My Best Last Place Finish

This past Saturday was the 4th Annual RACE for the Orphans. Last year's event played a major role in helping Tiffany and me get Mia home. After the blessings of last year, we wanted to help to sponsor the RACE to aid this year's four grant recipients get their children home (three from China and one from Ethiopia). 

RACE is an acronym which stands for Raising Awareness Compassion and Education for what Isaiah 1:17 refers to as "defending the cause of the fatherless." There are more than 150 million orphans in the world, and many (if not most, sadly) will never know the love of a family. Orphan care is a biblical mandate, and even though not everyone is called to take orphaned children into their homes, we are all called to do something to help assist in the crisis. And when I think about our church's mission to make disciples of Jesus here, there, and everywhere for the transformation of the world, this event has the unique ability to make a difference for families right here in our community, as well aschildren across the world. 

More than 600 persons participated in this year's RACE for the Orphans. People of varying ages, physical abilities, and socioeconomic status all came together to do something to help defend the cause of the fatherless for the precious four children receiving families. Among the 600+ runners and walkers, about 20 from Cokes Chapel participated on race day. And among them, Kathy Bryant, Dee Croft, and Gage Warren all won medals for their times in their respective age categories. Congrats! 

I didn't run this year, choosing to stay with the rest of the family as we walked the course. This turned out to be a good call as Mia got squirrelly spending as much time as she did restrained in her stroller. We took our time enjoying the sunshine and cool morning air, we carried Mia some around the course (and Bobby Totten helped by carrying her the most!), and even took a break for a few minutes about half-way through so Mia could dance. I must admit that my competitive juices started flowing a couple times and I wanted to kick my speed up a gear or two, but in the end, the experience of sharing the event with my family and friends was sublime. 

As a result of our laborious pace around the Coweta Fairgrounds, our family was the last to complete the RACE. In a humorous way, I think the organizers were almost as happy to see us cross the finish line as the RACE winners, because they knew we were the last ones to come in off the course. And later in the day, Velda Graydon confirmed something I believed to be true...a dubious distinction to be sure...I was the very last one to cross the finish line. I officially was last in the RACE for the Orphans. But you know what? I wear it with pride. Many of the folks who participated were there last year when so much of the emphasis was on our Dear Mia, and for those who were there this year, I got to see them all as I crossed the finish line with our little girl. 

The purpose of the event is to bring people together to raise money to help "defend the cause of the fatherless," and this year I got to do it with a little girl who a year ago I was only able to hold in a picture. The significance of that fact is not lost on me. As four families are in the same basic spots we were a year ago, we enjoyed being in their cheering section as they strive to get their babies home to hold them in their arms. There is no doubt Tiffany and I can't bring another child into our home, at least not now, but we can rally and do something for those who are. 

I could probably crack a joke or two about how I deserve a "cow's tail" award, or misquote scripture by saying the last shall be first, but I don't want to, because of how meaningful the entire event was. And I quite possibly will run again next year, preventing me from last place again, but my heart probably won't feel quite the same. For as I stood there at the finish line, holding Mia and my beloved family, I know that we represented the fulfillment of last year's RACE: to help get orphaned children into their forever families. And you know what? My family is forever grateful.

Rev. Dr. Mark S. Jordan

pastormark28@gmail.com

Your Lion Strength

We concluded our Wizard of Oz themed series this past Sunday, exploring the Shema prayer. The Shema prayer is the foundational prayer of Judaism and served as the context for Jesus’ answer as to which was the greatest commandment: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Each week in the series we took one of the four topics and explored biblical wisdom, using characters from The Wizard of Oz to help make it applicable. We love God with our heart when we follow God’s plan and purpose for our life. We love God with our soul when our mind, body, and will are integrated to live according to that purpose. We love God with our mind when we make the intentional decisions necessary to keep our soul integrated and keep our heart in line with God’s purpose. And as we concluded the series this past week, we talked about loving God with our strength.

The biblical languages give us some fascinating insight into what it means to love God with our strength. The connotation points to dealing with fire. On one hand it refers to using a poker to stir coals and embers to keep a fire hot. It also points to helping another person going through the proverbial fires of life by reaching into the circumstances — regardless of the heat — to show him or her the love of God. When thinking about loving God with our strength, I can boil it down to two words: follow through.

