The Old Has Gone...

Okay, I admit it.  I love being a Methodist.  In fact, I love it so much that I'm sure non-Methodists get a little tired of me talking about how much I love my denomination.  I will be the first to admit that our church makes mistakes, sometimes falls short, and has people involved in leadership who shouldn't be.  However, overall I love being a person called a Methodist.

One of the main doctrines of the church that I love to read and study is about the new birth and Christian perfection.  John Wesley, our father in the faith, had a lot to say about that.  When I first joined the Methodist Church, Christian Perfection, holiness, was a new concept for me.  However, the more that I read and studied about it, the more I realized that it is indeed Scriptural.  In fact, it is not only Scriptural, it is the essence of Christianity.

I'm afraid that many Christians, including those in my own denomination, have lost their understanding of the truth of the Easter message.  For so many people, Christianity is nothing more than "fire insurance."  People want to be saved from the pits of hell.  Or as many people put it they "want to go to heaven when they die."  But is that all there is to discipleship?  Is that all there is to mission?  Is that all there is to Jesus' message?

1 John was one of John Wesley's favorite books in the Bible.  It has quickly become one of mine too.  This short sermon packs a lot of punch in a small space.  It gives meaning to the resurrection and a purpose for mission work.  It lays the foundation for discipleship and a means for understanding the teachings of Christ.  There is so much more to Christianity than simply a free card to heaven.  There is so much more to salvation than crossing over into the Promised Land with streets of gold and glassy seas.

Our walk of faith during Eastertide should be focused on the reality of the resurrected Christ.  Our destination may be heaven, but that is simply "icing on the cake" (as one of my professors used to tell us).  Through my own growing and learning I have discovered that salvation is a current event.  It is a gift given now.  I have been saved from my old way of living life.  The old Dustin is dead.  He is gone.  He is not invited back.  Thank God that in his place is a new Dustin.  A Dustin who has the very seed of God abiding in him.  A Dustin who loves like God loves.  A Dustin who has "this hope in him" and "purifies himself as he (Christ) is pure.

The truth of the great salvation through Jesus Christ and the re-birth from the Holy Spirit is sweeping across the globe.  I have witnessed the great awakening happening in foreign countries first hand.  It is truly exciting to see how God is transforming people from old into new.  It is fascinating to see how people from all tribes and languages and backgrounds are loving "not in word or speech, but in truth and action."  It is awesome to see the old "selfs" banished while the new creations in Christ are growing up.

As we continue to walk through Eastertide 2012, let's not forget the amazing love that transforms sinners into saints.  Let's not forget the fullness of salvation.  Let's continue to search the Scriptures and seek the truth of God's desire for each one of us.  Let's live sacrificially...let's rejoice whole-heartedly...let's live holy.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.






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Camp Sunday

This coming Sunday, we are changing a couple of the things we do at Haskell UMC.  On April 15th, we are celebrating Camp Sunday.  Now when I was a kid, we didn't go to church camp.  The particular denomination I belonged to didn't have camping as a part of their ministry so church camp was a new idea to me when I became a United Methodist.  

This particular ministry is one that I have quickly come to appreciate.  The Northwest Texas Annual Conference, our conference, is blessed to have two great camps for our kids to attend each summer.  One of them is Ceta Canyon and is located in the northern part of our conference.  The other is Camp Butman and is located in the southern part of our conference.  This year our local church has several kids who are old enough to attend camp.  As their pastor, I am excited to see what God has planned for these kids who will be attending camp this summer.

I was first introduced to church camp a few years ago when my eldest daughter went for the first time.  Anyone who knows her quickly discovers that while she can be reserved around adults she is really the kind of kid who wants to try new things and looks forward to an adventure.  From the first time she set foot on the church camp property, she was hooked.  

Like I said, I have never attended camp.  However, over the years there are a few things I have learned that go on at these camps.  I understand that they sing silly songs...

I understand that they have time to act like kids and have fun...

And I understand that for an entire week, kids who normally are bombarded with secular ideas and worldly influences are able to get away from that and to focus on their spiritual growth.  Time after time, I have heard testimonies from people who went to church camp.  Those testimonies always include the above mentioned items.  But I'm always touched when I hear that a child is finally able to get out of the world long enough that God breaks down barriers and calls that person by name.  I love it when I hear counselors talk about the tiring, but exciting week they spent with the kids.  

So as we near summertime, maybe your church will begin to plan for kids in your congregation to attend camp.  Because of the rise in cost of everything, church camp has gotten more expensive every year.  If you are able, please consider sponsoring a scholarship for a kid to go to camp.  When you help a kid go to camp you are truly making an investment in a child's chance at being a kid and in a child's spiritual growth.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

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Holy Saturday

Today is Holy Saturday.  It is the day between the intense emotion of Holy Week and the excitement of Easter Sunday.  It's a day that I'm still coming to terms with in my own spiritual development.  I'm really not sure what to think of this Holy Day.  I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do.

Scripture doesn't give us much of a clue on what was going on this day during Passion week.  We're all familiar with Palm Sunday with it's waving branches and songs of Hosanna.  We're all familiar with the week following Palm Sunday with the readings of the trial (or mistrial) of Jesus.  We know the stories of the soldiers' mockery and the flogging of Christ.  We are told of the Via Dolorosa as Jesus made his way up to the hill of Golgotha.  And we know about the women's devotion, Joseph of Arimathea, and Nicodemus.  We know all of this...an yet what happened on Holy Saturday?

In 1 Peter, there is an interesting passage that some people have interpreted as being what was going on during the hours between Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.  He states, "For Chirst also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.  He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water...For this is the reason the gospel was proclaimed even to the dead, so that, though they had been judged in the flesh as everyone is judged, they might live in the spirit as God does."--1 Peter 3:18-20; 4:6.  Well, thanks Peter...that really helps!

So even with this brief passage, I still don't know about Holy Saturday. Maybe part of my problem this year is that it has been a really busy week for me.  We had two funerals at the church this week and we had a Tenebrae service on Good Friday.  Maybe I'm just tired.  Or maybe I've been so busy this week that I feel anxious that I should be doing something.

Source: Dominicana

When I woke up this morning I knew that I needed some time with God by myself.  I left the house and went outside of town a few miles to a piece of property that I discovered last summer.  I'm not sure who owns the land, but I firmly believe that for this time in my life, it is there for me.  I parked by truck on the empty dirt road and I read Scripture.  I walked down the winding road that divides "my" property in half and I enjoyed the spring wildflowers, the songbirds, and the gorgeous greenery that surrounded me.  I prayed for my friends who are going through a time of transition and for parishioners who are dealing with various issues.  I prayed for my congregation, my family, and myself.  And when I was finished, I felt much better and refreshed.

Maybe that's what Holy Saturday is all about.  We can't always see what is going on.  We can't always understand what is happening between the highs and lows of our faith journey.  Maybe we're not supposed to know what happened on Holy Saturday.  What we have to do is trust God and remember to give him time to take care of things.  We have to remember that ministry is not always about going and doing, but it is also about being still.

In one of my favorite quotes from Oswald Chambers he states, "Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work."  That's what Holy Saturday is for me this year.  It is the greater work.  It is the time between our greatest tragedy and our greatest glory.  It is the lull of the sadness of Good Friday and the excitement of Easter Sunday.  It is a time for God to work and for us to wait.

So today, spend time in prayer.  Wait patiently.  Allow God to do what needs to be done.  Trust in the LORD.  Take time to be holy.  Until next time...

+May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you.






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