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

The Diode

(Story concept courtesy of Dan Schnell)

Bobby excitedly ripped open the brown paper packaging of his long-awaited delivery.  He got goosebumps as he laid out the different components of his do-it-yourself radio kit.  The twelve-year-old young man shut himself in the work shed and meticulously set up his work area.  He entertained the idea of tuning in to the different radio waves with his homemade device as he soldered the circuit board and branded the words "sound box" on the rough cedar casing.  The dials were tight, and the power switch snapped on and off with a sharp *click*.  Bobby licked his lips and anticipated the soft hum of electricity as he plugged in his new radio, but when he plugged it in, nothing happened.  The lights did not come on, and the soft crackle of the airwaves was conspicuously absent.  He flipped the power switch a few times, and even tried different electrical outlets to no avail.  As Bobby regarded the useless radio and considered the hours he'd spent assembling it, he threw it to the ground and stomped on the casing, shouting as it crunched beneath his boot. After shedding a few tears of frustration, he picked up his ruined radio and began laying out the smashed components, trying to understand why his project had failed.  Through checking and rechecking with the instructions, Bobby noticed a tiny diode that he'd soldered hours before.  Wasn't the black side supposed to be soldered to the black wire?  It was backwards!  Bobby disconnected the little part and soldered it in the correct position, then connected the wiring to electricity.  The speaker crackled and the plucking of a banjo permeated the atmosphere in the work shed.  All because the tiniest part of the radio was inverted, the entire appliance had failed to function.  

Ephesians 4:11-16

           11        And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,
           12       for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;
           13       until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ.
           14       As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;
           15       but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ,
           16       from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

As we consider the story of the diode, we must ask if we recognize ourselves in the account.  Are we Bobby, who fails to see the backward diode?  This would be the Christian who fails to recognize that someone in the congregation has an issue and needs our attention.  Or are we the diode, a Christian who sees so many problems in the church and wonder why nothing works, while we are actually the source of the problem?

Let us work, both to be mindful of each part of the body, and to make sure that we are a faithful part of the body.

J

To Be Encouraged...

Very nearly every adult in the United States remembers learning how to ride a bicycle.  The usual method involves a parent following behind the learning child, holding the seat of the bicycle as the child pedals.  Eventually, mom or dad lets go of the seat. Notice, however, that they rarely tell the child they are on their own.  It is important to the child to have the encouragement and assurance of safety by their parent's presence.  When learning a new thing, we need assurance.  The need does not stop with learning how to ride a bike.

Christians are forever learning to be transformed into the image of Christ.  As Paul mentioned in 1 Corinthians 14:26, the focus when we assemble is to edify.  We are not to be focused on ourselves or on finding glory for ourselves.  Rather, we should look to edify and build up our fellow brothers and sisters.  Why?  Because as we learn new things and as we strive to make ourselves into the image of Christ, encouragement is needed.  The building up that a Christian receives from others is crucial to his or her success!

When we next assemble, let us seek opportunities to edify.  Let us give encouragement as often as we can.  Let us strive to aid our brothers and sisters in their respective journeys toward becoming more like Christ.  

"And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good works, not forsaking the assembly of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching," Hebrews 10:24-25.

-J-

The Cold Within

The Cold Within - James Patrick Kinney

Six humans trapped by happenstance
In bleak and bitter cold.
Each one possessed a stick of wood
Or so the story’s told.

Their dying fire in need of logs
The first man held his back
For of the faces round the fire
He noticed one was black.

The next man looking ‘cross the way
Saw one not of his church
And couldn’t bring himself to give
The fire his stick of birch.

The third one sat in tattered clothes.
He gave his coat a hitch.
Why should his log be put to use
To warm the idle rich?

The rich man just sat back and thought
Of the wealth he had in store
And how to keep what he had earned
From the lazy shiftless poor.

The black man’s face bespoke revenge
As the fire passed from his sight.
For all he saw in his stick of wood
Was a chance to spite the white.

The last man of this forlorn group
Did nought except for gain.
Giving only to those who gave
Was how he played the game.

Their logs held tight in death’s still hands
Was proof of human sin.
They didn’t die from the cold without
They died from the cold within.

Proverbs 14:12 - "there is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death."

When the world goes its own way, disaster is inevitable.  Even more tragic is when the world's thinking invades the church.  Some Christians have allowed a selfish viewpoint to pollute the practice of benevolence, stating that Churches ought only practice benevolence to those who are either of the church or who are interested in becoming Christians.  This blog entry asks the question, "Is that really the way God intended?"  While the worldly way of thinking is accurately described in Patrick Kinney's poem, The Cold Within, God never intended for His people to behave in such a way.  

Matthew 5:13 shows Jesus drawing the metaphor concerning His followers, "You are the salt of the earth."  Salt had the function in that day of both preserving and making things more palatable.  How does that metaphor reflect upon Christian behavior? 

Preservation

It's defined as sparing from corruption, decay, or destruction.  It sounds pretty valuable, does it not?  Christians serve as God's tool for preserving the earth, understood to be referencing those who live on this planet.  Christians spare from corruption, decay, and destruction by sharing God's word with mankind, thus preserving them from the fate of hell.  Christians are to preserve!

Making things more palatable

While the idea of preserving is pretty straightforward and is rarely misunderstood, the function of making the earth more palatable seems to cause problems for Christians, nowadays.  Many congregations of the Lord's church readily practice benevolence to their members, but outright refuse to assist those who are not members, or who at the very least show interest in becoming Christians.  Some members of the church will even argue that being benevolent to the community "doesn't get results," and therefore is not something in which the church should participate.

The question is, what results are we talking about?

Are people supposed to magically know that they are supposed to desire a relationship with God simply because a Christian gives them a cup of cold water?  

Are people supposed to fall on their knees and beg a Christian to teach them God's way when they receive a meal or some clothing from the church?

Consider again the function of salt.  It does not preserve and make things more palatable to serve some other end.  Rather, it preserves things and makes things more palatable as an end in itself!  Charity is completely absent of any qualifiers, if one examines James 1:27.  Doing good is not limited only to those who will sign a contract to hear, believe, repent, confess and be baptized, according to Galatians 6:10!  As Christians work to spread God's word of salvation to the world (preserving) and work to make the world a better place (making things more palatable), we ought not place conditions on God's work.  Jesus taught us to be salt, not salt with conditions.  

So, the result we should be seeking while doing good is that we helped someone.  That's the motivation, and that's the end goal of benevolence.  Christians need to help, simply because people need help.  That's God's design.  Ceasing benevolent activity simply because people don't desire to learn about God would be the same as ceasing to practice God's morality because people don't desire to learn about God.  What other people do does not affect our faithfulness to God.  Let us as God's people be the salt that Christ intended, rather than adopting the worldly qualities of the cold within!

J