Happy Thanksgiving!
Here’s a list of some very good resources pertaining to the Thanksgiving holiday:
November 25, 2004
November 22, 2004
Sap Anyone?
I wasn’t very sappy until my marriage started falling apart about 5 years ago. I had begun to take my marriage for granted and just assumed that I was always going to be married. What a wake up call I had! Crying about things just wasn’t a part of my life. There was an extremely long period of time in which a tear never touched my face. But when that which I held highest, my family, was threatened by a someone from within my family I found that my tear glands were still active. Very active.
Nowadays I go through times when my emotions are hardened and I couldn’t cry about anything. Other times I find that my tears tend to flow a little easily about seemingly insignificant things. Usually I’m alone when that happens but sometimes it happens around friends and family at church or at the movies. Most of the time I cry when someone is touched in a deep way such as when a need is met. Tonight was no exception.
My son went to his mom’s house to stay the night since I had him on Friday and I decided to watch TV instead of working out. I channel surfed a while and was about to turn it off when I saw a commercial for ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. Tonight’s show was about a family that within the past year was close to losing a farm due the death of a husband. I tried to pull myself away because I knew full well that I would bawl like a baby. But I couldn’t and watched the whole thing.
It was amazing. Just the thought of the show was enough to start my eyes watering. I knew this wasn’t going to be an easy night but I hung in there and accepted the inevitable. If you didn’t watch the show then you missed a wonderful example of community love. Here are a some of the before and after pictures from the ABC website:
Extreme Makeover: Home Edition - Elcano Family pictures
I cried throughout the whole thing. Nobody was around so I had nothing to lose by not restraining my emotions. The small town this family lived in all pulled together and donated their time and resources to not only build them a new home in a week but also to get the farm business back on its feet. A 6,000 sqft barn was build and filled with donated bales of hay, farm equipment was donated, a new car and truck were given to them and the surrounding farmers plowed and seeded the family’s 20 acres. Oh yeah, Randy Travis also put on a benefit concert to raise money for an education fund for the lady’s children. All of that and much more in 7 days. It was amazing.
I also mourned the fact that the Christian community hadn’t done something like this earlier. After just completing a forty-day campaign called The 40 Days of Community with my wonderful church, that sense of giving to my community is very strong. It’s close to The 40 Days of Purpose, which is based on “the Purpose Driven Life, in that instead of finding out “what on earth am I here for” a church as a group asks, “what on earth are we here for”. It’s a little dry at first because one expects to find out more about who they are in Christ. But what is discovered instead is what our purpose as a local church is. It was an amazing experience especially the home group meeting during the week. The relationships I developed in that group will last because we realize that we weren’t meant to do it alone. We learned that we needed each other’s prayers, encouragement, smiles, hugs of understanding and unconditional love.
Acts 2:44, “And all those who had believed were together and had all things in common;” and Acts 4:32, “And the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul; and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own, but all things were common property to them.” come to mind when I reflect on this topic.
November 16, 2004
Acts 7
The testimony of Stephen before the council is an incredible account of truth and boldness in the face of hostility and serves as a reminder of how the world will look at those who trust in the Lord Jesus for their strength. (Matthew 24:9) I doubt that Stephen knew that morning that he would be standing before the leaders of Jerusalem but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that Stephen stood firm in his faith when confronted with certain death…
Stephen’s defense before the council after many false witnesses had come forth to testify against him was solid. The only thing the witnesses could come up with was pretty much the same as what was brought against Jesus, that the temple would be destroyed but a twist was added to this new account: these witnesses said that Jesus would destroy the temple and also that He would change the customs that Moses had handed down to them. (Acts 6:13-14) I would venture to say that the last half of their statement was true in that the traditions did change. Jesus had become the fulfillment of the Law eliminating the need for rituals and traditions by allowing the true worshipers of God to worship Him anywhere in spirit and in truth. (John 4:21-24)
Stephen’s testimony before the High Priest is rather long but it could have been much longer given the rich heritage the Jewish nation enjoys. I suppose we have to accept that since Stephen was speaking under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit his account was just the right length. His defense consisted of a recitation of the history of the Jews since Abraham solidifying his belief to his leaders that he was indeed a child of Abraham. But what’s also interesting is that Stephen points out that time after time the children of Abraham fell away from God do to their own choices in spite of what they had experienced first hand.
The culmination of Stephen’s testimony consists of a very straightforward condemnation of the council. Stephen compares them to the religious leaders of old who persecuted and killed the prophets because they killed Jesus, the “Righteous One”. This condemnation sounds amazingly like Jesus’ condemnation of the scribes and pharisees in Luke 11. This, of course, incited fierce opposition towards Stephen. They dragged him outside the city and proceeded to stone him. But that’s not the end of the story. His last words were of forgiveness. As they were in the process of stoning him, Stephen begged the Lord not to hold this sin against them.
It’s amazing how similar the actions of Stephen were to those of Jesus. Stephen’s affirmation that he was a child of Abraham, his condemnation of the religious leaders, his request that Jesus receive his spirit and his prayer of forgiveness of those who were about to kill him. What do you think? If you ever found yourself in the same circumstance, do you think you would remain faithful to the Lord like Stephen? I sincerely hope that no one reading ever is but if you are, remember Stephen’s example.
