Harvest
June 29, 2008 | Leave a Comment
22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
As you probably know, this church chooses a theme for each year. This year’s is “Changing Lives Through Jesus.” One of our previous themes was “Let the little children come to me…” Throughout that year we focused on the many ways we are called to minister to the children among us. We reminded each other how much Jesus loves children. We reminded ourselves that this congregation has A LOT of children and how it seems that God is calling on us to focus on our ministry to children. We highlighted all of the different ways this church cares for kids.
Sometimes I feel like it’s our theme every year. I love this year’s theme and mission, but I look around and it’s clear to me that our mission to care for children hasn’t changed. And I’m so thankful that there are so many in this congregation who haven’t forgotten that either. Long before we ever had a theme that highlighted our ministry to kids, there were people who worked tirelessly to care for the many children that God brings our way. And, even though that theme has come and gone, the ministry continues.
Last week reminded me of that. If you look around the auditorium you’ll see evidence of it. You’ll see the stage is decorated to look like a farm. You’ll see kids covered in fading tattoos that remind them to “Chews Love” and “Jump for Joy.”
It was all a part of VBS 2008-a week where over 50 kids came here every day to have fun and learn about Jesus. They made crafts. They played games. They had snacks. They sang, REALLY LOUDLY. And they learned about Jesus.
All week, the kids learned about how God grows fruit in our lives. The fruit you can see talked about in the quote above. But, more than learning about it, they saw it. They saw it in all of the people who took care of them-the people who showed love, the people who exhibited patience, the people who filled their lives with joy.
This morning, we’re going to look at that those same fruits. It’s a pretty great way to talk about how God changes lives. And showing those fruits is a pretty great way to teach our kids about them. I’ll say more about that later on. For now, let me just say THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. To those who have already demonstrated the fruits of the spirit this week. God Bless you.
Son Harvest County Fair
June 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Welcome to Vacation Bible School week at Norfolk Church of Christ. Countless hours have been put in organizing, preparing and decorating for the grand opening tomorrow morning.
This year’s theme will allow the children to focus on the fruits of the spirit while participating in crafting projects, Bible stories, skits, and fun outside activities. We hope that all our children will come and bring a friend to share God’s word. Vacation Bible School stands alone as one of the greatest outreach tools we have for young children. We encourage you to take advantage of it.
Here’s what you need to know about VBS this week. It starts tomorrow at 9 a.m. sharp. Pre-registration is not required, but it is helpful. Vacation Bible School is available for all children Kindergarten through 6th grade. If you are helping with the program, a nursery and a preschool class will be available for your child. VBS is Monday through Friday.
On Friday at noon all parents are invited back to see their children in a special program. The kids will be learning songs and stories. They will help retell everything they’ve learned during the week. The program will be followed by a light lunch in the fellowship hall. See Deborah Cuthrell to find out what to bring.
Vacation Bible School is an exciting program for everyone who participates. If you need further information or want to know how you can help see Jill Lowell after the services this morning.
We’ll see you at the fair!
Camp Donations
June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Camp Idlewild is in need of some recreational supplies including but not limiting to:
- Canoe oars
- Life vests
- Basketballs
- Volleyballs and net
- Softballs
- Golf balls and putters
- Ping-pong paddles/balls/table
- Fishing rod/reels
If you can assist, please see Anna Delcour, Mike Roman or Keith Cuthrell
No Operation Uplift
June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| July 2, 2008 |
Due to VBS, Operation Uplift will deferred until July 2.
Elder’s Meeting
June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| June 19, 2008 | ||
| 6:00 pm | to | 9:00 pm |
Vacation Bible School
June 15, 2008 | Leave a Comment
| June 23, 2008 | to | June 27, 2008 |
Preparations for this year’s VBS are in full swing. You’ll find registration forms in the lobby. VBS starts June 23rd and runs from 9 a.m. until noon. If you would like more information about VBS or if you can help with the preparation or during VBS week, please contact Jill Lowell.
We need a few craft supplies donated:
- 2 liter bottles
- Large (20 oz) soup/veggie cans
- Empty plastic bottles
- Small bottles of acrylic paint (any color and used is great!)
A box is in the Welcome Center for drop off.
