Being a Team Player by Shawna Wood

I grew up in a family of people who love to play sports. I have two older brothers and a sister who always wanted to play some kind of game. My father has been a P.E. Coach for almost 40 years and still can keep up with the best of them. I, however, was not one to play any kind of sport. I was happy playing with dolls, dressing up, singing in front of the mirror, and yes - even back then - shopping! But when you are born into a family who lives, breathes, and sleeps sports, there is no way around involving yourself somehow.

So, I decided I would be the official cheerleader of the family. I never missed a chance to sit on the sidelines and scream and yell, showing my family support. I felt as though that was enough, although I never physically played a game. However, as I got older, I realized my love for sports grew stronger. It was no longer enough to just sit on the sidelines and cheer for my team. I wanted to be a part of the team. My family was close, and what they did, I wanted to do.

It was no surprise that when I fell in love it was with a man who had the same love for sports as my family. I have an awesome husband and two precious children who need me to be a team player. Cheerleading on the sidelines just isn’t enough. I want to do more than just cheer for my family; I want to play in the game. I want to be an example to my children so that they, in turn, will get up, get off the bleachers, step up to the plate, and be part of the team.

Members of a church family have the same responsibility. There are many who only sit on the sidelines cheering for other people, but they miss out on all the awesome opportunities by not playing in the game. Sitting on the sidelines is their only contribution. Every individual has a position to play, no matter how big or small. Think of how many games can be won if everyone’s in the game. I pray that each one of us look into our own lives, find our game, get off the bleachers, step up to the plate, and be part of the team!

Shawna Wood

The Heart's Desire by Chad Hess

“Christianity is not an invitation to become a moral person. It is not a program for getting us in line or for reforming society. It has a powerful effect upon our lives, but when transformation comes, it is always the aftereffect of something else, something at the level of our hearts. At its core, Christianity begins with an invitation to desire." 1

This statement kind of rocks what I learned growing up, but I believe it is true. I often used to wish that Jesus had just given us a comprehensive list of all the things we should do and shouldn’t do and prevent the endless debating. The fact that such a list does not exist in the entire Bible is significant to me. It tells me that I was looking for the wrong thing.

When I read the Sermon on the Mount, I am struck with how many times Jesus emphasizes the heart, the motivation for what we are doing. In Matthew 6, Jesus says that, if we fast or pray to be noticed by others, then we have no reward from God. Fasting and praying are both good things – as long as they are done with the right motivation.

The proper motivation for doing the right thing is that we love God so much that we desire to do the things that will make him happy (see John 14 and 15). The same is true in marriage. We do things for our spouse because we love them, not because we want something. That is why Eldredge says, “Christianity begins with an invitation to desire”. When Jesus spoke to the Samaritan woman at the well, he didn’t try to straighten out her theology; he spoke to her desire. Many times when Jesus healed a person, he began by asking what they wanted.

I know that the Bible says that the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9), but God also promises to give us a new heart (Ezekiel 36:26). When we have allowed God to give us a new heart with new desires, we can embrace those desires because they are born of God. Psalm 37:4 promises: “Delight yourself in the Lord; and He will give you the desires of your heart.”

Chad Hess

1 Eldredge, John. (2001). The Journey of Desire: Searching for the Life We’ve Only Dreamed Of. Nashville: Nelson Books, p. 35

Relevance by John Monday

As I was channel surfing last night I came across Bill Maher hosting a special dedicated to deceased comedian George Carlin. Bill Maher is number 38 on Comedy Central’s list of 100 greatest stand-up comedians of all time, a noted political commentator, a religious critic, and an unashamed atheist. He’s also really smart and funny. I paused for a few moments wondering how long it would take before he said something irreverent or perhaps even blasphemous; it didn’t take long. What he said is not important but like most of the things he says, it was current, edgy, and relevant.

Having heard what I expected from Bill and still in the mood to channel surf, I hit the up button on the remote control. The very next channel on my TV is one of the many channels dedicated to Christianity. I paused when I saw one of the country’s top TV pastors. He’s the author of several books and is instantly recognizable to almost everybody - Christian and non-Christian alike. The contrast between him and Bill Maher could not have been more stark. The TV preacher was smiling blissfully, blinking rapidly, and gazing up into the rafters as he talked about the miraculous healing of his mother from cancer some thirty years ago. Now, don’t get me wrong. I subscribe to an inordinate amount of religious channels, and I love to listen to good preaching and biblical teaching, but the thought that struck me as I considered these two wildly divergent public figures was, how relevant Bill Maher was and how completely irrelevant was the TV preacher.