How many times have you felt an impulse to do or say something for someone as a way to glorify God? A get well card after an illness or a surgery. A meal after the death of a loved one. A note just to say hello and you care. They all count. Whenever you felt that impulse, did you act on it, or did you put it off and never get around to it? Loving God with our strength means we choose to follow through on the leadings of the Spirit.

Just as we face a battle within our hearts pertaining to following God’s will or our own, there is a similar spiritual battle being waged for the use of our strength. The deceiver begin to mess around with us when we do not initially follow through by causing us to feel guilty. All the “coulda, shoulda, wouldas” creep in and the longer we go without following through on our godly impulses, the guiltier we feel. Then, as a result of that guilt, we shy away from doing the things we should have done in the first place. What is curious about that, though, is frequently the potential recipient of our follow through wasn’t even aware of it; as a result, we deprive someone of a loving connection, and deprive ourselves the joy of performing a loving action. Guilt, therefore, is a major obstacle to our follow through, but it isn’t alone.

Fear is another major obstacle. Have you ever kept from showing or telling someone you care because you were afraid of rejection? Have you ever been afraid to share your faith for the same reason? Winston Churchill once said, “Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.” And all of a sudden, this concept of follow through fits brilliantly with the overarching development of our series: we have a constant internal struggle in our heart as to whether or not we will follow God’s purpose; our soul experiences integration when we make the decision to go God’s way; we must use our mind to make the intentional decision to keep going God’s way, even if it requires faith; and follow through with our strength to show we truly love God with all we have and are, and love neighbor as self.

In The Wizard of Oz, we see a great example from the Cowardly Lion as one who made the decision to follow through and do the right thing, even though he was scared. Sure, he had a moment when he needed to jump out of a window in the Emerald City, but he joined Dorothy on her quest to bring back the broom of the Wicked Witch of the West. Follow through! This brings to mind the great quote from Ambrose Redmoon: “Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgement that something else is more important than fear.” Courage helped the Lion find strength on his journey with Dorothy. Courage helped Jesus find strength in his journey to Calvary. Courage can help you find strength in your journey with God. Use that strength and follow through on the things God wants and needs you to do in response to the love He places in your life.

I had a blast following the proverbial yellow brick road, exploring Jesus’ greatest commandment and the Shema prayer. May it order and inspire us to listen to God, love God, and leave a legacy of love for God.

 “‘Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is one; 

you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul,

and with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ 

The second is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
There is no other commandment greater than these.”

Mark 11.29b-31, (NRSV)

Your Scarecrow Mind

We are working our way down the proverbial yellow brick road in our Wizard of Oz themed message series, exploring the Jewish Shema prayer. The crux of the Shema prayer is to listen to God, love God, and leave a legacy of love for God.  So far in our journey we explored what it means to love God with all our heart (choosing to live God’s way as opposed to our own) and soul (experiencing integration while living in our mortal bodies connected to the eternal nature of God), and this past week we considered what it means to love God with our minds.

God gave humanity the gift of reason. As the Scarecrow might say, some of us use it more skillfully or artfully than others, but we all are created with the ability to think. I believe God wants it this way so we can work out and wrestle with what it means to live in, and for, God. That is not to say this means we must understand everything, because there is definitive mystery in creation, but our ability to reason helps us to work out our salvation while also accepting things on faith.

In the Wesleyan tradition, reason serves as one of four major points for how we comes to experience life with God. This is called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. Scripture always leads the way, for in it is contained everything needed for salvation. Scripture is followed by tradition (the history of God’s intervention and interaction with humanity), and experience (a personal sense of God’s involvement in our own life) as we think about the truth that God’s love is available to all. I think it is safe to say that it is one thing to know this, but quite another to live that way.

In Romans 12:2 we read that we experience transformation by the renewing of our minds. This is such an important thing to consider, because it calls us to change the way we think. Let’s face it, the natural human inclination is to think first of self. If we take seriously Jesus’ teaching to love God first, then this means we must change that inherent thought pattern. Easier said than done, though, right? One of the reasons this is true has to do with a fairly universal defense mechanism in our brains. Our minds run constantly while processing information and stimuli in our environments. We only get limited facts, though, so our brains must fill in the gaps to complete the picture. Many of us will fill in those gaps with worst case scenarios as a way to steel ourselves against potential disturbing outcomes. It works as a defense mechanism by setting us up to prepare for the worst and hope for the best. What if we were to change this, though?

