When I Get Where I'm Goin

Lately, certain songs have touched my heart deeply. This is one of those songs...my heart literally aches with joy and sadness when I hear this song. Christians ought to be happy to be "going somewhere," which happens to be the abode of God--the Son, Jesus Christ, His Father, and of the Holy Ghost, not only that, but there is the hope of seeing those gone on there, and that place is devoid of the many things that make us hurt here. The key (or door to use His words) is our Lord Jesus Christ--no man comes to the Father or that place without the Son. He demands our lives, but promises a greater life in return--life with Him forever.

Update on Ruthie

This is to catch you guys up on my mother-in-law Ruth Colyer. I ask you all to continue to pray for her and for us and those around the family (friends and church family who are helping to care for her). She has finished radiation on her brain. MRI scans showed she has gallstones, and some more cancer growth. She needs your prayers for strength because she will soon embark on another round of chemo treatments for these growths. Pray for her physical comfort, as she is hurting badly from time to time. Also pray for her spiritual and physical strength as she goes through these difficult days, that she might be able to go successfully through treatment. Again, we are still praying for a miracle (Is anything to hard for the Lord?), so continue to pray and don't give up...we never know what can happen when we pray!

Love to all of you brothers and sisters,

Greg

Bye Sarah (part 2)

This is a post to again say an updated goodbye to our beloved Sarah Logsdon. Sarah, you have done so much for us at Community and we love you and thank you sister. May the Lord bless you wherever you go and may he make your time with your family fruitful!

After the World

One of my favorite bands for a while has been Disciple. This band is heavy heavy Christian rock (though some of you might say "no way!"). Anyways, this band puts a few acoustic songs on its records and its latest record, Scars Remain, contains this gem called "After the World". This song touches my heart, because it is about how the Lord is there leading us to Him, no matter what. It breaks my heart every time I hear them sing "...did I create, the rhythm your heart makes" because it does so many things to my mind...I remember Dad and how God created and appointed the day for his heart to cease beating, how that one day my heart will stop beating and I must face my Maker and Savior, and how that all these things give glory to God. Perhaps the song won't matter so much to you, but I commend it nonetheless...

You break the glass, try to hide your face
Recorded lines that just will not erase
And buried in your loss of innocence
You wonder if you'll find it again

Was I there for the worst of all your pain?
And was I there when your blue sky ran away?
Was I there when the rains were flooding you?
I hope you feel those were My tears falling down for you, falling down for you

I'm the One that you've been looking for
I'm the One that you've been waiting for
I've had My eyes on you ever since you were born
I will love you after the rain falls down
I will love you after the sun goes out
I'll have My eyes on you after the world is no more

Did I arrange the light of your first day?
Did I create the rhythm your heart makes?
Could you believe when your candle starts to fade?
I want to be the One that you believe
Could take it all away, take your heart away

Isn't My life a clear sign since I have crossed over this chasm
To fill the space between Me and you?
And I will do it all over again
Just look for Me, just wait for Me

The One you've been looking for
The One you've been waiting for
You won't have to look anymore

What's happening to the church?

Since I have been a Christian, several different views of the church have been mine.

First, when I was young, my view of the church was very limited, being confined to my local congregation, though I was not an active member till later in life. I had no thought as to what was going on in the wider church scene in America, nor did I know anything about other congregations except those stories and other tidbits given by visiting evangelists (in fact, I didn't think of evangelists as pastors--though many of them were!) I did not know or care if the church was growing in America...the things I knew that were most important to me about church were: 1) Jesus is God and Savior and He needs to "save" you if you want to go to heaven 2) That one should go to church 3) That I did not believe some things that science taught (like human evolution) because of my faith in the Bible.

I knew only the basics and continued that way for years. One other aspect in which I understood the God of my church was through conscience--in effect, I was a sinner that needed to be saved and I felt in my conscience when I did evil. I also came to believe that I was not saved after I was 17 or so because of the wickedness in my life.

It is at this point that I give you my second view of the church: something of which I did not want to be part. As I said, my life spiraled into sin and my conscience screamed that I was without the love of God. I had horrible nightmares about being separated from God. In the midst of all this, I refused to go to church because I wanted to get away from it. I figured that my conscience and raising would be dulled if I could ignore the church. I never could completely ignore the church, though.

The third way I looked at the church was as a necessary evil. My wife, whom I love asked me to go with her to church as a precondition when we began dating. I grudgingly agreed, and for the first time in many a year entered the corridors of my childhood church weekly. At first, I was not accustomed to the church as I had been...in fact, I was less worried about the church itself and more worried about Teya.

