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"Something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue". So goes the old formula each new bride is reminded of for her wedding day to assure a good beginning. Let me focus today on the second item on the list - something new. There is a special-ness concerning something new. Whether it is a new purchase, a new attitude or a new beginning, things new generate an anticipation and excitement that old, borrowed or blue things do not. Two primary words are used in New Testament Greek for new. One is "KAINOS" which indicates something new in form or quality. The other word is "NEOS", indicating something new in respect of time. We can begin something KAINOS new thus improving the quality or form of what we are already doing, or we can start something NEOS new, signifying something recently begun that proceeds from that moment on. Or even better, we can do some of both. Starting today, our church’s web site will include a monthly “Inspirational Moment” which may include a “Pastor’s Point” message, poems or inspirational stories, some of which may be originals from our church members. Whether this is KAINOS or NEOS new, or even a little of both, is up to you to decide. In either case it is something new which we hope will be a blessing to all who access our web-site.
B.C. (Bill Catlett)
“Jesus
Was My Friend”
They
trussed and held in Jerusalem, one of the cities of the East,
Bringing against Him many groundless charges, but unable to convict him of
anything but love.
He
raised the dead man Lazarus after four days dead, decaying in his tomb¼
For
the cruelly vexed by demons and living in desert dwellings,
Many
good miracles were done by Jesus and powers from above.
But
they ordered Him to be crucified. They nailed Him up to die. |
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He was despised and rejected by men; a man of While at home once recovering from the flu, I took the occasion to watch a video movie given to me as a present one previous Christmas. I had not played it before because of its three and a half hour length, but then, with some time on my hands, I decided to view again that 1959 Academy, "Best Picture", Award Winner, BEN-HUR. After the title of BEN HUR, there was this subtitle: A Tale of The Christ by General Lew Wallace. As expected, much of the story is about Judah Ben Hur, a peace-loving prince of Judea whose heart turns to hate and whose life is driven by vengeance when he is betrayed and unjustly sentenced by his once Roman boyhood friend, Messala. Even though it is a story about Ben Hur, it is indeed also a story of the Christ and how he intersects the lives of persons. I was moved to tears near the movie's end when Judah Ben Hur, while bringing his leprous mother and sister to find Jesus, discovered him bearing his cross to be crucified. When Judah sees Jesus he says, "I know this man!", as he recalled a previous time their paths had crossed when Jesus had ministered unto him and given him hope to go on living. In the concluding moments of the film Judah returns to his house and tells how on the cross Jesus prayed before he died, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do", and at that moment the sword (of hate and vengeance) was taken from his hand and he at last had found peace and the capacity to love again in his heart. It is a story line not unlike yours and mine. The title of your story has your name in BOLD LETTERS. But there is also this subtitle: A Tale of The Christ, because Jesus is still about his Father's business, crossing the paths of humanity in their most desperate and needful moments. But when he comes to you and you see him and say, "I know this man and I want to follow him and know him even better," then something wonderful happens. Your old story ends with a new beginning where the subtitle becomes the title and the title, the subtitle: A TALE OF THE CHRIST - ( your name )'s Discovery of Forgiveness, Love, Joy and Peace . And what an Academy Award Winning story that turns out to be!
B.C. (Bill Catlett)
"How Much
Like the Master?"
When Jesus
died on Calvary,
A perfect
man ¼
He gave His life,
Are you
willing to accept the challenge,
Could you
bear the load of the cross,
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Pastor's Point:
Mother’s Day is for appreciating our mothers, both living and those who have passed on. The following poem speaks to us about the importance of one’s life as it relates to others, whether one has passed on or still living to influence her loved ones. If you mother is still among us, let her know how much she means to you while you can.
The Measure of a Woman
Not, how did she die? But, how did she live? Not, what did she gain? But, what did she give?
These are the merits to measure the worth Of a woman as a woman, regardless of birth.
Not, what was her station? But, had she a heart? And, how did she play her God-given part?
Was she ever ready with a word of good cheer, To bring forth a smile - to banish a tear?
Not, what was her church? Nor, what was her creed? But had she befriended those really in need?
Not, what did the sketch in the newspaper say? But, how many were sorry when she passed away?
