by Les | Jun 27, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
Matthew 25:40 ESV – And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
I volunteered to provide the Mission Moment on Father’s Day but was needed to operate the church video projector on that Sunday morning. Randy R. was kind enough to cover the Mission Moment in my stead. Thank you, Randy.
I thought I might share here some of what I had intended to share on Father’s Day. In fact I am able to share more here, absent of the worship service time constraints.
In June Meridian Avenue collects for the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) special offering. As I considered what I might say about OGHS on Father’s Day, I thought about my own father. My father was known throughout the small ranching and farming community where we lived. There were two primary reasons so many knew him. The first was that he was a mechanic who worked on their ranching and farming machinery. The second was that my father often volunteered around the community. My dad was the town Santa Claus for nearly 40 years. As a young child I didn’t think that Santa Claus could talk because he wouldn’t speak when I was near him. He didn’t want me to hear my father’s voice coming from behind Santa’s beard. For many years he spent Christmas Eve visiting several family homes who had asked that Santa distribute gifts to the children there.
During the 1951 flood my father, with others, helped deliver food to stranded families and railroad workers by boat. During one of these deliveries he fell into the water and was swept away by strong current. It was presumed that he had drowned but some railroaders were able to rescue him, pulling him into their railroad bunk car which was surrounded by the flood water. Three days would pass before the community knew he had survived.
While I lived at home I often accompanied my father as he spent his free days mowing lawns for others, pumped water out of flooded basements, performed maintenance on the local Fire Department equipment and many other things too numerous to mention.
My father left a legacy of helping others. It is also a legacy of our American Baptist Churches to help those in need.
I have at times gone on mission trips where OGHS monies were at work. I have witnessed the hope, and real assistance, that our gifts have provided. Thank you for your gifts to OGHS.
“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” Shannon L. Alder
by Les | Jun 14, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
John 18:37-38 ESV – For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world – to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” Pilate said to him, “What is truth?”
There is a story told about a company that held a management vs employees softball game every summer during the company picnic. During the last held game, the employee team soundly defeated the management team. In the following week’s company newsletter this small piece was found.
“We wish to give our heartiest congratulations to the management softball team for having a successful season. The management team finished the season having suffered only a single loss.
At this time we would like to express our condolences to the employees softball team who finished their season with only a single victory.”
It is often difficult to know if we are hearing the truth from varied sources. Depending upon the circumstances, truth can be manipulated into something it is not, spun in a way that what is said isn’t nearly as factual as it should be. Truth can become hidden by people’s agendas; made to support something that is actually misleading.
Truth matters because without it we are not safe. Manipulated truth can prevent someone convicted of a misdeed or crime from being punished fairly. Truth is an honest exchange, the essences of communication that provides factual information of occurrences and ideas.
When Pilate asked Jesus, “What is truth”, he was probably making a rhetorical question based upon his experience. Today, people with financial or supporting power can purchase false witness and amended events to sway the ‘truth’ to support their argument over that of another. I am sure that that was true in Pilate’s experience. The ways of mankind have not changed that greatly in two millennia.
Speaking truthfully is essential for a Christian. As Christ’s followers we should endeavor to listen before we speak. Doing so leads to better understanding and helps to develop better questions that can help clarify your understanding of what another has said.
When you speak do not have hidden motivations and always speak with kindness to another to avoid regretful statements.
Trust in God as you speak, asking the Spirit to enter into your conversation and to create a better relationship with whomever you are speaking with.
by Les | Jun 6, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
Psalm 56:3 ESV – When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
As a noun, trust means to have a firm belief in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something. As a verb, trust is to actually believe in the reliability, truth, ability or strength of someone or something. In the verb sense of the word, trust is faith.
To have faith is to have confidence in that which you hold your belief in. It is having confidence in an assurance that leads to action. To have trust in the Lord is to have faith that allows us to boldly serve him. Trust is far greater than to simply have belief.
To believe is to accept what is being presented simply upon the merit of the written or spoken word. To trust is a condition brought through personal experience with what has been written, or spoken, and knowing that it is true. Trust and belief go hand in hand but trust is the greater of the two.
Trust is to acknowledge that which you have touched with the fingers of our soul and have seen through the eyes of your faith.
by Les | May 29, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
Matthew 25:40b ESV – “Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of these least of these my brothers, you did it to me.”
In June Meridian Avenue Baptist Church will be collecting the One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) special offering. OGHS supports disaster relief, ministries to displaced persons, and development projects of the American Baptist Churches and its mission partners around the globe.
In the past year, OGHS funds have been used to provide assistance to people caught in the civil unrest in Myanmar and Yemen, typhoon relief in the Philippines and help with the earthquake relief in Croatia. OGHS has also provided funding to our mission partners in three Central American countries to assist with clean drinking water programs.
Closer to home, OGHS has provided food and shelter assistance to the hungry and homeless in many U.S. communities and provided funds for American Baptist Men hurricane relief projects
by Les | May 24, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
Acts 2:4 NIV – And all of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.
Pentecost Sunday falls on May 28th this year. Pentecost, coming from the Greek word ‘pentecoste,’ which means ’50th day.’
Pentecost, observed on the seventh Sunday following Easter (50 days), celebrates the descending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and other followers of Jesus. The story of Pentecost, found in Acts 2, tells the marvelous story of how the Holy Spirit empowered the followers of Jesus, led to Peter giving a powerful sermon, and says that about 3,000 people were baptized on the day of Pentecost.
In these days leading toward the 2023 Pentecost Sunday, please take time to read the story found in Acts 2 and consider God’s power poured out through the Holy Spirit.
by Les | May 16, 2023 | Click Date to Respond
1 Corinthians 12:12 ESV – For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body though many, are one body, so it is with Christ.
Helen and I once traveled to Indiana to attend a funeral for one of her cousins. During the dinner following the memorial service we were served the most wonderful tasting potato salad that I had ever enjoyed. It was so very good that I wanted to seize the opportunity to ask for the recipe for the potato salad while we were still at the church.
Stepping into the kitchen the women became silent as their eyes turned towards me. In the tradition of the Old Order German Baptist Brethren, the kitchens are considered women’s territory; a territory which I had invaded. When one of the ladies asked if I needed anything I said that I was amazed by their potato salad and was wondering if it were possible to get the recipe. The request caused the women to break into laughter. As it turned out, when women brought potato salad for a church dinner, they dumped all of the different potato salads into a single massive bowl and stirred them all together. The flavor of the potato salad depended on the various recipes and talents of the several women who contributed to it.
Isn’t that how a church is made up? Every member brings their various mental, physical and spiritual gifts into the fold of the church and they are blended together to become a part of the body of the church.
