What I Couldn't Say

Those of you who were at church Sunday get the meaning of the title of this blog.  Truly, I couldn't talk ... a condition which came upon me quickly and got worse as the morning progressed.  I appreciate all of the help from Josh, Jerry, Leah and everyone who basically put up with my laryngitis attack.  It was difficult for me because I had lots of Mary and Nazareth facts to convey ... so this blog will, I hope, give you a start on our Christmas Journey through the characters and places of the first Christmas.

First, Mary ... 12 or 13 ... scared ... hearing the news from the angel that she was with child ... traveling to stay 3 months with Elizabeth (her formerly barren cousin, also pregnant with a child who would become John the Baptist) ... returning to Nazareth where she would have probably (at the very least) been an object of scorn and (at the most) could have been in danger for her life since she was pregnant and unmarried.  Her last statement in the story of the annunciation (the announcement by the angel that she would bear the Son of God) was "I am God's servant."  Pretty mature resolve for an early teen.

Then. Nazareth ... the site of a spring that became a town (reminds me of Isaiah's prophecy about "streams in the desert").  This town with a few hundred shepherds, laborers, workers and (according to John 1) folks with a poor reputation would become Jesus' boyhood home and the place where he would begin a Galilean ministry that would change the planet.  Nazareth was halfway between the Sea of Galilee and the Mediterranean Sea.  The people were generally poor and would have lived in simple shelters such as limestone caves.  It was a meek and humble beginning for our journey to Bethlehem.  The town's name might have come from the word 'netzer' which means sprout or shoot ... the growth from a chopped-down stump.  Some believe that the prophecy in Isaiah 11 ("A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;  from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him—the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord—and he will delight in the fear of the Lord." Isaiah 11:1) relates to this obscure name for Nazareth since Mary (thus Jesus) was from the lineage of Jesse, descended from King David.  Both the Northern Kingdom (Israel in 721 BC by Assyria) and the Southern Kingdom (Judah in 586 by Babylon) had been chopped to the ground, this prophecy was a hope that the nation of Israel would be restored.  It is interesting that this restoration comes from a lowly place and will take shape in a much different way than was expected.

As I take in and savor this story, I am reminded that God's great work happens in ways that we would never choose never expect.  Mary's comment about being God's servant reminds me, like Sunday when your preacher couldn't say much, that God doesn't need much to work with.  Just our willingness and our action (not so much our words, our knowledge or our resume').  As John 1 states, "could anything good come from Nazareth?"  I would say what the story of the annunciation (Luke 1:26-38) states ... "Nothing is impossible for God."

Journey

Our December Sermon Series will be called Journey, focusing on the journey of all the "Christmas" players to the manger of baby Jesus.  In a sense their journey is an allegory of our journey to Jesus' side.  All of the players in the drama have brokenness.  Mary is, to all outward appearances, an unwed mother.  She both carries the scorn of the people and the uncertainty of a teenage girl processing her part in the play.  Joseph is called to be a faithful husband (though the marriage hasn't happened) and a surrogate father who loves this child as his own.  This would have been a difficult thing in 1st century Judaism.  Elizabeth (Mary's cousin and mother of John the Baptist) was part of the announcement of Jesus' birth and part of the introduction of Jesus to the world through the ministry and life of John the Baptist.  Both Mary and Elizabeth had reason for joy and probably a sense that both children, being totally devoted to God, would come to a difficult end ... when you are totally for God people will and do reject you.  Other characters, like Herod, the magi (who came on the scene three years after Jesus' birth), the shepherds, the angels and the animals in the grotto, played their parts in the most amazing story of a great gift from God. 

