God is our strong refuge;
he is truly our helper in times of trouble. For this reason we do not fear when the earth shakes, and the mountains tumble into the depths of the sea, when its waves crash and foam, and the mountains shake before the surging sea. (Selah) The river’s channels bring joy to the city of God, the special, holy dwelling place of the Most High. God lives within it, it cannot be moved. God rescues it at the break of dawn. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms are overthrown. God gives a shout, the earth dissolves. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is on our side. The God of Jacob is our stronghold. (Selah) Come, Witness the exploits of the Lord, who brings devastation to the earth. He brings an end to wars throughout the earth. He shatters the bow and breaks the spear; he burns the shields with fire. He says, “Stop your striving and recognize that I am God. I will be exalted over the nations! I will be exalted over the earth!” The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is on our side! The God of Jacob is our stronghold! (Selah)
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Then he began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a fence around it, dug a pit for its winepress, and built a watchtower. Then he leased it to tenant farmers and went on a journey. At harvest time he sent a slave to the tenants to collect from them his portion of the crop. But those tenants seized his slave, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. So he sent another slave to them again. This one they struck on the head and treated outrageously. He sent another, and that one they killed. This happened to many others, some of whom were beaten, others killed. He had one left, his one dear son. Finally he sent him to them, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ But those tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him and the inheritance will be ours!’ So they seized him, killed him, and threw his body out of the vineyard. What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others. Have you not read this scripture:
‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” Now they wanted to arrest him (but they feared the crowd), because they realized that he told this parable against them. So they left him and went away. By Dr. Latayne C. Scott
When my son Ryan and I read through the Old Testament when he was in high school, we used The Narrated Bible (now re-titled as The Daily Bible). We read a section out loud every morning. Old Testament names can be tongue-twisters. But I insisted we sound them out and say them. "After all," I reasoned, "if God honored someone by having their name in His eternal Word, we should at least say them aloud." We named the names. Something similar happened when I began to read The Gulag Archipelago, the memoir of Alexander Solzhenitsyn that Time Magazine called "the best book of the 20th Century." I read the abridged version (I’m a wimp—the three-volume original version is a bazillion pages long) and kept getting characters mixed up in my mind. Finally, I realized that I needed to read the unfamiliar sounds of the Russian names out loud. I did this for the whole book. After a while, the cadences and inflections of the Russian language helped me see patterns in names and consistency. I named the names. In a way I may never fully understand, naming the Name of Jesus has power beyond its syllables and sounds. (I capitalize the word Name, because its identification with God partakes of His holiness—see Acts 5:41). The Bible repeats over and over the idea of calling on His Name. For the last year, a prayer practice of naming the Name has become an essential part of my daily life. And for at least 1600 years (that we have documentation of), my brothers and sisters of Church history have prayed a simple prayer known as The Jesus Prayer. "Repetition" to many Protestants is irretrievably linked to the word "vain”, as if all repetitions are meaningless. (They don’t know what to do with Psalm 136 and others, I guess.) The Jesus Prayer is simple: Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me. For my students, this is the Agent/Patient relationship in its purest form. It is anthropology and supernatural cosmology in a single sentence. For unnumbered Christians for millennia, it has become as natural as breath, and as ever present. What effect has it had on others? I hear stories. But I have one of my own. I’ve never had a problem with wanting to access porn. (I’ve got plenty of other sins; that just happens to be one that doesn’t tempt me). But one day I was reading a news report that described the kind of porn that is being depicted in library books for students in the public schools. The description was of an act I hadn’t thought about before. Then I couldn’t get it out of my mind. Here’s a good thing about getting older. Whereas I was able in the past to mentally juggle several lines of thought and activity in my head, now I’m basically two-tracks. I can do physical things, but my mind has only two other tracks. And the act, played out in my mind, became like background music. I didn’t want it to. But it did. So with two tracks available to me, I did this: Something physical like walking or unloading the dishwasher or even listening to an audiobook—and when that act came into my mind, I prayed the Jesus Prayer. I found I was functioning in the physical activity. I was following and enjoying the audiobook. And with the Jesus Prayer crowding out the "act," there was no mental room for anything else. It took me a week, but that thought was kicked downstairs, so many floors, so repeatedly, that a door closed to a hellish basement. I named The Name. And it helped. Can this ancient prayer help you? Blessings to you, Latayne A maskil of David. When he was in the cave. A prayer.I cry aloud to the Lord;
I lift up my voice to the Lord for mercy. I pour out before him my complaint; before him I tell my trouble. When my spirit grows faint within me, it is you who watch over my way. In the path where I walk people have hidden a snare for me. Look and see, there is no one at my right hand; no one is concerned for me. I have no refuge; no one cares for my life. I cry to you, Lord; I say, “You are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.” Listen to my cry, for I am in desperate need; rescue me from those who pursue me, for they are too strong for me. Set me free from my prison, that I may praise your name. Then the righteous will gather about me because of your goodness to me. If you do not take the distinction between good and bad very seriously, then it is easy to say that anything you find in this world is a part of God. But, of course, if you think some things really bad, and God really good, then you cannot talk like that. You must believe that God is separate from the world and that some of the things we see in it are contrary to His will. Confronted with a cancer or a slum the Pantheist can say, ‘If you could only see it from the divine point of view, you would realise that this also is God.’ The Christian replies, ‘Don’t talk damned nonsense.’ For Christianity is a fighting religion. It thinks God made the world—that space and time, heat and cold, and all the colours and tastes, and all the animals and vegetables, are things that God ‘made up out of His head’ as a man makes up a story. But it also thinks that a great many things have gone wrong with the world that God made and that God insists, and insists very loudly, on our putting them right again.
