05.01.08

Prayers for the Day

Posted in Prayer at 3:59 pm by Anthony

Today is the National Day of Prayer.  This morning several folks from Albany met on the courthouse lawn to pray for our nation and community.  I was asked to lead two prayers.  This is your invitation to join me in praying for the the poor, oppressed, the sick and the hurting of the world, as well as for the schools in Albany (feel free to adapt to where you are).

Reading:  Luke 4:16-21

Dear Father,

We praise you because Jesus is Good News to the poor. We confess to you that we are often so consumed with self-interest that we become calloused and insensitive toward those in deep need.

Help us all to comprehend the depths of our own poverty and, at the same time, to be faithful stewards of all of our blessings, for we are blessed. Though we are a blessed people, living in a blessed nation, there are still many poor among us, and many more throughout the world. Give them, this day, their daily bread, and break down the structures, the traditions, the attitudes, and the powers that keep them in poverty.

Bring comfort this day, Lord, to those who are hurting, both in body and in spirit. Comfort those who are grieving, heal those who are sick, bring light to those who are in the darkness of despair. Bless our seniors; help us to learn from them, and to honor them. Bless the unborn and defend their lives.

We pray for people throughout the world who are living in poverty and under tyranny. May you make them rich in every way and bring them into the freedom that is found in Christ Jesus our Lord. It is in his name we pray, Amen.

Reading:  Mark 10:13-16 

Holy God in heaven,

Look down in your grace and mercy on all of the children and young adults who you have placed in our care as families and as a community. We ask you to bless them and lead us as we seek to point them toward you.

We lift up before you those who are charged with their formal education. We pray for Superintendent Shane Fields for Principals Doyleen and Tommy Terrell, for Assistant Principle Andy Wilson, for each teacher, aid, nurse, cafeteria worker, custodian, for all of us who are parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles – all those who have a role in training our children.

Thank you for our excellent schools here in Albany – schools where children, are taught, nurtured, and disciplined. Schools where faith is encouraged and not ridiculed.

All of us – parents, teachers, and administrators – are human and we make mistakes. Please forgive us and help us to learn from and correct those mistakes, and keep us from doing anything tha would harm our children.

We pray for the older ones – those in junior high and high school – those who are making difficult choices about their future careers, their education, their faith, their relationships, and their behavior, all at a time when they may be confused about their own identities and worth. Lead them in paths of wisdom, dear Lord.

May we embrace the kingdom heaven with the simple faith of a child, and may we never put a stumbling block in the path of any of the least of these. Lord Jesus, may they each feel the warm comfort and strength of your hand upon them. It is in your name that we pray, Amen.

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04.05.08

Finishing Up in 90 Days

Posted in Reading, Scripture at 11:04 am by Anthony

Like other churches in Albany, our church has been involved in the Bible in 90 Days program.  It has been great for community unity and has gotten a lot of people into the Word.  It has also been very difficult for people to keep up.  As a minister, I was able to, but only because I was able to devote part of my “work” day to the task.  This week, I completed my Bible reading (in 89 days, no less!), and made a note of it on my Facebook page.  A friend of mine asked what new perspectives I had gained from reading the Bible cover-to-cover in a relatively short time span.  My reply was off-the-cuff, and I need to think about it more, but I thought I would post my thoughts here:

“As for new perspectives on the Bible, reading the OT was a needed reminder on the wrathful side of God’s holiness. It’s something we don’t talk/think about much anymore, but it dominates there. Another perspective is that I came to the conclusion that the Bible isn’t really meant to be read in 90 days. There were parts, especially in the NT, and there, especially in the gospels, where I really needed to camp out and let Jesus’ words work on my heart, but I didn’t have time because I was rushing to keep up with the schedule.

Not that the experience was a waste — it wasn’t. There are lots of things that tie together that I was able to connect — like the book of Obadiah & Malachi 1 and the Romans 9 thing about “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” Was he really talking about predestination of individuals, or God’s election of certain peoples, e.g. Israelite over Edomites / believers over unbelievers? In thoroughly CofC fashion, I lean strongly toward the later.”

