In the Middle

jffsct@vvm.com (Jeff Scott) — Sat, 30 Oct 2004 02:00:00 -0500

Where are you stuck?

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. "The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness! "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Money." (Matthew 6:19-24)

One of my all-time favorite movies is Fiddler on the Roof. In the movie, a hard-working Jewish dairy farmer, Tevye, must make some tough decisions as his daughters grow up and move on. Tevye wants to honor his history and his tradition while also loving and blessing his progressive daughters. On a number of occasions, the watchers are privileged to hear Tevye's internal dialogue as he wrestles with the issues. A repeated phrase is, "On the one hand ... but, on the other hand..." That is the way of things, isn't it? Like a coin, everything has two sides to it. It's the way of the world - North Pole or South Pole, East or West, good or bad, suffering or hope, sin or forgiveness. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. Yes, duality is a reality. It is also true when you read Matthew 6:19- 24. In this portion of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus talks about our "stuff." He says that it is really difficult to have our treasures in two different places, especially when earthly currency isn't recognized in the economy of Heaven. And while Jesus is talking about the two sides of riches, he also brings up the dual nature of Christianity. "You cannot serve both God and money." Just like you cannot walk on both sides of the street at the same time, you can't play on the side of the world and on the side of God concurrently. Every road has two sides that define the way, and sometimes we don't want to choose either. So instead of walking on either side, many of us choose to walk in the middle. See, easy journeying is contingent on walking in the middle. The middle of the road is where the sand of the road is smooth. The middle of the road is well worn, well traveled. In the middle of the road you can see the tracks of others as if the road were saying, "People have already passed this way. It is okay, see the footprints? Someone else has already stepped here, here in the middle." Think of a few things that are safe in the middle. Switzerland stayed neutral during WWII, and for the love of all that's good, no one gets mad at them 50 years later. It's good to be in the middle. When trying to hole a six foot putt, you want to hit the ball and the cup "right in the middle." The middle is safe. The middle isn't right and the middle isn't left. The middle isn't good and the middle isn't bad. The middle is steady. It is horribly comfortable. No rickety steps, no spitting into the wind, no rocking the boat when you're right in the middle. "Throw one down the middle of the plate," yell baseball fans to the pitcher. As if the middle is REALLY safe. Throw one down the middle and see how far Alex Rodriguez or Ken Griffey Jr. can make an 8oz, white orb with red stitches and some Mississippi mud fly! See, the middle isn't safe at all. You can get in trouble standing in the middle. Try standing in the middle of I-35 to see how safe it really is! One sticky July, my family drove the 120 miles west from our house in Destin, Florida to pick up my Aunt Vickie from the Mobile, Alabama airport. She had flown from Dallas, and we drove the exciting 2 hours to Mobile to get her. Over several bridges that span deep Gulf waters (Mobile Bay Bridge is 7 miles long), then under the Bankshead Tunnel. The tunnel was my favorite part. All that water over your head and huge cargo ships floating above you, and I'd think as we descended, "At any time the entire thing could collapse and water would surround us like a blue blanket. Water everywhere, hugging us tightly, but it would be a rough squeeze. It would not be like great-grandmother hugs. No, these squeezes would not be for love but squeezing you for your life." So we were all stuffed in the car, my Dad, my Mom, Aunt Vickie, my brother Stephen, and me. Heading home, back the way we'd come. Everyone was jabbering. "How was the flight?" "Is Mom feeling okay?" my mom asked Vicki about my grandmother. "Did you eat on the plane?" "What day do you have to go back?" The questions and answers flew as we traveled 65 miles an hour ... down the middle of the Interstate. It happened seven cars in front of us. My father gasped and slammed on the brakes. We all looked up but couldn't see anything in front of us but red tail lights as other horrified drivers slammed on their brakes and then rolled past a man lying on the pavement. He just lay there. A car was stopped before him and for a quiet second as we floated past, they both just existed. The man and the stopped car, anchored, right there in the middle. My dad pulled over a few hundred feet farther and jumped out of the car. The car became as quiet as a library. Hushed whispers and prolonged silences were categorized and shelved under the subject "apprehension." We were afraid to speak loudly because we knew something awful had taken place and to speak loudly might desecrate the event. My father eventually returned to the car, buckled up, and merged into traffic. Once again we were headed home ... but this time, a bit more wary about being in the middle. The man who was hit was apparently on the way from his home to a convenience store. He tried to cross the busy lanes of traffic, speeding east on I-10, but failed. It is odd to think of where the man was hit. He wasn't stuck on the shoulder of the road. No, he was hit, and pronounced dead, right in the middle. Genesis 3:3 says the tree that got Eve and Adam in trouble was in the middle of the Garden. In Mark 6, Jesus' disciples are in the midst of a storm, pulling at the oars, and the text says they are in the middle of the lake and cannot make it to safety. See, the truth is that the middle can be quite a dangerous place. That is why a bit earlier in Jesus' teaching he says, "Simply let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil one." (Matthew 5:37) In other words, don't straddle the fence. Staying out of the middle is important to Christians. It is so important that in Revelation 3, Jesus says to the church in Laodicea, "I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm - neither hot nor cold - I am about to spit you out of my mouth. When I stand before the gracious God, I can promise you, I do not want to be "in the middle." And so, we have to choose. The life of God revealed in us should not be compromised. We're in or we're out. We walk with him or we walk away. As we travel in our "hem-haw" world, we have to be decisive about our Cross-commitment. In our "on the one hand, but on the other hand" culture, we have to be bold about our discipleship. As people who wear the name of Christ, can we really afford to continue to walk like the world does ... somewhere in the middle? Now, I need to go to Starbucks, but I just can't decide ... should I get the House Blend or a double Tall Cappuccino?

