Val started a cooking/discipleship class for young women. Here is a picture of everyone!
Monday, September 27, 2010
Cooking Class!
Val started a cooking/discipleship class for young women. Here is a picture of everyone!
A View from the Few in the Living Room Church
On September 19 we looked at Luke 5:1--11, a powerful word picture for a church plant, on the southeast coast of North Carolina. Luke utilizes certain details of the middle east fishing community to describe the call of Simon, and the Holy Spirit encouraged us disciples in the Southport area, as well.
Note just a few of the details in the narrative: We see clearly all three offices of Christ presented in this order: Prophet (5:1-3)as Jesus teaches the Word of God, regarding the Kingdom of God (4:43); King (5:4-7) as Jesus takes command of the greatest catch of fish the seasoned fisherman Peter had ever seen; and Priest (5:8, 10) as Jesus hears the confession of Simon and re-orients his life’s direction.
Which is the greatest catch of fish here? Is it the net-breaking and boat-capsizing catch of fish, or the catch of people on the bank under the influence of His Word, or the catch of the one known later as the Big Fisherman, Simon Peter?
Details! The Holy Spirit spares us none so that we can get excited about this dramatic glimpse into the life and work of our Savior, who came “to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Note the two different words used in the original language to describe the “catch”: the catching of fish (agra) is the word for what always happens when one catches fish--the fish are caught and they die. The second word (logreo) signifies the catching alive for life. That is the radical change of Peter’s vocation specified in Luke 5:10.
And isn’t it just like real fishermen who find themselves in waters teeming with fish to NOT YELL (or radio) to the world for help? Luke tells us that they beckon or signal only to their partners for assistance (5:7).
The Word of our Lord is taught at the beginning and the Word is obeyed in the middle of the story (5:5), and at the very end (:11). The consternation of Simon at the instructions of an inland carpenter (“Didn’t HE see us washing our nets from the previous night of fishing?” Simon may have wondered),whom Simon addresses as ‘Boss’ or ‘Chief’ or ‘Skipper’(was there some sarcasm or derision there in verse 5?) would have been justified. However, Simon’s fishing world where he was an expert was invaded by One who knew more than where the fish were! And yet, look how the title changes in verse 8! Simon falls down at Jesus’ feet and acknowledges Him as Lord. There Simon learns in that encounter with the Holy One, that he is a sinner; it’s an encounter similar to the one of Isaiah 6. It’s not “Oh Wow!” or even “Ohmygosh!” but more like, “Oh WOE is me!”
Jesus corrects some flawed thinking of this soon to become fisher of men (and all of us at one time): Simon thinks the unclean sinner will defile the Holy, but Jesus instructs us all that He,the Holy One, cleanses the dirty sinner. What is imperative is the connection! It is the Gospel of the Kingdom that announces this good news for lost sinners who need to repent and believe in the Lord of the Catch. And He’s right here to make it happen.
Note just a few of the details in the narrative: We see clearly all three offices of Christ presented in this order: Prophet (5:1-3)as Jesus teaches the Word of God, regarding the Kingdom of God (4:43); King (5:4-7) as Jesus takes command of the greatest catch of fish the seasoned fisherman Peter had ever seen; and Priest (5:8, 10) as Jesus hears the confession of Simon and re-orients his life’s direction.
Which is the greatest catch of fish here? Is it the net-breaking and boat-capsizing catch of fish, or the catch of people on the bank under the influence of His Word, or the catch of the one known later as the Big Fisherman, Simon Peter?
Details! The Holy Spirit spares us none so that we can get excited about this dramatic glimpse into the life and work of our Savior, who came “to seek and to save the lost (Luke 19:10). Note the two different words used in the original language to describe the “catch”: the catching of fish (agra) is the word for what always happens when one catches fish--the fish are caught and they die. The second word (logreo) signifies the catching alive for life. That is the radical change of Peter’s vocation specified in Luke 5:10.
And isn’t it just like real fishermen who find themselves in waters teeming with fish to NOT YELL (or radio) to the world for help? Luke tells us that they beckon or signal only to their partners for assistance (5:7).
The Word of our Lord is taught at the beginning and the Word is obeyed in the middle of the story (5:5), and at the very end (:11). The consternation of Simon at the instructions of an inland carpenter (“Didn’t HE see us washing our nets from the previous night of fishing?” Simon may have wondered),whom Simon addresses as ‘Boss’ or ‘Chief’ or ‘Skipper’(was there some sarcasm or derision there in verse 5?) would have been justified. However, Simon’s fishing world where he was an expert was invaded by One who knew more than where the fish were! And yet, look how the title changes in verse 8! Simon falls down at Jesus’ feet and acknowledges Him as Lord. There Simon learns in that encounter with the Holy One, that he is a sinner; it’s an encounter similar to the one of Isaiah 6. It’s not “Oh Wow!” or even “Ohmygosh!” but more like, “Oh WOE is me!”
