Life in the Grove

I love to listen to the people of God praise His name. Have you ever just stopped for a second to hear those around you singing to God. The diversity is beautiful.

I can hear the beautiful voice of elderly woman singing praises to God in a lovely virbrato. I hear the voice of the woman with the well trained ear. I hear the man praise God with all his heart with a voice that scratches and is poorly out of tune. Each one of these are lovely and pleasing to God. As I listened in Church this Sunday I too praised God that He has saved us, and somehow in His wisdom has chosen for us to be part of the plan to bring Him praises.

Psalm 150

Praise the Lord.
Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty heavens.
Praise him for his acts of power;
praise him for his surpassing greatness.
Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet,
praise him with the harp and lyre,
praise him with tambourine and dancing,
praise him with the strings and flute,
praise him with the clash of cymbals,
praise him with resounding cymbals.
Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

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Do you remember the game of Clue? Solving the mystery of murder with skill, cunning, and the logical process of elimination. “I accuse Mr. Green, in the kitchen, with the lead pipe.”

Have you participated in a murder party? Great fun can be had dressing up in costumes and then enjoying an evening of role-playing, dinner, and practicing to be the next Sherlock Holmes.

As long as murder is part of a game, we can tolerate it. But when it enters our experience, we recoil in horror at what one human being can do to another. We resent the intrusion into our consciousness of news stories involving the loss of precious life at the hands of a selfish killer.

Murder happens quickly in the development of humanity. It didn’t take long for Cain to become so angry with God and his brother that he killed Abel.

Following the flood of Genesis 6-9 God made it very clear that life was so valuable that no murder would be tolerated. In fact, if someone was guilty of murder, his life was to be taken. Reason: People are made in the image of God. Life is to be respected.

When it came time for God to lay down the law for His chosen people Israel, to equip them to be a strong and healthy society, murder made the top ten list of laws. “You shall not murder” (Ex. 20:13).

It was the 6th commandment that we will study on Sunday morning. It will be my purpose to convince us all that we need to take this commandment seriously.

“Seriously? Come on Pastor Keith, I’m not going to kill anybody,” I hear you say. “Yes, seriously,” I respond.

There are more ways to kill someone than to end their physical life. We can use our stare to carve a hole in someone’s confidence. We can assassinate someone’s character with our words. We can emotionally abandon a spouse or a friend stealing their hope and leaving them lonely and empty.

“You shall not murder.” There is much more to this command than meets the eye. Once you start down the road to understanding “murder”, you quickly realize that the seeds of sin that lead to murder are resident in us all. No I’m not worried that you will kill someone tomorrow. I am concerned that we see life from God’s perspective.

Jesus reminds us to take good care of our heart. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander,” said Jesus (Matthew 15:19)

Jesus also compares the seriousness of murder with the sin of hatred (Matthew 5:21-24). Now that is getting a little too close for comfort. “Can we talk about something else?” No…

A little reading for this Sunday:

• Matthew 5
• Eph 4

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Mother’s Day is here! For many, this is a wonderful day. For some it is a hard day. Moms deserve to be honored on this day and every day. Thank God for your mom today. If this is your first Mother’s day without your mom, you need to know of our sympathies and prayers on your behalf. If broken relationships have placed a divide in a relationship that should be a source of joy know that we care about that too.

Our Sunday morning study entitled: Loving God and Living Well has advanced to the fifth commandment that speaks of honoring our parents. God’s command comes straight from the heart of His sovereign plan. Honor your father and mother. It is unmistakable as to intent. It is clear as to responsibility. It is silent on all the hard issues that must be faced as we try to love our mother and father in a broken and fallen world.

Ex: 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Deut 5:16 “Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the LORD your God is giving you.

Eph. 6:1-3 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”–which is the first commandment with a promise– “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

God’s expectation of how we relate to our parents didn’t change much from the days of Moses to the time of the Apostle Paul. We have the great privilege and, in some cases, the difficult task of honoring our parents even if our parents made choices that didn’t meet with God’s approval.

This Sunday we will look into what it means to follow the honoring parents commandment. We will discover how trusting and obeying God frees us to live well. Jesus, himself, will be our guide into fuller understanding and obedience to this calling of God.

Between now and Sunday take time to honor your Mom. Openly appreciate her. Release any bitterness that might hinder your celebration of the day. Someday, you will not be able to tell her that you love her.

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Rest can be enjoyed and explored in many different ways. Vacations are for rest. Even when we come back from vacation we can be tired even though we are refreshed from having focused differently for a few days. As one wise sage declared… “No one needs a vacation worse than somebody who just had one.”

Rest is not optional. Just like changing the oil on the car is not optional. You can deny the need and suffer the consequences but the need exists never the less.

God understands about rest. For God, rest is not because He is tired, but because He is finished with His work. Creation in six days… Work complete… Time to rest.

Surprisingly, we discover that the pattern of creation was to be a pattern of life for God’s people. Here’s how God put it to Moses and the Israelites.

“Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but He rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.”

I have to be honest. As a kid, I didn’t like this commandment. I didn’t like it because it meant that you couldn’t have any fun on Sundays. There was no part of this conclusion that corresponded to reality. But it was interesting to try to discuss with my parents and Sunday School teachers what could be included in the list of appropriate activity on Sunday afternoon.

Why did God call out the Sabbath as an important commandment? Why is this commandment the only one of the Ten that is not repeated in the New Testament? How can we discern the principle and benefit from the application of this commandment?

We’ll talk this through on Sunday, in the mean time here are some scriptures to help set the stage.

• Luke 6:1-11
• Acts 16:13
• Acts 17:2
• Acts 18:4
• Acts 20:7

See a pattern yet?

• 1 Corinthians 16:2
• Colossians 2:16
• Hebrews 4

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140,000 people heard the good news of Jesus proclaimed, and thousands came to know him as their savior.

The food containers that our church packed were distributed to the people of Leon.

Pastors, their families, and their churches were encouraged.

Even the government and local officials were impacted through this event.

We encourage you to read and see even more at Mike Silva’s blog. Praise God!

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