Who Knocked Down the Walls of Jericho?

The new minister was asked to teach a boys' class in the absence of the regular teacher. He decided to see what they knew, so he asked who knocked down the walls of Jericho. All the boys denied having done it, and the preacher was appalled by their ignorance. At the next deacons' meeting he told about the experience. "Not one of them knows who knocked down the walls of Jericho," he lamented. The group was silent until finally one seasoned veteran of disputes spoke up. "Preacher, this appears to be bothering you a lot. But I've known all those boys since they were born and they're good boys. If they said they didn't know, I believe them. Let's just take some money out of the repair and maintenance fund, fix the walls, and let it go at that."**

You laugh, but I bet you there are Christians somewhere who don’t know who knocked down the walls of Jericho!  As our society becomes more and more secular, biblical knowledge is decreasing.  It’s tempting to think of this as an outside problem, but the reality is that as the knowledge of the Bible declines in secular culture, so it does in the church.  Although a decline of Bible knowledge in the church may not be as drastic or noticeable, it is something we must continually guard against.  This is why, for the next few weeks, we will be focusing on God’s word—how to study it, why it’s important, and some of the things associated with a growing into a good working Bible knowledge.  Join us for these next few sermons as we go through our series, “Light for a Dark Path.”

**Story taken from http://www.sermonillustrations.com/a-z/b/bible_ignorance_of.htm

Scott McFarland

Living With Purpose

This past week we opened our mini-series talking about the fact that you are not an accident.  No matter what the circumstances of your life are or were, you are not here by chance, nor does our God in heaven want you to believe your existence is the result of some random coincidence of events.  As we continue and close this two-part series, we will look at Jesus’ life and the purposeful way He lived and ministered.  As we do, I need to discuss another topic…

Often, when we hear Jesus used as an example of something in a sermon or class, we unconsciously think, “Well, of course He did that, He’s Jesus…”  Unknowingly, we discredit the entire message/example because we see Jesus as untouchable or unrelatable because, well, He’s God.  What I want you to consider this morning as we look at Jesus and His example of purpose is to think about Him the way Hebrews talks about Him in Hebrews 4:15, as “...one who in every respect has been tempted as we are…”  This means Jesus was tempted with the same thoughts of apathy, mediocrity, and complacency as we are.  In fact, do you remember His prayer in the Garden the night He was betrayed?  “Lord, if there’s any other way, take this cup from me…”  I don’t know how you see that prayer, but it sounds like a request to get out of the cross to me.  The cross was His entire reason for coming.  If He skipped the cross, Jesus would have been sucked into taking the easy way out, the path avoiding purpose.

So, when you hear the message this morning, or think about Jesus’ life of mission/purpose, don’t think He had it all locked down going in.  There were moments of fear, temptations to quit.  He could have, but He didn’t.  Jesus followed through with His purpose.  Will you?

Scott McFarland

Finding Purpose

This morning we kick off a two-part series called, “Finding Purpose.”  I think everyone at some point wants/needs to know what the meaning of their life is.  We think that only philosophers and PhDs ask questions like, “What is the meaning of life?” but the truth is that each of us, in our own way, want to know why we’re here.  Having purpose and feeling like your life is heading somewhere meaningful is important for everyone, and the good news is that as Christians we have a purpose straight from our Creator!  This week and next we’ll be looking at first, “Why am I here?” and second, “Living with Purpose.”  We’ll first look at the reason for our being and, next, what do we do with that reason.  Billy Sunday, a revival preacher, once said, “More men fail through lack of purpose than lack of talent.”  As we start this series, ask yourself some questions: “Do I know my purpose?”  “Where am I headed?”  “Am I living intentionally or accidentally?”

Scott McFarland

God for the Good Things

It’s good to be back!  Two weeks of Army training has ended and I’m so glad to be back with my family and you all.  Having to leave again after a relatively short time home was difficult.  Even though I knew it wasn’t going to be as long as my first go around, it hurt to leave again.  Being 1,000 miles away from home makes you appreciate what you have, which leads me to our bulletin article thought this morning…

Both of the Sundays we were gone, we were unable to have church service due to the training schedule, so one of the other guys in my platoon (who is also a minister, ironically!) shared some Scripture with the men in our unit after our training was over on Sundays.  I shared some thoughts from James 1:17 which says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.”  Without boring you with details, during the course of our training we had had some events play out in our favor that significantly helped morale.  I discussed these events and talked about the God who had blessed us with them.  Not everyone in my platoon is a Christian, of course, but through our time together in Scripture I encouraged the guys to think about where the good things in our life come from and to be grateful to the God who gave them to us.

This all got me thinking…am I grateful for the good things in my life?  So often, I look around at what isn’t where I want it to be.  I’m a perfectionist by nature, which often leads me to think about what’s not right instead of what is.  These last two weeks I have been thinking about how much I have to be thankful for, how much we all have to be thankful for.  Here are a few statistics…about 10% of the world goes to be hungry each night; about 6% of the world is unemployed; 34% of the world has never gone to school past age 11.  Although we all come from different backgrounds, I’d be willing to bet that most of us have food, work, and education.  Many of us probably have an abundance of all three.  When was the last time you stopped to think about what you have and to thank the Creator who blessed you with it?  We are so blessed, especially in this country—don’t forget to thank the One who gave it to you!

Scott McFarland

One Sparrow

Those in the know estimate that flying, perching, and nesting around the world at any given moment are at least 50 billion individual birds and possibly as many as 430 billion. Of those individual critters, 1.6 billion are sparrows. Sparrows live approximately three years. The earth has been around for at least 8,000 years. So, you do the math. Trillions of sparrows since the beginning.

