A Message from the Preacher
Read Tom's 2 Cents this week! This is where he shares verses that have stuck out to him recently and stories he wants to share with his congregation. Let him know what you think on Facebook!
Tom's2Cents
Read what is on Tom's mind for this week! He shares insights and stories that resonate with himself and others. View his past 2 Cents on Facebook!
What's Tom Thinking
This recent weather has me singing an old childhood rhyme, after spending time mopping up my basement and bemoaning if I’m ever going to be able to mow my soggy lawn before it becomes a hay field.
It’s a familiar one:
Rain, rain go away,
Come again another day,
Daddy wants to play
Rain, rain go away.
Now to get the full impact of the whole rhyme you only need to repeat it four more times replacing Daddy, with Mommy, Brother, Sister, and The Family. It definitely isn’t very profound and there seems to be a lot of playing going on in this family or at least the desire to play instead of paying attention to the rain.
I can’t help but wonder if the people in Noah’s day were singing a similar tune as they only thought of playing (that’s what I imagine every thought being evil amounted to) while Noah was busy about the work of the Lord, building an ark that would save those willing to trust in God.
Some have speculated that Noah was also tasked with warning the people to repent from their wicked ways during the approximately 120 years it took him to build Das Boot (IYKYK). In any case, Noah was alert, listening, and obedient to the Lord while the world around him was not. The result was that only Noah and his family “eight in all” were saved from the consequences of a wicked and perverse generation.
I fear that we are in an age when we are playing while it rains, ignoring the warnings of a loving but just God who will soon set all things right and make this whole earth clean again, maybe not through water but through a purifying fire that will reveal only the things that remain. If that’s the case then those who are paying attention need not only to trust in our Ark (Jesus) but warn all we can with compassion and urgency.
The good news is that God’s flood of mercy, found in Jesus Christ, is the remedy for His wrath and is available to all who will trust and obey. Christ’s blood is the flood of God’s grace that washes my sins away when I respond to God’s free offer of forgiveness and redemption and trust in His divine plan to make that happen.
It’s time for the church to quit playing and stop trying to make people feel warm and cozy and start getting serious about warning the lost concerning the consequences of unrepentant sin. To speak openly and honestly about sin and the result of life without God isn’t bigoted or narrow-minded, it’s what someone who loves their neighbor as they love themselves does so that they can be filled with peace and hope.
Don’t we owe it to the ones we love to do so? I think so. Consider the following song titled Flood by Jars of Clay:
But if I can't swim after 40 days
And my mind is crushed by the crashing waves
Lift me up so high that I cannot fall
Lift me up when I'm falling,
Lift me up I'm weak and I'm dying
Lift me up I need you to hold me,
Lift me up and keep me from drowning again.
That sounds like the mission of the church, don’t you think?
Grace & Peace
Preacher Tom
For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. After being made alive, he went and made a proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him. (1 Peter 3:18-22 NIV)
Grace for the Moment
How are you at forgiving? Most of us would like to think that we are experts at it, that we never hold any grudges and always let offenses roll off our backs like a duck in the rain. The truth is that most of us are somewhere in the middle between revenge and redemption. Most of us struggle with the grace to forgive as we have been forgiven. I know this because I’m on Facebook and I see the comments that people, Christians and non-Christians, make when they don’t have to face their offender. Some are brazen enough to name names, while others use the old “you know who you are” tactic to express their unforgiveness in scathing words meant to shame and humiliate. I never quite understood why people do this. It seems to me that “you know who you are” can often be mistaken by many, and the only person humiliated in the process is the one making the statement. You know who you are
Politicians and political parties are not spared this kind of verbal grenade launching. Which I find interesting since I’m sure that presidents and politicians sit around looking at our Facebook posts and make policy decisions based on our pleasure or displeasure, or have a “come-to-Jesus” moment because we have “witnessed” angrily on our site and hit the send button (sarcasm intended).
Wouldn’t it be better if we picked up the phone, called the person with whom we disagree, and worked through things civilly so that we might come to an understanding or at least an “agree to disagree” decision that doesn’t burn the house down, tear up the hedgerow and leave us with no further opportunity share the love of Christ.
Forgiveness would go a long way toward being able to share Jesus with others. After all, if we who have been forgiven much can’t forgive others little or much, why would they want what we claim to have? I’m sure Jesus is just shaking his head.
There is a quote that condenses Jesus’ teaching in Luke 12:48 which says, “To whom much is given, much is required.” Jesus uses this to warn the unfaithful servant about the return of the Master (himself). I think that in doing so, he is also warning us that for those who have received much grace, much grace is required. I think I’ll let John Fischer take it from here.
Grace Card…? Priceless. by John Fischer
"One of my coworkers here at Purpose Driven Ministries slipped up and forgot to do something he promised me he would do. It was important to me because I wanted to make a change, and he was my last backup. But by the time I got to him about it, the issue had diffused somewhat and there was even reason to believe that the end result might have been better without the change I wanted. (It was one of those times you wonder if God meant for him to forget. It is true that sometimes God’s will incorporates our failures.) My friend apologized profusely, and I told him not to give it another thought, that I was starting to even have second thoughts about the change I asked him to carry out. To which he replied, “Well, thanks for using your Grace Card on me today.”
Grace Card. I like that. I had never heard that before.
Any relationship is going to require a Grace Card. That’s because we are destined to fail each other over and over again. We will fail because we are fallible, and we will fail without even trying, because one’s expectations are too high for the other to meet.
One of Christ’s disciples once asked Him how many times he should forgive his brother, “Seven times?” he suggested. That probably seemed like a lot to him. “Try seventy times seven,” Jesus replied (Matthew 18:22 The Message).
Now I don’t think Jesus meant by this that we were to literally count up all the times we have forgiven someone and as soon as we get to 491, say, “Okay, that’s it. I’m not forgiving you anymore!” I think what He meant was: if you’re going to put a number on it, make sure it’s too big to keep track of.
Or better yet, how about a credit card with an unlimited account? An account Jesus opened on the cross? An account we can draw on as much as we need, for ourselves, and for those who offend us, or sin against us, or disappoint us, or let us down? You’ve already got one if you’ve been to the cross. Why not activate it today?
Grace Card. No relationship is possible without one. Don’t leave home without it. (Don’t go home without it, either. That’s probably where we need it the most!)"
Here’s to the grace card. Keep it handy.
Grace & Peace,
Preacher Tom
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