LifeHouse Community Church

Christmas Thoughts 2011

Paul Meyer — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 20:57:26 +0000

Finding the Will of God Christmas Style
When I look at the narrative of Joseph (and Mary) in the Christmas story an interesting means of discerning God’s will emerges. Joseph becomes aware of his fiancee’s pregnancy (and implied immorality) and “he decided to divorce her privately not wishing to cause her shame.” I infer that Joseph was making a decision based on his being a “good man” (Matthew1). His decision was founded on grace. He didn’t want to cause her shame (the NASB reads ‘disgrace’). He was not deciding to divorce her due to vindictiveness or anger. In fact, clearly he based his decision on God’s Word (the allowance that Moses made for people so that they could divorce). He seems to have logically interpreted the Scripture and was moving toward action based on that logic. In summary Joseph was about to make a difficult decision based on grace, common sense and Scripture. Wow! He had to be on the right track ( I wish I could more often make decisions based on grace, common sense and Scripture). Except he was about to go against God’s will.
God did intervene and redirected Joseph’s decision clearly, aligning it with the revelation that Mary had received and the revelation of an ancient prophet (Isaiah). So God’s plan was consistent and in place from centuries before and He made it clear to those who were faithful.
Mary’s example adds to my understanding. She hears the good news (that will mean a considerable amount of bad news in her life) and yet she welcomes the Word of God, saying, “Be it done to me according to all that you (the angel Gabriel) have said.”
I conclude that although we should make decisions based on grace, common sense and Scripture that does not guarantee that we will always make the correct decision. It is still important to recognize human weakness within us and seek a clear directive (conviction?) from God, always welcoming the Word of God and its principles into our lives.
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Men’s Meeting

Paul Meyer — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 23:55:45 +0000

Title: Men’s Meeting
Location: church
Description: All men welcome
Start Time: 9:00 AM
Date: 2012-01-21

Paul Meyer — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:04:41 +0000

The Real Grinch of Christmas
In the time of Jesus there was a real ‘grinch’, his name was Herod the Great. The world still sees him as one of the greatest builders of all time. This is an amazing accomplishment when one thinks of all the great builders, like the builder of the Taj Mahal, the Great Wall of China and other fabulous building ventures. Herod is probably best known for his building of the fortress of Masada, the port city of Caesarea and the Temple in Jerusalem.
Unfortunately, Herod may have been more prolific in murder than in building. It is known that he had a large number (in the hundreds) of rabbis killed. He killed among others two of his sons, his brother-in-law and his ‘favorite’ wife. Imagine the danger of being less than his favorite wife. After he murdered his sons, Caesar is said to have commented that it was safer to be one of Herod’s dogs than one of his sons.
In approximately 4 BCE some Eastern astrologer/philosophers came into Herod’s capital city of Jerusalem looking for a child “born to be king”. Matthew 2 notes that, “Herod was troubled at this and all Jerusalem with him.” According to Matthew it took two supernatural and very direct dreams to thwart Herod’s attempt to kill the One born to be king. When Herod recognized that the baby Jesus had escaped, his anger boiled over. He ordered his soldiers to kill all the baby boys in the vicinity of Bethlehem that were two years old and younger. Undoubtedly, hundreds of baby boys were killed.
Thus Herod attempted to destroy Christmas before it got started. God thwarted Herod’s evil attempts to kill Jesus before His time. And God would ultimately thwart ‘the murder of the innocents’ by sending Jesus to die on a cross so the world could overcome death.
So Herod is known as the builder of great buildings and the destroyer of lives, while the One he tried to kill never built a single building, yet He is the Savior of all our lives

2012 Sermon series, “Life of David through the Psalms”

Paul Meyer — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 16:01:23 +0000

Christmas Sermon

Paul Meyer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:15:44 +0000

Last week we looked at some further characters in the Good, the Bad and the Ugly of Christmas. The Wise Men, or Magi, were certainly among the Good of Christmas. According to Matthew 2 they traveled at least 1000 miles, seemingly based on their study of astronomy. The end result of their study of the natural world was a meeting with the Lord Jesus. Later in the chapter, the chief priests and other leaders of the Jews surveyed and studied the supernatural Word in order to find the location where the Messiah would be born. Had they followed what they found in the Word, they also would have met the Savior.
Oddly, the Wise Men were not wise enough to avoid Herod, the current King of the Jews, so God warned them to avoid Herod in their return to their own country. We can safely assume that none of us are wise enough to avoid the evil that is in this world and we will need to depend on God to help us avoid it.
blessings,
Paul

Christmas Program

Paul Meyer — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:08:27 +0000

Thanks to Jennifer Bucher, her various assistants and all the children for producing a wonderful Christmas program on December 18th. See the Lifehouse facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Lifehouse-Community/134915046601691 to view some pictures taken before and during the program.
blessings,
Paul

Undone Lyrics

Paul Meyer — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:43:39 +0000

Open up wide, swallow down deep
No spoon full of sugar could make it sweet
The cancer inside stealing my sleep
Night after night it keeps haunting me
The secrets I keep
Are tearing me up inside
I try to hide and then I wonder why

Why I’m still running when I know there’s no escaping

Come undone, surrender is stronger
I don’t need to be the hero tonight
We all want love we all want honor
Nobody wants to pay the asking price

Fall on my knees, fall on my pride
I’m tripping over all the times I’ve lied
I’m asking please, but I can see in your eyes
You don’t need tears for alibis
It’s true what they say
Love must be blind
It’s why You’re still standing by this sinner’s side

You’re still by my side when all the things I’ve done have left you bleeding

Chorus

I don’t think I can drive it home tonight
I don’t think I wanna be alone tonight

Chorus

Finding Comfort in a Fallen World

Paul Meyer — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 14:54:34 +0000

Jesus implied in His opening words of the Sermon on the Mount that all of mankind are ‘poor in spirit’ [Matthew 5.3], but not all admit that poverty. Poor in spirit means that I cannot create or maintain a good relationship with God or my fellow human beings. In light of the reality of our being and admitting to be poor in spirit it is appropriate that we mourn that poverty. Because we have lost our ability to have good relationships we suffer loss.

