Of Monumental Import.......

I finally decided to make the split....I have now created another blog called "Tuesday Afternoon" where I can write my rants and commentary about secular (that means non-Christian to all you non-Christians) subjects.

I decided go this route after careful consultation with myself, deciding that it was time to separate  the "sacred" from the "profane". Not to worry, I don't really indulge in the kind of profanity that the rest of the world does....it's just an expression from the Bible that explains how we should be living our lives....not mixing holy with everyday.

You can get to my new, improved totally political and un-holy blog at:

Tuesday Afternoon  ........how simple is that?

Thanksgiving at any Time

Yesterday I had a first-class and first-hand example of God's love working through the body of this thing called "the church".

Last Wednesday my car broke down suddenly and irreparably due to a malfunctioning starter. Of course, this meant I wasn't going anywhere. It also wasn't going to get fixed because I have zero money. On Thursday night I got a ride to and from band practice with the worship leader, Mark. As we talked I told him about my car trouble and how I was flat broke and unable to have it fixed. He said something cryptic about seeing what he could do and we said goodnight. I really didn't think any more about it.

So, yesterday, Saturday, I got a call from our pastor, Greg, who offered to pick up the starter and come over to install it for me. This totally took me aback to say the least. So he said he'd be over about 1300 (1 o'clock, PM). Well, he showed up with the part and we proceeded to tackle the removal and installation of a Ford Taurus starter with a 3.0 litre engine with A/C.

We had quite a few laughs, got very greasy-dirty (oh! Shades of the old days!), and actually had a nice time of fellowship in my driveway. God really blessed us too because right in the middle of two days of heavy, almost non-stop rain, He was kind enough to let us have 3 hours without a drop. Talk about blessings....the rain stopped, the installation went along pretty darn smoothly (except for a few panicked moments when we were scouting out metric wrenches) and the car now works. I don't think anyone skinned a knuckle either....a doggone miracle!

I don't know about  anyone else....but to me that's cause for some serious Hallelujahs and gratitude for seeing the church doing what the church is supposed to do....love and care for each other. This was an example of just such love in action....also known as compassion. And to make it even more praiseworthy, when I asked pastor Greg (totally out of curiousity) what the new part cost, he wouldn't tell me. Said it didn't matter. You know, he's right, because somewhere down the road I'll pass this blessing along to someone else, amen.

Love is the most valuable commodity each human being possesses, but until it is expressed in acts of service, that compassion thing, it doesn't really mean a whole heck of a lot

I urge you to go read 1 Corinthians 13 if you have any questions about love. It is probably the best description of the subject ever written, for love is so ethereal it almost defies definition, and goodness knows that writers have been trying for millenia to nail it down, but I believe the Apostle Paul came darn close. Thank you Father for this beautiful little church of your people doing your will, Amen.

Yeah, sure, okay......

What's fairly amazing is that I actually opened my mouth in the church service today and talked about some things I am grateful for. This was a big step for me because I rarely open up to anyone about myself. I've gotten so over the years that, rather than stick my head out and risk someone cutting it off, I just don't bother letting anyone know anything. To put it in X Files terminology, I "trust no-one". This has served me well for many years. Trouble is, it has left me with very few true friends....but they are the kind you can count on one hand and that is a blessing.

But today I was almost gushy in my expression of being thankful for some of the items on the following list, which I have expanded since this morning:

• my "adoptive parents" Bob & Lillie, the parents of my best friend, Bob Jr., who have graciously included me in their family for Thanksgiving & Christmas.
• my new church family who accept and love me as is and never indicate that they care about interrogating me about who I am or what kind of past I come from.
• that after 28-30 years I finally got to make some long overdue and heartfelt ninth-step apologies to some folks who really needed to hear them. not only did they accept the apologies, they even forgave me for all the garbage I injected into their lives all those years ago.
• 26 years of sobriety one day at a time (sometimes one hour or minute at a time!)
• strong and, so far, lasting recovery from stage 4 cancer (a miracle in itself) and how it forced me to end a 46 year dependence on cigarettes
• a roof over my head, for now.
• air to breathe, pure or not,  for this purpose, it's still free.
• food (sometimes too much and too good!) to eat.
• Clean water, and good tasting thanks to Brita water filters.
• a car that's reliable, mostly.
• the love of God.
• the devotion of two little, manic fur balls who are my loyal friends and keep me warm at night.
• finally, a whole lot of blessings that I couldn't possibly be aware of but which I know have been poured out on me all my life.

Someone once said that if we stopped to count our blessings when we "say grace" at dinner, we probably would never get around to eating. Whoever this person was is absolutely right....God never stops blessing us, sometimes even when we don't ask for it and certainly not because we deserve it, it's just His good pleasure to do it when we earnestly try to live according to His purposes. Let's make this Thanksgiving day one of praise for the one who gives us all the reasons to be thankful.

We're back

I don't know why, but the Christian store Living Word has re-opened in Sarasota in the same location. I reported recently that it had been a victim of our current economy and folded.

Now....if the owners are at all astute, they will use the evidence gleaned by their computerized invrntory system to learn what sells and what doesn't, then they can concentrate on those core compentecies and eliminate the fluff stuff that really doesn't do too well. Heck, if they're really smart, they could cut the storefront and space in half (they currently occupy two storefronts).

Such steps might make for a better chance at survival. I do wish them well, this burg needs at least one Christian store, even if they're not the best in show.

Service? Ministry? There's a dif?

