Category Archives: Church Family

Holding on to Hope…

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At Curwensville Alliance, on Easter Sunday there were 109 in the first service and 191 in the second. That’s 300, but of course, many were in both services. As I’ve talked to many concerning this great day at Curwensville Alliance, one of them remarked, “I wonder how many of them will be there next week.” The cynic that I used to be would concur, thinking, “Yeah — those Easter and Christmas People….. Tsk, tsk, tsk. They have no commitment to being in church regularly.” I have since repented of such cynicism. Thank you, God, for purging it from my heart.

The Bible tells us to be men and women of faith. We are to never lose heart, but to hope (Romans 12:12). Losing heart is the pathway toward despair. I have never heard anyone indicate it was a good place to be. On the contrary, despair is a great evil that wise people resist with all their hearts.

The concept of holding on to hope is connected with the resurrection of Jesus. Paul concludes what many call The Resurrection Chapter with the words, “58Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” (1 Cor 15:58 — NIV) Despairing people do not stand firm in their faith in Christ. Only those who choose to hope continue to give themselves fully to the work of the Lord. Only those who thoroughly resist cynicism know that their labor in the Lord has meaning.

Some weeks ago I was speaking to a gentleman concerning some mutual friends who made the same sinful choices over and over. In our conversation, his cynicism was showing. I wanted to help him turn from that path, so I said to him these simple words: Don’t despair. I say the same to each of you who call Curwensville Alliance your church home.

Easter Sunday was glorious. The evidence of the resurrection of Christ shone in our congregation as we enjoyed the drama, the meal, the visiting, the music, and the message. Rather than asking ourselves, “I wonder how many will be there this week?” let’s take a different path. Let’s take a path of hope — hope that the same God who broke through into our lives would break through into the lives of our friends and loved ones. And let’s put some wheels on that hope by praying for and reconnecting with those who were here on Easter and inviting them to join us again this week.

Let’s leave the cynicism behind and live as people of faith.

Seeing the Power of Grace…

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I finally made it through all 102 minutes of Babette’s Feast. I have always wanted to watch it, but the distinct lack of fast cars and powerful weaponry made it difficult for me. However, working on a short sermon series on grace, and reading Yancey’s What’s so Amazing about Grace (for the second time) I was inspired to watch the DVD.

I won’t detail the film here except to say that it communicated to me a fresh picture of my own inability to appreciate the greatness of the grace God’s given me. I would guess that my failure to grasp the depth of God’s grace is partially due to what Frederick Buechner says about all of us.

People are prepared for everything except for the fact that beyond the darkness of their blindness there is a great light. They are prepared to go on breaking their backs plowing the same old field until the cows come home without seeing, until they stub their toes on it, that there is a treasure buried in that field rich enough to buy Texas. They are prepared for a God who strikes hard bargains but not for a God who gives as much for an hour’s work as for a day’s. They are prepared for a mustard-seed kingdom of God no bigger than the eye of a newt but not for the great banyan it becomes with birds in its branches, singing Mozart. They are prepared for the potluck supper at First Presbyterian, but not for the marriage supper of the lamb…. ~Frederick Buechner as quoted by Philip Yancey in What’s so Amazing about Grace?, pp. 62-63.

Yep. That’s me. God’s grace is so much bigger than anything I could hope to produce or contribute to my own walk with him.

That’s what hits you between the eyes when you watch Babette’s Feast — not the power of a fast car or a super-weapon, but the power of grace. As the feast is prepared, the mentality of those receiving it is such that they simply want to get through this to give honor to Babette. But as they begin to enjoy the luxury of her gift, they become new inside and release old grievances, spreading the grace they are receiving.

May we all invest our lives in celebrating the power of grace.

Avoiding Pain by Avoiding Purpose and People…

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Some time ago, a couple came to the local churches asking for financial help. When Pastor George asked, “Where do you attend church?” the answer was, “We don’t.” They are professing Christians, but they don’t go to church anywhere. This is common.

I was thinking about why folks who call themselves Christians don’t regularly fellowship with other Christians, and while I know there are a variety of reasons, I think one reason is because they have been injured in the past. Sometimes avoidance of church is symptomatic of aversion to social interaction in general.

However, God created us as social people. The phrase, “It is not good for man to be alone” does not only reveal the origin of marriage, but verbalizes our need to interact with others. This interaction is essential if our lives are to have real meaning.

Paul Borthwick stated this well just over two decades ago.

