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Devotion for Christmas shared from a Kentucky living room on 12-22-08 for the people of Rhythm. Happy Holidays. God Bless you all!
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The bash was a Rhythm Christmas success-o!
The guys had all peeps rhythm descending last weekend on the ranch.
They all wore those far out christmas sweaters and brought an ornament to decorate the Rhythm Ranch adopted Christmas tree. Good Times…we have pics to prove it. Look for more pictures soon on our website media page.
CT
Hey, It’s Christmas. Just in case you had not noticed…I mean given that the decorations have been up in the malls and stores since around October!
Churches are having cantatas. (What is a cantata anyway?) Children are singing. Stores are lined with green and red. Political correctness reigns over conversations of happy hannakuh, christmas, holidays, whatever.
(And somebody is going to comment on my use of capitalization in the blog, or lack thereof, but whatever)
I love Jesus. I don’t always act like I love Jesus. But, nevertheless, I love Jesus. And to be quite honest I do not love him any more or any less this time of year. Not at all. He knows that. And he loves me back. It’s really quite a cool deal. But I am thinking Jesus feels quite a flood of emotions over the holidays. The giving, taking, spending, attending, partying, etc. Churches are packed out. Why? I dunno either I just thought I would ask. But they are. And we celebrate and shout our numbers out and talk about the reason for the season. It makes me quite happy…and nauseous all in the same breath. The truth of some and the guilt of others. The genuineness of the children and feelings of obligation of adults. Ah well, was that rant fun or what?
Considering Christmas, and not to come off as some sort of scrooge-a-licious blogger, I want to talk quickly about an unsung hero of the day. One of the left out. Not Mary, though she rocks. Not Joseph, the shepherds, or the wise men…all cool. Not the star, Bethlehem, or the angels either. I want to talk about the stable. The cave/barn type place that ended up being the UPS store for the delivery of God’s most amazing gift.
Since I have been blessed with the opportunity to weekly (and sometimes very weakly) minister to a special group of people on a regular basis, I have considered, prayed, discerned over, and just plain wrestled with what the body (church family) of Christ is, should be, looks like, feels like, etc. And I find a lot of similarities between what I think the church ought to be and what happened that night at the stable.
First, as mentioned above, the stable was the delivery place of the greatest gift. God’s son, the savior of the world, the one who would be the greatest gift for all men of all time was granted to us here…in the stable. The church should be that way too don’t you think? Known first and foremost for delivering the incredible, never ending, never failing, gift that is Jesus Christ the son of God to all the world. Yeah, that would be cool. Everyone who shows up just knows that Jesus is there. Sweet!
Two..have you checked out the type of people who got to snuggle up with God in the flesh at that place. it was Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, wise men, cows, oxen, sheep, goats, maybe a mouse or two. Yeah, it was predominately animals, a couple of smart outcasts who by the time they got to Jesus could not go back home, a teenage unwed mom, and a carpenter who was marrying a girl who just had a baby via God and was still a virgin in a barn. This whole thing is wierd ya know? But to me, church would be cool if we accepted the ones we call animals, the outcasts with no home, the ones who have gone against our belief system. That is, after all, how Jesus started it all. Everyone is welcome here at the stable.
Thirdly, the people that showed up at the stable, showed up to worship. Period. They came to see, experience, and worship the Lord Jesus. Through, giving, bowing, and likely some moo-ing. They all worshiped.
Finally, the stable had a light. The star showed everyone where the stable was. As unassuming as it was, it was hard to miss the fact that the light of heaven was shining down right on the stable for all who wanted to seek and find. I hope I am a part of something like that for the rest of my life. A place where the people who are seeking God, shine so brightly in a dark world, that nobody could miss the Savior. The light, the star, the city on a hill, that’s what I’m talking. Stable…Church…both. Everyone who is seeking him should be able to find him through the body of people who claim to know him.
Let’s find, and fall in love again, with Jesus this season. I promise you this..stable-ity is right around the bend.