About the author: Jeff’s been blissfully married to his love Jennifer for 12 years. They have three fabulous children that inspire them to experience God’s presence in a variety of ways. Every Sunday, Jeff gets to talk of the transforming love of God to the Western Hills Church of Christ in Temple, Texas.

Learn to Be a Good Neighbor and Change Your Community!

rabrown0@gmail.com (Rick Brown) — Tue, 30 Oct 2012 02:00:00 -0500

What does it mean to be a good neighbor?

A ministerial group in the Denver area is working together to change their communities. Two of the ministers in the group have published the book The Art of Neighboring which tells their story. Dave Runyon describes how he gathered a group of twenty lead pastors in the Denver area and invited their mayor, Bob Frie, to join them. They asked him a simple question: "How can we as churches best work together to serve our city?" The discussion that followed included many topics that are common to cities: at-risk kids, run-down housing, child hunger, drug and alcohol abuse, loneliness, and shut-ins that have no one to look in on them. Then the mayor said something that inspired their desire to work better together as churches:

The majority of the issues that our community is facing would be eliminated or drastically reduced if we could just figure out a way to become a community of great neighbors.

Think about that for a moment. The mayor is talking to a group of pastors and suggests that what would help their community the most would be for people to learn to be good neighbors. If that were to happen, the elderly would be visited, at-risk kids would be mentored, loneliness would dissipate, and so on. Maybe it has dawned on you that what he told them is what Jesus had told them:

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself" (Matthew 22:37-39 esv).

Jesus has commanded us to be good neighbors. One day he told a story about this. A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:25-37). He was literally going down as Jerusalem is 2,500 feet above sea level and Jericho is 700 feet below. But as he went down in altitude, so did his day. He was attacked by robbers who stripped him and beat him and left him half dead on the side of the road. Jesus says a priest and a Levite - good upstanding church people - both passed by and did nothing. But then a Samaritan came along, saw the man, and had compassion on him. He took him to an inn where he left money with the innkeeper to take care of him. Jesus then asked, "Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?" The lawyer knew the answer: "The one who showed him mercy," he said. Then Jesus told him to "go, and do likewise." In this way, Jesus taught us what it means to truly love our neighbor. Loving our neighbor is not a legal obligation. We can’t just list a certain number of people who are our neighbors and once we check them off the list, we are done. Instead, loving our neighbor is something that flows out of who we are. Jesus changed the question from "Who is my neighbor?" to "To whom can I be a neighbor." The word "neighbor" has to do with "closeness" and "proximity." Your neighbors are your family, your church friends, and your next-door-neighbors. Your neighbor is also someone you might come across during your day that needs compassion. Know who they are. Not as the lawyer did - making a list so that you could justify not loving those who are not on the list - but rather in a practical way that makes obeying this command concrete. As with many things in life, until we get specific we seldom see results. If we aim at being a neighbor to everyone we will likely end up being a neighbor to no one. So decide who you need to be a neighbor to. In another meeting in Denver, the Arvada assistant city manager met with the group and told them:

From the city’s perspective, there isn’t a noticeable difference in how Christians and non-Christians neighbor in our community.

Quite a convicting statement. John reminds us that we cannot get by with saying we love God if we do not love our brother." The two go hand in hand (1 John 4:20). This week, and the weeks that follow, be a good neighbor. Jesus commanded it. And even mayors recommend it.

About the author: Rick Brown is the preaching minister for ChristBridge Fellowship in Tomball, Texas. He loves his wife Karen and two sons. Rick is also the author of The ME Addiction.

Promises Kept!

phil@heartlight.org (Phil Ware) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 02:00:00 -0500

How do you know you can trust the promises of Jesus?

