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The final exam to my Introduction to Christian Thought class was canceled, all our class work has to be in by May 5. I am done. I e-mail Dr. Patty my research paper last week. It’s all good.

I just have to finish my last book review on the Hobgood book, and then write my semester project.

This weekend, I am teaching a class at a Bible Teacher’s workshop here in Duncan about how to make your Bible classes spiritual and interesting. I am nervous. I have never taught a Bible class to adults other than preaching, and secondly, I have never taught a class about teaching to fellow teachers. This weekend should be rather interesting.

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I am speaking today at Duncan High School at the Fellowship of Christian Athlete meeting this afternoon. I am excited, and a little nervous. I am going to talk about our relationship with God and where prod the teens to ponder where they are in relationship to Him.

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Anyone with children knows that teething is a bad deal. My daughter has been going through this ordeal for some time. Her gums are swollen, and she is just uncomfortable. The worst part of all this, is not knowing how to make it better, well that was until last night. Several days have passed with a very irritable 9 month old, screaming relentlessly late at night. Last night, we found baby ora-gel. It numbed her gums, and she went to bed earlier than the night before. Poor thing. I know she hurts, and it hurts her mommy and daddy to know she hurts and we can’t take her pain away. I would trade her spaces in a moment. Oh, howI wish I could take her pain, and discomfort on myself. Isn’t that what Father’s do for their children? I can think of One who did exactly that, and more. He put on garments of flesh, and lived among us. He bore our pain, our hurts, felt our deepest sadness, and took on our most yucky moments on the cross. He became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13) so that we might have life. God is good.

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Jesus said I am the bread of life.
You are starving and I am life-giving bread. If you take me in you will live.
Taken from the LCU start page.

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Food for Thought:

This qoute comes from the book, Welcoming Resistance by William Chris Hobgood, page 45,”…the congregation without initiatives is mired in mediocrity, racking up reasons to be called irrelevant and heading into decline. Yet the impulse of all systems, congregations included, is tot maintain stasis, or balanced stability. In spite of the latter, we find that biological systems change-a fact as natural to them as the stability impulse. Smiliarly, social systems, like congregations, change just as much as they need to maintain stability. Neither biological nor social systems will stand still, however powerful that impulse may be.”

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With the stormy skies behind us, I can relax a bit. Duh, tornado alley, what’d you expect?

Anyway…I am preaching Sunday morning, and Sunday night. I have both lessons done with powerpoints. Today, is devoted to catching up with school work. I’ve got two weeks or so left in the semester, and I will be glad when the semester ends.

I’ve been reading some about the history of the “Restoration movement.” Why is it that the men like Thomas, and Alexander Campbell, as well as Barton Stone and others seemed to be okay extedning the hand of fellowship to those in other religious tribes, but when we, or should say any one in the churches of Christ, tries to reach out to the larger Christian community they get shunned. What started as a restoration movement, restoring New Testament Christianity, somewhere in our history has shifted to a conservation movement.

When we become more interested in what “other” churches were doing instead of seeing the needs in our community.

When our leaders preached condemnation to anyone out side the “Lord’s Church” instead of seeking and saving the lost.

When congregations stopped seeking the Living Crist, and the excitement and expectancy that accompanies worship. When we began to perform the five acts of worship as if we were they only ones who had these five acts just right.

No more questions were asked, no more opinions were allowed. If you don’t believe like us, you must not be one of us.

When sincere members sharing their faith preached a Gospel that equals be baptized only. In other words, when we started converting people to the church and not Christ.

I know this list is not exhaustive, but I think it is illustrative of some of “our” hangups as a religious tribe. I have heard many sincere Christian people, week after week get hung up on the five steps of salvation. Brothers, and sisters there is more to our Christian walk than these things. It’s like many of our people are stuck just drinking milk. I am not saying Baptism isn’t important. It’s illustrative of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection, it’s where come into contact with the blood of Jesus and is ESSENTIAL, however, how many times can we have the same conversation. People in the world don’t care about our neat little five acts of worship or five steps of salvation. Paul writes in Galatains, “…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). The people outside our church walls need a Savior not a sermon. They want to see us living an authentic, genuine Christian life.

Please don’t misunderstand, I dearly love the Churches of Christ. I just feel that we have lost a sense of restoration, and have chosen conservation.

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With the stormy skies behind us, I can relax a bit. Duh, tornado alley, what’d you expect?

Anyway…I am preaching Sunday morning, and Sunday night. I have both lessons done with powerpoints. Today, is devoted to catching up with school work. I’ve got two weeks or so left in the semester, and I will be glad when the semester ends.

I’ve been reading some about the history of the “Restoration movement.” Why is it that the men like Thomas, and Alexander Campbell, as well as Barton Stone and others seemed to be okay extedning the hand of fellowship to those in other religious tribes, but when we, or should say any one in the churches of Christ, tries to reach out to the larger Christian community they get shunned. What started as a restoration movement, restoring New Testament Christianity, somewhere in our history has shifted to a conservation movement.

When we become more interested in “other” churches were doing instead of seeing th needs in our community.

When our leaders preached condemnation to anyone out side the “Lord’s Church” instead of seeking and saving the lost.

When congregations stopped seeking the Living Crist, and the excitement and expectancy that accompanies worship. When we began to perform the five acts of worship as if we were they only ones who had these five acts just right.

No more questions were asked, no more opinions were allowed. If you don’t believe like us, you must not be one of us.

When sincere members sharing their faith preached a Gospel that equals be baptized only. In other words, when we started converting people to the church and not Christ.

I know this list is not exhaustive, but I think it is illustrative of some of “our” hangups as a religious tribe. I have heard many sincere Christian people, week after week get hung up on the five steps of salvation. Brothers, and sisters there is more to our Christian walk than these things. It’s like many of our people are stuck just drinking milk. I am not saying Baptism isn’t important. It’s illustrative of our Lord’s death, burial and resurrection, it’s where come into contact with the blood of Jesus and is ESSENTIAL, however, how many times can we have the same conversation. People in the world don’t care about our neat little five acts of worship or five steps of salvation. Paul writes in Galatains, “…the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love” (Galatians 5:6). The people outside our church walls need a Savior not a sermon. They want to see us living an authentic, genuine Christian life.

Please don’t misunderstand, I dearly love the Churches of Christ. I just feel that we have lost a sense of restoration, and have chosen conservation.

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Close One…

This evening, I experienced my first real tornado warning, and threat. An actual tornado touched down just several miles west of Duncan. We had torrential rain, hail the size of quarters, thunder and lightening, high wind gusts. I am used to thunderstorms, however, tornado alley thunder storms are a whole new ball game. Was I scared? I’d be lying if I said “no.” I was scared. One thing was constant, and un-moved by strong winds. My God. His love for us is fixed securely on the objects of his love. It’s the cross that secures God’s love.

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I mentioned the other day a little about the letter to the Galatians. I have enjoyed this week of study, and worry, and wonder. I think now, after spending all the time I have this week, Galatians is one of my favorite NT books.

The title of my sermon on Sunday is Galatians: Reaffirming the Gospel of Grace. Paul’s whole purpose of writing this rather short Epistle is to remind the Galatian churches that they were saved because of the cross of Christ not because of circumcised flesh. In addition to preaching the first lesson in a new series on Galatians, our church, is also going to be studying the letter to the Galatian church in some detail. Our emphasis this year has been on grace. Galatians fits well with our emphasis.

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Tonight in my class with the teens we are going to explore the concept of grace and what it means in our lives.

Here is a foretaste of what were are discussing:

“Grace means no mistake in my life disqualifies me from receiving God’s love or being God’s instrument.”