LakePastor.com

It's Always Turkey Season

• You're a turkey.

• I'm a turkey.

• Everybody's somebody's turkey.

It's turkey season 12 months out of the year! Let's get that out of the way up front.

    Turkeyship is determined by where you are coming from. When you see life as I do, I'm never a turkey. When you see life as you do, you are never a turkey. But all of us have a few turkeys in our pen. Even Jesus did. Turkeys by today's definition are those persons and events in our lives who irritate us on a fairly regular basis.

    Jesus was always confronted by nine student disciples who had not done their spiritual homework. He rebuked his ineffective disciples: "You have so little faith! Less than a mustard seed." It was an unpleasant moment.

    Turkeys come in several categories: events, circumstances, and even people.  Sometimes people who are not, as a rule, turkeys have some turkey experiences. James and John, eagle types, pulled a turkey stunt and begged Jesus to put them on His right hand and left when He came into power. How do we deal with turkeys?

    It is the control of our responses to the turkeys in our lives that gives us the freedom to fly like eagles. Sydney Harris was a newspaper columnist. One day he wrote about being in New York with a Christian author, John Powell. John Powell stopped at a news stand and asked for a newspaper. The man was unbelievably discourteous and rude.  John Powell thanked him for the newspaper and walked on. Sydney Harris was astounded and asked, "Do you stop at that news stand often?" Powell said, "Yes, every day." "That fellow treated you like dirt. Does he do that every day?" "Yes, every day." "Why don't you tell him off?" "Because I refuse to have him determine what kind of day I'm going to have or what kind of response I'm going to make."

    The Bible says Jesus is within you. Therefore put away anger, malice, and wrath. Be kind to one another, forgiving one another as God in Jesus Christ forgave you. Be angry, but do not sin.

    Hayward McDonald in the 1950's was climbing the chain of command in the U. S. Navy. Then he was inoculated by accident with an unsterilized needle and contracted polio. Ultimately he lost the complete use of his legs. He was asked how he had kept from letting the polio make him angry and bitter at life. "The disease paralyzed my legs. It never touched my heart." If your heart is open to Christ, if He is welcome to come in, He comes. And He begins to enable you to master your responses. He takes from your soul "the strain and stress… and lets your ordered life confess the beauty of your peace."

    Jesus in the heart moves you to controlling your responses to the turkeys and that is what makes you free to fly like an eagle. And SOAR!

Stifle the temptation to gobble back.

Okay the use of appropriate strong responses to turkeys.

Abandon your turkey-like responses (turkey calls).

Resist losing control.

SOAR! and even when you're surrounded by turkeys, you can fly like an eagle.

What Floats your Boat?

What is the use of a boat or a ship that cannot travel?  Many of the boats being built today cannot set sail.  Some ships are multi-million dollar vessels that cannot or will not move an inch.  Many people are attracted to these ships, because of their fear of the seas, foreign ports, and/or what looms just right outside the doors.  Vincent Van Gogh once wrote to his brother Theo, “The [fishers] have always known that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they never considered those sufficient reasons to remain ashore.”  The ships and boats referred to in this blog are not gambling boats, but are some churches throughout our cities, neighborhoods, and backyards.  These churches are not setting sail to minister to the masses.  Jesus said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of [people].”  The church is faced with the decision of fishing the depths of the oceans or casting from the shore.

The nature of the church follows many Biblical images.  The church of the New Testament is rich with many views and characteristics.  With every chapter in the Bible, the church is described in different terms.  Ephesians and Colossians state the most used model of the church as the Body of Christ.  Most of the Pauline books deal with the fundamentals of the church.  Paul wants to help the church of the first century with letters telling them to be a church by teaching, organizing, caring for one another, and becoming a community.  Luke and Acts focuses the church to follow the Holy Spirit and move toward gaining members. 

            One of the images that I associate with the church is the church as the Body of Christ.  Throughout the Bible the Body of Christ has symbolized the church and has given example for the church to follow.  Being the body allows us to see ourselves as diverse, but as one whole unit.  Each member of the church has many talents and are able to use them together as a church.  The fourth chapter of Ephesians call for a “unity of the spirit.”  The first thing we must do a the church is not assume that everyone is a Christian.  Under the present paradigm, everyone is assumed to be Christian except those in foreign countries.  That is why we needed missionaries to convert everyone to Christianity.  Secondly, must not assume that people live in a community that teaches morals and ethics.  It is true that we teach morals, but is it right to generalize to say, America?  We cannot assume that ethics and morals are taught anywhere else but church.  And lastly, we must assume that the church door is one that leads to mission. We must teach the church to become global, cross-cultural thinkers.