Hope Shared

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

How we thank God for you!  Because of you we have great joy as we enter God’s presence.  Night and day we pray earnestly for you, asking God to let us see you again to fill the gaps in your faith.  May God our Father and our Lord Jesus bring us to you very soon.  And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows.  

1 Thessalonians 3:9-12

Sharing our great hope in Jesus Christ with others is the main thrust of what we commonly call The Great Commission.  This was the job description Jesus gave to his followers on the day he ascended back to his Father in Heaven:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”  Matthew 28:18-20

The “work” is really a privilege and joy.  In his letter to the Thessalonian believers Paul outlined that work in four “pillars” that hold our witness together:

Rejoicing

Apostle Paul said he thanked God for his relationship with the church at Thessalonica, and his joy was great because of their faith growing stronger. 

When the genuine joy of knowing Christ courses through your veins, sharing that blessed hope of Christ does not have to be manufactured with a memorized speech, or pamphlets; it speaks volumes of winsomeness.

Praying

Paul’s prayer life was night and day for the presence of God to grow strong in those with whom he had shared God’s love.  When you’ve taken the bold and vulnerable step of sharing the love of Christ with others, they will not slip from your mind.  You are vested in what God will do with them in His kingdom.

Hanging-out

Because of the interest in filling-in the gaps of faith many new believers might experience, you want to be with them to nurture faith at whatever point they are challenged.  Hanging-out with believers increases faith; growing joy is the wonderful result of that fellowship.

Blessing

Paul wasn’t reproducing “Paul” in these people; he was seeing the mystery of Christ in you, the hope of glory[1] manifested in those who had accepted Christ by faith, and were living under His Lordship.  His fatherly blessing was an act of love and prophetic hope…he was passing-along the faith once delivered to the saints[2].

For You Today 

Throughout my life many saints have poured-in strength and help as I’ve lived and grown.  Jesus said:  to whom much is given, much will be required.[3]  This speaks of our responsibility to pass along the joy with our prayers, presence, and always being a blessing – never an adversary – to those who need to know Christ.

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO

There are about 2,600 devotional posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road library.

Today’s title Image from Pixabay.com  

Images without citation are in public domain or cited via weblinks.  

Unless noted, Scripture quoted from NLT^©  

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[1] Colossians 1:27

[2] Jude 1:3

[3] Luke 12:48

Diverse and Dying

 ^[1]

Watch the VIDEO here

A United Methodist Church news article yesterday[2] announced that for the past 40 years the denomination has kept one tradition unbroken; namely we have fewer members this year than last.  For the whole span of the existence of this denomination, each year we have become a little older, smaller and closer to the brink of extinction…every single year!

But…according to the report there is good news – we are more diverse now than before.  If I read that correctly, it’s good news that we’ve learned to play together, red and yellow, black and white, but as a group we are dying.

Uh….how is that good news? 

It seems that finding we are a little more diverse so we are a little more like the racial and ethnic mix of our culture, and celebrating it as a win, while the total number of disciples is evaporating before our eyes, is a little like the last gasp of the Titanic. 

In Titanic (the movie), the ship is breaking apart and the string ensemble gathers on the deck playing Nearer My God to Thee while people are leaping into the freezing waters to die.  When we publish the new hymnal we ought to include #666 “Nearer My Diversity Celebration Dance to Oblivion – Clap Your Dead Hands, Trees of the Field”!

Perhaps we have forgotten that there is little in Scripture that instructs us to monitor the diversity of our group. 

In fact, I seem to recall Scripture explicitly tells us to ignore our diversity altogether:

There is no longer Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male and female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.  Galatians 3:28^(NLT)

What Jesus actually instructed the first disciples to do was look outward from their little group – not inward, and be about the business of carrying genuine Good News to whomever they encountered.  And by instructing them, he was giving us our marching orders as well; those orders are commonly called, The Great Commission:

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20^(NLT)

Wrangling in General Conference, Annual Conference, Districts or Facebook, about diversity of race, ethnicity, gender-issues or sexuality may be interesting and call for a thousand-and-one committees and splinter caucuses…but it hardly keeps pace with a forty year loss of 6 million members, while the U.S. population has increased by 123 million. 

I’d say we’ve been straightening the pictures on the living room wall while the house is burning down around us.

That’s not following Jesus; it’s not making disciples…and it’s not even in the same universe with transforming the world.

What it IS….is irrelevance of the highest degree…and if we don’t change, it will simply be reduced to a three letter word:  sin.

