Llove Letters

Step Two - February 7, 2010

t003_20100207

If there is a first step, there must be a second. Here is the follow up to the previous week’s message. We moving forward with matching the mission with the message.

Saints and Colts

Aren’t Superbowls fun? I got home from Church just in time to see the second half kick-off. I think the last half must have been better than the first. My wife served my supper in front of the TV, and my grandkids argued over who was the best quarterback. I’m happy for the Saints. I’m sad for the Colts. I really didn’t have a favorite after Minnesota eliminated “my” team.

I have always struggled with the idea that “one guy” makes all the difference. I know the quarterbacks, running backs, and receivers, get most of the glory from an offensive perspective, and some of them deserve great credit. But have you noticed how difficult it is to play, much less win, if you only have nine or ten players on your team? Team means eleven, doesn’t it? Team means everybody counts. Team means no one position is expendable.

I wish we could learn that in the Church of Jesus Christ. Too many of our folks are convinced they are not mandatory, required, needed, vital, unique, special, imminently important in the completion of the mission. Granted, one has to be ready to “play.” But just sitting on the sidelines, not quite ready to go, or worse yet, sitting in the stands without a helmet (see Ephesians 6:17) is disastrous.

Would it be an unbearable cliche to say. . .”get in the game!”

Prayed Up

As I was getting my boots on this morning, my wife advised me that the gas company was in the front yard of my house digging up our gas meter. Now I might think that they were just going to provide me with a shiny new meter if it were not for the fact that houses in this part of the world keep blowing up.

I told my wife I had seen the “gas sniffing” truck on our street and in our neighborhood a few  days ago, and perhaps there were some leaks in the area. She made some smart remark about whether the sniffing truck look like a dog, all the while we could be about to blow up.

I went out and talked with the workmen (sorta - a bit of a language barrier) and they assured me that the problem was a leak under the street and my meter (and house) were just fine.

Got me to wondering. . .if we knew all the stuff under our feet, water lines, gas lines, electric cable, phone lines, conduit lines for moving things like crude oil and gas from drilling operations, and Heaven only knows what else, we might take the dangers of life a little more seriously. Hopelessly congested traffic, wrong way drivers on freeways, road rage, ice storms, tornadoes (season is just around the corner), floods, sink holes, stuck gas pedals. . .need I go on, are prominent in our life.

I’m thinking one needs to be “paid up,” “prayed up,” and “prepared” for departure from this life to the next. Now lest you get overly concerned, God has numbered your days, and you get all of them, no more, no less, but he is the only one with the number. You might want to “check-in.”

Vampires and Such

Vampires are the creation of a writer’s mind and of movies. No such creature exists, and yet, those who practice evil and choose a life of continued sin possess at least one of the characteristics ascribed to vampires. Listen to these words from the book of Job -

The wicked are those who rebel against the light. They do not recognize its ways or stay on its path. In the dark they break into houses; by day they lock themselves in, never experiencing the light. For the morning is like death’s shadow to them.   (Job 24:13;16)

The job of the Church of Jesus Christ is to be the Light, express the Light, share the Light, and dispel the darkness by allowing the Light to be exhibited in every area of our operation.

What is the Light? Jesus said, “I am the Light of the World.” (John 8:12) We are all the children of Light; and the children of the day. We are not of the night, nor of the darkness. (1 Thessalonians 5:5)

The revealed Word of God is [also] the Light. The Psalmist said, “Your Word is a lamp for my feet and a Light on my path.” (Psalm 119:105)

We, believers, are called to be the hunters of those who dwell in darkness.  We are commissioned and empowered to introduce them to Him who calls men “from darkness to light.” (1 Peter 2:9)

That’s our message, clear and straight. Now, to move with strength and enthusiasm to make the mission match the message!