New Perspective
June 14, 2008 | Leave a Comment
So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view… (2 Cor. 5:16)
A while back we took the kids to Nauticus to look around and to see the USS Wisconsin. At the time, Nauticus was featuring an exhibit on mapmaking. I was especially intrigued by an ancient map called the T and O map.
The T and O map (see picture) is a representation of the world as described by a 7th Century bishop named Isidore of Seville. The map gets its name from the basic layout of the map. It is essentially an O representing the known world divided by a T representing the seas and rivers that divide Europe and Africa from Asia.
I find a couple of things very interesting about this map. First, you’ll notice that the center is Jerusalem (i.e. The Holy Land), which is not surprising when you remember that it’s based on the descriptions of a Catholic Bishop. Second, on this map, north is not up; east is up (and north is to the left, west points downward, etc.). By the way, this may be where we get the idea of “orienting ourselves”. Orient is another way of referring to the East.
What I love about this map is that it forces me to look at the world in a different way, or (I can’t help it) reorient myself. It’s just widely accepted now that North is always up and south is always down, etc. So it’s strange to think that there’s another way of looking at things. (If you really want a head trip, go Google “Reversed Map.”)
Today’s scripture is one that forces us to readjust our perspective when it comes to other people. Paul says that Jesus has changed the way that he looks at people: the value he places on them, the potential he sees in them. All of that is changed by his relationship with Jesus. As Jesus followers we are called to look at others with his perspective. We’ll talk more about it today.
The Shack
June 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
In a message a while back I mentioned a book that I was reading entitled The Shack. I first heard of this book at the Wineskins website. They were describing it as the little book that could. It was first published on a shoestring budget by Windblown Media. They spent less than $200 on advertising. The rest has been word of mouth. Boy, have they gotten their money’s worth.
I called around to some of the local Christian bookstores to see if anyone had a copy, thinking that would be the best place to look. Then on a lark I called Barnes & Noble at MacArthur Center. At the time it was their #2 seller. Charlotte K. informed me that, last week, it was number one. So this book has really caught on.
After reading it, I can see why. The Shack is a faith statement dressed up as a novel. And the faith that it articulates is inspiring and moving. The basic plot is as follows: Mackenzie (Mack) Philips’ youngest daughter is abducted and assumed murdered. In the midst of his anguish, Mack receives a mysterious note, supposedly from God, inviting him back to the supposed scene of the murder, a shack in the woods. He makes the difficult decision to return only to find that the shack has been transformed by the presence of God. Mack spends a weekend with God, Jesus and the Spirit. They serve him, they teach him, they change him.
There is some critiquing to be done. The book is better as theology than as literature. The English Major in me was not always happy with the writing. And some will find the images he employs for God to be disturbing as well. That’s all I’ll say about that for now. I’m hoping that some of you will read it and send me an email or comment here on the blog.
And let me be clear—I heartily recommend it. (I like that word. I don’t do enough things heartily.) It’s a quick read. It’s very moving and thoughtful. I feel sure it will challenge the way you think about God.
It also bears some uncanny resemblances to our own Eric Harrell’s play, An Inch of Rope. Those of you who saw the play will not have any trouble seeing what I’m talking about. I think Eric’s play takes a daring step that Young’s book either misses or avoids. But I don’t want to say too much until some of you have read it. It would make excellent summer reading. Why not take it to the beach with you? I’m sure your kids don’t need you to watch them.
There are plenty of highlighted sections I could share with you. Here are a couple on the concepts of trust and control.
At one point, God says this:
“The real underlying flaw in your life, Mackenzie is that you don’t think that I am good. If you knew I was good and that everything—the means, the ends, and all the processes of individual lives—is all covered by my goodness, then while you might not always understand what I am doing, you would trust me, but you don’t.”
Then later Jesus and Mack have this conversation:
“Mack, do you realize that your imagination of the future, which is almost always dictated by fear of some kind, rarely, if ever, pictures me there with you?”
Again Mack stopped and thought. It was true. He spent a lot of time fretting and worrying about the future, and in his imaginations it was usually pretty gloomy and depressing, if not outright horrible. And Jesus was also correct in saying that in Mack’s imaginations of the future, God was always absent.
“Why do I do that?” asked Mack.