For You Today

When you encounter someone who wants to argue about diversity, remember what Will Rogers said about wrestling with a pig – don’t do it; you’ll both get dirty…and the pig loves it!

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[1] Title image: Philip Kanellopoulos, via Wikimedia Commons

[2] Amid declines, diversity grows in U.S. church

Baptism Lessons a Preacher Learns - Part FOUR

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

“Oh, Preacher; Oh my…I just don’t know.”

Thus began the conversation between myself and the dear lady who had belonged to the church going on four hundred years.  It seems I have a habit of provoking such conversations; it’s either the way I part my hair or where and when I was born.

July was my first month in that church, and VBS was planned for the first week of August.  I took time to acquaint myself with the mobile home park across the street from the church.  Many of the children responded to attend, and they descended on the facilities like a swarm of Cool Aid-thirsty locusts from 6:30-8pm each night.  We fed them cookies and sugar-sweet red punch; talk about poking the ADHD button!  They bounced off the walls and had a blast!

At the end of the week some 14 children made a profession of faith.  True to that church’s tradition, we scheduled a lengthy baptism service for Sunday morning. 

One by one the children marched down the steps into the baptistery.  In dry and wide-eyed; out wet and smiling – this was a happy day when Jesus washed the sins away!

And then…the conversation!

“What don’t you know about, Mable?”

“Preacher…I just don’t know.”

I assumed Mable was having a senior moment and could not keep a train of thought going.  (In retrospect, I wish it had been that).

“Are you alright?”

“Preacher, (she gained traction), we just have never….I mean, NEVER had any (whispered with eyes darting, Mable started to spell),  B – L – A – C – K people in our baptistery.  NEVER!  Oh, Preacher…what ARE we going to do?  We’ve NEVER!

When I stopped choking I finally answered, Well, Mrs. Mable, I don’t know what you’re going to do, but I’m going to go eat some cake in the Fellowship Hall with all those children we just baptized.

(That’s when her jaw REALLY dropped)! 

OH, my STARS, Preacher…the Fellowship Hall too?

Hindsight is Always Better

As I look back on that day, I realize my sarcastic nature had kicked-in and I probably missed a very teachable moment with the dear lady. 

I’m not certain she would have taken kindly to my thoughts on “inter-racial sharing of the baptism pool” – but I didn’t even try.  And for the next six years we butted heads regularly.

I guess some baptism memories and lessons aren’t as funny as others.

For You, Today…

To what do you hold firmly?

And, if the Lord said, I want that for my Kingdom…would you let it go?

Baptism Lessons a Preacher Learns - Part THREE

Monday, October 13, 2014

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

The combination of baptismal pools and electrical voltage may indeed have played a part in my becoming a Methodist who sprinkles; the thought of standing in water surrounded by electrical things still makes me shudder!

I had the privilege of baptizing our youngest, Carrie, in the mid-80’s.  All her little friends from church were “up-close-and- personal” for the event.  But it was the back-lit cross on the wall behind us that nearly claimed the day. 

A volunteer had made the cross and attached a fluorescent light to its back side.  Then our volunteer (sans electrical contractor’s license) hung it in the baptistery…he hung it badly. 

In order to make sure the cross could be taken down easily for cleaning he had put just a single screw at the top of the cross and drilled a hole in the wall behind to dangle it on the wall (somewhat vertically-straight).  And come-down-easily it could!

We baptized often in that church; and almost every time I managed to brush against the cross, either entering, leaving, or in the act of baptizing.  The cross on a screw was like a pendulum on a clock.  Brush it to the left and it swung easily, while the light made all kinds of neat shadows and light strobes on the baptistery walls.

I always imagined that if that cross plunged into the water and electrocuted me the Gainesville Sun’s article headline would read,

Electrifying Baptism Held at Parker Road Baptist Church;

Preacher Lit Up for Jesus

Now, if the lighted cross wasn’t bad enough, asking the preacher to wear a lapel microphone with a wire plugged into who knows how many millions of watts, volts and other unknown disasters….well, that one grabbed center stage too.

In that tiny baptistery, water displacement dynamics were strange.  The new Christian, Dennis, who came into the pool that day, was 6’3” and weighed about 320; that was before you added-in the wet robe.  But even a big guy like that had to have a push from the preacher to get all the way under the water. 

Pushing Dennis down was easy; getting him, and the 60-ton wet robe he was wearing, back on his feet were not!  I had to swing way to the left to get my leg underneath to support the new saint; while I swayed, the cross swung.  As I moved upward to lift the brother, the cross released and swung true to its nature…back and forth, back and forth!  But the hole in the wall held the cross; tragedy #1 averted!

