Westwood Message – August 5, 2010

Roger Wisegarver Benefit Concert

Last summer Roger and Brenda Wisegarver moved from Madison, where they were faithful and active members of Westwood, to their hometown of Monticello, IL. Roger began work for a Christian radio station in Central Illinois. Many of you know his story from there.

Then during the last few days of 2009, Roger noticed that his legs were beginning to feel numb. Days later, he couldn't walk. Upon diagnosis, the doctors told Roger and Brenda that Roger had what is known as Guillain Barre Syndrome. Guillain Barre is a syndrome where a person's immune system attacks a virus in the body, but then for some reason the immune system then turns and begins to attack the neural system as well. Within the first several days of 2010, Roger went from feeling numbness in his limbs to being completely paralyzed and unable to speak. Days later, he was on a ventilator, a feeding tube, and was unconscious. After several days, Roger woke up. Since then he has had an uncertain climb toward whatever recovery might look like this side of heaven. His story is that of a faith journey through difficult and uncertain times.

On August 29 at 6:00 PM, First Christian Church of Monticello, IL, Roger and Brenda’s home church and the church where they are now members, will hold a benefit concert to help with Roger’s medical expenses. As a support to Roger and Brenda due to their long involvement with Westwood, we would like to have Westwood help with this benefit concert in two ways:

(1) During the rest of August, we will accept gifts at Westwood toward the love offering to be taken at the benefit concert. You may make checks out to Westwood and designate them for the Wisegarver Benefit.

(2) Our leadership would like to invite you to travel with some of us to the benefit concert on August 29 to deliver the gift from Westwood and to offer our encouragement and support to Roger and Brenda. If you are able to make the trip, you can use the information tear-off in your Sunday bulletin to get us your name and the number from your family that will go, Just write Wisegarver Benefit somewhere on the form.

We will announce coordinated travel arrangements for the trip to Monticello later in the month. It would be great to have a good contingent from Westwood attend.

Is There a Piece Missing In Your Life?

Jack Harris, an 86-year-old retired man in England, spent nearly eight years working on a five-foot long, 5,000-piece jigsaw puzzle. It took up his dining room table all that time. When he thought the painstaking process was complete, he stood back to admire his work - only to find one piece missing.

He searched his home for the missing piece, but has not found it. He contacted the puzzle’s manufacturer to see if they could provide the missing piece, but they no longer make that jigsaw puzzle. The puzzle would never be completed.

As our church has looked at the life of Joseph this summer as an example of a person who lived with integrity and forgiveness, there is an interesting counterpoint to his story — Joseph’s brothers. They had a missing piece in their lives. In the last half of Joseph’s story, he attempted to help them recover that missing piece.

In order to understand the piece missing from his brothers’ lives, we need to know what motivated Joseph’s life. We first find this key to Joseph’s life after he is tempted by Potiphar’s wife and says he cannot “do such a wicked thing and sin against God.” Then Joseph is given the opportunity to interpret the dreams of Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker and then of Pharaoh himself. In each case, he attributes God as the one who can interpret dreams. When he reveals himself to his brothers after years of separation, he tells them everything that happened to him was so God could save their lives. After their father, Jacob, dies, he reinforces that to his brothers. Joseph put God at the center of everything in his life.

In contrast, his brothers first think of God when they are in trouble. Returning home from buying food in Egypt, they find their money for buying the food is still in their sacks. Their response is to ask, “What is this that God has done to us?” For the first time, as far as we know, they acknowledge God because he had been missing in their lives for all those years.

So here is my question to you in this brief piece: Is God missing in your life? Or, do you put him in the center of everything that you do? Is he at the center of every decision you make? Do you talk about him to people you know? I am not asking whether you are a Christian, but whether you integrate God into every corner of your life. If not, he is the missing piece in your life — and an important one at that!

A Good Summer Trip

I enjoyed a wonderful trip to South Bend, IN, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Nashville from July 4 through July 12. My first stop was in South Bend, IN on July 4 to spend an evening with Christine. She is at the University of Notre Dame for six weeks as she continues pursuing a Masters degree in Theology. Her classes are going well. When I was there she was at the end of her first two weeks of a three-week class. Now she is near the end of her first week of two more three-week classes, with just over two weeks to go.

