Date: 2010-03-07

Message Title: Jesus In An Iron

On November 28, 2009, the Boston Globe ran an article (complete with pictures) about Mary Jo Coady (a 44-year-old Boston area resident) and her iron. It seems that Mary Jo believes that she looked at the bottom of iron and “saw a likeness of Jesus staring back from its not-quite stainless steel bottom.” In fact, Coady found that the image had given her a spiritual boost, so she chose to share it with some others. Coady said, “I believe in God, and I think that was a sign saying good things will come, and things will get better.’’ Five years ago, a grilled cheese sandwich that looked like a popular image of the Virgin Mary sold for $28,000 on eBay.

I have a hard time putting much stock in this type of thing, how about you? First, we do not even know what Jesus looked like physically, so how do we know that His image is on the bottom of an iron? The stereotypical depiction of Jesus seems to be of an effeminate white guy with long hair. That’s how the media tends to depict Him. That’s also how most religious graphics depict Him. Everything (I mean everything) about that depiction of Jesus is wrong, exception that He was a male. Mark it down, Jesus was not effeminate (see John2:13-17; Matt. 21:12-13)! You can rest assured that Jesus was not Caucasian. Jesus’ genealogies, recorded in the first chapter of Matthew and the third chapter of Luke, make it clear that when the eternal Word became flesh and dwelt among us, He was a Jew. The inspired author of Hebrews states, “it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah” (Heb. 7:14). Given Paul’s teaching about long hair on men (1 Cor. 11:14 Does not even nature itself teach you that if a man has long hair, it is a dishonor to him), I doubt that Jesus had long hair.

Second, the place where the image of Jesus is supposed to be found is His new creation (Christians, the church). Notice what the apostle Paul wrote, “For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren” (Rom. 8:29) and “put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth” (Eph. 4:24). The plan of God is for the people of God to bear the image of God. It is not God’s plan that inanimate objects bear the divine image. The people of God are changed into the glorious image of Christ through the power of the word of God (2 Cor. 3:18; 4:4). Perhaps this is why Jesus told His disciples that they are the “light of the world” and when people see how they conduct themselves, God is glorified (Mt. 5:14-16). Are the citizens of Olympia seeing the divine image in God’s people?

Date: 2010-02-28

Message Title: Making A Bad Decision

If you have not noticed the Winter Olympics are taking place just two hundred miles north of us. I still remember the so-called “miracle on ice,” a medal-round men's ice hockey game during the 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid, New York, on February 22. The United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players, defeated the Soviet team, which was considered the best hockey team in the world. The US went on to win the gold medal by winning their final match over Finland. As part of its 100th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the International Ice Hockey Federation picked the Miracle on Ice as the number-one international hockey story of the century. I still remember what I was doing when that game was played.

What I was doing when the so-called “miracle on ice” game was played was watching it! It was Sunday and I was living in South Hedges Hall on the campus of Montana State University in Bozeman, Montana. I was not a Christian, but for almost two months I had been consistently attending the Sunday morning Bible classes and worship assembly, a weekly dormitory Bible discussion, and a weekly study with two Christians. I was raised in a denominational church, with little commitment and sporadic attendance. I did not have television in my room and did not have a VCR (I am not sure VCR’s were even invented yet). So, I made the decision on that Sunday morning on February 22, 1980 to not attend Bible class or the worship assembly and watch the game in the dormitory television room. It was an exciting game and the right team on ice won!

My decision to watch the game distressed the Christians who were reaching out to me. Now remember, I was not a Christian at the time. I received a couple of visits that afternoon inquiring about my failure to meet with the body of Christ. After I became a Christian on March 10, 1980, some of the Christian brothers told me they thought I was a lost cause that morning. Every Winter Olympics reminds me of that decision to put a sporting event over Christianity and the reaction of Christians to my decision.

As I reflect on my past, it also brings a stinging accusation against me in the present! These brothers expected me to be accountable and committed even before I was a Christian. Yet, there are members that I have grown to expect to be absent from the assembly and I do not hold them accountable to their commitment to Christ. Jesus still tells us to “seek first His kingdom and His righteousness” (Mt. 6:33). I need to start making more phone calls and sending more e-mails on Sunday afternoon and Monday. How about you? Do you need to make better decisions? Do you need to make some phone calls?

Date: 2010-02-21

Message Title: Mark's Remarks

A big “thank you” goes out to all of those who planned, prepared, and aptly carried out the Valentine’s Dinner event. Your dedication was evident and many people had a great time.

