Vol 3 No 13 - Worship Priority

One of the great honors and privileges I have as a pastor is to officiate at a Celebration of Life & Service of Death and Resurrection for the saints of the church when they pass away. This past Friday, we joined together in such a service for Mrs. Elma Voisin, one of our 88-year-old saints who has gone on to the next stage of life. What is so interesting about preparing these services and homilies is to revisit their life and their faith journey, and find out about how they saw God at work in their life. I was fortunate to get to know Mrs. Voisin well through our monthly communion visits, and even had privilege of worshiping with her during the final worship service she attended a little over a year ago. What struck me most was that when we talked about it, she could not stop crying. Just bawling. This was rare for me to see, so I asked what was happening. She told me that I just didn't understand; it was such a joy and overwhelming delight to be in worship with her church, her people, in the house of God. She went on to say that she missed it so much and that she would do anything to have the ability to attend every week, just to be with the people of God in the house of God. After she talked, it made me weepy as well.

Mrs. Voisin is not the only one of our shut-ins who has these feelings about Sunday morning worship - they would give anything to be able to be a part of the worship of the saints each week as we gather, hear and respond to the Word, give thanks and participate in communion, and are sent forth as the people of God to live out the kingdom of God.

The question you and I face as we hear these stories is, 'What is my attitude toward morning worship?' Is it something that is optional - something that is not really important and I can get along without it? Or is your attitude such that I will not allow ANYTHING to get in the way of my being in morning worship every week because it is what God's will is for my life and it is what I gave my word I would do when I joined the church?

I promise you that when we put ourselves in such a position that we drift away from worship on Sunday morning we are putting ourselves in position to drift away from what God's desire is for our lives. Trust me on this one. As as been said on more than one occasion, worship is about God, not us. Not our desires, our temperaments, our personalities - it's about God.

Since the beginning of January, various things such as secular holidays, weather, and other things have been allowed to get in the way of our worship attendance - let's make sure that we take TODAY to re-orient ourselves toward a life where our week is not complete without worshiping with our fellow Christians on Sunday mornings.

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 3 No 12 - Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day. Every year, a debate rages in my mind - is this holiday more about Hallmark or the diamond cartels? No matter which way I go, I come to the same conclusion. Valentine's Day is a day that I laugh at, and a day that makes me sad. I laugh at Valentine's Day because so many use it as a day to go out of their way to tell someone special how much they love them. $300 dinners, $75 in flowers, etc. The jewelery companies tell you that if you buy this pendant/bracelet/watch/ring it will show how much you care. This stuff that makes me laugh also makes me sad. I hear stories almost every year from distraught people who didn't get anything (or didn't get what they expected) for Valentine's Day and, to make a long story short, it's not good. It makes me sad to think that it is an acceptable standard to set one day aside to tell someone in a very special way how much you love them. I am convinced that if two people are truly in love, and are showing that love to each other in the way that God intends, then Valentine's day is silly and pointless, for EVERY DAY is a day to show someone you love them.

Imagine if God operated the way that the greeting card, floral, and jewelry business wants you to operate towards those you love. Imagine if God only set one day aside each year to tell you how much he loves you. I don't know about you, but i would be very disinterested in a God who only made a big deal about how much he loves me one day a year. Fortunately for you and I, my friends, we get a valentine from God each time we draw breath. Want proof that God loves you? Who's the one that allows you to live? Want proof that God loves you? Think of the hope that you have that no matter what you go through on earth, on a given day/week/month/year, there is joy in the morning. And this is not something we are reminded of just once a year. If we are serious about our faith, we realize that it's not a matter of finding those things that prove God's love toward us. No, it's the realization that there is no possible way to get away from the reality of God's love, even if it is just by something as routine as drawing a breath.

See you Sunday!
Lamar

Vol 3 No 11 - Not Supposed to Happen

This year's Super Bowl was one of the best football games I have seen in a long time, and not just because the Patriots got beat. The spirited competition, the 12-point underdogs controlling most of the game - it was just a marvelous experience all the way around. In the post-game, a number of pundits and so-called 'experts' have droned on and on about this being one of the biggest upsets of all time. How could a team that finished six games worse in the standings and had inconsistent play from so many areas beat what was supposed to be THE BEST team of all-time? Forget that they are all professionals and that on any given Sunday one team can beat another - THIS JUST WAS NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN.

It was amusing for me to see all the chatter about this upset, for us Christians know that today, Ash Wednesday, begins our journey towards another upset that just was not supposed to happen. As we gather TONIGHT @ 6:00 for our Ash Wednesday service, we will mark the start of Lent, the season where we prepare ourselves for the most important days on the calendar, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. We are preparing ourselves for what many (but not the Christian) considered the biggest upset in history - a simple man, born of a virgin in a manger in Bethlehem, who was tried, convicted, brutalized, and executed, by the virtue of his death and resurrection, defeated the evil one.

For us, it was no surprise. For us, it was the fulfillment of a promise. For us, it was the culmination of God's creating and saving work.

Don't forget to be a part of the Ash Wednesday celebration this evening, and to take part in all our Lenten activities. We are preparing to celebrate once again what the world considers the biggest upset in history. It's going to a celebration that even the Giants, with their ticker-tape parade yesterday, could not begin to imagine. Don't miss it.

See you Tonight (&Sunday)!
Lamar