(Author unknown) |
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Pastor's Point: The Lord spoke to the prophet Habakkuk and said, "Write my answer on a billboard, large and clear, so that anyone can read it at a glance and rush to tell others", (Habakkuk 2:2 Living Bible). That instruction to Habakkuk has been kept alive even until today as indicated by the following messages gleaned from church signs around our country. My thanks to a friend who shared this with me from his E-mail. I hope you'll enjoy, as I have, the humor as well as the seriousness of these billboard gems of truth. * Try our Sundays - they're better than Baskin-Robbins. * Searching for a new look? Have your faith lifted here!
* People are like tea bags - you have to put them in hot water
before you know * God so loved the world that He didn't send a committee. * Fight truth decay - study the Bible daily. * How will you spend eternity - Smoking or Non-smoking? * Dusty Bibles lead to dirty lives.
* Come work for the Lord. The work is hard, the hours are long
and the pay * It is unlikely there'll be a reduction in the wages of sin * If you don't like the way you were born, try being born again. * If you're headed in the wrong direction, God allows U-turns. * Forbidden fruit creates many jams. * If you can't sleep, don't count sheep, talk to the Shepherd. Habakkuk was instructed to set up his billboard so people could see the message clearly and then go and tell others. On our travels through these up coming summer months, let's allow our lives to be a billboard message of God's redeeming love. Remember, you may be the only billboard some will ever read. B.C. – June 2007 Special thanks to Lois Barrett who wrote the following poem in memory of Dennis Bryant:
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel,
I’m gonna walk up there to meet Him,
I want to join the Angel’s choir,
There’s a light at the end of the tunnel, There’s a light at the end of the tunnel. (Miss Lois Barrett – 05-20-07) |
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"It rained so hard the day I left, the weather it was dry; The sun so hot I froze to death, Susannah don't you cry..." Some of you of my generation may remember the strange words to that old peculiar song entitled "Ole Susannah". I never quite understood how it could rain so hard that the weather would be dry or how the sun could be so hot as to cause one to freeze to death. It taxes our imagination with its absurdity. I came across a scripture the other day that caused me to think of that old song with its contrasting comparisons. Proverbs 26:1 (Living Bible) reads: "Honor doesn't go with fools any more than snow with summertime or rain with harvest time!" With summertime upon us, the very idea of a snow day is unimaginable. So also, it would seem, the idea of an honorable fool. King Solomon was a wise observer of people. He understood that there were persons without honor who lived by their own code of right and wrong. Isaiah noted this as well as he prophesied in Isaiah 32:5-6a (Amplified Bible): "The fool (the ungodly) shall no more be called noble, nor the crafty and greedy for gain said to be bountiful and princely. For the fool speaks folly and his mind plans iniquity: practicing profane ungodliness and speaking error concerning the Lord...." To live honorably is to live by the righteousness that God has provided in His Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, not by the schemes our sinful nature devises. The apostle Paul gives us some practical advice for living honorably as Christians in chapters 4 through 6 of his letter to the Ephesians. In chapter 5:15-16 (Living Bible) he declares: "So be careful how you act; these are difficult days. Don't be fools; be wise: make the most of every opportunity you have for doing good." May we make it our aim to take every opportunity we have for doing good and enjoy a snow free summer in the righteousness of our Lord!
B.C.
Speaking of “Fools,” I received the following E-mail from a friend the other day which I thought was good to pass along to you through this month’s Inspirational Moments: In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation of Easter and Passover holidays. He decided to contact his lawyer about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while atheists had no holiday to celebrate. The case was brought before a wise judge. After listening to the long passionate presentation by the lawyer, the Judge banged his gavel and declared “case dismissed!” The lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, “Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? The Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances. Jews have Passover, Yom Kippur and Hanukkah...yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!” The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said, “Obviously your client is too confused to even know about, much less celebrate his own atheists’ holiday!” The lawyer pompously said, “Your Honor, we are unaware of any such holiday for atheists. Just when might that holiday be, your Honor?” The judge said, “Well it comes every year on exactly the same date---April 1st! Since our calendar sets April 1st as ‘April Fools day.’ consider that Psalm 141, Psalm 53 states, ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God,’ Thus, in my opinion, if your client says there is no God, then by scripture he is a fool, thus April 1st is his holiday!” Don’t you wish we had more Judges like that!!! B.C.
