Why Doesn't God Seem Fair?

One of the biggest questions, so many people face before surrendering to God, is the question, "Why doesn't God seem fair?"

I wonder how many of us know somebody, read about someone, saw someone on the news, or maybe you know someone who is generally not a very good person.

Murderers, abusers, cat lovers, all sorts of bad people out there. Now, you may say yeah, I know some people who are genuinely bad, and I'm not like that. I know that I'm not perfect, but how many of you would say, "That even if I'm not perfect, I generally try to be a good person. I'm generally a good person."

You just love it when life isn't fair. When bad people get what's coming to them. Bad things. And when good people get what's coming to them. Good things. But in case you haven't noticed, life doesn't always work out that way. Does it?

In Matthew 27, I see a good person who went through some bad, terrible things because of his love for me.

(More Later)

Back to Reality

We had a great vacation in Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. We played golf for five days in three states. We didn't reach our record for one day play but we did play 56 holes one day and 54 another day.

My arms survived but are sore.

We were so far out in the wilderness at remote courses I was even without e-mail for two days on the trip. That was a first.

We worshipped last Sunday at the Park Plaza Church in Tulsa. It was great seeing Nathan McBroom our new Youth Minister at Central. He will be moving to Topeka on August 2.

Be praying for our campers this week as they attend Camp at Lake Perry.

Happy Anniversary

26 Years ago on July 25, 1981, Debbie and I were married at the Broken Arrow Church of Christ in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, by one of our best friends our Educational Minster at the Church Kent Hall who now lives in Nashville. It was a hot day! The temperature reached 108 degrees. When they threw rice at us it cooked on the pavement. It was a very special day with many great moments and memories. Debbie was simply beautiful! I looked pretty good in my white tails and tux, looked like the good Humor Ice Cream Man! Deb, thanks for putting up with me the past 26 years. Looking forward to the next 26.

Vacation

After the wedding I'm off with my best friend (Debbie) to celebrate our 26th Anniversary and enjoy a week of golf as well as eat at three of our favorite restaurants in the Mid-West: AQ Chicken (Springdale), the Catfish Wharf (Harrison) and Bubbas BBQ (Eureka Springs) in Arkansas.

Please pray that my arm will not fall off after five straight days of golf from sunrise to sunset.

Our goal is to average about 48 holes of golf each day.

I just can't forget the bio-freeze and Tylenol!

A Special Wedding

A special day tomorrow at the Central Church.

Kristen and Kevin's Wedding Day.

May God bless you and keep you, may his face shine upon both of you, as you begin your new life together with HIM.

Unity and Love

Many churches across the brotherhood today are reaching out and finding ways to minister to all types of people and in many innovative ways.

The success stories are numerous throughout the world of congregations that are reaching out and baptizing hundreds of people each year. God is blessing several congregations with growth and energy to do even more for the cause of Christ.

We should be celebrating and rejoicing with these congregations, but are we?

A few congregations see growth and success at some congregations and they tend to be afraid that a congregation is doing something not "Biblical" or they are classified as "Liberal" and then the rumors begin to fly.

Where is the unity and love found described in God's Word for our brothers and sisters?

I am thankful that we have Churches of Christ that are baptizing 200+ a year. I am thankful that we have preachers and leaders that are "thinking outside the box" on ways to minister to a new society. I am thankful that our new generation will do even more to hopefully build unity and love than we ever tried to do.

Our young people of today don't look at skin color. They don't look at a congregation if they are classified as "Conservative" or "Liberal". They don't look at the building or facilities that they worship in. They don't hold 100 year animosities from splits and disputes.

They are accepting, loving and forgiving.

Like I say in education....the kids are the easiest group to work with, its the parents that cause all the problems, concerns and headaches.

Maybe we can learn a few things from our new generation on building unity and love as a Church?

A Faith Lesson

God expands our horizons, pushes boundaries and forces us to live outside the box. God gives us the capacity to dream and develop visions for our lives. A vision operates like a compass helping direct our choices and decisions. Vision allows dreams to materialize and become reality. Developing a vision takes time, prayer, and wise counsel, but it makes a tremendous difference.

When we connect our vision with God’s vision, we accomplish so much more in life.

Abel reminds us of our Legacy.
Enoch inspired us to Faithwalk.
Noah challenged us to Obey.
Abraham’s life teaches us to follow God’s vision across boundaries.