Jesus corrects some flawed thinking of this soon to become fisher of men (and all of us at one time): Simon thinks the unclean sinner will defile the Holy, but Jesus instructs us all that He,the Holy One, cleanses the dirty sinner. What is imperative is the connection! It is the Gospel of the Kingdom that announces this good news for lost sinners who need to repent and believe in the Lord of the Catch. And He’s right here to make it happen.
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
End of Summer Update
The Living Room phase of our life is growing – slowly. We praise Him for that and thank Him, so we continue on our path of making friends for Christ’s sake. Through the summer we studied how Jesus taught us to pray (Matt. 5:5-15), with one eye on the cultural context of Jesus’ day and the other eye on our own cultural setting here in Southport and Brunswick County. We are learning how valuable a study of the Middle East context is in understanding what our Lord teaches us.
Now, this fall, we are engaged in studying a few of the dramatic actions of our Lord Jesus. Take, for example, the inauguration of His public ministry in Nazareth in Luke 4:16-30; as we did last Sunday. How did the brief reading from Is. 61 enrage a congregation? It is a fascinating study, and a sober lesson to us who are called to engage our culture in proclaiming the Good News of our Savior and representing His compassion in a lost as well as broken world.
Are you “engaged?” Seems to be the operative word these days around our house! But seriously, are you engaged in this dramatic activity of the Spirit of our Savior who still is actively seeking and rescuing folk disconnected from our Father God? Would you join us in learning how to love and befriend the many without Christ? Come over here and help us….leave more than footprints in the sand of North Carolina’s beautiful beaches.
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Notes on the Life of the Spirit (with permission, by Jack Hafer)
Walt and Jack used to work together for 5 years at Aliso Creek Presb. Church in Aliso Viejo, Ca, and they became great friends. Then we left Ca. and Jack went on to produce the movie, "To End All Wars," which was a truly great movie. This is what he wrote to Walt after reading his blog for Christ Coastal Church.
"What is missing today is an adequate understanding of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes, he's a person, but that is confusing in a certain context - in learning how to appropriate him. The spirit of something is its core values, or to say it in another way, the heart of it. It involves our disposition, our mood, our attitude, our feelings. We say the home team crowd had great spirit at the football game. There was a great spirit in the crowd. We say after meeting with someone we liked that we love her spirit - she is kind, she is compassionate, she is loving, she makes us feel good to be around her.
I wanted To End All Wars to have "the heart of the Father." There seemed no other way to quite say what I wanted. When we want the heart of the Father, we want what he wants, love what he loves, even hate what he hates. But to have his spirit is to have that heart. To have been with a person who has his Spirit is to have been with the Father.
The way I think we get that spirit is to sit in his presence and fill ourselves up with his love, and then go out in that love. I may have to stop 20 times a day and read a Biblical passage, just a couple of verses, to remind myself, to put myself in that "mood" again, to be full of love, to be full of his Spirit. That's why Paul said be full of the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, don't quench this Spirit - it's the heart of what it means to be a Christian. It's how living by the spirit was going to be different that merely living by the law. Being given the Spirit, the New Testament believer would naturally carry out the Law that the Old Testament believer was trying to do without having the Spirit - though some obviously did have the Spirit.
Too many of us think we're saved, on our way to heaven, have the rules, and then try to "obey" God, and think because we're "good" most the time, that we're living the Christian life. But we don't try to take that extra step to go to him and get full of his Spirit. We think that our new identity is enough - we don't need to "have" anything else. We don't know about being "full" of love, so we simply try to be compliant. Well that, to me, is the leaf that we put on in the Garden of Eden to cover our brokenness. Our compliance, our being good, our "obeying" God, is good, but is not enough. We need to learn the difference in who we are when we're experiencing a personal revival inside from his Spirit, and the normal human attempt to be good and stay out of trouble.
I don't know what more to say about this, but it's the difference in what you're saying about the Word and the Person, or about the Church and the Spirit-filled believer."
"What is missing today is an adequate understanding of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Yes, he's a person, but that is confusing in a certain context - in learning how to appropriate him. The spirit of something is its core values, or to say it in another way, the heart of it. It involves our disposition, our mood, our attitude, our feelings. We say the home team crowd had great spirit at the football game. There was a great spirit in the crowd. We say after meeting with someone we liked that we love her spirit - she is kind, she is compassionate, she is loving, she makes us feel good to be around her.