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04.03.08

WWCofCD?

Posted in Church Life at 2:55 pm by Anthony

 A few days ago I was in Walmart and I ran into an older gentleman that I had known years ago at another church in the area. I had not seen him since the early 90s, so I gave him a rundown on my life since then – our years in Africa, my marriage, my children, and our work here in Albany. Then he asked, “So your wife’s a Christian?” I joked, “Yeah, she’s even a Church of Christ Christian.”

He didn’t think that was funny. He began to talk about his fear that we as the Church of Christ are losing our identity. I knew where he was coming from and listened respectfully. I agree we should know more about where we come from as Restoration Churches and value that heritage. I believe that we can learn from other groups, but I also believe that we have a lot to offer. I don’t want us to lose our identity as Restoration churches.

But I also see a danger – a danger in deriving our primary identity from the “Church of Christ” as a heritage, and being as sectarian and divisive as the churches that the early Restorationists left. Let’s make sure that we who are in the Church of Christ are really focusing on Jesus Christ himself.

When we were in Africa, young Christians would sometimes ask us, “How does the Church of Christ _____________?”  You can fill in the blank with just about any practice a church might engage in.  Pray, sing, take the Lord’s Supper, give, evangelize ….  The question always drove me crazy. 

If we are focusing on Jesus, then the question “What would Jesus do?” becomes a much more important question than “What does the Church of Christ do?”  Because the Church of Jesus Christ should always do what Christ would do.

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03.13.08

Self-Examination for the Church

Posted in Reading, Church Life, Mission at 1:04 pm by Anthony

I made my first trip to Africa in 1988.  Shortly after arriving in Kenya, I met Stan Granberg, and spent four weeks as an intern with the mission team in Meru where Stan lived.  I was impressed with him at that time, and continue to be.  Stan is now leading Kairos, which encourages planting new Churches of Christ in North America.  Stan is deeply commited to our heritage in Churches of Christ and wants to help us reclaim the best parts of our heritage. 

Today, I received the following email from Stan.  I thought it was worth sharing with you:

March 13, 2008

Dear Friends,

My wife and I have the opportunity to travel widely across the country, observing, listening to and engaging in conversation with the fellowship of the churches of Christ. As we do this I keep a travel log of what we are learning. Recently I was blessed to share with our local preachers what God has been doing through Kairos. Since many of these men are my “traveling companions in the kingdom” I wanted to share with them some of what I have been learning about our fellowship. The following is a condensed version of those thoughts. I pray these considerations will encourage and challenge you as you serve God in his great kingdom.

1. Our heritage is blessed by a powerful “believers church” theology that, in its strength, is not complacent with the world as it is. For church planting, it is this theological heritage that critiques pragmatism or personal preference as the foundations for decision making about what a church planter will do. Our believers’ church heritage should help us live out God’s desires in the midst of the fiercely opposing values of a world where the “prince of this world” rules hard. Leonard Allen in Things Unseen describes the essence of a believers’ church theology as an apocalyptic vision of the kingdom of God of which we are both recipients and outposts; this apocalyptic vision provides the dynamic that energizes us into service to the world.

2. Our fellowship is blessed by a deep desire to obey, rooted in a trust in God’s Word. When this desire to obey is based on relationship, knowing God—we do well; when this desire to obey is interpreted as being knowledgeable of the Word, disconnected from relationship with a personal God, we lapse into law-keeping which turns us brittle and harsh.

