my PowerPoint slides. Seriously, there are times when other factors in my week limit my sermon preparation time but I've always felt that at least 10 hours per sermon was a good investment. Charles Hodge has pointedly stated that preachers ought to spend one hour of study for every minute preached. That means I should spend 50 hours a week studying for my two weekly sermons (my sermons are typically around the 25 minute mark). 50 hours plus at least 20 more in meetings, visits, etc. I'm not a work-oholic. Instead I spend about 20 hours a week in preparing for my sermons, which means a little under half my week in actual time.

Sermon preparation consists of reading the text, studying the text myself (word study, context study, historical background, etc.), thinking through possible applications, thinking through the outline for the sermon (my outlines don't always have a 3 point plan), gathering images for the slides, an idea for the introduction (I like to start off the sermon with something to get the congregation thinking), and making sure I have an adequate conclusion. I think my conclusions are the weakest part of my sermons and so I struggle each week with this knowledge.

Of course the adequacy of this preparation is limited by my personality. I'm a big picture thinker and not a detail thinker. So I don't always spend time thinking through the details as thoroughly as I should. Often I think I've got the big picture covered and my optimism tells me that's enough. After I preach a sermon I always come up with ways I should have done it. I guess I can understand what Paul means when he says that our adequacy comes from God (2Cor.3:4-6). It is comforting to know that God is able to use our imperfect and meager attempts and still accomplish good results.

Today's Lessons 11/12/2006

This morning's lesson began a series of lessons on Stewardship. I started off with a look at God's faithfulness to us. The key characteristic of a steward is faithfulness or trustworthiness. I wanted us to first get a sense of God's faithfulness before we start considering our responsibility of faithfulness to God. I have always believed that our response to God grows out of His salvation and grace to us first. The next couple of weeks I will talk about being good stewards of the usual stuff - our money, possessions, time, etc.

Sunday evening I continued my series on Attacks on the Bible's Integrity. It is a difficult series since I'm not really explaining some Scripture or scriptural topic but rather talking about manuscripts, textual evidence, archaeology, and history. However, I seem to get good response. Tonight's lesson was about a web site from an Islamic group that is questioning the typical manuscript evidence that we use to demonstrate the accuracy of our current copies with what we believe to be the possible original text. I found this web site on the Evangelical Textual Criticism blog that I have linked to the left of my posts. I think I will wrap up this series next Sunday and start something new.

New Computer!!!!!!!!!!!

I now have a new computer! Long story. Pat's computer was partially damaged at the beginning of last summer while we were still in New Jersey. We were told it would need replacing. So once we moved to Florida, I got on TigerDirect and ordered a barebones kit with no hard drive. My goal was to take Pat's hard drives (complete with Windows XP) and just put it into the the new computer. It would have worked if the OS was anything but XP. No dice, Microsoft doesn't mind if you use the same equipment but not a new computer. So this computer sat and we bought a HP from Office Depot (just like the one her Dad just bought). She's happy. So when my computer died I purchased Win XP from a store on Ebay. Spent the whole day today working on it. First, I installed XP on a standard hard drive (IDE or PATA). Then I installed a new 200 GB SATA (Serial ATA) and made it my boot drive. Then I added the two hard drives from my old computer so I don't have any data loss. Now I have three hard drives plus a CD-ROM and a DVD-CD burner. I am cooking with fire! I'm pretty excited. This new computer is cool. Hopefully I will get back to regular posting.

Sigh

My computer appears to be taking a nose dive. I can't get it to boot up. I am currently trying to find a local company that will look at it. My posts will probably be few until then.

Sunday Lesson 10/29/06

My lesson yesterday was about Brotherly Love from Romans 12:10. I talked about how occasionally my Dad would get tired of the bickering going on between me and my siblings and he would make us hug and kiss each other. They seemed to like that story. I then set about showing that we are family and need to act like it. Even though we are blood family we can still develop family affection. In fact one commentator suggested that the phrase in Romans 12:10 should read "in brotherly love, develop family affection." So I played off of that idea. But we need an ideal version of family for our goal. I suggested that the family shows of the late 50s and early 60s gave us an ideal version of family that is far better than the reality family shows of today. Better that we have this ideal version and moved toward it than wallow in the reality of real family life of today. I then showed how we could develop family affection and ended with some practical suggestions - mostly tied to programs or things we are currently doing.

No lesson Sunday night. The young men did the service. Kevin Holder did the lesson. His text was Philippians 3:13-14. He talked about perseverance. Logan and Killian (brothers living in one of the cottages here at the Christian Home) did the Lord's Supper (their first time being involved in worship). Tyler Newton read the Scripture. Eddie (our youth minister) lead the singing. It was really good. I liked taking a break and I really liked being able to hear our young men take the lead.

The Holy Spirit

Over the years the subject of the Holy Spirit has constantly popped up. I do think that some preachers and churches avoid the discussing Him just because it's easier that way to keep the peace. The elders here at Mount Dora want me to work on some lessons about the Holy Spirit, so I've been working through my beliefs with an eye towards some lessons. It's been awhile since I preached on Him but not because I've been avoiding doing so, it's just that there is so much to study and talk about in a local congregation.

I've been thinking through the question of the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit" issue since that seems to be the most common question that our members have. Our fellowship (at least since I've been around) has two basic positions on the "indwelling of the Holy Spirit." The first was popular back in the 40s and 50s. The claim is that the Spirit indwells us through the Word. I can well understand how this viewpoint can develop. If you consider that most of the New Testament is written to Christians who had no written Bible but did have prophets speaking the Word of God by the miraculous power of the Holy Spirit (1Corinthians 12:28) then most of references in the New Testament are seen from that perspective. Such as when Paul says to "walk by the Spirit" in Galatians 5:16. I'm pretty sure myself that Paul's reference to the Spirit doesn't refer to an inner voice that the Spirit speaks directly to the Christian but rather to the Spirit's guidance through the inspired prophet who speaks when the Christians gather for assembly (1Corinthians 14:26, 29-30). So it is assumed that once the Spirit quit performing miracles (at the end of the apostolic age - i. e. once the apostles died) that the Word is all we have.

The other position is that the Holy Spirit indwells us personally. The focus comes from passages like Acts 2:38 where it is believed that the gift we receive at baptism (along with forgiveness) is the Holy Spirit himself. Plus there are several passages where it is mentioned that the Spirit dwells in us (Romans 8:9,11). Along with this position comes the idea that the Holy Spirit actually strengthens us directly as we serve God.

