What’s In Your Hand? - David

Heading into the fourth of July holiday weekend, you’ll see a number of war movies and such on the movie channels regardless of who your TV provider is and the other night the wife and I were watching a newer release of the WW2 era movie Midway. The strategy that followed the work of a room full of musicians turned codebreakers was a fascinating twist I wasn’t aware of before. As I watched some of the fighting sequences, the movie reminded me of a documentary I had seen a few months ago on the Military channel about the evolution of weaponry from the Civil War era to today.

Comparatively speaking, the often homemade lead ball rounds that were fired from the old flint lock style rifles and pistols in the civil war were really crude compared to today’s capabilities. It’s a whole different world where fired and launched projectiles and “smart bullets” can turn corners and change directions on the way to their target. The last twenty-five years of weapons technology have been staggering, especially in military and para-military circles.

This coming Sunday, we will launch a new series for July entitled, “What’s In Your Hand” by looking at a young teenager named David that brought a sling to a sword fight. We’ll see how God used him to shock the known world as we see what happens when we learn to use the weapons God has placed in our hands, however crude they may sometimes be, to bring us victory and also bring Him glory in the process. I wonder what your most effective weapon might be; your looks? your personality? your mind? your money? or something else? Whatever it is, when it’s surrendered to the will of God, can be used in powerful ways. Join us on Sunday as we learn from David how to put those weapons, whatever they might be, to good use.

Is Social Media the New Babel? - Conflict

Like it or not, conflict is a part of life. The nation of Israel became a nation in 1948 out of conflict and there has been conflict in that part of the middle east ever since. The United States became a nation largely out of conflict, first with the religious oppression by the Church of England, then out of the governmental frustration of taxation without representation. The Revolutionary War for America’s independence was fought over those two things. The Civil War, fought largely around the issue of slavery, sometimes pitted family members fighting against each other and the human carnage was significant. More recently the global conflict of terrorism, which is both social and religious, became a front and center issue for Americans on 9/11, 2001. Then there was the rioting and pillaging of a number of American cities following the death of George Floyd and the January 6th attack on the capitol last year. The point is that there is no time in history that man has not been in conflict with one another.

I wonder, in trying to answer the “Is Social Media the New Babel” question, if the fact that some of our back and forth conflict is emboldened because we are not face to face with each other.

But enough about our conflict with each other and on to our conflict with God. Did he just say that we’re in conflict with God? Absolutely. In fact, according to scripture, much of our conflict with each other is as a direct result of our conflict with God, and as we are learning from the folks at Babel, that’s not really a place any of us want to be living. So what do we do about that? If we’re wise, we repent and return to Him, if we’re not...

The Perfect Father

Do a quick search for favorite TV Dads and you will find results that are all over the map. One had Homer Simpson, another had Danny Tanner from Full House and yet another had Phil Dunphy from Modern Family. While none of these TV dads are evil incarnate or societal reprobates, I, for one, look at those results and think the bar must be pretty low for any of them to outpace the Andy Griffith Show’s Andy Taylor or Little House on the Prairie’s Charles Ingles, both of whom showed up further down the list on several surveys. I wonder if that’s a reflection of how our culture views fatherhood. I wonder if our culture actually wants dads to be mere placeholders that are incapable, uninformed and out of touch. I wonder if our efforts to marginalize dads and going a step further to feminize males in general, have been successful. According to Pew Research, greater than 80% of incarcerated males and greater than 70% of incarcerated females had no father in the home. The results of both of those kinds of surveys are both telling and alarming. Telling in terms of how little the expectations are for the roles of fathers in American culture, and alarming in terms of a significant portion of the crime in our cities and neighborhoods can and should be laid at the feet of absentee dads. Dads that have chosen to bail or to check out when their families are needing their leadership the most. Well, while there are no perfect dads that have ever graced the scene, there are some perfect principles and practices that we can put in place to help insure that our families aren’t included in the stats I just mentioned. Join us this Father’s Day as we learn from a Perfect Father what to put in place that will lead us as dads to a more perfect result.

Is Social Media the New Babel? - Confusion

This past Sunday, we launched a new series called “Is Social Media the New Babel?”

