The State of the Church

These three crosses were erected in the early ‘70’s by Herbert McCall, in the Pinhook Valley community in Jackson County, North Carolina. He died in 1998, and as you can see in the picture above, the old home place has been let grow up in weeds ever since. The old building was once a thriving country store several decades ago. Now, it is just a dilapidated old structure, possibly one storm away from falling down.

Even though there is a member of the original family that still lives on the property, it is not kept up like it was when the patriarchal family was alive, and the whole family chipped in with whatever work had to be done to keep the little farm successful.

Now, all but one son has moved away and, with no family of his own to help him, the work has become so overwhelming that he concentrates on just one area of upkeep.

 

It was my husband who discovered the crosses a few days ago, and has since cut down all the overgrowth that threatened to obscure the crosses. In our conversation about this small patch of land, we realized it symbolizes the state of church of today.

In areas of our Christian lives that were once vibrant, boldly standing out in society with a banner of Jesus Christ, has now become obscured by the invasive weeds of the world. The representation of Christ in our lives is so hidden that passersby cannot see it without stopping to investigate.

 

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill that cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it gives light to all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. (Matthew 5:14-16)

And, as with the crosses above, they are few and far between. They look at the overgrowth all around us, and realize that our lives looks just like theirs. What reason is there to become a Christian if nothing is any different? What kinds of weeds make us look no different than they see themselves?

 

Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery  (infidelity, unfaithfulness to God-as well as in our earthly relationship), fornication (immoral sexual habits), uncleanness (impure-as determined by religious standards set up by God in Scripture), lasciviousness (lewdness, obsession with sexual stimulation), idolatry (hero worship, idolization, mania), witchcraft (sorcery, wizardry, magic, black magic, enchantment, conjuring), hatred (hostility, disgust, dislike), variance (hostile, aggressive, argumentative, hot-tempered), emulations (jealousy, envy, resentment), wrath (anger, rage fury), strife (rivalry, competition, conflict), seditions (division, rebellion, mutiny), heresies (profanation, sacrilege, stubbornness), envying (greed, bitterness, spite), murders, drunkenness, reveling (party animal, pleasure seeker, carouser), and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. Galatians 5:19-21

 
 

What good is our banner if non-Christians have to wade through our weeds to see the Christ hidden within us?

 

Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage. (i.e. the weeds of the world!) For you have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. Galatians 5:1,13

What should be planted in the Christian’s garden? What fruit should we have to share with others?

 

 

But the fruit of the Spirit is love  (friendship, tenderness, fondness), joy (delight, enjoyment, gladness), peace (harmony, reconciliation, accord, goodwill) longsuffering (confirmed, established, deep-rooted, complete) gentleness (calmness, tranquility, mellowness, restfulness), goodness (virtuousness, decency, kindness, honesty, integrity, righteousness), faith (confidence, trust, reliance, belief, assurance, commitment), meekness (humbleness, modesty, mildness, submissiveness), temperance (self-restraint, self-control, moderation, self-denial, self-discipline): against such there is no law. And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another. Galatians 5:22-26

 

In the same way that ‘the old home place’ gets overgrown when there is no one to pull the weeds, trim the hedges and mow the grass, so are we as Christians when we turn away from our ‘first love’ and ignore our ‘first works’.

 

 
Nevertheless I have against you that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come to you, and will remove your lamp stand out of his place, except you repent. (Rev. 2:4-5)

While a few weeds here and there are manageable, the key is to keep up our spiritual home place through the daily renewing of the mind.

 

 

And be not conformed to this world: but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. (Romans12:2)

 

If Jesus truly lives within us, and all around our cross is grown up with weeds, maybe it’s time take inventory of the garden of our heart. Maybe the seed that was sown didn’t ‘take’.

And he spoke many things unto them in parables, saying, Behold, a sower went forth to sow; And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up; some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and they soon sprang up, because they had no depth of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprang up, and choked them out. But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (Matthew 13:5)

 

 

Jesus says explicitly that He and the Father will come in take up residence in our heart, if we have truly been born again.

