The aftermath of VBS!

For most churches particularly Southern Baptist, vacation Bible school is the single largest evangelistic event possibly just plain event of the church year. It requires a large volunteer labor force and even larger attendance. It is intense, energetic and tiring. It is also a highlight for many! At Crossroads Church our VBS is a camp. We invite children and workers to come and spend two nights during vbs. We also go swimming during VBS (I don’t think anyone else does that at VBS). It is Crossroads so what else is new!

For us as the week ended several children (unusually so) came to me with a big hug and thanked me for letting them come to camp. Initially, that struck me as odd. Why would they thank me for letting them come? Evidently they had a GREAT time which is always good. How did I let them come? I/we had spent some time and energy getting the word out inviting children hoping they would come. I guess because in our minds people need to be convinced it will be OK and then they act as if they did us a favor by coming. That probably is just in my head and not a real attitude but I act on that perception. Often we look at the task of Bible school with dread and possibly and attitude of “what’s the point?” These children and their appreciation just blew that out of the water.

As I have thought about my perception and their reaction I have once again realized we have the greatest message to be told. The Gospel is the ONLY message that gives light and life to a dark and dead world. Because of that truth it is worth every effort, every expenditure of time, talent and tithe to share. Not to share with a “ho hum” but with a lively, outrageous, vivacious exceptionality because it is LOVE! David Sharp said wouldn’t it be great to have Bible school everyday! Bite your tongue David Sharp! We would grow tired of Bible school everyday but what about the energy, the excitement, the overall exuberance of VBS each Sunday as we share the life giving hope of Jesus Christ to the folks who are here?

Paul reminds us in Ephesians1:20-23 (The Message): All this energy issues from Christ: God raised him from death and set him on a throne in deep heaven, in charge of running the universe, everything from galaxies to governments, no name and no power exempt from his rule. And not just for the time being, but forever. He is in charge of it all, has the final word on everything. At the center of all this, Christ rules the church. The church, you see, is not peripheral to the world; the world is peripheral to the church. The church is Christ’s body, in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.

I forgot! Did you? Let’s get with it. We are the church! The world is peripheral to US!   

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G

Father's Day

A day to honor Fathers, ours, yours and all. Like so many other things it is easy to get off subject and make it about us. I was searching for videos and other graphics for Sunday and a number bashed Father’s for all kinds of reasons. They may indeed deserve the bashing because there as dead beats out there who did not even try to raise children. But a common thread in the comments was about how bad they were to some individual. The focus shifted from others back to self. It happens a lot.

In a recap of the O.J. Simpson trial a reporter stated the objective of the defense was to put the Los Angeles Police Department on trial. Do you see the tactic is to shift the focus, deflection through distraction? People argue using the same method by bringing in other points that have little to no relation to the original topic. It leaves you confused wondering what all the fuss was about. We see this commonly in political circles where a candidate moves to their own talking points or issues instead of the question at hand. It has this self-serving purpose of distraction and deflection. It shifts the focus back to me and not on others. It’s easy to do.

Father’s day is about our Father’s and more so about our heavenly Father. He is the one who exhibits the self-sacrificing trait that we revere and cherish in our Fathers. God is so self-sacrificing that when his earthly representative fails to meet the responsibility God sends others to step up and fill the task. Other men serve as Fathers on our heavenly Father’s behalf. HE makes it happen. It’s a question of honor for us.

Honor is given. Father’s day is to honor our Heavenly Father first and earthly Father’s second. It’s not about us but about them. What would honor them? What would they receive as honor not what we think of as honor but rather what do they consider honor? A tie, book, new grill maybe not so much. What about respect? What about devotion and loyalty? I think probably so.

So here is my try.

Dad, I really don’t know how to honor you. I remember playing in the front yard. I remember camping in the cold and the heat with you. I remember going to Philmont Scout Ranch and hiking 65 miles when you were 55 years old. I remember times of being very angry with you. I remember times of you being angry with me. I remember and continue to know of your love and pride in me and my family. I know you will do anything for us and because of us. I know you love me/us. I am trying to love my family like you have loved yours as an example of God’s love for us all.

Honor is tough because it’s all about someone else not me. I’m sure I am NOT there yet. I need more practice.

In HIS Service and Yours,
Bro G

D-Day

June 6, 2014 is the 70^th anniversary of the allied invasion of Normandy. There has been no other event like it in history. Never had there been or has there been such a massive undertaking on men, machines and motivation as the invasion of Normandy. It was a day of devotion to comrades, country and capitulation of the evil that had spread across Europe in the Axis Empire.

Eugene Peterson in his paraphrase speaks of devotion as Solomon wrote:

God-devotion makes a country strong;
    God-avoidance leaves people weak. Proverbs 14:34 The Message

Although this nation did not know it for sure they believed they were strong and the Bible reveals our strength. Our nation was founded on some basic beliefs about the source of government. The basic tenant of government as spoken by Abraham Lincoln in his Gettysburg Address. “That this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Daniel Hannan in a November 19, 2013 article wrote the follow as to the origin of that famous quote. “Those words have been quoted ever since as the supreme vindication of representative government. Indeed, they are often quoted as proof of American exceptionalism. But the words were not Lincoln’s... They came from the prologue to what was probably the earliest translation of the Bible into the English language: “This Bible is for the government of the people, for the people and by the people.” The author was the theologian John Wycliffe, sometimes called “the Morning Star of the Reformation.” Astonishingly, they had first appeared in 1384.” John Wycliffe believed in the centrality of the Bible for people’s lives Hannan wrote. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100246622/150-years-ago-today-abraham-lincoln-praised-government-of-the-people-by-the-people-for-the-people-but-the-words-were-not-his/ accessed 6.5.14

The God-Devotion was rooted in the devotion of the government. Not the political machine but in the people. Individual Americans who were devoted to God were the source of the government and the conduit of God’s strength in one of our greatest trials. That is why we were strong and that is why our strength is waning.

It has become apparent to me that we as a people are quick to blame and take to task the “secularization of America” by our government yet fail to see our “government” is a reflection of the secularization of each of us. In personal matters we are quick to listen to the talking heads of self-help and relationship guru’s on Hoda and Kathy Lee yet unwilling and unable to be devoted to the teachings of the Bible, God’s Word. We say “it’s too hard.” Well of course it’s hard, the best things for us in life are hard. “It’s swimming upstream,” well of course we are to be counter to the culture of secularism and humanism as the proverb reminds us that a culture of “God-Avoidance” leaves “people weak.”

On this the 70^th anniversary of D-Day let’s have D stand for devotion. Let’s make a new commitment to be a people devoted to God. Love God first, most and love people as ourselves is to be the source of our turn around as a nation, as families and as individuals.

The power of God is the difference between believing IN God and believing God! Those service members who came ashore 70 years ago faced a withering defense and overcame due to a devotion to God by this nation and its people. Our commitment to a renewed devotion to God in Jesus Christ seems the only fitting memorial for their “D-Day” devotion 70 years ago.

In HIS Service and Yours,

Bro G