New Year’s Day is a time for changes. Even the ancient Romans recognized this, for they named January after their god Janus, who was the two-headed god of doorways, looking forward and backwards. Of course this meant he must have had a difficult time putting on his makeup...
Clearly I don’t believe in Janus, but I do recognize that New Year’s Day is a time for looking backwards and looking forwards.
It’s been a rough year. I wouldn’t call the last year a particularly Christian year, with all the terrible things that have been said on Facebook this year because people who used to be friends disagreed over who the President should be. It has been a year where many fine people have transferred to the Church of Heaven, and a year when many other people experienced an encounter with their final judge.
Looking forward, I have hope that things will improve, for in these churches we have seen tremendous growth in the depth, knowledge, and commitment to God among the people of these churches. Last Sunday, Christmas Day, Monroe Chapel had two baptisms and an incoming transfer. So I have hope in our future, particularly when we look forward to the sight one day of the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem coming down to earth, dressed as a bride for her bridegroom. Imagine the sight!
Monday evening, Saundra had a call at Ruby hospital to make, so I went along with her. We made the call and then stopped at Hobby Lobby because Saundra just loves that store with all the crafty items. When we left, the sun was just setting and a beautiful golden light reflected off the clouds in the west, lighting up the sky. I won’t call it yellow – it was golden on a background of a beautiful blue that can only be described as cerulean, which is actually a color you can look up on the Internet. I know this because Saundra told me.
As we watched, the oranges and reds and pinks began, along with a lavender purple around the edges. Yet always, glowing there in the middle was that golden glow, like God had melted down some heavenly pavement and poured it onto the clouds. It was quite a sight there, that evening after Christmas Day, a reminder of what God has in store for us one day, just as was written in Revelation.
And it reminds me of a story of a man who made some changes and had a new beginning one day. ..
Once upon a time, a few years ago, there was a man who had grown up in a small West Virginia town and moved to a larger southern city. He was lonely, very lonely, but the reason he was lonely was because he kept to himself and, if the truth be known, he was just a bit of a perfectionist in his choice of friends – including girlfriends. He wasn’t married, wasn’t even dating right now because he had high standards – the girl he married would be perfect! So he went to work and he drove home each evening and spent the evenings watching television alone wondering who would be the last survivor on the island.
But he had grown up in the church and so when he moved to this large city, he went to visit a church one Sunday morning. The worship leader greeted everyone, a prayer was made, some hymns were sung, and the choir sang. The visitor noticed that there were some voices in the choir that were on the wrong notes, so after the service, he decided, “I want good singing in my church, so I’ll go find a different church.”
The next church he went to had a contemporary service with a really good praise band with professional quality singers. As he listened to the praise band play, he grew bored when the second song repeated the chorus about seven times. So after the service, he decided, “I hate boring songs, so I’ll go find a different church.”
Over the next few months, the man visited a dozen or more churches. But the temperature at the church was too cold or too hot, the pastor was too intellectual or not deep enough with his sermons, the people were too aggressively friendly or they were too distant, the church seemed too liberal or too fundamentalist, the people who attended were too rich and snooty or too poor for him to associate with, or the church was too big to make friends or too small to stay anonymous in. He just couldn’t seem to find the right church in that town of 2 million people.
It was about this time that he ran into a neighbor in his apartment building. And that was when things changed.
The neighbor woman was devoted to God. She was in her seventies and had some health issues, but she had decided long ago that as long as her mind and her mouth could operate (and they both operated quite well!) she could work for God and spread the Gospel. But, she also knew that she could use some help spreading the Gospel to the people in the apartment complex. So when she saw this sad man driving out every Sunday morning at 9 am and coming home around 1 pm, she recognized that this man was going to church somewhere. So Emma planned things carefully, watching and figuring out when he came home from work, and one day, she prepared a bit of extra food.
She met him with her cane carefully carrying her laundry basket up the steps from the laundry room as he came home from work. She was indeed out of breath, so what she said wasn’t really a lie, “Young man, I’m having trouble getting my laundry up the stairs today. Could you help me?”
The man, having been raised in church, couldn’t refuse an old woman. So he put his toolbox carefully on the box of detergent in the laundry basket and carried them both up two flights of stairs to her apartment.
As they neared her door, she said, “Hi, I’m Emma. What’s your name?”
The man introduced himself as Bob as Emma opened the door and the wonderful aroma of fried chicken filled the hallway. Emma then asked, rather boldly, “Bob, you’re a nice guy. Where do you go to church?”
It’s been a rough year. I wouldn’t call the last year a particularly Christian year, with all the terrible things that have been said on Facebook this year because people who used to be friends disagreed over who the President should be. It has been a year where many fine people have transferred to the Church of Heaven, and a year when many other people experienced an encounter with their final judge.
