Our next big holiday is almost upon us.  We do enjoy our fourth of July celebrations.  Chances are there are more people on vacation over these next two weeks than at any other time of the year.  Some head to sunny destinations such as the beach.  My thought was to get away from the heat during these summer months.  The summer we spent in New Mexico was great.  Nothing beats the heat like having to pull on a sweatshirt in the evening.  It would seem that I am in the minority.  Anyway, this holiday is much like any other in that we tend to forget its original meaning.  One would think that reason for celebrating would stand out given our recent Supreme Court decisions.  We as believers are going to come to grips with new realities in our country. 

We can debate whether or not our nation was conceived as a Christian nation.  History would say that God played a huge role in all of our early days.  It may be that not all of our founding fathers were the types of Christian we would recognize today.  What you cannot escape from seeing is that the vast majority did indeed look to God as their source.  Some would write and talk about His providence to shape our land.  Others were more like us in faith and practice.  There would be a few who might be outside those labels but even they would view God as critical to a healthy nation. 

Now we live at a time it is easy to conclude we are no longer a Christian nation.  Please do not misunderstand me on this.  Our history remains intact.  We do have more churches than most any other country.  Freedom still exists to worship or share our faith as we feel led.  But our court made it obvious over the last few weeks that the earth is moving beneath our feet.  Believers or people in general with those old fashioned values are in the minority now at least in terms of the values that are growing daily.  Odds are decent that it gets worse before or if it ever gets better.  So what are we going to do about it?

Let me make a long story short since we spent so much time introducing the basic idea.  My thought is we love people while growing in faith so lives can be changed.  Sounds like basic evangelism doesn't it?  Here is what I mean.  We cannot spend so much energy talking about what is wrong with others to the point we forget to love those who sin mightily.  We could spend a whole lot less time just moving stuff around in church because we are afraid of a pagan world.  We get so consumed by fixing the church that we neglect to be the church.  I have a weird idea about such things.  I still think the shape of the church is to be determined by who we are when touching the lives of others.  Most times we think the church should look like us.  I may be totally wrong but I would still disagree. 

The way back to being a Christian nation is by making more Christians.  That is how Jesus changed His world so many years ago.  It takes little more than a willingness to try.  We do have all of the tools.  But do we have the heart?

Bro. Trey

So far these summer days are flying by. June is quickly passing with July picking up steam to replace it. Four summer movies are in the rear view mirror as my son and I already saw them.  Sounds like there are more to catch in the next month.  He seems to expect the people who work at the theater to recognize him upon entrance.  Lucky for us they do know him when he arrives.  Most of my identity revolves around being his dad now  There are worse jobs to have.

We did have a great time at church today.  It was one of our eating days after the morning service.  Some of the gardens are coming in a bit so there was lots of good eating.  If the service was anywhere close to the lunch then we are in good shape.  There was good news in relation to our recent prayer list.  Our technical stuff went without a hitch.  Even our night gathering was worth the time.  There are occasions when things just get funny and this was one of those times.  It's been awhile since I laughed that hard.

We are going to stop with this post quickly.  My keyboard is not cooperating at all and my once sunny disposition is clouding rapidly.  I hit a key and nothing happens.  Sometimes it just refuses to put on the screen what I type.  Speaking in tongues is an option but they wouldn't be the best of words.  So let me enjoy the evening then try again tomorrow.  Yikes!

Bro. Trey

You once again do not need me to tell you that it is summer around here.  We hit the season of heat and humidity here in Texas.  People are already far into their travel plans over the next few months.  I sometimes wonder why some go to places where it is this hot for their escapes.  My vote is to take off for cooler climates wherever they may be.  It is obvious that not everyone consults me on their plans.  So far the only place my world is going is back into the past.