I have a third option that I think reflects the biblical subject of the Holy Spirit but I'm going to wait on discussing that until later. I'm going to blog for awhile about various related subjects on the Holy Spirit. I think this will be a way of articulating my understanding and perhaps even refining my positions. I'm hoping that this will help me in preparing my lessons for Mount Dora.

Sunday lessons 10/22/06

It was a good day today. The morning lesson went well. My title was "What to Hate" and the text was Romans 12:9. Of course Paul tells us to hate (abhor, detest, despise) evil. I pointed out that we avoid or destroy that which we hate. We must let God define evil. If we will hate evil (in our selves and the church) then we will focus our attention on cleaning up our act instead of hurting others. The complement to hate is to cling to what is good. Of course we must also let God define what is good. "Cling" or "cleave" seems to be used for glue in the first century. So if we stick to good, then good will stick to us. This should be our agenda in the church - hate evil, cling to good and let it show in our behavior.

Sunday evening was also good. I talked about The Gospel of Judas. Earlier this year (around Easter) the press was really talking about this document. Although it was discoverd in the 70s, the English translation was just finished. A papyrus codex (book form instead of scroll) was found containing this document. The scholars believe that the document is 31 pages long but only 13 pages were present in the codex. The headlines tried to give them impression that this document could essentially recast our understanding of Judas and Jesus. The document was dated from around 220 to 340 AD. It was written in Coptic (Egyptian) and may have been a translation of an earlier Greek document. Irenaeus condemned a Gospel of Judas in his Against Heresies work that was completed in around 180 AD. There is no way to prove that the one Irenaeus condemned is this Coptic translation. There are some who think it likely it is the same and some who do not. Either way it was still written at least 100 years after the canonical four and is quite Gnostic in its content. It is not a narrative of Jesus' life but a glorification of Judas. Even though Judas is probably the big loser of the apostles in the Gospels, the Gospels do not really glorify any of the apostles in any way approaching what The Gospel of Judas does for Judas. I continue to receive new comments from members that they really like what I'm doing Sunday evening.

Bob's Survey

Okay, Lisa, here is my "What is your favorite . . .?" survey.

1. What is your favorite Bible book?
2. What is your favorite religious book?
3. Who is your favorite Bible character? (other than Jesus)
4. How many plants from the Bible can you name? (thought I would include something a little different)
5. What is your favorite Bible place?
6. What is your favorite Bible event or scene? (e.g. Thomas placing his finger in Jesus' hands and side)
7. What is your favorite Bible text?

No prize for being the seventh one to answer except for the satisfaction of being able to identify your favorite stuff from the Bible.

The Three of Us

Didn't have any pictures on the blog of the three of us. I thought this one was pretty good. This was taken on Sunday during our family reteat.

Manatee Springs

Here's a picture of the information board about the spring. Also a picture of the spring itself. While we were there looking at the spring, a couple of young men came and one snorkled down to the bottom of the spring. There is another section where there are caves below the water's surface. Cave diving is quite popular at this site and at other springs as well. If you click on the pictures you should be able to see a bigger picture. That will be helpful in reading the information on this first picture.

Family Retreat

This past weekend 22 of us went to Manatee Springs for the first ever Mt. Dora Family Retreat. What a great weekend we had! Pat and I got packed and showed up at the building at 1:05 PM. We were supposed to meet at 1:00 PM. When we arrived no one was there. We thought, "Wow, when they say 1:00 PM at Mt. Dora they mean 1:00 PM!" Within a minute or two another family showed up. I called Eddie (our youth minister) and found out that he was hung up picking up our shirts. So apparently we were the early birds. We took off in three vehicles arrived around four o'clock Friday afternoon. One of our senior couples went along as well but they had arrived a little earlier. We got the tents pitched and things set up for dinner. A couple of folks arrived a little later and Loni arrived the next morning. Loni had parent conferences and couldn't get away with us on Friday.

We had a great devotional on Friday night and then of course the obligatory smores. Night time was interesting because it got below 50 both nights. I was glad that warm showers were only a short walk away. We also had great camp fires. We had plenty of wood that lasted until Sunday morning. We also got lots of visitors. We saw deer, armadilloes, and racoons. It was amazing how unafraid of us they were. They were hoping for a meal but didn't find anything.

Our theme for the weekend was "Got Lost" which is a play on "got milk?" and the TV show "Lost." The purpose was to focus on getting lost in Jesus and the word of God. On Saturday after a morning devotional we went back to our tents as families and continued the devotional by focusing on Php.2:5-11 and answering some questions about attitudes that we all have and then had some prayer time. Part of the purpose of the Saturday morning devotional was to encourage family devotional time. Our family never did much in the way of family devotionals. Scheduling seemed difficult. However, we made sure that we taught our kids wherever we were if it was needed.

The park had a covered wagon tour that we all took at 1:00 PM on Saturday. The covered wagon was supposed to imitate the actual wagon many took to way back when to travel to Florida. We got to see the plant life of Florida along the way. We had a good tour guide, John. We ate Sparkle berries (cousin to blueberries, but tasting nothing like them), actually visited a cheeki hut (made by the local indigenous people - not sure I've spelled it correctly), and learned a little of the history of Florida. Florida crackers are native Floridians that have three or four generations of native Floridians behind them. They are called crackers because most of them owned cattle and cracked the whip to guide the cattle.

We also walked a board walk that went from the springs out to the river. It was fascinating to see the springs and to read about it's history and details. It puts out 50 to 150 million gallons a day. Imagine! We tried fishing a little but didn't even get a bite. It was quite pleasant temperature wise on Saturday.

We had Sunday morning worship after breakfast. We sang a few songs, took communion, listened to another lesson by me, and prayed together. Then we packed and cleaned the camp. Lastly we ate lunch and then headed out. We all agreed to wear our shirts for evening services back at the church building. I don't think I've every preached a sermon without a tie on but tonight was a first.

Well that was a weekend. We had people from first grade to 75. I really enjoyed getting to know the folks there on a different level than just at the church building. We told some jokes (I've got some new ones for my family that wasn't present). I'm looking forward to next year.

inadequate divine-esteem

I found this quote in Theocentric Preaching (a blog by Darryl Dash) that is probably going to be at the top of my list of great quotes.

