THE VIEW FROM MARS HILL

When the Apostle Paul stopped by Areopagus Coffee in Athens, he was favorably impressed. While the baristas there all sported the logo of Mars, Roman god of war, these people were at least spiritually aware. They had posters of all sorts of gods and goddesses. They even had one, picturing a tall red cup, reserved for “the unknown God.” They were celebrating, but not sure just why. And so Paul was able to tell them some very Good News. In their sad and generic, spiritually bankrupt and shades-of-gray world that lacked all sense of wonder, Paul let them know the single most wondrous truth in the entire universe. Some mocked; some believed; some said he should come back and tell them more about this God-Man they had unknowingly yet instinctively acknowledged. “The god of the red cup” became an opportunity to speak of the one true God loving us so much that He chose to dwell among us, seeking and saving those who are lost.

THE 2021 REAL MEN'S CHILI COOK-OFF

The 2021 Real Men's Chili Cook-off is Sunday, February 28, 6pm, in our fellowship hall. Have your entries available by 5:30pm, gentlemen. Competition is always fierce, so bring your best effort. The winner will take home the coveted Silver Spike "You Nailed It!" trophy along with bragging rights. 

Ladies, please bring fixings that go with chili--crackers, cheese, chips, and desserts.

SNOWY DAY SAMARITANS

Yesterday, 17 February 2021, a friend's vehicle was stuck in the snow three blocks from my house. (Such things rarely happen in Memphis!) As I was booking it through the snow to help, a guy passing by on Tutwiler stopped and gave me a ride. Five minutes after his call, my buddy was already getting help from a dude in a really big pickup. A second total stranger was standing nearby just in case he was needed. Today, I scooped the last bit of Lucy's dog food. Thinking the bucket underneath was more of the same, I discovered it was instead filled with hard winter wheat. Decided to hike to Big Lots (one mile away) to get more Alpo. On my way home, as the snow was steadily falling and with my backpack having gained 15 lbs. of dog chow, a man stopped to ask where I was headed. Pretty sure he thought I was a homeless guy out in the blizzard with no place to go. Or maybe he figured there had to be a Silver Alert out for me. Some might think my neighborhood is a little sketchy. Today, I would have to disagree.

FACEBOOK CHRISTMAS 2020

This year, Facebook chose to go fully literal on the opening two words of the carol Silent Night. There was nothing of the worldwide celebration worthy of mention. Hannukah got a half dozen backgrounds for posts featuring dreidels or menorahs, but nothing of Immanuel’s birth popped up behind the rainbow box that had, I assume, nothing to do with Noah and the flood. Oh, if you dug deep you could find some banners and such of generic quality. Like so many businesses today, the glory of this annual celebration has been just…absent.

And that is as it should be. It is not Mr. Zuckerberg’s job to tell the story. Perhaps we should be glad that the hypocrisy of clueless merchants pretending to participate in such a day with hopes of cashing in on it has pretty much ceased. December landscapes that were once awash with bright colors and words proclaiming hope, peace, and goodwill toward men are now painted over with Soviet gray nothingness. And it is left for us real believers to proclaim the message. My 12 Quotes of Christmas was an attempt to splash the good news of the incarnation across your Facebook pages. Hope it got you thinking about the Savior of the world’s first visit as the God-Man. Under the brilliant light of the star and amidst the shouts of angels, that Christ of Christmas was mistaken for just another Jewish infant. Three decades later, He would be mistaken for a troublemaker finally dispatched by a fittingly cruel death on a cross. And three days after that, the resurrected Jesus would be momentarily mistaken as a cemetery groundskeeper. The next time He comes, mark it well, there will be no mistaking who He is.

WHAT STANDS THE TEST OF TIME?