I imagine Jesus wants us to flip our natural way of thinking on its side so we hope first for the best and prepare secondly for the worst. I think Jesus wants us to take seriously the promises of Scripture that he is with us until the end of the age, and nothing can separate us from the love of God. If we renew our minds by thinking about God’s promises first, and respond accordingly to the love we receive through Christ, then we truly are transformed! Modifying the way we think will have a direct impact on the way that we live, as well as interact with, God and others. So when we read the instructions in Colossians 3 about setting our minds on things in heaven as opposed to earth, we will be reminded that we are joined with Christ in his death so we can enjoy his life. That, my friends is what our soul seeks (integration) and will soothe a troubled heart, so even when the going gets tough, we can keep going with God.

I hope you plan on joining us Sunday as we conclude this series exploring Your Lion Strength. 

Your Dorothy Soul

We are making our way down the proverbial yellow brick road in our Easter season worship series looking at Jesus’ teaching on the greatest commandment: to love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Using the Jewish Shema prayer, Jesus’ response was to listen to God; love God; and leave a legacy of love for God by loving others. This past Sunday we explored the soul as the second part of Jesus’ teaching. 

The meaning of the soul in the biblical languages is the living breathing creature within our mortal and temporal bodies that connects us to the eternal. The first mention of the soul we see in Scripture comes when God created Adam, saying the Lord breathed into the nostrils of the pile of dust that was the first man and gave him life, or his soul, as it’s stated in the King James Version. The soul comes to us from God and has a very specific purpose: to integrate our mind, body, and will. We still find ourselves in the ongoing struggle within the heart between following God’s purposes or our own sinful and selfish desires. If we love according to God’s purposes, we experience the integration of mind, body, and will. If not, however, it is like throwing water on the Wicked Witch of the West and we experience dis-integration. 

Renowned theologian, Dallas Willard, describes integration like the components of a car all working together to get the driver from point A to B. The car is more than just an engine, transmission, suspension, etc., and all parts must work together for the vehicle to function properly. The soul serves as the steering wheel, because it takes into account the freedom of will to turn as needed. Dis-integration in a metaphor such as this would be something similar to wheels that are out of alignment. Keeping a vehicle moving in a straight line when the wheels are out of alignment requires constant over-correction, causes uneven wear and premature degradation of the tires. When we experience dis-integration – and in life this comes when a job is lost, a relationship breaks down, poor health, financial misery, etc. — we feel as though the world is coming unglued for us. This is precisely why Jesus said what He did in Matthew 11.28-30: “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your [soul]. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.” (MSG)

Ecclesiastes 3:11 states that God placed a bit of eternity in the human heart. This is what helps our soul connect our temporal existence to eternity in heaven. As a result, there is a sort of natural rhythm of dis-integration we experience when trying to fill the voids in life with anything other than God’s purposes. When we aim to fill those voids with money, power, sex, drugs/alcohol, toys, or pastimes, they might bring a moment or two of pleasure, but will never fulfill the longing that God placed within us. This is the essence of of Saint Augustine’s poignant quote, “You created us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.”

Dorothy Gale felt this pull when she failed to find meaning in her life with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry in Kansas. She longed for a place somewhere over the rainbow, thinking that’s where everything would make sense. Similar to how we might experience a metaphorical storm that rocks our world, the twister carried Dorothy to Oz. It didn’t take long, however, for her to realize that life was imperfect there, too, so she began to long for the place where she belonged so she could enjoy the life she had and the people with whom she shared it. The manifestations of her heart, mind, and strength in Oz — the Tin Man, Scarecrow, and Lion — enabled Dorothy’s soul to once again find integration and joy right where she belonged. 

Are you experiencing dis-integration in life? Do you find your soul longing for a place on the other side of God’s promise to be with us forever? You can find it right here and right now in the grace and peace of our Lord Jesus. Listening, loving, and living for Christ is the ultimate way to find rest for the soul. So take the necessary time to allow your soul to get re-integrated and learn from the One who placed the yearning in your heart to begin with. 

