What Do Any Of Us Really Have?

I met a man who said, "I have nothing left."

No job/career.

No money.

No home.

No wife.

No children that wanted to see him.

I met a man who said, "I have nothing left."

He was right.

--Ben

Holiness Is Dangerous

Yesterday I came across a verse that jumped out at me. I've been reading through Ezekiel, and was in the middle of a section of the book where God takes Ezekiel all around the temple to measure it. They take a measuring line and for chapters they write out the blueprints in longhand of the temple in Ezekiel's vision. It actually was pretty mind-numbing for me, but then they get to the kitchen. (A place that always piques my interest.)

Ezekiel 46:20

"He said, “This is the kitchen where the priests will cook the guilt offering and sin offering and bake the grain offering so that they won’t have to do it in the outside courtyard and endanger the unprepared people out there with The Holy.”"

The thought gripped me that the priests could endanger the people by exposing them to The Holy. Earlier in Ezekiel God is firing the priests because they have stopped teaching the people the difference between the ordinary and the sacred, the Holy.

In Christ's grace we who are unholy are sanctified, that is we are made holy; not that we could earn or deserve it. But I wonder if we see Holiness naively, and treat it haphazardly. Holiness is dangerous.

--Ben

Screen On The Green -- Elizabeths Landing -- What Happened

Friday night we had a great group of volunteers that came out to the Elizabeth's Landing community, and put on Screen On The Green, a fantastic outreach that we started over the summer. We have only done it three times, but already we are finding it a great outreach because it is meeting the needs of our community -- families looking for affordable activities to do together -- and because it isn't hard on our volunteers. It's very enjoyable and really gives a sense of fulfillment, because we've served the community in Jesus' name. We've established relationships that are now on a first name basis in some cases.

In addition to the movie we offer free children's games, and sell concessions (i.e. popcorn, candy, drinks, etc.). Originally we were looking to go to four or five communities, but shortly after our first one we realized the better option was to focus on two communities and repeat them. Friday was the first time we repeated, and it didn't take long to see that we were right to repeat, because many people that had been in July were back again. There was definitely a spirit of friendship in the residents as we stopped together and had conversations. I know many invitation cards to our current financial series were given out, and one guy I gave one to sincerely thanked me and shook my hand in a genuine way. Another person said in conversation, "I love when you guys do this, I wish you would come every week."

Funny isn't it, we do meet weekly (Sunday) and we wish they'd come every week. :-)

We're looking forward to getting back to this community in the Spring.

I heard one girl say to another, "And (name) is here, and (name) is here, and (name) is here..." Apparently all their friends from school had come out. We had 84 people there.

About 40 minutes into the movie we ran out of popcorn, so I ran across the street to the Supermarket and picked up more. As I threw 10 bags of popcorn kernels up on the conveyor the women in front of me looked puzzled, because that's a lot of popcorn. Then one woman said, "Oh are you putting on the outdoor movie tonight?" Cool! It turns out that her daughter was attending.

I opened the night by sharing that we follow Jesus' teaching and that he had shared the parable of the Good Samaritan. The bottom line is that our neighbors are beat down by frustrating commutes that rob them of time with their families. That beats them down with guilt, and finding affordable activity with their kids is so difficult they get beat down with stress. We wanted to be Samaritans, meeting their needs at our expense. It is a pleasure to serve them, and I'm thankful that our ministry is resonating with them.

--Ben

Thank you for the invitation. I am looking forward to taking the kids.

I know it may not seem like a big deal, but people are really thankful for an outreach like this. I'm gonna share why I believe this outreach is important to the lives of our community tomorrow night in our introduction. I can't wait.

Spiritual Coincidence? Last night I asked Sydney what she learned about at Daisies (a christian girls club), and she told me that she learned about the Samaritan who helped a man who had been beat up, robbed, and left on the side of the road. Can't wait to share about it tomorrow night.

Here's what some people are saying this morning about Screen On The Green:

"Thank you so much. May God bless you and your work."

"Thank you for the invitation. I am looking forward to taking the kids."

Arnold Events

Well, the Arnold Events sign went out today. It's exciting to watch the online report of families around the area that have been looking into the Screen On The Green events this Friday and next.

I'm really excited, I love doing these events. And this time I'm looking forward to sharing our motivation through the context of the story Jesus told about the Samaritan on the road to Jericho. In fact, we're going to give the community an opportunity to become Samaritans too. It's going to be a great addition to the work we've been doing at SRC.

--Ben

Lord, I'm Not Amazed By You

At church we sing a song that says, "Lord, I'm amazed by You, How You love me." And in the chorus that line is repeated several times. It's a beautiful song, and I love singing it as an expression of worship to God. But this morning I heard a version that probably tops mine on God's favorite playlist.

Ellie was sitting by herself on the living room carpet and singing sweetly, "Lord I'm not amazed by you. Lord I'm not amazed by you." Ah the innocence of young life. There used to be a show called, "Kids Say The Darndest Things". If you've ever seen it you know it's true. When I heard her singing that I had to laugh and think that this was the reason Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, for this is what the Kingdom of heaven is made up of."

By the way, when was the last time you were amazed by God? Or is your repeating theme, Lord I'm Not Amazed By You.

--Ben