The Elephant in the Auditorium

We are a nation of convenience. If we want dinner in less than five minutes, we drive through. If we want clean drinking water, we turn on the faucet. If we’re too hot, we punch a few buttons on the air-conditioner. If we’re too cold, we crank up the heat. If we want new clothes, phones, cars, gadgets, even a divorce or a new spouse, we get it and we do it quickly.

Seldom do we venture into an inconvenient place and when we do it’s usually by no fault of our own. I’m afraid that we’re treating our Christianity like I am my weekly trip to Wal-Mart. Shuffling through unimpressed with what is going on around us and trying to get in and out in record time. Since going to Hell wouldn’t be convenient we punch that Christian time card, listen to a sermon, and nod at everyone around else.

Jesus never called us to a life of assembling once a week. Nowhere in Scripture does it say that the church’s main mission is to fill a manicured parking lot with our nice vehicles on Sunday mornings. Warming a pew is easy. Christianity isn’t.

We go because that’s what our parents and grandparents did. That’s what good people do. We get our feet wet but our hearts are so wrapped up in our own kingdoms to spend much time on His. We are so overscheduled that we have put Christ in the backseat.

We’re great at telling others how right we are but what good is our doctrine if we fail to put it into action? Why do we refuse to go into the world (Matthew 28:19)? Is it because it’s messy, time consuming, awkward, and stressful?  Not to mention inconvenient.

Convenient Christianity is shouting to the world how lost they are while standing within the safe beautiful doors of our nice buildings. It’s existing on the premises, not standing on the promises. It’s wonderful, exciting programs directed inwardly at the saved while the lost are dying on the curb.

It’s being more fearful of earthly labels such as conservative or liberal than we are of the day when we’ll stand before our God. I doubt he’ll ask us how many programs our congregation had, what events our youth did or didn’t participate in, or which brotherhood preacher we just knew was a false teacher.  He might ask how well we loved though.  He might tell us how we were viewed by those people on that curb.

Convenient Christianity is being so decent and orderly in our assemblies that we don’t even notice we’re dead.

It’s refusing to acknowledge the visitor in our midst. You know, the ones who came in hoping to find love, acceptance, and a family but left without even being spoken to.

Convenient Christianity is forfeiting our responsibility to our Savior by letting the paid preacher be the only proclaimer of God’s goodness in the community.

Christ’s love calls us to action.  It beckons us out of our comfortable lives and into the lives of those in our neighborhoods. It motivates us to get off the pew and into that Samaritan city with great love and mercy.

In order for more souls to be added to this family, we must be more kingdom minded and more mission minded than we are convenience minded.

The cross isn’t convenient.  It wasn’t for Jesus and it won’t be for us. It’s time to rise up, accept our assignment, and change this world.  

Once Upon a Bible Class

I am so excited to tell you about a brand new book now available by 21st Century Christian Publishing.

Once Upon a Bible Class is the third book in a series (the 1st and 2nd are to the right) of books that, Lord willing, will inspire, encourage, and motivate the Christian family to greater love for each other and for God and Christ.

Thanks to the contributors including Lea Morgan, Dale Jenkins, Weylan Deaver, John Dale, Wayne T. Hall, Royce and Carol Ogle, Terry Rush, Warren Baldwin, Kenny Glover, Trent Tanaro, James Michael Jones, Mike Allen, Amanda Sanders, Lola-Margaret Hall, Sandra Parker, Janie Frizzell, Stephanie Kenyon, Jeremiah and Amber Tatum, David May and many more.

Filled with advice, encouragement, and humorous stories for the Bible class teacher or student or for anyone who has ever loved one. It even invites you to submit your stories or memories of class for a possible second edition.

Get your copy (retails for $8.99) by visiting the 21st Century Christian Publishing Company's link (at the top of this post) or call them at 1-800-251-2477.

For information regarding purchasing A Sunday Afternoon with the Preachers' Wives or A Common Bond e-mail me at harringtonseven@yahoo.com

Amazing Grace

Take 8 minutes and watch this. You'll be glad you did.

Love

At the mid-week service last night one of my sweet Kindergarten kids wrote the word, “love” on several stickers and then put them on those of us sitting around her.

Made me think of Jesus.

