Love in War by John Monday

Saturday night my family and a bunch of friends went to the Monster Truck Jam at the Citrus Bowl. It’s become a much-anticipated annual event. The first year my son, Luke, and I went alone. The second year Luke and I took four friends. Now it’s become four or five adults with fifteen, six- to ten-year-olds. We go early, cook hot dogs, toss a football, go through the pits, and maybe get a ride in a monster truck.

I’ll admit the Monster Jam is not the opera; it tends to bring out a different side of its fans. In fact, each of the last two years fights broke out within a few feet of our seats. They were both minor incidents that were no doubt exacerbated by too much beer and Grave Digger fans sitting to close to Maximum Destruction fans. I viewed the fights as a minor annoyance, but for a dozen nine-year-old boys, it was very memorable.

Last week Luke spent a big part of two days working on a special project in preparation for the Jam. I wasn’t aware of the project until I saw him and my six-year-old daughter, Taylor, playing with what I thought was a stick. Taylor would put the stick in her back pocket, act nonchalant, then quickly pull it out and take a defensive position like she was a gang member in a knife fight. While she was practicing her stance, Luke was advising her about how to hold the stick and what to do with it. Upon interrogation of the kids, I found that the stick had been specially chosen by Luke, cut to a specific size that would easily fit in Taylor’s pocket, and sharpened to a very intimidating point. You see, if a fight were to break out, Luke didn’t want Taylor to be defenseless.

After a teaching moment, I wasn’t sure whether to be scared, entertained, proud or angry. I leaned toward proud and entertained. But it made me reflect on the words of a friend, Danny Howell. He told me we’re all born in a war zone. He told me that the fight predated our arrival here on planet Earth and is bound to affect every one of us. He also told me that in war there is collateral damage; in other words, bad things happen. The Haitians know it, widows and widowers know it, parents sitting in NICU lobbies know it, my kids even know it. We try to prepare for it, we try to avoid it, and we try to convince ourselves that we’re exempt from it, but bad things happen.

I think Danny’s right - we’re all battlefield babies. The thing that I think is really cool is that Taylor found a defender on the battlefield. Luke cared for Taylor enough to make sure she was protected. His hand-carved weapons and diligent training won’t be enough to protect Taylor from all the evils of the war, but I wonder if there is a model here. Every one of us either has been or will be hurt in this great conflict. When the pain becomes personal, or we witness hideous wrongs committed against the innocents in our world, or the earth itself seems to harbor malevolence like it did in Haiti, no explanation will be sufficient to answer the question: Why?

But wouldn’t it be great to know that there is someone out there searching for us on the battlefield, in the rubble. Someone who will help us, prepare us, arm us, throw himself on a grenade for us. Someone who will never leave us, someone who will save us from this inescapable war… There is. That’s the gospel and his name is Christ.

John Monday

To The Thieves Who Stole My Car by David Achata

Saturday, January 16th, I walked outside to get into my car, and it wasn’t there. I thought for a moment that someone must have borrowed it, or maybe I forgot where I parked it – then I realized it had been stolen.

I called the cops. As we were filling out paperwork, my car was found, but it had been stripped to the bone. I guess a freshly painted Black 1997 Honda Civic EX with 205,000 miles is a hot commodity in Orlando! As I learned this new information, I thought to myself, “I can’t believe someone would steal a little Honda Civic . . . how low can you go?” I mean, why not steal a Lexus or an Audi or something with little more cash value?

As the thieves drove my car away and stripped it, no doubt they had to toss my bible from the driver’s seat into the passenger’s seat. Had they opened it, they would have seen “Pastor David Achata’s Bible” written in the front cover. Next to it they would have seen the notes from the sermon I had just preached to our Florida Hospital College students at Sonset Café’ that night. On the front page they would have seen written these words in bold:

“Our actions on the surface aren’t most significant; it’s what takes place in our secret lives, below the surface, that God is concerned about . . . ” How ironic.

I just finished studying through the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. If you’ll read it through you’ll see that God is very concerned about what’s done in secret (Mt. 5:22, 28, 6:3-4, 6, 18, 28, 7:1 etc.). This is interesting because we are mostly concerned about what happens in public.

I was talking on the phone recently with my friend Ron. He told me that “spirituality is like an iceberg. What’s above the surface isn’t as significant as what’s below the surface.” Think about that for a moment.

Here’s my question: Are we more concerned about what goes on in public or in private? Jesus is more concerned about the secret life, and it’s not just the car thieves who have secret lives—everybody’s got their secret lives. What does your secret life tell you about the state of your heart? The same question goes out to the guys who stole my car.

While we look at the outward appearances of things, God is looking at the heart. (1 Sam. 16:7) This is why Jesus is so significant. While we spend so much time piddling around with surface issues, Jesus wants to go to the heart, because that’s where he can heal and change the whole organism. So let Jesus go there. Sometimes it takes time, but it’s so worth it.

In Matthew 7:24-25, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” A person secure in the solid foundation of Jesus has no need of a secret life . . . or someone else’s ’97 Honda Civic.

