An anonymous poet of the 17th Century once wrote:

When the sweet Poison of the Treacherous Grape
Had acted on the world a general rape;
Drowning our Reason and our souls
In such deep seas of large overflowing bowls….

When foggy Ale, leavying up mighty trains,
Of muddy vapours, had besieged our Brains,
Then Heaven in Pity…,
First sent amongst us this All-healing Berry….

Coffee arrives, that grave and wholesome Liquor,
That heals the stomach, makes the genius quicker,
Relieves the memory, revives the sad,
And cheers the Spirits, without making mad.”

Here is this week’s broadcast of Sanctify My Heart, our congregation’s weekly radio outreach.  This message is from Jesus’ Parable of the Rich Fool in the Gospel of Luke, chapter 12.

from troychurch.podomatic posted with vodpod

It’s amazing how full your heart can become simply looking at your children’s smiles, isn’t it?

Here’s a video from this morning…watch to the end for a “bonus”!

A few weeks ago a good friend and I met for coffee and were talking about how necessary to the life and vibrancy of a congregation new believers are. The next day I thought it was both funny and pertinent that I came across this quote in The Shaping of Things to Come by Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch. It speaks directly to the conversation we had that day…

A billabong is an Australian term for a pond or lake that was once part of the ‘ bend of a river or creek but which has been cut off from the flow as the river slowly changed direction. Many second- or third-generation Christians find themselves in a church billabong. Where once their parents or grandparents were part of a church that was like a flowing stream, now they are trapped in a stagnant backwater. Growing up Christian, they have adopted a middle-class perspective and embraced a certain way of doing church. Their motivation for staying in the church is no longer to fulfill Christ’s mission in this world, but to have their own needs met. If the church doesn’t work through the process of contextualization, this generation of Christians will become the “New Colonials,” as it adds to the gospel according to its own tastes. Just as many colonial-era missionaries added Western democracy, capitalism, pews, pulpits, formal clothing on Sundays, and Western organizational systems and rules to the gospel, those second- (or more) generation Christians today can add their own spin to the essence of Christ’s gospel.

The church ought to be more like a tidal pool than a billabong. In the deep rock pools formed by the ever-swirling surf of the ocean, whole ecosystems can develop, filled with weed, rock crabs, mollusks, etc. If left untouched by the ocean, the pools would overheat in the sun and become stagnant as the sea life dies. What a tidal pool needs is the regular flushing of the ocean as the tide rises and falls sweeping the pool clean each day. Any church that doesn’t engage in the work of contextualization, motivated by a heart for local mission, overheats and becomes stagnant. It’s in the engagement with not-yet-Christians that we regularly adjust our language and its idioms, our practices, our emphases, and our worship life. We need to be regularly swept by incoming new Christians.

Well, after having to file an extension the last couple years, I got ‘em done on time this year (taxes, that is). I think I finally had the proper motivation:

And with that, I’m ready for a tea party. Granted, when you’re in my income level the burden’s not nearly as bad as it could be (hey, you can’t be taxed on money you didn’t make!), but it did remind me as I looked over our paperwork and old mortgage payments slips how ridiculous the property taxes are in NY. I pay more each month than the mortgage on our first home in TX–and this house is smaller and 90 years older!!! Plus the roads are bad, the City Hall is about to cave into it’s own parking garage, Spitzer (’nough said), and on and on and on…

So, who’s with me? If you’ll pay for the gas to Boston (or from Troy to the Port of Albany might make more sense, and it’s cheaper), I’ll bring the tea. And we’ll kill two birds with one stone. After we dump the tea in the Hudson, we’ll get a jug to send to Congress. Hudson River tea ought to go well with pork sandwiches, don’t you think?

————–

On second thought, maybe I shouldn’t post about taxes while on a sugar high from the Boston Kreme doughnut, huh?

“However, the Most High does not live in houses made by men. As the prophet says: ‘Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? says the Lord. Or where will my resting place be?  Has not my hand made all these things?’”
(Acts 7:48-50, KJV)

I just realized that I’ve never put a link to our congregation’s radio ministry on the blog. We have a 30 minute broadcast on Saturdays, and the programs from January (when we began) up to now have been focused on introducing people to Jesus and his life, divinity, character and teaching. The archives are on our site at www.troychurch.org, or you can subscribe via iTunes (free podcast). If you are here in the NY Capital District, there is a list of five stations you’ll find the program on at our website. I understand that the broadcast area is something like 240 square miles.

For my ex-AIMer blog readers, you may detect that I chose to follow a very similar tact in this series (called “Who Is This Jesus?”) as in the “Mark Study”, including the three questions (What could man do? What did Jesus do? Who is Jesus?). I’ve used all kinds of different approaches over the past 17 years (seriously…it’s been that long?!) and I still find it to be such a great approach. Thanks, Rex!

We also owe a debt of gratitude to the Southgate Church of Christ in San Angelo, TX whom the Lord has used to make the ministry possible.

(Thanks too, by the way, to Keith Lancaster of Acappella who lets us use a clip of “Sanctify My Heart” as our theme song.)

—————–

Most importantly, we ask all our brothers and sisters to pray for this effort to sow the seed of the gospel. That’s what this ministry all about–sharing the good news about Jesus with as many as possible, that they may come to know Jesus.

I was looking through my iPhoto stuff this afternoon and came across this one that I snapped about this time last year.  We took a drive evening through the mountains east of here between the NY/MA border and N. Adams, MA.  At higher elevations there was still plenty of snow along the banks of the river, and we got out let Emma play for a while (she gather I don’t know how many pine cones).  This picture is still my favorite from that day.