"Visitor" or "Guest"

I have never attended a congregation who gets more "drop ins" than here.  Last night's midweek service, at which we had 223, included three non-Christians who were here either by invitation or on their own initiative.  Sundays always means even more individuals and families who have come in from the community.  What a golden opportunity this gives us as a church!

Last month, while attending "Affirming the Faith" in Oklahoma City, I heard Mark Taylor, preacher for the Memorial Road congregation, talking about what they have done to be more effective with "outsiders" who attend their services.  This would include all who are not members of that congregation--Christian from in or out of the area and especially non-Christians "seeking" a church home. His thesis question was, "How do we view these individuals? Are they 'visitors' or 'guests'?"  He then demonstrated the difference.  

He says a guest is someone for whom we have prepared.  We clean our house, cook a delicious meal, and light a candle for guests.  We plan for them.  We want them there and we invite them back again.  A visitor may drop by unannounced or unexpectedly. We may feel inconvenienced by a visitor.  Your treatment of them may reflect that annoyance or apathy.

We never want to have another "visitor" again!  That means we must treat all those who come in among us as guests!  Such is proven by the steps we take toward them.  It may not be easy to reach a "guest" sitting across the auditorium, but what about in our "section"?  Is there an unfamiliar face?  Greet them!  Help them find a classroom.  Take them on a tour.  Invite them to lunch.  Get the attendance card they filled out and drive to their home and tell them you were glad they were there.  Every "guest" has a never-dying soul.  Each of us is being handed an opportunity with eternal implications!  

Will you pledge, with me, to seek out and honor every "guest"?  Sunday is our next opportunity.  Let us make the most of it (Col. 4:5)!

Area Preacher Speaks for God About Worship

The church in the Denver metro area is no different than most parts of this nation.  There are a few congregations of God's people with whom we find ourselves deeply divided when it comes to worship, women's role, the plan of salvation, and even how to view the Bible.  One zealous young preacher in the area has been doing much to defend a radical overhauling of the Lord's church through his writing and preaching.  One of his more recent blog posts seeks to prove what he sees as the pressing need of the church to change, using the 16th hole at TPC Scottsdale to illustrate this.  He contrasts the time before Tiger Woods' hole-in-one there in 1997.  Before, there were conservative old men with cardigans tied around their neck and polite golf claps.  Since then, a coliseum has been built around the hole and rowdy college fans boo shots they deem not close enough to the pin.  Analyzing this Arizona anomaly, the writer credits new leaders who change the boundaries, bending to the local culture, capitalizing on the "right moment," and meeting people's expectations.

The thing that struck me most was that this no doubt well-intentioned young man tried to speak for God and the Holy Spirit.  He said, "God and the Holy Spirit are ready for a party."  God shows up for worship at church camp.  God shows up at the worship at Pepperdine University (Where Christian Church members speak on the program, like Victor Knowles. Where church of Christ members who have added instrumental music, like Rick Atchley, Lynn Anderson, Jeff Walling, and others, speak. And where this young man and his wife speak).  He asserts that "we need a fresh wind of the Spirit" plus "leaders who will change the expectation in our worship experience."  He ends by saying that God is "ready for a new day."

Here's the flaw in his assertion.  How do we know what the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit want from our worship? How are we to know what God is ready for or where God shows up?  Are we to take our brother's word about what God wants?  No matter who speaks, this brother or any other, including me, we must "speak the utterances of God" (1 Pet. 4:11).  We do not have to guess at what God wants or desires.  He has revealed His will.  We do not keep on the cardigan or hold onto the golf-clap, to borrow our brother's analogy, out of personal preference.  Only the Lord gets to make that decision, and He has informed us of His decision about our worship in His written revelation (see 1 Tim. 2:8-15; Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16; etc.).

One need only visit the podcasts or watch video of the latest worship at this area congregation to see what our brother means by "fresh wind," "right moment," or "change the expectation" in worship.  It means women leaders.  It means a choir.  Will it mean instrumental music?  If the Spirit is instructing them differently than in His Word, what proof is there to confirm it?  What is to be done with the Spirit's previous, once for all, sufficient work of Scripture?  Does it get jettisoned?  I will not speak for God, but here is what He said:  "But even if we (which included an apostle, NP), or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, he is to be accursed!" (Gal. 1:8).  Let us be very careful what we teach (cf. Jas. 3:1)!

Colorado Forest Fire

The picture above is what most people in the Denver Metro Area witnessed. Seeing the plume of smoke was quite surreal. It was hard to imagine that a forest fire was responsible for this and not some volcano hiding behind the mountains. As of this afternoon, the fire was 0% contained. High winds also made the situation worse since air support was unable to lend a hand until today. In fact, about 3,000 acres went ablaze in a matter of hours during yesterday's high winds. So far, at least 2 people have died, 16 structures torched, 4,500 acres of forest have burned, 900 homes have been evacuated, and another 6,500 have been warned.