The fundamental problem with most of us is not deficient self-esteem but inadequate divine-esteem. As we submit ourselves to God, [and recognize] that ultimately he operates for his own name’s sake, and that his investment in us relates to agendas far greater than ourselves, we will treasure the grace which he reaches out to us. (Daniel I. Block, The New International Commentary on the Old Testament: The Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 1-24)

I believe that self-esteem is the result of our focus on God but not the goal. Our problem as Christians is not that we don't believe enough in ourselves but that we don't believe enough in God. One periodical I used to read years ago, pointed out something about the Exodus that has always stuck with me and I think agrees with Block's quote. Basically the author pointed out that in the Exodus God tells the Israelites that when He sees the blood of the lamb on their door posts that He will passover their house and not kill their firstborn. He doesn't say when I see your faith and appreciation in the blood I will passover. If they apply the blood then they trust God. We need to focus on trusting Him more not more on building our self image.

How to do it? Two ways. First, read the stories in the Old Testament because those stories testify of God's faithfulness. If we believe that God is faithful and that He has demonstrated it over and over again, then we will believe that He will be faithful in our lives as well. We will also learn that God's faithfulness isn't always fulfilled the way we want. I'm sure that Joseph prayed for deliverance from his situation immediately. But God's faithfulness wasn't seen in Joseph's life until he had been gone from his family for almost 22 years. Those stories are just good for the kids. The second way we can focus more on trusting Him is to put into practice what He wants. Live faithfully and He will faithfully reward you. Let His word live in your life and see God's faithfulness for yourself. You will grow. It will not be pain-free but you will grow.

This picture is supposed to be Moses leading the people out of Egypt and through the Red Sea. To honor my current reading of Exodus I wanted to share my favorite joke about Israel traveling through the Red Sea. There was this freshman seminary student who was reading his Bible one evening. He started cheering and hollering. His roommate came in to see what was going on. The freshman claimed he was excited reading about Moses leading the people through the Red Sea to freedom from the Egyptians. The roommate (a third year student) calmly informed the freshman that once he got to professor X's class he would discover that the Red Sea at that time was called the Reed Sea and was only three (3) inches deep. The roommate left the room and the freshman went back to reading. A couple minutes the freshman was again cheering loudly. The roommate rushed back in and wanted to know what was going on. The freshman claimed, "I can't believe it, God drowned all those Egyptians in just three (3) inches of water!" When we are oriented properly no one can take away our faith!

Responses 10/08/06

We had two responses at the PM services. One came forward asking for prayers for strength to be a better example in front of her co-workers and friends. The other was a baptism. She waited until most everyone had left. She had been studying with one of our elders and his wife. It was a great way to end a Sunday.

We had two baptisms last Sunday evening as well. Two boys from one of the cottages here at the Christian Home were baptized. I'm really excited about the work that the Christian Home is doing. I'm sure that we will see more baptisms in the future (just as in the past baptisms probably occured regularly). God has given us a great opportunity.

Sunday Lessons 10/08/06

Yesterday's AM lesson was entitled "Love Unmasked" from Romans 12:9. Paul says "Let love be without hypocrisy." I showed pictures on the video presentation of actual masks used by Greek actors. I emphasized that hypocrisy is hiding our real self and motives. We can do it through a number of ways that are intentional and unintentional. We need to love (act on behalf of each other) without hidden agendas. It is the only way we can trust each other and function as God's community. I focused on how God loves us and how his love serves as an example for our loving each other sincerely.

Sunday evening I continued my "Attacks on the Bible's Integrity" series with a look at The Da Vinci Code and its attack on the claim that Jesus is divine. The book has a character claim that Jesus' divinity was decided upon at the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD by the emperor Constantine in an effort to solidify his political power and the growing power of the Vatican. The character in the book claims that Jesus' followers considered Jesus a mortal man until that moment in history. I showed that the New Testament decidedly claims Jesus as divine by looking at John 1:1-3, John 20:28, and Matthew 2:2,11; 14:33; 28:17. These passages (plus there are numerous others) present Jesus as divine. Then I showed some quotes from three early church fathers (Ignatius 117 AD, Justin Martyr 150 AD, Irenaeus 160 AD), in which they claim Jesus as divine. Regardless of whether one accepts the Bible as true or not, at least the evidence I presented shows that what was accepted as Scripture and what most of the church believed was that Jesus was indeed divine and in some way equal to the Father. Plus some of the passages have people worshipping Jesus and one of the quotes from the church fathers said we should worship him.

My Florida Life Style

Since moving to Florida, I now wear shorts and sandals more often. In New Jersey I mostly wore them during camp week. Other than camp I seldom wore shorts and sandals. Now I wear them at least 2 or 3 times a week. Plus, it's now getting toward mid-October and I'm still wearing them! It has been in the high 80s and sometimes into the low 90s this past week. You can tell the humidity level is down but it's still hot. But the really good thing - I didn't have to mow this week. The grass has definitely slowed down its growth. I'm not at all unhappy about that. I'm really looking forward to the winter months here in Central Florida. It will be a little like the winter months in California where Mom and Dad live.

I really like the Mount Dora area. It will be an adventure visiting the events and seeing the area. When I was growing up I remember looking forward to our moves. Maybe I'm projecting back into the situation but that's my memory. I enjoyed staying put in New Jersey (2 locations in 27 years) but I'm getting use to this move and feeling like I belong here.

Who knows what plans God has for me and family here but I'm up for the challenge. Oh yes, the congregation here has been marvelous! I know God will do good things here.

New Experience

Today I provided the devotional for the "McCoy Adult Day Care Center." The adults are mostly senior citizens well into their 80s. They often live with one of their kids and are not able to take full care of themselves during the day. So they are dropped off for the day while the family goes to work. I didn't ask the question, but I wondered, "How does it feel to be dropped off like a child when you have raised a family?" I wonder if it's a question they have thought of and if they have a definite answer to. Maybe I'll ask it one of these days when I get to know them a little better.

Most of them seemed fairly lucid and quite capable of functioning in a conversation. Some of them were hard of hearing and so I needed to ask my questions a couple of times, until I got the volume just right. Most of them are not from Florida. They came from Michigan, Minnesota, Massachusetts, New York, Kentucky, West Virgina, South Carolina, North Caroline, and Orlando. They all grew up in a church environment (mostly Catholic). For now I'll be providing the devotional on the first Friday of each month. It wil be interesting to see what happens next month.

