Sermon: Sunday, January 29, 2012

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from Sunday's sermon. It is titled Will They Recognize Christ in Us? and the text is Mark 1:21-28.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Separate but Distinct

Greetings All,

I have been using a particular model for quiet time for a couple of years now that involves making a list of the things that need to be accomplished today, followed by answering the question of "How will this day be different without God?" I then consider how I am doing, anything that I have not fully abandoned to God's will and power, followed by reading scripture, sitting quietly before God and then reading other Christian authors. I end the time with prayer. This model has served me well and keeps me in touch with both myself and God, as well as forcing my prayers to be very deliberate. I started a new journal today though, one that lists a devotional model by Wayne Cordero, a renowned church planter from Hawaii. It is a model that focuses on scripture and uses the acronym SOAP (Scripture, Observation, Application, Prayer) and comes out of the daily time spent in scripture. I thought I might mix these two models for a while and see how it goes with the expectation that this model will take me deeper into Scripture rather than simply being focused on reading it.  This mornings observation was worth sharing, so here you have it. Let's begin with Scripture

Leviticus 20:24b-25a I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the nations. 

You must therefore make a distinction between clean and unclean animals and between unclean and clean birds.

 As I read this I couldn't help but connect with these words from God regarding the nature of Israel and ultimately the purpose of the laws of Leviticus.  God has set them apart from the nations.  They are meant to be clean, pure, and holy as God is holy and it is that holiness, coming from God, that sets them apart from the rest of the nations.  The scripture goes on to describe how it is imperative that the high priest does not defile himself, or make himself unclean in any way because he is the person who can approach God on behalf of Israel and if he is unclean, if even for a day, Israel finds themselves in the peculiar spot of not having one to intercede for them with God.  Israel serves the same function for the world that the High Priest serves for Israel.  They are to be set apart so that there is always a people who can intercede for the world and be in a constant state where they can approach a Holy God.  Separate and distinct is not about being better or favored or more important, it is about being in a constant state of readiness for the purpose of intercession. 

As Christians we fill that seat of Israel, we too are to be set apart, not better but in a way that keeps us in a position where we can not only approach God on behalf of others, but where others can see God in us.  The difference between us and the High Priest is that he was to stay at the temple so as to not risk defilement, we on the other hand have to live in the world, but not be of the world.  We have to have relationships with the people that we have been set apart from so that we can intercede for them with Our God.  This should give each of us pause today as we consider how we live our lives in front of others.  Are we in a constant state of readiness to be able to intercede on anothers' behalf?  Are we living out our lives in a distinctly God focused way so that others can see God in us and ask us to intercede on their behalf?

Let's pray,
Father you have set us apart to be in a constant state of readiness to intercede for the world that they may always have someone to connect them with You.  We ask you this morning to help each of us live our lives in such a manner as to reflect this truth.  Help each of us to pursue holiness so that we can be distinct, separate, but always ready to serve the world.  In Jesus name we pray, Amen.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

What Have We Become?

Greetings All,

Let's begin with a quote from Steinbeck again:

"And all the time the farms grew larger and the owners fewer.  And there were pitifully few farmers on the land any more.  And the imported serfs were beaten and frightened and starved until some went home again, and some grew fierce and were killed or driven from the country.  And the farms grew larger and the owners fewer.

And the crops changed.  Fruit trees took the place of grain fields, and vegetables to feed the world spread out on the bottoms: Lettuce, cauliflower, artichokes, potatoes - stoop crops.  A man may stand to use a scythe, a plow, a pitchfork; but he must crawl like a bug between the rows of lettuce, he must bend his back and pull his long bag between the cotton rows, he must go on his knees like a penitent across a cauliflower patch.

And it came about that owners no longer worked on their farms.  They farmed on paper; and they forgot the land, the smell, the feel of it, and remembered only that they owned it, remembered only what they gained and lost by it.  And some of the farms grew so large that one man could not even conceive of them any more, so large that it took batteries of bookkeepers to keep track of interest and gain and loss; chemists to test the soil, to replenish; straw bosses to see that the stopping men were moving among the rows as swiftly as the material of their bodies could stand.  Then such a farmer really became a storekeeper, and kept a store.  He paid men, and sold them food, and took the money back." from The Grapes of Wrath by John Milton, pgs. 316-317

Steinbeck is writing in a time where the world is changing from small farm agriculture to corporate agriculture; from many men working the fields with oxen and mules to a few men working the fields with a tractor; from self sufficiency rooted in the ownership of land to a forced dependence upon others.  The chapter this quote draws from is one of those general chapters, not about the Joads, but a commentary on the California that they are driving into with their hopes and dreams which is not worthy of those hopes and dreams.  I love the quote because it paints a picture of how the change depersonalizes everything.  No longer do "farmers" till the soil with their own hands, rather they hire the cheapest labor they can find to do it for them.  Steinbeck is describing a people who have lost touch with their roots, with their land, even with their community.  No longer are they the kind of people who can look on people in need with compassion and a mind to help, now they simply see someone who might steal their land.  No longer are people human beings, they are simply a commodity in the world of big farm agriculture.