It's quite hard to grasp the power of nature until it is growling on your doorstep. The power of a forest fire is simply astonishing. When we keep this situation in mind, it makes the words of James 3:5b-6 resound like never before:

"...See how great a forest is set aflame by such a small fire! And the tongue is a fire, the very world of iniquity; the tongue is set among our members as that which defiles the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life, and is set on fire by hell."

James is specifically speaking to teachers here, but there is application for all of us. Far too often we start small fires when we let our words hurt others. If we are not careful, the fires we start can quickly become uncontrollable when the winds of gossip, lies, anger, and hate come blowing through. The next thing we know, our words have "defiled our bodies," and "set our lives on fire." There is no way to completely heal the damage we cause when we allow our tongues to go free.

Forest fires are bad enough. We don't need any "family fires," "congregational fires," "gossip fires," or fires of any kind for that matter. Too many people have been driven away from the Lord because of nasty, harsh, and hurtful words. We must be more careful with the words we speak. Not only can it jeopardize others' salvation, but our own as well.

God Of The Mariana Trench

Film director, James Cameron, has helped put the Mariana Trench in the news with his recent seven mile plunge to the bottom of the deepest point on earth. This trench, located in the western Pacific Ocean off the Philippines, has a water pressure of eight tons per square inch--1000 times greater than atmospheric pressure at sea level. Cameron is only the third person to reach the bottom of the trench (called the "Challenger Deep"), and he did so 52 years after two men did so in a U.S. Navy submersible called the Trieste. While he has reported that there were no signs of life, that it was a "barren, desolate lunar plain" (AP, 3/26/12), God has placed amazing, other-worldly-looking creatures miles deep in the oceans of the earth. Cameron's is almost certainly the first of many more trips to the "Challenger Deep." Who knows? Maybe future voyages will reveal crush depth-defying vertebrates and other scientific improbabilities (much information fromhttp://deepseachallenge.com). 

It is amazing that man has discovered the ability and technology God has made available to accomplish a feat like this. It is also amazing to think that God created areas on this earth, like other parts of the Mariana Trench, filled with exotic, often colorful sea life that He knew it would take thousands of years for man to discover. Yet, He did that. It is further proof of His existence and insight into what kind of God He is, a God of such intricate designing and endless power. 

It is also a testimony to the omnipresence of God. How great if Cameron would have quoted David's words as he sat upon the floor of "Challenger Deep": "Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, if I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, even there Your hand will lead me, and Your right hand will lay hold of me" (Ps. 139:7-10). 

Jaroslav Vazda wrote a beautiful song, "God of The Sparrow." It is a song praising God's power and implicitly reminding us of the awe we owe Him. How wonderful to know that the God of the Mariana Trench is the God we can approach and the God with whom we can have relationship!

God Loves Fruit

Those sugar bananas that grow in tropical and equatorial climates are unbelievably tasty. How about a sweet watermelon (especially seedless) on a hot, summer day? The best peaches probably grow in Fort Valley, Georgia, Chilton County, Alabama, or Palisade, Colorado. It is amazing how sweet a mango or red grape can taste. Surely, one of the crowns of creation had to be the blackberry which, in a cobbler, shows man's intellectual capacity at its finest. Genesis 1:11 records that third day when God began making fruit, and it was fruit that was meant to sustain Adam and Eve (3:2-3). The diversity of fruit on this earth shows God's desire for man to experience the enjoyment of something conjured by His perfect hand.

However, man is not the only one who loves fruit. The Bible makes it clear that God has a "taste" for fruit, too. He loves singing to Him done in spirit and truth (cf. John 4:24), which He calls "the fruit of lips" (Heb. 13:15). He calls the discipline of suffering which He allows for our growth and development "the fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11). He enumerates the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22-23, a whole range of thoughts and actions that prove we are Christ's. Often, however, God's Word speaks of the fruits of involved, committed Christian living, evidence of our conversion to Him. These fruits are tangible works that prove our gratitude for redemption, our desire to grow closer to God, our sense of debt and duty, our love for the One who is love, and our understanding of how important each of us fulfills our purpose as Christians on this earth.

Jesus made spiritual application through a fruitless fig tree on at least two occasions, the parable of Luke 13:6-9 and his encounter with a barren fig tree between Bethany and Jerusalem (Matt. 21:18ff; cf. Mark 11:12-14). Yet, His most famous analogies using the "fruit concept" are found in Luke eight and John fifteen. In Luke eight, the seed (8:11-the Word of God) planted in a good heart is fruitful while that strewn on the other types of hearts is not productive. In John fifteen, Jesus uses this fruit metaphor in an extended way. He is the vine. We are the branches. The Father is the farmer, the cultivator and fruit inspector. Jesus alludes to the idea that fruitless disciples are cut off from God and thus punished. However, when God looks at you and me and sees "much fruit," He "is glorified by this" (John 15:5,8). In fact, it is by bearing fruit that we prove ourselves disciples of Christ (John 15:8). The key is abiding in Him. If you are truly in a relationship with the Lord, cultivated by prayer, study, and faithful living, you are abiding in Him. Fruit is visible, tangible, and discernible. Are you bearing or barren?