oasisCHURCH

Remembering Where We've Been

I recently decided to follow the Oasis Fellowship "Read the bible in a year" guide and started reading accordingly. There was something about Joshua 6-10 that just stuck with me in a way that I can't keep inside. Its one of those moments when you're reading scripture and you just have to share it with someone or you feel the essence of what you have learned or just read will somewhat be lost. Or maybe I felt that way because I have a horrible memory and I tend to forget even details that stand out and slap me on the face. Then again, forgetfulness is a tragic cyclical behavior of humanity that God, not to mention Moses, Joshua, and poor Achan understood. For one Achan, the lesson was a painful one.

Joshua had been christened as God's chosen leader of Israel since Moses' death, and was a faithful leader, and follower (Joshua 1). He had been used by God as a focalpoint for miracles such as the destruction and victory at Jericho (Joshua 6), and the parting of the Jordan river (Joshua 3-4), very reminiscent of his predecessor, Moses at the Red Sea (Exodus 14). Now Joshua would be stunned that in a seemingly small obstacle had become a much deeper spiritual problem due to disobediance to God. At Jericho, God's specific instructions had been to destroy everything, including goods, expensive luxuries like gold and silver, and all valuables. For all things were to be destroyed for God had placed a "holy curse" on the city and all that was in it, so that jericho's destruction would be an offering of obediance to God. Achan, the son of Zerah of the tribe of Judah had taken silver, an expensive robe, and gold and had buried it under his tent. Without anyone else knowing but Achan and his family what he had done, Joshua was busy planning the next move for God's army. The focus had turned to a small city called Ai. The intelligence Joshua recieved was that a small force could wipe out Ai, so he summoned 3,000 Israelites and sent them to take Ai, but were scattered and lost 36 men. Not because the intelligence was bad, but because God's anger burned at the disobedience of his people, and God's attention was no longer on the battles, but on his own children whom he loved, but would not tolerate insubordination. He longed for hearts who remembered who He was, and who took hold of the promises that He desired for them to fulfill through faith.

When Joshua learned the reason for the defeat at Ai, He quickly sought out God for a remedy to this big spiritual problem. Achan was taken and stoned. (Joshua 7)

When God says "Don't do this," you better stick to the plan. Achan couldn't help himself, and apparently a parting river and the destruction of a fortified city by rams' horns and seven laps of walking didn't give him the view of God that it should have. We do the same thing, though. We know what God wants from us--We know what he expects from us. Shoot, we know what he's done for us in the past; the personal wonders and healings, and deliverances and personal experience with our Creator just sometimes isn't enough to deter us from our own self-destruction, our own self-attrition. Sometimes we're just dense.

After the vengeance of the Lord was carried out as punishment for disobedience, the small obstacle was again a small obstacle, because God was really in control. (Not Joshua, not Achan, not the people and soldiers of Ai.)

God then told Joshua then to take Ai, for the city would be in their hands. And indeed Joshua did lead Israel with god's blessing and under God's direction to accomplish God's will. But this is the part of the story that is a great teacher for me. A snapshot into the pattern of the fabric of humanity that we cannot escape. Sin? Yes, but no. We cannot seem to escape sin. But we also cannot seem to remember God. If Eve had remembered God and who He was in His Glory before she had decided it was best for her to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and share that sin with her husband, She would have remembered who she was as a creation of almighty God; and not a god herself. Achan would have best served himself, his family, the 36 men of Israel who died, and his family if he had thought and remembered God in His Glory before deciding that for him, it was in his best interest to hide a small fortune for himself in the ruins of Jericho.

And yet I find myself thinking along the same line of thinking; "Man I would have served God better had I remembered who He was and where He'd taken me before."

