If we talked to people the way we talk to God

Couldn't resist!  Carry on, prayer warriors ...

'Faithful sayings' for when you're not sure exactly what to say

While coming up with a list of the instances of the phrase "this is a faithful saying" (or "trustworthy saying") in the New Testament, I couldn't come up with much in terms of a clever talk. They're unrelated for the most part. Each saying is faithful in its own regard -- maybe this would make for better for a series of lessons on each saying, with supporting verses for each.

Nonetheless, I felt that this was God's leading to share Paul's uses of the phrase, without having to parcel them out into the new year. I'm grateful for having a fellowship of believers that can take Scripture at face value and simply receive it, without there having to be an entertaining tie-in or "ah-ha" moment (house churches for the win!). They even called me out: "I thought you said there were six!" So we read one from Revelation. And, in writing this blog post, I found if you look in the Greek you can throw a seventh one in there from Revelation -- straight from our Lord's mouth.

Some food for thought on the Fruit of the Spirit

Topic: Bearing active spiritual fruit
Target passage: Galatians 5:16-25
Date: Nov. 29, 2015

You've probably heard the venerable litany many times before. You might even have the Fruit of the Spirit memorized: "Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance." They might seem less like fruits and more like old chestnuts as many times as we've heard them! But they deserve a fresh look.

Children bring prosperity; are never 'wrongful births'

Note: This post of mine originally appeared in The Travis Tracker.

About 120 women are suing drug company Endo because an alleged packaging error they say resulted in unplanned pregnancies ... and, along with that, the expense of raising children.

The class action lawsuit was filed in Pennsylvania last week. The class members hail from 26 states, and it is unclear at the time of writing if a Texan is among them. According to the suit, the birth control pill manufacturer distributed pills (see full list at the bottom of this post) in 2011 with incorrect markings and packaging -- resulting in 113 unforeseen pregnancies in 26 states. Fully 94 of the women carried the babies to term. Other state courts have rejected similar lawsuits.

The class is reportedly seeking millions in damages, including, in a few cases, the costs of raising children through adulthood (allegedly because of the birth control goof-up). While many prestigious sources put the cost-estimate of raising a child from 0 to adulthood at $200,000 to $250,000, that's not a universally held figure.

According to one source we found, a money management site called TheSimpleDollar.com, children can actually bring in money at certain points along the way. Here's the breakdown from author Trent Hamm, based on a working husband and working wife with two children in Iowa at the onset of the Obama Administration (costs have certainly gone up since then, but bear with us!). His comments are in italics below and are worth a read (full article).

Breathing new life into old songs

A quirky take on a forgotten favorite.

Although my wife is a classically trained singer with a degree in performance, sometimes it can be hard for us to figure out from the notes in a hymnal or chord chart how to sing a particular "psalm, hymn, or spiritual song."

Especially when these songs are largely forgotten. And especially when you only have a living room full of voices to mask the fact that none of you really know how to sing them!

Recently, we have been enthralled by the lesser-known hymns of Charles Wesley (no surprise, given my theological leanings). A hymnal I bought for a couple of bucks as Lillenas Publishing Co. was going under provided much inspiration but many questions on how to best interpret the bar notes on its pages.

Chicken and cake ... and God's grace

If you don't recognize this scene, you're not living the church life!

One of the tell-tale signs of a functioning house church is eating. It only makes sense that if you're having people you love over for an activity that will surely run during (or up to) a meal time -- and within feet of a well-stocked kitchen -- that you would want to combine culinary talents and eat together.

Is there anything more New Testament than food? Breaking bread from house to house? The Love Feast? Even the Lord's Supper?

So much of the life of the church is devoted to eating. Even institutional churches, where it's a central element to Christian fellowship. Unfortunately, this is a trend that seems to be waning.

Taking Pastor Appreciation Day to the next level

In honor of Pastor Appreciation Sunday, we house church-types would like to expand the the occasion to make it bigger and better than ever before! Now we can wish everyone a Happy ...

   Pastor Appreciation Day
   Server Appreciation Day
   Teacher Appreciation Day
   Exhorter Appreciation Day
   Giver Appreciation Day
   Administrator Appreciation Day
   Healer Appreciation Day
   Helper Appreciation Day
   Tongues Speaker Appreciation Day
   Tongues Interpreter Appreciation Day
   Preacher Appreciation Day
   Prophet Appreciation Day
   Elder Appreciation Day
   Deacon Appreciation Day
   Presbyter Appreciation Day
   Singer Appreciation Day

#BetterTogether

(In all seriousness: If you bear the burden of preparing several lessons per week, evangelizing the lost, administering finances, counseling the hurting, overseeing worship programs, and coordinating compassionate ministries, we hope your congregation gives you the respect you deserve for taking on all that work yourself. We also believe that respect comes from your flock using their God-given gifts to assist the same work you're doing to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to your community and worldwide. Take some of that load off your shoulders, for crying out loud! One Sunday and a pancake breakfast ain't gonna do it.)

