Bill’s Front Porch

June 27, 2006

Looking Back

Filed under: Uncategorized — admin @ 9:08 am

Karon and I are up to Ezra in the Old Testament in our Bible Reading. We read Ezra 3 this morning and I saw something that I hadn’t seen before and I thought it was interesting about human nature and about the way the devil works.

In Ezra 3:12 it says:
But many of the older priests and Levites and family heads, who had seen the former temple, wept aloud when they saw the foundation of this temple being laid, while many others shouted for joy.

Even in the Old Testament, there were folks in church that looked back and cried that things weren’t the way they used to be! This temple foundation was smaller and wouldn’t be as elaberate, so they wept. It is sad that they missed what God was doing and how He was bringing His people out of exile. He was in the midst of them, blessing them, fulfilling His promise to them, yet they didn’t see any of it and cried because it wasn’t like the old. I’m sure that this put a damper on the enthusiasm of the ones that were celebrating as well. I can just hear the conversations like, “Boy, can you believe what God is doing? He has allowed us to come back and begin building this temple! How great is our God!” And the other one saying, “Yes, but this isn’t anything like the old one. It is really a sad copy of that one. You should have been here when the old one was here, it would make this one look pitiful!”

It just hit me again how much damage a backward look can be for a church and how sad it is for the members that do it. Let’s look at what God is doing now and what He wants to do in the future! Let’s look outside our church to a community that needs Him. Let’s look inside ourselves to see what needs to be yielded to Him before He can use us! As that warthog on the “Lion King” said, “Let’s keep our behinds in the past!”

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I liked what the preacher said last night, “…by looking to the future we look with hope”. I am filled with an excited sense of anticipation right now. It just seems to me that everywhere I look at Eastdale, God is there preparing people for a Spirit led revival the likes of which I have never experienced before. I GET EXCITED ABOUT THAT. I had the best talk the other night with a fellow deacon about what God has in store for us. I can look right now and see that we will soon be sending our youth group to Centrifuge. They always come back spiritually fired up. We as a church need to feed that flame. Shortly after that we will have youth VBS. This is another opportunity to for the church to minister to the youth. Then this fall we are planning our our first Men’s Fraternity program. I am determined to stay focused on the prize ahead and the blessing that God has in store for Eastdale no matter what. I challenge all that read this to commit to keeping focus on the future things that God has in store for us. We have to look at where God is working and follow Him there.

Comment by Dolan — June 27, 2006 @ 2:18 pm
i heard a song on WAY-FM this morning by Ginny Owens and the lyrics led me to seek more lyrics from her music. I think the lyrics to “New Song” are an encouragement to get out of our comfort zone and look to God to lead and guide us to the path He wants us to travel as His church. The lyrics go like this:

“I’ve been grazing in the lush green pastures,
watching time pass me by,
and I’ve been wading in the shallow waters,
where everything is all right.
but today I know that something’s different,
something’s disturbing my peace,
Oh, I can feel the changes in the distance,
and hear them calling to me.

The day is here, the time has come
to sing a new song.
It’s very clear, I must move on
and sing a new song.
It will define who I become
this new song.
So show me how to sing along
to this new song.

I’ve been looking in the strangest places
to find the source of my strength
and even though the outcome never changes,
still I search endlessly.
But no more wandering around in circles.
It’s time that I cross the sea.
Now I’m trading in my cozy corner
for the bigger mystery.

Going there means leaving here.
Saying yes means saying no.
Moving on means letting go of what is sure.”

To me, this means getting off of our comfortable pews and moving forward to be the church God wants us to be. I know I look around our beautiful sanctuary every Sunday morning and it makes me sad that we have room for so many more to hear God’s message but are each of us doing what God wants us to be doing to grow our church?

Another lyric from Ginny Owens’ song “Symbol of a Lost Cause” says:

“Where the last and the least meet the Prince of Peace.
Where the humble are honored and the hungry come to feast.”

I think that is how we all want Eastdale to be, the place where the last and least and the humble and hungry come to meet our Lord

It just really humbles me to think that a blind singer can see so clearly what I sometimes miss.

I think what we sometimes fail to see is that we do not have ownership of Eastdale Baptist Church. It is God’s church and we are His sheep. Sheep go where the Shepherd lead them or He must use his staff to bring them back into the fold. I want to be like a blind sheep following where the Shepherd leads me by listing to His sweet, gentle voice.

Comment by Becky — June 28, 2006 @ 9:05 am
Thanks for addressing the ownership issue, Becky. We can get very possessive - my church, my Sunday school class, my parking place, my pew, my song book, etc. It is good and required for us to be diligent stewards of what God has so graciously provided. But the owner is God.

Comment by Dolan — June 28, 2006 @ 10:38 am
Can I have an AMEN!! Why do we keep setting up little kingdoms in church? This is MY class. or MY ministry, or MY pew? I had some members that were going to have a lot of family at church ask where they could seat them because they were afraid of sitting at someone’s pew! God said that the love of money is the root of all evil. In church, a close second would be ownership! I could really rant a long time on this because I guess that this one issue has caused me more grief than any other one. It keeps a church from growing, it hurts feelings, and it stagnates members.

Okay, I just need to step away from the keyboard before I say anything else…

No anger, just years and years of frustration!