I wanted To End All Wars to have "the heart of the Father." There seemed no other way to quite say what I wanted. When we want the heart of the Father, we want what he wants, love what he loves, even hate what he hates. But to have his spirit is to have that heart. To have been with a person who has his Spirit is to have been with the Father.
The way I think we get that spirit is to sit in his presence and fill ourselves up with his love, and then go out in that love. I may have to stop 20 times a day and read a Biblical passage, just a couple of verses, to remind myself, to put myself in that "mood" again, to be full of love, to be full of his Spirit. That's why Paul said be full of the Spirit, walk in the Spirit, don't quench this Spirit - it's the heart of what it means to be a Christian. It's how living by the spirit was going to be different that merely living by the law. Being given the Spirit, the New Testament believer would naturally carry out the Law that the Old Testament believer was trying to do without having the Spirit - though some obviously did have the Spirit.
Too many of us think we're saved, on our way to heaven, have the rules, and then try to "obey" God, and think because we're "good" most the time, that we're living the Christian life. But we don't try to take that extra step to go to him and get full of his Spirit. We think that our new identity is enough - we don't need to "have" anything else. We don't know about being "full" of love, so we simply try to be compliant. Well that, to me, is the leaf that we put on in the Garden of Eden to cover our brokenness. Our compliance, our being good, our "obeying" God, is good, but is not enough. We need to learn the difference in who we are when we're experiencing a personal revival inside from his Spirit, and the normal human attempt to be good and stay out of trouble.
I don't know what more to say about this, but it's the difference in what you're saying about the Word and the Person, or about the Church and the Spirit-filled believer."
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Christ Coastal Church Prayer Update for March 2010
Dear Family,
I want to update you on where we are in this church planting adventure in Southport, NC.
A fresh study of the absolute necessity for the Church, the Bride of Christ, was crucial for me. Ezekiel 47:1-12 is a loaded passage which includes the Source (:1) of the water of life, the Flow (:3-4), the Size (:5) and the Effect (:9). Check it out sometime, and be encouraged to pray for the Church with the living Water, blessing the nations!
And yet, don’t miss this: while we can talk about what all is needed in the community and the world, let’s not forget that the “mainest thing,” as a little girl named Marcie from Mississippi used to say, is the Spirit of Christ. The world’s greatest need is still the gospel, and Christ really is the Answer to that need. If we’re not careful, we allow CNN or even FOX set the agenda for how we pray!
That leads me to the second piece of study in our living room: If the greatest need for Brunswick County and Southport, NC is the Savior, then do we know what that will look like, what to pray for? Note the transformation that occurred to a little village in Samaria in John 4. It is a shocking story with at least 10 major, unsettling surprises: Right after a night time visit with a big shot in the covenant community of Israel Nicodemus (John 3), John tells us about a visit with a woman of Samaria at high noon.
Note: (1) the Self-emptying of the Savior, the Son of God, tired and vulnerable, in an unfriendly land (the focus of 500 years of hostility). Instead of giving in to custom to withdraw as a woman approached, He remained seated and even asked for a drink of water (:6-9)!
(2) the “gift of God” to which Jesus refers is not a Book (the Torah for the Samaritans or Law and the Prophets for the Jews (or the Qu’ran for the Muslim)~but a Person--Himself :10-13 [see the connection now with Ezek. 47 – “the well of water springing up” Jeremiah 2:13, Isa.42:6] !
(3) the “Magic” Water exceeds our expectations (:13-15)!
(4) the Spring for Others (not kept to ourselves :16-17)!
(5) the Escape into Religion (who has not played this game when the Spirit of Christ comes downtown, to Main Street, in our hearts :17-20)?
(6) De-Zionizing Tradition (wow! This is something the evangelical world had better learn, especially today :21-25)!
(7) the first “I AM” in John’s gospel (:26)!
(8) the first (gulp!) female Preacher- (“it’s in the book”, guys :27-30)!
(9) the Invisible Food for all disciples of the Lord Jesus :31-38)!
(10) the Identification of the True Savior of the World (guess who gets to announce Him first, in John’s gospel – the Samaritans :39-42)!
Ok, if you take some time to join our living room study here, you will be able to pray with us with more enthusiasm. We want the Lord to connect some dots for us on site, but also to help people praying for us in this “parachute drop” of a church plant.
