We still have several activities planned for this summer.  This Thursday we will be traveling with the Riverchase Church of Christ youth group to Rainbow Omega.  We have an On-Site Devo this week.  We are calling a big audible and moving it to Tuesday night at 6:00 pm.  Signups for Taylor as well as Backwoods Christian Camp are still up on my door.

I also want to talk about the upcoming Girls’ Night Out for the youth group girls.  It will be August 6.  If you are a chick and in the youth group, definitely make plans to come.  It will be hosted by Jackie, Beth, and Rachel and that is all I can say about it because I am a guy, and it is not “Girls’ Night Out + Neil”.  Regardless, we still have a lot of things going on and be sure to mark them down and remember the dates on your calendars.

Take care.

Cusco is a capital city in southeastern Peru with a population of close to 360,000.  The city is nestled in the Andes mountains and is perched at a staggering elevation of 11,500 feet.  The city was built ages ago by the Incans, making it a place of great historical significance.  The Sacred Valley of the Incans is nearby, over which looms the ruins of Machu Picchu, the most familiar icon of the Inca Empire.

Ashville Road helps support a mission team that moved to Cusco in the fall of 2009.  Comprised of three families, the team includes Barton, Allison and Cole who used to work with our congregation.  Before the Cusco Mission Team arrived, by all accounts there were around 60 Christians in Cusco.  Imagine the city of Birmingham, a metro area of comparable size, served by only one congregation of 60 Christians!  Obviously, there is a great need for missions in this part of the world.

One of the most recent developments in the mission efforts in Cusco is the purchase of an abandoned movie theater.  The aim of our trip next week is for our three men to join a larger group of workers that will remodel the building and make the necessary repairs to convert it into a place for worship.  A schedule for the week shows the work beginning the evening of our arrival and continuing through Thursday evening.  Friday, July 23, we will begin to make our way home.  We should arrive home Saturday evening, July 24.

I hope to make a presentation on the trip the Sunday evening after our arrival.  Please pray for our group next week, and continue to keep the Cusco Mission Team in your prayers.  They are still in the beginning stages of their work, but so far the Lord has blessed them with many opportunities, some of which they could not have anticipated.

Cusco needs the gospel, and we are fortunate to play a small role in evangelizing this ancient city.  At one time it was held in the grip of an ancient pagan religion.  Now it is dominated by the traditions of Roman Catholicism.  Our prayer is that the pure New Testament gospel will penetrate ages of human tradition and bring hope to the Sacred Valley.

We should not be stingy with what we have, even if we don’t think we have enough physical possessions to “give away”.  Whatever we have, be it time or leather interior, we should remember that it is for us to enjoy, but for the Lord to use.

It’s amazing that Jehovah invites believers to call Him “Father.”  Paul spoke of this beautifully in Galatians 4:4-7:

But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.  And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”  So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.

Due to the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, God has adopted us as his children.  In those days, as it is now, adoption was as good as the real thing.  There is no difference to a father between a biological child and an adopted one.  Both are, in a very real sense, his own.  For this reason we cry, “Abba! Father!”  It is uncertain why Paul chose to use this mix of Aramaic and Greek.  Some have trivialized the phrase to mean something like “Daddy,” but a closer rendering is Phillips’s “Father, dear Father.”

I’ve noticed a trend in prayer to stray away from the traditional opening “our heavenly Father” and go with something else, such as “God.”  I would not say this is unscriptural, but I do not think it is best.  Here’s how Jesus taught us to pray:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.  Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.  Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.  And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil (Mt. 6:9-13, emphasis added).

The gods of the pagans never sought after a relationship like this one.  In mythological tales, they rarely aided man.  Never did they call him “son.”  Only the true and living God seeks a father-child relationship with His creation.

Christians are remarkable for their God.  They call Him “Father.”

Now that VBS is over, we are getting into the meat of our summer. Next week the teens have an SoS at the church. We will be meeting at the building at 12 and doing some work around the building. Lunch will be provided. The week after that we have an On-Site Devo on Monday night at 6:00 post meridiem. We will be hitting up some bowling and then have a devo afterwards. Be sure to make plans for this (Monday, June 21). Also, 6th graders who will be moving up to 7th grade are welcome to come to this devo as well. That Thursday we will be having our first Clandestine Destination. Keep your eye on the announcements as more details will be coming out about our first CD very, very soon. The very next day we will be leaving for COC day at Six Flags sponsored by Faulkner University. Signups have already hit their deadline so this is mainly a reminder for those who have already signed up with dreams of riding Goliath ten times in a row in their heads. That Sunday we will also be leaving for Backwoods Christian Camp. This year we will be with the Hoover Church of Christ at Backwoods and it is going to be pretty fun, signups have almost hit their deadline so be sure to sign up and bring a friend. Cost is $80 for the whole week and signups are on my door.

The summer is hitting its full stride like Usain Bolt, so be sure to hold on as it gets faster and faster.

Take Care.

Some of the most brilliant leaders in the churches of Christ have been men who could admit they struggled with certain parts of the biblical text. In the introduction to one of David Lipscomb’s New Testament commentaries, I.B. Bradley said this of Lipscomb:

His rugged honesty and sincerity, coupled with loyalty and devotion to truth, as also his firmness and humility, and his deep and profound reverence for the word of God, made him a safe and trustworthy exponent of the Bible. He was big enough and humble enough to say, “I don’t know,” and would not venture to speculate on untaught things in the Book of God.

