Looking back along the highway...

One of the things that has changed in my life in the Church of the Nazarene is the way born again Christians handle Sunday, the Lord’s Day, as we term it, the Christian Sabbath. We have left behind many legalistic prohibitions, such as how we dress, or what we watch on TV or in the movies. For the most part, good riddance, I suppose. But the Lord’s Day involves one of the Ten Commandments. Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy.
Not only Protestant churches, but the entire culture, for the most part, pretty much shut down secular activities on Sunday. Nazarenes would no more go shopping or play baseball on Sunday than lie or cheat or steal.
Now I am not saying harsh legalism produces anything good. Holiness cannot be legislated. But there was something to be said for a day in the week that was absolutely different, and focused on spiritual things.
Now I come home from church and turn on the ball game, and fall asleep on the couch with the Sunday paper (once a big no-no) falling off my lap. I feel vaguely guilty. I read my Bible on Sunday- but then I read my Bible every day I live. Church comes first on Sunday- but then my kids are all grown and I don’t have to decide between Sunday School and Babe Ruth for them.
What are the answers?

A Highway...and a Way

In the dramatic changes which have taken place in my own beloved denomination in the past ten or fifteen years very little, if anything, has been left unchallenged, if not unchanged. Growing up in the Church of the Nazarene in Michigan and Ohio was, for me at least, an exercise in responding to the challenge of being sanctified wholly.

I understood from an early age that being sanctified wholly meant that the carnal nature was eradicated, and so sanctified people never got (carnally) angry, and never (really) envied, or evidenced (carnal) pride by wearing jewelry, or make-up (except maybe for face powder to take off the shine), although men could wear flashy sport coats.

I also understood that church came ahead of everything else, so we went to Wednesday prayer meeting even though the Lone Ranger was on the radio at 7:30 Wednesdays.

So what do I believe today? It might take a book to help me understand myself. My head is in a whirl as I hear music in church that would have sent my musician parents running for the exit. I don’t see any difference in the way Nazarenes look, now, from any other group. Those things I can deal with, sort of. I know and love the worshipers singing those repetitive choruses. But one thing I believe to the core of my being: there is truth at the heart of the call to holiness. There is a second definite crisis to which believers in Christ are challenged to all-out consecration. There is a sanctifying grace not only available, but absolutely vital to genuine growth in grace and fellowship with God in Christ.

...more to come

Bearing MUCH fruit . . .

The third life verse in my personal mission statement, my prayers to live in a way pleasing to God, has to do with bearing fruit, as indicated in John 15, the passage about the Vine and the branches.

John 15:8 reads: "Herein is the Father glorified, if ye bear MUCH fruit, so shall ye be My disciples."

It pleases God if we not just bear fruit, but bear MUCH fruit. It is important, at least to me, to let God Himself define what "MUCH" means. I am sure He does not measure in ways we would always understand. We're not all Billy Graham or Mother Teresa. But God knows what it means for you and me to do better than OUR best because we are depending on Him.

The verse just before this life verse rads: "If ye abide in Me and my words abide in you, ye shall ASK WHAT YE WILL, AND IT SHALL BE DONE!" So it seems to me that John 15:8 is a prayer we can send up with confidence the Father wil answer it!

So John 15:8 fills out the three verses that make up my daily focus:
Hebrews 11:6--- Ephesians 4:32 and John 15:8

More later-- this is exciting to me!

Becoming more like Jesus...

One of the next verses in my daily focus has to do with pleasing God by trying to be like Jesus. Ephesians 4:32 reads: "Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake, has forgiven you." And the next verse, Ephesians 5:1 goes on to say, "Be imitators of God as dear children..."

I want the 'family resemblance.' I want to 'look like my Father.' I believe it pleases God when we sincerely ask Him to help us be like Jesus in our spirit. Kindness is not always seen as a first-order commandment. The kingdom, it would seem, is built by great energy and steely resolve. These may (may!) have their place, but to be KIND is a first-order command!

I try tio live by it!

Pleasing God...

How I came about having verses to live by-- a personal 'mission statement' was a process. I remember reading scripture on being pleasing to God-- and recall stopping and thinking: "How can I- how would I- ever be pleasing to the heavenly Father?"

The first verse that came to mind was Hebrews 11:6 "Without faith it is impossible to please (God) for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

The context of that verse is Enoch's walk with God; Enoch, who had the assurnace that he pleased God.

Maybe more later-- but Hebrews 11:6 has become a very basic and important verse for me. It is why I am and always will be first a SEEKER after more of God. Maybe to my mind "to seek" is the same as "to WORSHIP."