Rewards of Grandparenthood

Lisa and the boys came down for a visit in August. This pic was taken in downtown Mount Dora. 

Dixie Crossroads

This picture was taken at Dixie Crossroads in Titusville, FL. We spent Labor Day at the Kennedy Space Center with Pat's folks (and Loni) and then on the way home ate at the Dixie Crossroads. This is one of the better photos of Pat and I. 

Our group in eighth grade was called "The Organized Confusion." We wanted to call ourselves "The Den of Iniquity" but our parents said "NO!" I'm not sure what we were calling ourselves when this picture was taken (I'm not sure who took this picture), but this is the group I was in probably our freshman year. My sister Renee (former a.k.a. Elena) framed this with another picture and gave it to me one Christmas. Behind me is Mike, our organ player. Back on drums is Rick Sherry. The far right is Bob Kirchner (not sure it's spelled right) on lead guitar. What a great time we had. 

Our House

Trey, did you see any pictures of our house here in Florida? If not, here it is. 

Sunday lessons 10/1/06

This morning I resumed a sermon series I started back in August from Romans 12. Today's AM lesson was "You have a Gift" from Romans 12:6-8. I tried to focus on the idea that "gifts" in this text were expressions of God's grace in our lives. The Greek word is "charisma" which is from the word for grace, "charis." I tried to point out that while sometimes gifts are natural talents, sometimes God puts us in a situation where we have to exert ourselves in new and different ways. I told about a small congregation of 7 and only one of them is a man. He leads singing, says the prayers, distributes the Lord's Supper, and preaches. He may not have any natural talent in any of those areas but he is using his "gifts," expressions of God's grace in his life.

The PM lesson was on the book Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman. Ehrman is a textual critic (one who studies Greek manuscripts for the purpose of trying to reconstruct the original text as penned by the New Testament writers). His book tries to put a spin on the textual variations in our Greek manuscripts that suggests we cannot trust the accuracy of our Bible today. He states that he believes many of the scribes were theologically motivated to add changes to the text that resulted in our current understanding of the divinity of Jesus and the role of women in the church. Of course he must go against the writings of the church fathers (95-300 AD) and other pieces of evidence that paints a different picture. The really ironic thing about his book is that he doesn't bring up any misquoting of Jesus' statements. My lessons are designed to warn us about how our society is changing and becoming more skeptical about the Christian faith and our Scriptures.

I had three responses this morning for the invitation. I'm sure that my lesson had little to do with their decision to respond. Two were brothers living in the Christian Home. They both wanted to be baptized. I spent a little time with them during the afternoon. They were baptized by Eddie after PM services. The other response was a young woman (wife and mother of three) who just moved to the area and is going to have some tests done this week. She's been going through some medical difficulties and the doctors have yet to diagnose her condition. She, her kids, and her aunt stayed for our potluck afterwards. I noticed that several people spoke with them so they were well received.

Florida skies

This is what I love about Florida. Gorgeous skies and clouds. 

A First

Last night was "a first" for me. I sang publicly with a group. Several members in our congregation have a musical group. They do some country, blue grass, oldies rock, and some gospel. The Christian School has a monthly chicken dinner as a fund raiser. This group performs every September. During the performance they usually get a male quartet together to sing a couple of hymns from the book. This year they recruited me to sing bass. We sang "Heaven Came Down" and "Jesus Hold My Hand." The alto lead was sung by a brother who is the chorus director at the Christian School. We sounded pretty good. I had never sung publicly like that and so this is "a first." I don't know whether we will ever do this again but I've done it once.

Grieving

Just received news yesterday that a good friend has cancer. Mike Godknecht called and told me that his wife, Cathy, has pretty extensive cancer. The doctors don't think treatment will help. Their concern is keeping Cathy comfortable. Mike and Cathy have been through a lot these past couple of years and now this. I cannot imagine what Cathy must be going through wondering about why this disease has come into her life. I cannot imagine what Mike must be going through feeling helpless. Both though are faithful to their God and I have no doubt that God will be faithful to them.

Diseases like cancer remind us that this world is not perfect and that there is a better age coming. Even though we believe as Christians that death leads us to that better age, we still grieve when someone comes down with a life threatening disease. We will not be able to enjoy those eternal relationships until that final day, so we grieve at the loss we experience now. Grief now will turn to joy on that day. Ed Monroe used to say that you really can't know joy unless you know grief. I'm sure that Mike and Cathy will know great joy on that final day.

New Lists

On the sidebar I've added some lists. I got the idea from my son's Xanga blog (and other blogs I've read). The reading lists are books that are of interest to me and do not necessarily carry my endorsement. I try to read to keep up with current ideas , some of which may be antithetical to my Christian faith. I don't have much fear in reading such books because I feel pretty grounded in my faith. I just caution those who may see a book and want to read it. Don't think that I'm giving it my approval. I may be reading it for a sermon and seeing how I can help my congregation see through the falsity of its content. If you do choose to read a book you see on my list, let me know. I will be interested in hearing your thoughts about the book. Same with my listening lists.

My listening lists are usually tied to what I'm listening to while hanging upside down. I have a CD/MP3 player that I use while I'm on my inversion table. I have listened to quite a bit of my CD library and will probably start back over them again soon. I don't have a CD player in my truck so I listen to a smooth jazz station out of Orlando. I'm really enjoying this station. I was disappointed that I couldn't find a good oldies station but am pleased with smooth jazz as an alternative. Even if they start an oldies station I probably will stick to this one.

This week in Mt. Dora

I attended another preacher's meeting yesterday. This one was held in Winter Garden at the West Orange Congregation. I met: Mark Smith (pulpit), Carey Hadley (youth), and Dave Stevens (family life) from the West Orange congregation; Steve Puckett (pulpit) from the Melbourne congregation; Joe Roberts (pulpit) and Lonnie Johnson (youth) from the Orange Ave. congregation in Eustis; and Randal Myers from the Highland congregation in Lakeland. We shared how we became Christians and how we came to ministry. Then we had lunch at the Asian Buffet around the corner. Next month we will meet at the Orange Ave. congregation in Eustis. The normal procedure is to have a grab bag, a book review, and a sermon to share (PowerPoint) each brought by a different guy. I'm looking forward to having some good fellowship with these guys.

