The Joy of Being Received

In the movie The Martian, Matt Damon played a botanist-astronaut who ended up stranded on Mars.  He went through many, many days of solitude, but finally figured out a way to communicate with people on earth.  As he typed out his first message and waited, the tension was palpable.  When NASA responded to his message, "Yes, we're receiving you," the viewers rejoiced along with him as his sphere of loneliness melted away.  How wonderful is it to know that you are not alone?

When Elijah ran from the wrathful Jezebel in 1 Kings 19, he arrived at the mountain of God and found a cave.  It was there that God asked twice a simple question, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"  Elijah responded twice concerning the hardships he was suffering, ending with the statement, "I alone am left, and they seek my life, to take it away."  As God responded by prescribing a way for Elijah to be relieved of his service, He included a very significant correction:  "Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him" (I Kings 19:18).  It was a reminder that Elijah was not alone.  While he felt beleaguered and felt alone and felt like giving up, God gave a reminder that Elijah's perceptions did not reflect the truth.  

Do you feel alone?  Do you feel beset by problems that are just too big to solve?  God still has His people, even if you don't see them.  While our world may seem to be swallowed up in immorality, selfishness, foolishness, and greed, God's people are still here and we still follow His way.  If you have been too long 'alone on Mars,' and wish to be received, reach out to God's people.  We can show you that you are not alone, and we can point the way to becoming one of God's children.

J

Church of Christ at Vermilion

5116 Driftwood Drive
Vermilion Ohio 44089
440-967-6757

Meeting Times:
Sundays @ 10 AM for Bible study, 11 AM and 6 PM for worship.
Wednesdays @ 7 PM for Bible study

Sometimes we need help with what's broken.

I was about 8 years old when it happened.  My mother had just been given a gift of decorative soaps shaped like turtles.  They were pretty cool, I thought.  I wanted to touch them and handle them, and see the carving up close.  When she sat them down on a table in the church foyer and walked away, I scuttled over and immediately had one of the delicate carvings in my hands.  I marched him around a stack of bulletins, sat him on a change-for-children can, and was having a grand old time.  Tragedy struck when I looked away for a moment and relaxed my grip.  The tiny soap turtle fell, and his head broke off right in the middle of the thinly-carved neck.  I was beside myself.  I saw my 8 years flash before my eyes, imagining the terrible punishment I would receive for breaking my mother's brand-new soap.  As the tears rolled down my face and I contemplated a hiding place, I heard a very big and very kind voice from behind me.  "It looks like you have a problem, young man."  It was Gib Smith, a tall man whose son was my friend.  I picked up the little soap figurine and croaked out that I hadn't meant to break it.  I welled up again as Gib took the pieces from me.  "I think we can fix this.  There's no reason to cry, just yet."  Gib walked me to the water fountain, and took the tiniest droplet from near the drain.  He settled the droplet on the spot where the head had broken off, and restored the figurine.  There was not the slightest hint that anything had ever happened to the little turtle.  Gib had fixed what I thought was unfixable!  He replaced the turtle on the table next to its counterpart and sent me to the bathroom to wash my face so that it didn't look like I had been crying.  

Sometimes we need a little help handling a situation that we don't know how to repair.  Who better than He who knows all to present a solution?  

Have you encountered a difficult life situation?  Remember that God's solutions are always best.  Do you need help?  Remember that God's help is always the best.  Please know that God's people are always willing to point the way to God.

Church of Christ at Vermilion
(440) 967-6757
5116 Driftwood Drive
Vermilion, Ohio 44089

The Fear of the Lord

For years, the slogan NO FEAR gained much traction.  Many admire a person who can say, "I'm not afraid."  Many, however, cease admiration when a lack of fear translates to an abundance of foolishness.  Never would anyone suggest that simply because one is not afraid should one venture into a lion's cage.  Simply because a person is not afraid of striding into rush-hour traffic does not mean that they ought to do it.  Many times fear can save. A failure to fear or even a misplaced fear often results in much harm.

An instructor told the story of a woman in Africa who became a Christian. Her husband was against her decision, and forbade her from assembling with the other Christians to worship God.  Sunday after Sunday, she defied her husband and assembled with the church.  Sunday after Sunday, her husband beat her for defying him.  One day he asked her, "If you know I'm going to beat you, why do you keep going to worship?"  Her reply astounded him: "I am more afraid of God than I am of you." She understood the God that she was serving.  She understood Matthew 10:28! 

How often do we fail to allow fear to have its proper role in our service to God?  While our society enjoys emphasizing God's love, mercy, grace, and forgiveness, our culture has allowed fear of God to almost vanish.  Never forget that fear of God is a valid reason to obey Him, and it ought to overrule any fear of those who would influence us against Him.

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge," Proverbs 1:7.

He gave up too early

There are many tactics Satan uses to stop Christians from reaching heaven, but rarely are any of his tactics more effective than discouragement.  The poor man in the lower half of this picture was most likely focused on his blisters, his aching muscles, and how much work he had put in with absolutely no reward.  He was only inches from a great reward which by comparison would have made his labor seem like a momentary inconvenience!  While he walks away disappointed, however, the man in the top tunnel is pressing on.  He likely has the same blisters and the same sore muscles.  He has been digging about the same distance as Mr. Discouragement, below him.  What makes him different?

2 Corinthians 4:16-18
           Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.

Paul spoke to the church at Corinth concerning perseverance.  The theme of the letter could easily be "do not give up!"  With great emotion Paul discusses the hardships of ministry, in hope that the Corinthians would follow his example of "not losing heart," 4:1.  The message was doubtless encouraging to the Christians of the day, and it can give the same encouragement to us.  While Paul dealt with all manner of trouble (see 2 Corinthians 11:23-28), he called it "light affliction," and refused to give up.  Few of us, if any, have faced the dangers and challenges that Paul faced.  If Paul can persevere, we most certainly can, too!

If only the man in the bottom tunnel had swung his pick a few more times...

What have we lost by giving up too early?  How many challenges have we allowed to beat us because we focused on the hurt instead of heaven?  

Let us remember that as we face troubles in this lifespan, we are only comparative moments from an eternity with God where there will be no sorrow, no tears, no sickness, and no death!  If we keep swinging the pick, we can one day look Jesus in the eye!  If we keep going, we will possess a reward that will make the hard things in this life seem like trifles rather than trials!  

2 Corinthians 4:8-10
           We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

Keep the faith. :-)
J