The microphone wasn’t so cooperative.  As my new church member reached upward to grab anything he could to help me lift him, he chose my lapel.  As his grasp began to strangle me, I reached out for anything to keep me from joining him under the water.  Somehow the lapel microphone was sprung loose from the clip holding it to my robe…it flew up in the air, pirouetted and did an Olympic 7.8 entry into the water.

Collectively the congregation gasped at an electric wire hitting the open water with a new convert and a mortified, helpless parson.  You could have heard a pin drop for 10 miles.  And the only thing I remember thinking at that moment was Debbie Boone’s song chorusing through my head …and you…you light up my life……

Postscript:  Even if the wires sizzled…it was low voltage…it simply would have added a little “zip” to our step; no harm, no foul.

Incidents like that are legion in ministry.  A minister’s lesson learned is that we should do whatever we can to make sure events go smoothly – not because we’re professional, but because the grace of our Lord is bigger news than electrical mis-engineering.

For You, Today…

Did something go wrong at your baptism? 

Forget that – remember what went right; Jesus was there…and he’s still with you.  

Baptism Lessons a Preacher Learns - Part TWO

Friday, October 10, 2014

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Other than a one year “student pastorate” McIntosh Baptist was my first “full time” church.  McIntosh is a sleepy little incorporated town in Northern Central Florida near Gainesville.  They have “hello” and “goodbye” on the same sign…don’t blink or you’ll miss it. 

Don’t ask me why, but I never questioned the fact that the baptism pool was not in sight.  I guess I assumed you had to go down to the river if you wanted to baptize somebody.

Not so!

The pool was there…in fact I stood on it while I preached every Sunday.  Located just behind the pulpit, in the floor below, it was swimming-pool sized, about 6’ x 12’ and took most of a day to heat the water with a submersible heater.  It took four adult men to lift the heavy oak floor covering off that pool, one section at a time.  This, I found out, took planning.  It was a process; you had to really want to baptize somebody!

When I’d been at the church for a few months we started having a few people make a profession of faith.  The Deacon Chairman told me, Let’s wait on baptism until we have a few more.  It didn’t take long, and we had 8 to baptize one Sunday morning.

The Chairman encouraged me to baptize in the afternoon apart from the worship service.  I objected, eager to include the entire congregation of 35 people in celebrating the new members; I wanted to have the event right at the beginning of worship. 

Something I hadn’t counted on (I am easily blind-sided) was the pulpit being moved out so the congregation can see what‘s going on.

When I walked in the Chairman said, well, where you goin’ to stand to preach after you baptize ‘em?  I stammered…well…I…guess I’ll…..figure out something.

The baptisms went well…down into the pool from the left…buried with Christ, risen with Christ… up and out on the right.  One through eight; just like clockwork!

Then, after number eight, it was time to hurry to the men’s room to shed the wet robe and waders, dry the arms (in the short-sleeved shirt I’d learned to wear for baptism), and rush back to the service as they were finishing the last verse of Shall We Gather at the River, and preach.

Now…where to stand?

To stand off to one side seemed awkward; to stand behind the pool would have been like Joshua standing on the other side of Jordan.  The only reasonable spot was in front of the 72-square-foot-hole.  Just about two steps separated me from the edge of the preaching platform to the hole, but I was young and agile….sorta.

The sermon was going fine, but I have this habit of moving as I preach….first to the left, then to the right; I like to connect – bring the Scripture to the people; push forward, and lean back.  I’m a moving target!  At some point I was so inspired to be preaching to all those brand new believers and a house full of their relatives, neighbors; we were on the cusp of a revival in little McIntosh.  I forgot that hole was there.

I thought the congregation was really into my sermon….I spoke, they swayed – first towards me, then back the other way.  Back and forth; I spoke – they were moving!  I was moving, they were moved.  Great!

The only problem was (my dear bride told me later) the congregation wasn’t so much into my sermon; it was more that every time I took a step or so back towards that 72 square-foot hole, they were swaying up to see if I’d actually fall-in!

Well, I never did, but neither did anyone remember a single thing I said in that sermon!

Maybe just as well.  The “sermon” might have been more about my pride over 8 baptisms in a 35 member church than about God’s kingdom.

For You, Today…

A simple question:  Has your pride ever gotten in the way of your service?

Baptism Lessons a Preacher Learns - Part ONE

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this:  I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Matthew 28:18-20 (NLT)

Baptism is a major focal point of the initiation into God’s church.  For the next few days I’d like to camp there with some of the lessons a preacher learns as he takes part in this sacrament.

