Burns Church of Christ

It is a special time of the year! How often does the collective American culture pause to say “thank you” or send cards en masse? Our stores are filled with lights and our homes overflow with the warmth of family. This is a time to celebrate and cherish what we love!

We are blessed people, yet how often we become forgetful and self-centered. The holiday season is supposed to be a time of generosity, when we live the words of Jesus, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).

I hope you’ll spend some time with your family this season talking about the great gifts given by God. If anyone has the right to claim it is better to give than receive, it would certainly be the one who gave his only son, that whoever believes in him wouldn’t die! (John 3:16)

This winter at Burns we want to focus on being thankful people who live devoted lives because of the love of the Great Giver and Sustainer of life. We’ve dedicated the month of November to studying the “Big God” we serve. We’ll focus on Jesus, the greatest gift, in the month of December. On Wednesday, November 26 at 7pm, we’ll have a special service of thanksgiving to God. We’ll also have special mid-week services on Christmas Eve as well as New Year’s Eve at 7pm. We’re studying the letters Paul wrote from prison on Sunday nights at 6pm. In them we can see the power of God over anything that happens to us. We invite you to join us as we spend time in prayer, study, and song to express our gratitude to God!

This has been a great year for the church at Burns. We’ve been represented in mission work on three continents. We have grown in number. We have a class of almost twenty who are reading the Bible all the way through for the first time ever. We have grown as a family in the grace and peace of God. We want to share what we’ve experienced with you!

Let’s take time together to follow Paul’s instructions from 1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In all things, give thanks!”

For those of you in Matthew’s Wednesday night Bible-in-a-Year class, be sure to check out his website at http://www.happyhiatt.com for the material you missed last Wednesday night.

In addition, here’s are our pictures from the Christ Tomb Tour at Woodlawn. Thanks to the folks at the Funeral Home for the great tour!

Time is a difficult thing to manage. We all have so many irons in the fire-that every once in a while, we just run out of fire! In our hectic world, instead of prioritizing our schedules, we really need to schedule our priorities. That’s why we have services twice on Sunday and once on Wednesday: it provides an opportunity to schedule time for the priority of worship, together. It’s not the only worship that should happen in a week, but it’s a time you can count on.

A mentor of mine once suggested this schedule for carving out time for spiritual meditation and prayer. He called it “Time Alone with God.” He suggested praying using these concepts as a guide. Focus your mind on the first area until you can focus there no longer, then move on to the next. He appropriately called this plan START.

• Submit in prayer to God the Father. Jesus prayed “not my will, but Thine be done,” and so should we. His model prayer was a model of humility. Take time to realize that you are entering the throne room of the true and living eternal God-so pray like it!
• Thank Him for all that He has done and will do. Be specific. Think about blessings you’ve encountered. Think about how God has acted through your family, friends, and the church. Thank Him for specific people, events, and opportunities.
• Admit to Him your weaknesses. This is a lesson in humility and an exercise in repentance. Tell God that you are sorry-and what you’re sorry for. Admit that it is difficult to pray sometimes, and that you need help. Own up to your temptations; He understands and cares.
• Request that He help you and yours. Only after you’ve acknowledged his majesty, marveled at His love, and humbled yourself in the light of His perfection can you really make a request of God. Ask Him about anything and everything; don’t be anxious about anything, but make your requests known! (cf. Philippians 4:6-7)
• Trust that He will act. Vocalize your trust in him. Tell him that you need help, but that you are resolved to trust him more and more with each passing day. Once you’ve asked for forgiveness for a specific sin; move on! Know that He has forgiven you!

Thanksgiving is a great time to START making time alone with God. Use our traditional day of turkey and family as a chance to begin a spiritual feast. Your soul will thank you!

UPDATE: Many of you have visited here looking for information about Arnold in light of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti.  We received word early Wednesday morning, January 20th, that Arnold and his family are safe. They are in Haiti and they did survive the quake. Arnold suffered a back injury of some sort during relief work, and the situation in Haiti is still dire. Arnold suggests contacting the Ft. Lauderdale congregation to funnel relief efforts for him. Thank you for your thoughts and concern!

Arnold Garcon, our missionary who works in Haiti and elsewhere in central/south America, came this past Wednesday night to make a presentation about his work. As you may be aware, there have been several storms and hurricanes hit in the past year–which is a problem in the hemisphere’s poorest nation. On top of that, inflation and rising prices combined with a weak dollar have hurt the church’s buying power.

With that in mind, we’re having a special contribution this Sunday for relief work in Haiti. This contribution will be used to support Arnold’s work and help those who are in desperate need of physical aid — and in need of Good News.