I comment on this today because it strikes me that perhaps the church has done the same thing.  The big farmers started small and gradually grew away from that connection.  Like the farmer, we started our Christian walk excited, close to God and each other, wanting to tell others about God and to serve others in His love; but the longer we have "owned the land" the farther we have gotten from that initial excitement.  We have even come to the place that we have so few new Christians in our churches that we don't even get to watch that excitement on someone else, thereby growing our own excitement.  John Wesley always worried that with holiness comes financial prosperity and that financial prosperity would limit our face to face time with the poor and the needy.  In essence, he was concerned that we would become like Steinbeck's big farm owners.  The question for each of us today is this: In our walk with Christ, are we like the large farm owners who are more concerned about keeping what we have or are we like the hungry farmers wanting just a little piece of the whole of which we are more than willing to share?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Sermon: Sunday, January 22, 2012

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from Sunday's sermon. It is titled Obedience Without Knowing the Outcome? and the texts are Jonah 3:1-5 and Mark 1:14-20.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Sermon: Sunday, January 15, 2012

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from Sunday's sermon.  It is titled More Than Simply Shining and the texts are 1 Samuel 3:1-20 and John 1:43-51.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Distinction

Greetings All,

Let's start this morning with Scripture:

NLT Exodus 33:12 Moses said to the LORD, "You have been telling me, 'Take these people up to the Promised Land.' But you haven't told me whom you will send with me. You call me by name and tell me I have found favor with you. 13 Please, if this is really so, show me your intentions so I will understand you more fully and do exactly what you want me to do. Besides, don't forget that this nation is your very own people." 14 And the LORD replied, "I will personally go with you, Moses. I will give you rest-- everything will be fine for you." 15 Then Moses said, "If you don't go with us personally, don't let us move a step from this place. 16 If you don't go with us, how will anyone ever know that your people and I have found favor with you? How else will they know we are special and distinct from all other people on the earth?" 17 And the LORD replied to Moses, "I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and you are my friend."

This is a passage of scripture that comes after Moses has come down from the mountain to find Israel worshipping the golden calf.  He has gone back up the mountain and found God worn and weary from dealing with this stiff-necked people and He is ready to stop going with them.  Moses has interceded on behalf of Israel and God has decided to stay with them.  This passage is sort of a summary of the chapter as it recounts the conversation between God and Moses.

What strikes me is Moses' question, "How else will the world know that Israel is set apart and distinct from everyone else if the Lord's presence is not with them?"  In a nutshell there is the only thing that makes Israel different.  Not that they are chosen, not that they don't eat bacon, not that they get circumcised or obey purity codes.  The only thing that makes them distinct is God's presence with them!  The other things are just markers, indicators or signs to help identify the fact that God is with them, but what makes them different, special, distinct is the Lord's presence with them.

My question for us today then is simply this, "Isn't it the same for us?  Isn't the presence of God in our lives the only thing that really makes us distinct?  Not our T-shirts, our religious talk, our t-shirts, or praying before a meal in a restaurant; but that peaceful, grace filled, loving presence of the Lord in our lives.  That presence that transforms us and enables us to love the unlovable, to serve the least and the lost, and to put others before ourselves.  Christians are not different because we claim to be Christians; Christians are different when and because the presence of the Lord is with them!  Have we been walking with God today?  Have we felt His presence?  Have others seen Him with us?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Sermon: Sunday, January 8, 2012

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from Sunday's sermon. It is titled Because His Light Shines! and the text is Isaiah 60:1-7.

Your brother in Christ,
Pastor Faron

Sermon: Sunday, December 25, 2011

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from the Christmas Day service sermon.  It is titled A New Age! and the texts are Isaiah 52:7-10 and Hebrews 1:1-12.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

You Are Worth Some Manure

Good morning all,

The morning is dreary and a little cold, the forecast isn't much better, but when we stop to bask in the radiance of God's presence we find light and warmth and hope.  My scripture reading this morning had me in the Gospel of Luke and I wanted to share some of it with you with a quick thought.

