I hope you're having a great week, and I hope you've considered what we talked about on Sunday and you're taking the high road to get to the right place God has for you. I'm excited about this Sunday as we'll be talking about another "CRAZY" story about David when he 'danced madly' before the Lord. We'll learn what it means to truly be devoted to God.
Also, don't forget if you've got some time this Sunday at 1 p.m. we'll be cleaning out our old storage trailer at 1505 New Hope Rd. You might even get a treasure as we look through old supplies.
Thought for the Week"By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35
As I sit here and type this, I'm tuning in and out to a little Thursday Night College Football on ESPN. I usually love watching the Thursday night game. Oklahoma State is playing Texas Tech, but I don't recognize them. Most folks know I'm a pretty avid college football fan, and I'm kind of a uniform junkie. More and more, college teams are wearing multiple uniforms and helmets. You have to look closely to figure out who's playing. I'm kind of a traditionalists when it comes to uniforms, so I'm not crazy about it. I like flipping it on an knowing who's playing immediately. I wonder if non-Christians feel that way about Christians sometimes, like we're always changing uniforms. I wonder if they can recognize us. I turned it on tonight and the Cowboys and Red Raiders were both in brand new uniforms...again. They weren't wearing their iconic helmets. It was confusing. For the Christian, the iconic look is love. This is what we're to be known for. When we wear something other than love, we confuse people. We don't look like ourselves. We are a cheap imitation of what Jesus intended. Disciples love each other. They love others. Love. When we come out in resentment, jealousy, or hate, we don't look like disciples. We look like a different team. Hey, if you like all the funky new football uniforms -- different strokes for different folks. However, let's make sure that we wear our iconic Christian uniforms. Let's make sure we are recognized by love. Maybe you're still on the journey. I hope you know that love is what we Christians are supposed to be known for. Know that we sometimes get it wrong. We're trying to wear the right uniform. A uniform of love.
In His Love,
Carter
First United Methodist Church of Griffin
Thursday, September 25, 2014
Thursday, September 18, 2014
Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (9.18.14)
I hope you've had a great week. It's been another crazy one around the McInnis
household -- fitting for our current series! Hey, if you don't have
plans tonight and you're a big college football fan, come on over to the home of
Noah & Mariah McNeely (100 Herring Rd., Grayson, GA 30017). We'll
have food and fun. You can bring food to share if you like, but you don't have
to. All ages welcome. We'll watch the Auburn vs. Kansas State game and have a
short devotion and prayer time at halftime. Don't worry if you've got head home
early. Come out at 7:00 p.m. Kickoff is at 7:30. You can contact Noah at noah_mcneely@yahoo.com to let him know
you're coming if you're bringing a crowd!
This Sunday, we'll be continuing the series "CRAZY." I'm going to be teaching about David and Saul, and how they dealt with their respective situations differently. It's a powerful story of what it means to walk faithfully with God, in His time, when it's so easy to take shortcuts.
Thought for the Week
"Then Saul's son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God."
We're not touching on Jonathan in the story of David, but he was another prominent player. I couldn't help but think of him this week as I've thought a lot about encouragement and friendship. I learned recently about a friend who had a moral failure. It his ruined his career, and it's a body blow that will take him a while to recover from. We don't see each other much, but I thought about the times we did and the subject came to faith. He was about 12-13 years older than me and had a much higher social standing in life because of his position and pay scale. For that reason, it seemed to get awkward around conversations in faith. It can be strange to challenge, encourage, rebuke or guide someone who is older and makes more money. I thought this week about how I might have been the only Christian in his life who ever asked him about faith or church. I should have encouraged him more. In the end, his job and income couldn't save him from his sin, and it's wrecked his life for now. God puts us in people's lives and others in our lives for a reason. I hope you'll receive encouragement in the faith when a spiritual mentor offers it. They may be trying to save you from heartache to come. And I hope you'll give encouragement in the faith to a friend that might need you to say something no one else will. Is there someone God is calling you to be more of an encourager to? Be a Jonathan to someone. And listen to the Jonathans in your life.
In Christ,
Carter
This Sunday, we'll be continuing the series "CRAZY." I'm going to be teaching about David and Saul, and how they dealt with their respective situations differently. It's a powerful story of what it means to walk faithfully with God, in His time, when it's so easy to take shortcuts.