I recently had to remind myself of the difference between service and ministry and why it matters to distinguish between the two actions.

To put it simply service is what one does, sometimes with other people, for others in the church. Ministry is what one does (hopefully) for others out there in the world of lost souls.

I started thinking about this because I hear so many examples of simple service being referred to as ministry. For example: at the church I used to attend there was a need for the church to run oversize golf carts between buildings to shuttle congregants around. This was referred to as the "golf cart ministry". Ministry? I think not. This is a simple act of service, which carries with it a great commitment, but it is not ministering to the souls of those who need to hear the gospel message.

Of course, the distinction is more traditional than actual because the word minister and all its associated forms is derived from the Latin for service, which would seem to contradict the definitions in our current discussion. The best explanation that I can offer is that we associate ministry with the work of clergy and that work is almost always involved in ministering to lost souls as well as ministering to the spiritual needs of the congregation. Service, on the other hand is seen as acts of humility, things that we do for and within the church family, usually with little or no recognition or compensation, monetary or otherwise. To put it another, slightly more crass but understandable way, ministry is usually deemed to be works performed by professionals, service is rendered by amateurs.

Either way, they are both important works.

I just think that we would do well to keep these distinctions in mind and try to exercise wisdom when we label our various efforts for the church as well as the world at large.

A Free Gift....Free Because it's a Gift....got it?

I was thinking about God's grace and how everyone always describes it as a "free gift". Well, that stopped me right there and made me smile a little. I smiled because this phrase is redundant, that is, both words are saying the same thing: anything that is a gift is automatically free, and vice-versa, if it's free it's a gift!

When it comes to God's grace, it is something He gives us freely and there's not a blasted thing that we can do to earn it, it simply is a gift. It doesn't depend on our obedience, on how long or 'hard' we pray, on whether or not we do 'good deeds', go to church every single Sunday; none of that matters.

No....His grace depends on one thing and one thing alone....His good pleasure to give it to us. We can't earn our way into heaven. If we are righteous at all, it is because we accepted God's free gift (there's that redundant phrase again!) of salvation through faith in Jesus Christ and immediately became His children, and immediately came under His grace for now and throughout eternity. You think about that.

E Pluribus....None

November 7 was the 11th anniversary of my emigration to Sarasota. When I moved here there were three Christian "book" stores in town (that I knew of), now we have none.

First to go was the very nice little store, Hearth and Home. They succumbed not long after the the big, glitzy, mega-Christian store, Living Word, opened. With even more Christian-oriented trinkets and tchotchkes to offer as well as a good location that the typical lazy American would find more convenient, Living Word was destined to be the clear, ultimate winner.

The other contender, Family Christian, was a friendly, small but well-stocked store in a fairly convenient location. They held out for quite a few years after the mega-store opened, probably serving more the folks of the South-county, but they too fell from grace and closed a few years ago.

This left the Living Word victorious. Did I mention that his "bookstore" had, in addition to full,-blown bust-out retail prices a coffee shop and lounge a la Starbuck's? These days it seems that a bookstore is defined more by the "ambiance" of its coffee bar than by the quantity and quality of its merchandise. But as fate would have it, about 2 months or so ago, this mega-store ceased operation too, a victim of the ongoing economic depression currently playing in this country and most of the world....except the OPEC countries.

This got me to thinking about a few things:

1) The big, glitzy store did what most most super-stores usually do, drive out the little guys, even if the little guys are basically better businesses and have been there longer offering good service in their community. Sad but true. One almost wants to snicker and say "Well, those Mega types finally got theirs!" Really bummer kharma, man.

2) Christians are just as guilty of being too lazy to get in the car and drive a few extra miles as their secular counterparts, choosing instead to take the path of least resistance and go to the most convenient place, even if it's not of the same caliber of enterprise as another store. I mean "caliber of enterprise" to refer to less tangible qualities such as: customer service, "ambiance", friendliness of personnel, etc. The mega-store certainly had, in my experience, none of those qualities.

3) We Christians also are often guilty of idolizing the big, the important and the glamorous just as our secular brethren are. Face it, how many superstars of the Christian world are not white haired men with the title of "Doctor"? Answer: virtually none except for folks in the performing arts where youth is obligatory and the young and the beautiful are highly exalted just as in the secular world. We accord the same celebrity to our "Super-Christians" as the secular world does to their CEOs, stockbrokers, music and movie stars. Of course it's wrong, but human nature is a creature of habit.

We probably never will stop exalting the large, the glamorous or the conventionally important, whether it be in our secular or Christian arenas. We should look for occasions when we could and should exalt the mundane, the unsung heroes, preferably while they're still alive, not centuries later when it suddenly is acknowledged that that their contributions were truly significant.

The "ordinary" Christians, the real workers, deserve our recognition and praise just as the fallen "mom and pop" Christian bookstores would have appreciated our continuing patronage.

Come, let us reason together....

I'm happy to announce that, awhile back, I actually got a comment from a theologian who was kind enough to say that he agreed with me by 99%, on my views about tithing. I would like to recommend you to his site where he lists many, many reasons and makes highly cogent arguments why tithing is not only unscriptural but is just plain wrong, and why it should never  be preached or taught in Christian circles. You can get to his site by clicking on "Russell Earl Kelly, PhD's blog " on the 'interesting Links' section of this blog page. It will prove to be highly edifying. I hope that between the two of us, we can put a severe dent in this highly unscriptural practice and return even further to the first-century roots of our faith the way it was meant to be.