The Christian Chronicle: Ministries collecting funds for Haiti relief

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The pictures and the stories which are coming to us from Haiti are just heartbreaking.  If you’re like me, you’ve watched the news in horror at the devastation that this past week’s earthquake has wreaked on that small, poverty-stricken country.  Many wonder “Where is God in all of this” or “How could God let this happen to such a poor people?” 

I, too, ask those questions and sure don’t have all the answers.  But I’ve also noticed another thing…. God’s people mobilizing to help.  All over the news you hear stories of people who are there to help, who are pulling people from the rubble, who are offering water, food and assistance in whatever way they can… and they are Christians!  While governments and militaries scramble to get supplies on the ground, while beauracrats meet and write legislation to send money… Christians are already on the ground doing God’s thing… helping.

I was struck by an ABC news report earlier this week that highlighted the efforts of many missionaries who were there to help.  And they were there BEFORE the earthquake even hit.  ABC said that the charities which are already there working and ministering to the people are the best hope.  It will take weeks for the UN and the governments from around the world to organize sufficiently to actually be able to deliver and distribute much-needed supplies.  But so many Christian organizations and churches are already there and set up to help.  Is that what God is doing in Haiti?  Are people from around the world witnessing God’s people at work?  Is God getting the glory for that?  (he gets the blame for so much else, doesn’t he?)

Healing Hands is one such organization which is already on the ground and working hard to help.  Recently featured on a Fox News report from Nashville… it is an excellent organization if you would like to be a part of helping Haiti.  They are supported by churches of Christ all over the country and are first-rate in their ability to deliver aid and assistance in times such as this.  You can read about them here.  www.hhi.org and donate online if you would like.

Also, check out the Fox News report…  http://www.fox17.com/newsroom/top_stories/mywx_vid_2526.shtml

–Jim

What a great year we have had in God’s Word through our Cover to Cover campaign! It was just twelve short months ago that we challenged each other to read through the Bible together from beginning to end throughout the year. I can’t believe that the year is over! If you were like me, you were catching up and finishing up the last few chapters of Revelation on New Years Eve (maybe even up with Dick Clark) in order to be able to say that you finished in a year. Congratulations! As I said on Sunday, though, if you got behind and haven’t quite finished yet… don’t be discouraged. Keep reading. Keep studying. The reward is in the reading… not in finishing first.

I’m interested in hearing from each of you about your experience, especially if you had never read through the whole Bible from start to finish before. What did you get the most benefit from in your reading? What were your toughest challenges? How were you blessed? I can tell you several things. I was especially intrigued by the prophets. I have to say that I had never spent much time in the prophets and found them to be full of insights and challenging things that I needed to hear. I made many mental notes to myself to return to those neglected parts of Scripture… so many lessons for us today! When I got to the much more familiar territory of the New Testament, I decided to read it in a different translation. I selected the New Living Translation and found it to be a wonderful way to hear God’s Word afresh. I found myself constantly going back and forth with other versions and it helped me make so much more sense out of what I was reading… and I got a lot more out of it. I’m going to pick another translation and do it again sometime.

What a wonderful sense of accomplishment in finishing… but let me urge you… don’t close the book! God continues to speak and continues to instruct through his Word. That’s the wonderful thing about the Bible… it seems that no matter how many times I have read something, I always find something new. There were points this year when I thought, “When did God stick THAT in there? That wasn’t there the last time, was it?” Well, of course it was… it was only that I hadn’t seen it before. So, don’t put the book down! Don’t close it up! Keep reading… keep seeking God. He will continue to reward you with fresh new insights. Many have asked me what we are going to do next. What will be the next challenge before us? I hope to share a bit about a new challenge as we move into a new year in this Sunday’s message… so be sure to be with us on Sunday. And don’t forget to let me know how your reading blessed you… comment below.
God bless,
Jim

Merry Christmas!

     Wow… it seems like only a little while ago that I sat down to write our annual “Christmas letter.” This has been something of a tradition for me now for a number of years, but I can’t believe how fast this last one has flown by! Looking back and thinking on all of the things we have done and all of the ways God has blessed us… I can’t imagine now how we squeezed it all in… in what seems like such a short period of time. God has been good to us once again this year and for that we are so thankful!