There is a broad spectrum of loss. I lose my keys almost every week. I lost my best friend 15 years ago. I suffered with allergy related asthma most of 2010. Every area of loss implies some suffering and demands some balance of action and mourning. The more insignificant the loss, the more action is required. The more devastating the loss the more mourning is required.

For the most part action is easy and as a human being, I tend to impose action on devastating losses rather than mourning. I tend use a couple of different actions as alternatives to the slower more painful process of mourning. Actions include mental acts like denial [recall Jack Bauer of the TV series "24" being blown up, cut and bleeding, then asked if he was OK. His constant response was, "I am fine." Everyone knew he was not fine]. Actions include emotional acts like anger. Actions include physical acts like medicating the loss.

Unfortunately, these alternatives for mourning do not work. Appropriate mourning has many counterfeits, but no successful alternatives. When we do choose the difficult task of mourning we grieve the loss, we accept the loss and we, by the grace of God, choose to forgive those who are implicated in causing the loss. I believe that no matter where we are in the process of mourning God will comfort us. That is precisely what Matthew 5.4 claims.

The Good News for those that follow Christ is that all of our losses are temporal. They are limited to this earth. The greater part of our comfort, contentment and joy are part of God’s gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ. Those that, by faith, ask God for forgiveness and accept Jesus as Savior are promised that every tear will be wiped away.
We can find comfort in the present world through appropriate mourning; that is God’s promise.

Bible Authority & Anabaptists

Paul Meyer — Thu, 07 Apr 2011 14:54:56 +0000

It certainly makes the whole idea of Christian devotion to Scriptural authority and more specifically to dedicated worship more alive when one can experience it firsthand. Coming from a Mennonite background, I saw that early Anabaptists [the central Christian group from which Mennonites emerged] had a commitment to the authority of Scripture. I was interested to read this quote from Dr. Thomas Finger,

(The) extreme suffering, however, did not lure most early Anabaptists away from society. Instead, their convictions energized mission activity throughout Europe. Their eschatology, moreover, involved a strong “realized” element. The very nearness of God’s Kingdom meant that it was already present in some significant way. Anabaptists and their Mennonite descendants are perhaps best known for their literal application of Jesus’ teachings, including non-resistant love for enemies. In Reformation times, at least, this behavior was inspired not only by ethical motives, but probably more by the conviction that it was possible because God’s Kingdom, energized by God’s Spirit, was already here [http://www.ncccusa.org/faithandorder/authority.finger.htm ].

I wonder how I can be more aware of the presence of God and the nearness of His kingdom.

Big Tent Thinking in Christianity

Paul Meyer — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:55:53 +0000

Numerous emergent church and other Christian leaders are beginning a new campaign to transform the theology of the Christian Church [see http://transformingtheology.org/]. Personally, I feel uninvited to their alleged Big Tent.

I write this because most of their animosity is aimed at my particular view of the Bible, a view that takes the Bible seriously and attempts to interpret it in a historical and grammatically accurate way [Baldock, Big Tent Artifact, eBook, p. 5 and Clayton, p. 12].

I will be glad to set aside the semantics and join their Big Tent, but I do have two aspects of their action plan that I will watch closely. In two areas the Big Tent leaders tend to have loose connections. The first loose connection is between the Big Tenters and the mainstream liberal view of America. I see that loose connection as they claim openness to many views but tend to be open to only their own views [I saw this clearly at the one meeting I attended on AZ SB1070].

They are also, in a scary way, more connected with the LGBT ‘church’. I have no problem inviting LGBTs to church, nor do I have a problem worshiping with them. My problem is that LGBTs and Big Tent people believe homosexual behavior is acceptable to God. As far as I am concerned their ‘church’ would be parallel to a racist church gathering that thinks God accepts racism.

Seriously, I do not need the Bible to tell me that homosexual behavior is not good. I only need the Bible to tell me that it is evil. Anatomy, hygiene and the medical field convince me that anal intercourse is not good. Anal intercourse always causes injury and exposes both partners to chronic, contagious and deadly diseases. Those that hate homosexual men condone or glorify [through their promotion of gay marriage] anal intercourse. In my view, the Bible condemns homosexual behavior that is anal intercourse. The Bible, in fact, seriously condemns anal intercourse between any two people. God loves homosexual men. Why does the Big Tent hate them?

If the connection between the LGBT ‘church’ and the Big Tent remains open to homosexual behavior they can count me out. If their movement were open to accepting racism they could count me out as well.
The other loose connection of the big tent movement is their connection with teaching the Bible. While attacking conservative views of the Bible consistently they keep their own mention of the Bible to a minimum.

Unless their Big Tent is more closely connected to the Bible and less closely connected to political liberalism, the tent is going to be much smaller than they expect.