Fleeing toward Freedom

As we celebrate The Fourth of July, we celebrate the great gift of freedom. News reports of the crushing of protests against the outcome of the presidential election in Iran show us what a nation without freedom looks like.  There is death on the streets as the Iranian government uses violence to intimidate its people – no freedom of assembly, no freedom of speech, no freedom of the press.

Here is what Dr. Walter Shurden writes about the human desire for freedom.

“A casual reading of any kind of history – political, financial, religious – affirms the truth that humans constantly flee toward freedom.

Let Kings, congresses, and governments of any kind and of all kinds pass restrictive laws and watch its citizens flee toward freedom.  The settling of America, for example .

. .. Tie down the human soul to binding creeds, authoritative holy men, or repressive ecclesiastical establishments, and watch the soul flee toward freedom. Roger Williams’ flight from Massachusetts for Rhode Island, for example.

Deprive growling stomachs and thwart hope for one’s children and watch the flight toward economic freedom. The southern borders of the United States today, for example . . .. 

A sub-text, if not a major theme, of the Bible is the flight toward freedom. Exodus! Return from exile! The Prodigal eyes home!

I know! I know! Freedom has to be used responsibly. But that is another sermon for another day. For today, let’s celebrate freedom.”

As we celebrate the freedom we have in America this 4^th, we ask God to show us how to stand for freedom.  God grant that freedom may win out where humans flee toward it, especially in Iran.

What God Has Enabled Us to Accomplish

Sometimes it is good to stop and take a look back at what we have been able to accomplish together.  Look at some things God has allowed us to do in the last few years.

• Refurbished the A-frame so that we could use it for children and youth ministry
  
• Added eleven new members by baptism in the last two and a half years and 18 other new members by statement of faith or transfer
  
• Added handicapped parking spaces behind the sanctuary 
  
• Called a part-time director of children and youth ministry
  
• Added to our staff a part-time caretaker of our buildings and grounds
  
• Maintained a booth at Port Orange Family Days for the last three years
  
• Hosted an American Cancer Society Relay for Life in May
  
• Provided Vacation Bible School each summer since 2006
  
• Children’s activities every Saturday morning, Wednesday night, and Children’s Church on Sunday morning 
  
• Our youth group meets every Wednesday night and will be going on a retreat to St. Simon’s Island in July 
  
• Sponsor a Cub Scout Pack
  
• Celebrate residents’ birthdays at a local assisted living facility each month 
  
• Benevolence Committee oversees an active program to help people in need
  

By working together, using the gifts and abilities God has placed in us, and contributing our money, we have made great progress toward becoming the church God wants New Hope to be.  Fleda and I are thankful to be part of such a loving, serving church family.

                                                            

Aren’t They All Our Children?

Jim Wallis, in WHO SPEAKS FOR GOD tells about a sad and terrifying incident that occurred during the tragic war in Sarajevo not too many years back. A reporter who was covering the violence in the middle of the city saw a little girl fatally shot by a sniper. The reporter threw down his pad and pencil and rushed to the aid of a man who was now holding the child. He helped them both into his car and sped off to a hospital.

"Hurry, my friend," the man urged, “My child is still alive.” A moment or two later he pleaded, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still breathing." A little later he said, "Hurry, my friend, my child is still warm."

When they got to the hospital, the young girl was gone. Then the reporter learned that she was not the daughter of the distraught man.  Amazed, he looked at the grieving man and said, "I thought she was YOUR child."

The man replied, "No, but aren't they all our children?"

Steven J. Goodier tells this story and then says, “I think that is one of the great questions of our age. Aren’t they all our children? It is a question that deserves an answer.

“Aren't they all our children? Those on our side of the border as well as those on the other side? Those of our nation no more or less than those of another?  Aren’t they all our children? Those who worship like us and those who worship differently? Those who look like us and those who do not? Aren’t they all our children?  The well-fed and the under-fed? Those who are secure and those who are at risk?

“Aren’t they all our children? Aren’t they all our responsibility? Ours to nurture? Ours to protect? Ours to love? Aren’t they all our children? If we say yes, can we ever again pit them against each other?”

 "If we have no peace," said Mother Teresa, "it is because we have forgotten that we belong to each other.”  Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me and don’t keep them away.  To such children belongs the kingdom of heaven.”

The Judgment Seat of Christ

I came to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5 expecting to find assurance about life after death. The assurance is there, but something else comes into the picture that I had not expected, namely, judgment. Paul says that while we are at home in our bodies, we are away from the Lord and that he would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. But the point of living and dying, he says, is not to be either in the body or home with the Lord. The point is to please the Lord. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive what is due them for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad” (2Corinthians 5:10). The term “judgment seat” sounds more than a little foreboding. Who wants to be judged?