Whether you were able to join us in person or online, I hope you walked away with the conviction that in a culture that is increasingly motivated by conformity and sameness, we are, indeed, called to live differently. To stick out and to be salt and light.

This week, we will look together at the idea of Confusion within the context of Babel. In a world where those who believe in absolutes are increasingly rare, confusion is one of the enemy’s most powerful tools to keep us crippled and still.

Perhaps the best known comedy bit of all time is Abbott and Costello’s, “Who’s on First.” The bit is truly a picture of confusion and miscommunication. I wonder if there have been moments in your life where you felt like Lou Costello. Desperately trying to make sense of the world around you, seeking answers, and only growing increasingly confused, especially if the primary source for where you get your news happens to be social media. If that’s ever been you, I hope you’ll join us this Sunday as we look at what we can learn from Babel in the Bible about confusion. Because, at the end of the day, God wants us living with confidence, not confusion.

Have you ever wondered why the story of the Tower of Babel was included in the Bible? It’s story really does nothing to advance the kingdom, reveal the provisional or redemptive work of God, or even serve as a back story to the Jewish people or to Christianity. If anything, it detracts from those things just on a practical level. Even though it’s chronologically recorded in the section of the Bible that deals primarily with history, could it be that it was intended to be prophetic? In fact, if we pulled it out and set it into modern day culture, should the question be asked, “Is Social Media the New Babel?”

Rescue 911 - From Darkness

Instead of walking, I decided to ride my bike to school one day during my 9th grade year of Junior High School. That was the first and last day that would happen and here’s why. By the time we finished football practice and I got showered and dressed, it was dark outside. With a couple of books under my arm (one with an almost completed assignment in it) I hopped on my bike and started the mile ride home. About half way home I decided that the alleys would be a shorter route than the streets and headed down the alley way between my street and the one behind mine. It was pretty dark but I had ridden that alleyway before in daylight so I wasn’t worried about hitting anything. Well, alleyways in the dark and in the daylight are much different propositions. In the first couple of blocks alone I ran over the tail of a cat (at least I think it was a cat) that darted in front of me, ran through a puddle of water I couldn’t see that almost ruined my new leather sneakers and ran over a downed tree limb that caused me to drop my books and lose the near completed assignment. Then, with a couple of blocks left to ride, it began getting harder to pedal and I discovered that my rear tire had gone flat. All in all, not great night in dark alley that I should have avoided in the first place. (Did I mention that I was a 9th grader?)

The dark has a way of concealing things that, when exposed in the light of day, we would ordinarily stear clear of. That’s true in the social realm and in the spiritual realm as well. When we choose to willingly associate ourselves with darkness, there are going to be consequences to those decisions. Is there a way out of the darkness you ask? Absolutely, but it first requires recognizing the prince of darkness himself, then putting some boundaries, some guardrails in place to serve as reminders in the future.

Rescue 911 - From Cultural Persecution

The Tennessee baseball team is enjoying tremendous success with a record of 43 wins against only 6 losses. In an interview a few weeks ago following a series sweep on the road against the Florida Gators, head coach Tony Vitello was asked what he had done to change the culture of the Tennessee baseball program in such a short time, taking the Vols from the bottom of the SEC to the College World Series in just 4 years. He responded by crediting his coaching staff with instilling a culture of winning games by teaching the team to win in practice, one repetition at a time. He also said that the team had had embraced his continual message of paying attention to the details saying that when we can focus on taking care of the smaller things that we can actually control, that the bigger things will have a way of taking care of themselves. Whether you agree or disagree with his messaging, one can’t argue the results that the team is having on the field for the last couple of seasons and especially this year. He has built a culture within the program that is working.

What about our actual American culture though that isn’t working? One that pits the right against the left, immorality against morality, and freedom against ever-increasing government control. Will coach Vitello’s methods work there too or are our divisions deeper than that? I guess that depends on whether you believe the cultural problems we have here are political, financial, even moral, or whether they are spiritual. Make no mistake, if you can’t see that we are in a values war in this country, you have your head in the sand. So, how do we live in victory in the face of increasing persecution from the “tolerance” crowd. And, more importantly, how can we do that and walk out a “love thy neighbor” faith at the same time?