Alan Highers likes to tell about a discussion between G.C. Brewer and a premillennialist who asked Brewer, “What does Revelation 20 mean?” Brewer said, “I don’t know what it means.” The premillennialist replied, “Then how do you know that it does not mean what I say it means?” About this time Brewer glanced across the street and saw a woman walking down the sidewalk. He said, “There goes your wife.” The man said, “That is not my wife.” Brewer said, “Well, then, who is she?” “I don’t know who she is,” the man said. “Then how,” asked Brewer, “do you know she is not your wife?”

Brewer’s point was that we don’t have to know what a passage means in order to know what it does not mean. When interpretations conflict with what is clear in the Bible, they have to be scrapped for interpretations that blend in with the rest of God’s word.

While there are some things I may never understand in God’s word, the matters that pertain to my salvation are very simple. All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory (Rom. 3:23). The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23). But there is hope, for Jesus died on the cross to pay the ransom for our sins (Mt. 20:28) and has redeemed us through his blood (Eph. 1:7). If we do not believe in him, repent of our sins, and confess his name before others, we cannot benefit from this loving sacrifice (Jn. 8:24; Lk. 13:3; Mt. 10:32-33). Also, our faith ought to culminate in obedience to the command to be baptized in water for the forgiveness of our sins (Mk. 16:16; Acts 2:38; 1 Pet. 3:21). God does not save an individual who ignores these simple instructions (2 Thes. 2:10).

While we may struggle with the dimmer symbolism of parts of the Bible, may we never neglect the plain passages God has “shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (2 Cor. 4:6).

It was while in Rome that I saw dozens of different nationalities. At one point, I was surrounded by people from all over: a country from each continent sans Antarctica, and at least 12 different languages. It was while hearing these languages spoken that I thought of the vastness of the world, and the equal vastness of the need for mission work. The one thing that I took from looking at a group of Estonians following their flag (Don’t know what the Estonian flag looks like? Picture the Dutch flag except with white, light blue, and black.) was that we don’t have to go to some country in the middle of the North Sea to do mission work.

We are living in a mission field as I write, and it is our responsibility, as so deftly pointed out by Dick Sztanyo this past Wednesday, to teach and minister to those who have not followed the Good News.

Good luck in your ministries this week,

VBS has changed a lot since that first experiment. Young people are a lot busier than they were 100 years ago. Churches have had to adapt to our full schedules, cutting the original month-long programs down to four or five days. Still, VBS is important because it gives churches and parents a fun tool for teaching their children the most essential lessons for their lives from God’s word.

This year, the theme for our VBS at Ashville Road is “HERO Headquarters—Where Kids Join Forces with God.” By looking at the lives of several Bible heroes, we hope to teach our children to be convicted and courageous as they grow in their faith.

We’ll be studying heroes like the little servant girl in the story of Naaman, the shepherds who announced the birth of Jesus, the army officer whose servant was healed by Jesus, the young man who had the loaves and fish Jesus used to feed 5,000, and the young man who uncovered a conspiracy to kill the apostle Paul.

Every night begins with singing and Bible drills with Mr. Tim in the auditorium. After the young people are dismissed from the auditorium, they will be guided through five stations: the Story Station, the Memory Station, Crafts, Games, and Snacks. There are class divisions for all ages, up through the adults. VBS always ends back in the auditorium with more songs and fun with Mr. Tim.

I hope you are inviting friends. VBS is not only good spiritual training for our young people, it is always an important evangelistic opportunity. Many people who would be hesitant to visit a worship service would not mind bringing their children to VBS.

I have always been proud of our VBS and I am thankful to Tim, Millie, and the other volunteers who work so hard to make it such a good experience. The fun begins tonight at 7 p.m. following our evening worship services. See you there!

Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this.  But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?” And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded.  (Acts 19:14-16)

This example tells us something interesting about the demonic world.  It would seem that the defects of men, especially when they are moral in nature, are mocked and despised by the demons, not appreciated.

Many of us misunderstand the nature of evil.  We have a dualistic view of morality which says there are two independent divine beings or eternal principles, one good and the other evil.  We may acknowledge that the devil and his angels are subservient to God, but practically speaking we see evil as an eternal principle on an equal plane with good.  In other words, some of us have this idea that Satan is promoting an alternate way of life in opposition to God’s.

But there is only one way.  Satan’s way is a negative of God’s, not an alternative.  Satan says, “God is love?  I am indifference, the absence of love.  God is truth?  I am the father of lies, the absence of truth.  God is righteous?  I am the transgression of righteousness, the progenitor of sin; I stand for all that is not righteous.”

The demons have no respect for those who follow their path.  This is the absurdity of Satanism.  Satan worshipers seek to earn favors from the devil because they oppose God, when in reality he does not respect people who choose his path.  There is no camaraderie among evil spirits.  Demons have no love and affection for their own.  Neither do they feel any fellowship with the wicked members of the human race.  There is no “friend of the devil.”  Satan is the Accuser (Rev. 12:10), our Adversary (1 Pet. 5:8).  He seeks to “devour” us, not recruit us.

Whose side are you on?  There’s only one winning side.  “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Rom. 8:31).

This world is full of expectations.  People are full of expectations.  You’re full of expectations.

It wasn’t too long in the grieving that I realized people were beginning to expect me to be ‘better’, that it’s about time to be normal again.  Soon I realized people’s expectations were becoming my own.  Days had gone by, then it was weeks, months followed soon behind, and I was still in pain.

I went to my first grief counseling group session (yeah, a year and a half after she passed away).  Tonight the counselor said something; he told me I can’t expect too much out of myself.  There is so much pressure on us, to be the people that other people want us to be.  So many expectations, some realistic, some not.  Expectations do influence who we are as people, but should they?  I can’t expect that today is the day that I find the new norm.  I am where I am.  I have to accept that.  We have to start accepting people for who they are, not who we expect them to be.  Maybe then could you see the real new norm.

I hope you have a blessed week.