Vivian Meeker Passes

http://www.sawyergeorgefuneralhome.com/obituaries/2012/12/vivian-meeker/

My advice to young men concerning preparing themselves to be Elders

- Don’t seek the office, let the office seek you.

- Work hard to be the best servant of God you can be. The rest of it (being an Elder) will take care of itself.

- Dedicate yourselves to understanding the Bible. Know the Old Testament as well as you know the New Testament. A lot of problems in the church are a direct result of weak knowledge.

- Learn to be an effective teacher. Study those who are effective at teaching and imitate them.

- Search out opportunities to teach.

- Live what you teach. Don’t be a hypocrite.

- Work on being a good husband and a good father. Those relationships are the training ground for leading a congregation of people.

- Get to know everyone in the congregation. Especially the old people, the widows and the kids. Find the person who seems to have no friends and become his/her friend.

- Practice putting the needs of others before your own needs and wants.

- Enjoy all of God’s creation and rejoice in it. Be a happy person.

Church News 4 Feb 07

I watched one of my favorite movies the other day... "Ground-hog day" with Bill Murray. Bill Murray's character, Phil, has to live the same day over and over again. At first Phil lives each day taking advantage of other people. He robs banks, he's rude to others, and he takes sexual advantage of women, but the one woman he loves he cannot win over with his evil trickery. Then he becomes despondent and kills himself every day...only to wake up again the next day to start all over again. Finally Phil resolves to do good for others and spends his day preventing accidents, helping those in need and showing kindness to everyone. When his dream girl sees the kind of person he has become she can't help but be attracted to him. It's not until he makes that fundamental change in himself that he wins over the love of his life and wakes up in a new day. I think there's a big Christian message in this movie. We're not ever going to become the people we need to be until we quit serving ourselves and start looking out after the needs of others. Living lives of service creates a fundamental change in who we are and is attractive to the world. They see Christ living in us. If we turn our lives over to Christ we will wake up one morning in God's heavenly kingdom where we will live for eternity. Julie and I were driving to church this morning and we saw a bum lying next to the road. At first I thought he was asleep but then I noticed the grimace on his face and realized he must have fallen down and injured himself. I thought... it's just a drunken bum and I'm on my way to church. Then I thought of Jesus teaching about the Good Samaritan. I was about to turn around and go help the guy when I noticed a pedestrian had stopped and was helping. I almost messed up.

Hubert Foster Passes

http://www.seasidefuneral.com/obituaries/Maury-H.-Foster4872109390/#/Obituary

A Glorious Wife (1-28-07)

There's a concept that is sometimes missed in Eph. 5:22-33 which compares the church's relationship to Christ with the wife's relationship to her husband.

To paraphrase, Christ offered a conditional relationship to those who would believe in him. If believers would subject themselves in all things to his headship unconditionally he would accept them as his bride and love them in all things... unconditionally. His love would include giving up everything for them... ultimately his life (and everything in between). He had a purpose in this... he wanted "a glorious church (bride) without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish."

Sometimes we see stormy marital relationships where the husband wakes up one day and comes to the conclusion that he doesn't love his wife anymore, in fact he doesn't even like her. She's not the kind of wife he wants. Whose fault is that... hers? Maybe... but maybe it's his fault.

If Ephesians teaches anything it teaches that Christ did some things to prepare a glorious church for himself. Some husbands want to just walk into headship without paying a price... without doing anything to demonstrate love for their wives. When the reality is that if she could see demonstrable love she might be a glorious wife and accept his headship.

So husbands if you ever get the feeling that you don't like your wife anymore... it may not be her fault. She is what you made her.

Full-grown Christians understand this concept. They have subtracted pride from their lives and replaced it with humility and appreciation (and headship) for the ones with whom they have mated with for life.

How Bad is it to be Inhospitable?

In Matthew 10:5-15 we read of Jesus sending his 12 disciples in pairs to teach about the coming of the Kingdom and to perform miracles to validate that message. He told them not to pack anything for the trip that “worthy” hospitable people would take care of them. If people were not hospitable then they were to just ignore those “unworthy” people and leave. And then Jesus describes how bad of a sin it was to be inhospitable… he said that was it worse than the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Think about that, Sodom and Gomorrah were very evil cities they practiced violence and homosexuality and oppressed righteous people. God destroyed those cities with fire and brimstone. I can just imagine the Judgment Day when we’re all waiting to be judged by God and God sends all the evil-doers from Sodom and Gomorrah to Hell and then looks at all the so-called Christians who were inhospitable and tells his Angels to send them to the hottest part of Hell. Let’s focus on what it means to be hospitable and make it a strong point in our lives.