Summer is in full swing, lots of travels for all of us at Springfield. The Moores are just back from Arkansas where all went well at camp other than an unfortunate broken arm for Grady. We are back for good now with no plans to head anywhere anytime soon! (What a relief.) Many thanks to Kenneth and others who filled in so admirably. One family that is traveling right now is the Strattons who are in Little Rock for the birth of Garrett Alexander Davis who was born on July 5th! Baby and mother are reportedly doing well.
Starting this week we begin looking at a series that will take us through the summer. I am calling it "The Inconvenient Truth".... the 7 toughest things that Jesus ever said. Anyone notice where I got that title? Some of you will recognize that it is blatantly stolen from Al Gore's new documentary about global warming. I have not seen it, but apparently Mr. Gore made the movie to remind Americans that some truths we may not want to hear could turn out to be deadly serious. I read a review recently where even some of his most harsh political enemies suggested maybe some of The Inconvenient Truth is something we should listen to.
As the Lord's church we are not nearly as interested in the Inconvenient Truth about global warming as we are in the Inconvenient Truths about what God expects from his created humans. Jesus had a habit of telling inconvenient truths to people. "Sell everything!" he said. "Unless you hate your father and mother..." he told one questioner. "Let the dead bury the dead..." He had a lot of very difficult sayings that, when we read them today, tend to get explained away as circumstantial or cultural or even meaning the opposite of what he actually said. Our goal in looking at these tough words will be to consider that perhaps some of them should be taken at face value. It might be a little inconvenient to put these messages to work in our lives...but since Jesus claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life maybe the adjective "inconvenient" placed before each of those words should be at least part of what we should expect as we follow Him.
Starting this week we begin looking at a series that will take us through the summer. I am calling it "The Inconvenient Truth".... the 7 toughest things that Jesus ever said. Anyone notice where I got that title? Some of you will recognize that it is blatantly stolen from Al Gore's new documentary about global warming. I have not seen it, but apparently Mr. Gore made the movie to remind Americans that some truths we may not want to hear could turn out to be deadly serious. I read a review recently where even some of his most harsh political enemies suggested maybe some of The Inconvenient Truth is something we should listen to.
As the Lord's church we are not nearly as interested in the Inconvenient Truth about global warming as we are in the Inconvenient Truths about what God expects from his created humans. Jesus had a habit of telling inconvenient truths to people. "Sell everything!" he said. "Unless you hate your father and mother..." he told one questioner. "Let the dead bury the dead..." He had a lot of very difficult sayings that, when we read them today, tend to get explained away as circumstantial or cultural or even meaning the opposite of what he actually said. Our goal in looking at these tough words will be to consider that perhaps some of them should be taken at face value. It might be a little inconvenient to put these messages to work in our lives...but since Jesus claimed to be the Way, the Truth and the Life maybe the adjective "inconvenient" placed before each of those words should be at least part of what we should expect as we follow Him.
Mark
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