A Walk Across the Street

I met her this past Sunday.  It was she and her Children's first-time to worship with us.  I introduced myself.  She said, "I embarrassed to share this..." I encouraged her that it was OK to share. 

She said, "I live across the street and I never realized this was a church." 

I thought to myself, "We, not you, ought to be embarrassed about that." :-)

I asked, "How did you come to realize we were here?" 

She answered, "This past October some people knocked on my door and introduced themselves.  They invited us to Trunk or Treat. Ever since then I have been thinking about coming." 

I asked her if she filled out a "Connection Card."  She had.  I found her card and guess what?!  On Sunday she committed her life to Christ!!!!!!  Praise God!!!!  OK...I am getting excited...anybody else!!!!

(Thank you to our ushers, counters and welcome table hosts, who enabled us to change the offering to the end of the worship service so people like this first-time guest have a chance to respond to Christ at the end of each service).

But none of this would have happened, had our 20-30 somethings not walked across the street, knocked on a door and introduced themselves. 

Satan tries to make the Good News complicated, doesn't he?  He tries to get us all wrapped up in memorizing the 4 spiritual laws and caught up in trying to find the right new program or getting us to fight over why we don't do some old program or telling us people will be offended and on and on the lies go.  But the good news about the Good News of Christ is that it is not complicated.  It is as simple as walking across the street.

O, how the 20-30 somethings of our church family must have made Jesus smile because that is exactly what Jesus did during his earthly ministry.  In Mark 5:1 it says, "They [Jesus and his disciples] went across the lake to the region of the Gerasenes."  The lake spoken of is the Sea of Galilee.  On one side was Jewish--good, holy, saved, sanctified...and on the other side was...well...the opposite...the Gentile side.  Jesus left the "church" side of the street and went over to the "sinner" side of the street.  And there he met a man possessed by a legion of demons. It did not take long until the man possessed was set free and he began to tell everyone in the Decapolis (the ten major cities) of the freedom he found in and through Christ.

What prompted this change for not only one man but for ten cities?  A simple trip across the lake.

Church family, this is what a REFOCUS is about...it is about looking at everything we are and do as a church and asking, how is this helping or hindering us walking across the street?  It is about recognizing that people who live across the street do not know we are here.  It is about asking whether or not we recognize the people across the street are there?  It is about risking everything to not go unnoticed for the sake of Christ and letting our neighbors know that they do not go unnoticed by Jesus or us. 

Today, all of us can celebrate with all the angels in heaven that this one has received Christ!  And we can thank our young brothers and sisters for reminding us to take Jesus across the street! 

So, what street is Jesus asking you and me to cross for his sake this week? 

I Like Easy

My wife, Kimberly actually enjoys running.  I don't get that.  I remember reading, that a good, long belly laugh does for your body want a short run would do.  So, I prefer to sit inside the house, open the blinds and laugh my head off at those crazy runners like Kimberly and Joe Tarintino :-)

I just don't get it.  How can they find pleasure in something that I find so difficult.  I mean, I can walk every day and enjoy it, but pick up the pace to a run and...well...no thank you...You see, when it comes to exercise I prefer to keep it easy and enjoyable.  Yes, there, I said it, I have a preference for the easy.  Can I get an "AMEN"?!

I remember when I was a little boy when my Dad was teaching me to ride my bike. I thought I had it down pat and so I wanted to show my grandparents my new skill.  I don't know what happened but suddenly I could not stay upright. I got frustrated.  I wanted to give up.  But my Dad took me aside, got down on his knees, looked me in my eye and said, "Chad, just because it isn't easy, you can't quit. I fell lots of times when I was learning to ride.  You can do this." 

Did you know where my Dad got those words of challenging encouragement?  I don't know if my Dad even knew it or not, but they come straight from Scripture.  1 Peter 4:12, "Do not be surprised at the painful trials you are suffering as though something strange is happening to you."

That's it!  Isn't it?  Truth be known, may be the reason we like it easy is because we are tempted to think it strange when things are not.  When trials and suffering come our way, aren't we all tempted to think, "What is going on?  Why is this happening?  Have I done something wrong and God is trying to get my attention?  How come life has to be so hard?"

