As we go along in our busy lives worrying about the world’s problems and how we are going to make it through this latest heat wave, we may often forget about the need for reaching out to others in their times of need. In most churches across the country, there are members who for one reason or another cannot get to worship service on a regular basis. We try to include them in many ways. For example, CD ministries, TV/ radio programs, phone calls and the list can go on. I believe all of these ways to stay attached are important and not to be forgotten, but nothing seems to work better than the face to face visit with those who need to feel attached to the body of Christ. I know it is easy to forget about those who don’t make it out to our worship services. As I go about my days, it is not always a priority to me to see those that are shut in and unable to get out on a regular basis. There is always a great reward for me when I visit the needed, whoever that may be. I am reminded of Jesus’ emphasis of this in Matthew 25, "For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me." They also will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." I hear good things from our North Grove family about visiting. There are many in the family who get out on a regular basis and make it a point to visit, shop, or bring a meal for those who are in need in our family. There are a number of things we can do, not just the above listed, and I think we do an okay job of keeping connected. What we have looked at as the elders and myself is we need to be more deliberate in our approach to taking care of needs. It seems to be easy to give money to something and hope that someone else will do the work, but money is only part of the process. We need to get involved on a personal level. Paul tells us in Romans 12 to rejoice with those who rejoice and mourn with those who mourn. In other words, get involved! There are many of us who have the gifts of mercy and hospitality who enjoy going to visit, talk or even just listen to those who need to feel attached to the body of Christ. I urge you to pray about this. I have given a bit of information on this issue and two people have come forward to express interest in participating in this type of ministry. Is God calling you to be a helper? Let me know as I continue to pray.

“But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” Luke 8:15 God can instantly do many things for us, but most often, the work of God involves waiting, patience, perseverance, and a span of time. It’s a lot like physical conditioning. We all want a magic pill or some belt to wear while sleeping, when in fact, it actually takes time, perspiration, and intentionality. There are no shortcuts or drive-thru lines with God or for our mid-life bellies. We have to put in the time. Since entering my 40s, I am paying more attention to my health. I exercise five days a week. Most days, I do not feel overly motivated or excited about the putting time in doing the exercise experience whether at the gym or at home, but out of discipline, I put in the time. I know that if I eat less fried food and more green and orange stuff, I will feel better and live longer. Day by day, week by week, over the course of time, I feel the benefits, though not always instantly. As Americans, we tend to lean toward the instant, just-add-water methods of health. We want our fitness like we want our food - packaged and ready right now. In fact, most of us would probably starve to death if our driver's-side window ever broke. We worship microwaves, but God tends to lean toward marinades. It is only in the last 50 years that Americans have lost touch with this idea. Our ancestors understood the process of food production and were less bothered when a restaurant actually cooked the food after it was ordered instead of retrieving it from a rack under a heat lamp. Waiting was not seen as a curse; instead, the chasm of time actually allowed people to relax and talk while others cooked and served. It was a treat to get a reprieve from kitchen duty. The crop Jesus mentioned in the above verse came only after someone had plowed the soil, planted seed, waited patiently for the rain, diligently pulled the weeds, and then was willing to wait patiently for germination. Waiting on the unseen takes faith, and that is exactly why God does not always give us the answer in an instant. He wants us to put in the time and then trust Him when His work is seemingly invisible. We must allow due time and space for worship, working, and unhurried conversations with those we love. The way to the harvest is most often in a waiting room and less often on a freeway. I cannot guarantee flat bellies for everyone, but I can guarantee that God is always faithful, especially to people who are willing to persevere. As we have been going through the faithful in Hebrews, I think it is wise that we take time to notice just how long some things can take, but in Gods’ time, He works all things together for good for those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.

The Walls Between Church and Community

In Matthew 23, Jesus tells his disciples: “Be careful so that you don’t build a religion and in the process build walls.”