We are still on the early stretch of our look at 1 Samuel on Sunday mornings.  That is a distance of about 3000 years in the past.  Scripture tells us how God will work through a young boy to set into motion the renewal of a nation.  No one expected such an event yet it still came to pass.  Surely there was not a soul who could imagine it would begin with one perhaps as young as an early teenager.  But our plans are seldom what God intends.  He seems to choose people in His value not ours.  We do still miss that far too often.  Our measure is usually our position or experience when we come to God.  He sees past that into our heart. 

What makes this happen is God's word.  This time we are not talking about scripture but His active voice in the present tense.  Samuel will learn at the start what it is to have God actively speaking to his life.  It is that call that changes everything in his life and the life of a nation.  One of the greatest drawbacks to contemporary spiritual life is we just do not imagine that God would talk to us.  Maybe we figure our life is that unimportant.  Perhaps we draw up artificial obstacles to taking that risk.  To miss this is to miss half of the equation of our praying and our maturity.  The other character in this story no longer seems to grasp God speaking.  Eli seems dim to what divine action is taking place around him.  It is that coldness that leads to divine judgment rather than blessing. 

God communicating with us means we are alive.  We know Him enough to recognize that divine call.  That is an amazing gift to us who are His followers.  We are given the  opportunity to hear a holy God share His insight with us.  How profound becomes our world when we realize that truth?  Even the most normal of believer would end up in a new sphere of life and growth.  That is not just something from our past but for our present.

Bro. Trey

Much of my journey revolves around music.  This does not mean I possess any talent in music but it does matter to me.  I even get to keep up with the latest pop hits since my youngest keeps the radio set to one of those stations.  It may not keep me young but it does keep me in the loop.  Some of the current songs are pretty good.  Groups like fun, Mumford and Sons put out some excellent songs.  But like any generation there are other songs that just escape me.  My guess is our grandparents and then our parents said the same thing in years past.

I may be biased but my view is the generation of music during my growing up years was the best.  We got to hear the Beatles just prior to the break up.  Groups like the Eagles or Boston were setting out on the path to fame.  Now they call most of my music classic or something like that.  It may not mean it was good but that it is old.  Artists like Elton John were young when I first heard them.  Now they are recognized more for their work in movies or stage.  One singer just after my generation won a Tony award this past week for the music on a Broadway show.  Bands that were making hits back then are now gathering for reunion tours.  The cycle just continues.

One good thing was my exposure to all types of music.  My parents still had albums from their day that I heard.  Some days you could hear me listening to Frank Sinatra, Elvis or even going back to The Kingston Trio.  Even singers like those in the old "Ratpack" made my list.  This does not even begin to cover my exposure to gospel music.  Most of my education with gospel revolves around the standard hymns along with the old shaped note songs.  Those are the songs that remain in my memory as time goes by.  Many a night was spent singing or hearing those great tunes sung in church or in homes.  And let me say that I am the better for it. 

Now part of my job includes selecting then leading songs on Sundays.  Trying to balance the old and the new is a constant effort.  We sang mostly fairly new songs last Sunday.  Some probably enjoyed more than others.  This week will be a return to some old songs from various sources.  What is always funny to me is that some of the old music is new to a few.  We seldom think of the music as just Christian but it has to be new or old for some reason.  Familiarity with a song replaces the meaning of the message.  Just allowing music to guide us to worship is still a lost art for too many.  We will too often try to win the worship war to get our type of music to be the main thing.  What we fail to see is we then lose the battle to just worship.  No one ever wins in that conflict.

Bro. Trey

It doesn't take a genius to figure out our world is in a bizarre state.  One can hardly imagine how much worse it can be.  We have people with guns that open fire on the innocent.  Now we read of our government looking into our private lives.  This does not begin to count the varied social ills that fill our news cycles.  The question becomes how do healthy people live in an unhealthy world?  We cannot just escape nor isolate our lives from what goes on around us.  This was never the intention of Jesus in His instructions to those who would follow.  Our task is to change our world before that world changes us.

