Verses

Bible day is always fun at Roswell Presbyterian Church.  Yesterday we gave Bibles to our third graders and story Bibles to our three year olds.   The Bibles are a gift from the church, and our prayer is that through this gift these children will know that they are loved by the church and, most of all, by God.

RPC is special in so many different ways, but yesterday was a great reminder of the wide variety of ages which make up our worshipping congregation.  I can go to plenty of churches populated with no one without grey hair, and I can find plenty of churches with no one over 40.  RPC stands out as a place filled with folks over 80 as well as under 8.  I love having both groups in such large numbers!  Best of all, it’s not just on Bible Sunday when that is true!

Before we gave the Bibles to our third graders, I was asked to list four of my favorite verses.  Our fourth and fifth graders highlighted those verses in the Bibles so that the third graders could find them when they got home.

I confess, I only had a few minutes to pick my four favorites.  There are dozens… maybe hundreds… that could have made the list.  But here were the four on which I settled:

John 10:10… I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.  These words of Jesus first came to have meaning for me when I was in high school.  They taught me that following Jesus didn’t mean following a list of rules.  It meant entering into a relationship with the God who wanted me to experience life to the fullest.  My ministry has been focused not only on knowing that abundant life for myself, but on helping others experience the fullness of that life as well.

II Corinthians 5:17… So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!  I never had a dramatic conversion like Paul’s experience on the road to Damascus, but these words of Paul have reminded me that in Christ I experience new life every day.  I’m thankful every day that God gives me the grace to put my sin behind me and to live a new life. 

Psalm 46:1…  God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.  In this powerful Psalm the writer uses a number of images to remind us that nothing separates us from the power and strength of God.  Even when the world is at its worst, God is still in control. I find great strength in knowing that this is still God’s world. It keeps me motivated to work for change in the world.   I hope others know that strength as well.

Lamentations 3:22-23… The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases, his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.  In the fall of 2010, after I discovered that my cancer had returned, I woke up one morning singing the hymn based on these words.  “Great is thy faithfulness, morning by morning new mercies I see.  All I have needed thy hand hath provided.  Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me.”  Every since that  morning, these words have carried special meaning for me.

So that’s my list.  I could have added dozens more, but I was only allowed four!

What verses would be on your list?  I’d love to know!

Dr. Lane Alderman
Roswell Presbyterian Church
www.roswellpres.org

Churched Up

“For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”
Hebrews 4:15

When I was a pastor in Vicksburg, Mississippi, I used to play pick up basketball two or three times a week.  A group of us would gather at noon at the “Y” for an hour of running up and down the court.  There actually was some basketball that was played, but there was also a lot of pushing and shoving as well.  It wasn’t unheard of for the game to end with someone having to make a trip to the emergency room.

All of the regulars knew that I was a minister, but every once in a while a newcomer would join us who didn’t know who I was.  The game would proceed in its usual rough style, but eventually one of the regulars would yell at me and say, “Come on, preacher.”

All of the sudden the newcomer would stop and look at me and begin to process this new information.  I could almost see the thoughts going through his mind. “What did I say to him?  Did I cuss at him?  Was I too rough on him?  He’s a preacher.  I can’t believe I said that to him.”

I loved it when that happened, because inevitably the newcomer would lay off of me for the rest of the game and I’d play better than ever.  I never understood why they thought they had to treat me differently.  Were they afraid that I had never heard anyone cuss before?  Were they afraid that I didn’t live in the real world?  Were they afraid that I might tell God about their behavior?

Yesterday in worship I told a story about soldiers who “church it up” when they call home to their mother.  By their own description, they “sugar coat things and make things sound better than they really are.”

Sadly, too many of us think that when we talk with God, we have to “church it up.”  Like the newcomers at our basketball game, we think that religious people don’t live in the real world, and that we have to act like things are better than they really are.

I hope we know that when we call home to God in prayer, we don’t have to “church” things up at all.  We can be brutally honest and open with God.  When life is challenging, we can say so.  When we have doubts, we can admit them.  When we have struggles, we can be honest.  God can handle our toughest cries.  God can handle our greatest hurts.

God knows first hand the pain and the hurt of this world.  In the person of Jesus, he has been here… right in the middle of it all.

Don’t be afraid to be honest with God. God can handle it.

