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Published: 10 June 2017

Paul wrote, “I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.”  To not be ashamed of the gospel also means not being ashamed of Christ.  It means not being ashamed to be one of His followers.  One of the reasons we are ashamed is because we want to be liked.  We want approval.  We want affirmation.  Generally speaking, people who reject Christ also reject His followers.  It is painful to be rejected.  We are so deeply wired for acceptance and approval that we want it even from people we don’t know!  I remember several times in high school that I really didn’t want to be identified with Christ and His people.  I am sorry for that now but at the time I wanted the approval of people more than I wanted to be known as one of “His.”  The reproach of Christ is hard to carry if we don’t understand and believe where our ultimate approval and affirmation comes from.  We want to be loved.  We crave the attention of someone, anyone at times will do…and we’ll compromise what we know to be true to have that attention on our weakest days.   I’m glad that Jesus remains faithful even when we do not.  I’m thankful He claims us even though we have not always been faithful to claim Him.  Of course if we continue to deny Him, He will deny us so we better get this figured out.  Our text for this week sheds some light on this subject and I hope we’ll all come away from our time in the Word with a willingness to be found “worthy of shame.”  It’s a paradoxical phrase but the Spirit used it at the end of Acts 5.  It simply means that the apostles conducted themselves and spoke in such a way that people knew they were followers of Jesus.  What a great honor!  Oh that we would all receive such a compliment and be worthy of the shame associated with Jesus Christ who loved us and gave Himself for us.

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Published: 02 June 2017

From time to time I observe a feud among children and if I am the “responsible adult” present I ask the question above.  I get a variety of answers, “He looked at me funny,” “He touched me,” “She laughed at me” etc.  And then I ask, “And you hit him for that?”  Now, perhaps you have not observed such antics for a while but as an eyewitness I can assure you that such catastrophic events are still taking place.  I read the following statement in my preparation for Sunday evening’s Communion message, “Nothing is more natural for a person than to overestimate the severity of his trials.”  So true.  Like the children I observe periodically I can make some small things much larger than they really are.  Pastor Mead just reminded us this past week in a staff meeting, “There are big things and there are small things.”  That may seem too obvious but the reality of that statement needs to be applied to our everyday experience.  There are some things that really are big things.  Do we know what they are and why?  If we get the big things wrong, what will it mean for our evaluation of small things?  The truth is, all things matter but all things do not matter to the same degree.  Our message this week from Acts 5 addresses this theme.  It wouldn’t hurt to think ahead about this question, “What really matters and why?”