Our recent study of 1 Samuel comes in handy in facing this issue.  That was a day far too similar to ours.  3000 years ago you read how faithful believers would behave when no one seemed to even try.  One writer describes the actions of Elkanah and Hannah as simple but profound.  I like that phrasing of their life.  You do not read of their being obnoxious or arrogant but rather a quiet humility in the face of ugliness.  They will pray, obey, and live life in that bold but simple faith.  Profound is the best word to understand how that contrasts to others around them.

The sons of Eli serve as the opposite to the simple and profound.  One version of scripture calls them scoundrels.  That would be insulting to those who are scoundrels.  Neither son shows any inclination to live up to their calling as spiritual leaders.  It could be because they do not know the Lord.  You can best refer to their conduct as shocking.  But they follow that up by treating others with disdain or contempt.  What else do you call being rude, abusive and self centered in their duties?  We may not see ourselves in the same perspective but one has to wonder about that. 

Our world is just like theirs.  People live today doing whatever seems right in their own eyes.  Such words were true then as they are now.  One of my favorite novelists writes how evil is not creative but just repeats itself.  God is the creative one in our midst.  Sin may find different outlets but it really never changes.  Perhaps we just search for new avenues of bad behavior but it never drifts far from the cause.  Simple yet profound living only grows out of a deeper faith in God.  We live in light of His truth without pride to bring clarity to chaos.  What we find is a simple act of obedience and trust can change our life and those of the people around us.  Blaming others or fixing blame is never the solution to living in such times.  Just be who God desires in His fullness to see Him do wondrous things.  That really seems like a better path to me. 

Bro. Trey

One of the hardest things about the Old Testament is the names.  One reason some of us avoid sermons or studies of that section of our Bible is trying to pronounce the names.  And yet we are working through 1 Samuel this summer which contains nothing but impossible titles, names and the like.  Even such a character as David doesn't escape such trouble.  He will have friends or travel places my tongue cannot conceive.  The story opens by throwing a few of those words at you from the start.  One of the characters is Peninnah.  Even this blog site is telling me that word is spelled horribly wrong.  We may refer to her as Penny from this point forward.  See, the blog site just told me that is a much better way to arrange the letters.  It didn't put a red line under that name.

Penny shared a husband with a wonderful lady named Hannah.  Probably the reason why is that Penny did bear children while Hannah did not.  Society would say that Penny was the better of the two wives.  Scripture will tell us that just ain't so.  Penny is a whiner and a complainer.  She is just flat out mean.  Hannah is described as crying profusely many times because of her competitor's taunts.  How spiritual can a person be who makes fun of another in times of suffering?  Most of us know people like that in our world.  Some work with us daily.  There are a few in families and some seem to get more than their share to avoid at reunions.  We even can go to church with people like Peninnah.  They work on committees.  They serve as leaders.  Mostly they just wear us out like a few miles of bad road. 

You never read of Hannah responding in the same attitude or action though.  Her behavior rises above the pain of being childless or being ridiculed.  We see her moving toward God even though scripture tells us He closed her womb.  She still prays for not just a child but for God to do great things through that gift.  How many of us could do something like that?  How many could even come remotely close?  I do not believe such conduct is solely due to being an unusual person alone.  My view is you respond in such a way when you know God in very concrete reality.  This is what separates Hannah from the rest of us.  She takes her broken heart to God because He is her salvation. 

I read somewhere that pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.  That seems partly true to me.  What is hard is that the believer does deal with suffering more than anyone else.  We do have something at stake in our trials.  God works to shape our hearts to be more like His.  Hannah shows us that in her praying and her life.  We can also have our focus shifted from our self pity to God's bigger design.  Hannah may seem to pray with a selfish motive but remember she offers to return the child to God.  Again, how many of us could do that?  My first estimate says there are not many of us around with that courage.  We bear more resemblance to the first character who is mean than the one who knows God.  That is more tragic than not being able to pronounce the names in the first place.

Bro. Trey