Looking forward, I have hope that things will improve, for in these churches we have seen tremendous growth in the depth, knowledge, and commitment to God among the people of these churches. Last Sunday, Christmas Day, Monroe Chapel had two baptisms and an incoming transfer. So I have hope in our future, particularly when we look forward to the sight one day of the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem coming down to earth, dressed as a bride for her bridegroom. Imagine the sight!
Monday evening, Saundra had a call at Ruby hospital to make, so I went along with her. We made the call and then stopped at Hobby Lobby because Saundra just loves that store with all the crafty items. When we left, the sun was just setting and a beautiful golden light reflected off the clouds in the west, lighting up the sky. I won’t call it yellow – it was golden on a background of a beautiful blue that can only be described as cerulean, which is actually a color you can look up on the Internet. I know this because Saundra told me.
As we watched, the oranges and reds and pinks began, along with a lavender purple around the edges. Yet always, glowing there in the middle was that golden glow, like God had melted down some heavenly pavement and poured it onto the clouds. It was quite a sight there, that evening after Christmas Day, a reminder of what God has in store for us one day, just as was written in Revelation.
And it reminds me of a story of a man who made some changes and had a new beginning one day. ..
Once upon a time, a few years ago, there was a man who had grown up in a small West Virginia town and moved to a larger southern city. He was lonely, very lonely, but the reason he was lonely was because he kept to himself and, if the truth be known, he was just a bit of a perfectionist in his choice of friends – including girlfriends. He wasn’t married, wasn’t even dating right now because he had high standards – the girl he married would be perfect! So he went to work and he drove home each evening and spent the evenings watching television alone wondering who would be the last survivor on the island.
But he had grown up in the church and so when he moved to this large city, he went to visit a church one Sunday morning. The worship leader greeted everyone, a prayer was made, some hymns were sung, and the choir sang. The visitor noticed that there were some voices in the choir that were on the wrong notes, so after the service, he decided, “I want good singing in my church, so I’ll go find a different church.”
The next church he went to had a contemporary service with a really good praise band with professional quality singers. As he listened to the praise band play, he grew bored when the second song repeated the chorus about seven times. So after the service, he decided, “I hate boring songs, so I’ll go find a different church.”
Over the next few months, the man visited a dozen or more churches. But the temperature at the church was too cold or too hot, the pastor was too intellectual or not deep enough with his sermons, the people were too aggressively friendly or they were too distant, the church seemed too liberal or too fundamentalist, the people who attended were too rich and snooty or too poor for him to associate with, or the church was too big to make friends or too small to stay anonymous in. He just couldn’t seem to find the right church in that town of 2 million people.
It was about this time that he ran into a neighbor in his apartment building. And that was when things changed.
The neighbor woman was devoted to God. She was in her seventies and had some health issues, but she had decided long ago that as long as her mind and her mouth could operate (and they both operated quite well!) she could work for God and spread the Gospel. But, she also knew that she could use some help spreading the Gospel to the people in the apartment complex. So when she saw this sad man driving out every Sunday morning at 9 am and coming home around 1 pm, she recognized that this man was going to church somewhere. So Emma planned things carefully, watching and figuring out when he came home from work, and one day, she prepared a bit of extra food.
She met him with her cane carefully carrying her laundry basket up the steps from the laundry room as he came home from work. She was indeed out of breath, so what she said wasn’t really a lie, “Young man, I’m having trouble getting my laundry up the stairs today. Could you help me?”
The man, having been raised in church, couldn’t refuse an old woman. So he put his toolbox carefully on the box of detergent in the laundry basket and carried them both up two flights of stairs to her apartment.
As they neared her door, she said, “Hi, I’m Emma. What’s your name?”
The man introduced himself as Bob as Emma opened the door and the wonderful aroma of fried chicken filled the hallway. Emma then asked, rather boldly, “Bob, you’re a nice guy. Where do you go to church?”
She had found that question was a great way to lead to a discussion of the Gospel.
Bob stammered a bit about his difficulty in finding the right church. Emma invited him in for some fried chicken and mashed potatoes, which she just “happened” to have extra of that evening. After the usual excuses, which Emma did not let him get away with, Bob had dinner with her, because, after all, he was lonely and that fried chicken smelled wonderful!
As they talked, the story of Bob’s search for the perfect church came out. And Bob told Emma much of his life’s story. Eventually, she told him, as a woman who had raised three children can, that his problem was not the in the churches he had found, but in his ideas about what the purpose of church was.
“But I thought the purpose of church was to learn lessons about God and how to live a godly life.”
“Young man, that’s only part of the truth. You already know that Jesus died on the cross to pay for your sins, don’t you?”