I want to KNOW God! That is eternal life!

Life-Line Verses

I have a number of what I call "life verses" that literally guide my life and praying. They form what amounts to a personal 'mission statement' that has taken shape across the years.

I also have some favorite verses that have sort of 'leapt off the page' at various times in my life. Isaiah 41:10 is the first one that comes to mind.

In 1949, September 3, I was leaving home for the first time-- to go from Ohio to Massachusetts and college. $300 in my pocket- total savings. I was hitching a ride with our sunday-school superintendent who was taking his daughter and two other students besides me to Eastern Nazarene College. I was 18 years old.

Near Syracuse we stopped for the night at one of those little cluster of cabins that pre-dated the modern motels. In one of those little cabins I opened my Bible for a prayer before going to bed. I was not at all a Bible scholar, and it must have been more or less at random that I opened my Bioble and read:

"Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."

I didn't know where I was, literally. I had no idea what the next few years at college would unfold. But that night I knew God knew. It was a personal assurance. It was MY verse. It still is.

More verses later, maybe...

Russ

Long-haul praying . . .

Some prayers pertain to the instant: help me NOW, Lord!
Some prayers seem to pertain to a timetable only God understands. But Jesus told us to ask, to seek, to knock-- to be persistent. I'm sure the reason we have to 'hold on' and be persistent is not that God wants us to pile up points or that he wants to be persuaded. He is not like that. But I am sure that God has answered some pretty big prayers for Helen and me across the years. They are too personal and precious to talk about in this forum.
And I am sure that God is listening and nswering prayers we are still praying, day by day, week by week, month by month, year in, year out. Once in a while we get a glimpse, an assurance, another answer in the really important things for which we dare to pray.
How can I say what I really feel today? I love the heavenly Father! He has cared for us and the ones we love across many years. Wherever he leads, whatever we are called to do, he will not leave us. And he will answer these 'long-haul' prayers!

I'm the pastor

...the Methodist church I've been serving as associate these last five years (with Nazarene permission) is changing pastors. Charlie Bark, my good friend and brother, is retiring, actually taking a small church in Barrington, R.I., and I don't know what I'll be doing- the Lord does.

Anyway this week is "Conference" and I don't go- after all I'm a Nazarene. So guess who is pastoring John Wesley United Methodist Church-- well I'm NOT pastor BUT I am doing a funeral, and a nursing hom communion tomorrow, preaching two services Sunday (June 10- 8:30 and 10:30 -come on down!) and covering hospital visitation and enjoying it all...

It won't be the same when Charlie and Alice leave . . . want to buy a nice house on Cape Cod?

All torn up

///we're getting floors refinished. Seventeen years ago we bought this house with wall to wall carpet. We knew there were oak floors underneath-- now we're going to have them sanded and polyurethened. You never know how much is in a room until you start taking out the piano and the grandfather clock and the china breakfront and the dining table--I can't wait to start living in one room and dressing in the closet. THEN in a week or two or whenever I can't wait to put it all back again.

On-Line Diary

This isn't what I had in mind when I thoght "blog." I thought I could add a chapter now and then to one of two or three books I've started and never written. One book might be on my personal life story which isn't interesting to you, maybe, but would keep my family in stitches in years o come (maybe. One book certainly would center on pastoral memories, and some of them would have "universal" application, because human nature doesn't really change. I have some rich memories, and som quite humerous there, too. One book might wax more philosophical and state the questions I find unanswerable. In unsophisticated terms I would wonder what happens to the 3,000,000,000 or more people living today who never once heard anything about Jesus Christ. I would address the tension I live with because I believe God has made me a "free moral agent" and I also believe that God is good, and hat ultimately His will will be done.

But instad I write on this blog and don't know where it goes or what to do with it . . .

Mysteries

This past Sunday was Trinity Sunday in the church year, and after this week we begin six months of 'ordinary time.' The colors, for those who observe liturgical settings, are green. This is the church 'at work'-- growing-- the Book of Acts (although Luke is still the Gospel of emphasis.)

So what?

Only that for me Trinity Sunday reminds me that we (all) live with mystery, and majesty, and mercy. I "used to be able" to explain exactly "how" or even "what" pertained to some of the things of our great salvation. (I never could begin to explain the "why" beyond the fact that somehow God loves us.)

Now I'm older. I live with mysteries I cannot explain. I trust the Heavenly Father, an I trust the Word spoken in Jesus Christ. I trust the Holy Spirit who whispers in me that I am truly loved in a way that is deeper than feelings (thank God!)

More later-- I think....