Romans 12:6-8; I Corinthians 12:8-10, 28; Ephesians 4:11; I Timothy 3; Titus 3; I Peter 4:11 (did we miss one? Leave a reply in the comments below).

'If they ... have not love, do not listen ...'

It was actually Tertius, but ok.  ("Saint Paul Writing His Epistles" by Valentin de Boulogne, c. 1820.)

There's an old saying often attributed to John Wesley (bonus points if anyone can find the actual quote):

"And even if they come to you with sound teaching and persuasive words, and have not love, do not listen, do not listen, do not listen!"

In other words, if even the best preacher, teacher, or evangelist makes his case persuasively and consistently, and provides chapter and verse for all his claims, yet fails to exhibit any care for those around him (discounting any personality quirks, genuine shyness, rushed schedules, etc.) then it's best to take what they have to say with a grain of salt (I John 2:15). If you don't understand what it means to love, then "the greatest of these" (I Cor. 13:13) is missing from even the most convincing message of faith and hope.

'A little lower than the angels'

Michael the Archangel statue, St. Michael's Church (building), Hamburg. (I wonder if the HOA would allow this in the front yard?)

Subject: God's majesty
Target passage: Psalm 8
Date: Sept. 27, 2015

Psalm 8 was the perfect follow-up to our read-throughs of the fraternal twin epistles of Jude and II Peter.

In this sandwich of praise (vv. 1 and 9) David establishes well the wide-reaching magnitude of God. It extols his majesty. It asks the ages-old question "What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?" (V. 4).

Messy-anic Christianity

Charlie after homemade pizza night.

Thank God for family!

Since today was my stepson Will's birthday, we were honored by a visit by his grandparents, who blessed us by staying around for church.

It must have been quite a contrast for them today, as they were unable to meet with their usual congregation, Austin Baptist Church, which has hundreds of members in far West Austin. Alex, Will's grandfather, is a Deacon. The church is only seven years old, and is already busting out the seams and raising funds for a building extension.

The irony was not lost on me: Church for them today was eight people (we had three sick and at home today), no nursery, a baby crawling to and fro, and grandma playing Legos at the table with Will within earshot of the "service." Getting up to chase after 20-month-old Charlie was common, and once I was interrupted by a singing elephant. I think I heard Tickle Me Elmo join in our singing, briefly.

Organic church easy to start but hard to find

                                                               "Nothing yet, sir."

Cringeworthy criticisms and shoot-from-the-hip speculations aside, it's amazing what you can find if you take the time to peruse the collective wisdom from the comments section of a thoughtful article.

In this case, I found a few nuggets of wisdom on a 2012 blog post questioning if organic house church is, by and large, a myth. After two years of back-and-forth in the comments, the author became perturbed by the exchange (please, I've had Facebook comment wars longer than this!) but props to him for keeping the dialogue intact. Below are some highlights that I think summarize the "searching for house church" experience better than most published items I've read.

House churches 'more satisfying'

A 2007 article by house church sympathizer George Barna carried the curious headline, "House churches are more satisfying to attenders than are conventional churches."

It's a bold claim, but one backed up by a survey of 2,008 respondents, some of which I'll share below. For more see the link from the Barna Group.

In my prior, short brushes with house churches, the main complaint I received from my institutional church brothers and sisters was how such churches are perceived to be glorified home bible studies -- that without educational programs, staged worship, and stricter discipline, house churchers would burn out or become bored with the weekly routine. This now-famous survey, however, paints a more realistic picture of what I've observed.

The simple church down the street

I was able to finally visit the other house church in our neighborhood this morning. Actually, they might prefer to be called a simple church.

Surprisingly, it was a block up the same street today. Affiliated with my former denomination, no less. And one I had learned of at an organic church conference previously, but had no idea was meeting within earshot of my home for the last few years.

Jesus is coming back! (Soon ... right?)

Subject: God's timing
Target passage: II Peter 3
Date: Sept. 20, 2015

"... Scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, 'Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'" (vv. 3-4)

Would it be wrong for me to say to any such detractors, carpers, picadors, quibblers, and any variety of athesits and agnostics, "Good question?"

