Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (4.24.14)

I hope you've had a great week.  Easter was awesome at Church of the Way.  It was a great celebration, and you knocked it out of the park with donations to "Save Our Seniors."

This Sunday, we're starting a new series on called "BASIC."  We'll be talking about the basics of what it means to be a Christian.  What is it, exactly, that the Bible says Christians should do and be like?  I can't wait to share with you this Sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m.

Thought for the Week
"Like a city whose walls are broken through is a person who lacks self-control."  Proverbs 25:28

I was thinking today about the things that I stress over or worry about.  They are often the things that I can't control.  Do you find that to be true?  We can't control how people will respond to us.  We can't control how others will behave.  We can't control the weather.  We can't control the marketplace.  We can't control others' decisions.  We can't control the past.  Yet, the things we can't control are often a source of our frustration.  What, then, can we control?  Ourselves.  We can control how we respond, behave, speak, think, and live.  For me, I find that when I spend too much time worrying about others' response, I get worse at self-control.  When I worry about others, I get distracted from doing the things that I do have control over.  I find myself saying to myself, "I can only control what I can control.  And what I can control is me."  So, the questions I need to be asking are a totally different set of questions:

* Am I being faithful to God?
* Is this in line with who I want to be in Christ?
* Is this behavior confirmed by Scripture?
* Is this the person I want to be and who I know God wants me to be?
* Am I at peace with this decision?

That's a much different set of questions, but it's often the only questions we can answer.

In Christ,

Carter

Blood Moon Rising

"The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD."  Joel 2:31

That verse is reason enough for pastors like John Hagee of Cornerstone Church in Texas to declare that Tuesday's 'Blood Moon' marks the beginning of the rapture, surely to happen in the next 2 years during four Blood Moon's we'll experience from 2014-2015.  Apparently, a lot of people are buying his book and believe the same thing.  I've been wrong before (a lot), and I could be here, but I'm not buying it.  I'm sure Pastor Hagee is a good man.  I've listen to his sermons on occasion.  He's passionate.  I like that.  But I don't get this mindset.

Christianity is, by nature, weird.  This week is the high and holy festival of our weirdness.  We believe a man rose from the dead and ascended into heaven after spending a few weeks risen and hanging out with his friends.  Their testimony is why we believe what we believe.  We believe it to be true because it happened, and they saw it with their eyes, told everyone, and gave their lives for it.  Would you give your life for something you weren't sure of?  I didn't think so.  But this is still weird to the rest of the world.  It's okay to be weird because of what we know to be true, what we believe happened.

When we propagate stories like this surrounding the Blood Moon, we become weird in the wrong way.  Not weird because we're different.  Not weird because we love our neighbor as ourselves.  Not weird because we put others first.  Weird because we believe something we don't know to be true and what we believe will happen.  That's totally different.  When we lean toward that weirdness, we lose our voice with those outside of the Church or Christianity.  That seems crazy (it's borderline) and like fear-mongering (it is).

I don't think it is our role to lead the Jesus movement based on what we don't know.  I think we're supposed to reach out to our culture with what we do know.

• We are made in God's image.  I want everyone to know that.
• God loves us.  Ditto.
• Jesus died for us to forgive our sins.  Isn't that good news?
• Jesus arose to give us victory over our sins.  That's great news.
• He wants to restore His image in our lives.  Couldn't we all use a makeover.
• He's coming again -because he said so, just not when.  So I want to live in such a way that if it's tomorrow, I'm content with how I've lived and in such a way that if it's a million years from now, I'm content with how I left planet earth, Christ's Church, my community, and the people I love.

If we push people to make decisions on unsure data, then those are unsure decisions.  If we lead people toward standing on the firm foundation of our faith, they will stand on the Solid Rock.  And it'll be a lot less weird.

Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (4.11.14)

For our educators, parents, and students, I hope you've had a great spring break.  I'm so looking forward to sharing the last part of our series "How It All Went Down."  We'll be talking about the "Death of Jesus."  The message of Christ's death is central to our faith, and it's often misunderstood.  It's the best news ever.  I hope you'll be there to be a part of this special Worship Experience.

Thought for the Week
"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing."  1 Thessalonians 5:11

Have you ever thought about how some people make you feel versus how other people make you feel?  Have you ever thought about how you make other people feel?  The truth is, we send signals even beyond our language, and it is so important to encourage others.  A Yale University School of Management study found that "of all emotional signals, smiles are the most contagious."  I'm reading a book right now called Primal Leadership, and the authors talk about how important emotions are in relationships and organizations.  There are some lessons from this passage and line of thinking.  

1. Are you surrounding yourself with people who encourage you?  It's so crucial to surround ourselves with people who give us good emotions, inspire us, encourage us, and make us want to do and be our best.  Invest in people that smile and make you smile.  Spend time with people that build you up.
2. Are you building others up?  Sometimes, we're the ones that are dragging the party down.  I don't want to be that person.  I don't know about you, but I want to be a 'smile giver.'  I want to be an encourager.  Think about how you treat and speak to others.  This passage makes me want make sure that even my body language is sending encouraging signals.

God encourages us to be around people that bring out our best, but he commands us to be the kind of people that bring out others best.  What would it mean for you to be a 'smile giver.'

God Bless,

Carter

Noah

So I went to see Noah.  I felt like as a spiritual leader I needed to see what everyone was talking about.  Also, as a Christian, I felt like I ought to see it.  The story of Noah is near and dear to my heart.  I worked at a Summer Youth Ministry called Noah's Ark for four summers in college.  My son's nurseries were decorated in Noah's Ark themed gear, and I have a huge picture of the animals piling into the ark in my office.

For the first 3/4 of the movie, I was enthralled.  The imagery and effects were amazing.  The story was different, but I didn't mind the poetic license.  It was kind of like watching a movie with Biblical themes rather than a Biblical movie.  I didn't mind that.  I like movies.

The last 30 minutes got weird, so be prepared for that to happen when you watch it.  Noah and the story take a very divergent route from the Biblical narrative.  Noah's heart is not the heart of Noah in the Bible.  God's heart, at least interpreted by Noah, is nowhere near the heart of the God in the Noah story in Genesis.  I've read several reviews by theologians and seminary professors with different theories.  I believe the director's picked and chose from a lot of religious thought, and not all of it was from the Old Testament.

But, and this is the point that's so crucial for Christians, isn't it good that the world is talking about the Bible?  Isn't a conversation open to God's true heart?  The movie is well made.  It's got some Biblical themes.  It takes one of our stories and adds it's own spin.  It's an open door to say, "You know, that was really interesting, but I think X or Y really represents how a lot of the world misunderstands or misinterprets who God really claims to be in the Bible."  When we Christians immediately poo-poo a movie like Noah, we lose credibility in the marketplace.  We need to be able to engage the world, have open conversation, hear questions, live with doubts, and listen to fears.  We need to be able to be transparent about what we don't know and clear about the things that we absolutely know.  But we've got to be able to talk.  And we can't talk, we can't have a conversation if we don't know what the world is thinking.  And we don't need to be afraid.  Darren Aronofsky didn't change the Bible.  He made a movie.  And he dipped into our story to make one.  How can we use it to listen to what the world is saying?

The people I know who don't go to church or aren't really down with God want to be heard.  They want to be able to ask their questions.  Noah is like the world asking a question.  Let's use it.  Let's know what the Bible actually says.  Let's listen to God.  Let's listen to others.  And let's show the world in word and deed who God really is.  What his heart is really like.  And what he really did for us...and does in us...and through us.  But let's not put our hands over our ears and not listen.