Clay in the Hands

Here is your chance.  This Sunday we will be discussing the importance real community and I want to hear from you.  How would you define community?

When I think of community – particularly as it pertains to the family of God, ideas such as unity, common purpose, love, grace, selflessness and hope all come to mind.

But as I refine my thoughts on the subject, I am asking God to inspire you to share your thoughts with me.

If I am going to stand before God’s people and describe God’s idea of community, I think it is only fitting to hear what God’s family thinks.

Let me hear from you.

You can reply here or if you want your thoughts to be more confidential feel free to email me at brian@firstcorpus.org.

I appreciate your prayerful responses.

Blessings on your day.

Read Full Post »

I don’t know if it’s because I am the pastor or that they are just being nice, but one of our church league basketball teams has allowed me to be part of the squad.  We have had three games so far and they have humored me and allowed me on to the court to see some playing time.

To say I’m a baller from way back would be overstating the situation just a bit.  I played in high school and then was on an intramural team in college each year.  But since getting on the court at Baylor during my doctoral studies and tearing my ACL two years in a row, I have not really played.

But wanting to get to know some guys in a different setting and desperately needing exercise, I signed up to play.  So far, I have managed to stay injury free and other than feeling a bit guilty for taking up a slot that a real player could have had, I am having a blast.

But the experience has taught me a couple of things.

The first is – I am out of shape!  I have not seen a video of myself, but I imagine it looks and sounds something similar to a water buffalo lumbering down the court.

I had a conversation with a person yesterday who talked about body memory – the idea that once we have done things on a regular basis, our bodies remember how to do it without much intensional thought – thus the old saying, “It’s like riding a bike.”  While I agree that my body remembers what to do, the conditioning is not there to actually do it.  Being able to perform well takes conditioning and practice.  At one time, I held the percentage record for free throws in my high school.  Last night I was 0 for 2.  It takes work and while we may know what to do and even remember what it was like to have the ability, if we are not conditioned, then the performance will show it.

The second lesson I learned is that people are not always who they lead us to believe.  When one teammate from the other team has to turn to another teammate to ask what church team he is on, it is a good clue he may not be a part of the church he is representing in the church league.  Don’t get me wrong, the guys were good guys (and extremely good from outside the 3 point line) but their language was not a great presentation of the church they represented.

This experience has shown me of two things:

1.  We represent Jesus and our actions matter.
2. Our conditioning is crucial.

As I have thought about these epiphanies, I am reminded that we are called as believers to represent the one true king.  People are watching.  They know when our actions (and words) don’t line up with what we say we believe.  We must always remember that our actions matter.  And we also need to remember that if we are going to represent Jesus effectively, we must be conditioned.  We must practice.  We must prepare daily to be the example of love and compassion, of hope and peace.  This ability does not happen by accident.  This ability takes work – it takes time – time in God’s word, time in prayer and time spent listening.

God wants to make an impact in this world through you and through me but we have to be ready each day to go out and live what we profess to believe!

Now . . . where is that knee brace?

Be a blessing!

Read Full Post »

I learned a valuable lesson yesterday.  Our church scheduled a beautiful service at the beach out on Padre Island.  We had nine people ready to be baptized in the surf of the Gulf of Mexico.  A large gathering of our family was there, standing ankle deep in the water to observe this sacred moment.

We walked those who were to be baptized out into waste deep water and one by one, baptized each of them.  As each person stepped up to be baptized I was able to address each one individually and privately.  I asked each one of their belief in Jesus and then baptized them based on their statement of belief.

This was a bit different due to the conditions that having the service at the beach dictates.  In a setting indoors, I would have had a microphone so that the rest of the gathering could hear what was going on.  But due to the noise of the surf and the distance to the crowd, there was no way to include them in what was being said.

Honestly, I had not given it much thought until I was saying goodbye to Laura, one of the observers who had witnessed it all.  She made a keen observation.  She said something to the effect, “This was so special.  Watching you have conversations with each person just seemed so intimate.”

As I have reflected on her observation, I have been reminded that baptism is so much more than a corporate act.  I tend to see this act of worship largely for the benefit of the family – the body of believers gathered – to outwardly illustrate the transformation that has already begun in the person’s heart.

That is certainly a part of the worship act.  But I was reminded just how intimate this sacred moment should be as well.  Being able to have a brief, quiet conversation with each person as part of the baptism made the experience much more intimate and blessed.  It is a public act but it should also always be intimate and sacred for the individual as well.

Thanks Laura for the reminder!

Read Full Post »

Do you ever feel alone?  Loneliness is one of the most wide-spread issues in our culture today.  It seems ironic given the fact that we are more connected with others today than ever before.  I can pull up any number of social media formats and right from my phone, tablet, computer or even watch, I can know what someone has had for dinner, see pictures of their latest adventure and even comment on any of it.

But even as connected as we may be, there is deep-seated need that each of us have.  We were created for it.  We crave it.  We live to be known and to know.  We were created for relationships – for community.  Unfortunately, our culture has adulterated this God-given need within each of us and turned it into something different (which is not anything new).  We have created ways to fill our need for relationships with superficial, hollow encounters and labelled it community.  We can spend hours scanning social media and walk away feeling empty – not knowing and not being known.

Sunday we will continue with our series on the I Am sayings of Jesus found in the Gospel of John.  This Sunday we will be looking at Jesus’ saying, “I am the Good Shepherd.”  In verse 14 of chapter 10, Jesus says, “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and they know me.”

Pause and let that truth resonate for a minute.  Jesus knows you!  The original language connotes a depth of knowledge or an intimacy.  Jesus knows you better than anyone.  He knows you better than you know yourself.

In the same chapter, Jesus explains that we are like sheep and he is the shepherd.  He knows his sheep and his sheep recognize his voice.  As I meditate on this idea, I have to ask myself, “how familiar am I with his voice?”  Am I so close to him, do I know him well enough that when he speaks I hear him?

How about you?  Do you recognize his voice?

He knows you.  HE KNOWS YOU!

Find comfort in that fact today and learn to recognize his voice.

Be blessed.

Read Full Post »