One Body Divided

I've been troubled about some things I see in the church. If we are all "the" church, as in one body, one bride of Christ, why does this group think they are better than the rest of the groups which gather in other places? I'm not being clear, so let me restate this.

In the tradition I grew up in, the "denomination" for lack of a better word, people often said that we met in "the New Testament way" and some were even overheard to say that they were glad they didn't go to those other churches where they didn't teach the truth. The pervasive attitude seemed to be that of pride that we have the corner on truth. What relief people felt that we had the proper interpretation of Scripture and what horror we felt at the thought that we might have wound up with one of those "other" churches where they didn't know the truth. The air of superiority that many displayed was nauseating. Of particular contempt were the charismatics and those churches that used contemporary music, guitars and electrical equipment and "didn't show proper respect", by which it was meant that they didn't dress up, that some women wore pants, some men jeans and that they didn't follow the rules for dress that they believed scripture ordained. The service, they felt, did not have appropriate formality and seriousness.

I now attend a church that uses contemporary music, guitars, keyboard, drums, electric guitars and bass, and makes every attempt to put biblical teaching in the language of today. While I love this church, I also love my old church and find that there is some of the same attitude here. There is a disdain for traditional churches and their members, for hymns and even old Christmas carols that disturbs me. In my old church there was a disdain for the young and for a passionate pursuit of God that wasn't always restrained and dignified (and where is that in scripture?) In this church, I hear (though not from the leadership) a contempt for traditional denominational churches and a lack of understanding and respect for the Christians of yesterday and the faith of our fathers.

The music that is so often disdained on both sides is the outpouring of hearts that love God. Why shouldn't we all rejoice in that? The sacrifice of the past generations should be respected by the current, and the passions of the young should bring joy to the hearts of their elders. There was a time when those hymns were considered as scandalous as the new music of today. There was a time when the church was horrified by musical instruments, by parts, by the joining of voice and instruments, by the voices of women. People whose hearts were filled with their love of Christ defied those standards, not out of rebellion, but out of love and passion. That same passion and love rules in the hearts of the young.

The young reject not just the restrictive forms of the traditional churches, but the members themselves, not recognizing the preservation of the gospel by those who have gone before, by their sacrificial giving that allowed missions to the furthest parts of the earth. They seem unaware of the hours of labor, the years of devotion and service their older brothers and sisters have given to the cause of Christ.

We spend so much time concerned with our own comfort and our own likes and dislikes that we aren't as concerned about the church as a whole as we should be. Whether we like it or not, the gray-haired wrinkled fuddy-duddy and the rainbow-haired, tattoed, pierced kids in black tees and jeans are brothers and sisters. We are one. One body, one bride, one church.

Missed Lesson

The preacher claimed financial abundance
was promised to all who believed
Ignoring the promise of trials
Jesus gave to those who are his.
He claims we all get health! and wealth!
Right here! Right now! For you and me.
But Jesus (who is our example)
had nowhere to lay his head.
No savings, no stocks, no bank account,
With heaven his only home.
His friends would turn and deny him,
His body abused and torn
But the preacher claims there is none of that
for those who rightly are his.
What about Stephen, the stoned one,
Or Paul who was beated and jailed,
Peter who died upside-down on a cross,
John the Baptist beheaded and scorned?
Can you tell me how Preacher misses that?
Is it deliberate blindness he grasps?
Does he willingly knowingly teach a lie?
If he does I can only wonder why? Why?

Listening to Others

I was thinking the other day...someone I know has offered advice which I am not taking and that makes them really irritated and they make some snippy comments. I sat for a while thinking about what would happen if I went along with them simply to appease them and lose their sneering. Imagining I had gone along with their advice I wrote the following:

I did what they wanted because to resist what they believed to be wise earned their contempt. In doing so I resisted my own wisdom and earned my own contempt. Of the two, mine is harsher.

This is how we resist the temptation to go along simply to get along. The contempt of others is rarely as hard to take as our own, but sometimes the pain of someone's critical remarks causes us to do something we believe is foolish or wrong unless we evaluate what is in our heart, our mind, our own conscience. Surely there is a time for striving to earn the high opinion of another, but never at the expense of our own self-respect.

Labor of Love

Chinese man carves 6,000-step ladder of love on mountainside

IANS
Saturday, November 11, 2006 20:49 IST

BEIJING: The tale of a 70-year-old Chinese man who hand-carved more than 6,000 stairs up a mountain for his 80-year-old wife has won the award for China’s greatest love story of 2006.

The story began half a century ago, when 20-year-old Liu Guojiang fell in love with a widowed mother, Xu Chaoqing. In a twist worthy of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, friends and relatives criticised the relationship because of the age difference and the fact that Xu already had children.