 
 
If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world will see me no more; but you see me: because I live, you shall live also. At that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you…..If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. John 14:15-20, 23

 

 

　

Darrell~Driven Like David

And Saul said, Bring a burnt offering to me, and peace offerings. And he offered the burnt offering……And Samuel said, What have you done? And Saul said….The Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal, and I have not made supplication unto the Lord: I forced myself therefore, and offered a burnt offering. And Samuel said to Saul, You have done foolishly… you have not kept that which the Lord commanded you. 1Samuel 13:9-14

 

 

The Lord has bestowed upon me an honor, but not without cost. When the Lord showed me that he had called me as a minister in my father’s place, I knew it was because he had rebelled against his calling. What was shown to me recently was that now I must minister to people that my dad should have. Only this morning, in reading in 1Samuel, have I realized the severity of his disobedience, and the negative impact it has made on lives not yet changed, that he was responsible for.

 

I have a cousin, Darrell, who is seven years my senior-he is 54, and has spent all of his adult life drinking. His three children, the oldest of which is 35, will not have anything to do with him. He has grandchildren that he has never seen. He has twelve brothers and sisters, most who live close to him, but he says they have disowned him. Two sisters, and their families, pass right by his house every Sunday and Wednesday to go to church. Another three sisters that live within a dozen miles are pastors’ wives, but they also have disowned him. His mother died this past year, and that just gives him the excuse to drink all the more.

Up until two weeks ago, I had not seen Darrell since the mid-80’s, when I babysat the older two of his three girls. Vanessa, mentioned above, was 3 when I kept them that summer. His first marriage fell apart, apparently not long after that. He has been married to a woman for the last ten years that is addicted to prescription pain medicine. He does not own his own home; he barters his rent by working for his landlord in a small nursery. Most mornings, breakfast is 3-4 beers, lunch the same, and his day is over by about 3pm.

 

 

He once owned his own trucking company, and was a long-distance truck driver, until he had his driver’s license-both personal and professional-revoked permanently, for drinking and driving. He has lived a demoralized life the last 20+ years, jumping from one relationship to another, and uses what little money he gets for beer and cigarettes. It is a sad life. We know that the drinking is covering some deep-rooted pain that, with guidance from the Holy Spirit, we hope to expose, which will put him on the road to healing.

 

What makes it worse is something I remember him saying all those years ago, when my dad had first resigned his position as pastor, at a critical time in Darrell’s life. He said he knew that it was my dad that was supposed to help him turn his life over to the Lord. My dad has done nothing toward fulfilling that prophecy.

Two week ago, the Lord led us to a place in western North Carolina to minister. It is not a coincidence that Darrell is our neighbor while we are here, and we see him almost everyday. My husband, who is fully aware of the above back-story, has been talking to him, coaxing him into ‘Godly’ conversations. Darrell is kindhearted, willing to help-would give a person the shirt off his back. He still has the heart that God wants to use, but he is driven to drink, resulting from bad decisions in the past that still haunt him.

This morning, as I sat on the computer, looking through scripture, this verse jumped out at me:….If the Lord have stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering: but if they be the children of men, cursed be they before the Lord; for they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods. (1Samuel 26:19)

 

 

Darrell adamantly claims his salvation at age 13, and we have no reason to doubt that. The Lord knows his own, just like he knew David. He had Samuel anoint him king, yet David spent approximately the next 14 years of his life running from Saul, the crowned king of Israel, because he sought to kill him. I look back over Darrell’s life, and remember the judgments that have come out of my dad’s mouth, as well as other family members, against him, and realize they are partially to blame for driving Darrell away from church, and his Godly heritage.

 

And David said in his heart, I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul: there is nothing better for me than that I should speedily escape into the land of the Philistines.….And David arose, and he passed over with the six hundred men that were with him unto Achish, the son of Maoch, king of Gath…..And it was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. (1Samuel 27:1-4)

 

The difference between Darrell and David is that in David’s story, he was able to go on and be king at the death of Saul. For Darrell, he doesn’t know that ‘Saul’ is ‘dead’, and is still on the run for his life. We are here on a completely different Godly assignment, but we know that He lets nothing go to waste, and I pray that by the time we leave here that a change will be made in Darrell’s life.

