Working in a penitentiary, I see a lot of tattoos. Some are really awesome and extreme. One guy in particular has a word that wraps around the front of his neck in three inch letters. But, there is one problem. There’s no spell check for tattooing. Across this guy’s neck is the word, “DENSTINY.” I’m guessing he was going for “Destiny” or perhaps “Density” had some significance for him, but he didn’t quite get either one. I guess the moral of the story is some of us are destined to be dense.
I kind of feel a little destined to be dense with the topic of the message this weekend. The message is on the Trinity.
That is the word we use for the Biblical truth that God is One, and yet Three persons, and yet not multiple gods. This is a mind-blowing mystery, and the Bible even says so. But it is a major truth that the Bible describes about God. And it is important to realize that while it describes God as the Trinity, the Bible isn’t trying to completely explain how God is Three in One. In other words, we need to believe God through faith in the the way inwhich He has revealed Himself through the Bible, but when our finite minds can’t comprehend the infinite mysteries of God, …I suppose we’re destined to be dense. Well maybe dense isn’t the right word. It can sound insulting, but we certainly are like naive babes who can’t comprehend truths beyond our maturity, and yet our job is still to believe. Jesus un-apologetically told us…”Unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you wil
l never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.”
Trinity is the subject for Sunday, see you then.
By the way, I’m planning on giving you a poll on Mondays. If you haven’t answered the poll for this week, please vote: Least Consistent Practice.
We’ve had some unique and awesome Sundays these past two weeks with a poolside talk on baptism and sharing the Lord’s Supper together for the first time at Team Church. We’re soon approaching the end of our first semester of Home Teams (we’ve got just two more meetings), and the launch of our Fall Teams (Aug. 20). Yep, that’s right, fall’s just around the corner and that means SCHOOL’S back.
To usher in the first day of school (aug. 17) Team Church is throwing the community a movie party! In just two-1/2 weeks we’re going to show an outdoor movie in the baseball field next to the Kershaw Elementary School. This will be a lot like our Easter event where our mission is to provide a fun environment for families. We want people in Kershaw to relax in their lawn chairs, have a bag of popcorn on us, and enjoy a movie. The movie is pretty exciting too and will start up at 9pm. It will have just come out on DVD, “Race to Witch Mountain.”
I’ll be asking for volunteers to sign up to help us on Friday August 14. So I hope you’ll help make this great night. Plus, you’ll hear more about how you can donate needed school supplies to the Elementary School kids.
As the Fall comes quickly we’re staying busy with Team Church because we really expect God to help us reach out to more people. Once school starts I believe God will begin multiplying some of the efforts we’ve put in during the summer. Teenagers are going to be sharing their experiences with Youth Serve and Team Church, and we could see a lot more of them on a regular basis. Teens will be talking to their parents about coming to visit, and we will see God transform lives as He leads people to salvation and full devotion. It’s really exciting what’s coming up soon.
Regardless of how fiercely independent you think you are, the fact remains that we need other people. All of us do. We need people to be our teachers, our doctors, ou defense against those who would do us harm. We need people to maintain our roads, run the projector at the movies, ship all our stuff to Wal-Mart, and keep the internet running. We need people to write books and make music. We need people to service our cars, roof our homes, and bag up our groceries.
But more importantly we need people to share with, laugh with, cry with, eat with, and if you think I am wrong, for one week I would like you to try to do each of those things without anyone else. I guarantee you will be a depressing mound of humanity by day two.
My home team met last night and it was a great time of laughs and sharing of concerns and coffee and a chance to see how God can bring random people together and make it a top notch experience. There is calming there amidst the laughter and the chaos. There can be healing. There can be growth. And sometimes there can be pain as we all work together to try and figure out this life with the help of our awesome Father.
Last night I was blessed by Cami and T.J. leading our group. They did an excellent job and made me realize something very important about gathering together. It does not matter what a leader or facilitator has on the agenda for a group of Christ followers. It only matters that you care about those who are with you. And by stepping out of the leadership role for a night I was able to see that Cami and T.J. may have spent 4 days or 4 minutes planning what they were going to talk about. But that did not matter. What mattered was they talked about a strugge in their own lives and cared enough to share it with all of us. They gave and sought advice. They opened up and encouraged others to open up. And that is what is important when we as followers of Christ get together.
In a few weeks we will begin sign-ups for the Fall semester of Home Teams. I would strongly encourage you to begin praying about joining one. If you have been attending one already consider renewing you commitment this fall. If you have not attended yet please plan on it. I would love to see you there and I know all the folks at Team Church would too.
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