What’s that saying, “the calm before the storm?”  In Matthew 16: 1-4,  Jesus talks about how some of the people could judge the change coming in weather by reading the sky, yet they could not judge or interpret the change coming to the world by the signs of the times.

Yesterday was a somewhat nice January day.  In the fifties, slight wind, but not so bad.  As most of us, I had heard of the frigid cold front coming out of the arctic from the local and national forecasters.  So I was outside winterizing some of the pipes when I noticed a growing cloud formation coming our way.  Mark Green was walking by and mentioned the thick blue mass moving across the sky and so did Tracie.  We all could see or read the sky and know something was going to happen.  Yet, even with some kind of apparent front moving in our direction I could not tell what we were in store for in the next few days.  I was depending on the warning from the forecasters.  I joke about the weathermen/women, but without their warning a lot of people could have been stuck out in this dangerous arctic freeze unprepared.

Change can be good, change can be bad, but oddly enough change is humanities most dependable constant; be it to people or the planet.  The Roman poet and philosopher Lucretius understood the permanent differences change can make in nature including humanity.  He wrote, “For whenever a thing changes and quits its proper limits, at once this change of state is the death of that which was before.”  Not bad for a pagan!  In the 12th book of John, verses 24-25, Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.  Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life.”  Woo!  As we use to say back in the day, “that’s some heavy stuff dude!”  The often ignored truth of the Gospel and all scripture is that God knows things are changing and wants, desires our change to be for good, not evil, towards God, not more self indulgence.  Yet it’s amazing how we insist on living as if everything, including ourselves will stay the same. Christianity doesn’t ask for a permanent change within us, it demands we desire to move toward God.  The good life we are all striving for also demands our change.  True peace, joy and inner strength come from our relationship with our Lord.

So how about a reality check?  It’s after New Years and most of us have been thinking about what we want to do to improve ourselves this year.  We’ve already seen all the ads for gym membership and diet programs.  We’ve heard our friends; acquaintance and even our self-talk about how this year there will be change.  All this change is of course to make our life better.  The truth is at the end of the year we will still be our self, possible with a few outside or cosmetic changes, a little more or less money, but the same person never the less.  Thus the same problems, maybe in different forms, will still be with us.  Our life appears different but deep down it’s the same.  The only true change I’ve witnessed or experienced is that which the person allowed to happen.  The one initiated and pursued by God.   It is the invitation to accept core change and put Christ, the Lord, the Creator, into the center of our life and not in some dusty room of our soul.  Want change, let change, live change, otherwise we should quit complaining because we have what we have created, for better or worse.

May the peace of Christ be with you always,

Pastor Rick

Contemplation and reflection have always been avenues for human advancement and development.  Albert Einstein, the icon for modern humanities mental advancement in modern history, is said to have patiently waited at a bridge for a friend who was running late.  When the man arrived he began to apologize for keeping the great physicist and professor late; yet Dr. Einstein insisted it was alright for he could think leaning on the wall of the bridge as well as at his office.  Albert Einstein understood the power of quiet contemplation.  When Jesus decided to choose the twelve disciples he went off by himself to pray and reflect on the decision with the Father.  The Lord communed with the complete Holy Trinity for life changing, actually world changing decisions.  We might say well Albert was a remarkable genius and Jesus is the incarnation of the God Head, how can you compare them to the rest of us?  This of course is true but that is the point.  One of the greatest created minds understood the power of contemplative reflection, thus we should consider the possibilities for ourselves.  The other is Divine and understands the creation as only a designer could.  He demonstrated the need to take our life issues to God in quiet contemplation and worship.

As we reflect on the past year and consider the changes and opportunities the new year brings let us involve the power of the Holy Spirit of God.  Together we can share the start of the New Year with prayer song and word, while each contemplating his/her own year to come.  We will have a service of worship and contemplation for the year to come this New Year Eve.  It will begin at 6:00 pm.  There should be plenty of time to make other New Years engagements.  However, none will provide the opportunity to positively affect your coming year like this service with God and friends.  I look forward to seeing you at the service.  Have a safe New Year!

