Hi Folks!

May God's grace touch your life today and may you begin your "Faith Quest" in earnest as you look to God's Word for guidance, provision, unity and life itself!

As usual I have several "housekeeping" items. The first is to recommend that you support your Youth Ministry by being attentive to their coffee/tea/hot chocolate sale. You'll notice that your "kids" are doing the heavy lifting in this endeavor. Let's support their hard work.

Second, all of us are in for a treat. Dorothy DePace will be teaching a 4-week series on the Kingdom Principles of Finance on Wednesday evenings. If you've ever been in one of her lessons you know you will leave informed, amused and you will know that you have been in the presence of someone who "knows her stuff!" Come Wednesday at 6:30 pm (come earlier for Pot Luck Dinner at 5:30 pm) for food for the body and the spirit.

Finally, accept my apology for not sending my "weekly" e-mail last week. It was a very long week with lots of people time and lots of "extras" that don't always happen in a normal week (if any week in ministry is a "normal" week). Here are some thoughts for this week.

While we completed the "Faith Quest" theme the whole idea is to get into God's Word so that God can bring us into a unity under His Power, His Spirit, His Word in His Church. We will be tempted in many ways to be loners who do church on their own terms and in their own way. Satan will use all of his tools to bring us to disorder and disunity. He'll tell some of us "that Faith Quest thing just wasn't traditional enough." He'll tell others "they should focus on God's Word and not on gimmicks." Here are my answers to those blasts from the "father of lies."

Regarding tradition, I advocate the Church going back to the original "tradition" spoken of in the book of Acts. Statements like "they bore one anothers burdens" come to mind. All of us say, "Yes, that's the Church I'm talking about." It, however, also says that not one person was in need because everyone viewed their "stuff" as community property. One pastor put it this way. He told another church member that if anything ever happened to them he would make sure that his children and his family were taken care of. If any bad economic pitfall came their way, they could come and live in his house until they got back on their feet. Some of you are seeing "the other shoe drop." This kind of Christianity is inconvenient. It messes with our life_style_. It totally destroys our comfort zone. But what if that was the kind of Christianity we were living out? There wouldn't be one person that would say, "I don't see any difference between the church and the world."

Regarding gimmicks, I will always choose the "media" of story and illustration to tell the stories I am trying to convey on Sunday morning. Why do I do this? It's how Jesus taught. If you read "between the lines" of Matthew 13 you'll get the idea that Jesus had some people come up to him and say, "Why are you teaching with stories and parables?" The Scribes and Pharisees wanted Jesus to "read the scrolls." After all, don't they speak for themselves? Jesus' answer was simple and it highlights His amazing understanding of how we think. Jesus knew that to convey a message it was important to place the "hearer" into the message. Sunday I used a kite because we've all flown a kite. Next week I'll use compost (you'll have to come Sunday if you want to "get" the analogy). The point is that Jesus used stories and illustrations because it worked. And how much better does it work today in a society filled with visual learners? If all of you followed the "illustration" of a Faith Quest and read all forty _script_ures and all forty devotionals (witnesses of God [read Acts 1 "you will be my witnesses]) I'll bet you were in God's word more that the previous forty days. I'll bet God spoke to you. And this is where Jesus places an exclamation mark. In Matthew 13 He says "Let those who have ears hear and let those who have eyes see." Jesus says that if you are listening and watching with ears and eyes tuned to God, you'll get the point. If you are listening and watching with the eyes and ears of the world, you won't get it. If you are "stuck" in the tradition of the Pharisees you'll miss the point. If your focus of worship is something other than God, it might get a little fuzzy to you.

So, what do we do? We get in the game! We commit ourselves to God's Word and we devote ourselves to God's Way. We become faithful to God through our church, the body of Christ to which we have been sent. We realize that by loving God with heart, soul, mind and strength that He will give us eyes to see and ears to hear. We claim Mark 10:43 ("Whoever wants to be great must become a servant."). Then, we go out and do great things through the God who reminds us that nothing is impossible for Him!

In Christ's Love, Randy