CT
The podcast from last night has now been uploaded.
Let me mention a couple things:
1 – The storms are coming…it is inevitable.
2 – Loving Jesus and being loved by Jesus does not exempt us from the storms.
3 – Jesus understood his life, his role, and kept his eyes on the Truth…which gave him a clarity few can comprehend but all of us can tap into.
4 – He loves and cares for you, in and out of the storm. That never changes.
Keep an eye out for news, messages, holiday podcasts, and mission information that will be popping up occasionally online.
See you here regularly I hope. See you back in worship at Melrose on January 8th.
Blessings.
CT
Sermon 11 in the series on the gospel of Mark preached on 12-11-08 by Craig Tackett at Rhythm. Rhythm is the collegiate/young adult worship experience in the Roanoke Valley.
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I am hopeful that both of our regulars actually read this post…and maybe even one or two more. Not so much for what I have to say, but more for what thoughtful responses people might have. Since we at Rhythm are generously and graciously sponsored by the RVBA (Roanoke Valley Baptist Association), and because a blog watching buddy suggested it, I thought I would look into the dilemma of Baptists and “Dancing.”
I find 3 things to be fairly consistent in my reading…
The first is, like most issues, people are fairly heated and opinionated on both sides of the issue. And most of the “heat” stems from history and pride rather than depth of insight.
Next comes common reason number one for the belief that people should not dance…and it is “cultural/worldy”. Meaning this…at the time dancing became “unacceptable” it was associated with either music and musicians whose obvious life choices were not in accordance with the church, or locations which supported and or made their money off of things that were “immoral” (i.e. bars, clubs, pubs, etc.)
Simply put the belief became that dancing music is played and supported by unholy people in unholy places and only leads to lust in such instances.
Finally comes common reason number two people are expected to avoid dancing…biblical stances. For the most part I could find 2 passages given out more often than others…the young Salome dancing before Herod just before he is asked to give up the head of John the Baptist (Matthew 14:6-9)…and David dancing naked in the streets (2 Samuel 6:12-22).
Interestingly enough, The passage on David is also used in defense of dancing.
It is here that I would love to interject my thoughts and opinions…but I am afraid my sarcasm would run wild and my perspective would skew the comments to come…so I leave the discussion to begin with a line from an individual that I read during my internet searches about dancing. The person basically said this…I hope that my faith and my belief in Jesus is judged on the things that I do for and about my faith and not the list of things that I do not do.
Talk amongst yourselves…I look forward to it.
CT
Hey guys…
For those of you who missed it the podcast is officially up from last week.
We are looking forward to one more good week at Rhythm before we take a three week break over the holidays. Everybody show up and bring a pal or two.
Keep an eye on the website, blog, and podcast for all your Rhythm information needs.
Blessings.
CT
Sermon 10 in the series on the gospel of Mark preached on 12-04-08 by Craig Tackett at Rhythm. Rhythm is the collegiate/young adult worship experience in the Roanoke Valley.
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I was lounging around watching the television this past Thanksgiving weekend when I saw something that I really was not sure that I could grasp. I knew that it bothered me, and I knew that it was wrong, and I knew that I did not feel right on the inside at all, but I did not know how to respond to it. In case you missed it…here is the New York Times version of the story that has been on the news for the last several days.
Now, I am not a shopper. I have never been and will not soon be a fan of “Black Friday.” Not because I am a grinch, but because I really do not like traffic. That includes all traffic. I don’t like highway traffic, lines in the stores, parking in a crowded lot…I really do not like any of it. I have never really been fond of the way people react to one another and store employees on this day (or most other days for that matter). But this story caught even me off guard. Maybe it should not have, but it did.
What does this say about us? What does it say about the state of our culture? What does it say about our witness? What does it say about me…if anything? What does it say to you? Most of all: What can I learn from it…and how do I change for tomorrow because of it?
Last Friday was just that…”Black”.
Thoughts?
CT
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