Count our blessings...

Things to be thankful for about Singing Oaks Church of Christ:

1. We have a group of elders who deeply care and love our congregation as a whole, and they love the individuals who make up that whole.
2. We have a group of ministers who seek to serve us. They seek to know us. They seek to love us.
3. We have a congregation that focuses on the older members, the college aged members, and the children. It is rare to find a place that loves all of its groups so much.
4. We have a community of people who love Christ. Yes we disagree on some things. Yes we quarrel at times. In the end though, we all have a common set of goals…To love the Lord our God with all our strength, and to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
5. We have small groups. I believe at times we underestimate the value of meeting in smaller groups outside of Community fellowship time. Our church even schedules many of its church activities around small group times as to not interfere.
6. We have a prison ministry. We seek to help those who the rest of the world has thrown away. That is amazing.
7. We have a ministry that seeks out those who are sick, and looks to help them. Jesus had only good things to say about this kind of service.
8. We have a church who has invested much time and money in maintaining a Christian Campus Center. This speaks volumes about what they see as important.
9. We have a candlelight service each year honoring the members of our congregation that have passed away. This is an amazing way of reaching out to those who desperately miss those who are no longer with us.
10. Singing Oaks Church of Christ paid for many of the college students to go on the fall retreat. It may seem small, but it isn’t.
11. We have a church who feeds us often, without asking anything in return.
12. We have a congregation who gives us a Passover feast to attend during Easter. How many C.O.C. churches do you know who do that?
13. We have a congregation who loves its visitors. They want to know how to love them even more.
14. We have leaders who seek to equip their members to lead. There is no pride involved. I have not met a minister or elder yet who craves power. Instead, they crave to equip God’s people into action.
15. We have a church that has no problem with a poker ministry. Enough said.
16. We have a college group that actively engages in challenging conversation a minimum of five times a week.
17. We have a church who loves people. It doesn’t matter their age, their gender, if they are free or in prison. Our church loves them, and seeks to serve all of them.

We spend far too much time lamenting what we are not blessed with. We should take a step back every now and again...and be thankful for what we are blessed with.

Post-Modern...Post-Christian...Post...

So, here we sit on the edge of an ever present nightmare called post-modernism...right? It is big, it is scary, and it is everything we Christians are supposed to fight and loathe. I mean, what is the world coming to? Things are getting worse and worse every day, and we all feel so powerless to stop the ever threatening hurricane that seeks to destroy out church and our faith. Woe as me...well, maybe not.

The truth is, post-modernism isn't such a scary thing. Change is an inevitable fact of life, and the current status quo of society is never going to stay the status quo for good. We have proof of this all throughout history. The age of reason lead to enlightenment. Enlightenment led to modernism. Now, out of modernism we see the beginnings of a new way of viewing the world around us...post-modernism. Like every change before it, this movement simply comes about by questioning the current norms of society, and a lot of the changes that have occurred throughout history have been a very good thing. However, we are not here for a history lesson.

Christians have been presented with a wonderful opportunity right now. We have been presented with a chance to hear tough questions, some of which we may have no answers to. Some of them, we may have answers to. Regardless, we have been given the chance to do something we should be a lot better at than we are...we have been given the chance to listen. If there is a loving God, why is there so much pain? How can you believe in an absolute truth, when it appears that many truths do not absolutely work for everybody? How can you say your God is love, when in the Old Testament he appears to commit genocide? How? Why? Who?

These are very real questions that require a response. Sometimes I know we all feel the urge to make our response a "correct argument". Maybe that is why post-modernism is so important, because it doesn't dwell on right or wrong as much as past philosophies. It dwells on...does it work for me? Is it true for me? It is a very personal way of looking at the world around you. So, what if we listened to the questions the world has to offer? What if, instead of fighting for the status quo to remain the same...we simply said "All right. So Christianity is tough for you to swallow. Tell me why." What if we listened? What if we loved? What if we lived out our faith? What if Christianity was who we are, instead of just something we do?

I believe that there is a Universal Truth. I capitalize that for a reason. If I am right and there is a Universal Truth, then we should welcome a society who is asking questions such as these. The fact is, as Christians we should believe that our Truth works...plain and simple. That doesn't mean we shove it down your throat, or throw it in your face. It means we state what we believe to be Truth, and then we let that Truth shine in our lives. If the Truth is seen, it will be more readily accepted than if it is just said.