Peter, who you might recall was crucified upside down on a cross for his faith in Christ, reminds us what is strange is not that this life is not easy, but it is strange that we would think it will be or ought to be.  Peter is calling us to REFOCUS!   He is saying let your eyes adjust so you can see again that we live in a world full of darkness.  And we, as the Light bearers, chase darkness away and so don't be surprised when the darkness fights back.  In other words, if your life is smooth sailing and easy all the time, then perhaps that is the time to raise questions and think it strange.

That not only applies to us as individuals, but to us as a church family.  The adventure God has called us to follow Him in is not going to be easy.  The enemy wants every church, including ours, to look back rather than look forward; to maintain status-quo; to try to keep everybody feeling happy and comfortable and/or to keep us focused an eternally unimportant issues because he does not want our LIGHT to reveal the lies he hides in the darkness. 

But thanks be to God, Canton First Church is full of bold people who have determined to assume the risk and follow God into a new territory.  Will it be easy? No! Will it be comfortable? No! Will it require sacrifice of personal preferences? Yes!  Is any of that a surprise to us?  Now way!  As Peter says, "Do not be surprised..."

Rather, Canton First family, I invite you to join with me in REJOICING!  Peter goes on to say in verse 13, "But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed."  Yes, I am rejoicing because a refocus allows us not only to not be surprised by trials, but it allows us even now to begin anticipating the glory God is just waiting to reveal!  Praise God for permission to rejoice even when it is not easy!

Straight Ahead

A few years ago a friend challenged me to prayerfully seek a word or phrase from Scripture that would serve as my guide for the year.  This year I have embraced the phrase, “Straight ahead.”  The phrase is found is in Proverbs 4:23-27, “Above all else guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life. Put away perversity from your mouth; keep corrupt talk far from your lips. Let your eyes look STRAIGHT AHEAD, fix your gaze directly before you.  Consider the paths for your feet and take only ways that are firm.  Do not swerve to the right or left; keep your foot from evil.” 

Whether we are asking God to refocus us as a church or as an individual, the truth of the Proverb holds true: The moment we turn our head; the moment we allow ourselves to get distracted by the peripheral, we lose focus on what matters most.  By God’s grace, I am making myself dependent on the Spirit to keep my eyes fixed straight ahead.  It is also my prayer that we as a church family will keep our eyes fixed straight ahead.  It has been said that often the important is sacrificed by the urgent.  That is just as true for the Church.  Will we give our time, energy and resources to what is urgent but ultimately unimportant or will we keep our eyes fixed straight ahead on what truly matters now and forever?

Of course, the question is what ought we keep our eyes fixed straight ahead on?  I took that question to my Scripture meditation in Mark 5. It gives the account of Jairus’ daughter.  She was dying.  They called for Jesus, but on his way a woman who had been bleeding for years touched Jesus causing him to stop and ask, “Who touched me?”  During the course of that conversation and healing, Jairus’ daughter died. 

Have you ever felt like God showed up too late?  I’ll be honest, I have been there a time or two in life.  You pray for God to show up and while you are praying it comes to be too late...or so we think.

 

The people told Jairus to send Jesus away because the girl was dead.  They assumed Jesus could only work where there was life, but they did not know Jesus is a master at overcoming death.  Jesus totally ignored the disbelief of the others and went to the child.  Jesus stepped into that death, looked at the heartbroken father and said, "Don't be afraid, just believe!" 

 

That's what it takes to keep our eyes fixed straight ahead, isn't it?  We can either look to the right or left and see the death around us and be overcome by fear and disbelief OR we can have Jesus refocus our eyes straight ahead by his truth, "Don't be afraid, just believe."

 

What has you as an individual tempted to look to the right or left?  Is there anything causing you to stop looking straight ahead?  Does fear and disbelief seem to be all-to-easy?  Listen, Jesus, is calling out to you and me, "Don't be afraid, just believe!" 

 

What about us as a church family?  Does anything have us looking around on something that will not amount to any more than death?  Is there any way we have settled for the urgent at the expense of the eternally important?  A world is dying in sin, pain and lies all around us.  Will we say, "Send Jesus away, there is no hope"? Or will we stand up together and be the Hope of Christ to our world!  We will say through our words and actions, "Don't be afraid, just believe!"  If we long to hear that, don't you think our world does as well? 

 

No, Canton First, we cannot and must not do anything less than keep our eyes fixed straight ahead.  Thank you for your courage and faith to vote for a refocus process so we can more fully do just that.  I believe God has great things straight ahead!