13 July 2007

I’ve spent the week at the beach with my family.  It has been a wonderful experience.  The skies have been mostly clear, the water is warm and turquoise, and the sound of the surf is mesmerizing. In short, we love the beach.

We started watching west coast Florida weather last week in preparation for our journey.  We were saddened to see pictures of lightening on the forecast for each day of our trip. Immediately I started thinking about what we would do when it rained. We hoped the weather forecasters were missing something but their pictures starting setting a tone for our trip.
 
Each day week looked into the sky waiting for clouds to appear.  We debated about shutting the windows on the lanai because, "It’s probably going to rain tonight."  We thought about alternatives to tomorrow’s fun in the sun.
 
About mid-week I watched another weather report.  I noticed something I had missed all week. The actual report below the pictures of lightening stated a 30% chance of thunderstorms.  Only 30%!  We had been living under the clouds of 30%.  30% was affecting our attitude about 70%.
 
I suppose you get the point.  Yes, I’ve seen many folks live their lives according to a 30% chance. . . Meanwhile, 70% of life passes them by.

I stopped watching the weather reports. We’ve been here six days and it has not yet rained.  I’m watching the sun develop another beautiful day. Sunsets on the west coast are beautiful.
 
I think I’ll go for living this forecast.  This week there is a 70% chance of beautiful sunshine, warm temperatures and outstanding opportunities to live life to the full.

Jesus stated something like this.  "I’ve come that you might have life. In fact, you might have life to its’ fullest extent. There’s a 100% chance of good life in Me."

I like His forecast. Are you living parts of your life under the clouds of a 30% chance?
 
Sharing the Journey,
Pastor Don

5 July 2007

Everything changes and everything stays the same. 

I recently entered the hip world of ipod.  Of course I’m only a few years behind, but hey, I’m there now.  I can’t wait to go to the gym with white wires hanging from my head.  Over the course of my life I’ve witnessed vinyl records in three sizes - 78, 45 and 33.  From there we listened to eight track tapes, then cassette tapes. Along came CDs and now the ipod and music from the internet.

Of course the constant is music in all its forms and beauty. People everywhere love music. In fact, as one of my friends recently observed, present generations of American youth are far more musically diverse than their parents. This fact was demonstrated so well at our church on Sunday evening. Three bands played heavy, in your face rock.  The fourth and final band played more sedate worship rock music.  The teens loved both styles.

I am reminded of the message of God’s Kingdom.  God loves people so much that He became one of us and sacrificed Himself on our behalf so that we could have an eternal relationship with Him starting now.  This is the constant, the message that has not changed for 2,000 years.

But, like music, the delivery system changes with each new generation and in diverse cultures.  And it’s changing at the speed of music.

I’ve held off on ipod figuring it would be too much trouble to learn. I like my CDs.  However, I can already see how much more I’m going to like the new delivery system. I’m sure I’ll wonder why I waited so long to try it. 

Seems to me, local churches are often like me.  They don’t want to pay the price to learn the most appropriate and productive ways to share God’s love.  So people in their community don’t pay any attention to them because they are irrelevant. Some churches are using eight tracks in an ipod world.

Shame on us (Christians) when we don’t love people enough to meet them where they are.  God left the comforts of heaven to become "culturally relevant" on our behalf. Should we do any less?

Sharing the Journey,
Pastor Don