Although many Hallmark holidays appear to be merely a marketing ploy to guilt people into buying yet another card for a newly invented special occasion, I nonetheless am grateful for the celebration of Mother’s Day. Of course, I’m grateful for the wonderful mother I have and for her incredible commitment to her children. Undoubtedly she has embodied the concept of unconditional love over these many years.

And what a special honor it has been for me to be married to Wanda, the mother of our children and an excellent example of what a godly mother should be. In honor of these mothers (my favorites) and of all faithful Christian mothers everywhere, I preached the following message on Mother’s Day:

A Mother’s Faith (2 Kings 4:1-7)

With a broken heart, a young widow (and mother of two boys) approached the prophet Elisha. Her husband– one of the sons of the prophets– had died, and now she was facing the harsh reality that her sons would be absconded by the creditor, leaving her entirely destitute in every way. What advice could the prophet give? What resource could he possibly provide for her? Note three components of this special account of this faithful mother:

Priorities of her family

We can infer that this family possessed some godly priorities. They were known for their reverent service to God. After all, the husband was one of the sons of the prophets during a dark spiritual time in Israel’s history. His testimony was known even to Elisha himself. In spite of the culture, their family served the Lord. This woman displayed a right spirit toward God. Instead of blaming Him or becoming bitter in her heart, she sought the wisdom of God’s Word through God’s prophet. Hard times are not time to run from God; they are time to run to God. A third priority evident in this story is that this woman was raising sons for God. Unthinkable it was for her to relinquish her children to the creditor. Those sons were hers, and she was going to rear them for God! May today’s mothers possess that same priority and passion in raising children to serve the Lord!

Problems she faced

When it rains, it pours! This woman faced some overwhelming difficulties that forced her to look beyond whatever meager resources she possessed. For instance, she was confronted with an untimely death. Her husband could not have been an old man considering the youth of these sons. His death was almost certainly unexpected and that much more shocking because of his age. Without the benefit of social security or life insurance, this woman was faced with an unpayable debt. The creditor was within his legal rights to conscript the sons to a life of exacting labor until the debt was paid. Financial pressures can weigh mountainously upon us, and this woman felt the weight in all of its crushing reality. Given the details of her situation, it seemed that she was experiencing an unbearable dilemma. With no prospect for personal support, she was now being “kicked when she was down” by the additional prospect of losing her boys.

Practice of her faith

Adverse circumstances tend to reveal in us either fear or faith, and sometimes both. It is only as we look to God and the instruction of His Word—and believe it and act on it!—that we can see resolution, in God’s unique timetable, to our problems. Elisha instructed this woman to act upon a message that proved to be a challenge to her reasoning. Faith choices are not always logical choices by the standard of human reasoning. Borrowing vessels for the purpose of emptying one vessel of oil into many others seemed to be a preposterous suggestion! Ultimately though we must be mindful that faith is a matter of choice—a choice to be rendered. Faith is not primarily a feeling or even an attitude; it is rather a belief that moves us to action. Our faith choices as parents are so vitally important because we have children to be redeemed. The sons of this dear woman were the beneficiaries of her faith in that they were (1) saved from the creditor, and (2) instructed by the process.

May our active, vibrant faith deepen our relationship with our great God, and may it provide a clear beacon that our children may follow.

 

admin Sunday Review Mother's Day, Preaching, Sunday Review

Would someone please wind me back up?

When a church ministry includes a Christian school, the month of May tends to overflow with events. These past two weeks have been a tidal wave of activity, and I have finally washed back upon the shore. Primarily my life has been dedicated to the preparation and performance of the musical Guilty.

Some of you attended one of the two packed-out performances, and from everything I’ve heard from the audience members, the play was a smashing success. Perhaps most satisfying to me personally was the way the music was performed by our incredibly talented kids. You’ll have to order the DVD to see and hear what I mean, but I just wanted to express my gratitude to all of you who had such a vital part in getting the job done.

The school play seemed to end just in time (Friday night) for our seniors to march to the familiar tones of “Pomp and Circumstance” this past Sunday afternoon. Always a bittersweet time, graduation afforded us an opportunity again to remind ourselves of the importance of Christian education. What a tremendous job Phil Buhr did as our commencement speaker this year. (I’ll never look at an apple tree in the same way!) Even now our seniors are enjoying a hard-earned, all expenses paid trip to Disney World.

And to think we spent 4 nights in a grimy Washington, D.C. motel on my senior trip… Guess I was born a quarter century too early! J

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In a recent post I mentioned the fact that I’m uncomfortable with the idea of teenagers being the “church of tomorrow.” Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure well meaning people imply by those words that teenagers will one day be the adults that populate our churches and serve as leaders in our ministries. That certainly being true, my disagreement lies in the dangerous thought that teenagers must somehow wait to be the “church of tomorrow” when they can be the “church of today”!

It seems to me that teenagers are always waiting for something… waiting to get a drivers license, waiting to graduate, waiting to get that first job, waiting to get married some day… Indeed, waiting is no fun. And waiting is certainly a big part of life. In so many ways, the Christian life is one of waiting; after all, are we not waiting for the soon return of our Lord Jesus Christ? How exciting it is then to realize that there are some things for which we do not have to wait! And serving the Lord in our local church is one of them.

When I was a teenager I wasn’t at all active in the ministry of my local church. Now to be honest, I don’t know how active I would have been anyway… but I was never really afforded the opportunity to begin serving God as a teenager, nor was I overly encouraged to do so. In fact, other than youth activities, I felt no real connection to my church whatsoever.

