A wise grandmother and a simple faith

A friend of mine officiated the funeral of his grandmother this past weekend. I went to support him in his time of loss, but also to support him as he preached his first funeral. He did a great job... and I think he honored her life well.

As good a job as my friend did, the two most impacting parts of the funeral were those where her words were shared, instead of his.

Her great-grandaughter read a letter she got from "MiMi" when she was baptized. The letter congratulated the great-grandaughter on her decision to follow Christ, encouraged her a little bit, and then listed out some important things to know as a new believer: "love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength; love your neighbor as yourself; the Lord's prayer is found in Matthew 6; my favorite scripture passage is Psalm 23; the Love chapter is 1 Corinthians 13; Jesus' sermon on the Mount is found in Matthew 4; and the Ten Commandments are found in Exodus 20." That about sums the Bible up in my opinion - the greatest commands, a basic format for prayer, a description of God's love for us, an understanding of human love, Jesus' most direct teachings on life, and God's most direct teachings on life. Simple biblical faith.

After this letter was read, and a few very respectful comments were made, my friend said, "I knew this day would happen at some point in time, so last year I sat down with MiMi and asked her a question in preparation for this day: 'MiMi, if you could gather all your friends and family together one last time, what would you say to them?' Her response was simple, 'For years, I've told them about God and his love for them. I've told them about Jesus and his sacrifice. So, I would gather them together and just tell them those things again.'" That is a life well-lived. Simple biblical faith... and a desire for others to have the same simple biblical faith in their lives.

Well done, Jeff, with the funeral. Well done, MiMi, with your life.

Biblical Faith and the newest public source of laughter

Over the last 2,000 years we've made our beliefs pretty complicated. It started with the simple ideas of a loving God, an incredible gap between him and mankind, and an absurd idea of reconnecting us to him through his son's death. But now "religion" has turned this simple faith into a complex attempt to "please a god that can't fully be known." That's not biblical faith. Church At The Grove wants you to understand true biblical faith... simple understanding of a holy God, his perfect Son, and our desperate need for forgiveness. It really is that clear.


Now, for the funny part of this post... what happens when we take something simple and make it impossible to understand? The now legendary response of Miss South Carolina in the Miss Teen USA Pageant.

She was asked the question, "recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the U.S. on a world map. Why do you think this is?” Her response is truly unbelievable: “I personally believe that U.S. Americans are unable to do so because, uhmmm, some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and uh, I believe that our, I, education like such as uh, South Africa, and uh, the Iraq, everywhere like such as, and I believe that they should, uhhh, our education over here in the US should help the US, uh, should help South Africa, it should help the Iraq and the Asian countries so we will be able to build up our future, for us.”

Yep, that's her answer... that's her incomprehensible answer to a simple question... that's her explanation of the challenges facing the US educational system... come to think of it... maybe her answer explains the problem as clearly as it's ever been explained.

Since you've got an extra minute anyway and you could use a good laugh, click to my friend Russ Butcher's blog to read what he had to say about it and watch the clip for yourself.

Does "unseen" mean "not real"?

Hebrews 11:1 says "Faith means being sure of the things we hope for and knowing that something is real even if we do not see it."



Some would say that "faith" in a God that can't be seen is foolish. They would go on to say that "thinking people" would not trust in anything that can't be seen, touched or fully explained.




On Friday afternoon, a force that can't be seen, touched, or fully explained lifted my 200 pound trampoline (15' across with a safety enclosure), off the ground and threw it into the top of some 20' pine trees that are more than 50' away.

The point: just because something can't be seen, does not mean that it is not real. If you disagree, try telling my daughter who was less than thrilled to see the trampoline in the trees.



By the way, thanks to my friend Craig and my neighbor Bobby, for their help in recovering from this freak storm/wind gust. And, thanks to everyone in the neighborhood that immediately headed out in their vehicles to make sure nobody in the neighborhood was hurt or had majore property damage.

Fall Comes Quickly Around Here

Can you believe how fast the Summer has gone by? It truly seems like last week when Church At The Grove was downshifting for June and July by going back to one service and simplifying our set-up and break-down responsibilities. And, now Fall is here again and things are going to be insane around here.

David Odom and Lance Boyd are working on the stage design for August. Russ Butcher is polishing the outline for the August series. Rosemary Kirby is finishing up the children's ministry team schedule for the Fall. Amy Story is getting the final details in place for the community groups. And, I am sitting here in my office typing my thoughts on all of this.

As we approach the next sets of messages, I hope you will see what we are trying to accomplish. We want to create an environment for people to explore faith. In order to do that, we believe it is important for us to talk about issues of faith that impact our daily lives as well. And, the Bible talks about a lot of issues that we deal with on a daily basis. In August, we're going to be covering conflict in our "Bullies" series. In September, we'll be looking at God's creative design of sex in our "Can We Bring Sexy Back?" series. In October, the unseen spiritual world is the topic as we talk about what lurks in the "Shadows". And, we'll wrap up the fall with talking about money in "Rich Man" and what the world is really like in "Poor Man".

Russ and I want you to know what the Bible says about these things... we want you to understand what it means to follow Christ in our daily lives... we want you to know what it means to have biblical faith. So, each Sunday at 10:00am and 11:15am, we will try to cover these topics through the lens of scripture. We will attempt to give you background, explanation, and easy ways to apply the truth of God's word to your lives. And, we will offer all of this in a comfortable environment where you can explore these things at your own pace. Finally, you can be confident in our promise not to embarrass you or those people that you invite to attend with you (okay, so maybe you'll get a little red in the face during "Can We Bring Sexy Back?", but that's just because maybe you've never heard sex talked about in church without the phrase "don't do it" in the same sentence). Have a great week! We'll see you on Sunday!

Knowing the Bible... Walking Like Christ

Knowing the stories, concepts, teachings, and background of the Bible is great, but sometimes we totally miss the point. The Pharisees and Sadducees were well studied on scripture, but Jesus attacked them as "hypocrites" and "snakes" and "decorated tombs". Many of the great philosophers of ancient times were well studied on scripture, but they also missed the point and wrote the scriptures off as mere teachings or collections of human thought. And, millions of people in our nation know the stories, concepts, teachings and background of the Bible, but our nation is in a complete mess. So what is it that we've all missed... because apparently knowing scripture isn't enough.

When the Disciples (the "talmidin") decided to become "followers" of Christ... they already knew the "scripture". They were raised in a culture where the "Torah" (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy) was well known. They already understood scripture, but as they learned to be like their Rabbi (Jesus), they learned what "biblical faith" was all about. It was the application of scripture in daily life. It was knowing the Bible... and using that knowledge to become like Christ... to walk like him on a daily basis.

The Truth of Proportion

Some truths are simply too important to avoid or put aside. Two weeks ago, we saw a guy in Costa Maya that was in full violation of the Truth of Proportion. Allow me to explain... when it comes to swimsuits... the size of the swimsuit should be in direct proportion to the size of the guy wearing it. Clearly, "Mr Speedo" doesn't understand this... but I pray that sometime, somebody that has a relationship with "Mr Speedo" will teach him this basic principle for living.

So, this post is really more for the friends and family of "Mr Speedo" instead of "Mr Speedo" himself. He is living in violation of a basic truth... and he doesn't even know it. If you know him, help him, in a loving way, understand it.

Even worse, there are others that walk around in life as if there is NO truth worth following. You may know some people like that... people that have decided there is no God, or that he is not worth following, or that people that follow him are hypocrites, or that his word is not worth paying attention to. If you know someone like that, help them, in a loving way, understand truth.