Two of the senior ladies here at Mt. Dora passed away this week; Yuvarn Haskins and Myrtice Pickren. Both ladies and their families have been instrumental to the work and history of this congregation. There are a lot of family connections in this congregation, just like Tabernacle. It will probably take me a while to figure them out.

Pat passed the Florida Teacher's certification test yesterday. I had no doubt she would. She will be issued a temporary certificate. She can be hired now with confidence by any school. She will have to work on a permanent certificate but again I have no doubt that she will pass that one as well. I'm looking forward to seeing her use her teaching knowledge for her own class room. I think she's going to be a great teacher.

Sunday Evening Series

On Sunday evening I'm starting a series on "Attacks on the Bible's Integrity." I started off last Sunday evening with a lesson on "Why I need the Bible" from Psalm 19. I showed that David had a strategy in writing Psalm 19 that went beyond just the content of the psalm. In v.1-6 David uses the Hebrew word "el" for God just once. In these verses David emphasizes the greatness of God in what he has created and shows his power and majesty. But in doing so God appears larger than life and almost out of touch with us. In v.7-14 David uses the personal name for God seven times (its the word translated Jehovah or Yahweh). This is the personal name by which God revealed himself to Israel (Ex.3:14ff). What David is saying that God becomes personal to us through his revelation in the Word. I also believe that David is saying that without the word we cannot have a relationship with God. The word is not the only aspect to the relationship but without the word there can be no relationship regardless of what else we do.

Tonight I used a column by Bonnie Erbe (Robertson Isn't God's Spokesman) from January of this year. She used Robertson's silly statements of the past few months as the springboard to show us that the Bible really isn't the word of God and that we shouldn't claim that we can even know God's mind or will. So we should all be a bunch of moderates, never really believing in anything and never really condemning anything either. Of course she can condemn Robertson's condemnation of others without realizing that she is stepping into his territory as well. I know that this is a risky kind of series. It is possible that I might make it a little too technical but I want to make the congregation aware of what is being said about the Bible and that we do have good evidence that counters those attacks.

I plan on a separate lessons on Bart Ehrman's Misquoting Jesus, Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code, and I've forgotten what my fourth subject would be. I also hope that our teens will be listening. They need this to fortify their faith.

I closed my lesson tonight by reminding them how our brotherhood focuses on showing where the traditions of men have deviated from the word of God. That focus took us to the denominations with their traditions, but now Bonnie Erbe and the others I will focus on are the new "traditions of men" in that they elevate human rational thinking to the point of making man the god of this world. It is a new religion, a secular religion. They have created a man-made religion. Pagan religions and deviations from God's Word are always man-made religions. We need to be armed in new ways to deal with it and defend our faith. This series will be tough but hopefully helpful.

Sunday AM 9/24/06

My lesson this morning was "Revive Me To Share Your Word." I'm doing a month long series called "Revive Me According to Your Word." It's taken from Psalm 119:25. The elders had asked me to continue their routine of assigning September as "revival" month. In thinking through how I could make it work for me, I decided to do a 30 day challenge. It's sort of on the order of a 40 day challenge that some mega-churches have done. I created a schedule for each day of the month with a passage from Scripture and a thought. For instance, September 1 is "God's Word Created the Universe" with the text being Psalm 33:6. Each received something similar. The whole month focused on the Word of God. I also listed my sermon topics and texts as they came up in the schedule. It appears to have been well received. The elders really liked it and several members have said so as well. I've been told to do it again.

Mt. Dora has done an incredible job of incorporating the video projector into our worship services. It is used for announcements before Bible class, in between Bible class and services, and then after services. Eddie, Doug, and Gene (I'm not sure who else might be helping out) really have kept focused on making sure that the announcements are kept up-to-date. From the beginning they have expected me to use it as well. It has made my sermon creation process quite different. I not only have to think through the message I want to get across but also how that message is to be presented visually on PowerPoint.

My lesson today mixed clip art that I found on Google's Images section with slides containing outlines. I started off with a brief summary of Matthew 28:19-20 and Mark 16:15-16. Then I talked about how intimidating "all nations" and "all creation" must sounded to the apostles who probably hadn't been much more than 50 miles away from their homes at any one time. I showed that "all nations" are our neighbors, friends, family members, co-workers, and classmates. I also suggested that a congregation needs to think globally (supporting an overseas mission work) and locally (reaching out in our own back yard). I finished with some practical suggestions of how we can revive our interest in sharing God's word (the theme of the day). Suggestions such as invite a friend, pray for a friend, go with someone who enjoys teaching others, and so forth. I felt it went well. I have a new wrinkle in my presentation - I now have a monitor in front of me so I can view what slide is in the screen behind me and I have a control that allows me to advance the slides. I can now work at my own pace. Hopefully the presentation flow will get better.

I will pick up next week where I left off in Romans 12. I was doing a series of lessons on the Christian life from that text and will continue next week. Don't know just yet what I'm going to do afterwards. But stay tuned.

Out of the blue

When I was a freshman (1971) at Pepperdine University, our English class read a book that contained a chapter about the word "camp." The word in this chapter isn't talking about camping or a church camp or a summer camp of any kind. Instead the word "camp" at that time was used to indicate something that was over the top or exaggerated. Websters even has a separate definition for this usage - "something so outrageously artificial, affected, inappropriate, or out-of-date as to be considered amusing." Sort of like someone showing up at a prom in 2006 dressed in a "zoot suit" (a 30s/40s suit associated with the swing era - Google it). I had never heard the word "camp" used in this way and thought it rather silly that an English composition book would devote a whole chapter to this particular usage. I thought it was just an "LA" thing or a "Hollywood" thing. Lo and behold, I started seeing the word "camp" used this way all over the place. I even saw a billboard containing the word. Amazing.

When we bought our first minivan (1985 Toyota) it was painted a sandy sort of color (I think it was called Desert Rose). Wouldn't you know it, we had neighbors and half the community that owned that particular minivan (I'm exaggerating in case you don't know me). We did see it a lot even though we had never noticed it before.