A boundary is anything making a limit.

Abraham lived on the limit between the known and the unknown, the seen and the unseen. He learned that faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible.

“By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the Promised Land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God”
Hebrews 11:8-10

Losing 75%

I read a report this week which stated 75% of all Christian youth will renounce their faith or lose their faith in their first year after leaving home....college-bound or not. Wow!

The report went on to say that two of the reasons we are losing our young people are:
This generation sees little relevance between the church and real life.
The church lacks adventure.

Think about how much time and money Churches spend the first 17 years on our kids. Then what happens? Maybe we need to examine those earlier years and evaluate our spiritual instruction?

Any thoughts?

1 Samuel 8

1 Samuel 8

The Israelites wanted something?

They wanted a King.

The people wanted a King because they couldn’t depend on Samuel’s corrupt sons for guidance. Their request was painful to Samuel, although he knew there were problems within his family.

Samuel knew what a King would symbolize. A rejection of God as the true King.

So this was a serious request that would have eternal consequences.

When I read this passage last week, I was thinking about all those things I have placed in my life that prevents me from really serving the true King. Like the Children of Israel seeking their personal needs and wants we do the same.

The children of Israel were reminded continuously to keep God at the center of their lives. Exodus 20:3 (No other God’s before me).

We have been reminded to keep him number 1. But what happens? Selfishness and desires get in the way.

We would rather have the stuff, the status, things my way instead of his way.

Who do you want as king of your life? Is it the busyness and stuff of life or is where true happiness is found?

God can provide everything.

He can continuously bless us in ways that we can’t even start to describe.

Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your mind”

When we develop that kind of love God rules as king in our lives, our decisions and in our every day relationships.

Numbers

What a month of numbers. We had 7-7-07 last Saturday. A day of weddings and lovers luck. Today its Friday the 13th. A day the world says is unlucky.

Numbers are part of our lives. Some use them more than others in business and everyday situations.

The numbers that really concern me are the number of young people that are dropping out of the Church across the United States. The numbers are staggering.

Why is this happening?

Re-Energize

This is my busiest time of the year at work. Closing out a fiscal year. Building a new budget for the 2007-08 school year. Negotiations. Facility projects. Textbooks and supplies being ordered. Summer school. New board member orientation. New staff orientation.

Not enough time in the day to get everything accomplished.

I do have something to look forward to. That is what keeps me going. Vacation. Our annual golf trip to Arkansas. All day golf for four days. We get out on the course at 7:30 a.m. and usually come off the course around 6:00 p.m. We always try to top our previous record of holes per day (63 in 2006).

We need to have positive things to look forward too. That helps us get through the up's and down's of life.

We need spiritual retreats from time to time as well.

Jesus had to get away at times to refocus and re-energize his personal life as well as his ministry. What are you doing to re-energize your spiritual life?

Finding the Church Ahead of the World

During my term in the church some have noted that the church stays ten years behind the world. Much can be assumed as to the breadth of such a generality. It bugs ambitious leaders to believe we are directly tied to the Living Lord and constantly run a distant second. Erwin McManus wrote in An Unstoppable Force a most surprising comment. My goal is not to keep up with the changing world, but to be standing there waiting for it when it arrives. McManus continues that we need to be showing the world the way.His sentence inspired me to adventure into thinking how it might appear if the church were ahead of the world. And then......I began to wonder if, indeed, we are ahead of the world. I think we are. Here are ten items I see the kingdom already knows while the world lags behind:
To live, die to self.
To keep, give away.
To be strong, use your weaknesses.
To win, lose.
To perpetually preserve in memory, consume weekly (Lord's Supper).
To win an argument, don't argue.
To get a lot done, don't engage in a lot of things. Focus.
To be effectively active, be still and know He is God.
To lead well, care about the reject.
To care about the reject, remember if it weren't for His mercy you would still be one.
Maybe we aren't so far behind after all. What would you add to the list?

Terry Rush

Order of Worship
Sunday, July 8, 2009

Welcome

202 Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee (Verse 1 and 4)
15 Step By Step
63 I Will Call Upon the Lord

Prayer

365 How Beautiful (Verse 1 and 2 Only, NO BRIDGE)
383 Jesus, Keep Me Near the Cross (Verse 1,2 and 4)

Communion
Contribution

517 Heaven Came Down

Message

Invitation 635 Freely, Freely

Announcements

616 The Way of the Cross (Verse 1 and 3)

Closing Prayer

Contentment

"Realizing that true happiness does not depend on material conditions"

Contentment is the word of the month in the Capital Journal for July.