On July 5, I traveled to Indianapolis to attend the North American Christian Convention where I also exhibited for WCMA, the church planting organization that I also work with and which Westwood supports. The theme of the convention was Beyond, as the convention program and speakers challenged everyone to go further in their faith than they have ever gone before. One exciting feature of the program was a performance for the entire family of the musical The Rock and the Rabbi, the story of Peter and his relationship with Jesus. I visited with many friends from across the country and a good number of people from Wisconsin’s Christian churches.

After the convention ended on Friday, July 9, I traveled to Cincinnati to meet our daughter, Nancy, and we traveled to Nashville, TN, to spend the weekend with my nephew, his wife, and daughter who live in Mississippi. We spent some great time together seeing some of the sights of Nashville, but mostly just visiting and catching up with one another. This weekend has a long story behind it, and the time was very well spent.

While I missed being at Westwood on July 11, we all attended the Harpeth Community Church in Franklin, TN, on Sunday before we all left the Nashville area. This is a relatively new church where I had attended a seminar two and a half years ago when their first building was under construction. I enjoyed worshiping there, seeing the completed building, and getting a taste for their ministry. I also pick up some new ideas any time I attend another congregation.

When we left Nashville, Nancy and I drove to her home in Cincinnati. I drove back to Madison on Monday, July 12, stopping to see Roger Wisegarver in his rehab facility in Champaign, IL on the way. I had not seen Roger since late January. He continues to make slow, but positive progress in his recovery.

RESISTING TEMPTATION AND HELPING OTHERS TO RESIST TEMPTATION

Many years ago on the island of Cape Hatteras, off the shore of North Carolina, there were men whose business it was to get ships to run aground on the shoals just off the island. These men were "wreckers" who made their living gathering up the parts and cargo of such ships. These men would walk back and forth along the shore with lighted lanterns at night. The ships’ captains would mistake that bobbing light for the stern light of a ship they supposed had found safe passage. They would turn inland and run aground. In the morning the wreckers would come and gather the timber for new houses, utensils for their kitchens, and money for their purses. It was a thriving business.

Followers of Christ have always been faced with “spiritual wreckers” who are far more dangerous than the wreckers on Cape Hatteras. These spiritual wreckers can ruin our lives and “run us aground” on the false values of the world. Traditionally the church has spoken of three types of wreckers: the world; the flesh, and the devil. They combine together to offer temptation to everyone, but especially to Christians, those who seek to live moral lives.

We need to help each other in the church to face these spiritual wreckers. Those who need the most help are our young people who go off to college. They face the most difficult years of their lives in regard to their moral choices. They can either have their faith affirmed while they are away from home or they can “run aground” in light of the moral choices they will have to make.

Such temptations are not new to today’s college-age population. One of the oldest records of a young adult who resisted temptation was Joseph, whose story of temptation is told in Genesis 39. I do not have room here to recount his story; I urge you to read it for yourself, especially if you are a young adult leaving home for college or work. However, in a recent study of Joseph’s temptation, I came across a list by James Montgomery Boice of six factors that make a temptation like Joseph’s so dangerous.

(1) The temptation was a natural temptation – that is, it appealed to a right and normal appetite. Some temptations, for instance a temptation to murder or steal, are not normal. A temptation to sexual sin, however, appeals to a right and proper and even God-given appetite or desire. Today sexual temptation comes at us from every direction in images and messages that suggest nothing can be wrong if it feels good.

(2) The temptation came away from home. A good home is a restraining influence on the behavior of children as they grow older. Thus the destruction of families in America goes hand-in-hand with the decline in moral values. This is what makes it so possible for good Christian young people to go away to college and fall into sin and away from God.

(3) The temptation came from an important woman. If Joseph pleased Potiphar’s wife, it would secure his advancement, but if he crossed her, Joseph would make her his foe and ruin his hopes. All kinds of people who are in positions of authority, including college officials, can tempt us and thus put us in the kind of bind Joseph faced.

(4) The temptation came after an important promotion. Joseph had been put in charge of running Potiphar’s household. Moments of success and advancement in college and business can make you vulnerable to those who would take advantage of you.