Then it happened...I was called by God to repent...my forth view of the church was born...I saw the church as my brothers and sisters and a body of which I was definitey a part and to which I definitely belonged. I loved the church (and still do). Upon entering this dynamic part of my Christian life, I began to recognize the efforts of churches across America, the state of the church in America, and other broader concerns. I had come a long way from the particular, traditional, and simple, to the world-wide, the dynamic, and the more complex in my view of the church.

How do I view the church now? Stay tuned...

Construction Work and the Bible

One of the favorite bits of wisdom that my late father used to share with me when I was young was that, regarding school, "its just like a house...first you pour a good foundation...that's what grade school is like Greg...that's why it is necessary to try to do well now!," he would say. Dad was a construction worker most of his life. Master plumber to be exact (and a darn good one to :) He was using Jesus technique of teaching truth by common analogy--taking his life and what I knew of it, and giving me encouragement on the purpose of early education through a picture of a house being built.

Having grown up, I have lost Dad's immediate presence for now but tonight I am thinking about his lesson in the context of what the Bible says about construction work. Actually, there is more than you might think...which is also interesting to me, since I am a plumber and construction worker too.

One of the first incidences of construction work in the Bible the building of the Ark by Noah (Gen. 6-9). A construction project was the assignment for Noah, the object of God's command to obedience for him. He had to build a boat to survive the Flood! Interesting that construction work is given a positive spin here in the Bible! This is a story of salvation. Just a few chapters earlier, we find another story about construction: "Cain...he built a city, he called the name of the city after his son, Enoch." (Gen. 4:17). This story shows construction work in a negative light, as the civilization of Cain's family would be completely destroyed, despite their technical competence, because they ignored the Lord God. So one way in which construction work is used in the Bible is its use as a picture of faith or unbelief. Depends on what one is building...it is no wonder that Jesus used two men building houses to picture a life of faith in Him and a life without such faith (Matt. 7).

Another way construction work is addressed in the Bible is regarding its use in sanctification (making God's people like Him through the course of life--not the same as "salvation" in the sense of forgiveness of sin). Exodus 35-40 give a detailed record of the contributions for, the builders of, and the blueprint of God's place of worship given to Moses for the Hebrew people. The purpose of the tabernacle, God's place of worship, was that the people might have a divinely appointed means of expressing their love for Him and service to Him. Many commentators have noted that the tabernacle of Moses was a picture of Christ: after all, Jesus transferred the meaning (in a sense), to Himself, when he said "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19), and this means that Christ, like the temple, is the appointed way, truth, and life, through which we relate to God, and through which we grow in Him. Paul puts it this way: "no one can lay any other foundation, than that which is already laid, which is Jesus Christ.." (I Cor. 3:11).

So there's at least two pictures: I'll give a third and rest. This picture is the way the Bible pictures the church of Jesus...it is a construction project...and Jesus is the project manager, the contractor, the mechanic, and the laborer that builds us into a body of people that love each other in their common salvation in Christ. Paul says "You are...God's building" (I Cor. 3:9), and also says in Ephesians: "...you are fellow citizens with saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." (Eph. 2: 20-22). What about that? The body of Christ's members have been saved individually by building on Him--they continue individually in their spiritual walk by building on the foundation of Christ in sanctification (growth in holiness), and they are built together, by the Lord, through His appointed means, into a holy temple in which they are living stones that cry out "Hosanna...blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!" (Matt. 21:9), and in whom, through the Spirit, Christ dwells, builds, and fashions!

Well, that is all for now. Construction work is given a prominent place in the metaphorical usage of the Bible to demonstrate spiritual truth. Thank God for using my lowly occupation (or if you must, the broader category my occupation is part of) in order to teach eternal truth. Thanks even more to my Father for giving me a sure foundation on which I can stand and have been standing at least since age 21. Like the words of the hymn:

"How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is held for your faith in His excellent Word; what more can He say, than to you He hath said, to you who to Jesus for refuge have fled."

God bless

Greg

Childhood Conversion

Basically, here is a one sentence summation of my intent in the poll I offered ealier in the year on salvation experience: Is there really any way to tell if childhood conversion is for real, if it is followed by a long season of departure from the faith? Furthermore, is it possible to verify childhood conversion considering most of the people who believed they where saved at a young age totally ignore Christ and spurn Him at some point for a while (much longer than Peter's short defection)?

I wouldn't make an issue out of this if everybody saved young didn't experience this kind of departure from LORD! I mean, it is near uniform in many cases...declared saved at 8-12 years old in SBC church by "coming forward to confess Christ" then later, the person becomes in many ways what is opposed to Christ. What gives?

Here is my initial impression: a lot of childhood conversions are bogus. Later in your life, many, many of the people who are supposedly converted as children do business with God that becomes the basis of their Christian life. Most do not (as, for example, James Dobson), remain faithful from their young age.

This is all I've got for now, but promise to continue this topic in a little while.

Blessings,

Greg