Sunday morning our church will participate in a Community Service with all the churches in Archer City.  We will have our normal Sunday School classes and begin our communion service at 10:30 a.m.  in our sanctuary. We will then go to the First Baptist at 11:00 a.m. for a special community worship service with all the churches in Archer City. Our guest preacher is Craig Nedrow, an evangelist from McKinney, Texas, who has felt called to deliver a particular message to God’s people: STAND UP 4 JESUS!   A meal will be served in the Family Life Center at the Baptist Church following the service.

May the Grace and Peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you!

Pastor Rick

October 21, 2009

So why you gotta do the things ya do?

“He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Micah 6:8

We can call ourselves what we want and worship how we want but the character of God is love and the greatest gift of the Spirit is love, so how does anger, arrogance and injustice fit true belief or faith?

I’ve got a pretty good imagination but I can’t seem to put the two traits together.  That is I can’t make the character of love produce anger, arrogance and any application or acceptance of injustice.  Anger robs us of our love for others and blinds us to Christ’s love for us.  Arrogance, particularly religious self-righteousness leaves no room for grace.  Instead it must muscle its’ way into heaven of its’ own accord trampling the souls of others on the way; once again I can’t make this fit with love or any of the teachings of the Gospel. 

Injustice, truly an ungodly act from Genesis to Revelations is everybody’s concern.  Next to worshiping false gods, I don’t think anything got the ancient Israelites into trouble more than the miscarriage of justice.  It was never just a personal problem for them and it’s not for us today.  Justice is a community responsibility by its very nature and according to God’s actions as recorded in scripture, the Lord also saw, and sees it to be a matter of community goodness or guilt.

So why do we do the things we do?

This is a question that has been plaguing humanity from the beginning.  John Wesley pinned a lot of our problem on “Original Sin.”  Let’s see if we can’t work this one out and think on how to avoid the personal and social calamities it brings as we consider our situation this Sunday.  Its’ a big order but I think we can take a bite out of it!

Sermon on Original Sin

A Cause For Pause…

Salvation, like life it is a journey. It is fast and it is slow, with often our greatest gains during our deepest sorrows as we wait for God who so often seems slow to respond. Yet it is in this seemingly quite period that God’s grace is often already at work in our lives. In the darkness we are drawn toward the light of Christ and grow stronger in our faith as we maintain our hope in God. “Those who wait for the lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31

Unfortunately, so many Christians take only half of the journey, then quit. This seems to wrap up most of humanities view of living with God. We live with little thought of a renewed relationship with our Creator. We are willing to take the refreshing drink of life from the Lord so long as it doesn’t interfere with our living arrangements, so long as it does not cost too much. No job, no corporation, would take such a half hearted effort as the one most Christians give our Lord. It would be like showing up only on pay day for a week’s wage, time after time.

Salvation is a long and beautiful journey with pain and joy interwoven to make our own distinct pattern; a quilt of our life with God and Creation. To think we should only give the Creator one moment of life as we confess with our mouth our devotion to the Lord misses most of the grace of God that has been offered. Can we imagine the life God has in store for us? Only if our eyes are open and the desire of our heart is in tune with the Holy Spirit of God. We must read, we must pray, we must journey to grow and prosper in the greatest of all relationships. How unfortunate to live a life with God on our lips but not on our heart. How unfortunate to stumble through the shadows of existence avoiding the light of Christ because we fear we may lose control or be changed. The writer Henry James once wrote “It’s time to start living the life you’ve imagined.” It is time to start living the greater and deeper life God has offered.

God Bless You

Pastor Rick

A Cause For Pause

Salvation is not one stop shopping or an insurance policy for the soul taken out with a few mumbles and promises.  Salvation is a movement within our lives which brings us closer to God till we recognize our dysfunction within the divine community of the Lord.  A time when we not only know we must change but most desire a difference in the conduct and production of our lives.  We leave behind the dead existence of our social dictated life and begin to realize our created purpose, thus our deepest fulfillment is found in “…our way of life,” designed by God and expressed in Jesus the Christ.  Ephesians 2:10

The movement, like a perpetual wind never stops disturbing or bringing peace to our soul as we grow closer to God in Heart, Mind and Body.  Read Ephesians 2:1-10 and feel the rhythm and movement as Paul takes us through the grace of God before we understood our need of a repaired relationship with our Lord, the moment or moments that brought us faith and the actions which will give us the living salvation today, tomorrow and for ever more.

May your day be filled with God’s Grace and Peace which proceeds from the Holy Spirit.

Pastor Rick 08/18/09