I sorrowfully wonder how many other people are out there-in a place where the cares of life, and bitter struggles with substance abuse-have tainted their relationship with God, while waiting for the person that God ‘assigned’ to them, but that person has fallen into disobedience? I would like to think that Darrell is in a class all by himself, but our journey to 35 different churches the past three years has proved otherwise.

Disobedience is rampant, and the enemy is sitting back, laughing, because he thinks he has won. I pray whoever reads this will take inventory of their spiritual life, and see where any disobedience lies. A person’s life might depend on it.

God In a Box

We have met a lot of people over the last three years, ‘out on the road’. Let me be more specific~a lot of religious people. People who make claims about God, but seem to have forgotten to read the scripture pertaining to their particular subject.

One instance that comes to mind was from a Baptist pastor in Brevard, NC. He not only pastured a small congregation on a huge, unused campus, but was also a teacher at the local Baptist seminary, Fruitland.

In his ‘message’, he said that God does not speak audibly to His people anymore. He gave no reason; just that it didn’t happen anymore. A few sentences later, he said that God never changes, then quoted the scripture that says God is the same today, tomorrow and forever. My immediate thought was ‘Pick one, Mister. You can’t have it both ways.’

One young man, ironically named Christian, came to his youth pastor, who we were guests of, and asked him what the pastor meant. He relayed the story of his salvation while at a Christian youth camp. During the night, he had heard his name being called, and likened it to the story of Samuel. When Christian experienced this, he was 13 years old. He told the youth pastor that it didn’t matter to him what the old pastor had said. He knew it was God’s voice he heard calling him to salvation.

One of the things that we have seen over and over again is some people want to take the God that created this:

 

yet is small enough to live here:

 

and try to put Him here: 

 

Shame on those people who, because of their own lack of education and understanding, lead others astray. Let God be God, and let us esteem ourselves to reach His level of wisdom, instead of dumbing Him down so that He fits in the confines of our minds.

The Glory of a Woman

In September of 2010, we were in the small town of Mountain View, Arkansas. We were traveling with a minister friend of ours, Jamie Coulter. While we were there, I decided I needed a trim. My hair had not had a professional touch it since 2004, but I had clipped it myself a lot over the years.

There was a hair salon within walking distance from where we were staying called Linda’s Curl Up & Dye. (Yes, seriously! See pic above.) I sat down and flipped through the style magazine, found something that I liked, and waited for her to finish with her scheduled client.

When it was my turn in the chair, she complimented me on my choice of style, cut a lot off the back of my head, and charged me $20 for about 10 minutes of work.

She talked while she cut, remarking that I shouldn’t be wearing my hair the way I had been because I looked like a Baptist preachers’ wife. I almost burst out laughing. I was (am) a minister’s wife, but I had not told her anything about myself. So, that was my experience in Arkansas.

When we returned to South Carolina, and found ourselves out ‘on the street’, we were taken in by a church member whose close relative had her own salon. Tina Dixon was a terrific singer. She could raise the roof with ‘How Great Thou Art’. Yet, two people that she saw twice a week for over two months that really needed some grooming, she totally ignored. But, she did manage to show off her new purse, shoes and clothes every week.

Her purse was a very pretty purple. I didn’t begrudge her the purse, nor anything else she talked about ‘getting on sale’. But, what I saw was that most of the women of the church had an underlying competition going on as to who got the most new things for the least money each week. There was no Jesus in that. God had presented her with someone hungry, naked and sick, as is talked about in Matthew 25. We also need a haircut, but no help in that area was provided, either.