I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep (John10:11 ESV).

We have all sorts of little sayings to emphasize that we are telling the truth and we really are going to keep our promises:

"No brag, just fact."
"Just the facts, ma'am."
"Let me be brutally honest"
"Now truthfully ..."
"I want to walk the talk."
"You can take it to the bank."
"Let me be brutally honest!"

And a bunch more if we wanted to list them. While Jesus had a way to emphasize the importance of something he said, when it comes to promises, the Lord advocated that we simply tell the truth the first time without elaboration or oaths (Matthew 5:34; James 5:12). Our lives really prove the value of our words, and Jesus wanted his life to speak clearly and loudly about his faithfulness: faithfulness to both God and to us. Jesus claimed to be the Good Shepherd, and The Good Shepherd lays down his life for his sheep. This was so important that he said it in slightly different ways five times in one setting (John 10:11-18). However, the ultimate test of a shepherd is whether he lives for himself or for his sheep - if he truly lays down his life for his sheep in both big and small ways. Jesus proved himself to be a faithful shepherd by what he did and how he did it!

Jesus gave up the protection and perfection of heaven for the flaws and mortality of human life (Philippians 2:5-11).
Jesus prepared his closest followers for his absence even when wrestling with his impending death. He lovingly spent time with them and prepared them for his absence and promised them his ongoing presence through the Holy Spirit, the Comforter (John 13:1-17:26).
Jesus paid the ultimate price by dying on the Cross and was raised from the dead to release us from the tyranny of sin and death (Mark 10:45; Romans 4:25).

Jesus spoke these words of promise, "I lay down my life for the sheep" (John 10:15), then proved his word true by laying down his life every step of his journey with them. But why is this important? Why make such a big deal about it? Today, two reasons seem very important to me. First, we can trust the glorious promises of Jesus because he proved himself faithful in the promises he paid the awful cost to fulfill. Since he was willing to give up heaven to come to us and give up his life to save us, why would we ever doubt his promises to bless us and bring us to the Father? Second, Jesus shows us the heart of real leadership. Leadership "Jesus' style" is not about being served or finding status or exercising power. Leadership "Jesus' style" is about setting an example, living our lives to bless others, and giving up our lives to help others find God, hope, and heaven. Anyone who leads in the footsteps of Jesus should not be surprised that leadership requires us to lay down our lives for those we lead as we follow the Master's example! Jesus did more than say he loves us: he has proven his love by his actions. And because his love has been proven, we can trust his promises to be with us and to bring us to the Father.

About the author: Phil Ware has authored 11 years of daily devotionals, including VerseoftheDay.com, read by 500,000 people a day. He works with churches in transition with Interim Ministry Partners and for the past 21+ years, he has been editor and president of HEARTLIGHT Magazine, author of VerseoftheDay.com, God's Holy Fire (on the Holy Spirit), and aYearwithJesus.com. Phil has also authored four books, daily devotionals on each of the four gospels.

Learning to Be Content

tomnorvell@mac.com (Tom Norvell) — Tue, 28 Oct 2003 02:00:00 -0600

Have you found it yet?

In the last chapter of Philippians (Philippians 4:12), Paul says, "I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation." Wow! Content. Content in any and every situation. I'm not there yet. I wish I were there, but I'm not. I know I'm not there when I look around at all the things I have within my grasp, yet I still want more. I know I'm not there when I walk through the bookstore wishing I had the newest release, yet when I go back to my office I have dozens of books on my shelves that I have not read. I know I'm not there when I walk through the mall feeling sad that I cannot afford the shoes, the suits, the shirts, the ties, and the other goodies that catch my eye, while knowing that my closet at home has no space for more clothes. I know I'm not there when I drive through the neighborhood wishing my lawn was as green as my neighbors, wishing my house was as big as the family across the street, and wishing my driveway had a nice basketball goal like the one down the street. I know I'm not there when I look at every SUV that passes me on the freeway and daydream of what it would be like to drive one. I know I'm not there when I rush to the dinner table as if I'm starving only a few hours after my last meal. I know I'm not there when I leave a worship assembly wishing I had gotten something more from the gathering. I know I'm not there when I walk through the electronics store and pause in the make-believe living room to drool over the $10,000 television and sound system. Content in any and every situation? I'm not there. The only consolation I find in my discontent is that I am not content to remain discontent. I am still learning to be content in some situations. I hope that one day I will learn to be content in more situations. Until then I'm learning to be content.

About the author: Tom Norvell is the author of "A Norvell Note" -- Thoughts and reflections on God, life, people, and living as a follower of Jesus. He has ministered with followers of Jesus for four decades and loves Jesus, his family, and those seeking Jesus, passionately.

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In the Middle

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