David Achata

Life or Knowledge? by Stanley Pomianowski

In the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were given the option of at least two extraordinary trees: the Tree of Life (ToL) and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil (ToK). The fruit from the ToL must have been really rich in anti-oxidants and other nutrients because by eating the fruit you would live forever.

Awesome.

The fruit from the ToK must have been full of omega-3s because it increased your “knowledge.” The fruit also killed you.

Not as awesome.

Satan promised Eve that she would be “like God” when she ate from the forbidden fruit; also, that she would be smarter and that God didn’t want her to be that way. We definitely know that becoming more like God from eating the fruit was a lie, but what about the knowledge part?

Online and in real life, I have run into an increasing number of atheists. They all seem to have one general idea about Christians: we’re stupid.

You see, to an atheist, Christians seem to have one answer for everything: God did it. And that just doesn’t jive with their scientific method. (In my opinion, we’re not being stupid or ignorant when we give this answer for this is what our textbook, the Bible, tells us about creation.) I wish I knew better how to communicate with them in their language so that they could understand that Jesus loves them. To me, faith and God make so much sense! The information in the Bible has logic to it.

I think that the devil is very crafty, but he has a very singular and repetitive technique. He’s still convincing people to eat from the Tree of Knowledge over the Tree of Life. People are giving up life! He’s got people believing that we need knowledge over Life AND that you can’t have Life and knowledge. I think that God wants us to be more like Him, and have Life eternal, and grow in wisdom.

“But grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever! Amen” – 2 Peter 3:18

So my question to you, dear reader, is: Is “God did it” a good enough answer?

Stanley Pomianowski,

Church Member and Guest Blogger

Football in the Blood by Tami Cinquemani

“Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Proverbs 22:6

There’s something wonderful about Sundays in our home from August through January. We are football fanatics. My husband and I both come from “football families”, and we have passed on the sickness . . . uh . . . er . . . I mean passion to our children.

Now, granted, the commitment was not as apparent when our children were small. Oh, sure, they might have sat down and watched a game or two with us, but at that point, it was a matter of “going along” with what Mom and Dad were doing. Of course, the party atmosphere and the pizza and nachos didn’t hurt.

That was then. Now? It has NOTHING to do with Mom and Dad anymore. Football is in their blood. Not only do we plan our Sundays (and Monday nights) around the games, but we all have our own Fantasy Football teams – which adds a whole new dimension to the season because time needs to be spent during the week taking care of your lineup.

Of course, there’s still diversity in our love of football. My husband is a Greenbay Packer Cheesehead. My team is the Chicago Bears. My Florida-born son is a Tampa Bay Bucs fan. My daughter? Well, interestingly enough, she’s now an Atlanta Falcons fan. She fell in love with and recently got engaged to a fellow football fanatic. Funny how that happened.

“Train up a child . . . “ I believe that children learn what they live - be it a passion for a sport or a commitment to a faith. They may begin by “going along” with their parents, but when an authentic, consistent relationship with God is what is modeled, “even when he is old he will not depart from it.” Though their relationship may not look exactly like ours, it will be their own, and it will be a core value in their life.

Tami Cinquemani

2010 by Andy McDonald

While I get the same “fresh start feeling” with New Years that I get every morning, there is still something more epic about the beginning of a new year, or a new decade.

Life goes by fast. Not original but true. It’s hard to imagine that all the craziness about the millennium change was 10 years ago. What have we done with 10 years? Looking back can give us perspective and maybe a little motivation as we face the future.

Before we take Paul’s counsel of “forgetting those things that are behind,” let’s do just enough remembering to avoid repeating pitfalls of 2009 in 2010. What did you learn this year? Pick up any new good habits? What were you not satisfied with in your life as you rolled into 2009, and what have you done about it? What plans are you making for 2010 to be any different?

Seriously, how would your life benefit by changing the way you do something? Beyond the “eat better” and “get more exercise” and “pray more” kind of resolutions, what difference will you make in 2010? How will the world be a better place because you were here this year? On December 31, 2010, what will you point to and say, “Ta-Da! I did it!”

If not now, when? Sitting in a retirement home someday, looking back at life, I think it will be more rewarding to say, “I tried,” or, “I did,” than a mournful, “I wish I had.”

So redeem the time, and GO FOR IT in 2010! Climb that mountain. Visit the kids. Write that book. See the country, or maybe the world. Memorize that piece. Learn to play an instrument. Make 12 new friends or just one. Take that class. Paint—draw—sculpt—photograph. Help someone. Give something away. Clean out a closet. Re-arrange your furniture. Take that big risk. Engage. Decide for no vicarious or voyeuristic living. Watch a one hour travel log or educational video for every two hours of news. Laugh a lot. Meditate. Move. etc. etc. etc. etc.

When you make a mistake on your journey through 2010 (and you will make mistakes), follow Ben Zander’s counsel: Just throw your arms up in the air and say, “How fascinating,” and move on! Only dead people are through making mistakes. So take a risk, and GO FOR IT – whatever “IT” is on your list for 2010.

Andy McDonald