Clothesline

Greetings to all on 7 JUL 2006

Word for the Day
Lectio Divina - A reading of Scripture that moves from reading (lectio), to repeating a portion of a passage (rumination), to meditation (mindful consideration of a passage and the issues it raises), to prayer to God (oratio), and finally, to contemplation (contemplatio). [1]

Quote for the Day - two for one this time!
Hell was not made for men. It is in no sense parallel to heaven: It is “the darkness outside,” the outer rim where being fades away into nonentity. C.S. Lewis

“Eternal fire” bespeaks the nature of hell’s fire, not it duration. “Eternal punishment” will no more be punishment throughout an endless eternity than was the immediate, devastating punishment suffered by the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. At some point - sooner or later- hell will mean the everlasting destruction of the soul and its resurrection body. [2]

Website for the Day
www.christjourney.net Check out the new website for Christ Journey church!

Thought for the Day
It was a typical Summer Sunday morning as we drove into the parking lot. The air was heavy with humidity as we walked from the car to the church building where we were first greeted by the door greeters and then by other congregants. As we moved from the porch into the hallway, I picked up a Worship Guide and entered the auditorium which was already filling up with friends and family.

The worship leader stepped up to the podium and began the service with a spirited version of Step by Step - one of my favorites. Next, the pastor stood to give the official welcome and the call to worship after which we rejoined the worship leader in songs of praise. Everything seemed routine until I noticed from my left side peripheral vision an older, unfamiliar man raising his hands toward heaven. Not only that, but he was wearing shorts and sandals. I thought to myself, “It’s a good thing we recently installed that portable defibrillator! Oh well, I need not worry about him; someone will let him know that we don’t do that here. It’s just a one-time incident.”

Later that evening, after church, while we were eating tacos with some friends, I heard that there were some of our own people who met in their homes for Bible study and even took communion on Saturday or twice on Sunday. Someone needs to go to the elder-board and put a stop to this. What is happening to us? How can these people act this way and expect to be saved?

The next Sunday rolled around and as I located a seat I looked around for the “hand-raiser” but did not see him. Good, I thought, someone did speak to him. Part of today’s service included the annual budget presentation so we were on the edge of our seats to hear about the upcoming plans and events. A hush fell over the crowd as we learned about plans for a new facility and two additional ministers. Wow! This would surely motivate our people toward increased giving and involvement. I’m sure some of these people don’t give much - or do much. The new budget called for us to immediately begin setting aside an additional $10,000 per week in anticipation of new staff and the building fund. Suddenly, someone from the back spoke up and broke the silence of our trance-like state of mind. The voice yelled out, “Why don’t you take that money and spend it on the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, and evangelizing the city? It sounds like you are spending it all on yourselves!” As everyone quickly turned around to see the owner of this voice, I was aghast to see that it was none other than the “hand-raiser.” The church security guards were already making their way from the foyer toward the dissenter as someone called out, “Get that man out of here!” How could anyone think like this and expect to be saved? [3]

Well, that Sunday service was spoiled by such an unruly outburst; some people just have no respect for the worship hour.[4] How can we expect to maintain unity if we allow people to act or think that way? At least everything will be back to normal by next Sunday, and I just remembered, it’s “Bring A Friend” Sunday!

Now consider Mark 7.1-13 and read it with fresh eyes.

Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?” He said to them, “Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, ‘This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.’ You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.”

Then he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor you father and mother’; and, ‘Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.’ But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, ‘Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban’ (that is, an offering to God) - then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.”[5]

Doesn’t this story speak to us today just as strongly as it did to those scribes and Pharisees of 2000 years ago? Maybe that encounter was inserted into the text as a ticking time bomb just waiting to be detonated in our generation. And the shrapnel from the explosion still carries the sting of truth.

May God Bless
Mike Toole
clw, ed.

1. Ben Campbell Johnson & Andrew Dreitcer, Beyond the Ordinary, Eerdmans Publ. , Grand Rapids MI, 2001, p.138

2. F. LaGard Smith, AfterLife, Cotswold Publ. Nashville TN, 2003, p. 164

3. Robert Montgomery, The Hardest Questions Never Go Away, www.gal328.org

4. Michael S. Moore, Faith Under Pressure, Leafwood Publ. Siloam Springs AR, 2003, p.96 “Corporate worship is often the flashpoint where this [strife] occurs because for immature believers this is their only contact with the Unseen world.”

5. NRSV, Harper Collins Publ. 1993