Thought for the Week
"Then Saul's son Jonathan came to David in Horesh and encouraged him in his faith in God."
We're not touching on Jonathan in the story of David, but he was another prominent player. I couldn't help but think of him this week as I've thought a lot about encouragement and friendship. I learned recently about a friend who had a moral failure. It his ruined his career, and it's a body blow that will take him a while to recover from. We don't see each other much, but I thought about the times we did and the subject came to faith. He was about 12-13 years older than me and had a much higher social standing in life because of his position and pay scale. For that reason, it seemed to get awkward around conversations in faith. It can be strange to challenge, encourage, rebuke or guide someone who is older and makes more money. I thought this week about how I might have been the only Christian in his life who ever asked him about faith or church. I should have encouraged him more. In the end, his job and income couldn't save him from his sin, and it's wrecked his life for now. God puts us in people's lives and others in our lives for a reason. I hope you'll receive encouragement in the faith when a spiritual mentor offers it. They may be trying to save you from heartache to come. And I hope you'll give encouragement in the faith to a friend that might need you to say something no one else will. Is there someone God is calling you to be more of an encourager to? Be a Jonathan to someone. And listen to the Jonathans in your life.
In Christ,
Carter
Wednesday, September 17, 2014
The Culture of Condemnation
A long time ago, Jesus arrived on the scene into a culture of condemnation. The religious culture was run-a-muck with self-righteous leaders who had the appearance of piety and holiness and handed down judgments of condemnation to those sinners who committed the most heinous and public sins. Stone the adulterer. Eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. Cast out the sinners, tax collectors and prostitutes. Demonize the unclean. Jesus turned things upside down. He said that being angry was the equivalent of murder. He said that adultery starts in the heart, and that lusting after another is just the same as the act. Wait...what? Jesus said that there isn't one of us that has it all figured out, even the ones that look like they do. He went on to say to the religious leaders some pretty harsh words: "On the outside you seem righteous to people, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness" (Matthew 23:28).
Social media has again ushered us into a Culture of Condemnation. Our keyboards have simply made it easier to condemn everyone -- athletes, movie stars, politicians, and acquaintances. Everyone has an opinion, and we now have a forum to share it -- with little consequence. In fact, we'll probably get a few affirming 'likes' for our tirade. The situations in the NFL over the last week or so has brought this to light even more. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Greg Hardy have shed an ugly light on abuse and violence. Domestic abuse to anyone, especially to a woman or child, is reprehensible. We can all agree on that. Moreover, when laws are broken, society needs people to be held accountable. However, what I have noticed is how these situations have allowed so many of us to get on our high horse and condemn these men. "We would never do such a thing." "They are monsters." "They deserve the worst." Maybe all those things are true. I'd never hit a woman or child. They certainly need to be punished as anyone else would.
But I keep thinking about what Jesus said. I keep thinking about how I might not have broken laws on the outside, I'm often "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." I keep thinking...
Social media has again ushered us into a Culture of Condemnation. Our keyboards have simply made it easier to condemn everyone -- athletes, movie stars, politicians, and acquaintances. Everyone has an opinion, and we now have a forum to share it -- with little consequence. In fact, we'll probably get a few affirming 'likes' for our tirade. The situations in the NFL over the last week or so has brought this to light even more. Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson, and Greg Hardy have shed an ugly light on abuse and violence. Domestic abuse to anyone, especially to a woman or child, is reprehensible. We can all agree on that. Moreover, when laws are broken, society needs people to be held accountable. However, what I have noticed is how these situations have allowed so many of us to get on our high horse and condemn these men. "We would never do such a thing." "They are monsters." "They deserve the worst." Maybe all those things are true. I'd never hit a woman or child. They certainly need to be punished as anyone else would.
But I keep thinking about what Jesus said. I keep thinking about how I might not have broken laws on the outside, I'm often "full of hypocrisy and lawlessness." I keep thinking...
- What if my worst moment was caught on camera like Ray Rice?
- What if there was a camera in my soul?
- I'd never hurt or hit someone...but does it count if I've thought about it?
- What about all those times I've been so angry at someone I could scream?