Have a great rest of the week, and I hope to see you Sunday as we explore Your Scarecrow Mind.

Your Tin Man Heart

This past Sunday we continued our journey down the "yellow brick road," exploring the nature of the heart in Jesus' teaching about loving God with all we have and are, and neighbor as self. In the biblical context, the heart is the emotional center of a person, but also the location of a great inner struggle between giving in to sinful desires, or following God's purposes. This is a daily battle, if not a constant struggle, so we must be mindful of the condition of our heart. 

The human heart is really in a predicament. In Jeremiah 17:9-10, we read: "The heart is devious above all else; it is perverse—who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings." Jesus knew this to be true, not just from studying the Scripture, but because He could see into the human heart. He taught that the eyes are the window into the soul, but also that the mouth speaks out of the overflow of the heart (Matthew 6:22, Luke 6:45) In other words, our words and deeds reveal the condition of our heart. If it is devious and perverse, what are we to do? Plain and simple, we need a new heart!

We do need a new heart, but this isn't something any one is capable of accomplishing on his or her own. Moving beyond the muscular organ that pumps blood and oxygen throughout the body, and back to the emotional center of a person, we need a brand new heart. In Psalm 51:10, we read a prayer for God to create a new heart in us and to renew a spirit within us that is loyal to God as opposed to our selfish whims. Part of Jesus' mission was to come and reveal to us the heart of God as one who wants to replace our sin-ridden heart with one of love, grace, and mercy. 

Considering our recent "Wizard of Oz" theme, the backstory of the Tin Woodman is really insightful. The Tin Woodman wasn't always a man made out of tin; no, his name was Nick Chopper, and he was in love with a maiden in Oz. The maiden worked for a family that was lazy and feared losing her to Nick, so the Wicked Witch of the East cursed Nick's ax, so that every time he was filled with fancy feelings for his fair fräulein, his ax would turn against him and lop of a part of his body. Nick was friends with the tin smith of Oz, who would fashion a new appendage for him to replace the one removed by the cursed ax. As Nick was overcome with feelings for the maiden, he lost himself and became a man solely made of tin. The problem? The tin smith could not make a tin heart...the "new" man needed someone wholly different to replace the heart. 

Let's face it, the curse of sin weighs heavily on us. We try to love, and make ourselves vulnerable by virtue, but sin dents, dings, and damages us. We easily could be left cold and hard as though we were made on tin, but this is not God's desire for us. God wants to create a new heart in you and renew your spirit so you are loyal to Him and not your sin nature. With a new heart and loyal spirit, you are able to engage the world for God with His love, knowing your ultimate home is somewhere far beyond the rainbow, but as close to you as the next beat of your redeemed and restored heart. 

Please come join us on Sunday as we continue our recent "Wizard of Oz" worship theme and explore "Your Dorothy Soul." 

To Listen...To Love...To Leave A Legacy

This past Sunday we began our journey down the yellow brick road in the first message in our new “Wizard of Oz” themed worship series. We took a great first step looking at part of the most important prayer in Judaism: the Shema.

The Shema prayer is lifted first thing in the morning and just before going to bed at night. It is also believed by some to be the last prayer many utter before passing away. The word, “shema,” is actually the Hebrew verb meaning, “to hear.” So basically, the first instruction in this prayer is to listen to God, but that isn’t all. The Shema goes on to instruct about love and legacy in how we pass this on to future generations. Listen, love, legacy — the components of the Shema prayer. Though the entire Shema prayer is rather long at three paragraphs, the part we are studying comes from Deuteronomy 4.6-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart. Recite them to your children and talk about them when you are at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you rise. Bind them as a sign on your hand, fix them as an emblem on your forehead, and write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In Jesus’ earthly ministry, He was once asked about which commandment was first or greatest, depending on the translation you read. There are some 613 commandments and laws form the Torah to the Talmud, so this was an entrapment question posed to Christ. In that exchange, when asked about the most important of all the commandments, Jesus turned the conversation on its ear by bringing up the concept of listening to God, loving God, and leaving a legacy for God. This is captured in Mark’s Gospel, 12.29-31: “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” In answering this question, Jesus argued for a forward looking view of living out faith as opposed to a rigid rear view.