NLT Luke 13:6 Then Jesus used this illustration: "A man planted a fig tree in his garden and came again and again to see if there was any fruit on it, but he was always disappointed. 7 Finally, he said to his gardener, 'I've waited three years, and there hasn't been a single fig! Cut it down. It's taking up space we can use for something else.' 8 "The gardener answered, 'Give it one more chance. Leave it another year, and I'll give it special attention and plenty of fertilizer. 9 If we get figs next year, fine. If not, you can cut it down.'"

This is a portion of scripture that comes right after Jesus giving a discourse about repenting or perishing.  He has been asking the disciples about the people Herod had killed and those killed when the Tower of Siloam fell.  His basic question was, "Were these people worse sinners since they died unexpectedly?"  The implied answer is always "no," and then followed up with the statement that if they do not repent they are in jeopardy of perishing the same way.  Sadly, the picture that forms in our minds all too often when we hear this discourse of Jesus is of a God who is waiting to get us, to throw us into hell, to punish us if we do not repent of our sins and call on Jesus.  How many of us have spent days, weeks, even years worrying about God punishing us because we just hadn't gotten it right yet?

The truth is God does want us to repent and turn from our sins, not so that He "doesn't have to get us," but because He wants us to have the life that He desires for us, the one focused on Him, free of sin.  He is going to work with us to get us to that place that He wants us and He is a patient God.  How do we know this?  By the scripture passage from above.  After Jesus talks about repenting or perishing, he tells this parable about the unproductive fig tree.  The owner's first response, like our first understanding of "Out to Get Us God," is that if the tree is unproductive that it needs to be destroyed.  The point of the parable is the reminder of the truth that trees need to be nourished and cultivated to produce, just like people.  The gardener asks for a year to fertilize and tend the tree with a confidence that it will produce and that is the message Jesus wants the disciples and us to hear.

No matter where we are, or what we are doing; whether we are unproductive or less productive than we could be; whether we are focused on God or the world; Jesus is the gardener that has come to tend the soil of our souls to turn us into the productive, fruit bearing trees that God has desired from us all along.  So much of the Old Testament reflected an attitude of burn and destroy that which is unholy, but with Jesus we see a new attitude of transform the unholy into holy.  Today know with confidence that God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit wants to nourish your soul, to use the manure that is produced by life to fertilize your soul into a glorious, life giving, life receiving tree.  We are all worth having some manure spread on us by our gardener, Jesus!  He doesn't want to throw us out, He wants to transform us!  Will we let Him?

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Sermon: Christmas Eve Service, December 24, 2011

Greetings All,

Here is the audio file from the Christmas Eve Service sermon.  It is titled Boy It's Dark in Here! and the primary text is Isaiah 9:2-7.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Dead Tractors and Living Beings!

Greetings All,

The last two days have really slipped by at light speed and I find myself falling behind on devotional posts. I keep notes in my journal of things that strike me that I can write about and a while ago I had noted a page from The Grapes of Wrath, I know you are shocked, but that is one of the books I am reading now and it strikes me often.  Here is the quote, it is long, but read through it is worth it:

"The houses were left vacant on the land, and the land was vacant because of this.  Only the tractor sheds of corrugated iron, silver and gleaming, were alive; and they were alive with metal and gasoline and oil, the disks of the plows shining.  The tractors had lights shining, for there is no day and night for a tractor and the disks turn the earth in the darkness and they glitter in the daylight.  And when a horse stops work and goes into the barn there is a life and a vitality left, there is a breathing and a warmth, and the feet shift on the straw, and the jaws champ on the hay, and the ears and the eyes are alive.  There is a warmth of life in the barn, and the heat and smell of life.  But when the motor of a tractor stops, it is as dead as the ore it came from.  The heat goes out of it like the living heat that leaves a corpse.  Then the corrugated iron doors are closed and the tractor man drives home to town, perhaps twenty miles away, and he need not come back for weeks or months, for the tractor is dead.  And this is easy and efficient.  So easy that the wonder goes out of work, so efficient that the wonder goes out of the land and the working of it, and with the wonder the deep understanding and the relation."  from The Grapes of Wrath pg. 157

This passage is representative of something Steinbeck does through out the book and that is painting a pictorial, social commentary on what he sees happening in the world around him.  This passage comes just as the Joads are pulling out to begin their journey to California and it has nothing specifically to do with them, but it is a part of the whole story as the Joads are just the focus of the story, while the larger story was happening to families all across the nation and Steinbeck never wants us to forget that.