- What about the times I did scream?
- Have I ever crossed the line in disciplining my children?
- Do lies that no one knows about count?
- What about lust?
Don't get me wrong. We need to discipline law-breakers and educate people on how to be good citizens. But, Jesus seemed much less concerned about 'just being a good citizen' in the neighborhood. He said you could look like a good citizen and be dead on the inside. He said we're all broken. Jesus challenges us deeper. This is why I'm so slow to condemn. I've got so much of my own mess to clean up. I think we know wrong when we see it. No one that hears of the pending cases in the NFL could dispute that. But I know there is stuff that I don't know about everyone that gives me pause to condemn. And it's what I do know about myself that gives me the most pause.
Create in me clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Thursday, September 11, 2014
Sunday Preview & Thought for the Week (9.11.14)
I hope your week is going great. Today is one of those days on the calendar that most of us will always remember (more on that below.). It's also our church birthday. We launched our first Worship Experience on Sunday, September 11, 2005 at Simonton Elementary School. It has been quite a ride. A lot of people asked me why we chose that Sunday. I said that we'd be sure to remember the date, and more importantly, we wanted to bring a positive memory to a date etched in our brains.
This Sunday we'll be continuing the "CRAZY" series on the life of King David. We'll be talking about the story of David and Goliath this week. Hope to see you there!
Thought for the Week (Day)
"Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me." Psalm 23:4
I can't tell you how many funerals during which I've read Psalm 23. It is one of those passages that brings hope and comfort. It is hard to imagine now that week after Tuesday, September 11, 2001. It was surreal. No work. No Friday night football games. No flights. No Saturday College football. No School. No stock market. No Sunday NFL. Everything just stopped. We just sat with our families and watched the 24/7 coverage. And wept. The world shut down. Sunday church was the first time many of us ventured out of the house. I sat in my parsonage late at night one evening that week with my newlywed wife asleep and wondered if this was just the beginning -- were they coming for all of us. What would I do to protect her and me. I didn't have any good answers. None of has any answers that week. We knew that we wanted to be with the people we loved, we wanted to pray, and we wanted to go to church. Perhaps we wanted to hear those words: even in the darkest valley (the valley of the shadow of death as the King James Version calls it), God is with us. September 11 reminds us that there is ugliness in the world. We also recall heroic efforts as many fought to save innocent lives in New York, DC, and over a field in Pennsylvania. We still have questions. There will be more dark valleys, for our world, country and family. We will experience ugliness. There's no promise that we won't. It's nowhere in the Bible. But we can rest assured that God is with us. God walks with us. Thirteen years ago God walked with us as a nation in the U.S. And He will walk with you through whatever you're going through.
Because of Him,
Carter
This Sunday we'll be continuing the "CRAZY" series on the life of King David. We'll be talking about the story of David and Goliath this week. Hope to see you there!
Thought for the Week (Day)
"Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for you are with me." Psalm 23:4
I can't tell you how many funerals during which I've read Psalm 23. It is one of those passages that brings hope and comfort. It is hard to imagine now that week after Tuesday, September 11, 2001. It was surreal. No work. No Friday night football games. No flights. No Saturday College football. No School. No stock market. No Sunday NFL. Everything just stopped. We just sat with our families and watched the 24/7 coverage. And wept. The world shut down. Sunday church was the first time many of us ventured out of the house. I sat in my parsonage late at night one evening that week with my newlywed wife asleep and wondered if this was just the beginning -- were they coming for all of us. What would I do to protect her and me. I didn't have any good answers. None of has any answers that week. We knew that we wanted to be with the people we loved, we wanted to pray, and we wanted to go to church. Perhaps we wanted to hear those words: even in the darkest valley (the valley of the shadow of death as the King James Version calls it), God is with us. September 11 reminds us that there is ugliness in the world. We also recall heroic efforts as many fought to save innocent lives in New York, DC, and over a field in Pennsylvania. We still have questions. There will be more dark valleys, for our world, country and family. We will experience ugliness. There's no promise that we won't. It's nowhere in the Bible. But we can rest assured that God is with us. God walks with us. Thirteen years ago God walked with us as a nation in the U.S. And He will walk with you through whatever you're going through.