One of the members here at Mt. Dora told me about a preacher (not in the Churches of Christ) that has a program called "servant evangelism." His name is Steve Sjogren. Guess what? You guessed it, his name popped up out of the blue. I was reading a blog (Michael Duduit - editor for Preaching Magazine) that mentioned a controversial speech by a popular preacher named Steve Sjogren. It turns out that Steve Sjogren claims that some of the pastors at big churches have admitted to him that they spend less than 15 hours on their sermons and that sometimes they preach someone else's sermon - word for word. Michael Duduit called it "stealing sermons" or plagiarism. Sjogren claims that we don't have to be completely original and that sometimes it's a good thing to use someone else's material. Apparently some preachers feel they have too much to do and can't spend time coming up with original sermons. Duduit claims that it's okay to borrow material (and sometimes you give credit depending on how you use the material) but to take a sermon word-for-word and not reveal that it isn't your sermon it the "preacher's unforgiveable sin" (that's my thought about Duduit's attitude). Duduit concluded by writing, "If you are too busy to prepare sermons, then you are too busy to preach."

I am amazed at how you can hear a word or see a car or be introduced to someone for the first time and then discover them all over the place. I bought a Ford Ranger last year and I am still noticing how popular the vehicle is. Maybe God uses these new situations for opportunities to serve him. Out of the blue we meet someone, then we start noticing them in all the places of our daily routine. Coincidence? Maybe not. Watch for out of the blue situations. Who knows what might happen.

Preaching to needs

I have a "love-hate" relationship with all the blogs I have bookmarked. I love to read them, but hate that I don't have time to really read and digest all of them. I bounce around on occasion (sort of like channel surfing on the TV) briefly looking at the blogs hoping to find something interesting. Today I came across an interesting article on Albert Mohler's blog. He's discussing why preaching to the needs of the congregation is a futile exercise. I have always wondered since I began to preach how I was supposed to perceive the needs of the congregation and design a sermon that could preach to those needs. Even in a congregation of 70-80 you have so many different needs that it's impossible to touch those needs. But am I really supposed to do that? Now that's a quote!

Mohler quotes from William Willimon (one of my favorite authors), "Jesus doesn't meet our needs; he rearranges them. He cares very little about most things that I assume are my needs, and he gives me needs I would've never had if I hadn't met Jesus. He reorders them." Now that's a quote! Willimon suggests that people in the third world have biblical needs (housing, clothing, food) but that we in the affluent world have wants not needs. We meet our needs outside of prayer. We want things that really have little to do with the kingdom.

I was told one time that people wanted a sermon that would get them through the week. I've thought a lot about that statement. I wish I could talk to them now because I would say, "It's not my job as your preacher to get you through the week. It's my job to get you to heaven." God calls us out of this world and into a world of His creation. It is a new world, a new creation with new needs. Preaching should point the way to those new needs and new ways. We are called to follow the new standards of the new community.

God calls us to pay attention to others (Php.2:3-4). We are to be other-centered. The "needs" that people claim the preacher should address are really self-centered stuff (satisfying life, career, ect.). Sometimes it's wrapped up as evangelism but really the people want their needs met not those on the outside. God called me to be faithful and I pray that I stay faithful throughout my years.

Remembering

Today I met several of the preacher and elders in the area. The Sanford Church of Christ hosts a leaders' luncheon every other month. I met the preacher from the Plymouth congregation (both the retired one, now an elder, and the new one), from the Concord Ave. congregation in Orlando, and from the Delanto congregation. One of the preachers knew Mark Niehls . They served on a board together for the Christian schools in our brotherhood. This is what impressed me about the students at Pepperdine who were from the churches of Christ. At lunch time they would sit and talk and within five minutes knew 10 people between them yet they were from different states. Now that's me. I love it! I'm a social animal. I love talking, socializing, and finding out who knows the people I know.

I remember sitting in my car listening to the radio waiting for my buddy, Bob Weber. We were meeting at the Princeton church building for our usual study time. I heard the report that a plane had flown into one of the twin towers. I thought maybe someone flying a small Cessna had a heart attack and the plane just flew into the tower. Then I found out a second plane had hit and I knew that it was no fluke. This was on purpose. At home I remember feeling uneasy about what would be happening later on that day as we discovered the purpose for the attack. Soon however, my faith kicked in and I knew that God would take care of us and lead us regardless of what might happen.

Over time we heard stories from various members about friends or family they knew were in New York or affected by it in some way. A preacher friend washed windows at the twin towers part time (inside not outside). He was scheduled to go in that morning but decided to take the day off. Others did not make such a decision. Now five years later we can still remember the heroism and the stories but I'm grateful that no other attacks on our soil have taken place. I'm waiting for that day when peace will reign and there will be no more weapons of war.

Yes we should remember these attacks. The purpose of remembering is to keep the passion alive so that we will encourage our president, Congress, and military to do what is necessary to keep us safe. This is the purpose of a government (Romans 13:1-8). God has ordained that governments not only keep order in the nation but keep the people safe from outsiders.

God's religion is based on remembering. The Israelites remembered the Passover. Christians remember the crucifixion. We remember so that we will serve.

To Infinity and beyond!

On Monday we all (Pat, Loni, Lon, and Jeanne) went to the Kennedy Space Center. We bought 12 month passes. We can go see all the sights anytime we want for the next 12 months. There are two guided tours (up close and personal type of tours) that our pass does not cover, but the cost isn't that much and will be well worth it.

We arrived and ate lunch. Food was typical of parks like this. Over-priced and so so. However, it fulfilled its main function - filled my belly. We then took the non-guided tour of three stops. The first was the observation tower for the launch pads. We could actually see the shuttle on the launch pad. The lift-off has been delayed several times. Pat and her folks were going today to see the scheduled lift-off but it was postponed, again.

The second stop was the Apollo center. It had considerable more to see than the other two stops. I would like to go again and spend most of the day there. I think it would be worth it.

The third stop was the International Space Station building. We got to see parts of the space station and the area where the building for future parts is taking place. It was interesting but limited in what you could see.

The main attraction I wanted to see was the IMAX show. There are two of them. We saw the one narrated by Tom Hanks about the Moon (capitalize or not?). I was a little disappointed at first. The theatre is not what I would consider typical IMAX. The screen isn't quite as big as usual. However, this one was 3D. That made up for the difference. It was an incredible show. Sometimes it looked rocks were literally flying at your face! I enjoyed it on the whole.

I'm looking forward to taking Dan, Lisa, Nathan, Jeremy, and Derek to the Space Center. Our 12 month passes get discounts on day passes. I think it would be a lot of fun. So when can you guys come down? Maybe Christmas? Dan and Nathan will have the time off. So will Loni and Mom. Just a thought for now. I'm sure Mom is planning stuff for Christmas.