What I love about this passage is the way it bores into the soul of the issue.  In just a few words Steinbeck captures one of the downsides to technological advances.  The tractors are dead.  There is no life, or warmth, or ache at the end of a hard worked day.  There is no real connection with the land, the animals needed to work it and the people that need each other to accomplish all that needs to be done.  The dead tractor can do the work of the horses and all of the men, women and children that formerly kept the farm alive.  No longer is the farm a way of life, lived and died in the same spot; suddenly it has become merely a job.

The question this should raise for each of us is, "Where have we died a little as we transition to technology?"  While we may have hundreds of Facebook posts a day, when was the last time we had a face to face conversation, looking into the eyes of another person to see the hurt, the joy, the desperation and hope?  When we turn the computer off it is just as dead as Steinbeck's tractors. 

My great-grandfather, with the help of a group of neighbors, built his house by hand.  They banged every nail, painted every board, ran every peace of wire and pipe, because of that he, my great-grandmother, my grandfather and grandmother and now my aunt and uncle can never conceive of selling the place and moving somewhere else.  They were connected to the house, the land, the life in a way that our transient society today has lost complete touch with.  Our houses are simply places to live, rather than a living, breathing home that is connected to the family.  If we are not careful, our very houses can become just as dead as Steinbeck's tractors.

Jesus understood how the loss of connection leads to death.  When we look at lepers or the woman with the issue of blood, we look at people who have not known the touch of another human being for a very long time.  They have been separated, cut off, out cast; for all practical purposes they are dead.  They eat and breath but they just exist and do not "live!"  When he encounters people like this, Jesus immediately reaches out and touches them or makes a point to re-connect them to their community, moving them from a dead existence back to a life with connection and touch.

As we consider this new year, let's look at our own lives and those around us.  Who are the people, what are the places and situations that need a fresh human touch inspired by the love of God?  Where can we set down technology to re-connect in a flesh and blood, face to face kind of way to really start living again instead of putting the dead tractor in the dead barn and hibernating in our solitary existence hidden behind cell phones, computers and privacy fences?

Let's really live today!

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

 

Telling God What You Really Think

Greetings All,

Tonight at church we begin a two week discussion around the book The Same Kind of Different as Me by Ron Hall and Denver Moore.  The sub-text of the title is "A modern-day slave, an international art dealer, and the unlikely woman who bound them together," and it succinctly captures the gist of the book.  It revolves around the relationships of Ron, Debbie and Denver and how God can work transformation through those relationships when they are rooted in His love.  The book is full of profound moments and pieces of wisdom, especially from Debbie and Denver, but I wanted to share one with y'all this morning to get you excited about tonight's discussion.  Let's begin with a quote from the book.  It comes from a Denver chapter where he is telling about his time at Debbie's graveside after everyone else had left.

"After everbody went on to the house, I stayed up there with her, sittin' on a bale a' hay.  Sometimes I talked to God, askin' Him why.  Even though I'd had a word or two from Him about His purposes, and even though I'd delivered them words to Mr. Ron like He asked me to, that didn't mean I had to like it.  And I told Him I didn't like it.  That's the good thing 'bout God.  Since He can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and tell Him what you really think."  From The Same Kind of Different As Me pgs. 192-193

Denver, like the rest of the family, is consumed with grief over Debbie's death.  He is hurting but he is trusting God.  He is trying to understand God's purpose and plan, but he is honest enough to admit that he doesn't like it. He is also bold enough to tell God that he doesn't like it because he figures God already knows how he is feeling so he might as well vocalize it. 

It is this simple, yet profound wisdom about God that so strikes me time and again as I read this book.  So often in life we get in those places of being consumed by the situations of life that have injured, paralyzed, demoralized and left us for broke.  We get angry at others, at life, at God and we want to express it but we are afraid to tell God that we don't like something that we think He has His hand in, so we don't.  So many of us have grown up with such a fear of God, that He will smite us for questioning, for doubting, for being angry,  that we are afraid to tell Him how we are really feeling.  We hold it in and it begins to smolder and fester and often times leads us to a place where we end up moving away from God. 

The irony in what we do is that God knows how we are feeling before we ever even thought about expressing it.  We don't tell Him, but He knows.  We keep it in and compound the hurt in our lives, because we shut Him out blocking His attempts at hope and healing.  We can really learn from Denver's wisdom here.  "Since He can see right through your heart anyway, you can go on and really telly him what you think."  God can handle it, He has big shoulders and a strong back and can handle anything our little mortal lives can throw at Him.  We can go ahead and express our hurt, our pain, our disappointment and confusion because He already knows it.  Our expressing it is not for His sake, so that He knows what is going on in our lives, it is for our sake.  Expressing our anger and frustration and hurt and being responded to with love, acceptance and grace instead of smiting and rejection begins a healing process in us that we all need.