Dr. Lane Alderman
Roswell Presbyterian Church
www.roswellpres.org

Listening to a Prophet

“Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”
Matthew 7:28-29

Our nation pauses today to honor the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  He was a unique and powerful figure in the last century, and his ministry and his mission literally changed the landscape of our nation and our world. 

Today, we look back to the life of Dr. King with gratitude.  His words are quoted by politicians, carved on to monuments, and memorized by school children.  We now know that we are a better nation because of the commitment of Dr. King.

Fifty years ago, however, a significant segment of our population looked upon the work of Dr. King with contempt and with disdain.  His words upset the status quo, and it made millions of our citizens uncomfortable to listen to him.  A common theme among many was to acknowledge that change was needed, but that it needed to come more slowly.  “Now isn’t the time,” was a common response to Dr. King’s prophetic challenge.

Thanks be to God, the nation did listen to the words of Dr. King, and our society has made some fundamental changes in the way it is structured.  We’re not there yet, and the dream of Dr. King has not been fully recognized, but monumental steps have been taken. It is appropriate that we pause today and give thanks to God for the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.   He was a prophetic voice in the midst of a nation badly in need of a new direction.

As I thought about Dr. King’s legacy, I began to wonder about the prophetic voices in our current society.  I began to wonder about who in today’s world are making people uncomfortable, just as Dr. King made people squirm in the 1960’s.  I began to think about which voices we are trying to ignore today, just as people tried to silence Dr. King in a previous generation.

Who are those voices in 2012?  I’d be interested in your thoughts. But today’s reflection took me back to a prophetic voice of 2000 years ago.  It was a voice, which, like Dr. King’s, spoke truth in the midst of injustice.  It was a voice which challenged the status quo, and made people uncomfortable as they heard it.  It was a voice which called for change, and a voice which, like Dr. King’s, some people tried to silence.

As we consider who today’s modern day prophets might be, I have an invitation for each of us.  Today, on MLK Day, find a few minutes and go back and read the prophetic words of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.  They are in the Gospel of Matthew, chapters five, six, and seven. 

Let me warn you.  It won’t take long to read those words, but it will take a life time to live them.  But live them we must.  If we are going be disciples of our Lord, then the words of this sermon need to resonate in our hearts and they need to direct our steps. 

Take some time today and read the Sermon on the Mount, and then let me know what jumped out at you.  There are lots of ways to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  I happen to think that living out the words of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount would be one of the most powerful responses we could make.

Dr. Lane Alderman
Roswell Presbyterian Church
www.roswellpres.org

So That!

“Now may the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, make you complete in everything good so that you may do his will, working among us that which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever.  Amen.” 
Hebrews 13:20-21

I did a quick search of my on line Bible and discovered that in the New Revised Standard Translation (the one we have in our pews at church) the phrase “so that” is used 1,069 times. 

So what?  Other than to answer some obscure trivia question, why does it matter how many times the phrase “so that” is used in the Bible?

It matters because the Bible deals with real life. Let me explain…

The Bible speaks a great deal about abstract, theological concepts.  It expresses profound, complex truths about God and the world in which we live.  It is full of spiritual truth.

But the Bible also cares about the real world in which you and I live.  The Bible cares about how we treat other people, and about how we treat ourselves.  The Bible is concerned with how we spend our money and how we spend our time.  The Bible challenges us to be involved in the world, about caring for the “least of these.”  The Bible cares about real life.

The phrase “so that” reminds of the Bible’s concern for real life.  1,069 times the Bible makes a profound observation, and then uses the phrase “so that” to connect that observation to our real lives.

Our passage in Hebrews makes that point.  The writer reminds us that God, through the blood of Jesus, makes us “complete in everything good.”  That’s a nice thing to know, and, by itself, is somewhat comforting.  But it really doesn’t make much of a difference in the real world.  God has made us “complete in everything good.”  But so what?  What difference does that make?

Read on, and he tells us why this is important.  God makes us “complete in everything good so that you may do his will.”

The purpose of God’s work in our lives is so that we will be doing the work of God in the world. 

Here’s the point.  Believing foundational truths is important, and over the next few weeks we will be talking about some of those truths on Sunday morning.  But how those foundational truths impact our living is even more important.

What we believe on Sunday is important.  But we hold those beliefs so that they will make a difference in the way we live on Monday, and Tuesday, and all through the week.

I’ll see you Sunday!

Dr. Lane Alderman
RoswellPresbyterian Church
www.roswellpres.org