Chapter eight of Joshua gives us a timeless reminder of one of our greatest weaknesses, as Joshua builds an alter after the victory at Ai to the Lord. This alter was built to the specifications that Moses had commanded, and was reminiscent of those old days. On this alter of stones he offered burned offerings and get this: Joshua wrote out the Revelation of Moses in the presence of all the people; the book that Moses wrote about the history of Israel and the person and deity and glory of God that needed to be remembered, lest they forget where they had came from--So they could see who they were in each moment, in each gasp for breath, in each decision, and in each moment of praise. After writing out the Revelation of Moses, Joshua then read aloud the book to all thsoe gathered who could hear without leaving out a detail of the journey that they had together with each other, generations of the people of Israel and their God.

Ministry Opportunities and You

It may seem as though we say this quite a bit but it is an exciting time to be in fellowship with Oasis.  It's not exciting because we're planning a move to a new facility in the very near future.  It's not exciting because our weekly numbers seem to be growing.  Granted, those aspects of our fellowship together are in fact very exciting but what is exceedingly more enthralling is the fact that you can see people embracing the sovereignty of God.  You can see worship blooming in the hearts of those around you.  You can see hunger growing and you can see searching taking place.  People are actively looking for ways to give God His glory.  The truth is that there are no shortage of ways to give God His glory.  Ministry opportunities abound not only in our everyday lives but also in our gathered times of worship.   In relation to our gathered times of worship, I want to spear head a call to ministry. 

There are a number of areas during our times of gathered worship that could use assistance.  I'm going to deal with the areas that relate directly to my primary area of music ministry. But before I dive into that topic in depth let me preface it by saying there are several reasons that I bring this topic to bear. I get the sense that many of us are feeling overrun by our daily lives. I know I feel that burn often and while I don’t want to put words in the mouth of anyone perhaps you find this same thing to be true in your own life. If so then perhaps you might be willing to indulge me for a few sentences to consider why you should wish to take on any area of ministry.

Glorifying God Across the Spectrum

As I said above, there are an innumerable amount of ways that one can give God his proper glory. This spectrum of possibility for ways to worship God with everything in your life is both vast and highly diverse. But when your time is bombarded with “responsibilities” it is far from easy to justify any addition to an already bloated schedule. I know it probably sounds like this should be the sentence where I make my “for two easy payments of $39.95” sales pitch about how you can un-clutter your life with some revolutionary life program but instead I want to draw your attention elsewhere. 

Talk is easy. Typing words is easy. To be idealistic in our presentation of anything is easy. I’m struck by these thoughts as each word rolls out of my mind. The truth is that I am far from the idealistic Christian. I once heard Keith Wasserman say that when people asked him how he was doing he would respond, “I’m becoming.” Keith said people were often struck by the odd nature of such a response. This is, after all, not the kind of response any of us typically get when we ask people how they are doing. Keith’s elaboration on that answer was that he was busy becoming like Jesus. This is far from an arrogant or presumptuous response because in that statement Keith asserts what should be the basic goal of our lives. But why be like Jesus? Why bother to spend your life becoming like Jesus? Sadly many people seem to be under the persuasion that being like Jesus has mostly to do with being a good Samaritan. By being a good Samaritan I mean a person who is compassionate and unselfishly helps others. You might ask, “Isn’t that a good thing though?” It is a decent thing of a person to be compassionate and unselfish. Jesus certainly embodied those qualities. Perhaps a number of you reading this blog are familiar with the WWJD (what would Jesus do) campaign. If you’ve spent any time around Christian culture then you’ve seen this advertising campaign on T-shirts, hats, watches, wrist bands, guitar straps, socks, underwear (maybe not!?), and perhaps hundreds of other marketable items. The problem with this campaign is that it doesn’t really ask the question of what Jesus would do as much as it asks what is morally acceptable for someone to do. It has not been used as a question to ask what Jesus would do nearly as much as it has been used as a ruler for permission to do things. Do you see the problem with this? It doesn’t point to God’s glory. If we are to become like Jesus or know what Jesus would do then we have to understand that Jesus top priority in life was giving God his proper glory. Jesus did this in every facet of his life. There was no aspect of Jesus existence that did not, in some way, point to God. Jesus entire life was an act of worship. So how do we really answer the question, “What would Jesus do?” It’s not really choosing to not smoke that cigarette, or take that sip of Bud Light, or avoid watching a certain movie. The real answer should be that Jesus would use his entire life as an act of worship to point to the blinding glory of God’s existence. Does this mean that you might abstain from certain things? Yes it does. But to abstain from anything without a good sensible reason is just silly. Seek God for discernment in such things. It also is exceedingly helpful to know what God’s word (the Bible) says about what should be avoided and what can be done to give God his praise. 