Well, there is something comforting about knowing we will face judgment if you look at this life as the time for sowing what we will reap. This life takes on meaning from knowing that it has eternal significance. Henri Nouwen wrote this about the meaning of life.

“Our short lives on earth are sowing times. If there were not resurrection of the dead, everything we live on earth would come to nothing. How can we believe in a God who loves us unconditionally if all the joys and pains of our lives are in vain, vanishing in the earth with our flesh and bones? Because God loves us unconditionally from eternity to eternity, God cannot allow our bodies – the same as that in which Jesus, his Son and our savior, appeared to us – to be lost in final destruction.

“No, life on earth is the time when the seeds of the risen body are planted. . . . This wonderful knowledge that nothing we live in our bodies is lived in vain holds a call for us to live every moment as a seed of eternity.”

We will face judgment after we die, and that is a good thing. We will receive what is due us for the things we have done while in the body in this life. God wants to give us good things. "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived— these things God has prepared for those who love him" (1Corinthians 2:9).

“Nothing we live in our bodies is lived in vain” if we are living it to love God. I want to be ready for my appearance before the judgment seat of Christ. How about you? Are you ready? How are you living your love for God?

Bible Study and New Hope 101

Sunday, May 31 was a good day for me because of our worship, our Bible Study assembly, and New Hope 101.

It was good to have our Bible Study Director Ruth Bradley gather some of us in the sanctuary for “Dive into Bible Study.” Under Director Ruth we got a broad overview of our Bible teaching program here at New Hope.
We have three adult Sunday morning classes taught by Ruth Bradley, Mel Lyons, and me. Vernon Buchanan is the assistant teacher in our one-book-of-the-Bible-at-a-time-class. The classes taught by Ruth and Mel use Smyth and Helwys material to give them guidance each week. We also have one Tuesday evening group meeting at Royal Palm Club House studying the Bible teachings of John Ortberg led by Boyd Frank. Youth and Children’s Bible study is taking place mostly on Wednesday nights with Leesa Holloway teaching the children and Cheryl Secunda teaching the youth. In addition, Evan Young and Leesa Holloway make youth and children’s Bible study available on Sunday mornings and Cheryl teaches children on Saturday mornings.

New Hope 101 met at 5pm and was attended by 12 people. Four were church members giving support and learning what I am teaching to define our church and our place among Baptists and other denominations. Five were very new to our church and used 101 as an opportunity to learn more about us. David and Beth Gibbons and Ruth Nearon had been attending and decided to sign the membership covenant and join New Hope. Here are the four promises of our membership covenant.

1. I will protect the unity of my church by acting in love toward other members, refusing to gossip, and following the leaders.
2. I will share the responsibility of my church by praying for its growth, building relationships with unbelievers and inviting them to attend, and warmly welcoming those who visit.
3. I will serve the ministry of my church by discovering my gifts, being equipped to serve by my pastors, and developing a servant’s heart.
4. I will support the testimony of my church by living a godly life, attending faithfully, and giving regularly and proportionately of my income.

Honor God with Your Strength

In Isaiah 6, the prophet sees God as the King, high on his throne. Isaiah feels his unworthiness before a holy God and confesses it. Then he is forgiven, and God says, “Whom shall I send?” Without hesitating, Isaiah responds, “I’ll go. Send me!” This story tells me that God wants to use you and me to serve his purposes in the world.

One of my favorite movies is “Chariots of Fire.” It is the true story of two British track athletes competing in the 1924 Summer Olympics. One is a devout Scottish missionary who runs for God. Eric Liddle, is from a Christian family devoted to their mission in China. Eric’s sister fears that his career as a runner will take him off the path of serving God. He tells her that before he goes back to China he is going to devote himself to Olympic running. She will have to manage the mission in China without him for a while. What he says to her is a classic statement about using your God-given ability to serve him with joy. “I believe that God made me for a purpose, for China. But he also made me fast, and when I run, I feel his pleasure. To give that up would be to hold him in contempt . . .. To win is to honor him.”

You and I have your own abilities, our opportunities to honor God. What ability is God calling you to use? Here is what I want you to do that will help you think about God’s call to you. Use Eric Liddle’s statement. Fill in the blanks. “God made me _________________________________, and when I _____________________________________, I feel his pleasure.”
For instance I answer, “God made me ___a caring listener__ and when I ___care about people___, I feel his pleasure.” A long time ago, I prayed that God would make me the best pastor I can be. I want to honor God by listening to and caring for people every chance I get.

Let’s look for God in our own experiences, give our entire attention to what God is doing right now in our lives. Let’s hear God’s call and respond using our best abilities to honor God.