“Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew…To those not having the law I became like one not having the law …To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings” (1 Corinthians 9:19-23).

We’re having an Easter egg hunt on Saturday, April 23rd and we’re inviting the whole city to attend! It’s going to be pretty amazing.

The day will include:

• An egg hunt with 10,000 filled eggs!
• Easter bunny arriving by helicopter to start the hunt!
• Wilson Fire Dept. Ladder Truck #1 on site.
• Wilson Police Dept. offering Child I.D. program
• Wilson County Sheriff Dept. vehicles
• Wilson County EMS/EMT Services vehicles
• Free hotdogs, drinks and cotton candy
• Games (Corn Hole, Basket Toss, Cake Walk, … many more.)
• Children’s crafts (Cross necklaces, Cross key chains, etc.)
• Guess the number of Jelly Beans (prize given for winner)

Sometimes people ask us why a church would sponsor such a day. That’s a good question. Why go to all the trouble and expense to attract a crowd and just give everything away?

We call events like this “bridge events.” These events are designed to build a bridge between our church and the city to which we’ve been called. Our vision for bridge events is stated as follows:

“Building a bridge of trust that will bear the weight of truth.”

What we hope to do is make friends with our community, letting them know that we love them and are willing to serve them. Some have called events like these “pre-evangelism” events. That’s a pretty good description. What we hope is that people will come to our new campus, feel the friendship and excitement of being around authentic Christ-followers, and then be willing to visit one of our worship services at WCC. That’s where we’ll tell them all about Jesus.

We’re not the originators of bridge building as a preparation for gospel sharing. The apostle Paul described his willingness to communicate the gospel into the culture to which he was called. He said he was willing to “become all things to all men so that by all possible means” he might save some.

We could just stay in our comfort zones and expect people to come to us, but we’ve decided to be a church that is willing to speak the language of our culture. We do this as prayerfully and wisely as we can, balancing our freedom to engage the culture with our responsibility to be salt and light. But we’re also willing to stretch ourselves and challenge our comfort zones as we seek to build a bridge to those who need to hear about the love of Christ.

“The women said to Naomi: ‘Praise be to the LORD, who this day has not left you without a kinsman-redeemer'” (Ruth 4:14).

Have you ever noticed that you really don’t appreciate something until it’s gone? We have this terrible tendency to take things for granted. We start off taking our parents for granted.

“I must really be cute and special.” We think to ourselves as our parents coo and care for us. We assume that we are the center of the universe and that they will always be there caring for us.

We take our homes, our cities, our schools, our churches, our nation for granted in the same way. We forget that they are not promised. That we are not owed these benefits. We weren’t there when the price was paid to buy these things for us.

As we get older, some of us begin to understand the price of things. Someone had to pay the price for all the grace we get.

In the book of Ruth, a widow named Naomi had her world emptied. She lost her home in Bethlehem, her husband, and her two sons. She was homeless, widowed, and hopeless. She changed her name to “Mara,” or “Bitter” because of the sorry state of her soul.

But the book closes with Naomi’s arms and heart full again. What began with a famine ended with fullness, what started with a funeral climaxed with a wedding, and a baby. Naomi was “Naomi” again, except even better.  Naomi had experienced redemption. Her heart was full of praise.

If you’ve never known emptiness or loss, it’s hard to know redemption. Sure, we can say that we appreciate what Christ the Redeemer has done for us, but until we come to the end of our self-centered selves, we can’t really praise Him.

Have you come to the place in your life where you finally appreciate your need for redemption? In Luke chapter seven, Jesus taught that the one who is forgiven most, loves most. When we experience the emptiness and death of our own situation apart from Christ, we are finally ready to receive and rejoice fully in the redemption He offers.

I’m praising God today that He has not left us without a kinsman-redeemer!

“So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law told her to do” (Ruth 3:6).

“His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17).

The threshing floor was the place in ancient times where the grain was separated from the chaff. The threshing floor was often located on a hilltop to catch the prevailing breeze which aided in this separation.

In this photo there are three implements for this process laying against the circular wall of a threshing floor. The large flat board with rocks imbedded in it was called a sledge. It would be pulled across the stalks of wheat or barley to begin to separate the grain kernels from their husks. The sledge might be pulled by hand or by an ox. Sometimes they would use a stick called a flail instead of the sledge, to beat the grain free by hand.

The other two implements are the winnowing fork and the winnowing basket. They would be used after the threshing process to toss the grain into the air, letting the wind blow away the chaff and allowing the heavier grain to fall back to the threshing floor.

The imagery of the threshing floor is found throughout the Bible. In Ruth it symbolizes the place where we lay down at the feet of our Redeemer and surrender ourselves to His work on the cross. In Luke we see it as the place where Christ the Judge separates the good from the bad, believers from those who don’t believe.

The threshing floor might also be applied to us individually. Just as the stalks are beaten, then tossed into the air, and the grain separated from the chaff, so Christ does His work in us. He cleanses us of our unrighteousness and makes us like Himself.

