When Does Church Start?

At the church where I am a member, we use screens to display announcements, song lyrics and just before the beginning of the service, there is a countdown clock to let people know when the service will begin.  Last week, I was thinking about that countdown in terms of the question, "When does church start?"

Church doesn't start when the praise and worship leader plays the opening notes of the first song.  It doesn't begin when the pastor walks into the room or when the ushers close the doors between the lobby and the sanctuary.  

Church starts in each one of us from the day we are born again because we are the church - people are the church - the building is only a place where we gather - the service is only an appointed time we join together.

So when does church start?  It starts at home when you open your eyes each day and walk out into a world who needs to see Jesus in you.  It starts when you are in prayer for your pastor during the week so he might have a timely word for you and your brothers and sisters when the church next gathers.  It begins when those who serve on a Sunday morning in various ministries of the church are preparing for the needs of the people.  It begins in thousands of ways through millions of believers all over the world.  

So if you gather with other believers on Sunday, make sure you are being the church - not just attending a meeting.  There's so much more to this Christian life than putting in an appearance for a couple of hours in a building with a church name on the front.

A Way of Escape

This morning on the drive to church, a bug on the inside of the driver's side window was annoying my husband.  As we slowed to a stop at a traffic light, he rolled down his window and tried to shoo the bug out into the fresh morning air, but the stubborn creature clung to the edge of the window.  He batted at it several times, but it was no use. Finally, in exasperation, he squashed it against the window that it seemed so determined to occupy. 

My first reaction was, "Ewww!" as I heard the crunch of the bug under his finger.  I remarked that he surely had given the bug plenty of opportunities to escape, but that in rejecting the offer, the bug had chosen his own disaster.

In this case, the insect's choice had literal life or death consequences but for us as spiritual beings, the choices put before us are eternal - a never-ending, joyous home in heaven with God or eternal separation from Him in hell. It's based on a single choice.

Acts 4:12 says, "Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved".  

However, it's not only the eternal escape that we need but also a way to be rescued from the challenge of our sin nature still rearing its ugly head in our lives.  Fortunately, God has provided a solution for that issue as well.

"No temptation has overtaken you except such is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."  1 Corinthians 10:13

I'm so glad that God has mercy towards us and is long-suffering - even waiting many years for some of us to take advantage of that open window into the fresh air of life in Him, but as my pastor taught this morning, God has also said that His Spirit would not always strive with man. (Genesis 6:3) That window of escape - of a chance to live and prosper and find your purpose in this life - won't always be there.  Take advantage of the unfathomable opportunity God has given you - first to accept His salvation and then to walk with His Spirit to rescue you from all the traps and snares the enemy lays for you in this life. It's your choice.

Juggling Chainsaws

I am in information overload tonight.  There are situations going on in my family that, though I am trusting God to handle, are still on my mind.  The school year has begun and I have lesson plans and schedules and special education paperwork and meetings spinning around in my head. I have dozens of alarms and reminders on my cellphone because I can't possibly keep up with everything that is going on.  There are also the hundreds of big and little things that we all have to keep track of to run our homes, manage our finances, care for our loved ones, and even just get ourselves dressed and out the door in the morning. 

It's like juggling chainsaws, herding cats, or flying an airplane WHILE building it. It's overwhelming and it's tiring and it makes me feel like a failure at all of it.

There's so much swirling around in my brain that I couldn't even remember hearing God once this week.  I usually see or do or hear something between blog posts that drops a little lesson into my heart, but the mental noise has canceled out anything He might have been trying to say.  As soon as I realized that fact, there was the post.

"Stop the noise, stop the input, and just listen."  The Bible puts it this way in Psalm 46:10, "Be still and know that I am God".  So this post is short and to the point.  Put everything else out of your mind.  Sit at His feet.  Hide the to-do list.  Just be.  Be still. Know - remember, recognize, acknowledge, meditate on, consider, discover, understand -that He is God and He's got this.  A year from now, all of the things that are cluttering your heart right now will a distant memory - and He will still be God and He will still be there. 

Mind Your Roots!

Early last Thursday evening, my husband and I were watching television in our bedroom when we heard an odd sound.  I thought something was being dragged through the gravel in the driveway at the side of the house, but my daughter-in-law yelled to us that a tree had come down in the yard.

The tree that had fallen is not actually within our property boundaries, but it fell into an area adjacent to our lot that we keep mowed and treat as part of our yard.  The first picture shows how it fell.  In the second picture, you can see that this tree had no root system at all. The final picture shows the branches and leaves of a few younger trees that it took down with it on its destructive path toward the ground.

There wasn't a cloud in the sky that evening.  The wind wasn't blowing.  All was calm and peaceful, but still, with no provocation, that tree fell.  It reminded me of all the times that we hear about people who are caught in a massive moral failure or people who do horrific criminal acts.  Many times everyone around them is shocked because those folks were thought of as nice people, good neighbors, even people of faith.  Yet suddenly, they fall and fall mightily.  Could it be that they had no roots?  Were they disconnected even though they gave the appearance of being planted solidly in the community or church?

The tragedy of the fall of people who were once respected and admired is that they don't fall alone.  Just like this old, dead tree took down at least two young saplings, so there is collateral damage when a person's sin comes to light.  There is pain for those who are directly affected, disillusionment for those who looked up to them, and cynicism from those who are looking for a reason to discredit Christianity. Someone who was innocent in the entire situation can sometimes be brought down in a way that crushes their faith and moves them from a place of growth to a path of destruction.

Once this tree was a tall, flourishing part of the woods around it.  I don't know what happened to it to cause the roots to die and leave it without an anchor in the soil around it.  What I do know is that spiritually, that can happen to any of us.  If we are not diligent to keep ourselves in prayer and the Word, we can begin crumbling from the roots even though everyone around us may see us as a "pillar of the church".  We can look the part, sound the part, and act the part, but be full of absolutely nothing. Then one day, seemingly out of the blue, we can be swayed by a momentary temptation born of our own discontent and fall in a very public and hurtful way that causes a wound to the body of Christ, our family, our friends, our co-workers.  None of us are so strong on our own that we can't be lead astray.

Colossians 2:6-7 says, "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.

More than ever, we need to watch that we are securely rooted, not for our sakes only, but for the precious brothers and sisters around us that need us to be strong in the Lord.  Mind your roots!