“Yes, of course.”
“Are you baptized?” Emma liked to make sure all her acquaintances had crossed their "t's" and dotted their "i's" with God.
“Yes. I was baptized when I was young and then confirmed.”
“Then Bob, you have apparently missed a key part of the Gospel message, because you sound like all you’ve ever done in church is sit there listening to choirs sing and pastors preach!”
“Isn’t that what church is all about?”
“It may be that way where you come from, Bob, but it isn’t that way here.”
“Why? What do you mean?” Bob wanted to understand better.
“If you really understand what Christ has done for you – rescued your eternal soul from hell fire and damnation – you’d show a bit more attitude of gratitude. When you understand that God gave you a free ticket to New Jerusalem, you’d start to look outside and see other people who don't have that ticket. Tell me, Bob, are you a sheep or are you a goat?”
“A sheep or a goat? What are you talking about?”
“In Matthew 25, Jesus is talking to his disciples – the men who are already following Him. Notice that these guys already are part of his flock! He talks about how at the end of God will separate people into sheep and into goats. Sheep stick together in flocks, they help each other, they work together. Goats go off by themselves, leaving each other alone.
“Jesus says that the way God will tell whether you are a sheep or a goat is whether or not each person did something for other people. Jesus takes it really personally whether or not we treat each other like the images of God, the special, unique valuable portraits of God that we each are. Jesus even says that when we give someone food, we are giving food to Him, when we give someone a drink, we are giving water to Him, when we invite in strangers, we are inviting Jesus in, when we give someone clothes, we are giving Him clothes, when we nurse sick people, we are nursing Jesus, when we visit someone in prison, we are visiting Jesus. Those who do these things are sheep and will inherit a place in New Jerusalem.
“But when we don’t do these things, we are goats, off by ourselves, ignoring Jesus. And He’ll send the goats to eternal punishment," Emma paused for breath.
“Bob, a church is not Sunday morning entertainment. It is a group of people who are changing the world and helping people avoid hell fire. If all you are doing is sitting on a pew, all you are doing is warming the air in the sanctuary, and they already have a furnace for that!”
Bob thought a moment and he felt offended and upset. He fired back at Emma, “But what do you do? You don’t go to the church often during the week. At least, I haven’t seen you go there. You're here almost every night!”
“No, I don’t go, Bob. I once was just like you, though. I thought that the work of the church was pretty limited. You’ve got the preacher, the worship leader, the choir director, some choir member, the organist, the praise band members, the ushers, a custodian, some Sunday School teachers.
“My health issues mean I’m able to go to Sunday services, but I’m not much for dancing around and singing in the choir with this cane, and otherwise I’m pretty limited in how much I can get out. But once a month, a friend of mine takes me to another woman’s home – Betty has a nice home and she likes to entertain – and I teach an hour long Bible study to the women who are there. It’s actually very simple – they think I’m such a great teacher! All I do is read a chapter from a book in the New Testament and ask everyone what they think about the chapter and get them to discuss it. Oh, I plan ahead and have three or four points I want to make about the chapter, three or four questions to ask to get discussions going.”
She lowered her voice, almost whispering as she leaned forward, “When I’m stuck, I go onto the Internet and look for what other people have written about the chapter.” She straightened back up. “Bob, Betty and I started with just us and two other women. Now two dozen women come every month. And after the lesson, we make items that the food pantry gives to people in need. That's how I change the world!”
“But that’s not in the church!” Bob was confused.
“So-o-o-o what?” Emma replied. “We pray, we read scripture, we discuss it, we pray again. God is glorified, Christ is glorified, people become more godly, and the world is changed for the better.
“In our church, there are some men who repair 20-year-old junker cars so they’ll run and the Salvation Army gives them to people who need a car for work. Another group of people collect old crutches, wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, C-Paps, and similar medical equipment to give to other people who need them.”
Emma stood up to clear the dishes, leaning on her cane. “There’s even two men who are really old who drive a shuttle car from downtown to the telemarketing center so some young people can get to work. They don’t charge a dime for the first three months, then a dollar a day after that. “
“Bob, you know that Ecclesiastes says that there is a time for every purpose under heaven. So stop searching for the perfect church and start making a church better. Your time has come to start showing that you want to be a sheep and not a goat. ”
And you know, Bob only visited one more church – Emma’s church. He wasn’t too comfortable with all the “amen’s” during the service at first, but he grew to like it so much he was married in that church to one of the women he led to Christ. That happened when his puppet ministry performed at the home for unwed mothers just two years later. And he was never lonely or sad again, for he was too busy leading children and their parents to Christ with those puppets.
And he learned to ask each of his Christian friends...."Are you a sheep, or are you a goat?" What about you?
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