I want to encourage all of the men to seriously consider participating in the Men’s Retreat at Camp Yamhill, March 11-13. This looks like it will be a great retreat. Those of us who participated in the Men’s Retreat at Delano last Spring had a great time together. This retreat not only offers the opportunity to have a great time of fellowship, but also some wonderful lessons by one of the best communicators of God’s Word in the brotherhood (in my opinion). The deadline for signing up is March 5. If you plan on going, please sign-up on the sheet in the foyer.

I will be attending the Workshop in the Word again this year (my sixth year) and if anyone thinks that he (the Workshop is only for men) would like to go with me, please let me know of your interest. Denny Petrillo (director of the Bear Valley Bible Institute) and Guy Obison, Jr. (preacher for the Lord’s church in Durango, CO and who will be preaching a Gospel Meeting for us in October) are the presenters. The Workshop is held at a cabin in the mountains of SW Colorado and between eighty to one hundred men participate in the Workshop each year. The Workshop will be focused on the Gospel of Luke this year and the dates for the Workshop are April 22-24.

There are several congregational events on the horizon (the LTC conference at Richland, Ladies Day, and the Honoring God seminar with Evertt Huffard). The House to House, Heart to Heart publication should be mailed out soon (please be praying for it to find receptive hearts). We have plenty of opportunities ahead of us to glorify God and carry out the mission of heaven!

The formulation of the focus group for my project (I wrote about this in the January 10, 2010 bulletin) has been delayed, due to a number of things. However, I think things are back on track and I will be moving ahead with the project. If you would like to be part of the focus group, please let me know. If you have questions about this, please talk me. Have a great Lord’s Day!

Date: 2010-02-14

Message Title: Where Is The Love?

It happens too often in marriages. A man and a woman fall in love, get married, and begin their life together with enthusiasm (“we’ve only just begun”). They have fun, enjoy some good times; then life begins to creep in upon them. The bills come in. The jobs become increasingly demanding. The house, kids, pets, and other things demand their attention. Their interests go in different directions and soon they barely have time to speak to each other. I heard on the radio this week that more people would rather spend Valentine’s Day with a pet than a person! They find themselves just going through the motions … or worse. This scenario plays out time after time, over and over among Christians and non-Christians. Where is the love?

Too often, the result is one or both marriage partners start thinking, “I married the wrong person.” Please note that the wrong person in the marriage might be the one thinking the spouse is the wrong one. No one is perfect and we are all imperfect (“wrong”) in some ways. My friend Warren Baldwin insightfully wrote, “if we divorce the ‘wrong’ person we are married to, the next person we marry is going to be wrong as well. We can’t leave this spouse and expect the next one to be perfect! It doesn’t happen that way. The very problems we are trying to escape in this union will surface in the next one.” Where is the love?

Let’s make the spiritual application now. Someone brings the good news of the gospel to us and we recognize our need for a Savior and the love of God. We commit ourselves to God as we confess Jesus’ Lordship (Rom. 10:9-10) and are united with Jesus in baptism (the believers wedding ceremony). At first, we have a zeal for growing close to God. But, as time goes by, we get bored and tired. The stresses and strains of life beg for our attention and time. Our personal time with the Lord grows stale. We “get less and less” out of the assembly and find “important” things to do instead of assembling with the saints. In fact, we start to develop attitudes about our brothers and sisters. We start seeking out others who seem to be experiencing the same thing. Where is the love?

When Jesus addressed two congregations of His people in Revelation, He tells them that He has been hurt by them and that they need to remember the love for Him that they first had and repent before it is too late (Rev. 2:4-5; 3:19). Where is our love for God, Jesus, and the people of God? Perhaps we need to remember and repent.

Date: 2010-02-07

Message Title: Ritualistic Worship

The Pharisees were so intent on keeping law that they tended to leave out the heart. The important thing to them was to get the outward ceremonies done in accordance with their view of Law. Their worship became ritualistic, a mere compliance with what was commanded, but without a real desire to draw close to God. Ritual is “going through the motions” but without the meaning. The Pharisees wanted to be religious. They went to great lengths to keep certain rituals in order that men might notice how religious they were. Jesus addressed this approach in Matthew 6 and declared that this was unacceptable to God. He noted in particular their alms giving, their public prayers, and their fasting.