The Biblical languages gives us some very powerful insight as to what Jesus meant when He focused on loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and our neighbor as self. Consider the important insight we garner when we love God with all our…

• Heart: The seat in the center of one’s inward life — the place of human depravity or the sphere of divine influence. How will you find life, by living for self or living for God?
• Soul: The living breathing creature within us. We believe that when we accept Christ as Lord and Savior, the Holy Spirit comes to breath new life into us. CS Lewis one said that you do not have a soul, but you are a soul! Your soul, therefore, is the living God within you that connects your mortal life to the eternal God.
• Mind: Our intellect, the place where we analyze, figure-out and plan things; the place where knowledge and understanding are analyzed to bring about a conclusion or decision. Living in faith doesn’t mean we check our brain at the door; rather it means that we engage our mind while considering the mystery of God.
• Strength: Our outward response in word and deed that brings together what happens internally among our heart, soul and mind. Its root meaning is using a fire poker to rake, move quickly, and turn-over hot coals. Basically, it means to keep the flames burning hot, or reaching into a fiery situation and turn things around or make them right. A picture is forming here: God does not want us to love Him with just parts of our being, but rather, will ALL of our being — every single moment of every single day.
• Neighbor as Self: Jesus answered this in His parable of the Good Samaritan as He taught that one’s neighbor is anyone within our spheres of influence. These are the people we meet different levels in our own local community, larger region, and people abroad.

We are called to listen to God, love God, and live in such a way as to leave a legacy of God for others. This requires us living wholly for God and the people God places in our life. As we continue down the yellow brick road, we will explore how the journey that Dorothy, Scarecrow, Tinman, and Lion took transformed their understanding of heart, soul, mind, and strength/courage. I hope you will make plans to be present with us each week in this journey, because it promises to help us all deepen our appreciation for what it means to listen to God, to love God and others, and to leave a legacy of love by wholly engaging our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

God bless, and I hope to see you Sunday!

Pastor Mark

NATIONAL GET OVER IT DAY

You might know that I am a bit of a nut when it comes to these national special days. Did you know that today (March 9) is “National Get Over It Day”? National Get Over It Day was created in 2005 by Jeff Goldblatt who was struggling to get over a breakup. He started this day as a way to mentally make a break, get over something from the past, and commit to living anew. 

National Get Over It Day. Huh. How does that strike you, that there even is such a thing? Do you have something you’re struggling to get over? Does it help knowing there is actually a day set aside to make a clean mental and emotional break? Do you think it will work?

What if I were to tell you that every day can be a get-over-it kind of day? For the Jesus follower, we know that because of God’s never ending love, His mercies are new for us each and every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). Undoubtedly, though, we all have something that gnaws at us, keeps us up at night, and causes us to question our salvation. I have good news for you, though: whatever it is that plagues you in your darkest moments, it pales to the glory of God for you and me that furiously shines in a new life with Jesus! 

So what if I were to tell you the best way to actually get over something is to actually set your mind above the stuff that seems to want to hold you back and keep you down. Consider what Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-17…

“Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

“Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kinidness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

“Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.” (NIV)

Paul also wrote in Romans 12:2 that we are transformed by the renewal of our mind. 

How frequently do we dwell on the old stuff, the painful stuff, the stuff we messed up, or the consequences we must carry because of someone else’s mistakes? It seems to me a lot. I know personally I can dwell on these things, and in so doing, keep my mind fixed on things “below” as opposed to things “above” where God is. When that happens, I need to get over where my mind wants to be into the open spaces where it needs to be.

On this, the 11th anniversary of the first National Get Over It Day, if you have something that’s dragging you down, get over it by reminding yourself that your old way of living is buried with Christ so you can be resurrected daily into the glory of God. Set your mind on the things that honors and glorifies the Lord. Focusing on God’s ways, and serving others accordingly, is truly the best way to get over it and stay above the mental and emotional fray. And in all honesty, you don’t need a “holiday” to do so, just a chance to be reminded that God’s mercies are indeed new for you each and every day, and commit to live according to that new life thanks to Jesus. 

Have a great rest of the week, and I hope to see you Sunday when we talk about the perpetual problem of gossip in our lives, both individually and corporately.

Pastor Mark