During our day at the space center I didn't really think much about the vastness of our universe. I thought more about the creative and productive energies of we humans. We are made in God's image and I believe firmly that the image includes our desire to explore, build, and dream. All one has to do is look at where we as a people are today and see that we are in God's image.

Good Sunday

Today was a good day. Pat's folks are here. They came up Friday after Ernesto blew his way through our area. We had a potluck after services this morning. The folks here at Mt. Dora don't wait around to get to their potluck. At Tabernacle we would finish services around 12:15 PM then talk for a while. We would probably get home around 2:30 PM or so. Here we were home before 1:00 PM. Even though we have singing at the local nursing home, I still got in a good nap.

After evening services we had a baptism. One of the girls in one of the cottages was baptized. She had a good weekend at Sonquest and decided to make the decision. Then later on Eddie (our youth minister) called and another girl in the cottage also made the decision.

I'm looking forward to getting to meet and interact with families from the Bible School. Most of the kids that go are not from a church family. I'm sure that it will be a good source of evangelism.

For those of you reading this that may not know, there is a Christian Home and Bible School a few blocks down from our church building. It has been around for 60 years. There are three cottages that house kids needing a home, each having a set of house parents. There is one lady who gives each set of house parents a week off each month. There are over 700 kids enrolled in the Bible School. It has a pre-school and k-12. They even have a football team (just 2 years old). I have already done chapel for the high school and middle school.

Are you among the "de-churched?"

I read a couple of interesting posts on other blogs that I think may have a connection. The first is Patrick Mead's blog. You can reach Patrick's blog at http://tentpegs.blogspot.com He said the following:

A couple was furious with our church. We had gone to see what happened to them after someone noticed they'd been gone from our worship assembly for some time. "We aren't coming back," the husband said. "That is an unloving, cold church that claims to care about people but doesn't." I asked him on what basis he made that judgment and he replied, "We were gone four weeks from that church before anyone there even noticed. What kind of church doesn't even notice something like that?"

I replied, "What kind of person are you, that you could be gone for four weeks and the no one in the church could tell?"

It appears that Patrick can be blunt. I wish sometimes I was that quick on my feet. My guess is that this family thought that just showing up for worship for one hour is the equivalent of serving God. They were incensed that no one gave them a gold star for their "participation."

Another blog talked about the "de-churched." It would appear that we have to continually make up new names for new situations. However, I like what this guy wrote (or is "typed" a better term?). If I have read his blog correctly, the "de-churched" are those who come from a "small church" environment and are attracted to a mega-church. Here they are trained to believe they are doing "church" when in fact they are not. They have come to the mega-church for the production values and do not really participate in the mission of the church. They think they are serving God.

I wonder how many of us (me included) think we are doing God's will when in fact we are not. We sing with gusto, but are we really worshipping God? We pray with all the right words at the right time, but does God really hear us? We talk about our faith in certain circumstances or live the right way thinking we are evangelizing, but are we really? Perhaps we would do better to pay attention to what God has really said in His Word and not let others convince us that we are serving God when we have really traded our service for something less.

Fishing

I got to do some fishing this week. Will Heflin (one of our members here at Mt. Dora) took me out on his boat. We fished in Lake Eustis. Didn't catch anything. Didn't even get a nibble - probably too hot. Wil took me through one of the canals (Dead River) to Lake Harris. Then back again to Lake Eustis and through the Dora Canal to Lake Dora. The Dora Canal was quite long. It felt like a typical Florida stream. There were Cypress trees everywhere with Spanish Moss hanging down. There were also Blue Herons around every corner. One of them had found a fish (he certainly was better than we were that day). Will also pointed out a bird (don't know the name) that spends most of its time drying out its wings. They just stand there with wings spread waiting for them to dry. The best part was seeing an alligator. It was a baby - probably 2 or 3 feet. But it was swimming across the canal in front of us. Cool.

Speaking of fishing. I heard a sermon one time where the preacher contrasted commercial (ancient commerical) fishing with modern lure-type fishing. The purpose was mainly to suggest that anglers today rely on the latest fad to catch fish and so a lot of preachers (and members interested in evangelism) use too many fads. I suppose he's right in some way. But you could also say that ancient commercial fishing drags a net and the fish have no say in the matter. That wouldn't be good in evangelism!

Acutally I would like to see community fishing explored. This involves a village where some of the men go out and catch fish for the community. I think that is a great image where fishing is thought of as a community effort. The effort feeds the whole village. Evangelism certainly is a church community effort and the effort benefits everyone in the church. I know this is not what Peter, Andrew, James, and John did with their families but I don't think we are ever going to get a perfect picture of what "fishing for men" means. Perhaps we can take a bit from each image and put them all together for the imperfect picture of evangelism in this day and age. Maybe more on that later.

Fizzle

Wow, our first hurricane. Actually, it was a tropical depression. I don't know why it's called a depression, cause the folks here in Florida are celebrating and they are not depressed by Ernesto. It rained some last night and then again this morning. I was indoors most of the day so I didn't see much outside. I don't think it did much so I didn't miss a thing. There was a lot of activity because of the storm. I read that Lowes sold 30,000 bottles of water on Monday. That's a lot. I guess our meteorologists have to warn us because if they don't then everyone is mad. Yet, all the stores where goods are sold that will benefit people during a hurricane made out well. This was a little like a coming snow storm in Jersey. People go out a buy supplies as though they were going to be stuck inside for days. Oh well.

I was thinking today about original sin. I don't know why but I was. I 'm not sure whether or not Adam and Eve passed on some genetic predisposition to sin or not. Of course it would explain why everyone sins. However, the problem isn't really in the doctrine of original sin but rather in applying the doctrine. Once you come up with the doctrine then children (actually infants) are suddenly lost. Yet the Scripture requires faith to be saved. If a child cannot believe then whether or not they have original sin doesn't matter, God has placed them in a safe position. Instead religions have to change baptism (really immersion - Romans 6:3-6) to sprinkling to accommodate infants.

Then of course there is the thought that people are so depraved by original sin that they cannot even respond to God, so religions come up with the quickening of the Holy Spirit before conversion. The quickening supposedly makes it possible for the sinner to respond. Yet in Scripture God requires humans to respond to him. Humanity walked away from God of their own free will, so Scripture seems to indicate that God wants us to come back of our own free will. That makes sense to me. This false application is like forcing someone to love you. Surely God doesn't do that. I don't see it in Scripture.

