It’s another Monday morning and therefore the beginning of another week; it seems like last Monday was just yesterday. Time moves along so quickly…too quickly. Before we know it Christmas will be here and 2015 will be a memory. Just ask Denise Ford how many days until Christmas. And that means we will struggle with remembering to write 2016 instead of 2015. This frantic passing of time is not something new to our generation. King David was a busy man…

David was a king who was busy being constantly chased by his enemies. Reading his contributions to the Book of Psalms is like watching a Jason Bourne movie. It just seems like David never had time to rest and relax because he went from one fight to another; he went from the frying pan to the fire to the incinerator to the atomic bomb. It was a fast-paced, action-packed life on the run. He wrote,

“O LORD, make me know my end

            And what is the measure of my days;

Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths,

            And my lifetime is as nothing before you.

Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath!” (Psalm 39:4-5)

Among many things he is saying, “Life is short!”

Why are we waiting to live our lives tomorrow when God fully intends us to live them today? God doesn’t want any of us to get to the end of our lives and feel remorse and regret. And it’s never too late to get moving and do today what God wants us to do. Paul told us to stop living in the past and press on toward what God has called us to in the future (Philippians 3:13-14). What does God want you to do today that will please Him and serve someone else?

Grace & Peace,

Did you feel that “blast” of cool weather last weekend? Refreshing wasn’t it? I know, I know, we are still lined up for some hot days that will remind us we live in the South, and that’s just fine with me. But the first hint of fall or winter or spring or summer is refreshing to me because it is a signal of change, and change reminds me of what God is up to in our lives on a daily basis.

Paul told the Corinthian believers “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). God is after the complete transformation of His children.  Meaning that when we become a part of God’s family we become something new. This change is not necessarily an overnight change but over time change. Change for the believer is inevitable and constant. We never arrive, we are never perfect, we are never what we should be, but we are becoming what He wants us to be.

This transformation takes place starting from the inside, the heart. Our heart is central to who we are, and it is so essential that if we are going to change into the likeness of Jesus Christ then God must have control of our heart. We cannot hold back, we have to be broken to who we are and surrender to God so He can make us into what He wants us to be. We must have a “surrendered brokenness,” otherwise we will never see the need for change; we will go on thinking we are just fine the way we are.

David understood this well. In his classic chapter on repentance he wrote,

“The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” (Psalm 51:17)

More than great sacrifice God desires a heart that is brought low to the point of honestly assessing its greatest need. The greatest need is a humble acceptance of our circumstances and a wholehearted, all in, trusting of God’s ways. When He has our hearts in this place then real, lifelong change can take place. And that change will be like a blast of refreshing cold air after a long, hot summer. It will be beautiful.

Grace & Peace,

Why are we raising money for the Janie Chapman State Mission Offering? I think that is a good question that deserves a little investigation and an answer. Here is my attempt to provide information and challenge all of us to sacrifice for this cause.

The first South Carolina State missions offering was established on November 30, 1899 by the Women’s Missionary Union of South Carolina. The first official offering taken was in September 1900 and raised $235. South Carolina women birthed the offering out of a burden for the advancement of the gospel in the state of South Carolina. The first president of the South Carolina WMU was Janie Weston Chapman, a pastor’s wife. Due to her fervent support of and involvement in missions the state offering was named after her in 1937.

The Janie Chapman offering is a state offering, meaning that the monies given will be used in the sate of South Carolina. The uses of the offering are too many to list but include causes such as disaster relief training, assisting struggling churches, helping pastors who want further training, college outreach ministries, summer internships and missionaries, Christmas gifts to South Carolina missionaries wherever they are serving, gifts to missionary kids attending college, and supporting missions to the department of juvenile justice. For a more complete list and information go to http://www.scwmu.org and click on “Janie Chapman Offering.”

I’ve personally known churches and individuals who’ve benefited from the generosity of this sacrifice. It is an offering that keeps the light of the gospel of Jesus Christ burning when it seems darkest. It is a light we desperately need in South Carolina. Through these monies volunteers are helped and mobilized to serve when they couldn’t have done it on their own. The impact of this offering is felt beyond the borders of our state line. For example, when a volunteer is trained through the help of the Janie Chapman offering in disaster relief, when a hurricane devastates the Gulf States they are sent there with our assistance. While there the volunteer is able to begin building bridges that will lead to gospel conversations.

Our part is $1,200. Just imagine what God could do with that money to advance His kingdom. Let’s all sacrificially give above and beyond our regular giving to meet our goal. I can’t help but believe that the money we give will be used to bring someone to Christ.

Grace & Peace,

No one person can know everything that is going on in the lives of everyone in a church. In any given week our sisters and brothers will face overwhelming trials, tremendous joys, crippling temptations, frustrating disappointments, and unbelievable pain. Some people are plugged into some people’s lives while others are plugged into others. We would never imagine one person knowing what is going on in the lives of the wide spectrum of even a small congregation like Calvary.

The entire body intimately concerned about, connected to, and engaged with each other is God’s design for His body. Think about it the way Paul wrote about it,

“…Speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” (Ephesians 4:15-16)

We are the “every joint” that Paul is talking about that holds the body together. Individually we are the ligaments that God has so sovereignly supplied to keep the body from falling apart, and when we are held together as God has equipped us then we are “working properly” together. We are like a well-oiled machine. But we are more, because we are a living organism that bumps into each other, gets in one another’s way, holds hands, puts arms around, hugs, and touches one another in all kinds of life-changing ways – that, to me, is “working properly.” It may not all be pretty at times, but it does mean we are together trying to work out how we fit together as God designed us.

The result is growth through love. Primarily Paul is talking about the spiritual growing we go through as a church. Working properly together results in taking steps in the right direction spiritually. But I truly believe that a church that operates like this will grow numerically as well. People of all walks of life want to be a part of a body that is working properly together in love. They are not looking for a perfect body; they are looking for a loving body.

We are not alone stranded on a desert island, slugging out our daily existence hoping help will randomly fly by some day. That is a miserable existence. But I wonder how many people feel that way in a typical church…at Calvary?

I do believe God has gifted our little body of believers with a spirit of genuine, loving care for one another. You love well! But I want to challenge all of us as we grow to make sure we don’t fall into the trap of believing somebody else will love the new person. Remember, new people are so easy to love because they come in with a clean slate; they have a clean plate that needs to be filled by someone serving them in love.

Keep Loving Well,