The View from Osprey: April 2006

April 28, 1968

The date is right... the time of day is about 8:00 PM... the place is Arlington, Virginia on a sidewalk outside the auditorium of Cherrydale Baptist Church. A 17 year old teen age skeptic has just sat through another boring church service. Forced to go to church by parents who knew what they were doing, he was in the midst of a life changing event.

The night before a business man had told him about leaving his business each summer to build churches for missionaries and to do it for FREE! He was everything the young man wanted to be: successful and rich! And when asked why he did it, the construction company owner had simply replied, "If you knew Jesus, you'd do it too."

The teenager had gone home and read through the biography of Jesus written by Jesus' closest friend. And as much as the young man hated to admit it, the God whom he doubted was speaking to him.

That young man was me... That night, 38 years ago, I told Jesus He had 2 weeks to change my life. Jesus looked past the arrogance of that prayer and saw my heart. In that moment, my life was changed.

And it hasn't been the same since!

“Some give by going; Others go by giving”

Isn’t that a great statement?

We received this week a statement of funds received from the Southern Baptist Convention. We have given over $28,000 to our SBC missions causes. That in itself is a reason to party.

But if you add to that the amount we give to our local Southwest Florida Baptist Association, the number gets bigger.
If you add to that the finances we have given for the Godbold’s to go to Chad.
Add to that, the amount of money for local causes as well as other international missionaries!

If you add these up, you will discover that we gave almost $40,000 to ‘go by giving’.
Not that we need a reason to party around here, but let’s pa-a-a-a-a-r-r-r-r-ty!
Because there is another place where the party is getting started, that place is heaven. The Bible records that there is “joy in the presence of the angels when one sinner repents!” That shows us that God parties in heaven when any person comes to Jesus.

But it doesn’t just happen when people in Chad or the Ukraine come to faith. It happens when people here in Osprey, Nokomis, Venice and Sarasota discover the joy of knowing Jesus.
So let’s give Heaven another reason to party. Let’s do both! Let’s give by going AND go by giving!

I have had an ongoing web bulletin board discussion concerning why the American church is in the state it is in. Compared to many international churches, the American church is flabby and weak. It seems to be losing ground as fewer and fewer people receive Jesus as Savior and the population grows larger.

I won't bore you with the details but the consensus seems to be that when faced with a choice between issue oriented stands (politics, moral issues, etc.) or making disciples, the church seems to consistently choose the issues.

There is nothing wrong with standing for the life of the pre-born child or for justice, in fact, there is everything right about doing just that. But that's where the phrase, "Keeping the main thing, the main thing" comes into play.

When Jesus left, he gave each of us as individuals and as the church, the responsibility to make disciples.

Matthew 28:19-20 - And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age."

So what did Jesus say was the main thing? His current followers were to go and make new followers.

Business leaders say that businesses ought to ask and answer 2 questions

What's our business?
How's business?

Jesus had the answer to the first. Our obedience to Jesus will provide the answer to the 2nd.

See you in church tonight as we continue our study of Esther!

Monday, Monday

You know all the phrases used to describe Mondays

Monday, Monday. Can't trust that day
Rainy days and Mondays always get me down
Blue Monday

Mondays are legendary with pastors. I heard of a guy who wrote out his resignation almost every Monday morning. I know of another who checks the want ads on some Mondays.

None of us like going back to work on Monday. And sometimes it's like that with me.

BUT NOT THIS MONDAY!

There was such an excited mood in both services as well as Bible study. We had a mournful 50th birthday party for one of our men last night. We had several respond during the invitation.

Thank you for being the kind of church that makes me want to come to work ... even on a Monday.

April 22, 2006

Did you hear about the new game from those who brought us the "Left Behind" series? Here's the link http://www.leftbehindgames.com/the_games.htm

I am so looking forward to Jesus return. I am excited that God has given us the promise of His return. But I am certain that one thing God would not have wanted from us is to make a game out of killing unsaved people left behind at the rapture.

We spoke about this several weeks ago on Sunday night. There are 3 life changes that happen when we understand the rapture.

1 Thessalonians says it ought to encourage us.
1 Corinthians says it ought to make us steady in our work for the Lord
1 Peter says it ought to make us pure

I'm just not sure it ought to make us want to make a game out of sending people to a Christ-less eternity in Hell.

Just think, 1 day Jesus will return and take us to be with Him forever! Sin, death and weakness will be left behind. We will forever praise and serve the One who died and rose again for us.
I hope He comes today!

See you in church tomorrow.

I'm listening to a Rick Muchow song on my ipod... "Let's sing about the greatness of God.. the earth and heavens echo the wonder of his love... Let's join the chorus, God is for us us. The greatest wonder of all. Let's sing about the greatness of God. Let's sing about the greatness of the Father. Sing about the glory of His Son. and the Holy Spirit dwelling upon us. Let's sing about the wonder of God."

We all live busy lives. They get busier as the week goes by. As I enter this weekend, I want to think... sing.... speak about the wonders... the greatness of our God!

Why don't you join me!

Ahhhh Business Meetings!

They are awful to look forward to... but certainly after last night, wonderful to look back on. Here's a couple of things that happened:

On the recommendation from the Personnel Committee, we voted to hire Dolly Hooker as permanent Church Secretary and Sharon Mullenax as Bookkeeper. They have been doing a great job as temps for the last few months. It's great to have them as part of the Osprey Team.
The church voted to call Carrie Collier, John and Amy Wallace as Student Workers. They are already doing a great job. Plus John is a Redskins fan!
The budget for 2006/2007 was approved. It calls for a budget of $174,819.00 or a weekly need of $3,360. Included in that budget was increased funding for our Children's Ministry and the funds to be able to look for a person to coordinate and improve our Music Ministry.
We also voted to call 2 new Deacons: John Hilton and Wayne Hewitt. It will be exciting to work with them. They will be replacing Paul Winans and Vince Collier who are rotating off the board.
Bill Cason presented the list of workers and committee members for the next year.

"Okay", you are thinking, "sounds like you did a lot of work. But what's the big deal?"
Here's the big deal: All of these actions were voted on UNANIMOUSLY! There's an old joke that if the Lord put his return to a vote that it wouldn't be unanimous.
So, thanks Osprey! Thank you team members for all the hard work. Thanks for the faithfulness to be the church in Osprey!

Remembering Some Heroes

Dr. John R. Rice has been dead for over 25 years. He was an evangelist, a writer and maybe most well known as the founder/editor of "The Sword of the Lord". He was a fundamentalist in the best sense of that word. He believed that certain doctrines were fundamental and could not be dis-believed without destroying the Christian faith such as:

the Bible being without error;
Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and lived a perfect life;
Jesus died for our sins and physically rose again;
the only way to a relationship with God is through faith in Christ
Jesus would one day return;

He stood courageously for holy living. One day, he had been preaching against drinking alcohol in a country church. The next night he was met by some moon shiners. They threatened to kill him.

Dr Rice replied, "You can't scare me with heaven."

Another time he ended a public prayer 'in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit'. After the service he was met by a man who told him we should only pray in the name of Jesus.

Dr. Rice replied, "If you knew the trinity as well as I do, you could pray that way too."

I have been thinking about him because I came into contact with his grandson who is a missionary in Japan. All of Dr. Rice's 5 daughters are married to preachers or missionaries.

It had been a while since I had thought of Dr. Rice. He was one of my heroes. I used to visit his grave when I took teenagers to the Bill Rice Ranch outside of Nashville.

The Bible says that "the memory of the just is blessed." And his memory was a blessing to me.

I bet you have some people in your past who were your heroes. Tell them about it today.

I'll see you in church.