Our weekly approach to worship can become rather routine if we do not discipline our minds to focus on the ceremonies and teachings in which we are involved. Do we listen to the words of the sermons that expound the Word of God to us … or merely sleep? Do we enter into the throne room of God with the one who leads us in public prayer … or just think of worldly matters that fill the mind when we’ve closed our eyes? Do we perceive the scene of Calvary in partaking of the supper … or do we allow our minds to slip into some daydream? Do we actually concentrate on the words of the songs we sing … or do we just give lip service to them? Of what use is it to come to the assembly if we have not truly worshipped?

Guy Orbison, Jr.

[Brother Guy Orbison, Jr. will be with us in October for a Gospel Meeting. Guy produces a very good monthly publication entitled “Working In The Word” and I will be periodically sharing some of brother Orbison’s writings with you throughout the year. Today’s excerpt is from the January 2010 issue of “Working In The Word” in the series “Ancient Christianity in the Modern World.” Mark]

Date: 2010-01-31

Message Title: Where Can We Go?

After Jesus had finished his “Living Bread” sermon (John 6:26-58) in the Capernaum synagogue (John 6:59), many of His disciples understood the sermon to be “hard” (John 6:60) and withdrew from following Jesus (John 6:66). Some of the sermon is not easy to comprehend and it has been misunderstood through the years, but the real difficulty does not lie in the “understanding.” The “hardness” in Jesus’ sermon was not in the “understanding,” but in the “acceptance.” It was not hard because Jesus presented it in an unloving manner. Neither was it hard because Jesus was calling these disciples to do something that he was unwilling to do.

Jesus’ “bread of life” sermon confronts the depth of one’s soul and people reacted to it in two different ways. There were the “many” who left and would not follow Jesus (John 6:66) and there were the “few” who stayed (John 6:67). As Jesus dealt with the two reactions in John 6, He did not change His message, water it down, apologize, or make it more “user-friendly.” No, Jesus called His disciples to realize that they must utterly and humbly depend on Him for spiritual life (John 6:62-63). This was a critical time for the disciples, because the word of Jesus has challenged their minds and gripped their hearts, but what will they do with it?

What do we do when the powerful word of God grips our souls? When God grabs our attention and dents the armor of complacency, raises the curtain on someone’s spiritual blindness, or wounds someone’s heart over sin? What do we do when the word of God is “hard”? There are thousands of “disciples” whose spiritual experience is lackluster and do not know what to do, “disciples” whose spiritual lives are as shallow as newborn Christians, even though they have walked in Christ for years. Their faith has a bland “sameness” to it, punctuated by occasional stirring of insight now lost and feelings now grown cold. When God’s voice (through His word) is not heeded, when we allow it to fall into silence, a deadness takes place in our souls (along with a residual film of guilt). We must set the intensity of our resolve on “high” so that when God speaks, we follow through without letting Satan steal away the seed (Mark 4:4, 15). If we do not listen to the word of God and follow through on it, where else can we go for eternal life (John 6:68)?

Date: 2010-01-24

Message Title: A Beautiful Mind

Our culture is obsessed with beautiful bodies, but has little care for beautiful minds. This is to our detriment. According to Proverbs, a beautiful body without a beautiful mind is like putting a valuable gold ring in the snout of a pig (Proverbs 11:22). Do we believe this? For the Christian, the idea of having a “beautiful mind” is rooted in having the attitude or mindset of Jesus (Phil. 2:5). Among several things implied by the biblical teaching that humans are created in the “image of God” (Gen. 1:26–27) is the mind. The unique attribute of this mind is its ability to know God.

From Paul’s perspective it is as if the mind that is resistant to the “knowledge of God” is subjected to a spiritual disease. The only solution is found in Jesus Christ, the true “image of God” (2 Cor. 4:4; Col. 1:15), Who through the Spirit brings deliverance from the “fleshly” mind of “death” and creates a mind of “life and peace” (Rom. 8:6). This is a transformation that Paul referred to as the “renewing of the mind” (Rom. 12:2), or having “the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). Those who have experienced this transformation can be called on to be “united in mind and thought” (1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2).

One author stated:

The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past, we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string that we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10 percent what happens to me and 90 percent how I react to it. And so it is with you. We are in charge of our attitudes.

What type of mind do you have? During World War II, General Creighton Abrams and his command were surrounded by the opposition to the east, west, north and south. General Abrams said, "Gentlemen, for the first time in the history of this campaign, we are now in a position to attack the enemy in any direction." What has you surrounded, tied down, fenced in? Do we need to see life from a new perspective?