If you didn’t get to join us Wednesday night, take a look at one of Arnold’s presentations to get a feel for what has been going on:

Arnold’s Mission Report Audio:

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Do you have trouble paying attention?

Our culture trains us to have short attention spans. The average television show doesn’t last more than five seconds without changing the camera angle, the scene, or the graphics. You’ll never go more than twelve minutes without a commercial. This is definitely a cultural shift of the last few decades. As recently as the mid-1900s, gospel meetings regularly lasted three weeks-with a three-week encore if things were going well. The original Lincoln-Douglas debates of the mid 1800s consisted of 8 to 10 hours of the debaters reading their materials aloud. My head hurts just typing that sentence!

I suspect that the cultural war for a long attention span is lost, but I think we can improve individually. It bothers me how easily I lose focus when praying or listening to lengthy blocks of scripture. In school I was cautioned about using long scriptures in sermons-because “people won’t listen.” What a sad thought!

There is something to be said for the spiritual discipline of meditative reading and prayer. It doesn’t come as naturally to us as it did to previous generations-but it is now even more important to our spiritual health.

Here are a few of the Bible’s many references to investing time in God’s word:

• Joshua 1:8 “The book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night…”
• Psalm 27:4 “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in his temple.”
• Psalm 77:6 “I said, ‘Let me remember my song in the night; let me meditate in my heart.’”
• Psalm 119:48 “I will lift up my hands toward your commandments, which I love, and I will meditate on your statues.”

If you’ve never really done it, carve out some time to make this discipline a habit. Isolate yourself from distractions-use a “do not disturb” sign if you have to-and use that time to read, re-read, read aloud, and think about the words of Scripture. When your mind wanders-it will-breathe a simple prayer for God to direct you back to his word. Think about the meaning of the text; think about the goodness of God. Time alone with God is like a breath of fresh air for your soul!

This has been a historic week for America-and I’m glad it’s over!

It’s hard for me to believe that the campaigns are finished. It almost seems like something is missing from the television, the newspaper, and the internet now that there is not an ad or poll results everywhere I turn. Most Americans woke up Wednesday pleased with the results-that is the way the popular vote works-but many of us in Dickson County (60%) were disappointed. That’s just the way democracy works!

Regardless of your feelings about our new president-elect, Christians have certain responsibilities towards their leaders. It is pretty impressive to me that these responsibilities are constant regardless of the leader. Whether you were a German living under Hitler, a Christian under Nero, or even an ancient Jew under David, God expects the same things:

•          We must pray for our leaders. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
•          We must thank God for our leaders. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)
•          We must respect our leaders. (Romans 13:7)
•          We must honor our leaders. (Romans 13:7, 1 Peter 2:17)
•          We must give what is due to our leaders.  (Matthew 22:15-22)

To this list, I’ll add one more thought:

We must remember our primary citizenship is not American. Our party affiliation is neither democratic nor republican. I’m proud to be an American, but that pride pales in comparison with the magnificent splendor of the only kingdom whose king is Jehovah God!

Here’s what Paul said: “Our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body, by the power that enable him even to subject all things to himself.” (Philippians 3:20-21) (See also John 18:36)

For that citizenship, I am very grateful. May our knees always bow to the true king of heaven and earth!

This year’s Costume Party at the Olivers was another great success! We had no spilt chili – despite all the spooks there! And try as they might, Matthew, Leslie, Brad, and John weren’t able to scare anyone to death on the hay ride!

Here’s a little slideshow of the night:

You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth? Galatians 5:7

Did you ever know anybody who was running a race and just sat down on the side of the track and never got back in the race?  Did you ever see a football player just sit down in the middle of the field and forget about the game?  Did you ever see a Christian who was running the race for Jesus, just decide one day that he was ready to drop out of the Christian race and forget the whole plan to get to the end of the race and see Jesus face to face?

I have seen it happen in races before. A racer is putting it all on the line to win and someone cuts in on him and he either trips and falls or he gets diverted or discouraged and slows down.  The race is lost and he goes down as a loser.

I have seen it in the Christian life.  A runner gets a good start at his baptism.  He reads the Bible and prays every day.  He brings family and friends to worship and several are baptized. Something occurs and he gets cut in on and he falls back and drifts back into the old way of life. You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires. (Ephesians 4:22)

The race goes on and this discouraged racer drops farther and farther back and in the end he sits at home on Sunday night and before long he sits at home on Sunday morning.  Everyone wonders at the change in his life at the beginning and now they are wondering at the change of his life now.

Paul has a word for the Galatians and for us today: You were running a good race. Who cut in on you and kept you from obeying the truth?