When all character qualities are Incorporated into our lives in balance, we are at our best. One character quality should not overshadow or ignore other qualities.

Practical suggestions to incorporate contentment into our lives:

• Be thankful for what you have


• Don't complain about what you don't have


• Don't always ask for "one more"


• Value people above things


• Want less and give more

Zoe Conference

October 4 – 6, 2007
“Overflow”

What would God’s kingdom look like if our individual journey into the heart of God was fully reflected in our assemblies resulting in a missional outpouring of Christ into our communities, our workplaces and our churches?

On the occasion of ZOE’s ten year anniversary, we reflected on the journey our conferences have taken from recognizing the celebrational elements of our Sunday morning assemblies, to connecting better with a post-modern world view and to understanding the missional centrality of our community of faith.

With the growth of ZOE’s spiritual formation ministry, we felt that a complete circle had been completed, but not adequately connected and integrated into our conference focus. Thus, in 2007 we want to fully connect and integrate the circle of worship: formational (inward), missional (outward) and celebrational (upward). Without creating three separate, but related streams, we desire to develop a worship experience that is interrelated, integrated and intentionally unified.

We want to become infected with the Spirit of Christ and become his contagious aroma in our world.

Please join us October 4 through 6, 2007 in Nashville for “Overflow”.

Among other resources, Brian McLaren will join us again. Brian’s own journey has mirrored the overflowing of God’s Spirit into post-modern relevance and worship. Mike Cope, Randy Harris, Jeff Walling and Dean Barham will also serve to keynote this intentional exploration of God’s desire for his people in our age. The newest recording of worship music, “Overflow” will be available in advance of our time together.

We look forward to seeing you in Nashville.

In Christ alone,

Larry W. Bridgesmith

4th of July

The 4th of July has become a very special holiday for our family the past few years. The Carriger Family has made it an annual occasion to get together as a family and enjoy trying to “blow up” the east side of Osage City. We smoke ribs, pork, fry up catfish, play games, fish and play golf. It’s a great family time.

I appreciate the founding Fathers of our democracy that gave their lives to allow us to live in a free country. A country that is blessed beyond all comprehension. A country that allows us to travel from border to border. A country that allows an individual to become whatever they wish to become. A country that I believe is the most beautiful country in all the word. A country that believes in freedom of expression, and guarantees all citizens special rights.

Most of all I appreciate the freedom to worship God. That is the best freedom we have as a nation.

Does God Loves Me?

The YP/College Class at Central has been looking at "Why" questions the last few weeks. One of the questions this past week was Why does God love me?

As we cry out from time to time: "does God love me," and suffer because we feel unable to know God's love, Jesus understands.

Jesus felt similar pain when He cried from the cross, "My God, my God why have you forsaken me?" (Matthew 27:46).

Jesus, who was sinless, went to the cross carrying the burden of our sins in obedience to the will of the Father. At that moment He felt the separation from His Father, God. As He cried out, "why have you forsaken me," maybe even Jesus felt as if God didn't love Him at that moment.

God longs for the relationship He created with us to have with Him (Genesis 2:7-8). He even provided the way, through the work of the cross, for us to be reconciled with Him and gave us the opportunity to make the choice.

Consider the following truths about God's love:

God is love and God loves you (2 Corinthians 13:11)
Nothing can separate you from the love of God (Romans 8:35, 38-39)
God loves you even while you are still a sinner (Ephesians 2:4-5)
God created you for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11)
God knew you before you were born, even as you were "knitted in your mother's womb" (Isaiah 43:7)
God gave His only Son so that you can live forever with Him (John 3:16)
God calls you His friend (John 15:15)
God disciplines those whom He loves (Hebrews 12:5-6)
God's sovereignty limits your crisis and gives meaning to your problems (Job 1:12; 2:6)
God comforts you in your troubles, not necessarily from your troubles (2 Corinthians 1:4)
God says in His word, "For I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope" (Jeremiah 29:11) The Lord is your helper (Hebrews 13:6).

Golf at Bay Hills

You can't see it but down on the left side of this hole is a large body of water......believe me I know!