Families, revisited

My earlier post regarding a couple of families in our house church indicated that one family was in very bad shape. Over the last couple of weeks, this situation actually seemed to worsen. The focus of the church body became trying to help them find a middle ground with the hope that their relationship could be restored.
This week our meeting was at my home so I was responsible for providing or facilitating a study. After a study of church discipline and consulting with others in the church, it became evident that discipline would be necessary. I prepared what I prayed that I would not have to use. And as a backup, I put together many verses from scripture that talked about Biblical marriage.

Praise God, before we even started our meal, the individual that would have been the receiver of the discipline, confessed and asked for the church’s forgiveness. The church body responded in love and compassion.

We continued our meeting with our usual meal, communion, singing, prayer, and the study on marriage.

I pray that this week we see true repentance in the form of turning from the earlier ways and a true spirit of love within the family.

“Only Ferocity Works against Such Men?”

To end a recent post on Theology for Dummies, the writer asks the question, in response to the “struggle between Western civilization and Islamists”, “How do we respond? Does the fact that this world-wide threat presents itself as an aggressive anti-Christian religion cause us concern? If “only ferocity works against such men” how do Christians respond? Do we pray and hope for the best? Do we develop a just-war theory for postmodern apocalyptic terrorism? Do we hide-out and hope that Jesus returns—soon?”

The book mentioned in the post by Ralph Peters, “Never Quit the Fight” (Stackpole Books), and countless other articles, emails and blog posts have talked about how determined the Islamists are and how their culture continues to foster the ‘take as many infidels with you’ idealism.

I ask the same question. How are Christians to respond?

Birthdays Celebrated

Tonight, most of us from our fellowship met at a Black Angus to celebrate a birthday. Actually, it turned out to be for two belated birthdays. Didn’t matter, the waitress served a birthday brownie to both of them.

The waitress was a Native American who did a really outstanding job. She was cheerful, very polite, had a super attitude, and just gave great service. As we usually do, we prayed before eating. We talked about church and perhaps we were a little loud at times. After all there were nine of us.

After we prayed, the waitress, Frederica, while serving us said, almost jokingly, that she really needed prayer. She asked if we were with a church. It seems like we all answered her in unison, “We ARE the church!”. I explained that we are a house church and we would be glad to pray for her and asked if there was anything specific we could pray for. Well, she never answered that question but continued serving us with a very cheerful and happy attitude. Everyone at the table thought it was so great the way we answered her.

Its hard to imagine that beneath the cheerful attitude there may be some very real needs. Of course, if she doesn’t know Christ, she needs Him in her life. Thats a given. But there could be family needs or problems that she didn’t get a chance to share with us.

So tonight, I’ll pray for Frederica and the unspoken prayer needs that she has. And I’ll pray that maybe, just maybe, we planted a few more seeds in God’s harvest fields.

Families

Our house church is pretty small with just a handful of families.  Over the last month, it has become evident that two of them are in serious trouble.

We care for both families but I find myself in the middle of various marital and family problems.  In a small group anything going on in a family is noticed by everyone else, no matter what they do to try to keep it a secret.
Why am I bringing this up?  This highlights the risk that every house church leader must come to grips with.  I’m looked upon as the senior elder of this small fellowship.  So I am called upon to get right in the middle and try to solve all the problems.  I want to because I love the group so much but I feel so inadequate.  Its like a great person once said to me (Thanks, Ed), when you get in the middle of someones family problems, you must be prepared for all the baggage that they bring with them.   I realize that I must depend on God more than ever to protect me from the inevitable attacks from the evil one.  And to give me the Godly wisdom that I need so much.

It is interesting that of the two families, the one that seems the most grounded in the faith is in the most trouble.  I’m not sure either one of them truly realize the path they are on for the long run.  I pray that God opens their eyes to their real need.

Old blog

I have decided to discontinue my old blog, Joshua Tree, and continue my blogging life on this one. I have set a link to this blog on the Phoenix Area House Church website.

I will be adding some new feature and links to this blog while commenting on the state of technology as it affects the Kingdom. Feel free to use the meebo widget to say hi.

Stay tuned. More to come.

Hello world!

This is my first post on WordPress.  I have used Blogger, tried Blogstream, and now trying this one.  WordPress seems to have more options; more bells and whistles.  I like that.

I will start using this one for all my comments and link to it from our website http://www.phoenixhousechurch.org .