It is possible to evade a multitude of sorrows through the cultivation of an insignificant life. Indeed, if a man’s ambition is to avoid the troubles of life, the recipe is simple: shed your ambitions in every direction, cut the wings of every soaring purpose, and seek a life with the fewest contacts and relations. If you want to get through the world with the smallest trouble, you must reduce yourself to the smallest compass. Tiny souls can dodge through life; bigger souls are blocked on every side. As soon as a man begins to enlarge his life, his resistances are multiplied. Let a man remove his petty selfish purposes and enthrone Christ, and his sufferings will be increased on every side. (Paul Borthwick, Leading the Way, Navpress, 1989, p. 86)

Borthwick says a mouthful in those few words. He speaks of being significant. He encourages sanctified ambitions. He addresses the purpose-driven life.

To me, he’s saying: Brave the pain, risk the injuries, and dream big for the sake of being significant in the eyes of Christ.

Thankfulness for your Church Family…

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Today, as I sat with Alverta’s son and daughter-in-law, I noted Fred was reading Life Together. Just seeing the book reminded me of something I typed from it years ago. I will cut and paste it here.

In the Christian community thankfulness is just what it is anywhere else in the Christian life. Only he who gives thanks for little things receives big things. We prevent God from giving us the great spiritual gifts He has in store for us, because we do not give thanks for the daily gifts. We think we dare not be satisfied with the small measure of spiritual knowledge, experience, and love that has been given to us, and that we must constantly be looking forward eagerly for the highest good. Then we deplore the fact that we lack the deep certainty, the strong faith, and the rich experience that God has given to others, and we consider this lament to be pious.  We pray for the big things and forget to give thanks for the ordinary, small (and yet really not small) gifts.

How can God entrust great things to one who will not thankfully received from Him little things?  If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even where there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakness, small faith, and difficulty; if on the contrary, we only keep complaining to God that everything is so paltry and petty, so far from what we expected, then we hinder God from letting our fellowship grow according to the measure and riches which are there for us all in Jesus Christ.

This applies in a special way to the complaints often heard from pastors and zealous members about their congregations.  A pastor should not complain about his congregation, certainly never to other people, but also not to God.  A congregation has not been entrusted to him in order that he should become its accuser before God and men.  When a person becomes alienated from a Christian community in which he has been placed and begins to raise complaints about it, he had better examine himself first to see whether the trouble is not due to his wish-dream that should be shattered by God; and if this be the case, let him thank God for leading him into this predicament.  But if not, let him nevertheless guard against ever becoming an accuser of the congregation before God.  Let him rather accuse himself for his unbelief.  Let him pray God for an understanding of his own failure and his particular sin, and pray that he may not wrong his brethren.  Let him, in the consciousness of his own guilt, make intercession for his brethren.  Let him do what he is committed to do, and thank God.

Christian community is like the Christian’s sanctification.  It is a gift of God which we cannot claim.  Only God knows the real state of our fellowship, of our sanctification.  What may appear weak and trifling to us may be great and glorious to God.  Just as the Christian should not be constantly feeling his spiritual pulse, so, too, the Christian community has not been given to us by God for us to be constantly taking its temperature.  The more thankfully we daily receive what is given to us, the more surely and steadily will fellowship increase and grow from day to day as God pleases.

Christian brotherhood is not an ideal which we must realize; it is rather a reality created by God in Christ in which we may participate.  The more clearly we learn to recognize that the ground and strength and promise of all our fellowship is in Jesus Christ alone, the more serenely shall we think of our fellowship and pray and hope for it.

~Life Together, by Deitrich Bonhoeffer  pp. 29-30

One of the most amazing things about that statement is its timelessness. When I typed it, I was using Word Prefect 4.2. That dates it to what, about 1987? But it’s still as applicable today as it was then.

I thank God for my church family. Always. (1 Thessalonians 1:2)

Valuing the Body — and it’s members…

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Tonight at church we celebrated The Lord’s Supper in a joyous way.

I spoke on the theological issues and perspectives of The Lord’s Supper, using Wayne Grudem’s chapter on communion in his book on systematic theology. Then we spoke about the value of the Body of Christ, where we speak of his physical body, the bread, or the people we think of as the Body of Christ.

To make that last point practical, I personally served each person present the bread, asking others to share things they appreciated about the one receiving the bread. A variety of character qualities came up: a loving heart, dependability, a servant’s heart, being a good teacher, having a good sense of humor. It was good to hear and say these things.

What made this communion service the best I’ve ever been a part of was the edification of the body. As each one heard the others express their love and appreciation for him or her, something beautiful happened: The body was refreshed and strengthened.

You can do this any time. Communion was a great time to do it. But you can call someone on the phone, message them on facebook, send them an email, or go to the trouble to compose a poem on a card and say, “You are important to me and to the Body of Christ because…”

Give it a try. It’s a joyful thing to do.