Cable Community Church

It’s storming as I write this.  After a wet spring we entered into a long, hot, dry summer.  Now violent storms signal a potential cool-down.  To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times, they seem to be a’ changing.

These storms bother my dog.  Actually storms are merely a sub-set in the category of “loud noises” that bother Shadow, the dog.  Other terror stimuli include the dishwasher and fireworks.  (Perhaps you’ve heard the story about how the neighbor’s fireworks set the dog into a self-destructive rampage this past June?  It’s an interesting yarn.  I think I’ll save that story for a later newsletter.)

It may be possible to explain away the dog’s irrational fear of storms, but what about people?  Dogs are “brute” creatures, while we claim more civilized sentiments.  Why is it we are frequently found fomenting in fear?  How does that speak to a believer’s faith?

Jesus once walked across a storm-tossed sea to calm His twelve disciples by saying, “It is I; do not be afraid.” (Matthew 14:27)  Do you recall that story?  Peter was so emboldened by Jesus’ walking on the water that he asked to join Him.  Could you do that?  Would you?  What is it that YOU fear?

One prominent Christian author traces the Israelites fear of the sea with this:

The sea is part of the original creation, part of the world of which God says that it is “very good.”  But already by the story of Noah the flood poses a threat to the creation, with Noah and his floating zoo rescued by God’s grace. From within the good creation itself come forces of chaos, harnessed to enact God’s judgment.  We then find Moses and the Israelites standing in front of the sea, chased by the Egyptians and at their wits’ end.  God makes a way through the sea to rescue his people, and again to judge the pagan world; like the Noah story, though now in a new mode.  As later poets look back on this decisive moment in the story of God’s people, they celebrate it in terms of the old creation myths themselves: the waters saw YHWH and were afraid, and they went backwards.  But then, in a passage of enormous influence on early Christianity, we find in the vision of Daniel 7 that the monsters who make war upon the people of the saints of the most high come up out of the sea. The sea has become the dark, fearsome, threatening place from which evil emerges, threatening God’s people like a giant tidal wave threatening those who live near the coast.  For the people of ancient Israel, who were not for the most part seafarers, the sea came to represent evil and chaos, the dark powers that might do to God’s people what the flood had done to the whole world, unless God rescues them as he rescued Noah.  (NT Wright, 2005 lecture to Seattle Pacific University’s Church Leaders Forum, retrieved online.)

Our Gospel truth proclaims that God HAS, indeed,  rescued His creation from the forces of evil and chaos through the mission and work of Jesus Christ.  This is vividly illustrated in that Matthean account of Jesus water-walking and storm calming.  There Jesus demonstrated His Lordship over the elemental forces of nature.  No wonder, then, that His disciples bowed down in worship of Him proclaiming, “Truly You are the Son of God.”

Jesus is the One who came and fulfilled all of the promises of God.  Promises such as Psalm 89:9 where, speaking of the Lord’s Messiah, the Psalmist declares, “You rule the raging of the sea;  When its waves rise, You still them.”  Or consider Psalm 93:4 which announces, “The LORD on high is mightier  Than the noise of many waters,   Than the mighty waves of the sea.”

Is this the Jesus that you know, serve and love?  The One who has overcome death, hell and the grave?  The One who is mightier than the evil and chaos of this world?  If yours is this same Lord, then why do you fear?  What do you fear?

In his first epistle to the church, John wrote to us about fear.  It’s a wonderful expression of God’s love overcoming fear.  “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear causes pain and torment.  The one who is afraid is not yet fully complete in love.  We love because God first loved us.” (1John 4:18-19)  1 John 4 is the Bible chapter that twice says: “God is love.”  Do you know that love?  I mean REALLY know it?

If you do, then what have you to fear?

Praying God’s peace and love to you,

Pastor Clint

Check out the photos on the church Facebook Site.

procrastinate – verb,  to delay or postpone action; put off doing something.

It took me a while to write this, but here it is.  I procrastinate.  This isn’t news to some of you.  There have been at least two editors of the church newsletter during my time at Cable Church, and both of them know this awful truth about me. So… here I am at (or past) the deadline for the July Newsletter, it’s nearly midnight, and I’m writing this.  Yeah.  I’m bad.

I once considered looking to see if there were a “12-step” program for procrastinators, but – as you might have guessed – I never got around to doing that.  Maybe you know.  Are there such groups?  Yeah. You could tell me about it, but chances are I’d never get around to going.  I need an intervention!