3. The Road Not Traveled – This is the title of the final chapter in John Mark Hick’s Kingdom Come, the story of James Harding, David Lipscomb and the Nashville Bible School. Our fellowship, and probably God’s people in general, tend to do better when we are traveling folk and not settlers. Our call is still the call of Abraham to leave Ur and of Moses to leave Egypt so that we can experience God as we travel with him. Working with John Mark’s theme, here are three areas that for me constitute the road our fellowship in our generation has yet to travel:

a. Reducing our pride and arrogance. Our spirit of debate and insistence on our correctness are signs. Our well-honed ability to critique, evaluate and look for fault is another. The most damaging evidence of this sin is our struggle with spiritual submission to those whom God brings with spiritual authority into our lives. I confess, I am truly a child of my heritage—I feel I can do better then “they can.” So I have the right to tweak, adjust, dissent. But honestly, I can’t do better. I’m doing the best I can. Lord enrich my willingness to be blessed by others.

b. Serving the world as part of the fellowship of the broken. Our strong “set apart” exclusivity has not only separated us from other believers’ traditions, it has often separated us from the world God intends for us to serve. If we are to be salt and light among God’s lost people we will gain the opportunity to be heard as we recognize that we too are members of the fellowship of the broken. It is this personal recognition that will raise our level of compassion out of the pew and into a life of transforming service in God’s world.

c. Developing a culture of generosity at the level of the congregation. My experience is that as individuals our fellowship can be generous—at times. This has seldom been my experience at the congregational level. A friend of mine recently made this observation of us, “When missionaries go to churches of my fellowship if they do not ask for big money, the churches are insulted. When missionaries go to churches of Christ your churches are insulted if they are asked for money.” Giving without expecting the benefit of the gift must truly be the definition of generous giving. My experiences suggest that generous giving is a road our churches have yet to travel.

I just wanted to share these thoughts with you as we learn together how to minister from our fellowship, calling one another to God’s mission among God’s lost people.

God bless you all for your contributions to the kingdom.

Stan Granberg
Kairos executive director

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02.27.08

William’s Psalm

Posted in Mission, Prayer, News, Theology at 10:42 am by Anthony

This past Monday night, as wild fires were raging across West Texas, another West Texas family also lost their home in a fire.  Only this family wasn’t living in West Texas at the time.  Yancy and Sherry Fariss are translating the Bible in Guinea, West Africa. 

As their house burned, Sherry heard their seven  year old son, William, saying some powerful words that resembled a psalm.  In the chaos of the moment, she was not able to write down the words at the time.  But a couple of days later, he was still saying them, so Sherry wrote the words down as William dictated them to her.  Here is William’s psalm:

Through wind and rain
Through fire and lava
The Lord will never leave you.
Through earthquakes and floods
Through changing sea levels and burning ash
The Lord will never leave you.
If you love Him, He will bless you
and He will give you many things.
Who can change the Lord’s words?
Who can stop the Leviathan?
The Lord, of course.
Who made everything?
Who made the animals?
Who made the dinosaurs?
The Lord, our God.
Who can stop the Lord?
Who can chase a cheetah across the plains of Africa?
The Lord, He can.
Who can stand on Mount Everest?
Who can face a rhinoceros?
The Lord.
The Lord can give you sheep and goats and cows and ducks and chickens and dogs and cats.
The Lord can give you anything He wants to.
Just like David fought Goliath or Daniel lived throughout the lions’ den.
Just like Moses on the mountain, just like the Israelites fought the Jebusites.
The Lord will never stop His power.
Who can face a tyranosaurus rex?
Who knows what kind of animals lived thousands of years ago?
The Lord! He knows.
Stop all the evil, and be kind to one another.
Who can stop the Lord?
Who can face an elephant?
Who is brave enough to face a lion?
The Lord.
Who’s as fast as a horse?
Who can catch a blue whale?
Who is brave enough to face a giant squid?
The Lord.
Just as Jesus died on the cross, so the Lord had done so.
The Lord will never leave His people. The Bible is His word.
The Lord is a good leader.
Just as Moses and Aaron led the Israelites into the desert, so the Lord had done so.
Who can see the dinosaurs? Who can face the behemoth?
The Lord who loves you.
And He will not forsake His people. The end.

To learn how you can help the Farisses, go to the Pioneer Bible Translators web site.