Desperate to escape market gossip and the scorn of their communities, the pair eloped to live in a cave in Jiangjin county, which is in southwest China’s Chongqing municipality. Now the local government is attempting to supply electricity to the cave, which has been the couple’s home for the last 50 years.

Their story came atop a list of China’s top 10 love stories in a contest event organised by the Chinese Women Weekly, which collected tales from around the country since July.

At the beginning, life was harsh and Xu felt that she had tied Liu down. She says she repeatedly asked him: “Are you regretful?” Liu always replied: “As long as we are industrious, life will improve.”

Liu and his wife were not present at the award ceremony due to
their age, but their son Liu Mingsheng came with a kerosene lamp that his father had made from an ink bottle.

“My parents have lived in seclusion for more than 50 years because of their love for each other. They had no electricity and my father made kerosene lamps to light up lives,” the son said. “My mother seldom goes down the mountain but my father cut the 6,000-plus stairs for her convenience. It’s a ladder of love.”

I first heard this story on the radio on a day when I was feeling kind of blue. It choked me up to think of the kind of love that does this, but I couldn't help but feel sorry for myself as I thought of this man's labor of love and that I can't even get someone to change a lightbulb for me.

Prophecy

I had an interesting thing happen a few months ago. A woman I do not know stopped me at school and seemed to be a bit stunned. Among other things she said, "oh, I see God showering you with blessings like a river." Despite my skepticism about such things, I felt like my spirit was agreeing with hers, and I have been puzzled as to what it meant. As time went on I put this to the back of my mind and if I thought about it, I wondered if she was a kook or a false prophet. I would be afraid to prophesy for the Bible has much to say about false prophets. And yet, I have clung to the hope of scripture and of that word.

Wednesday night, December 5th, we had a special service at church. A few months back one of our little guys, just 2 years old, fell out a second story window and suffered a severe brain injury. He was not supposed to survive, then he was not supposed to wake up, then not speak, hear, see, move, walk, etc., etc. God did not listen to the doctors, and as people prayed for this little boy all over the world, he is considered a miracle by the doctors. He is home now, and though he has a long road ahead of him, he can see, speak, hear, walk and more (though many of these things require special assistance right now). He and his entire family came and provided a meal to thank the church for their support. We had a baptism service, communion, praise and worship music and a blessed speaking. There wasn't a dry eye in the place as we thanked and praised our Savior for his wonderful works.

Afterward I remember saying to someone that I felt like rivers of blessing had just washed over me all night. Then I remembered what the woman said. Now, I'm not going to get all weird on you, but I believe that this very strange woman uttered a true word from the Lord.

Part of what is amazing, is that it became clear to me that the blessings that God was going to pour out on me like rivers wasn't just about satisfying my material needs. In fact, if you remember what I told you about that service, those things that blessed me had nothing to do with my own circumstances. What they were is reminders to me of the goodness and faithfulness of God that moved me deeply to worship and praise and brought a wellspring of love and adoration up out of my heart.

Since then, I must tell you the latest. I get together with a friend of mine every six months or so for lunch. She is just a great person who I truly, truly enjoy, and whose professional services I have recommended to many of my friends. She works in the staffing industry, helping employees and employers find each other and to have a really great fit. Well she runs the local office for her company. We were getting together as sort of a thank you for all the referrals I have given her. She called to arrange the time as I was standing in line at the customer service counter at Safeway. We hung up and then she called back, not three minutes later. "You're not looking for a job are you?"

No one knew I was looking, for I had simply been talking to the Lord about it, seeking wisdom and guidance and going to him with requests, talking about my goals for this and other things and asking him how to make these things happen. One of those goals was for appropriate employment that would allow me to help people and NOT to be a secretary again.

The job she mentioned sounded great, so we agreed to a lunch interview. When we were able to finally get together, I had already spoken to her and asked the questions I most wanted to know, and had asked people to pray that I would have wisdom about this opportunity. When I showed up for lunch, she said, "let's not do the interview thing. I just want to hire you." We discussed a couple of specifics before I would commit and then had a very nice lunch.

She called back later to see if we could start the full-time thing sooner and to finalize the salary offer. Truly this job is more than I could ever ask or think. And that is something I have been praying for that He would show me great and mighty things I know not of. He has answered my prayers in ways I could not have imagined, and has truly given more than I could ask for. Certainly I had not thought of this job, although it surely meets everything I have been asking.

From blessing to blessing. I am standing in the flow of a river of blessing. Truthfully, I have been standing in the flow for a long time, but my spiritual eyes could not see the river for the painful circumstances I have been in. Perhaps I needed to learn to trust when everything looks so terribly bleak, or perhaps, like Job, I have passed the test and am now being blessed to have the restoration of the things the locusts have taken.