Comment by Bill — June 28, 2006 @ 11:21 am
I have found myself typing a response to this post several times since last night but each time the words didn’t make sense when I read them back to myself. Becky, you have hit the nail on the head. I found myself recently taking ownership of things that weren’t mine. I took offense to someone trying to change those things and standing against something because I only heard what I believed to be mine that would be affected. God proceeded to infer the 2×4 about the head so that I would listen to what HE was trying to do. It really wasn’t about what someone was trying to do to me it was what HE is trying to do with what is HIS. Letting go was hard, and I’m sure I’m not done letting go but now that I see where I am wrong there is room for God’s will with it all. There are others so ready to do HIS will and it took me to a new level of humility to realize what I had thought was a healthy respect for HIS will was more than not an ownership issue with myself. A great peace was granted when the headache of the 2×4 was removed from my vision.

There is so much God has planned, not just for Eastdale, but for each of us as individuals, our community, our city, our state, our nation, and our world for His kingdom. I am so glad that wiser folks and more Godly folks are in my way to keep me from stopping God’s will for His kingdom.

Comment by cami — June 28, 2006 @ 11:28 am
I want to get to the point where the church is just my resting place. Where I come to be refreshed and renewed. To be so busy carry the Word to the people that I don’t have time to get comfortable in MY pew. The church is our homeplate and when we run the bases we come home get a bite of His Body and drink His blood and get up to bat again. Girded with encouragement and the armour of God. Take care of our own and Go and Tell, thats what Jesus did and tells us to do. I ask for your prayers to give me boldness and discernment.

Comment by Lavon — June 29, 2006 @ 4:49 am
Several things come to mind for me. First is the saying “those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it”. Scripture itself is a “looking back”,it’s in the way we look back. Not with negativity but with optimism. By looking back we see God’s faithfulness and we move forward,knowing He’ll never leave us or forsake us.By looking back at past sins or failures,learning from them and not repeating them. Dealing with them to be rid of them, because if the same problems persist,they haven’t been delt with.
Second is the “ownership”issue. I am reminded of the beautiful passage 1 Cor.6:19-20,” Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been purchased at a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body.” This is true for each one of us and also true of the church as a whole. As Christ has dominion over our own lives, so He will in the life of our churches.
Have a wonderful day in the Lord!

Comment by Tim — June 29, 2006 @ 5:28 am
While the backward glance, for learning, is good and necessary, the backward stare is deadly. We learn from our past, then look back to the future. It is when we stare at the past and desire to live them again that we sin. Jesus said in Luke 9:
Luke 9:62
Jesus replied, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.”

I may be stretching the application just a bit, but I think it is workable and not damaging to the scripture.

Tim, you are sooo right with the scripture you shared from 1 Cor. I wish we could all adopt that philosophy!

Okay, Lavon, I love the “coming to church to rest” idea! I have never heard it put that way before. THAT captures, I think, the idea of the church scattered and the Great Commission! Thanks!

Comment by Bill — June 29, 2006 @ 8:20 am
FIRST - did ANYONE say YEEHI to Lavon for finally jumping in on a discussion??? maybe she already has on a previous post and I just missed it…anyway YEEHI LAVON!! I hope THAT is an encouragement to someone ELSE who continues to lurk here and doesn’t post any comments…YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE - don’t make me call you out!

Now more to the point - Lavon - your comment reminded me of something Beth Moore has said in one (or more) of her studies that she does not ever desire for her zeal in public worship to exceed her zeal in private worship. Corporate worship should be a touching base kind of thing (though really it’s deeper than that but you get it) where we enjoy the presence and communion with Jesus and then go out and live it in whatever He calls us to in our life. If our passion for Jesus is ONLY experienced when we are surrounded by the music and presence of a couple of hundred other people something is greatly lacking within our own heart.
I used to think worship was so much about me…that I was the one who was supposed to “enjoy” it or get the good feelin or whatever. I think that was a type of worship but it wasn’t worshiping Jesus! There’s so much more that I’d love to say on this because it just really does excite me HOWEVER BILL, I’ll probably take it to my own to avoid hoggin up your blog

Comment by Deanna — June 29, 2006 @ 11:05 pm
OH GRRR I meant to say this in my previous comment but got carried away and forgot…
Bill, you are so right about when the backward look becomes a backward stare being dangerous…the backward stare happens when our focus is moved from Jesus to the enemy and he is so good at getting us to focus on the failures and the shame and the condemnation!! I’m agreeing with you and I know you were speaking in the direction of having a desire to GO BACK to LIVE (or die) IN the sin

But there is also another direction to consider - Sin wounds us to one degree or another. So that is the benefit of the backward look..healing. If we avoid the backward look satan has a foothold there also in the area where he works so well, in the secret and shameful things.
The other advantage of the backward look is also in dealing with the circumstances that led to the sin in the first place, identify the pitfalls or weaknesses, repent and renounce those sins particularly if we have a pattern of particular sin in our life, that renouncing is especially important or those patterns will continue to repeat often through generations. At some point, for our own sake and the sake of our children, when we have particular sinful patterns, someone has to be willing to stand up and draw the line and renounce the sin and refuse to let it continue any further.
I’m just basically agreeing with you and with what you said that there is danger if the focus is shifted…but again just another topic that I’m passionate about, that excites me…so I’m done now and I’ll quit being a hogger!!

Comment by Deanna — June 29, 2006 @ 11:20 pm
Deanna, you mean to tell me there are folks with perfectly good opinions reading this stuff and not sharing with the rest of us? Oh my, they just hang out reading and then dwell on their own thoughts without sharing. I KNOW WHO YOU ARE ALSO, share share share, it is only fair.

Comment by cami — June 30, 2006 @ 1:22 pm
No blogging, no e-mails, no phone calls. We’re still alive. Don’t worry.

Comment by Tim — September 7, 2007 @ 4:15 pm

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