     The kids are growing up fast! It sounds like such a cliche, but it’s SO true.  I can’t believe Andy is already in the 4th grade. I learned it’s quite a step up from 3rd. Friends had been warning us about the big 4th grade project, the Tennessee State Notebook, ever since he started school at Riverside and boy, were they right! What a project! We all learned a lot… and I mean ALL of us. It was “all hands on deck” to get it finished and we were all thankful to complete it. IF we can make it through the rest of 4th grade, 5th should be a “cinch”, right? David is in the 2nd grade and absolutely loves to go to school. He was sick last week and actually moped around the house complaining about not getting to go to school. He did NOT get this from me! Michael loves making friends and thoroughly enjoys just about everything he does, including “Mrs. Christy’s” Kindergarten class. He absolutely lives life to the full, as most of you know. You can usually hear him coming and you certainly know when he has arrived. After having all three of the boys over the years, Mrs. Christy is probably thinking of retiring. I’m convinced Kindergarten teachers should get combat pay.

     The boys certainly keep us busy. All three played baseball over the summer and so most nights you could find us at the ball park. This Fall, Andy decided to hang up his football jersey for the time being (I didn’t argue) while David and Michael filled up our time with their soccer games and practices. Now, David and Andy are gearing up for Jr. Pro basketball… a first for us, so we’ll see how it goes. Celeste continues to enjoy teaching at Riverside. She took on more Bible classes this year plus a Health & Wellness class. The middle school girls love her. I can’t believe that I just started my 9th year as pulpit minister at Washington Street. I continue to be thankful (and a little amazed) that the folks still put up with me and still let me speak to them every week. They have enriched our lives in so many ways.  I am just as excited about our future at Washington Street as ever!    

Speaking of growth… in case you hadn’t heard (or noticed) we are looking forward to a little more growth of our own in the coming year. For those of you keeping score, it looks like #4 will be arriving sometime in mid April. This reaffirms my theological theory that God indeed has a sense of humor! I’m sure having a new baby at home won’t shake things up too terribly much. In fact, we’re having quite the “baby boom” at church this next year and we’re looking forward to ours having a great group of kids to grow up with. As we look anxiously to a new year, we sincerely pray God’s richest blessings on all of you for a happy and healthy 2010. Oh, and by the way, in case you were wondering, the doctors have told us it’s a…  BOY!!! 
(is anybody really surprised?)

I tried something new tonight at church and I’m not sure how effective it was. I called it “Heart to Heart with the Preacher” and was an opportunity for me to just share my heart with the church… my heart for ministry, some of the things I do in my ministry and why I do them… that sort of thing. It was also an opportunity for folks to ask me questions and I especially encouraged questions from the kids. Boy, I got some great ones! It’ll take me a year or more to properly answer some of the really good ones. The funniest were the football questions. “Which is the best football team… from the Christian viewpoint?” I wonder if God cares as much about football as our young men, but its got to be the Saints… don’t you think?
Well, I’m not sure how effective it was. My main goal is to give the church an opportunity to look into the hearts of our ministers and elders and get a sense of why we do what we do… what gets us out of bed in the mornings, so to speak. We’re in a period of transition right now at Washington Street as our long-time family minister will be leaving us soon and there are questions about the future of that ministry in particular. Since he also served as an elder, there are leadership questions, too. Is it time to look for additional leaders? Additional deacons? More elders? I wanted to give the church the sense that our elders, ministers and deacons love this church and are working together seeking God’s will for us. I am as excited now about the future at Washington Street as ever before… but I’m not sure that came across.
Anyway, Brad will be taking up the challenge next week… “A Heart to Heart with our Youth Minister.” Our elders are slated for the first Sunday night in January as we look towards a great and new year!
Bottom line: I’m glad to be a part of a church that puts up with me and allows me to feel my way through God’s amazing work.

Services for
Ms. Melody A. Roach
Gallant Funeral Home
November 19, 2009

Welcome & thank you for being here
Let me say welcome and thank you to everyone for being here today. I know that Melody’s family is SO appreciative of all of the hugs & well-wishes and especially the prayers which have been lifted up on their behalf. I can tell you that means a great deal to them right now as they are going through this very difficult time.

We are here not only to honor the memory of Melody Roach but to celebrate her life… because that is what we believe she would want for us to do. She would not want us to be downcast… she would want us to be upbeat and joyous about her life… because she was. Her life had not been without its twists & turns, but she had never let life’s disappointments keep her down. She was a person who was full of life itself… and she wore a joyous and infectious smile wherever she went just to prove it! In fact, if she was in charge of this service, she might insist that there be dancing because that is one thing she loved to do so much… and was such a reflection of her personality.