From Mere Christianity Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis Mere Christianity. Copyright © 1952 As Jesus started on his way, a man ran up to him and fell on his knees before him. “Good teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.’” “Teacher,” he declared, “all these I have kept since I was a boy.” Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” At this the man’s face fell. He went away sad, because he had great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” The disciples were even more amazed, and said to each other, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!” “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last first.” Be merciful to me, my God,
for my enemies are in hot pursuit; all day long they press their attack. My adversaries pursue me all day long; in their pride many are attacking me. When I am afraid, I put my trust in you. In God, whose word I praise-- in God I trust and am not afraid. What can mere mortals do to me? All day long they twist my words; all their schemes are for my ruin. They conspire, they lurk, they watch my steps, hoping to take my life. Because of their wickedness do not let them escape; in your anger, God, bring the nations down. Record my misery; list my tears on your scroll-- are they not in your record? Then my enemies will turn back when I call for help. By this I will know that God is for me. In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise-- in God I trust and am not afraid. What can man do to me? I am under vows to you, my God; I will present my thank offerings to you. For you have delivered me from death and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life. Change: A foolish Fear Within the Church If ever there is a perpetual problem within the framework and system of the church, it would be that we have frozen our theology and His people due to fear--fear of change.
Do you not think it odd that every generation that comes down the pike has a burr under its saddle to do kingdom life a bit differently? There seems to be a twist of concern which takes concentration to hold congregations together while the young and rambunctious age and the new young and rowdy have ideas. Could this process be something we should grasp rather than battle? Could it be that the reason change is necessary is because God is creative, always new, and man is subject to finding his comfort zone and sticking with it? Did not Jesus warn all disciples in no uncertain terms about tradition? Yet, every generation goes through similar procedures; young and ready to get on with it, middle-aged and happy the way things are, and then older and irritated at the younger who are making a mess of our comfort. God gave us the old law and then changed it to the new Spirit. We read the Old Testament and then the New. To top it off, He concludes Holy Writ with a final book that we still can't grasp. In reading the book of Acts there were various means of conversion while we have tried to formulate and prove that each act was in reality identical. We struggle to let God be young. In the battle for change, can you think of a time a proposal was made that we no longer believe Jesus is God's Son? Or, that we no longer accept the Father as father? Or, that we must now care less about prayer? No, none of these things fit the change mode and they won't. When we battle, though, we tend to behave as if these are the ultimate battlegrounds. Not. So, take a good look at the church terrain. Show me the old style of doing church that is thriving and I'll show you a hundred that are dead while trying to live; all in the name of Truth. Take a good look at congregations robust with the young. New ideas, venues, and concepts bring ‘thrivation’ to all. When Memorial Drive basically had no children and we were a dying congregation, Linda Scott was added as a Children's Minister. This change brought about new life. Halls once dim with no clatter and chatter began to bounce with the young. Change. We are a foolish people if we think the Creative God is not pushing His people to awaken to new. His kind of new. At my age one would think the feeling could be expected to shift into coast mode within the church. But not. We must be wide-eyed and open-hearted to take note of God's walk and talk. We are not in the preservation business. Nor are we called to restore what was. We, the church, are called to live incredibly high-risk lives which dare to break the strong bonds of controversy. Yes. We are called to live in resurrection power of the Holy Spirit. Wasn't it God who said He would do more than we could imagine? Don't you think that if such is beyond our ask or think ability it would naturally insist "things must and will change"? from: Morning Rush blog, by Terry Rush, 7/23/13 Our task, among others, is to hope whenever there is little reason to hope. With some exceptions, churches (not just churches of Christ) are not doing well right now. COVID-19 had something to do with it. But there was something already brewing in the generational and cultural changes and differences. Despite those changes, even if some don’t believe we do, I believe that we have something to offer Wenatchee and the world. We can offer something of value to Wenatchee and then the world AND preserve the legacy of the people that built this building and labored here in Wenatchee and keep this church here and thriving indefinitely. Five hundred in attendance in five years is possible and God WANTS it to happen. However, it will require us to remain focused and not distracted, and to strategize and serve and step out of God’s way.
Thinking of our plans, we are nearing at the end of the year and this time of year has historically been a great time to assess the past and plan for the future. You have been doing this for months prior to our arrival and we have been doing this since I agreed to come and work alongside you, even prior to our coming to Wenatchee. I am thankful that as we consider next year, the birth, life, and death of Jesus is front and center with Christmas. We are all, of course, aware that Jesus was unlikely to have been born at this time of year and there is no biblical mandate or suggestion to celebrate his birth, but doing so can focus us on the reason not just for this season but for our very existence—Jesus. Even as a baby, Jesus invited others to be around and serve with him. That is what we want to do and how we want to be. As we consider our calendar for next year, one of the additions being considered is what we are, at this time, calling our “Big Invite” day. My vision is for us to have 300 people at the 10:10 assembly on April 14, 2024. I am working on a postcard mailer for us to send to neighbors, family and friends, but in the meantime, you can be considering who you can invite and bring. Gather names, phone numbers and addresses so that people can be invited personally by you and through other avenues multiple times. The research says that people are often amenable to visit worship services; they are often only waiting on a personal invitation. Stay tuned and be considering how we can make this day a huge success! We are also wanting to create more opportunities for people to participate in small groups. I have been creating the discussion questions for these groups for the last several weeks and will continue to do so. There is a need for some of us to host a regular meeting in our home, a coffee shop, the church building, or some other place. These meetings need not be complex. You need not serve food or coffee. The only need is for you to be able to consistently meet. My vision is for the section of the bulletin with our meeting times to be packed with small group opportunities for people. Where Jesus has said it exists, there is hope. Jesus provides hope for the world. Don’t be discouraged. Let’s work together to make a difference to Wenatchee and the world! “God, grow our faith and number. Let us serve Wenatchee and the world.” |
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