I say all that to you tell you this: our entire lives should embody a spirit of true worship. Our lives should point right to God. We are entirely unimportant but God is completely important and as such he deserves our entirety. Such easy words to say. Such easy thoughts to type. Such idealistic thought that took very little effort to produce. Often times people who write such things usually take on the presumption that they have mastered whatever it is that they are trying to sell you on. Have I mastered worshipping God with the entirety of my life? It saddens me to say that I haven’t but if I said anything else I would be guilty of being less than honest with you and that would be wrong. But in the intense whirlwind of a busy life God has convicted my heart that nothing is above him and since that is a reality, not just an idealistic thought, I should make every effort through the Holy Spirit that God has poured into our hearts to love him with the full weight of myself so that he, not me, would be most glorified. 

So now 10,000 dollar question is, “How do we do that?” The truth is that there is no one uniform answer that will perfectly fit every individual. That’s what I meant earlier when I said that the spectrum of worship is both vast and diverse. The point, however, is that you shouldn’t necessarily wait for every opportunity to worship God. You should actively seek it. The same goes for worship through ministry opportunities. In such things make an effort to create intentional responsibility. It may feel odd for some of you because if you grew up in a traditional church setting this is not really how it was done. Ministry opportunities were usually appointed but church members were less frequently encouraged to spear head ministry work. My hope is that in the very near future of Oasis we would see individuals becoming leaders and adopting different areas of ministry as their “specialty” during our times of gathered worship. This is, in part, what we mean when we say that we hope people actively seek out intentional responsibility. 

So from that thought I want to move on to areas where you can give God his glory in the area of things that go on prior to, during, and after our times of gathered worship. 

Ministry Opportunities

++The Music Ministry: I said earlier that I was going to focus in on my primary area of ministry and here we are. To be involved with this area of ministry you might think that you need to play an instrument or be able to sing. If you are gifted in those specific areas then you should be singing or playing your instrument with the praise band. But what if those kinds of things aren’t your gift? What if you’re the kind of person who couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket? This far from disqualifies you from participating in this area of ministry. Let me break this down into some specifics to give you some ideas about where you could serve in this ministry.

 Instrumentalists/Vocalists: If you can sing or play an instrument relatively well then you can do that to God’s glory. If you feel this is one of your gifts then come and talk to me. You can practice with us and when you feel comfortable you can lead worship with us. 

 Setup/Teardown: This is an ENORMOUSLY HUGE responsibility that can be undertaken by anyone. Musical equipment ranges from laughably light to offensively heavy. Those big speakers you see on Sundays have to be put up and brought down by someone. But what if you have a bad back that gets very agitated with you when you try to lift stupidly heavy equipment? Perhaps packing away microphones, music stands, or rolling cords would be more your speed. You may not notice it because Mike Kennedy does a fantastic job at hiding them away, but there are probably miles of cords that run everything together on that little stage. All those cords have to be individually rolled and packed neatly away. This job, if being done by only one person, can take quite a bit of time. All this stuff is so essential. When I was a roadie for a rock band I can’t tell you how appreciative the guys in the band were that they didn’t have to put all their own stuff away by themselves. Every hand helps and there are so many jobs that you could assist with both big as well as small. No matter what task you involve yourself with you will be choosing to engage yourself in something highly essential. 