Our hearts were broken on Saturday as the news spread to all of Melody’s friends and family of the horrible accident. Of course our thoughts were immediately with Amberly and the injuries that she had sustained. But we were just heartbroken over the news of Melody. I’m sure the first thing most of us did was to offer up a prayer… even if it had been a long time since we had talked with God. And for Mr. Jess and Cindy… my heart just went out to them. I cannot imagine the pain that the both of you have felt in these last days. I hope that the endless stream of friends who passed through these doors last night… the warm words… the caring voices… and the thoughts reflected from this service today will comfort you in some small way.

When Cindy asked me if I would do Melody’s service, I really did not know what I would say. What do you say in moments like this? Words just don’t quite seem to be enough. And no amount of words can really & truly summarize a person’s life… so I won’t even attempt that. She grew up in our church family, she & Amberly, but had grown up and moved off before I came to know the family. She would pop in occasionally when she was home visiting the folks and had recently moved back in at home, I understand. Yet even while I had not been around her very much… I could not help but know that she was a beautiful young lady (on the inside as well as out) who loved her family… and loved life! What do you say to someone who has lost such a dear, sweet sister/ daughter/ friend? I went to the Word of God… and I thought about the story of David.

David was without a doubt a great man of God… the greatest king to rule over Israel (God’s people) and the standard bearer by which all future kings came to be judged. He is the only man ever described in the Bible as being “a man after God’s own heart.” And I thought about the personal tragedy that he experienced in his life when (in 2 Sam 12) he lost his son, who was only an infant. David had prayed. He had fasted. He had pleaded with God not to take his son’s life… and despite all that David had done… the child had died. Most of us can only imagine how that feels… some of us know. I imagine he felt helpless. I imagine he felt angry. I imagine he felt guilty. I imagine he may have even felt hopeless. And I imagine he must have had a lot of questions… “Why had God allowed this horrible tragedy to occur?” “Why couldn’t it have been me instead of him?” “How could a loving God do this to me?” Aren’t these the questions we still ask when bad things happen… when there are things we cannot understand?

Well, what did David do?
2 Samuel 12:20
20 Then David got up from the ground. After he had washed, put on lotions and changed his clothes, he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house, and at his request they served him food, and he ate. NIV

What? He ‘worshipped’? What do you mean, ‘He worshipped?’ His child had just died and he went to the Temple and offered worship to God? That’s what it says. Why would he do that? With all of those questions bouncing about in his head… the doubt, the anger, the frustration. HOW in the world could he ‘worship’?

Well… moments like these are the moments that drive us to our knees. They are the moments that remind us that we really are NOT in control in this world… and that no matter how hard we try to cheat death… we cannot. These are the moments that cause us realize just how badly we need God. These are the moments that prompt us all to stop and reflect.

Reflect on the fact that… Life is a precious gift of God!
At the creation after God had created the heavens & the earth… the seas… and the skies… on the 6th day the Bible tells us that he created man and breathed into him the precious “breath of life.” The psalmist would sing…
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Psalms 139:14 NIV
Life is precious because it is the gift of God… and Melody was a precious gift of God… anyone who knew her knew that!

But oh, is it so brief!
Whether its 25 yrs or 85 years in the big picture of things… it is tragically too short!
Psalms 39:5
5 You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah NIV

Hebrews 9:27
27 Just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, NIV

As shocked as we were to hear the news about Melody… its news that will one day come for each and every one of us… regardless of who we are. Its not the number of days we get on earth that ultimately matters… its what we DO with those days that really counts! And Melody made every day count. She loved life and lived every one of them to the full. I heard somebody say in a movie one time, “Every man dies, but not every man truly lives.” I think we can say that Melody truly lived.

Appreciating the brevity of life ought to move each of us to make the most of every moment… Melody did that… always smiling and making friends wherever she went.

And you can tell that in the response from all of her friends & family… I’ll bet I counted 100’s of postings on Amberly’s Facebook page… hundreds of folks who poured through here last night & this morning… people who loved her and are oh, so going to miss her! She loved her friends, too… especially her ballroom friends with whom she could be found almost every weekend. She loved her family… her Daddy (Share Jess’ story about her ring) She loved her siblings… and I know was especially close to her twin sister, Amberly. They were known for playing the old switcharoo… just to mess with folks… or to see if anybody would notice.

