WITNESS: Our clandestine public relations campaign!

I stopped into one of our landmark “greasy spoons” the other day. Many senior church members have sworn by the personnel and the menu. I decided to give it a chance.

Nothing on the menu caught my eye, so I ordered that old standard chili, topped with onions and grated cheese. I canceled the cheese after learning it cost an extra 50 cents (that’s over $30/lb. if you’re interested).

However, the waitress forgot to tell the cook “no cheese,” so it arrived with onions and cheese. When told, the cook (visibly irritated by this infraction of the rules) grabbed the bowl and angrily scrapped the cheese off.

Unfortunately for me, he also scrapped off a ½ inch of my chili and the nice pile of finely chopped fresh onion. When I eventually got my bowl of cold, canned, microwave chili it was sprinkled with large and “potent” chunks of onion.

Now, as I tried to smother the quickly coagulating lump with a ½ pound or so of stale soda crackers, I was distracted by loud coughing. It only took a second to realize it was the cook. With uncovered and open mouth, he wandered about the kitchen hacking his nicotine clogged lungs onto everything not covered or in a cabinet.

Trying to be fair I thought to myself, “It’s okay, after all I’ve probably consumed worse raising six kids.” But then the cook applied the coup de grâce by inserting his index finger to his second knuckle in the nostril of his choice.

I don’t think I’ll tell anyone at the church I ate at the Village Inn, I’m afraid they’ll ask me how I liked it.

Many believers are allowing their churches to become the “greasy spoons” of the spiritual community.

Only the Mormons seem to avoiding this public relations disaster. Worse, many members of these churches, as well as members of some of our finer churches seem to be unaware that they are being watched.

Christianity, Illustrations,
Religion, Witness

KOINONIA: The fellowship of believers!

A salesman drove his car into a ditch; nearby was a farm where he asked the owner if he had a tractor to get his car back on the road.
“Nope, but I got my mule, Blue.” Replied the farmer.
“I doubt a mule is strong enough to pull it out.”
“You don't know Blue!” The mule's proud owner responded. So Blue was hitched to the vehicle.
“Pull, Blue!” The car didn't move. So the farmer called out, “Pull, Elmer!” It moved a little. The farmer yelled, “Pull, Biscuit,” and the car was free.
“Thank you so much,” said the truck owner. “But I’ve a question. You called your mule by three different names. Why?”
“Simple,” said the farmer. “Blue’s blind. If he thought he was the only one pulling, your car would still be in that ditch tomorrow!”

Christianity, Illustrations,
Fellowship, Religion

ECCLESIOLOGY: A Very Peculiar People!

On the MSN Home Page there is a link called “The Word of the Day.” Each day a new word is supplied to the site by Microsoft's Encarta. One word offered was:

sui generis | soo-eye-JEH-nuh-russ or soo-ee-JEH-nuh-russ | adjective: constituting a class alone : unique, peculiar

Example sentence:

"No one before or since has had such a blend of wildness and vulnerability, such pretty-boy looks crossed with such rawness ... James Dean was sui generis." (Robert DiMatteo, Video Review, December 1990)

The selection went on to explain:

English contains many terms that ultimately trace to the Latin forms "gener-" or "genus," (which are variously translated as "birth," "race," "kind," "gender," and "class"). Offspring of those roots include "general," "generate," "generous," "generic," "degenerate," and "gender." But "sui generis" is truly a one-of-a-kind "gener-" descendant that English speakers have used for singular things since the late 1700s.

Its earliest uses were in scientific contexts, where it identified substances, principles, diseases, and even rocks that were unique or that seemed to be the only representative of their class or group. By the early 1900s, however, "sui generis" expanded beyond solely scientific contexts and is now used more generally for anything that stands alone.

Seems to me God used this concept long before the 1700s. In fact, I believe it was first used by a man called Simon, later known as Peter, in the first century AD. I believe he wrote something like:

"But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God's OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY."

1 Peter 2:9-10

And if my memory serves me correctly, the folks who translated the KJV said we are a "peculiar" people.

God long ago decided that all of His children should be sui generis – in “a class alone,” unique and peculiar.

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion

DAY OF REST: Because We want To!

"God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it …"

Genesis 2:3 [see also Exodus 31:12-13]

"on the first day of the week …"

Acts 20:7

"let no one act as your judge in regard to … a Sabbath Day"

Colossians 2:16-17

A museum gardener wants to rest on the seventh day – whether the museum is busy or not.

Muriel Taten, 70, of Old Westbury, NY, has sued Nassau County over a requirement that she work Sundays at a colonial museum, which is busiest on the weekends. She believes she should be in church.

Mrs. Taten’s work schedule of 21 years at the Old Bethpage Village Restoration was changed in June. She said she used vacation days to get Sundays off. And when they ran out, she filed a … lawsuit.