Pastor’s Point: Beginning July 29th, and going through the month of August, I will be preaching a series of messages entitled, God is Great, because…. I, like many of you, have heard the Muslim extremist and terrorist declare the words, “Allah Ackbah,” often before taking their life along with many innocent victims. It is their Arabic confession that, “God is Great!” I can say “Amen” to that, because God is indeed great, but what I do have trouble with is their meaning of God being great. I would like to have the chance to ask them what is it that they believe about God’s greatness by making that confession. What is so great in their understanding of God that allows them to commit acts of terrorism and espouse such hatred toward the rest of mankind who are not like them? It makes me wonder about the God they believe in, that maybe it is a god rather than The God—a god of their own self-serving creation and imagination rather than The God, who alone, can reveal the truth about himself. I have trouble believing it’s the same God who appeared to Moses and Abraham promising to bless the world through their linage, not curse it. In this series of messages we will be considering some things about God that indicate his greatness by using each of the five letters of the word GREAT. Hopefully, we who have come to know God through the full revelation of his Son, Jesus Christ, will be able to give an intelligent answer to anyone who may ask us why we believe God is great.
It was Stuart K. Hine who, in the early 1950’s, wrote the words and music to, “How Great Thou Art,” but most of us think of the strong bass voice of George Beverly Shay when we hear it played or sung:
O Lord my
God! When I in awesome wonder Then sings my
soul, my Savior God to Thee; Yes! God is indeed great, but only those who have seen the true revelation of God in Jesus Christ can really appreciate just how great God is, as stanza three testifies: And when I think that God His Son not
sparing, And God is great in what he is yet to do: When Christ shall come with shout of
acclamation, Now sing the chorus again with me in your heart if not out loud: Then sings my soul, my Savior God the
Thee; Those who confess “Allah Ackbah” need a better definition of “God is great.” They need to discover the greatness of God revealed in Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. And to that I say, “Amen and amen!!!” B.C.
September! Can it really be? Where did the summer go? Has David Copperfield been messing around with the calendar making days, weeks and months disappear? It seems that way sometimes, doesn’t it?
When time goes by so fast, we usually equate it with “having too much fun”. Well, it has been a fun and good summer (remember the “Family Fun Day?”) even if too short. Often we fail to really enjoy the days of our lives (not the soap opera, please). Pressured by daily cares, it happens that we may overlook the special wonder of each moment of life granted to us. The wise king Solomon wrote in Ecclesiastes 3:12-13 (Living Bible): “So I conclude that, first, there is nothing better for a man (person) than to be happy and enjoy himself as long as he can; and second, that he should eat and drink and enjoy the fruits of his labors, for these are gifts from God.”
I don’t believe Solomon meant that we were to be selfishly absorbed with our own self interest and looking out for good old #1 at the neglect of others. I do believe, however, that his advice can be a positive witness when we as believers know and can show how to enjoy life. Most of the world doesn’t know that being a Christian can be fun. Whose responsibility is it, do you suppose, for helping them to know? Do I really need to answer that question?
Labor Day may end our “lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer” as we move on to our fall schedule but let’s not let the potential for good and fun days ahead get lost in our busy-ness. With each new season before us may we in surprise wonder, “How could it have gone by so fast?”, because we enjoyed each moment to the fullest.
BC The Pastor's Point
An ancient Chinese proverb declares:
If there is right in the soul, There will be beauty in the person; If there is beauty in the person, There will be harmony in the home; If there is harmony in the home, There will be order in the nation; If there is order in the nation, There will be peace in the world.
This little proverb makes a series of reasonable assertions for attaining peace in our world, but it is silent regarding the most important assertion of all, i.e., "If there is ________ in the _______, There will be right in the soul." The question is: how does one have right in his soul?
The world does not have an answer for this proposition although it tries to answer it through more education, more welfare spending, more ways to shift blame, etc. The world is still groping in the darkness for an answer but refuses to come to the light that God has sent into the world in order that all might come to the truth.
It is in Romans 5:1 that we read, "Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." We have been made right (justified) through the atoning work of Christ on the cross and we access this blessing through faith. Peace in the world must needs begin with the individual's peace with God.
Christians know what the first assertion must be in order for the rest of the proverb to become a reality. "If there is Christ in the Heart , There is right in the soul." There is no other way.
May we who know the Prince of Peace keep on giving evidence to the world that His peace is keeping our hearts and minds content in Christ Jesus both now and forever more. Amen.
B.C.