I’ve been a Christian and subscribed to a Christian perspective my whole life, so trying to evaluate something from outside that perspective is not easy, but let me try. If I were a secular American in the world today, trying to evaluate the practical value of Christianity, and I saw those two snippets on TV, it would be very easy to reject Christianity out of hand. Were I looking for a weekly hour of social commentary, again the decision would not be that tough. Much of today’s society views Christianity as superstitious, out-dated, anti-intellectual, and unreasonable. In short, we are viewed as irrelevant – a reputation we often deserve. God, however, is none of those things. God is current, edgy, reasonable and utterly relevant.

If the God we worship is indeed real and is indeed God, then he must be relevant to everything: science, logic, reason, and even Bill Maher. God does not stand in opposition to intellectual integrity. He is, in fact, the author of science, logic and reason as he is the author of all truth. When Martin Luther stood in that infamous moment in history and was asked to recant his work he said, “Show me by evident reason or by Holy Scripture where I have erred, and I will recant.” God himself bids us, “Come, let us reason together.” We must understand that evident reason is of God as surely as Holy Scripture. We have all too often been comfortable saying to the world, “We don’t care what science or logic or reason say; this is what we believe,” and there by dismissing evident reason.

Let us engage the world around us. Let us lead the way in all manner of intellectual discourse. Let us not gaze blissfully into the rafters but soberly in the world. Let us be relevant, because God is relevant.

John Monday

Keeping in Step with Scripture by David Achata

I was seventeen years old when I started reading the Bible for myself. Here's the way I did it: during class one day, as an act of rebellion (choosing not to listen to the teacher) I opened up a Bible to the book of 1st Corinthians. I read almost the entire book that day, and it totally messed me up. Reading Corinthians, I discovered something I never knew – the Bible was for messed-up people like me. That day began a journey I'm still on – of discovering what's in the Bible and how it applies to me.

A tiny book by Michael Card called The Walk was extremely helpful in helping me listen to the text of scripture. In it he says, "When it comes to listening to God speak, we must always begin with the Word of God, His clearest and most authoritative voice. But, as in all listening, we must learn to allow the other Person to speak." The way I hear that is that we can read Christian literature all day and all night. We can listen to Christian music. We can go to Church. We can do anything and everything to try to get a word from the Lord. But the starting point is the scripture.

This means we have to be listeners. Often we have so much to say, and we are so bad at listening. I hear my childhood band teacher's voice in my head, "Empty barrels always rattle." Many times I find that the people who have the most to say are the ones who have the hardest time being still and quiet before God (I'm one of those people). I know how hard it is to listen to the text because, when I listen to the text, it usually means I'm going to have to be still, and then I'll have to do something about what I've heard. Many well-intentioned people come to scripture not to look for a response required of their lives, but for theological or doctrinal information. Yet, as Erwin McManus says in his book An Unstoppable Force, "To know is not necessarily to do. When the construct applied to the Bible is missiological, you engage the Bible to discover the response required of your life." I don't think scripture was meant to be information for us. I think it was meant to be a means of formation. Information goes to the head; formation goes to the heart and hands. McManus continues, "The Bible was written so that we might respond to the truth and voice of God."

Perhaps this will be helpful for you:

1. When you pray, let your mind wander. Where it stops, that is where you should pray.

2. When you open scripture, look for the word that strikes you most, and examine why that word strikes you.

3. Keep a journal. After you've read one of the gospels, a proverb, the Psalms, or whatever you choose, write down all your thoughts and questions on it.

4. Take some time to listen to what the text has said to you.

5. Do something about it.

Lately I've been going through the book of Matthew in a new translation called The Voice. I came to Matthew 4:17 ". . . Turn away from your sin; turn toward God. Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Again, I was reminded that God is speaking all around, and the beginning place is His word. If indeed, the kingdom is at hand, this means God's voice is as close as my hand. Therefore, I must listen and use the word to cut the sin out of my life and daily turn toward God with my head, heart, and hands.