Having started the New Life Community Center, I have been doing a lot of reading and research on the different walls between church and community. Some we didn’t even know we were building. Here are three types of walls we have to tear down.

#1 The Wall of Weirdness: Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 1:18: “The Message that points to Christ on the Cross seems like sheer silliness to those hell-bent on destruction, but for those on the way of salvation, it makes perfect sense.” We think it makes perfect sense to people, but from their perspective, it’s just weird. Stories of guys being swallowed by giant fish. Red Sea being parted. Virgin birth. Jesus being crucified somehow forgives sins?

Levi, also called Matthew, one of Jesus’ disciples, figured out a simple way around the Wall of Weirdness. He threw a party for his friends who were not following Jesus. In fact, Jesus’ reputation was tarnished for even attending this party with so many people known as the worst sinners in society. (Luke 5)

We might say that we don’t discriminate and that the people in our sphere of influence are always welcome, but are we being proactive?

We’ve created networks to remove the walls between our community and us. We gather for social events, learning opportunities, and to work together to meet spiritual and physical needs in your immediate vicinity. Medium size groups are a more natural place to connect with people. They are spiritual families. Networks are all about helping you do what you really want to do – remove the church weirdness for you and your friends.

#2 The Wall of Hypocrisy: In ancient Greek societies, hypocrites were actors. Rather than having a large cast to perform a play, there were only a few actors, but they switched multiple masks in order to play various roles. A hypocrite is someone who wears a mask, who preaches one thing, but does another. Church hypocrisy bugs people who are outside the walls.

We represent Jesus to those near us. In Matthew 5:14-16, Jesus says: “You are the light of the world so let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Wall #3 – The Wall of Indifference: We never meant to create a wall between the church and the community, but the more we ignored real needs right in front of us, the higher the wall towered between us. James 4:17 reminds us: “Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn’t do it, sins.” When you have a strong sense of the right thing to do, but you equivocate, you leave it for someone else to do and walk away, you’ve violated your conscience. The pain of other people is our business!

In Matthew 10:5-8, Jesus says, “God intervened in your broken life; now it’s time for you to get involved in the brokenness of others.” With our families, small groups, and networks, we can make a difference in the lives of others far beyond what we could do on our own.

There are real walls between the church and the community. We don’t notice them because we are so used to being on the inside; we forget what it’s like on the other side of that window. Tear down the wall of weirdness. Decimate the wall of hypocrisy. Break through the wall of indifference.”

Welcoming Visitors to Church

Smaller churches have a distinct advantage over larger churches in welcoming first-time guests. First-time guests are easily recognizable since the regular attendees know everyone.
What can a smaller church do to be more effective in welcoming those people? The following are four effective initiatives in welcoming first-time guests:
1. Demonstrate practical hospitality.
The strength of smaller churches is relationships. Take advantage of this by encouraging members to not only greet first-time guests but also to include them for lunch or in your home.
• Simple gestures of introduction, invitation, and inclusion can pay enormous dividends.
• Friendliness is expected; hospitality shows you care.
• Friendliness is the first step; hospitality is the walk that welcomes people into the church.
2. Welcome without commotion.
A fine line exists between being friendly and being desperate. And I don’t know exactly where that line lies. Smaller churches, since they know who the first-time guests are, will often go overboard in welcoming an individual or family.
This gesture of friendliness can be misinterpreted as being overkill for your guests if too many people make too much “fuss” over the new people. Treat a first-time guest how you would want to be treated when you visit a place for the first time. The next initiative may help...
3. Employ a two-minute offense.
Since everyone knows everyone in smaller churches, the opposite tendency is to speak only to your friends or family, leaving the first-time guest alone. A way to break this behavior is to encourage members to speak to guests before they speak to friends immediately before and after the service.
In a first-time guest’s mind, the most important time of a church service is the few minutes before - do they feel welcomed, and the few minutes after the service - does the church care. Simple gestures of smiling, a handshake, introductions, invitations to lunch, to play softball, etc. will go a long way in making first-time guests feel comfortable.
4. Repair, replace, or remove the cracked mirrors.
Cracked mirrors in our homes, if left that way over time, are often overlooked and ignored. (The mind plays a trick on us and we don’t notice the crack any longer.) Show that same cracked mirror to someone, seeing it for the first time, and the crack is glaring and obvious.
Churches have cracked mirrors that have become overlooked and ignored to its members. The cracked mirror may be something as simple as the frayed carpet in the foyer or the hollow sound system in the sanctuary to something more complex, such as the kind-hearted person who is overbearing and obnoxious to new people or the music leader who sings every song at the same tempo.
Cracked mirrors need to be repaired or replaced or removed. To a first-time guest, these “cracks” are glaring. They cause the newcomer to question, “Why doesn’t someone do something about this? Doesn’t the church care? How could this church be so blind?”