You think it’s been dry here in Virginia, hear what a friend of mine in Georgia sent me about how dry it‘s been there: THE WEATHER IS SOO-OO---OO DRY! It's so dry in Georgia that the Baptists are starting to baptize by sprinkling, the Methodists are giving out wet-wipes, the Presbyterians are giving out rain-checks, and the Catholics are praying for the wine to turn back into water! Now that’s really dry!!!
B.C.
The Pastor's Point: As November enters our life once again our thoughts turn to Thanksgiving and the traditional family gathering for turkey and dressing and all the other good things we have reason to be thankful for. But let me ask you this: are you a Selective Thanks Giver? Are there those things for which you can openly give thanks for while some other things would be hard pressed to make your grateful list? Is it possible that we might not really know what we should and should not be thankful for? One of my favorite scripture verses is 1st Thessalonians 5:18 which reminds us that, “In all things give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” As a teenager I thought that verse was probably a mistake that some scribe must have copied wrong. I thought surely it was meant to read, “In all good things give thanks….” I thought: “Lord, I can thank you for wealth but not for meagerness; I can thank you for many nice new things but not for only a few old things; I can thank you for popularity, fame and notoriety but not for obscurity; I can thank you for good looks but not for plainness. But as I have lived, I have come to know that those who have attained wealth - many new and fine things, have gained popularity and have been blessed with good looks discover that riches, nice things, popularity and good looks often only tend to make persons self-centered, arrogant, rude, vain, prideful, possessive, selfish and even fearful of losing what they have. So then, the longer I live the more convinced I become that I am not smart enough to know how to thank God “selectively” for what happens or does not happen in my life. So instead of asking God to make me thankfully rich, thankfully titled with many fine things, thankfully popular or thankfully good looking, I ask him instead to make me thankfully wise enough to understand that 1st Thessalonians 5:18 is not in error but is the truth of God and is wise in its counsel for my life. Even Romans 8:28 gives us reason to be thankful in all things as it assures us that, “…in all things, God works for the good of those who love him….” So for all of us who have discovered that we are not as smart as we “use-ta-was” as teenagers, let us give thanks to God in all things (rich or poor, with much or little, famous or unknown, beautiful or not so) and rejoice to know that giving him thanks in all things has been his will for us, in Christ Jesus, all along. One of the things we all have reason to be thankful for is the lessons we learned from our mothers, as a friend recently reminded me in the following E-mail:
1.
My mother taught me TO APPRECIATE A JOB WELL DONE.
The Pastor's Point: The angel of the Lord declared to the shepherds, “I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you, he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger,” (Luke 2:10-12). As I think of the Christmas event, the song, “One of Us,” always comes to mind. It speaks of the miracle of Christmas in that God would, “become one of us on Christmas morning.” Where and how Jesus was born is significant to understanding just what this means to the world. Had Jesus been born in a palace, he would have been “One of them.” He would have been one of the privileged and unreachable. Few people have access to the privileged and elite in any society. VIP’s gather around those who are like themselves. If he had become, “One of them,” we today would likely regard the name of Jesus with a certain amount of disdain for his main concern and interest being for those also born to privilege. Had Jesus been born in his family’s home town of Nazareth, he would have been, “One of theirs.” We’ve all seen how clannish people can be when it comes to one of their own. Because of our possessive tendencies, we divide the world up into those who are with us and those who are not. Those whom we consider to be on the “inside” are our family and friends. Had Jesus become one of theirs, we might associate his name with bigotry as he ministered and cared primarily for those of the Nazarene Jewish clan. But Jesus was not born in a palace, nor was he born in his home town, nor was he born of man. He was born in a borrowed stable; born in a small and obscure village; born of a woman. He became “One of Us,” not one of them, not one of theirs. He became, “One of Us,” not even one of ours. He is God come to us in human flesh to become the spotless Lamb of God so that we might become, “One of His.” Mary had a Little Lamb; His life was white as snow; He came to be as “One of Us,” to help us all to know, That God the Father loves us so, He sent His Son to earth So each and every one may claim the blessings of new birth.
Mary had a Little Lamb, who grew into the man, God had wanted us to be, ‘til sin had marred His plan; So God then chose to robe Himself in human flesh that day, As a tiny baby, in a tiny town, sleeping on the hay.
Mary had a Little Lamb, that’s why we sing with joy, And celebrate at Christmas the birth of her little boy. WWC
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