I have a friend who used to be an atheist. One day he was walking with another friend of mine, and he asked "Why don't you try and convince me that Christ is the only way I won't burn in hell? You spend so much time with me just hanging out, and you never try and convince me that I need to repent or perish." My friend thought carefully and responded "It isn't my job to convince you, and it isn't my job to convict you. I have an easy job. I love you, and I don't hide my faith from you. I tell you what I believe, and I tell you I believe it to be truth. When you ask questions, I do my best to answer them. When you need help, I try and do my best to assist you. However, when push comes to shove...I am your friend above all else. I love you, and so I hope that you come to believe what I believe. Even if you don't though, I still love you...and I am still your friend."

Not too long later, this very conversation led my friend to accept Christ. He didn't do it because somebody told him he should. He didn't do it because he was afraid of going to Hell. He did it because he saw The Truth lived out in front of him, and he realized that Truth was something he believed in.

There was one young man with questions and another young man with Truth. One found what he was looking for, because the other simply lived his Truth. This is the perfect example of a Christian response to a post-modern world.

So, what is there to be afraid of?

More than meets the eye...

The Struggle for Time

We all know the struggle to find time to do the things we want to do, or even the things we need to do. As college students how do we find the time do balance our studies, our relationships, our jobs, and even our fun. There never seems to be enough hours in the day to fit in all of the things we feel like we need to do, or even the things we must do. I know this struggle as well. Working a forty hour a week job and trying to go to college full time leaves me next to nothing to give to the people who are the most important in my life. I find myself always busy, yet always tired. I sometimes feel trapped between the things I know I must do, and the rest I know I need. It can feel like an uphill battle, and much of the time I feel that instead of climbing up the hill...I am simply falling down to the base of a ever growing mountain. What can we do to fight it? Why do we feel guilty about resting? Is it okay to say no sometimes? Where can we turn when it feels like the lives we want to lead are overwhelmed with the daily turbulence of the lives we do lead?

"Be still and know that I am God."

What a challenging concept. Make no mistake; being still is a learned art for many of us. It isn't easy, and to some of us it may even feel wrong. The truth is being still is a discipline. Imagine you are on a boat, and you somehow found yourself in the middle of a horrendous thunderstorm that causes the waters around you to toss your vessel around like a child's toy. This story may sound familiar to you, and it should. In Mark 4:35-41 we see an amazing example of Christ's knowledge that rest during life's storms is a needed practice. As the disciples panic at the storm that threatens their safety, Christ rests. As the storm around them appears to threaten their lives, Christ sleeps. When the disciples awaken him out of terror, Christ simply tells the storm to go away. With nothing more than words, Christ calms the very storm that only moments ago threatened to capsize the boat they were in. The disciples react much in the same way I would. "Who is this that even the water and the winds obey him?" He is the son of God, and he was resting.

This event displays the power of God in human form without a doubt, but it says more than that. It says that when you think life is gathering its forces to destroy you, trust that you can rest because God has it under control. It sounds trite, and it sounds too simple. Don't we have to force the issue? Don't we have to micromanage our lives so that things work out the way we believe they should? Don't we have to attend every church function? Meet every friend for dinner? Study with every free moment? Don't we have to be constantly active so that the very fabric of the space time continuum doesn't unravel at the seams?

I am not advocating laziness. Responsibility is essential to being a good steward of the gifts you have been given. However, rest is just as essential to these gifts. Without rest, we can not give because we will run out of things to give. We need the mountain top experience. We need to recharge every once and a while. We need to rest in our Father's arms, so that we can travel back into the valley and work. There are a few places in scripture where we can see examples of Christ lagging behind his disciples so that he can recharge. Remember Jesus walking on water? He did that because his disciples had gone ahead of him. Remember the prayer in the garden? He spent time with his father alone so that he could be sustained through the upcoming trials. The simple fact is, if Jesus needed that rest we do too.

"Be still and know that I am God."

It isn't just a suggestion...it is essential to a powerful Christian life.