So that's my theological thought for the day. It was a good day. I like being here. I hope God allows us to stay for a long time.

A picture from our vacation last year in August. I really like this photo. The only thing that would make it better is to have Pat and Trey in it. Pat took the picture and Trey was in Arkansas. Oh well.

We're in Florida!!

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted but here goes. We now live in Mount Dora, Florida. It is a fascinating town. It is part of what is called the Golden Triangle (Mount Dora, Eustis, and Tavares). It is located in Lake County. There is a reason the county is called Lake County - there are 1,400 named lakes in the county (let's see . . . if I start fishing today, and fish every day it will take me almost four years to fish every lake . . . hmmmmm, that sounds like a plan!). Florida itself has 7,700 named lakes (wow, if I extended my fishing to the entire state . . .).

We have emptied all our boxes that have the stuff we wanted to put in the house. However, our garage is still rather full. It may take awhile to get completely settled but we are moving in that direction.

The congregation has received us warmly. They are a friendly bunch with a good sense of humor. This is enough for now. I will post more later.

Acceptable Worship - II

I want to blather on more about acceptable worship. The Old Testament worship is so radically different than New Testament but I believe that we cannot worship properly without reflecting on the relationship between the two and what we learn from the interaction of the two.

The OT worship is detailed, regulated, and very ritualistic. Does this mean it's bad or inferior worship to the NT? I don't think so. I think that when God says, "Do this" or "Do that" then that is acceptable and proper worship. OT worship actually must be seen on two levels. The first level is Israel's worship before God. The regulations allowed Israel to approach God as His people. The second level is the picture it paints of salvation under the messiah. OT worship was both specific for Israel and a picture of what God would do in the future.

OT worship changed some over the years. It started off with a tabernacle (mobile temple) and then morphed into a fixed temple. Tim Woodroof (The Church that Flies) suggests that God didn't ask for the changes but He did accept the changes. I'm not sure that is a proper view of the changes. When Hezekiah was restoring the temple worship (in this case the musical instruments) in his day, it is written that he did so according to what David, Nathan, and Gad had commanded. What they commanded came from the Lord (2Chron.29:25). So I think Scripture states that the changes came through God's guidance, not man's desires.

The regulations teach us that worship is about what God wants not what we want. Maybe God hasn't been as specific in the NT as He was in the OT but worship still belongs to Him not to us. Just because we act excited and get teary-eyed doesn't make our worship acceptable. God didn't require of the Jews to be emotional during worship. That doesn't mean they couldn't be emotional but it also means that they don't have to be emotion to have worshiped properly.

Since God is so specific in the OT it makes sense to believe that God will at least give us some clues in the NT as to what He wants. We do see an assembly in Acts 20 and we have Paul telling the Corinthians about some of the things they ought to be doing in their assembly (11:17-34; 14:26; 16:1-2) - like the Lord's Supper, singing, teaching, and giving. Paul also told them that their assemblies should be orderly (14:40). Paul doesn't say what order things should be done in just that they should be orderly. So some clues but not as detailed. There is nothing I know of that tells us to emotional or lively in our worship. I'm not saying we can't just that the Scriptures don't tell us we have to be.

Why is it that we (churches of Christ) are wrong just because we discourage lively worship? Is it wrong for us to genuinely practice our faith even though that may be different than others? Is it wrong for us to have no instruments when others do? It seems to me that we really need to spend a little more time comparing the two testaments and seeing exactly what is in the NT.

Acceptable Worship

Much of this is in response to Patrick Mead's post about worship (But Is It a Tree? http://www.tentpegs.blogspot.com). He make some interesting points. But his comments, much like the comments I hear men make during "table talks" at the Lord's Supper, make me wonder if any of us have really read the Scriptures and understood worship (least of all me).

In Patrick's first post he tells about going to a "traditional" (or formulaic as he calls it) worship where the five acts of worship indemic to the Churches of Christ were performed. He didn't feel the "spirit" there but felt maybe it helped some who were there. That night they went to a worship service where apparently the five acts were not followed but where the "spirit" was in obvious attendance. Patrick wonders why we can't accept these folks. I want to know where in Scripture (in particular the New Testament) we see a worship service where people played instruments, danced, drank the Lord's Supper from a cup, ate big loaves of bread, and had tears flow down their cheeks? Maybe we should also follow a certain denomination and have the Lord's Supper and worship every day. Maybe we should offer worship on Saturday night so people can sleep in on Sunday morning. Actually we see Paul preaching so long (Acts 20:7ff) that someone falls asleep (maybe he's bored). How can we say that "spirited" worship is more acceptable than "formulaic" worship?

How can we judge anything acceptable or unacceptable if we don't actually see people in worship services in the New Testament? I think that worship that must be in "spirit" and in "truth" (John 4:24) has not been understood properly in our fellowship (or maybe any fellowship). I'm not trying to set myself up as the "authority" but it seems to me that most commentators miss what Jesus is saying in this context. Jesus reminds us that God is "spirit" and those who worship Him must do so in "spirit." Patrick's post seems to be hinting that "spirit" here has something to do with the Holy Spirit. Our fellowship (Churches of Christ) typically believes that "spirit" has something to do with our inner spirit. I think they are both wrong.

In the context the Samaritan woman asks Jesus about where real worship will take place. Jesus tells her that one day worship will not take place either on her mountain (Gerazim) or in Jerusalem. The reason for this is that God is "spirit." I think in the context that Jesus is saying that God is omnipresent as opposed to we humans. Worship that honors God honors His omnipresence. That is worship in "spirit." New Testament worship no longer is located in one place. Maybe the real way to honor this is to not have a located place. We build buildings in which to worship and those buildings suggest permanence (This World is not My Home). Of course if what I have said were true than we must worship someplace different every Sunday. I don't think that God has that in mind in this context.

Still I think that Jesus is telling the woman that worship, in contrast to her Samaritan worship, will not be located in one place and will be done according to "truth" which is God's will. Worship is always on God's terms not ours. If God wanted "spirited" worship He would have shown us people dancing in the streets. Instead we really aren't given much of an insight into the worship practices around the Mediterrean World. I think both sides of this issue should be careful in judging the other side. Perhaps I'll have more in the next post.