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02.06.08

A Father’s Heart

Posted in Preaching, Mission at 10:55 am by Anthony

This Sunday I’m going to be talking about Spiritual Warfare.  When I read Ephesians 6:10, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power,” my thoughts went immediately to something I watched on the Internet last week.  Rick Burgess is one of the hosts of the Rick and Bubba Show, a morning show heard on many radio stations, especially in the Southeast.  A couple of weeks ago, he lost his 3 year old son, Bronner, in an accidental drowning.  His words of faith and challenge at Bronner’s funeral service, should challenge all of us.  You can read a transcript of Rick’s words, or watch the address, contained in three You Tube videos, below.

Rick Burgess, “A Father’s Heart,” Part 1

Rick Burgess, “A Father’s Heart,” Part 2

Rick Burgess, “A Father’s Heart,” Part 3

You can also download the audio file here.

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02.04.08

This is Love

Posted in Ministry, Lifestyle at 10:36 am by Anthony

I hope to resurrect this blog to post things that I believe will be encouraging to our church family and any others who might be checking in.  Today I was incredibly moved by this article/video about an American soldier who returned to Iraq to adopt a handicapped child.  I think you’ll be blessed by taking the time to read/watch it.  (The article is primarily a transcript of the video, depending on your internet connection.)

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09.10.07

Preaching the Crucifixion

Posted in Preaching, Scripture at 1:04 pm by Anthony

Yesterday I preached the crucifixion.  It was probably the most sober and personally impacting sermon I have yet to preach.  You would think that I would be used to it by now.  That Christ died for our sins — however you understand that phrase — is one of the most foundational tenents of our faith.  There’s been a lot of discussion about how his death makes possible reconciliation between us–corporately and individually–and God, but there can be no debate that he did die and he did it for us. 

 Yesterday I preached the event of the crucifixion — how Christ died.  The horror of the cross has been portrayed more graphically that I ever could with words or images, so I did not even try.  But, as others have said, Scripture does not so graphically portray the pain of the cross as it does the shame of the cross, so that is what I attempted to do in my sermon.

The previous week I had preached on Jesus’ trial before Pilate.  In pouring over many images, brilliant paintings, of the crucifixion, I had difficulty finding one that I did not feel was too shameful to display.  Actually the artists’ renditions may portray the crucifixion as more modest than it actually was.  I don’t even want to think about it. I finally found one image that I felt that I could show, to remind us of the way of salvation that Christ offers.  This week I choose not to show any — it just didn’t seem right to put him on display again like that.  I’m not saying that I’ll never again show an image of the crucifixion but, focused on the shame as I was, it just didn’t seem appropriate.

Reading Matthew’s account, it is amazing how often the words “mock” and “insult” occur.  Why couldn’t they just kill him?  What is so amazing is not that people would mock God (they do every day), but that God would take it — and I guess he does that every day, too.

 4 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.

Isaiah 53:4-6, TNIV

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09.06.07

Life Without Limbs

Posted in Uncategorized at 5:20 pm by Anthony

Thanks to Albany member Holly Phillips for sharing this incredible story with me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vY5Uo1PfZuY

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08.28.07

Pilate Today

Posted in Uncategorized at 4:17 pm by Anthony

Preparing my lesson from Matthew’s gospel for this Sunday, I came across a blog post that looks at Pilate as he presented in John’s gospel.  I thought I’d share part of what Michael Spencer writes with you.

… Pilate is the voice of the faux Jesus scholars, the t-shirts,the television specials and magazine covers asking curious questions about Jesus; questions meant, in the final analysis, to bring Jesus down to our level, not to reveal truth we will embrace. These are questions, investigations, fascinations and presentations not meant to bring anyone into submission to the crucified one and his eternal empire of the Son, but meant to bring him down to a level where we can understand , manage and categorize Jesus in our own world.

Pilate is the voice of the person intelligent enough to know that Jesus must be considered, but not spiritually hungry and thirsty for the bread and water this world cannot give; the bread that comes from heaven. Pilate is the one who will not drive the nails, but who is willing for the nails to be driven as long as he can return to the imagined sovereignty of his own existence.

You can read the article on Internetmonk.com by clicking here.

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