When, pray tell, is Jesus coming back?

Cracks in the Windshield

My wife is concerned about a crack in her Jeep's windshield. I am now, too, but that hasn't always been the case in the life of the crack. As usual, her intuition was better than mine!

It started last year as a small line near the inspection sticker. I wasn't even sure it was a crack. It's now past the passenger-side wiper. And while the glass is in no danger of sending shards flying at her while driving (safety glass), there is an inevitability that one day the windshield will no longer be in one, solid piece.

The fissure now catches the glare of the sun in a way that impedes our vision at times and poses a hazard in the Central Texas sun (yes, I really should get this fixed soon!).

That's how it is with false teachers. Their errors start small, arguable, and insignificant, and perhaps easily corrected. But over time the error widens to full-scale theological deviation from the Gospel and risk for anyone getting their vision through that teacher.

As an anecdote in last Sunday's discussion, I noted a situation where a fitness program developed into a denomination that rejected Jesus as God.

How to avoid false teachers (or, better, how to avoid becoming one!)

Subject: False teachers
Date: Sept. 6, 2015
Target passage: II Peter 2:1-10

For as many false prophets as there have been throughout Christian history there is surely a greater number of motives that drove these men and women from truth to something that ... well, doesn't quite match up to truth.

In this particular chapter, Peter narrows down the criteria. He warns the churches he wrote in Asia Minor against "licentiousness" (an attitude that we have a free license to sin, vv. 2 and 10), greed (v. 3), and a disdain for authority (vv. 1 and 10).

Stop here before you point an accusatory finger at a money-grabbing televangelist, a cult leader, or an overbearing coach you had in high school: aren't we all guilty of these things?

Theophanies

Subject: Theophanies
Date: Aug. 30, 2015
Target passage: II Peter 1:12-21

Peter wrote to a prime market.

A vast marketplace of ideas -- theological and philosophical -- latched itself to a new Christian movement hoping to cash in on its dynamism. Many of these competing ideas were subtle and sometimes innocent errors. Others were outright denials of the established truth and even sought to remove Christianity from its Hebrew roots.

Peter, by virtue of walking with and being called by Jesus, makes him an Apostle. That pedigree alone gave him the clout to effectively warn the early churches against the temptation to follow unorthodox teachings that have set up shop (see chapter 2). Note his fatherly tone, especially in v. 19 ("... you will do well to take heed ..."). He spoke with authority.

Peter was up against some destructive ideas creeping in to the young church; young, though as old as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, by being the continuation of Israel. Here, the Apostle lays out the fact that he was not only eye-witness to God the Son and full of the Holy Spirit, but witness to an expression of God the Father.

The radiant glory of God's full presence would kill a mortal man (Exodus 33:20). So the Father has made himself known by various "theophanies."

How our baby broke a megachurch

Sample image of the sticker we received for each child.

We get it. It's an increasingly dangerous world out there when it comes to child custody.

It's even harder when you have a congregation in the thousands of dots in the crowd, and about 10 percent of those in attendance brought their little ones along. The children aren't sitting in a pew with their parents like they did back in the olden days, marking up the offering envelopes with the short pencils and ignoring the sermon. Most large churches have kids areas where the young ones can play Jesus-themed games, sing songs, and learn about the Bible. The nurseries are less instruction-oriented, of course.

John Oliver's call to tax churches would backfire -- badly

A badly photoshopped John Oliver with a laughing hyena. You get the idea.

Disclaimer: I don't intend on addressing politics much on this blog since it's spiritual in nature -- Jesus died for conservatives and liberals alike. But from time-to-time I'd like to show support for our Evangelical friends in institutional churches who are facing unfair criticism and provide House church perspectives on current events.

The short version: taxing American churches as businesses would create a movement that would make the Moral Majority look like a church picnic by comparison. Don't even try it.

The long version: 

The ups and downs of a home-based church

Couldn't have said it any better! (Source: "House Churches Have No Sex Appeal," blog post by Andrew Jones, 2004).

We'll see how this goes.  :)

What kind of church do you have, there?

A rainbow appeared over our Leander, Texas, home during a rainier-than-usual winter in 2014 -- the time of many life-changes for my wife and me. We'll take this as a sign of God's promises. (Credit: me.)


Two roofs on Sunday morning characterized much of our first two years of marriage.

The goal was to get our new family under one roof on the Lord's Day. Little did we know that roof would eventually turn out to be our own.

Test post.

Test post. Please disregard.

What is a terebinth, anyway?