We can see ourselves in this story.  We are troubled, uncertain, misunderstood, put down by family and friends, taken advantage of and many other negatives.  But I want us to focus on the positives.  We are all used by God ... all usable for God's glory ... all special creations by a God who loves us ... all gifted for god's special purpose ... all able to bear fruit for God's kingdom ... all seen by God in a vastly different light than the darkness of the world.  In fact, I pray that you and I will be able to see and understand that amazing purpose God has for all of our lives ... a purpose lived above the fray going on around us and toward a God who has a higher purpose for each of us.  In the words of C. S. Lewis, may we be willing to go "higher up and further in" as we journey to the manger.  Thanks for listening ... Pastor Randy

Getting to the Source

Over the next 4 days I and 3 other Good News leaders will be attending a conference in which we will obtain tools to help our people with the issue of dealing with finances and our strange economy.  While we can't impact the part of our local/national/individual economy that depends on other people, we do have control over our own decisions.  In fact, this is the main toolbox we will be assembling ... what each person can do in making their financial life better.  And the best part is all the advice comes from Scripture and from God's plan to make our lives better by following Him rather than being led by our culture.

Pray for the team.  We will be listening to how we can lead our adults, young people and children to make Biblical choices in their lives as they relate to money, possessions, priorities, time, energy and doing life in a Biblical context. I hope we are able to bring back some usable and useful ways for each of us to do life in a way that gives God power over our everyday choices.  He told us if we follow then we will be in a place where He can bless us and give us an abundant life, full of God's good things.  If we follow the culture I believe we will not see this blessing and will not understand God's peace, God's provision and God's purpose.

The conference is called Momentum and in 2013 we will all be asked to be a team that pulls together to place all we learn into action.  It will take each of us ... every member, attender and every heart given to a willingness to become part of something larger than themselves.  Sunday School classes and small groups will be asked to be part of the effort ... children and teens will be called to be part of this push toward a better place.  I hope you will pray for your participation and your willingness to help us all make changes that will benefit and grow us.

Thanks in advance for your prayers and your preparation for this major undertaking.  Pastor Randy

Making a Difference

This Sunday I will begin a two part series on post-election advice that I hope will help us get past the election and onto God's good things.  I hope it will help us debrief the past few weeks of calls, ads, promises, accusations and just plain meanness.  I wonder about our political system at times but have no better plan.  But I do think God has a better plan for His people so i will put forward two things about how we can, as God's people, make a difference.

One way every person at Good News can make a difference is to pitch in and help in areas where we have needs.  I want to offer a few ideas and see if anyone will take up the struggle and the blessing of serving.  Here are a few needs that are both pressing and could nbe just the place God needs you.

1. We need a person who will spend a couple of hours every week on social media for the church.  We are in dire need of shoring up our social media presence and I know there is someone who can give a few hours to get our likes, our presence and our connections to the highest possible level.

2. Our praise team has need for someone to play drums.  Practice is on Sunday from 10-11am and on the 2nd Tuesday of each month 5:30-7pm.  This is a small investment of time for what can give lots of people a great blessing (including the person who can help with this need). 

3. Our praise team needs both male and female singers who love God and can come and lead worship with us.  Practice is on Sunday from 10-11am and on the 2nd Tuesday of each month 5:30-7pm.  These positions are auditioned (by Mike Kitchens).  A heart for the Lord, a voice that can carry a tune is pretty much the need.  I hope some of you will say yes.

4. Our praise team needs an electric guitarist who can do some lead and fill.  Again, practice is on Sunday from 10-11am and on the 2nd Tuesday of each month 5:30-7pm.

5. Ongoing volunteers for cleaning up after communion (after 2nd service) are needed.  this takes about 20min after the service once per month.  It doesn't require much time but it is surely helpful.

You can call Leah at the church office and she will fill you in on any and all of these.  Her number (M-Th,8:30am till 2:30pm) is 850-622-9191.  And remember, many of you will be inclined to let someone else do these things ... that is how we end up with unmet needs and how many of you fail to get the full blessing of being part of something that makes a difference in the world. That's my take!  Pastor Randy

Thinking Ahead for A Reason

Over the last two months of 2012 our leadership team has decided that we will end the year with a goal ... a purpose ... and a positive action that will help Good News be the Church locally, nationally and internationally.  We will continue our usual missional focus during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season.  This focus includes Operation Christmas Child, our designated Christmas Eve offering (usually for United Methodist Children's Home) and our yard sale for congregational medical needs.  But this year our leadership team is calling all of us to do something different ... something that is achievable and forward-thinking.  Here is the plan ...