Our call is to go down to the threshing floor, to lay at the Redeemer’s feet. We can rest there. The work is His. He has finished His work on the cross and now as we submit to Him, it is He who will finish His work in us.

Have you been down to the threshing floor?

“Why have I found such favor in your eyes” (Ruth 2:10 NIV)?

Have you ever been someone’s favorite? Favorite son, employee, player, student… have you ever been the “apple” of someone’s eye?

I recently read about an experiment with underperforming elementary age students that they divided into two groups. They took the first group of underperformers and changed their files to show that they had extremely high IQs but were not living up to their potential. The second group was designated the control group and they left their records unchanged. They assigned both groups to new teachers and classes.

What happened? The first group’s performance improved significantly, but the second group’s performance was relatively unchanged. It seemed that the teacher’s expectations of the students greatly affected their work. The favor they showed the students that they expected to do well, ended up doing much better than before.

Apparently, it pays to be teacher’s pet.

In the book of Ruth, a foreign widow woman from the land of Moab moves to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law. She is a nobody– no husband, no children, no property, and no hope. Yet, she goes out to work in a local man’s field to pick up the leftovers that his servants have left behind hoping that God will show her favor.

God does. He leads her to the field of a man who shows her favor in spite of her situation. She had nothing, but he was the most wealthy, eligible bachelor in Bethlehem. God caused Boaz to show Ruth favor.

What is favor? It is the gift of grace. It is what God offers to us through the Bethlemite who loved us while we were still “underperformers,” sinners alienated from God (Romans 5:8). We had nothing, but through His death, burial and resurrection He offers us everything. He offers us unmerited favor.

Why would He show us such favor?

Love. We who believe are the “apple” of Christ’s eye.

“In the days when the judges ruled, there was a famine in the land, and a man from Bethlehem in Judah, together with his wife and two sons, went to live for a while in the country of Moab” (Ruth 1:1).

I once passed through the land of Moab, but I didn’t try to live there.

In January 2005, I spent three weeks in Jordan visiting some of our WCC families working there. We spent most of the time working in the city of Amman, but we did get an opportunity to take a few sightseeing trips.

On a trip to visit Aqaba on the Red Sea, we passed through the land just East of the Dead Sea that was once called Moab. As we journeyed South we passed by snow covered hills that seemed out of place in the desert setting. Other than the modern highway we travelled on, this land looked as if nothing had changed in centuries. It was a good thing our bus driver had a full tank of gas because I didn’t see anywhere to stop for miles. The land of Moab was as it had always been, a land for sheep and goats, and little else.

Having passed through Moab I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live there. Yet, Elimelech took his wife Naomi and two sons from Bethlehem (Hebrew: House of Bread) to Moab to live. Probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Like a lot of men, rather than praying and staying, Elimelech decided to go try living outside God’s promised land for a while. Perhaps he could see the snow capped hills in the distance and thought they meant better rain. He probably only meant to stay for a while. But man’s worldly schemes never work out in the end.

Ten years passed and Elimelech and both his boys were dead in Moab. Poor Naomi and her two daughter-in-laws, Ruth and Orpah, were left alone.

That’s when Naomi heard about there being bread again in Bethlehem. She decided to get out of Moab and return home. Ruth went with her. She had never been out of Moab, but with eyes of faith she followed Naomi into the “House of Bread.”

Some of us end up in Moab because we take a short cut to pass through there, never meaning to stay. Others are born there and never know any better unless someone tells them of a better place.

No matter your reason for being in Moab, come out. The Bethlemite calls you. Come taste the Bread of Life. You’ll never want to go to Moab again.

Unless you’re just passing through on a tourist bus to visit the Red Sea.

“You must deny yourselves and not do any work because on this day atonement will be made for you, to cleanse you. Then, before the LORD, you will be clean from all your sins” (Leviticus 16:29-30).

Do you ever feel like a hamster running on a wheel? You strive and drive and bear down harder, but you don’t seem to get anywhere?

You say to yourself, “I’m just trying to get ahead!”

But you keep slipping behind.

A lot of us bring that same striving strategy to our faith. We suppose that God will love us more or give us greater blessing, if we only strive to do better, give more, work harder, and thus earn His approval.

This type of striving is not only dangerous to our happiness and health, it’s deadly to our souls. God wants us to stop striving and start trusting Him.

In the book of Leviticus, God told the Israelites that He wanted them to set aside a special day every year called the Day of Atonement (in the Hebrew, Yom Kippur). On this day they were to rest from their wanting and their working and to remember that they needed a substitute to stand in their place for the redemption of their sins. This day pointed to and was fulfilled by the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

Christ has done the work that we couldn’t do. He has once and for all paid for our sin and offered us eternal life and full acceptance by the Father, adopting us into His very family. We cannot add to this work. It is finished. We can only rest from our wanting and working and receive His work on our behalf.

Where are you still striving today? Stop your wasted whirling and dizzy spinning. Start trusting and depending on Christ for all.

Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!”