In the spring of 2011, when we came into Haywood County, in North Carolina, we were a part of a church in which one of the members, Katrinka Webb, owned her own salon. (Which she uses for the glory of God!) We had been there about a month when my birthday came along. She wrote me out a $25 gift certificate from her shop, Shear Glory, and gave it to my husband for him to give to be as a birthday gift.

In the meantime, she gave me a free haircut, the same style as I had had in Arkansas, but finished it to perfection. She was not concerned about time or money; she simply wanted friendship and fellowship.

We left the area before I had a chance to redeem the certificate, but I’ve carried it with me for two years now. Two weeks ago, while passing through Haywood County, I met a homeless man that had just come from Tyler, Texas, because the Lord had told him to go to there. He is an ordained minister, and is ministering to the homeless at the food kitchen called The Open Door.

He was in bad need of a haircut, so I gave him the certificate, then sent Katrinka a message on Facebook telling her what I had done. She said she would honor it. Her shop is less than a mile from The Open Door.

I have told of these three experiences, all dealing with the glory of a woman to point out that, sometimes God puts needy people directly in our path. What we do with that opportunity is going to dictate whether we receive a blessing or a curse. Me? I want a blessing. And, to receive a blessing, a person must BE a blessing.

　

Jesus Didn't Speak 'Shakespeare'

The English language has helped in spreading God’s word all over the world. That is a good thing. However, there are some people that think that the written word as we know it is the way it's always been. It is sad, but true. Three years ago, we had an old, country preacher tell us that if the King James Version of the bible was good enough for Paul, it was good enough for him. We waited for a punch line. It never came. The man was serious.

Unfortunately, there is an element of society that has neglected to expand their minds to learn the meanings of the English words they speak, much less the Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek languages, and the cultures described in scripture, are all about.

Jesus said (Matt. 11:29) Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me. Did that mean to just learn about the 'spiritual' Jesus~the part that saves us~and not about the 'earthly' part~the part that tells us who Jesus was as a person? For example, how did the cultures, both Jewish and pagan, influence the actions of the people in Jesus’ time, and afterward?

Moreover, how did the introduction of Christianity, and its expansion throughout the last 2000 years, change cultures in the process? And, how many cultures have tried to alter Christianity during that time?

I am a firm believer in the adage “With knowledge comes responsibility.” I see a generation of Christians before me that have failed to ‘learn of’ Jesus.

We do not have to know about Jesus’ life, His culture, or cultures since, to receive Him, and have a relationship with Him. However, if I have pledged my life to someone that has given His life for me, I would want to know as much about Him as possible.  Am I the only one?

Jesus spoke an Aramaic dialect. Hebrew and Phoenician are derived from the Aramaic. There are disputes in some denominational circles as to whether the Greek should be ‘trusted’ to speak the New Testament truth.

With the scriptures now translated into so many languages, as well as ’versions’, it should make those less educated interested in where it all came from. ‘Alas!’ (A nice Shakespearean word!) It does not.

We have met some pastors that have never heard of a Geneva Bible, which came out some 50+ years before the 1611 King James. Still others do not know who Martin Luther is, other than ‘King’, the civil rights leader and minister gunned down in the ‘60’s. In addition, others have never heard of John Calvin, yet are a part of a denomination founded on his interpretations of scripture. Scary, isn’t it?

I have realized in my studies over the past few years  that the English, regardless of the ‘version’, leaves a lot to be desired for the real, meaningful definitions behind the words first written in Aramaic or Hebrew, and even the Greek. Not only have I gained a deeper understanding of the scriptures in general, but also studying the cultures that were prominent throughout ‘Bible-times’ makes me understand my Savior all the more.

He was God’s word in the flesh. What does that mean? It means that whatever God spoke, Jesus did. He was God's words in action!  What is it that John said? Chapter 21, verse 25: And there are also many other things which Jesus did, if everyone was written, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. His actions spoke one word loud and clear, regardless of language, or version of the bible: LOVE!

Jesus did not say 'ye', ‘thee’, ‘thou’, and ‘thy’. Nor did the verbs He used end in ‘eth’. Jesus did not speak 'Shakespeare.' 

His language is love.