Home Pastors Articles for Pastors

I'm not sure what to think about this; I found this while looking for sermon illustrations...New iPhone App Forgives Sins Penance, a new iPhone app, allows users to confess their own sins and absolve the sins of others.
Penance, a new iPhone app, allows users to confess their own sins and absolve the sins of others with anonymity. In a story from the Religious Dispatches, the app is reported to require every user to play the role of both sinner and saint as they trade ‘horns’ and ‘halos’ from their accounts. The app allows users to select from seven sin categories they wish to confess—one for each of the Seven Deadly Sins. The details of the user’s sin is anonymously sent to other iPhone users, who then reply with a description of the 'penance' that the user must carry out to be forgiven. The iPhone app owner’s description says that the app is “structured to create a self-sustaining community rather than be a simple whiteboard for posting confessions.”

What do you think: In your view, is the Penance app harmless fun, a dangerous device, or somewhere in between?

Coffee Lessens the Pain of Exercise

I found this story on the 53x11 Coffee website and though I should share with the masses.
That cup of coffee that many gym rats, bikers and runners swill before a workout does more than energize them. It kills some of the pain of athletic exertion, a new study suggests. And it works regardless of whether a person already had a coffee habit or not.
Caffeine works on a system in the brain and spinal cord (the adenosine neuromodulatory system) that is heavily involved in pain processing, says University of Illinois kinesiology and community health professor Robert Motl. And since caffeine blocks adenosine, the biochemical that plays an important role in energy transfer and thus exercise, he speculated that it could reduce pain.
So the researcher, a former competitive cyclist, divided 25 fit, college-aged males into two distinct groups: subjects whose everyday caffeine consumption was extremely low to non-existent, and those with an average caffeine intake of about 400 milligrams a day, the equivalent of three to four cups of coffee.

Unexpected results
After completing an initial exercise test in the lab on a stationary bike to determine maximal oxygen consumption or aerobic power, subjects returned for two monitored high-intensity, 30-minute exercise sessions.
An hour prior to each session, cyclists - who had been instructed not to consume caffeine during the prior 24-hour period - were given a pill. On one occasion, it contained a dose of caffeine measuring 5 milligrams per kilogram of body weight (equivalent to two to three cups of coffee); the other time, they received a placebo.
During both exercise periods, subjects' perceptions of quadriceps muscle pain was recorded at regular intervals, along with data on oxygen consumption, heart rate and work rate.