He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!” – Matthew 8:23-27 (NIV)

How do you live your life? Is it driven by faith or fear? The truth is, for most people, phobias determine how they live. Many choose to live life with an attitude of playing it safe and avoiding their fears.

Those who live a life navigating around fear are in good company. Let’s face it. There is a lot to be afraid of these days! Wars, terrorism, global warming, layoffs, rising prices… and that was just last night’s news!

A recent survey found these ten phobias to be those most often expressed by Americans:

Top Ten Phobias in America

1. Arachnophobia – fear of spiders.
2. Social phobia – fear of public speaking, public situations.
3. Aerophobia – fear of flying.
4. Agoraphobia – fear of leaving home or answering the door.
5. Claustrophobia – fear of being trapped in tight spaces.
6. Acrophobia – fear of heights.
7. Emetophobia – fear of vomit.
8. Carcinophobia – fear of cancer.
9. Brontophobia – fear of thunderstorms.
10. Necrophobia – fear of death.

Life is filled with things that go bump in the night. Life is scary. But do we have to live a life disabled by fear? Isn’t there better way?

There is. We can choose to follow Jesus. Jesus calls his disciples to follow him and to enter into his safety. That is why we call him Savior. He saves us from the consequences of our sin. Those who follow Jesus are found safe in him.

But after he saves us, he sends us back out into dangerous waters to share the message of salvation to others. Jesus calls us to pursue a life of significance, not safety.

It may seem strange medicine for fear sufferers, but Jesus often calls us into life’s storms. Why? Because it’s in the storms, when we’re facing our worst fears, that we cry out to Christ for help. It may feel as if he isn’t listening. It may seem that he has left us. But he never leaves. He is always present and waiting for us to learn to call on Him. Jesus wants to turn our fears into faith. How? By facing them, head on, while trusting in his Name.

Is Jesus leading you to follow into an area where you are afraid? What will you choose? Faith or phobia?

“Risk your life and get more than you ever dreamed of. Play it safe and end up holding the bag” (Matthew 19:26, Message).

I think Americans are becoming too safety conscious.

We’ve become the most risk-adverse generation in history. We’ve made everything so safe, that the only danger we’re in is of taking all the fun out of life! I mean, I can’t even take a Tylenol without getting a worse headache trying to get the bottle open!

I’m not sure that we would even have an America if today’s generation had to pioneer it. Can you imagine Columbus asking for trip insurance? Or Lewis and Clark not willing to travel without their GPS. What if Davy Crockett had refused to fight at the Alamo without insisting they have commercial fire insurance? Do you think Daniel Boone would have killed a bear if his parents had insisted he not play with knives?

Christians have carried this desire to play it safe into the church. We’ve diminished Christ’s call of sacrifice to a syrupy sentimentality and safety. We’re in danger of boring ourselves and our children to death with this watered-down version of the gospel.

But Jesus didn’t call us to a safe life. He called us to follow Him. He didn’t say, “Look, these Romans and Jewish leaders are probably going to kill me, but maybe they won’t give you much trouble.”

No, Jesus told them that He was headed to the cross and that they needed to be ready to take up theirs too.

The call of Christ isn’t to safety. It’s to significance.

… Now, would you mind helping me open this cap?

“Your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God” (2 Corinthians 9:11).

Have you noticed how gratitude and generosity are connected? People who see their possessions as a gift from God show gratitude. They are full of thanks. Since they recognize God as their source, they worship Him as Owner and Provider. They see themselves as stewards and managers of God’s stuff.

This attitude of gratitude makes them more generous. Their gratitude overflows into gracious giving.

My next door neighbor recently illustrated this to me. He knew a landowner that had some downed hardwood trees that he was willing to give to anyone that would get them off of his property. My neighbor asked if I wanted to go with him to get some of the wood.

“Man, I wish I could. With this cold winter, I could really use the firewood. I’m going through that oak I bought really fast. But I’m so busy, I just don’t have time to cut it, haul it, and split it.” I said, shaking my head.

“Well, if you change your mind let me know. We’re going out this Saturday to get some.” He answered.

“Thanks.” I replied, while heading back to my yard.

A couple of weeks later, imagine my surprise when I answered the door to my neighbor standing there with a big smile on his face and a load of freshly cut wood.

“Hey neighbor! I brought you some firewood.” He said, gesturing towards the stack. “Open up your garage and let me load you up.” He continued.

“What?” I finally managed. “You don’t need to do this.” I insisted. “You’ve worked so hard.” I said, shaking my head. “Why are you doing this?”

“Because you’re a good neighbor and I’m being neighborly.” He said through a big grin. “Besides, I got the wood for free and I want to share it with you. Now, let’s get this wood in your garage, it’s cold outside.”

That evening, the fire in our fireplace seemed to put off more warmth than usual as we combined my neighbor’s freshly split poplar with our remaining oak. Every pop and crack of the fire inspired gratitude in my heart.

People who have a hard time being generous also have trouble with gratitude. I guess that’s why we say “thanksgiving,” because “thanks” and “giving” go together.

Now, pardon me while I put another log on the fire… hmm… nice.