We call ourselves unworthy, unwanted, and unloved. And he covers us with his love and calls us worthy, chosen, and beloved. He writes his name on our hearts and at once, we are complete.  The brokenness we've walked through and the scars it has left no longer threatens to destroy us.

We have peace where there was once strife and he has driven out the darkness with his light.  And now hope fills our soul.

Everything changes when Love gives us a new name. 

Death < Christ

I remember the Tuesday evening my mother put me in her lap and told me dad had died. I don’t remember anything else about that day other than hearing those haunting words as I watched my young brother roll his toy cars on my bedroom floor.

The phone call I received that Sunday night ten years later informing me of my mother’s accident is quiet clear, as well. It took a while for those words to sink in as I tried to discount the call. It couldn't be real.

What now? What happens next?

There’s not much I remember about the days and weeks after losing dad. I was a child. I faintly remember the memorial in KY and a few days later, the funeral in Arkansas.

But my mother’s funeral is clearer. Ten years to the day after dad’s, that feeling of nausea that overtook me during the service and how my uncle came to sit next to me comes to mind every time I think of that January 1^st. The looks of pity from those passing by and the eerie quietness at the grave-site were all too familiar, even if separated by a decade.

Utter despair sets in when you can’t fully process what you just went through and have no idea of what will happen next. Breathing takes effort. The mind goes into shock. Your whole life changes.

Darkness sets in and makes camp and you’re left desperately wanting to know what happens next but oh so terrified of when that might come.  

I can only imagine what the disciples went through but it had to be a little like that Tuesday and Sunday night. One moment, they were living a dream. Words of light had been spoken, the sick had been healed, and the dead had been raised. It was hard to believe everything they had witnessed but they were trying.

They loved him. They trusted him. They had big dreams for what he would do, not only for them but for their entire nation. He would save them. He would deliver Israel. He would, he could. But then he died.

It wasn't supposed to happen this way. Right?  He was young, healthy, and powerful. With him, they were safe. But last night, he left them in a dark and dangerous place.

All of us have lived through those Saturdays wondering how could this happen and how will we ever get through. Maybe it was a phone call, diagnosis, or moment that took your breath and threatened to take your faith away, too.

Hope is nowhere to be found. Confusion and a sense of abandonment rule.

When darkness is all you can see, hold on for tomorrow is coming. And with it will come healing, hope, and joy.

Bad News Vs Good News (Loses Every Time)

I have several friends that I would like to ask you to pray for. I hate bad news but so thankful that the Good News is more powerful. My latest article at Forthright has gone live. Thank you for your prayers and your encouragement.

Faulkner University

Enjoyed being at the 2013 Faulkner University Lectureships. speaking at Lester Chapel, and meeting several sweet, wonderful Christians. If you get a chance, check out their website.

What Do You Want?

I encountered a skeptical soul recently who was quite curious why my congregation was helping his family. His exact words were, “Why are y’all so nice? What do you want?”

I explained that we didn't want anything other than to show them and him the love of Jesus. With a raised brow and the wisdom gained from his twelve years, he explained that people don’t help other people without wanting something in return.

He knew that wasn't how the world works and he knew the world well. He wasn't belligerent or arrogant. He just found it awfully hard to understand people who would get involved with another, help them, and love them for no apparent reason.

What do you want?

The Lord asked this question to those who hunted him down in the garden. Who were they looking for (John 18:4)? Was it someone who had loved the unlovable, touched the untouchable, and listened to those without a voice? Was it one not only religious but compassionate and merciful or one who spoke words of light in a dark and lonely place? Those soldiers and officials couldn’t be looking for someone like that because people like that don’t exist. Right?

What does your congregation want?

Are you known in your community for loving, serving, and making a difference in the world around you or are you locked tightly behind double doors? Are you afraid of getting involved with others because they look and act and sin differently from you? Are you so set in your ways that you refuse to bring others in? Do you want to be left alone as you go about your Sunday and Wednesday routine turning a blind eye to the needy, hurting, and lost?

The world is watching and expecting the church to be arrogant and judgmental. Blow their minds. Love because Christ loved you. Forgive because you've been forgiven. Give grace when you don’t have to. Don’t just go the extra mile; go out of your way to get there!

Love others so much it makes them wonder why. And when they ask what you want, tell them you want to be like Jesus. 

The world needs a Savior. Introduce them to yours.