1. We need everyone to be part of this plan in whatever way you can.  Our desire is to pull together a Christmas-season offering that will prepay all of the missional parts of the Conference Offerings for 2013.

2. Each week we will share information about some of the missions that will be funded by this special offering.

3. We have about 400 members ... our plan is to average $50/person above our regular offering ... that's all.  We know some can give more and some can not give at all, so we are asking for generosity from each of us.  Our plan is ambitious ... raise $20,000 during the Christmas season and fund the mission of our church locally, in our district, in our conference, nationally and internationally.  All funds will prepay the missions part of our conference giving for 2013.  We will keep you posted on the progress ... I will personally start Sunday with my share of this goal ... again, above and beyond my regular tithe.

4. Through this process we will become aware of how your regular giving does amazing things beyond our local church and how we are part of something much bigger that our 400 member church.

5.  I reiterate ... we all need to be a team and be a part of this effort.  I hope our leaders and your pastor can count on you to be focused, engaged and in tune with this plan.

6. As an ancillary benefit, this effort will reduce our monthly budgetary needs for 2013 by about $1,800.

Watch for information about the missions you are and will be funding.  You might be surprised that you are touching people from right next door (e.g., Noah's Ark in Panama City) to the other side of the world.  It is one way we "go into all the world, making disciples (Matthew 28:19)" ... and as our District Superintendent reminded us at our annual church meeting last evening,  for the transformation of the world.  The point is that the transformation of the world will only happen through the work of God through Christ and the Holy Spirit.  Paul reminds us that we do this as Christ's ambassadors (2 Cor. 5:16-20)  ... we plan to obediently follow that call!  Pastor Randy

In Relevant Magazine Paul Angone writes ... "Complaining is like a rash—too easy to catch, and tough to get rid of. I speak from experience. I’m a recovering “complain-a-holic” who’s still trying to find the cure. And I don’t think it’s just me. It seems that complaining, with a heavy dose of cynicism, has become our national pastime. It only takes three minutes on Facebook, Twitter, talk radio, or the news stations to know that if you’re not complaining about something, you’re a bit of an outsider. Complaining has become our social currency, our shared language used to form a mutual—if somewhat bitter—understanding of the world we live in. We complain about our jobs, the slow Wi-Fi, our leaders in the office and around the world and the waiter who brought only one basket of bread the entire night. ( http://www.relevantmagazine.com/next/grow/creativitys-worst-enemy )"

I am afraid Mr. Angone is correct.  He calls this propensity to complain (for Christ followers) a plague that destroys creativity and causes divisions and disunity and presents a bad witness to the world.  The old song says they will know we are Christians by our love but in practice "they know we are Christians by our complaining."  We are so know for what we are against, not what we are for.  A classic example of this is our attitude toward lifestyles that are different or non-Bilical.  While I won't use this space to make a case for or against such lifestyles (I would take the Biblical route there but will save that argument for another day) I do remember a case in Scripture where Jesus confronted this very issue.  A woman of questionable repute was washing his feet with her tears and expensive perfume (Luke 7:36-50).  It is a story of how Jesus allows this woman to come to him, touch him (both taboo in the Jewish world), wash his feet, kiss him and do all the things that were the true responsibility of the host in the household.  The Pharisee who invited Jesus to come into his house complains about the "sinful" woman.  Jesus calls him on this, reminding the Pharisee (who is 'moral' in the context of the Jewish world) that he has failed in being a host and has failed to receive the forgiveness that was freely given to the sinful woman (by the way ... it doesn't seem she asked ... He just does what only Jesus can do).