Usually I can keep this professional handicap hidden.  There are times, like VBS time, when such deficiencies come glaringly to the forefront.  For example, here we are with nearly two weeks to go before The Big Event, and I’m still writing the daily lessons that the teachers are supposed to teach!  Yeah.  I’m bad.  (Did I say that already?  I forget.)

So, if you have or know some kids who are coming to VBS this year, here’s “the skinny.”  Well, actually, it’s a MYSTERY!  You knew I’d say that, didn’t you?  Especially after I’ve just admitted that it isn’t FINISHED YET!  But I digress.

This year the name of VBS is “GOD’S GUMSHOES.”  Our assignment for the week is  “Solving Life’s Mysteries.”  Seems like a pretty tall order, doesn’t it?  That may explain why I haven’t finished yet.  Or, perhaps it’s because…. I procrastinate.  Yeah.  I’m bad.

We’re mixing things up a little bit this year.  Throughout the day, your kids will be challenged to discover “clues” that will help them, at the end of the day, to tell the lesson.  Usually – with VBS past – we would open with the day’s lesson and spend the rest of the time reenforcing that lesson.  This year we open with a “mystery” and set the kids up to hunt the clues all day.  In the final hour of each day we will go over the kid’s progress and “solve” that day’s mystery.

Of course, I can’t tell you what any of these “mysteries” are, but each day begins with a skit, and each skit tells a story of something to do with a detective, a plant and a dog!  Every day something different has happened with the plant.  The detective and the dog have different ideas about how to figure out what’s going on.  Which one is right?  How can the kids at VBS help them figure it out?   Can’t wait to find out, can you?  Neither can I!  (Did I mention it isn’t finished?  Yeah.  I’m bad.)

So… that’s probably enough of a tease for VBS, and likely not enough self-confession.  Truth is, I need to get to sleep so that, perhaps, I can get the daily lessons finished tomorrow.  Tomorrow.  That’s a favorite word for we procrastinators.  Often I break out in song (in my head, at least) with… “Tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you, tomorrow.  You’re only a day away.”  Me and Orphan Annie, we got it goin’ on.

This is the point in my prose where I, traditionally, insert a spiritual application or Bible verse.  I have neither at this time, except, don’t put off ’till tomorrow what ought to have been done yesterday.  No… wait!  That is (kind of) from the Bible!  Proverbs 27:1 — “Do not boast about tomorrow, For you do not know what a day may bring forth.”  Or, there’s that whole business at the end of Luke 9 wherein Jesus seems to be having cross words with procrastinators, just like me!  Oh, my.  Am I that bad?

Now I really must be going.  Pray for me, that good habits overwhelm these bad ones.  Also, remember to pray for VBS this month.  Thanks, and, as always…

I’m praying for you,

Pastor Clint

Every spring I begin the season with high hopes. This will be the time, so I think, when I emerge victorious in “the battle of the lawn.” I was able to hold onto that hope for about a month this year. Now, hope for “victory” has turned into praying for “survival.”

I suppose I should define some terms. To me, “victory” over the lawn means cutting the grass at the right time and to the proper height. It means never having to use the rake. It means deciphering the weatherman’s “chancy” rain forecasts, keeping one’s eye on an ever-growing lawn (yes, watching grass grow,) and balancing a host of other time-demands, both planned and unplanned. In short, “victory” means staying current in the “delicate ballet” that is lawn maintenance. “Survival” means keeping the grass mowed just often enough so as not to lose the dog in it when he “goes” outside.

In my defense, and I claim this every year, it’s not my fault! Cool, moist mornings and warm afternoons are lawn luxuries. Add to that the random, every-other-day rains, and you can begin to see how I have become overwhelmed in mowing mayhem. Between tall grass and weeds, chaos rules the lawn. I’m ready, already, to throw in the rake!

I’ve read that chaos and creation haven’t always come as a packaged deal. The first pages of the Bible tell me that God looked upon His creation and proclaimed it, “Good.” When He had finished creating, He declared it to be “Very good.” It follows that certain choices made by our proto-ancestors skewed the good creation towards the mess that it has become. Yes, I now have an ultimate Someone to name for my grass gaffes. His name is Adam, and his curse is mine! (Genesis 3:17-19.)