We have just begun a new year; as we look forward to the things we hope to accomplish let us also look back.  Let us look back to those things we need healing from and let us not be afraid to tell God how we really feel so He can begin a healing process in each of us that will free us to pursue those goals for the new year with passion and complete abandonment to God.  Go ahead and tell Him what we really think, He can handle it.

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

One Step at a Time

Greetings All and Happy New Year!

I have been a bit absent of late as I took the week off to be with my family. It was a time of great joy and relaxation, if you consider chasing three year old twin nephews relaxing. I always enjoy ringing in the new year with family. It is a time of looking back and looking forward. Looking back to the good and bad, the good to hopefully duplicate and the bad to learn from it and avoid it in the future. Looking forward to the goals we want to accomplish in the new year, the resolutions that we set, the plans we want to make.

Sometimes those plans and goals can be a bit overwhelming when we look at them regardless of what they are; for some they might involve weight loss, for others stopping smoking, for others education related goals, or spending more time with family, or getting one's finances in order. No matter what they are sometimes the sheer size of the goal can overwhelm.  I have a goal ever year to eighteen months of reading through the Bible cover to cover. Sometimes I look at the size of the Bible, the number of pages, and think that I will never finish, but the truth is as long as I read a few chapters everyday I accomplish my goal.  I have just begun my sixth reading and I am already in Exodus and Luke reading a few chapters a day. 

The conference health plan gave all of us pastors step meters at conference last year in the hopes of getting us to exercise, or at least get a little healthier. I wear it religiously and I have noticed something much like my Bible reading. When I look at a goal of running or walking a certain number of miles in a day or a week, it gets a little overwhelming, but when I just think about taking the next step I realize that is something I can do. One step at a time I can walk thousands of miles, climb tall mountains, and traverse deep valleys. Since June I have walked over a million steps.  If you had asked me in June to walk a million steps by December 31st I would have said, "You are crazy!"  But taking one step at a time I did it without even realizing that I had accomplished it.  I simply took 12,000 steps a day.  Like the pedometer, when I take the next step, I am that much closer to accomplishing my goal.

The Christian walk is the same way. When we look at where we have been and God's plan of holiness for our lives it can be a bit overwhelming. We can get consumed with thoughts of, "What's the point, I will never make it," or, "That is just to much for me, I am not capable." The truth is that none of us are capable of doing the things that God has called us to do. He calls us to do things that can only be accomplished in His power so that when we do we can't help but say, "Look what God has done!" What God wants us to do is simply take the next step of obedience to Him. If we simply take one more step towards holiness today, one more step towards the life He is calling us to, one more step towards the joy He so wants for our lives, we will get there! One step at a time is our journey towards God and we can all take one more step!

Your brother in Christ,
Faron

Book Review: The Innocent Man by John Grisham

The Innocent Man
by John Grisham
Published in 2007 by Delta Trade Paperbacks

Summary: This book recounts the story of two wrongfully convicted men from Ada, Oklahoma, Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz.  Debbie Carter, a young cocktail waitress from Ada, was murdered in the winter of 1982.  It was a shockingly brutal crime for which the town was demanding justice.  The crime would go unsolved for five years, until Williamson and Fritz were brought up on charges with very flimsy evidence and ultimately convicted due to poor police work, short sighted prosecution and a failure to look at other suspects.  They spent twelve years in prison, Dennis as a lifer and Ron on death row, until Judge Seay finally grants a writ of Habeas Corpus that begins the journey to exoneration.

Review: Without a doubt Grisham is a fantastic author of fiction, but this was his first foray into the world of non-fiction.  He stumbled across this story in 2004 after reading a headline about Ron Williamson.  The story intrigued him enough to investigate further and the more he peeled back the layers of the onion, the more he felt compelled to write a detailed account of this judicial wrong.  He has done an exceptional job of communicating facts and details with depth and accuracy while maintaining a novelesque readability.  This book reads like a fiction book, but sadly tells an incredibly detailed account of a horrible wrong that almost led to an innocent man to lethal injection in the state of Oklahoma.  It is a compelling and informative read that will give anyone a bit of a scare when it comes to their belief in the workings of the justice system.

Reading Recommendation: Yes, a non-fiction book that reads like a novel!