Tool:

Memorize scripture with ten scripture songs from your very own youth pastor. Once you've committed them to memory, pray using the words of scripture and see what happens.

David Achata

Who It's All About by Tami Cinquemani

My best friend is very loving and nurturing. She is the kind of person who “takes care” of others. Not long ago, her grandfather who lived in Tennessee passed away, and her grandmother, Nellie, moved down to Florida so that my friend and her mother could care for her. As is often the case in older couples who are very much in love and very dependent on each other, it wasn’t long before Nellie joined her husband in death. This was a very difficult time for my friend and her family.

Since it was their desire to be cremated, Grandma and Grandpa soon found a place together in a beautiful urn on the fireplace mantle of their daughter’s home. However, it was always understood that this would be a temporary home as Grandma and Grandpa’s real home was in Tennessee. Therefore, a trip was planned to bring the urn with the ashes up to Tennessee for a memorial service and burial.

Soon the entire family – children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren – piled into their vehicles and headed up to the homestead in Tennessee. Several hours after their trip began, I received a very unexpected call from my friend. “Tami,” she said, “we forgot Grandma and Grandpa!”

Sure enough, in the midst of planning the memorial service, packing for the trip, and consoling each other in their loss, the beautiful urn that held the precious remains was still in Florida safely set on the fireplace mantle.

My friend’s family has a wonderful sense of humor, and my friend and I have often laughed about this experience. Who would spend countless time in preparation, energy and effort to make sure everything was “just right,” only to forget the main reason for the entire event?

I’m afraid I do that quite often. As the Worship Director for the Florida Hospital Church, I spend countless hours in service planning committees, website searches for scripts and videos, meetings with our Minister of Music and Technical Director, reading books on authentic and inspirational worship, and computer time planning each worship event down to the minute. And sometimes it’s very easy to forget who it’s all about.

You may well wonder whatever happened to Grandma and Grandpa. Did they ever make it to their service and find their final resting place? Well, with careful packaging and a lot of bubble-wrap, they took a guaranteed overnight trip and arrived in time. In the process, I learned a valuable lesson in the legality of shipping human remains – but that’s a story for another day.

Tami Cinquemani

The First Line of Defense by Andy McDonald

What is your first line of defense? Following 9/11, there were arguments about what our nation’s “first line of defense” should be.

The military, intelligence agencies, securing the airports, better border patrol, or tighter immigration standards—which ought to be our first line of defense? The arguments still continue.

What about us? What about when we’re faced with minor or major challenges or even crisis? What is our first line of defense?

I was sitting in the Juror selection holding area for Orange County, waiting to do Jury Duty when my left ear, all of a sudden just started to ache. As soon as I was dismissed, my first line of defense was to put some old antibiotic drops in my ear, take a couple of aspirins, and if worse, I’d call my doctor in the morning. After much misery, I finally called a doctor friend who got me on antibiotics and prescribed a new dose of ear drops.

My first line of defense was self-treatment—then drugs! Looking back I wondered, “Where was God in my line of defense?” I didn’t call the church to come and pray, that wasn’t my first line of defense. WHY NOT?

Jesus was tired and ready for a break from the people, so he got in the boat with his disciples and headed to the other side of the lake. It was only a matter of minutes aboard the gently rocking boat, with the sound of water splashing against the boat, and Jesus was asleep.

Shortly after sunset the weather changed. Down from the surrounding hills wind rushed upon the lake. Dark storm clouds filled the sky. These seasoned boatmen prepared for the storm like they had many times before. They dropped their sail, turned the boat to face the waves, battened things down that might fly off the boat, got the bailing equipment ready in case some water might splash aboard, and they began to row for shore. Collectively these actions were their first line of defense.

But the storm was beyond their ability. All their resources weren’t enough to do battle with this storm. They were at the sinking point when they called out, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” Jesus was - and still is - familiar with being the last resort instead of the first line of defense.

Jesus was able to sleep in the storm because of his faith in God’s love and care—his Father was his first line of defense. Jesus said, “By myself I can do nothing.”

Every day challenges force us to choose some first line of defense. What is your first line of defense? And what relation to that choice is determined by who you’ve chosen as master. We can’t choose ourselves and God both as our first line of defense. Both can’t be our first line of defense. Only one can be first. Which will we choose?

Andy McDonald