Jesus told his disciples to be brave, not to be overcome by fear. God was on their side. God was aware of their travails. “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? “he asked them, “And no one of them will fall to the ground apart from your father.”

That’s a lot of dead birds to keep track of, and to care about.

The smallness of each individual creature and the bigness of God is something that consumes my thoughts from time to time. I was recently standing in the TSA Check line at Sea-Tac airport scanning all the commotion, all those shuffling, scurrying bodies. All the thoughts going thru all those brains. All the stories each could tell. All the hurts and aches each was feeling at that moment or had ever felt. For a moment I was lost in the thought of my own smallness in this world. Who am I, but just one being in a chaotic sea of billions and billions of beings. While my own issues and concerns seem to be so significant to my own spirit, they are in reality invisible to all the other billions, save for those in my minuscule circle of friends and family.

And yet…my faith in my God, sparked and fueled by his Word and his Spirit, tells me that he knows me. Somehow in this jumbled, tumultuous, harum-scarum mess, he keeps track. With all these bodies moving in all these directions, and all the words being said at the same time, and all the thoughts on all the subjects all the time…he sees, he knows, he cares -- not just for the herd, the flock, but for each precise individual creature.

Yesterday our cat killed a sparrow. He brought the body to the porch. I threw the body in the yard. Just another bird. Fallen, dead, half-eaten. Didn’t give it much thought. Here on this tiny little plot of grass in Aberdeen, Washington, a nanoscopic dot on the world map, an infinitesimal amount of concern for a dead bird.

But it did not fall apart from the father.

In the totality of all he’s created, you are small. Your thoughts are small. Your accomplishments are small. Your feelings are small. The disease you deal with is small. You are one small dot on a globe of dots so dense, such that no one individual dot is distinguishable.

Yet should you fall, when you fall, you will not fall apart from the father.

Chuck Schultheisz

Aberdeen, Washington

Thank You

Dear Brothers & Sisters, thank you to all who were a part of making M.A.G.I boxes for the children. Also, a huge thank you for providing the funds for the shipping of the gifts. 
        

In Him, Cindy Herring

Healing Hands International

Thank You!!!

To all the workers, teachers, and “kids” connected to the Woodsfield Church of Christ V.B.S., Thank you so much for the generous donation of peanut butter, canned vegetables & fruit, and tuna to the Manna Food Pantry. Those cans of food will go a long way toward filling our weekly boxes and bags. May you all be blessed in some special way for your caring attitude and generosity to help those in need. This was an AWESOME contribution. 

   
Sincerely, Jim Barrows
 

The Better Part

My kids have reached the age of awareness of dessert size.  If you know, you know.  This means there is almost always a discussion or argument on the size of each child’s dessert and who had “the better half.”  Sometimes, Abby and I will have to take a second look and trim one person’s dessert to be fair and equal.  Ah, kids…

I remember being so concerned about how much my sister got and if it was fair or not.  I think everyone goes through that phase as kids.  I was thinking about this reality the other day, preparing for the sermon this week, and wondered—why don’t we do that as adults?  Not with dessert, but with life?  Adults often do try to get the bigger slice of the pie in the workplace or social world, but what if our idea of “the better half” wasn’t really better?  What if there was more meaning and more important things out there that we miss?

Our sermon this week tells the story of a young woman who chose “the better half” or, in Jesus’ words, “the better part.”  What’s interesting is she chose something that most people her age and gender would never have chosen: listening to Jesus over performing her culturally expected duty in service in the kitchen.  Jesus tells us that she chose “the better part.”

Have you looked at your life and taken stock of what “the better part” is in your life?  Are you pursuing it?  It’s easy to get sidetracked.  Jesus continually reminds us that He is “the better part” and not to get distracted by all of the other cares and concerns of life.

Scott McFarland

V.B.S. Wrap Up

Thank you for all of the generous donations during V.B.S. this year. As a result of your generosity, there were 196 cans of non-perishable canned goods donated to the St. Paul’s United Church of Christ food pantry. These items will be distributed to help families in need in our community.

There was also $415.20 raised to help support Beatrice Chelangat and her children through Orphans Lifeline International.

"One Another"

Last week, we started a mini-series called, “The Loneliness Pandemic” where we looked at the increased isolation and loneliness present in society and the way this is affecting people.  We looked at the Bible’s repeated promise from God that “He will never leave you or forsake you” as the answer a desperately lonely world needs.

This week, we’ll continue and end the mini-series looking at the Church, God’s physical answer for our loneliness.  It is the church that provides community and relationship to make it through the difficulty of life.  Someday I might do something more than just a bulletin article on it, but there are 59 “one another” passages in the New Testament—specific commands given to the church of things we should be doing for each other: love one another (John 13:34), be devoted to one another (Rom. 12:10), live in harmony with one another (Rom. 12:16), teach one another (Col. 3:16), comfort one another (I Thess. 4:18), be kind and compassionate to one another (Eph. 4:32), stir up one another to love and good works (Heb. 10:24), etc.  There’s a lot of them!

Sometimes we don’t realize the great responsibility we have as brothers and sisters to take care of each other.  It can be easy to forget, with the business of life and all that goes on, and we just pop in and out of worship and Bible study without spending time to check in on each other and “one another” each other.  So, I’ll challenge you as we look at the church today—how are you “one another-ing”?  Are you taking care of your brother and sisters well?  It’s part of God’s design—"one another” well!

~~Scott McFarland