 Technicians: This may sound very technical and kind of scary but these skills can all be taught with very little headache. Two of the most technical aspects of our gathered times of worship are running the soundboard and running the computer. The overall sound that you hear on Sundays falls in the lap of Mike Kennedy. He runs the sound board most of the time and he’s even training others to run it. The soundboard does require that you be able to listen and understand how to adjust the sound to make it sound better. Again, these kinds of skills can be taught. Running the computer is another big thing. The increasingly picturesque slides that our song lyrics are set against each Sunday is but one aspect of working with the computer program “Easy Worship”. It is not hard but it can be intimidating if you’re unsure how to use it. However, these skills can be taught. The technological aspect of our worship times will only continue to grow as time moves forward. So if you’re someone that enjoys technology or wants to learn how to use a new technology then this would be the perfect place for you. 

These are the three primary areas where ministry opportunities exist within the music ministry. However, there are other areas as well. Here are some examples:

General Setup/Teardown: 

Mike Stewart is our general setup guru. It’s amazing how different the legion looks after we leave it. Setting up chairs and taking them down is a big chore. Moving around or setting up various tables is yet another big chore. Setting out candles, arranging the bookstore, setting out the standard Oasis literature that you see on the back tables when you come in each Sunday morning…all of these are areas where you could serve in ministry during our gathered times. Each of these things are examples of ways you can glorify God through service. 

One of the reasons that this topic is becoming increasingly important is because if we continue to grow then more ministry opportunities will spring up during our gathered times. The move to our new facility in August is going to require commitments from individuals relating to setup and tear down. I don’t want any of us to become lulled by the convenience that we currently have in the Legion Hall. Many of the storage comforts we enjoy at the Legion will disappear when we relocate our Sunday gathering to the Meigs Middle School. This is far from a bad thing. In fact I think it is a very positive thing. It simply means that more ministry opportunities open up. That is a good thing. 

Now if you’re reading this and you find yourself thinking, “Some of this sounds exciting, I hope they pick me to help out.” That’s most likely not how this will work. We will be chasing no one. If you want to serve in a ministry you need to be intentional about becoming part of it. In other words, you’ll have to come and talk to one of us. Here is a list of ministries and contacts that go on during our Sunday gatherings:

Teaching: Chris and April Stewart

General Setup: Mike Stewart

Sound and Technical Setup: Mike Kennedy

Music: Chad Dodson

If you want to be involved with one of these, or other, ministries then simply come and talk to one of us. We look forward to hearing from you and serving with you. 

 

Cancer on the Mind

Last week I sent an email to my Uncle Don and his family in Connecticut -- Cindy, Darrell, and Curtis. A little over two months ago we learned that Don had throat cancer, and we have been praying for him every day since then. Cindy, my mom's sister, has been diligently keeping us up to date on Don's progress as he is battling this much dreaded disease.

Cancer seems to hit too close to every family I know. Even as I write this Judy Coblentz is currently undergoing treatment. Sherrie and Bernard Might have been a tremendous help to Judy, truly the closest family Judy has. I know that the effects of cancer can be distressing and gruelling, and it is not always easy to know what to say to those who are, one way or another, in the middle of it every day and every hour of their lives. So I thought I would post my letter to Don, Cindy, Darrell, and Curtis. I know they would not mind me doing so because they are the most caring and considerate people I know. And they would desire to do anything they could to help someone else who is going through the same circumstance. Don has responded to my email and his outlook on what he is going through is astounding. His faith is being renewed every day. Praise God in the face of cancer! His glory is revealed in suffering!

Dear Don, Cindy, Darrell, & Curtis:

I have wanted to email you for a few weeks, but every time I got ready to sit down at the computer something inside just told me to wait. It’s hard to explain, but I just didn’t seem to have clarity on what to say and how to say it. I can tell you that I have appreciated the diligence with which you have updated us, and every time an email popped into my inbox I have prayed for Don as well as all of you. Brock and Kaylee pray for you every night as well. Yesterday when Kaylee and April came back from a walk around our neighborhood Kaylee ran up to me and said, “Daddy, we prayed for Uncle Donny on our walk.” We have had some good opportunities to teach them about suffering, God’s grace, and the depravity of our bodies during this time. So Don, I guess what I want to say is that your cancer is accomplishing more than you know.