When I became a pastor, among certain other priorities, I decided that I would strive to maintain a relationship with the teenagers of our church and that I would make a way for them to be involved now. You see, I believe that teenagers possess a tremendous capacity to serve God in the here and now. In fact, I believe that the habits developed in one’s teenage years will typically represent the habits of the rest of one’s life.

Teens are some of the best Christians I know! (And weird, goofy, air-headed, etc.) Our teens here at Harvest are for the most part actively involved in activities like soulwinning, bus calling, choir, and others. Their commitment inspires me, and I love spending time with them. Four times a year I turn the entire Sunday evening over to the teens. They lead the singing, do the preaching, play the offertory, conduct the ushering, man the sound booth, provide the greeting, perform the special music, and make the announcements. It’s great!

Our teens aren’t perfect (and neither are their parents and grandparents!), but they have a heart for the Lord that we must help to engender for the service of God. If you are a teenager, don’t wait another moment to begin serving God in your local church. Get busy right now–even if you happen to be the only one. Maybe God will use you to spark involvement in others. If you are a ministry leader, don’t overlook the incredible potential of using teens in ministry today, although I probably wouldn’t let them do the baptizing!

1 Timothy 4:12 Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.

admin Youth Philosophy teens, Youth Philosophy

Each month on the first Sunday evening of the month we celebrate the Lord’s Supper together. Of all the many activities of the church (and our church has its fair share of activity!), the Lord’s Supper time is at the top of my list. Celebrating the Lord’s Supper as a church family provides us with the opportunity to “press the reset button” and refocus on the what is really important–the cross of Christ.

After preaching another message on Sunday morning in our current series entitled “Exodus–Let the Journey Begin,” I delivered a special message for the evening service entitled “What is the Cross?” Although they sang it in the morning service, the mixed trio’s song about the blood of Christ would have been a perfect introduction to the Sunday evening message.

To so many, the cross has become almost devoid of meaning. The average entertainer or sports celebrity often dons the cross as a gaudy piece of jewelry. Its image is amazingly prominent in society despite our government’s efforts to eradicate it. But its meaning has never been more obscured from the average man’s thinking. So what is the cross?

The cross was a place of death. Most are familiar with the process of crucifixion, and we must always appreciate the physical suffering our Lord endured on such a cruel instrument of torture and execution. But physical death on the cross is transcended by what Christ accomplished spiritually through that death. Christ’s death upon the cross was substitutionary–He died in my place! In the words of the songwriter, “I should have been crucified; I should have suffered and died.” The cross was sufficient. When Jesus uttered the immortal words, “It is finished,” He was literally saying that our sin debt had been paid in full. How comforting it is to know that the cross was not merely a down payment for our salvation on which I must continue to make payment through works or religion! When Jesus died on the cross, that death was satisfying to the Father. His righteous demands for our sins were propitiated (satisfied) in the valid offer of a spotless Lamb of God.  

Salvation costs the believer nothing. Although, with the Spirit of God as our empowerment, discipleship will cost the follower of Christ a dear price. No less than a cross is the price of discipleship. A true follower of Jesus will embrace it and all that comes along with it. Christ marched to the cross with an unwavering single-mindedness. From the cradle to the grave it would be his burden, focus, and compelling responsibility. It was His dedication to the Father’s business and the cup He was willing to drink. True disciples are single-minded in their mission as well. Interestingly, Jesus instructed the disciples to take up a cross before they ever realized that their Lord would die upon one. The cross was infamous to these first century people–it was the instrument of ultimate shame. Roman citizens could not by law be crucified; such was the nature of the shame of the cross. Yet Jesus, bleeding and naked, willingly identified with us by embracing such shame. Do we as readily identify with Him?  The price of discipleship includes singlemindedness, shame, and sacrifice–yes, the sacrifice of one’s life with all of its dreams and ambitions. A disciple places himself on the proverbial altar every day. Not my will, but thine be done.  

Finally, the cross provides for us a purpose for devotion. Paul declared that devotion in view of the cross was his only sensible alternative. “For the love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead. And that he died for all, that they which live should henceforth not live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15) It just makes sense that we would be devoted to the One Who died for us! Our significance is in the cross alone. Paul touted no earthly attainments and refused to glory in any personal popularity. He chose to glory only in the cross of Christ (Gal. 6:14). Perhaps these reasons–and many others no doubt–compel us to make the cross our sermon. Its proclamation simply must be our priority! “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” (1 Cor. 1:18) 

Amen and amen! Consider the cross today…

admin Sunday Review cross, Preaching, sermon, Sunday Review

Neil Postman certainly knew what he was talking about. Although he passed away several years ago, his ideas are as relevant today (and even more so with the advent of the internet) than they were when he penned his words a quarter century ago. A well-credentialed expert on the subject of communication in its sundry shapes and subtleties, Postman takes aim on the “dumbing down” effect that television has had upon society. In fact, the visual medium of TV has caused its watchers to unwittingly place style over substance, entertainment over education, and theatrics over thinking.

Artfully (and with a refreshing historic approach) Postman details the danger of uncontextualized information. Americans tend to want information now in spite of its relevance or accuracy–a trend which began quite interestingly with the invention of the telegraph. You’ll have to read the book to follow the logical timeline. And I promise that it will fascinate you.

The author is not an anti-television crusader; rather, he seeks to educate his readers as to the true nature of television (entertainment) and its appropriate place in our lives as an amusing diversion. Sadly, the invasion of television with its encroachment into the lives of virtually all Americans has left our people in a sad state of affairs indeed. In fact, the book brought to mind as observation Richard Nixon once made in his book entitled Leaders. In that book he asserted that leaders are always readers, and that reading is active while television watching is passive.

The book is not for the faint of heart, but it is a “must read” for those who think (or are willing to start!).

admin Book Reviews Book Review, Postman, read