Now, the first lesson is that, if you use the word “sacrament” my brothers and sisters in some church brands may stop listening there.  In many denominations baptism is an “ordinance” – that which Jesus commanded as a sign that salvation had arrived for the individual believer.  To others, my denomination included, it is that initiation too, but it is also a “sacrament” – an act conveying grace. 

For some of us (me included) baptism is both; it is sacred conveyor of grace and it is a response of faith and obedience.  As with Luther – that is where I stand, God help me, I cannot think otherwise.

One thing baptism should NOT be is a distraction away from worship.  It has been that in church life throughout history, as people have argued and scrapped over the meaning, substance and form it takes. 

Now there’s an initiation into church life, eh?  I had such a distraction early on.

My first experience in baptizing was in Chalmette, Louisiana, just outside New Orleans.  I was the brand new pastor…having started just a few weeks prior.  Brother John, confined to a wheelchair, in his 90’s, responded to the invitation to accept Christ.  We baptized John the next week by immersion (entire body under the water), after careful preparations to accommodate his special needs.  We should have paid some attention to the needs of John’s baptizer.  I was a rookie pastor; what did I know?

As the service began I entered the baptismal pool.  When I was in for a few seconds I had an unusual sensation that started at my feet; it seems the waders I had on were quite old, and there were cracks in both legs.  John may have been scheduled for immersion, but the preacher’s pants underneath those waders were in for a soaking! 

And, why, oh why, did they not tell us in seminary to wear short-sleeved shirts when you’re going to baptize?  When I put Brother John under, my hands, arms, and the shirt sleeves went under too.  As I pulled him back up, I had an awful sinking feeling:  this was going to change the course of the rest of today’s worship service!

And it did.

As I conducted the rest of worship, remembering Brother John’s baptism clouded out everything else.  Every time I took a step there was a squish, squish as waterlogged socks objected.  And when I preached, whenever I made a sweeping gesture with one of my soaked sleeves, I baptized the first three rows of members by sprinkling!

The Point

Baptism should be remembered – and celebrated – and lived out.  Perhaps not by a soaked preacher’s sloshing – but in ways I learned from Brother John.

For the life of me, after 33 years, I can’t recall Brother John’s last name, but I remember the look on a 92 year-old man’s face when he came out of that water.  It was the burden of decades of guilt released by the cleansing flow.  It was the kind of genuine joy everyone seeks, but can’t quite catch…until Jesus catches you.

We have an annual service of remembering our baptismal vows.  During the liturgy the minister says to those who come near the baptismal font, Remember your baptism and be grateful!

It’s more than a warm fuzzy feeling; it’s a challenge to live-up to those vows. 

Good Lesson!

For You, Today…

How are you doing with those vows?  Today would be a good day to remember YOUR baptism, be grateful and rejoice!

Good News!

Jesus came and told his disciples, “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.  Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.  And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”      Matthew 28:18 - 20 (NLT)

While attending seminary our two older children, Jennifer and Jason, seemed to attract every other child in the mobile home park for after-school games of hide and seek.

Our youngest, Carrie, was not quite 3-and (in the minds of the older siblings) always in the way. It was something you could count on; ten minutes into the games our little one would get pushed aside or skin a knee.

One afternoon she came through the front door crying for mommy.  She had gotten the worst again.  My wife, Elizabeth, attempted to comfort her by giving her two freshly baked cookies.  "Now, don't tell the big kids yet," she cautioned, "I haven't finished; I haven't got enough for everybody yet."

It took less than three seconds for Carrie to make it to the screen door, fling it wide, and announce to the big kids, Cookies, I gots cookies!

Great news should be shared with enthusiasm!                         

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is Great News!

Unfortunately most Christians don’t share this news at all.  You almost have to get a subpoena to get the truth out of ‘em, that Christ is their Savior.

I asked a member of a church I served to tell me how he came to know Christ.  He said, that’s a personal matter.           While  that is decidedly true, it is not something God wants us to keep to ourselves.

Today

What about a fresh start?  How about today beginning with a prayer that God would make the Gospel like warm cookies placed in your hands. 

Great for you…better if shared with your neighbor!

Then tell your pastor – it will be great news there too!

And, while you’re at it, tell your children, and cousins, and barber, and your broker (she might be able to use some good news).  Tell the man who picks up your garbage, and the guy who works on your car.

Go ahead…Jesus said he’d go with you.