We too easily and too often dismiss those early pages of the Bible as either trivia or erratum, as if the author needed to begin The Story somewhere, to include some sort of creation account, and this one or that would have served us just as well. I once heard a seminary-trained Bible College professor asserting that the Genesis account was actually a figurative work of poetry and should be read in the abstract and not so much as any form of historical record. The more conversant I become with the Bible, the less credence I lend to his assertion.

I am convinced that a proper understanding of Genesis is essential to our understanding of what is going on in this world and what God is doing (or has done) about it. It is there, in Genesis, we learn that creation began as good, life-affirming and relational. Later, as noted, it devolved toward chaos, death and individualism. All of this is detailed in the first few chapters of that book while the remainder of that book, and the sixty-five others following, tell the story of how God, the Creator, goes about setting things aright. Perhaps this month, between mowings, it would serve us all well to go back and re-read this book, or to begin a study of how often the Genesis account is referenced in other places in the Bible. It is referenced a lot, and that would serve you well as a good study.

I close with a sobering reminder from 1 Peter 1:24 (quoting Isaiah 40,) where he writes, “All flesh is as grass,
      And all the glory of man as the flower of the grass.
      The grass withers,
      And its flower falls away,
      But the word of the LORD endures forever.”

May we be ever mindful of those things which endure.

Praying your lawn looks better than mine,

Pastor Clint

“The only constant is change.” ~ Heraclitus

This quote, from a Greek philosopher who lived 500 years before Christ, is just as true today as it was 2,500 years ago. Change has become the rule at my house, and there have been changes aplenty!

For starters, the old tree-house has come down. You might recall this tree-house as the one I used in a recent sermon illustration of how one should plan ahead. The tree-house served as an example of not executing a plan. Well, I said then that the structure was coming down this spring, and so it has. There is a spot in the yard, where that tree-house once stood, that continually draws my eye. My mind tells me that something is missing there. It may take a while to get over that feeling.

Next on the tour of changes, moving inside the residence, my wife’s store-room has been completely cleaned out! I know. There are still some die-hard skeptics out there who refuse to believe it. I don’t blame you. I would doubt it also, except for my participation in the experience. You see, a small portion of the “junk” that had accumulated in “my wife’s room” was mine. A great deal of that stuff was divided between the garbage collection and donations to Goodwill. One of the things that I regret throwing away was an envelope of letters from my college days. Some of the people who wrote those letters – to be honest – I don’t even remember them, but others I do. Most of those notes were silly, really, but a few – just a small portion – were serious. I fear I should have kept those few letters. Now they are gone, and my heart tells me that something is missing. It may take a while to get over that feeling, too.

“All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.”  ~ Anatole France

In a recent article in WORLD Magazine, Janie Cheaney writes about “A Nation of Terrys.” That is to say, a generation of American “slackers” who, due to fear of change and other reasons, refuse to grow up. These are the adults, way past college age, “marrying age” or “whatever age is your standard of adulthood” who will no or cannot move forward with their lives and are usually found residing in their parent’s or grandparent’s spare room. Cheaney claims that the solution to this “epidemic” is strong families supported by strong churches. I believe she is correct. Families need to train their members for and support them during the transitions of life, and churches should be beside them with supplemental encouragement, instruction and – when necessary – rebuke. It seems to me that is what 2 Timothy 3:16-17 is about when it proclaims, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
So the question becomes, then, what sort of changes is God working in your life?

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17

Some changes are relatively easy. I’ll get used to the tree-house being gone. I’ll get over the loss of those letters. As my father-in-law says, “At this age, I can’t remember what happened fifteen minutes ago.” So, at minimum, I have that consolation to anticipate.

Other changes are more difficult. Like, for some, growing up, becoming an adult and taking on responsibilities. As noted, families and the church need to encourage us along in these transitions.
Spiritual change can be either easy or difficult. That depends upon how it is done. If we allow God the freedom to work His will by His Spirit within us, then the change He desires is accomplished with relative ease. If, however, we attempt to accomplish lasting spiritual change by ourselves – on our own, apart from God – it doesn’t take. As Jesus noted in His parable from Matthew 12:44, our efforts – apart from God – don’t last.

So, as the seasons are finally beginning to change, I pray that you are sensitive to the changes going on around and within you. May you cooperate with God in the work that He would do in shaping and changing you into the reflection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

Pastor Clint