With the loss of such a lovely young person… you might ask… “How could we possibly worship? How could we possibly sing a song of praise in this moment?” I sort of think about it this way. When I was a kid, whenever I got hurt… whenever a bigger kid had pushed me down or hurt my feelings… whenever I was upset or confused about the world… I always knew I could crawl up in my Daddy’s lap & just let him hold me. He wouldn’t even have to say anything… just being there… in his lap… made me feel better. His was a strong shoulder to cry on… and his arms were just gentle enough to make me feel better and yet strong enough to hold me tight. He didn’t have to even explain everything to me… I probably wouldn’t have understood his grown-up explanations anyway. It was enough… for him just to hold me. (I still feel like doing this sometimes, don’t you?) I think that’s exactly what David did. He went in to sit down in his Father’s lap… so that God could hold him a while.

Like I said… I don’t have the words to comfort this morning. But its my prayer that all of you, (Jess, Jess jr., Cindy, and especially Amberly) can crawl into the arms of our Heavenly Father… let him wrap his arms around you… and hold you… carry you.
2 Corinthians 1:3-7
3 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort overflows. 6 If we are distressed, it is for your comfort and salvation; if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which produces in you patient endurance of the same sufferings we suffer. 7 And our hope for you is firm, because we know that just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort. NIV

… let him carry you. Do NOT try to carry this burden by yourself!

And one day… well John saw this vision of the way its going to be ONE day…
Revelation 21:1-5
1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”
5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” NIV

and I can’t wait, how about you?

Jesus tells a great story! This past Sunday we took a glance at some of his greatest from Luke’s gospel. The one that has always been my favorite is his story of the “Prodigal Son” in chapter 15. Its familiar to most of us, but I sketched it out anyway. It was such a common story… one, no doubt, most in his audience could relate to. A son. Actually two. A father. An inheritance. When the younger son asks for his inheritance up front… the father, reluctantly I imagine, goes ahead and gives it to him. Surely it came with a warning. “Be careful not to spend it all in one place.” “This is all of it, so be sure to save some for a rainy day.” “Watch out for folks who might take advantage of you.” That kind of advice… the kind you would expect from a father to a son. Well, you know the story. The son goes out and squanders it all on high living! Then he hits rock bottom. The economy takes a downturn. No money. No food. Everything is gone. I’m sure the son had to have felt awful. When he comes to his senses he decides to turn around and head home. Hoping to just get hired on in his father’s farm, he is surprised to find his father waiting for him… arms outstretched… ready to welcome him home. When his jealous older brother expresses a bit of bitterness at the shin-dig thrown for his prodigal brother, the father just says, “Rejoice, be glad. This brother of yours was dead and is alive again, was lost and is found!” What a great story! But I wonder what happened next?

I mean, what would have happened if Jesus had continued the story into the next day in the life of this reunited family? Would the prodigal son have woken up in the warmth of his own bed and had a renewed appreciation for it… after all those nights with the pigs? What would the conversation around the breakfast table have been like that morning? Would he thank his father again for the reception? For the party? For the absolute and unconditional love that his father had shown? Would he tell his dad again how sorry he was for leaving? Would he savor every bite of his meal, appreciative of where it came from. Would his manors be more full of “please” and “thank yous” than ever before? Do you think he worked extra hard for his father, knowing how much his father had done for him? Or do you suppose that the little brother got up the next day and fell right back into a pattern of ungrateful behavior towards his family? Do you suppose he complained about his breakfast? “Dad, the toast is burnt.” Or “Mom, the juice isn’t cold enough.” Do you guess that he picked a fight with his older brother just for the sake of an argument? “Mom loves me more.” Do you imagine that he would decide to test his father’s patience again? Do you suppose he did any of those things?

If not, why do we? We who have come home have been welcomed unabashedly into God’s glorious kingdom! God has thrown his arms around us and called us his sons once more… despite the fact that none of us deserved it. He has thrown a party and given us a room in his dwelling place! And yet so many Christians wake up every morning woefully neglectful of all that God has done for us. We act as if making it to church once or twice a week is about all we can do in return. Surely the Father’s okay with that. Surely there isn’t any more he expects of us. Will we live our lives as grateful children ever mindful of what our Father has done for us? Our Father hurt when we sinned and turned our backs on him, but he welcomed us home anyway. He forgave us of our sin… and even gave his Spirit to us to empower us over sin. He has given us LIFE and life TO THE FULL! What will we do with it?