Enjoy God's Beauty
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Enjoy God's Beauty
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Dear Church Family and Friends, In his book, The New Absolutes, William Watkins contrasts two old and new religious values at the beginning of Chapter 4, which is entitled Freedom from Religion. The old absolute was “Religion is the backbone of American culture, providing the moral and spiritual light needed for public and private life.” The new absolute being promoted is “Religion is the bane of public life, so for the public good, it should be banned from the public square.” This pushing and limiting religious expression to our homes and churches has resulted in many changed behaviors by Christians. One of those resultant changes was highlighted this year on Tuesday evening by Rev. Darrell Hazard at the Boyertown District Family Camp. As Darrell focused on Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, he told us that Jesus was calling his closest disciples to go a little farther in their faith as he prayed in the garden. He bid them to come with him, and to watch and pray for the hour of trial was about to arrive. But each time he returned he found them not praying, but sleeping. The point that Rev. Hazard was decrying in the church that night was the fact that many of the followers of Jesus have become quite content with mediocrity in their walk with the Lord. How have we embraced mediocrity today? I remember Herb Maurer saying that anytime the church doors were open for worship, prayer, or revival that he would be there. He would also exhort and invite others to come as well. We have often become mediocre in our prayer lives, like the disciples, we don’t put much effort, time, or energy into prayer. What ever happened to Wednesday night prayer meetings, where the saints gathered to pray for healing, divine assistance through life’s trials, and for the salvation of the Lost. We have become mediocre in apologetics, the explaining and defending of our beliefs to others because we have a mediocre understanding of the scriptures and the teachings of the church. Can we explain the Trinity to those asking honest questions? Do we know the difference between a sacrament and an ordinance in the Church of God? Can we explain our beliefs and practices based upon passages located in the Bible. Are we willing to take up our crosses and follow Jesus, to take a stand for what Jesus said and did? Or are we quite content with doing the minimum in our service to Jesus and his Kingdom in this life? Rev. Hazard made the following statements to his congregation one Sunday morning. “God has placed you in this fellowship so that you can serve him with your talents, time, and energy. God has spiritually gifted you so that you can serve and build up this body of believers. This church needs all of these things from every person God has placed here. If you are coming each week to put in your time, place your butt in the seat, and begrudgingly give and serve - and then only when hard-pressed, doing so with a bitter spirit and a martyr’s expression on your face – then I have a request of you. Leave! The Lord and this congregation need your seat! We need people who passionately want to serve, grow, and exercise their giftedness as together we seek to bring God’s Kingdom to life in our midst. We need to give God our best efforts, not our leftovers or the scraps from our table. We need to challenge ourselves to dig a little deeper, and go a little farther if we want to see the power of God actually at work around us – transforming our world.” Brothers and sisters, revival begins within each of us. Paul exhorted young Timothy “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” Don’t let your spiritual energy, life and giftedness smolder, but fan them into flames. God’s Kingdom and our congregation need and deserve our best efforts. Let us jointly pledge to abandon mediocrity and to do Our Best (#526 Grey hymnal).
In His Steps, Pastor Bill
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