Our spirits were filled to overflowing with joy and praise last weekend in worship, fellowship and study at the Springfield Church of Christ in Virginia, where I was privileged to make five presentations on Saturday and Sunday, then field an hour of Q&A discussion on Sunday night. Our topic was spiritual leadership, which included a study of the ministry of women in the New Testament. All the presentations were recorded and will soon be available (with Power Point) at no charge on the church's website. I will inform you when those are ready. An unincorporated area of approximately … [Read more...]
THE SHADOW OF SECTARIANISM
Churches in Hawaii and other exotic locations regularly see a considerable number of visitors, often outnumbering the local residents. One Sunday this month (September 2009), our Maui assembly included vacationers from Churches of Christ in Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and California, holding doctrinal opinions as diverse as the places they called home. It is a joyful thing to receive fellow-believers because they love and follow Christ, without having to apply some creedal litmus test to determine their worthiness. Unfortunately, not everyone yet experiences that particular joy, as a visitor at … [Read more...]
PUTTING THE PUZZLE TOGETHER — TOGETHER (2)
In the seminar last Saturday, we applauded the undivided church of the first several centuries for giving us the "rule of faith" expressed in the Apostles Creed, as well as the New Testament canon itself. We must struggle, as the early catholic church did, to balance "identity" (how the church is different from the world) alongside "universality" (how to make the church at home in every culture). We can learn from the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox to stand in awe at God's transcendent mystery, the value of spiritual disciplines, and (from the Western side) to appreciate Mary as a model … [Read more...]
TRIP TO PERU (3)
"Christianity," someone says, not talking to me. I look up instinctively from my seat on this Continental Airlines 757, its two Rolls-Royce engines translating 87,000 pounds of thrust into a soft purr. We are cruising at 39,000 feet toward heaven inside this mighty bird -- its wingspan almost half a football field in length. More than six miles below, the desert coast of Peru unwinds like a dusty ribbon along the blue Pacific. Across the aisle from me, Mark completes a crossword puzzle with quick dispatch. We flew to Peru last Wednesday on business. Now it is Sunday, and we are bringing home a … [Read more...]
TRIP TO PERU (2)
It is a veritable Garden of Eden, the Spanish conquistador reported to the folks back home. Thanks to irrigation, Lima, the Peruvian capital city Francisco Pizarro founded in 1535, might still claim that title. Purple bougainvillaea bespeak a royal heritage.Yellow amancaes, red cannas and resplendent orange blossoms which I cannot identify disguise the coastal desert beneath this city of eight million souls. The city shivers from May until October under a damp cold mist the locals call the "garua." But this is November and today the sun beams down from a clear blue sky. Traffic lights … [Read more...]
TRIP TO PERU (1)
Imagine three Californias and you visualize the size of Peru, where people already lived busy lives when Abraham left Ur of the Chaldees. The Incas were its best-known inhabitants, ruling and thriving from approximately 1,200 A.D. until the Spaniards slaughtered Tupac Amaru, the last Inca ruler, in 1572. This is the land of Machu Picchu ("ancient peak"), the lost city of the Incas, and Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake at 12,725 feet. Peru, like Roman Gaul, is divided into three parts. Along the Pacific lies the desert coast, where one also finds most of the major cities. … [Read more...]
ROCKY MOUNTAIN HIGH
Cedar logs crackle in the stone fireplace as their unmistakable scent wafts throughout the cabin. Firelight shadows dance on the ceiling and walls. Human voices speak softly concerning loved ones and matters of mutual concern. Somewhere outside, a pack of coyotes howl at the moon. We step onto the front deck and gaze upward. Millions of stars bespeckle the heavens, bearing silent witness to the Creator's power and presence. From the distance comes the wind's soft whisper, increasing in volume as it crosses the mountain forests of majestic Douglas firs and blue spruce, limber pines and wispy … [Read more...]
WHAT GOD TOLD ME, BESIDE A LAKE IN MAINE
Around me, red, orange and yellow leaves flutter silently to the ground, contributing their variegated tones to the multicolored October carpet. The blue sky and white clouds appear twice this morning, first in the sky and then in the mirror stillness of the lake. I hear a splash. A fish breaks the water's surface to snatch some breakfast morsel. A wild goose circles in majestic observation overhead. From the small island in the center of the lake comes the unmistakable cry of a loon. Behind me up the hill a thin column of smoke rises from the chimney in the borrowed cottage where Sara Faye … [Read more...]
MYSTERY OF THE WIND
We welcomed recent days of steady rain in these west Houston suburbs. Now I welcome this break in the rain for a neighborhood hike. Scattered rain-clouds, flung in a wide sweep across the sky, hide the evening sun on this Texas Gulf Coast. Developers planted our Katy prairie land with trees two and three decades ago, and they now form a trekker's pleasant canopy overhead. Around and below me, the gentle wind rustles through the grass and flowers and trees. Overhead it moves the clouds across the half-darkened sky. I think of Jesus' comparison of God's Spirit to the wind. Both are invisible … [Read more...]
ENCOUNTERING GOD IN THE CATHEDRAL
I can scarcely imagine a cathedral more magnificent, or one more conducive to fellowship with the Maker of heaven and earth. Fiery-red sumacs form a natural vestibule into this holy place. Their branches, thick and low-lying, rightly compel a pilgrim to bow when entering. Inside, white-barked birches and crimson-leafed maples spire upward, directing the mortal gaze heavenward in thanksgiving and adoration. A gentle wind rustles the leaves overhead. The first October frost has come, like some secret Michelangelo to his Sistine Chapel, bequeathing a ceiling which dazzles with a living palette … [Read more...]