"What we saw is something we didn't expect," Motl said. "Caffeine-naïve individuals and habitual users have the same amount of reduction in pain during exercise after caffeine (consumption)."
The results are detailed in the April edition of the International Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism. Co-authors included Steven P. Broglio of the University of Illinois and Sigurbjorn A. Arngrimsson of the Center for Sport and Health Sciences, Iceland University of Education.
"Clearly, if you regularly consume caffeine, you have to have more to have that bigger, mental-energy effect," Motl said. "But the tolerance effect is not ubiquitous across all stimuli. Even brain metabolism doesn't show this tolerance-type effect. That is, with individuals who are habitual users versus non-habitual users, if you give them caffeine and do brain imaging, the activation is identical. It's really interesting why some processes show tolerance and others don't."
Regarding the outcome of the current research, he said, it may be that tolerance to caffeine plays no role in the way it diminishes pain during exercise.
Motl said one of the next logical steps for his research team would be to conduct studies with rodents in order to better understand the biological mechanism for caffeine in reducing pain.
"If we can get at the biological mechanism, we can begin to understand why there may or may not be this kind of tolerance."
Will it help you win?
Motl previously has conducted other studies on the relationship between physical activity and caffeine, and considered such variables as exercise intensity, dose of caffeine, anxiety sensitivity and gender. A future research direction might be to determine caffeine's effect on sport performance.
"We've shown that caffeine reduces pain reliably, consistently during cycling, across different intensities, across different people, different characteristics. But does that reduction in pain translate into an improvement in sport performance?" he said.
Meanwhile, the current research could prove encouraging for a range of people, including the average person who wants to become more physically active to realize the health benefits.
"One of the things that may be a practical application, is if you go to the gym and you exercise and it hurts, you may be prone to stop doing that because pain is an aversive stimulus that tells you to withdraw," Motl said. "So if we could give people a little caffeine and reduce the amount of pain they're experiencing, maybe that would help them stick with that exercise."

Jeremiah Study

As we near the end of our study in Jeremiah, there have been a few things to keep in mind. We started off in a pretty strange way by getting the understanding of how we are to live. Jeremiah 12: 5 really gives us a good idea of what God want from not only Jeremiah, but from us as believers in Christ as well: How can you compete with the horses if men have worn you out? Looking at the first twelve chapters, understanding God’s point of view here may be a little harsh. Jeremiah was being attacked physically, mentally and spiritually. Why would our heavenly father treat him in this fashion? For the simple fact that Jeremiah needed to be in God’s will for the long haul. Paul tells us that we need to run the race as if to win the prize and not all are willing to do that (2 Cor. 9:24).
Jeremiah learned much about doing things God’s way not by depending on his own strength. Not only did he follow God’s will, but we also found out there were “friends” who would look after him. Jeremiah knew when to accept help from others. The Egyptian, Ebed-Melek, came to Jeremiah’s aid at just the right time and was eventually rewarded for his efforts in saving Jeremiah (Jeremiah 39:16-18).
Jeremiah was not just a preacher, because he actually believed what he was preaching (Jer. 32). We wonder all the time what it would be like to hear the voice of God. Would we know it was really Him? Jeremiah had the type of relationship with God that at times was frustrating. We can see at time he does indeed get anger with God, but he never stays there. He was always willing to trust. Think back to when God told him to buy his uncle’s field in Anathoth. It seems like the perfect time to not buy real estate, but here is Jeremiah doing just what God told him to do. No matter what the circumstance (prison) or what was sitting on the land (Babylonians), he was willing to go with God’s plan and not his own.
We also had Jeremiah’s big show in the Temple (Jer. 35). The time God told him to go out and invite the Rekabites over for dinner and offer them wine to drink. Now the Israelites knew all about the Rekabites and wondered what Jeremiah was up to bringing them into the Temple to eat. But it was very much Jeremiah’s style to go big or not at all. One of the Rekabite ancestors told them not to drink wine, so they didn’t. When it comes to the Israelites, God’s word told them exactly how to live, yet they decided it wasn’t good for them and went their own way. The Rekabites were a great example of doing the right thing because they were told to do the right thing.
My favorite image from Jeremiah is when he was told to go to the Potter’s house and see what was going on there (Jer. 18). Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in My hands, house of Israel (Jer18: 6). Just because we make a mistake and don’t do what God best is for our lives doesn’t mean that it is over. Just as the potter did not throw away the malformed clay, God will not give up on us. Romans 8:38-39 tells us: For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. We can rest on this understanding.