I wonder?  What if we approached the people in our world with an attitude of forgiveness rather than a condemnation of their sin?  Would that bring them into a dialogue about the God we worship who is their (and our) only source of life and salvation?  David Kinnaman (in "Unchristian") observes that Mosaic and Baby Buster outsiders (those not in the Christian faith) said that the word 'antihomosexual' accurately describes the modern day Christian community.  While some of you say "right on" and "we certainly are that!" I am asking you to take a bit of a step back.  Do you think God is honored when the very thing we are most known for is being against a group or do you think we should be better known for being "pro-forgiveness" and "for loving all people?"  I do think the dialogue about all sorts of sinful behavior needs to be had and I also know that there are radical elements promoting anti-Christian bias.  But I, for one, want to dialogue and work with sinners who are willing to come to Jesus ... kneel at His feet ... hear his words ... find out that He is the source of life, truth and true wisdom. 

I know some of you will read this the wrong way and (go figure) complain.  I pray that you will see my true meaning and will see I am not promoting any lifestyle that is non-Biblical ... just reminding us that we (through Jesus) come to be a conduit of salvation for the least, the lost and the sinner.  And ... for the record ... let's all stop being a nation of chronic complainers and become a nation of followers who know the solution to every problem ... Jesus!

Nothing is Impossible with God (guest blog)

By Penny Williams

“Then the Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh and say, “Will I really have a child now that I am old?”  Is anything too hard for the Lord? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.” Ge. 18:13&14 NIV

No wonder Sarah laughed, they were both well over the age of child bearing. Sarah was barren and more than anything she desired to bear a son for Abraham. Could she possibly place such a youthful hope in her heart and believe what the Lord said to Abraham?  

Like Sarah, we all have our many appointed times. Sarah’s appointed time to give birth to Isaac (whose name means “one laughs”) wasn’t until she was yet another year older at the age of 90, Abraham was 100. I call them the dynamic duo.  I believe her laughter was coupled with a youthful heart. Sarah’s youthful laughter could have been the prerequisite to that hope. When she dared to believe, she conceived the seed of faith and became pregnant with Isaac. We know how God honors faith.

Perhaps the answer to your prayers hasn’t manifested in the physical yet. A long time ago I had a Pastor tell me “sometimes God says no.” I didn’t like to hear that truth, but I knew it was truth. I had to search my heart to see if I was praying in God’s will. There are times He withholds things because He knows they wouldn’t be good for us. When we end up doing things our way instead of God’s way we walk through the consequences of our disobedient impatience and eventually learn “Father knows best” after all.

Think for a moment, about what happens behind the scenes when we lift up a prayer to God. Many times there are different people involved that He has to work with in some way, some are moved geographically, others physically, hearts have to be touched and lives begin to communicate a change before you begin to see the answer in the flesh. All this can take hours or years in the invisible/spiritual realm before it is carried out in His appointed time. This “invisible work” could be something like a domino effect or walking through a maze. God acts, but He never changes and continues to abide by his principles with the truth of His word.

What looks like a tragedy will be turned around many times for praise and gratitude for God. He uses all things for His glory. What was once used for the spirit of darkness is turned around to give God praise, glory and all honors.

When I go through a time of testing, I pray and then wonder how God is going to work in this situation and He always comes through. Look for it and expect it, God never fails.

As I mentioned, we do not usually see the work in progress, if we did; it wouldn’t be faith. There are times though when God does allow us to see the early beginnings of an answered prayer like that of a flower getting ready to bloom and oh, how our heart leaps for joy. When our Father allows us to see the start of something so beautiful, our faith is watered and we know inside we’ve won that battle and  passed the test of faith! 

Is anything too small or hard for the Lord? Not a thing.  He cares about everything that is going on in your life. Never give up! No matter what you are going through, you can have the peace of knowing that God will stay by your side and take you through the whole process and as there are times when you feel like you are walking through the fire, you are getting stronger and becoming refined by the heat just like the diamond God has appointed you to be. All in His appointed time.