Because of Him,
Carter
Wednesday, September 10, 2014
Hope in the Brokenness
There is a great deal of hurt and brokenness going on in the world. I'm reminded of that with ugliness going on around us. Ferguson, MO is struggling, to say the least, with peace in its community. There are ugly things happening and being said there concerning race issues we thought or wished were long gone from our country. The ISIS threatens peace everywhere. We are scared and searching for the ways to deal with terrorist. We're not even sure we CAN deal with terrorist. The NFL, the world's most popular sports league, is dealing with the backlash of how poorly it handled an incident of abuse from one of its marquee players on his then fiancee. The video of Ray Rice seen 'round the globe has opened our eyes to the ugly world of domestic violence. The situation with Ray Rice has shed a dark shadow on even our justice system. Prosecutors and the judge HAD SEEN the video that rocked our world this week, and they still accepted Rice into a pre-trial intervention program that will eventually lead to the assault charge being dismissed from his record. We're learning that our justice system sometimes doesn't bring justice. And just this week, in a story that hit close to my heart, police and the FBI arrested a man that lives in the small town in South Carolina where my brother and his family live. The man had killed his five children, driven them to Alabama, and dumped their bodies off a dirt road. A man capable of killing his own five innocent children was living minutes away from my two nephews.
I'm not in the politics business, so I stay away from politics. There are a lot of politics surrounding the situations in Ferguson, the ISIS, and Ray Rice. There will be politics in the trial of this man in South Carolina. Politics are complicated. And they don't fully work. Our world doesn't need more political maneuvering. Our world needs healing. Because it is broken. This is the truth from the Bible that so many miss. We point to the beautiful things about life that point to how the world really is. That's not quite right. The beauty we see or experience points to how things could be. They are a 'foretaste of glory divine.'
Politics, policies, legislation, suspensions, and boycotts don't save people. Jesus saves people. Our world needs saving. Our world needs Jesus. The problem is that getting Jesus to the world is complicated. You won't get a chance to meet Ray Rice. You're probably not looking to meet someone from the ISIS. You probably don't have a vacation scheduled to Ferguson, and I don't think a revival in Ferguson is the answer.
The answer is you and me. The answer is teaching our sons how to honor all people (including women) because the Bible tells us to honor others above ourselves. The answer is to treat our co-workers and neighbors as children of the Most High God, made in His image, instead of according to our differing skin colors. The answer is in praying for our enemies because Jesus told us to pray for those that curse you. The answer is loving our neighbor as ourselves, instead of ignoring their drug and alcohol abuse, before they do something horrific in a substance-induced rage. The answer is in being Jesus for a broken world, one person at a time. The answer is in showing others another way of life, a new world, a Kingdom in which love of God and love of neighbor reign supreme.
I'm not in the politics business, so I stay away from politics. There are a lot of politics surrounding the situations in Ferguson, the ISIS, and Ray Rice. There will be politics in the trial of this man in South Carolina. Politics are complicated. And they don't fully work. Our world doesn't need more political maneuvering. Our world needs healing. Because it is broken. This is the truth from the Bible that so many miss. We point to the beautiful things about life that point to how the world really is. That's not quite right. The beauty we see or experience points to how things could be. They are a 'foretaste of glory divine.'
Politics, policies, legislation, suspensions, and boycotts don't save people. Jesus saves people. Our world needs saving. Our world needs Jesus. The problem is that getting Jesus to the world is complicated. You won't get a chance to meet Ray Rice. You're probably not looking to meet someone from the ISIS. You probably don't have a vacation scheduled to Ferguson, and I don't think a revival in Ferguson is the answer.
The answer is you and me. The answer is teaching our sons how to honor all people (including women) because the Bible tells us to honor others above ourselves. The answer is to treat our co-workers and neighbors as children of the Most High God, made in His image, instead of according to our differing skin colors. The answer is in praying for our enemies because Jesus told us to pray for those that curse you. The answer is loving our neighbor as ourselves, instead of ignoring their drug and alcohol abuse, before they do something horrific in a substance-induced rage. The answer is in being Jesus for a broken world, one person at a time. The answer is in showing others another way of life, a new world, a Kingdom in which love of God and love of neighbor reign supreme.
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