“It is your desperate attempt to get some control over something you can’t. It is impossible for you to take power over the future because it isn’t even real, nor will it ever be real. You try and play God, imagining the evil that you fear becoming reality, and then you try and make plans and contingencies to avoid what you fear.”
So there you go. Let me know if anyone out there decides to read it.
Extreme Makeover
June 8, 2008 | Leave a Comment
“Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.”
1 John 3:2
It’s always interesting to me when it happens. And, since I’ve spent most of my life living in the suburbs, it has happened quite a number of times. Maybe an old building will sit on the corner of an intersection, unnoticed and uninhabited. Then one day it will just be gone. Or maybe a plot of land that was, just yesterday, part of a cow pasture is now a tilled-up square lot. As you drive by, you are startled by the jarring change to something that you have known for years.
Then the construction vehicles show up: excavators and bulldozers, scrapers and dump trucks, cranes and cement trucks. Every day the lot is a flurry of activity. Hills are flattened or created. Holes are drilled. PVC piping shoots upward from the dirt like reeds in a pond. Little orange flags begin to mark out the dimensions of whatever is coming.
And that’s the question that’s on everyone’s mind. As we drive by we all say to ourselves or the person in the car with us, “I wonder what they’re putting in right there.” And our passenger will just shrug and make that universal “I don’t know” grunt. Meanwhile, progress continues.
What everyone’s waiting for is a sign. We’re waiting for one of those big signs with three, four, or maybe five words. The first two words are always the same: “COMING SOON…” Finally we get to know what all of the hubbub is about. It is revealed to us what business is taking shape right before our eyes. Hopefully, it’s not just another Walgreens. Hopefully, it’s something I’ll like. But the exciting part is waiting to see what it’s going to be. (Reading this, it strikes me that we’re hurting for entertainment out there in the suburbs.)
Today, I want to suggest that everyone has a sign. Not the kind of sign that that redneck comedian is always talking about, but a different one. A sign that says “coming soon…” Which is just another way of saying that we’re all works in progress. We’re all changing from what we are now to something else. The apostle Paul says we are all “new creations.”
And we can put the same question to ourselves as the one that ask about those corner lots under construction: “What do you think is going in there?” What is coming soon? That’s the question for all of us today. What are we becoming? What kind of building are we being made into? God wants to turn you and me into a building that brings glory to him-one that saves our lives in the process. We’ll get a better idea of that from scripture this morning.
Love Your Neighbor
June 1, 2008 | Leave a Comment
“The question of bread for myself is a material question, but the question of bread for my neighbor is a spiritual question”
–Nikolai Bordyaev
“It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one’s neighbor”
–Eric Hoffer
There is a legendary story told about Catherine Booth–wife of Salvation Army founder William Booth and preacher in her own right. While on a speaking tour of the States she drew enormous crowds of people coming from every level of American Society. It’s said that, after a particular engagement, she was received in the home of a local aristocrat. At one point Mrs. Booth’s hostess remarked to her, “My dear Mrs. Booth, that meeting was dreadful.”
“What do you mean, Dearie?” asked Mrs. Booth.
“Oh, when you were speaking, I was looking at those people opposite to me. Their faces were so terrible, many of them. I don’t think I shall sleep tonight!”
“Why, dearie, don’t you know them?” Mrs. Booth asked; and the hostess replied, “Certainly not!”
“Well, that is interesting,” Mrs. Booth said. “I did not bring them with me from London; they are your neighbors!”
This particular woman wasn’t much different from the rich man in Jesus’ parable about the Rich Man and Lazarus. She was able to live her life oblivious to the suffering of those around her. So she was shocked when she came to a place that she couldn’t look away. She was confronted by the plight of her neighbors.
Jesus’ call to love our neighbors is unmerciful and unrelenting, because he does the same thing with it that he does with all of his other instructions. He refuses to limit in some way that will make it easier on us. He says, “Don’t just avoid committing murder; don’t hate others.” He says, “Don’t just avoid revenge, love your enemies.”
He does the same thing with our definition of neighbors. According to Jesus, our neighbor is basically anyone we see who is in need. Neighbor is not a matter of proximity or status or shared values. Our neighbor can be anyone, and we are called to love them. It’s the second greatest command.
I can’t help but wonder if it’s not the hardest one, though. We’ll take a closer look at loving our neighbor today. Glad you’re here.