I know that sentence probably sounds really strange. And I should explain myself if it sounded confusing. It is no irony that I have been pouring myself into the book of Romans over the past five or six months, because that is what we are studying in our Oasis gatherings. In Paul’s letter to the Romans I have come face-to-face with the heart of what I believe about sin, wrath, suffering, grace—and my theology and doctrine have been challenged in very beneficial ways. Paul is emphatic throughout the book that God is totally and absolutely sovereign over all things. He is in total control of the world He created. Nothing happens without His permission, and He actively works all things for His good purpose. Which means for those who love Him and are called by Him we are assured that even our suffering and pain is being worked out for GOOD in the kingdom of God (Romans 8:28).

Although pain and suffering really hurts, we should not be surprised when it does come. It will come to us all eventually, because we live in a world that is under the curse of sin and God’s wrath, and sin brings pain, and ultimately death (James 1). The root of what I am finding in the book of Romans is this (it’s the same thing you find in the entire Bible). The GOOD NEWS and the HOPE we have is in Jesus alone, where we will still be called upon to suffer, but because of Jesus we know how to respond to our suffering. We can “rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us” (Romans 5:3-5). Many Christians assume that suffering and pain are things we have the ability to avoid, and we just need to have enough faith to fight against it and drive it out, because suffering and sickness and pain comes not from God, but it all comes from the enemy of God and demons, etc. I do believe some of it does, and it certainly comes as a result of living in a fallen world, so yes, it is a calamity that we would like to be able to avoid. But I still believe God is absolutely Sovereign—which means He can take it away in a split-second if He chooses to, and sometimes He does—but sometimes He does not and we are called upon to “endure” as Paul says. In those times we must believe He is working the “evil” of suffering and pain together for GOOD because you know you love Him and are called according to His purposes. We have that assurance. It’s His promise to us explicitly stated in His Word to the Romans.

So the believer in Christ suffers, and the unbeliever also suffers. This is the result of God’s wrath being poured out on the sinful world (Romans 1:18; Genesis 3). But the Good News is that the believer not only experiences the wrath of God, but much more the GRACE of God. So for YOU, even the wrath of God is being turned into grace. How wonderful an assurance that is!!!

I apologize for making this so lengthy and theological. I know you guys all like to read, so hopefully you won’t mind. Even now as I write this there is a song in my headphones and it is just one line being sung over and over again: “Our God Reigns”. He reigns in times of joy and He reigns in times of pain. He reigns in times of prosperity and He reigns in times of suffering. He reigns. And He accomplishes His purposes in us. Sometimes we have much difficulty with His methods. But we TRUST that He does reign. And we trust that everything about Him is GOOD, even when it feels evil to us. Boy, that’s hard!

I love you guys so much. I admire your entire family. The ways you have handled the smaller circumstances throughout your life with integrity, strength and character are shining through in a tremendous way in this much larger painful circumstance. People are seeing your faith. And GOD is being glorified. And that’s the key. The chief end of all things, whether good or bad, is God’s glory. It is evident that you know that.

There is a well-known Christian author and pastor that you have probably heard of, his name is John Piper. Many of Piper’s teachings and writings have been on this very subject of joy in the sufferings of Christ. I have been tremendously encouraged by him in recent days. Additionally, he has recently battled cancer of the prostate. And not only did his message on joy in suffering not change with his knowledge of cancer, but it became even bolder and more encouraging than ever. One book I would recommend if you have never read anything by Dr. Piper is “The Pleasures of God.” But as good as his books are his preaching is even better. It is phenomenal every time I hear him. All of his sermons are free and available to listen to or to read in manuscript form on www.desiringgod.org. Two sermons that I would recommend can be downloaded here, "Suffering & the Sovereignty of God, Part 1" and here, "Suffering & the Sovereignty of God, Part 2".

We are committed to journey with you in prayer and love. Let me know how I can be an encouragement to you. I love you.

Your nephew,

Chris