That’s what this email is about: this is an unashamed plea for pray-ers. Would you prayerfully commit to pray regularly with us and for us? Do you know how easy it is to “mess up” in this venture? Yes, I guess you folk who have known me through the years do have some idea. And while you’ve prayed for me, sometimes holding your breath, you’ve always been able to thank Him for my wife and family.
Now we are in earnest: please let us know if you are in the position in your busy schedule to take us on for vital prayer. I would give anything for 120 prayerful, expectant brothers and sisters lifting up this work and the Shepards….for the Holy Spirit to show Himself in all facets of this mission development. It is all about “Thuh Relationship” with the Lord Jesus, and not some strained and testy religious talk about “church,” as this culture knows it. And yet how I long to see them all come to know a different kind of “Church,” the Bride and Body of Christ, where they will find the Living Water through the vital relationships with His own folks!
We are desperate to hear from you. Soon, we will have the website I’ve talked about before, up and running for regular reads from us.
How we love you all! And how we thank God for you all!
Walt
I want to update you on where we are in this church planting adventure in Southport, NC.
A fresh study of the absolute necessity for the Church, the Bride of Christ, was crucial for me. Ezekiel 47:1-12 is a loaded passage which includes the Source (:1) of the water of life, the Flow (:3-4), the Size (:5) and the Effect (:9). Check it out sometime, and be encouraged to pray for the Church with the living Water, blessing the nations!
And yet, don’t miss this: while we can talk about what all is needed in the community and the world, let’s not forget that the “mainest thing,” as a little girl named Marcie from Mississippi used to say, is the Spirit of Christ. The world’s greatest need is still the gospel, and Christ really is the Answer to that need. If we’re not careful, we allow CNN or even FOX set the agenda for how we pray!
That leads me to the second piece of study in our living room: If the greatest need for Brunswick County and Southport, NC is the Savior, then do we know what that will look like, what to pray for? Note the transformation that occurred to a little village in Samaria in John 4. It is a shocking story with at least 10 major, unsettling surprises: Right after a night time visit with a big shot in the covenant community of Israel Nicodemus (John 3), John tells us about a visit with a woman of Samaria at high noon.
Note: (1) the Self-emptying of the Savior, the Son of God, tired and vulnerable, in an unfriendly land (the focus of 500 years of hostility). Instead of giving in to custom to withdraw as a woman approached, He remained seated and even asked for a drink of water (:6-9)!
(2) the “gift of God” to which Jesus refers is not a Book (the Torah for the Samaritans or Law and the Prophets for the Jews (or the Qu’ran for the Muslim)~but a Person--Himself :10-13 [see the connection now with Ezek. 47 – “the well of water springing up” Jeremiah 2:13, Isa.42:6] !
(3) the “Magic” Water exceeds our expectations (:13-15)!
(4) the Spring for Others (not kept to ourselves :16-17)!
(5) the Escape into Religion (who has not played this game when the Spirit of Christ comes downtown, to Main Street, in our hearts :17-20)?
(6) De-Zionizing Tradition (wow! This is something the evangelical world had better learn, especially today :21-25)!
(7) the first “I AM” in John’s gospel (:26)!
(8) the first (gulp!) female Preacher- (“it’s in the book”, guys :27-30)!
(9) the Invisible Food for all disciples of the Lord Jesus :31-38)!
(10) the Identification of the True Savior of the World (guess who gets to announce Him first, in John’s gospel – the Samaritans :39-42)!
Ok, if you take some time to join our living room study here, you will be able to pray with us with more enthusiasm. We want the Lord to connect some dots for us on site, but also to help people praying for us in this “parachute drop” of a church plant.
That’s what this email is about: this is an unashamed plea for pray-ers. Would you prayerfully commit to pray regularly with us and for us? Do you know how easy it is to “mess up” in this venture? Yes, I guess you folk who have known me through the years do have some idea. And while you’ve prayed for me, sometimes holding your breath, you’ve always been able to thank Him for my wife and family.
Now we are in earnest: please let us know if you are in the position in your busy schedule to take us on for vital prayer. I would give anything for 120 prayerful, expectant brothers and sisters lifting up this work and the Shepards….for the Holy Spirit to show Himself in all facets of this mission development. It is all about “Thuh Relationship” with the Lord Jesus, and not some strained and testy religious talk about “church,” as this culture knows it. And yet how I long to see them all come to know a different kind of “Church,” the Bride and Body of Christ, where they will find the Living Water through the vital relationships with His own folks!
We are desperate to hear from you. Soon, we will have the website I’ve talked about before, up and running for regular reads from us.
How we love you all! And how we thank God for you all!
Walt
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