Many, who claim Christ, faithfully observe two key Christian events each year: Christmas and Easter. Yet there are 50 other days each year which they quite easily profane. It seems contemporary believers have become insensitive to the real meaning of the Lord’s Day!

Then again, we must be careful, for our obedience is voluntary. We keep the Lord’s Day as a memorial of the gift of Grace provided by the Father through the Son. To keep it “because God said to” is like being faithful to your wife, “because God said to.” We are faithful to our spouses because we want to, not because we have to!

Recently a church made an agreement with a market to use its parking lot each Sunday. The market had only one condition: park there 51 Sundays per year but set aside one Sunday as a “NO PARKING DAY” in order to remind members who owned the lot.

So too ought we to set aside one day out of seven to remember who gave us the other six.

[“Hey, God did it,” San Gabriel Valley Daily Bulletin, November 2, 1997, A19]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion

CONSECRATION: Let’s Get Cirrus!

“Sir, we wish to see Jesus”

John 12:20-21

Freshly graduated from seminary, a minister of a small Texas church in an area suffering from drought, went to visit a farmer-church member one hot afternoon.

Leaning on a fence, they discussed the weather. "Those are serious clouds over there," the old man said, pointing southwest. "Don’t you mean Cirrus? Actually, they're probably Cumulus," the newcomer stated somewhat smugly.

The old man eyed him for a moment, then said, "Yung'un, they's just two kinds of clouds -- them what's serious and them what ain't."

Church folks are like that farmer’s clouds; some’re serious, some ain’t!

[Adapted from "Life In These United States" by All Henager; © 1996; The Reader's Digest Association, Inc., all rights reserved]

Christianity, Illustrations, Religion

APOSTASY: What the world now calls backsliding!

GOING BLIND SILENTLY: [Proverbs 29:18a]

Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained, but happy is he who keeps the law.

Without warning, Jane Berry's father went blind in one eye; the cause was glaucoma. He immediately encouraged his 26-year-old daughter to be tested; she was shocked to learn she also had the eye disease.

Often called "tunnel vision," glaucoma destroys peripheral or side vision. It's caused by a build-up of fluid pressure inside the eye; the eye can't tolerate the pressure, so the main nerve transmitting vision to the brain is damaged. The change is so subtle that by the time a person realizes they have a problem, it's usually too late. Sort of like the proverbial frog in the kettle.

Estimates suggest over 67 million people have glaucoma globally, of whom nearly seven million will go blind owing to late diagnosis or inadequate treatment.

Glaucoma is now the second most common cause of vision loss worldwide and a major factor in car and pedestrian accidents. Doctors urge everyone over 40 to be tested, especially now that a new more effective treatment, with fewer side effects, can help people with glaucoma. One drop per day reduces eye pressure in up to 90 percent of patients who submit to the treatments.

Although it hasn't occur without "warning," the body of Christ is suffering from a similar and untreated problem with its vision. Many, especially the young, truly believe it won't happen to them. The Bible warns, "Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained."

Is there any longer any doubt that "the people are unrestrained"? A people can’t lay hold of the "hope set before [them]" [Hebrews 6:18; cf. Philippians 3:14] if they don't have a vision for that hope. In fact, neither you nor your church can move forward without vision.

Often called "backsliding," apostasy destroys faith and practice. It is brought about by a hardening of the heart. An undernourished heart can't stand secular pressure, so the link between the heart and the mind is damaged. The change is so subtle that by the time a person or church senses the problem they are already apostate. In many cases, we can watch as the Body goes silently blind.

Estimates are that over three quarters of the church in America is has lost its vision, of which more than half are virtual apostates. Sin is the primary cause of apostasy and is the leading cause of individual and family failures in this land.

Since September 11, 2006, church leaders throughout the land have been pleading with the people to get treatment. It's free! The treatment is simple, go to the Word and nourish the heart.

Estimates are that 75 percent of those who do will be cured; the remaining 25 percent can't be cured because they don't have apostasy, they suffer from unbelief. But, Praise the Lord, there's a cure for unbelief also, and it is free! [Ephesians 2:8]

OBEDIENCE - It is not negotiable!

THE CHIEF’S COMMAND! [Various Scripture; Church, Discipleship, Sanctification, Service]

During WWII the North African Campaign was in a mess and General Montgomery was sent to clean it up. I’m told his first order was as follows: “The orders of the Commander-in-Chief will no longer be open to interpretation ... just action.”

God will not bully or threaten those He has chosen. No gun will be put to anyone's head; no one will be dragged, kicking and screaming into heaven.

We may choose to obey or disobey. Yet there are those who insist they’re obedient, but clearly are not! Such is the problem of the twentieth century.

Were I chosen to write the epitaph for the church of this century, I would write: CLAIMED GREAT PROCLAMATION; PROCLAMATION LEFT UNPROCLAIMED.

[Editor's note: apologies to whomever I acquired this from; I’ve long forgotten its source]