Anyway, I have determined that even if this job doesn't work out, that I will praise his name anyway. Test me if that happens. Remind me if I should fail in this. He gives and he takes away. Who am I to argue with Almighty God? Who am I to question his goodness? Who am I to question how he chooses to care for me? Sometimes he chooses to provide for me through gainful employment, other times he touches someone's heart to share what he has given them with me. Either way it is all from the hand of God.

It is a strange paradox, that the River of Sacrifice and the River of Blessing are one and the same. They both flow from Immanuel's veins. There is pain in the blessing and joy in the sacrifice. But tonight, rejoice with me dear ones. Rejoice. His mercies endure forever.

The Weepies

There are some commercials that spark my interest not for what they are selling, or the message of the commercial, but because the music is compelling or fun. I couldn't get the JC Penney commercial out of my head. The music that is. I went on a search, made more difficult because I couldn't quite make out all the words.

Finally, I searched on the tagline and JC Penney and found The Weepies. Based on nothing more that my desire to hear the entire song, and the fact that my search turned up other nuts who were also compelled to search them out, I bought the album Happiness.

I love the album, and find myself reminded of the lyrics at odd times. How about the title track with the line that sticks in my head "It's a mean town but I don't care, Try and steal this, Can't steal happiness." I love that. You can lift my wallet, steal my cell phone, but I rejoice in the love I have found. Can't steal that.

The snow is so lightly spitting that I wasn't sure it really was snowing this morning, but seeing the tiny flakes against a blue sky and I had to go in and turn on "All That I Want" to hear my favorite verse:

Above the rooftops

The full moon dips its golden spoon

I wait on clip-clops, deer might fly

Why not? I met you

I'm not a music critic. I don't have the right words to describe their voices, or even what is so compelling about them, but next time you are watching TV, pay attention to the JC Penney commercial. If you find it com least you know where to find the music compelling, at least you know where to find it without all the time searching.

River Called Sacrifice

River Called Sacrifice
There is a river called Sacrifice,
and my Savior asks me to jump in.
But the current is swift and the waters are dark,
I look back at the place where I've been.
I can return to the meadow called Safety and Peace,
but He calls me on, "Jump in."
"The river’s awash in the blood I shed
as a sacrifice for sin."

I’ll just dip a toe in, I think to myself,
and see if the water is warm.
I’ll test the flow to see if it’s safe.
But I can’t find a gentle shore.
The choices are two, stay put or jump in.
There’s no choice for half-out and half-in.
So I must now decide to stay or to jump
in the river called Sacrifice.

God has sometimes parted the river,
but many are swept off their feet.
It is not a safe, lazy river.
but turbulent, wild and deep.
Stephen was stoned in the river,
Victorious when they thought he was beat.
O, many have died in the river;
Is this somewhere that I want to be?

I look at the current swift and dark,
and the end I do not know.
But I leap from the bank at the love on His face
and find peace in the midst of the flow.
I’m surprised when I land to find shallows,
and it gently tugs at my feet,
but as I keep going I know that each step
could carry me down to the deep.

When I jump in there is no going back,
the bank behind me too steep.
But there is a joy in the river,
that mingles with sorrows so deep.
The pain is so strong in the current,
but He whispers, “Be still,” and “Peace.”
And my heart is calm in the midst of the flood
that may soon sweep me off my feet.

I see in the river the martyrs
of all who have gone on before.
From the prophets of old to disciples bold
they all cheer from the far distant shore.
There are faces among them I know not,
but I know now for whom they died.
And they show no regret for the lives that they gave
in the river of Sacrifice.

The river shows me many faces.
It shows scorn and ridicule, too.
It shows gunshots, stabbings, beheadings,
and beds filled with sickness and woe.
It shows me the face of rejection,
the bankruptcies, scandal and strife.
It shows me the wrong accusations;
it’s all in the Sacrifice.

I find Him in the midst of the river,
in a way that I never have known.
I see his love and compassion
and I see wounds--scars for me he bore.
Such mercy, and tenderness found there;
such grace and forgiveness untold.
His love has a depth with no start and no end
in the river called Sacrifice.

Should the current grow strong and o’erwhelm me,
don’t cry and plead from the shore,
don’t pray for my safety, or for my release,
for I’m here in the river by choice.
For my Jesus is in the river
and I share in his sufferings here.
But where he suffered abandoned, alone
I have him with me, e'er so near.

So if you are standing in safety
by the pastures of pleasure and rest,
and you hear his voice calling “Come join me.”
oh, come in, for the water is blessed.
Of pain I can promise you plenty,
of purpose I promise you more.
But the sweetest gift here in the river
is Jesus, the one I adore.

Oh, there is a river that flows here.
It’s name is called Sacrifice.
And it flows with the blood of my Savior;
the one who for me has died.
He bids me join him in the river
and makes me no promise of life.
But he promises comfort, and joy and peace,
in the river called Sacrifice.