There is something startling and therapeutic and spiritually significant about closing the estate of someone who’s died. The deceased always manages to leave behind a bunch of stuff. Sometimes family members and others fight over who gets next dibs on the chore of dragging some item through life. Grandfather’s grandfather’s clock must be passed along. Or sold at auction. Often there’s a pile of money to sort out. A few times acting as executor, I’ve written checks in one sitting totally far more than my accumulated net worth. And then there’s the collection of odds and ends nobody wants. Photos of people no one can identify that were once precious to the departed one. A box filled with mementos of trips taken, diplomas earned, and awards won. Curios that caught the fancy of the one who wrote the will. Letters packed with memories and well wishes, capturing emotions that strangers cannot grasp. (I suppose there will be far fewer handwritten letters in future estates.) James 1:10 counsels the rich to boast in his humiliation. Like the flowering grass, he will pass away. James pushes us to set our hearts and minds and energies on that which stands the test of time.

WHERE EVERYBODY KNOWS YOUR NAME

 I never watched the old TV show Cheers, but I was always attracted to the theme song. Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. As an 11-year-old kid, I worked at a grocery store next to Harmony Bar. The building was owned by my boss, so I ended up doing some chores on the property. My dad took me there once. I didn't witness a lot of harmony in the darkness of that sad room.

The pandemic has reminded me of the gift Open Door Bible Church is. We had to meet online for several weeks in the early spring of 2020. It was a novelty. Got to interact on Zoom with some past members and missionaries in distant places and see the faces of local people I was already missing. But it was clearly missing the dynamic of genuine, face-to-face fellowship. After 39 years, maybe I had begun to take the gift of our fellowship too much for granted. When Jimmy Leonard was alive, he called us "The Best Kept Secret in Memphis."

Our tagline, A Common People with an Uncommon Love,  has been illustrated in fresh ways over the past two weeks. Exhibit A was the Baby Dedication of Kesler Jones. And yesterday came Exhibit B, the 70th Wedding Anniversary Celebration of Frank and Virginia Buck. Kesler's legacy stretches my memory of God's goodness back nearly four decades. Kesler's great grandparents' surname became his given name a year ago. And a whole series of good memories are crowded into that moniker. The Bucks legacy merged into our own a good number of years ago. Our world largely ignores the treasure living among them. What could be learned from the stories of old people? Frank told me of visiting his elderly grandfather at Christmas back in the 1930s. I did the math and observed that his grandpa had been alive during the Civil War. Turns out, Gramps lied about his age and joined the Union Army! Frank himself, is a Navy veteran of World War 2 and the Korean War. The Bucks have lived faithfully and well, and we get to enjoy their godly joy on a regular basis. But they are also a treasure trove of eyewitness history. Ken Burns could learn at their feet.

I'm thankful for my salvation. And I am thankful for the community of fellow believers I'm blessed to be a part of.

Gary

WHATEVER HAPPENED TO 2020 VISION?

For all the hype back in January about it being a year for clarity and focus, 2020 has turned our best-laid plans into a blur of uncertainties and cancelations. From gathering with friends to our daily work, from finances to graduations, from health concerns to travel plans to sporting events to shortages of items we’ve always taken for granted, who among us has not encountered massive disruptions over the past five months? 

There’s a story in 2 Kings 6 that can guide our praying in the midst of the global pandemic. Things aren’t going too well for Ben Hadad II, King of Syria. Israel is no match for his massive armies. Still, somehow, they keep getting the upper hand, anticipating his every move, predicting his troop movements, second-guessing his attack plans. He suspects a traitor in his camp, but a servant tells the king of a prophet named Elisha who is informing the Hebrews of “the words that you speak in your bedroom.” Comically, Ben Hadad sends a huge army with soldiers and horses and chariots to capture the man. They invade at night, lest this little bald-headed prophet should somehow prevail. When Elisha’s young servant goes out early the next morning to collect the Dothan Daily News from the end of the driveway, he is terrified to see a multitude of armed soldiers surrounding the city. The servant cries out to Elisha that the two of them are seriously outnumbered, but the old man responds: “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” The servant must have thought poor Elisha’s eyes were going out on him and his mind was not far behind. The prophet prays that the Lord would “open his eyes that he may see.” And in that moment the younger man catches a glimpse of things normally unseen by earthly eyes. Beyond the Syrian army, the mountain is filled with multiplied angelic forces and chariots of fire.

There are moments when God pulls back the curtain to bring perspective and hope and confidence. Let’s pray that God will allow us to see something of the greater picture. He works in ways we miss unless our spiritual eyes are opened to see beyond the pandemic. 

Gary