Rescue 911 - Even Moms Need Rescue

I had just gotten to bed around 11:00 when the phone rang. It was my mom on the other end saying, “Something is wrong with your dad,” and asked if I could come over to help. I could hear the fear in her broken voice and got dressed as quickly as I could and drove to their house. My dad was sitting up with his eyes glazed over and as I yelled into his face and pinched him on the leg as hard as I could, I got no response. I told mom to call 911, since his skin was still warm and I got a weak pulse in his neck, I continued to try to get him to respond but to no avail. The first responders arrived and, over the protests of my mom, tried to resuscitate dad with a breathing tube. They got a weak but fading pulse and got him into the ambulance and rushed him to the hospital. I helped Mom gather a couple of things and drove her there behind the ambulance. She sat silent on the way there, I think knowing what the outcome would be. We learned in the ER that Dad had experienced and massive stroke and that there was no brain function whatsoever. So, after consulting with us, she told the doctor to disconnect him from the breathing tube and we watched him go to be with the Lord.

During every step as that night unfolded, I never felt so helpless in my life. My mom had called me to come to the rescue and there was absolutely nothing I could do to erase the fear I saw in her eyes for the first time in my life. This woman who was a pillar of strength and who had faced everything in her path with such great faith now looked, for the first time to me, weak and vulnerable. I learned that night that Even Moms Need Rescue and that true rescue has to come from the Lord.

Rescue 911 - From Trials

“If God really loves me, then why does my life seem to be going through this meat grinder?” That was the question that started the conversation between me and a friend several years ago. I won’t go into the specifics of his trials but let’s just say that he went from one hard place to another, and then another. As a believer, he started out trying to see the lesson that he thought God wanted him to learn, but then as his circumstances started compounding difficulty upon difficulty, it became obvious that there was real persecution going on and the enemy was seeing to it that he was being consumed by it. As I sat there listening to his story, I almost began to wonder what he had done to get on God’s bad side myself. I say almost because know that when the scripture asks, “What can separate us from the love of God?” It answers its own question with absolutely nothing.

It’s not the easiest thing to get someone who is in the grinder to see that the trials of life are meant to be for our good, when we know Jesus as our Savior. It’s even harder to encourage them to trust the process when all that on their mind is deliverance. And, though rescue will come, it will never be as quickly as we want, and seldom in the way we want. Perhaps you are going through a trial today that has you wondering if it will ever end. Can I give you a couple of pieces of good news? God sees you, He loves you, has His best for you, and will rescue you. However, it’s going to take both trust and patience on your part to see those things. God is not out to “get” you, regardless of what your circumstances are saying. It is often as simple as understanding that we are in a broken world and have a real enemy, both of which God wants to use for our good and for His glory.

Rescue 911 - From Myself

One summer during the mid-seventies the part time summer youth leader at our church, who played football for the Vols, had a significant impact on my life. He kind of took me under his wing and became a mentor to me for those few months as he discipled me in the faith. One of the things he would occasionally do was come by and pick me up and take me with him to work out and lift weights at the UT weight room, which at that time was in the basement of the Stokely Athletics Center. One day I was feeling a little full of myself and added an extra 25 pounds to the barbell I was about to bench press. He just smiled and asked me if I was sure I wanted to do that. As I said I was, he just turned and walked away turning back around to make sure I didn’t kill myself. My intent to do 10 reps turned into one and there I lay with the barbell seemingly glued to my chest. I could neither lift it nor get out from in under it and after 20-30 seconds of frustration and embarrassment the bar started to roll up my chest and toward my neck, I yelled “A little help here,” and he quickly came to my rescue. We talked on the way home about how lifting weights is a lot like our spiritual growth. We’ll get much better results if we will see it as a process where we become more mature one small step or one situation at a time.

The fact is, that sooner or later in life, we will all need to be rescued. And the frustration grows when I come to realize that I am my own worst problem. I knew better than to add that extra 25 pounds to the bar but pride and ego got the best of me and I couldn’t get out of my own way. I’m grateful that, just like Terry was looking out for me knowing I was about to need his help, God is always looking out for our need to be rescued by Him. Join us this Sunday as we launch Rescue 911 by looking at our need to sometimes be rescued from ourselves.