Tuesday, September 27, 2005

Come, let us adore Him.

Dear Musicians of the Master,

Come, let us adore Him. That is my call for you to join us for the latest collaborative endeavor between our choir and orchestra, the Christmas musical of the same title. Please plan on attending the reading session this Friday with dinner preceding at 6:00 p.m in the Great Room. There is a unique twist on what we are doing this year. Come and be one of the first to find out what that is.

But the call reaches beyond participation in a Christmas musical, for that is just one of the many ways we will live the call together in the coming season. Begin thinking now of what you will do to be a blessing to others, particularly those that probably will not bless you. That is, who will you bless that you do not expect a blessing from in return?

Maybe it means spending some time at a nursing home during the season. Maybe it means volunteering in a soup kitchen or another helps oriented ministry. It could be a myriad of different service opportunities during the Christmas season. I want to encourage you to find a way to look someone in the eyes and wish them a “Merry Christmas”. It will require the sacrifice of some of those precious hours between the carving of the turkey on Thanksgiving and the gathering of the torn wrappings of presents on Christmas day, but it will be worth it. And it just my pay eternal dividends.

You see, though the one you bless, maybe the little or least among people, may not even be able to say thank you or commend you in any way, there is one who ultimately will. Jesus said, “Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me--you did it to me.” Matthew 25:40 (The Message) He says that because He cares for them to the point that incarnated, or become one of them, and we should too. When we care for them, we are adoring Him. Did you get that? When we care for them we are adoring Him. They are His creation, made in His image, marred as it may be by sin, and they are precious to Him.

So begin thinking now what you will do. If you do not plan it, it probably will not happen. Let’s make the expression of our adoration of the Christ this coming Christmas season dwarf the communication of a musical in all its grandeur. And may He be pleased as we live the call together.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

Ministry Notes
♪ Reminder of the Christmas musical “ Dinner and a Musical” this Friday at 6:00. Chic-Fil-A and some Christmas cheer. Come one come all. Please RSVP by Wednesday, September 28 if you are planning on attending. Thanks to the many who have already responded.

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

The Call Resonates Within Me

Dear Musicians of the Master,

Living the Call Together. That is the theme of this week at church. It is the theme of our annual Missions Conference. It the new brand or theme of The Alliance.

It resonates with me. First of all that is because it requires us to think of our entire lives. We must evaluate if we are living for the Lord and His call alone, or if other things are vying for our allegiance, and our resources. We must closely examine where we are with regard to allowing our relationship with Christ to be reflected in every aspect of our living. Our Christianity can not be a Sunday thing. If it is, it is not true Christianity. Christianity is a way of life. We must live it.

It resonates with me because it is the Lord who is calling. Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” John 20:21 Sending me. No. He was referring to the spiritual giants of the faith. He was speaking to those people who have their lives in order. He did not mean for me to be sent. If you think that way, think again. As disciples of Jesus Christ, we have been called. Called to live our lives for His glory. Called to go, and as we are going, to teach all nations. Obviously, we can not each teach all the nations, so…

We do this thing TOGETHER. That really resonates with me. I can not do this alone. Even though I know the Lord is with me, and am committed to labor until I die or He returns to take me home, I take great encouragement from this. Why? Because I know that even though this task it to great for me to accomplish by myself, if I live the call alongside all the disciples of Jesus from the past, present and future, we will, by His Spirit’s enabling, finish it.

I hope that resonates with you. As a musician, this is a term you are probably familiar with. To resonate is to cause to resound. When something is resonate it carries well, and communicates clearly. In speaking of acoustics, it would be the intensification and prolongation of sound, especially of a musical tone, produced by sympathetic vibration. I hope that as you consider this new slogan, that the Spirit causes something in your soul to resonate, or that it evokes a feeling of shared emotion or belief. I believe we share the beliefs I have outlines above. The only problem is that we must live them.

Let us labor to live the call together.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott

Thursday, September 08, 2005

Determinedly Demolish Some Things

Dear Servants of the Most High,

My humble apologies for another late entry into the journal of our collective journey to have our hearts tuned to God’s tonal system. I thought yesterday that I would just wait until next week to send something to you, but then God spoke to me in such a way this morning that I felt led to share it with you. He retuned me, again.

If you have been reading Chambers’ then you read this quote this morning so please excuse the repetition. He was speaking of our need to “determinedly demolish some things” in the light of 2 Corinthians 10:5. […casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God…] Chambers said this.

It is only when God has transformed our nature and we have entered into
the experience of sanctification that the fight begins. The warfare is not
against sin; we can never fight against sin-Jesus Christ conquered that in
His redemption of us. The conflict is waged over turning our natural life
into a spiritual life.

Oh what joy fills my soul with the thought that I do not have to fight against sin. Yet on the heels of that rapture comes the realization that I have to battle into to see my natural life transformed into a spiritual life. Praise God that because of what Jesus has accomplished the innocence that we have before Him can be turned into holy character. Good news for a bunch of characters like us.

That is really the rub when we think about answering the call as well. We have heard Jesus calling and have turned in faith to find forgiveness of sin and newness of life. The reality is that the call also includes “training everyone [we] meet, far and near, in this way of life.” (Matthew 28:19a) We have already said yes to the call by offering our life to God and accepting His. Now we must allow that transaction to accomplish all God intended, to raise up a corps of the redeemed who wrestle together to complete the commission He has given.

Let us live. Let us live the call. Let us live the call together.

In Christ,

Pastor Scott