(5) The temptation came repeatedly. Genesis 39 tells us that Potiphar’s wife kept on trying to seduce Joseph. Sometimes Satan can wear down even the strongest believer by coming at us time and time again until our resistance is worn down by the repeated attacks.

(6) The temptation seized the perfect opportunity. Potiphar’s wife was very careful. She caught him when no one else was in the house. Satan often whispers to us, “No one will know…”

We will face temptation that we need to resist. As Boice suggests they will come in ways that make us the most vulnerable. Put yourself in a position to resist. Don’t let yourself fall to a temptation that can follow you for the rest of your life. Set up relationships in your life and in the church that will help you and others resist and thus maintain a positive witness for our Lord and keep us faithful to him.

Living With Integrity

It seems that fewer and fewer people live with integrity. Politicians intentionally distort the truth in order to gain support for their political positions and pet projects. People lie in the workplace, both bosses and those who work for them, in order to cover up for their own shortcomings. It seems like we regularly hear about celebrities who have been dishonest with their spouses or children. If it happens to them, it happens to many more people who are just not well enough known to have their story reach the news.

Sadly, it also happens with Christians. This week, Jonathan Acuff discussed this very thing on the Belief Blog of CNN with a piece titled: “My Take: Why Christians Are Jerks Online” (Read the complete blog entry here). Acuff writes his own blog www.stuffchristianslike.net and has recently written a book titled Stuff Christians Like.

Acuff makes the point that Jesus taught us the greatest commandment is to love God, and the second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. Then, he asks these questions: “So then why are there so many hateful Christian blogs? Why do Christians write bitter messages on Twitter? Why do we send hate mail?” He offers two conclusions:

(1) The business traveler approach — Many people, Christians and non-Christians, are different people when they are away from home and no one knows them. Acuff suggests that Christians treat the Internet the same way, approaching it like the normal rules of their lives don’t count on the Internet. They write hateful things and portray unloving attitudes under the guise of “whatever happens on the Internet stays on the Internet.”

(2) Room cleaning Christianity — Acuff discusses how energized a college student will become about cleaning his/her room when a final paper is due. We do that, he suggests with loving our neighbor. It is hard to love someone who is not easy to love. So instead of showing our neighbor the grace of God, we get online and police people. We find small things to focus on that will distract us.

Christians, though, are to live with integrity whether we are in a different environment where no one will likely recognize us or when we notice the little problems in people’s live and become critical of them. That is, we are to be the same people and loving people in every circumstance.

Joseph was this kind of person. As we have begun to look at his life in my messages and our adult class discussion this summer, that becomes clear almost immediately. The stories we are studying about his life are captivating, but even more they demonstrate how to live with integrity in a world where integrity is often absent. You can change that: live with integrity.

North American Christian Convention is July 6-9

One of the great opportunities that I have most summers is to attend the North American Christian Convention (NACC). It is held every summer, usually in early July or late June, in a different city around the county and brings together 10,000 or so fellow believers from Christian churches/churches of Christ all across North America. In a conference-type setting, the NACC inspires and teaches through preaching, teaching, worship, workshops, and fellowship.

This year the NACC will be held in Indianapolis from July 6-9. Next year the NACC will again be in the Midwest as it goes to Cincinnati from July 5-8. If you would like to consider attending a NACC, check out the NACC website to learn more: http://www.gotonacc.org.

I get to see many people from around the country that I know at each year’s NACC. Most years, I exhibit for WCMA (the church planting organization for which I am Executive Director), along with ministry and mission organizations from all over the world.

While our congregation is a non-denominational and independently governed church, we are part of a network of such churches from around the world. The NACC comes out of that fellowship of churches, but is open to all believers in Christ. If you would like to find out more about our fellowship of churches, Standard Publishing has two publications available that will give you some good insights: “What Kind of Church Is This?” and “Simply Christians.” Check them out. If you would like further information on these two publications, please contact me.

Stephen Bilak – A Life of Service

We enjoyed having Pat and Nadya Oja update us at our church, Westwood Christian Church, last month on the mission work of Slavic World for Christ. That ministry was started many years ago by Stephen Bilak. Since Oja’s were here, the ministry has launched a new website that has a one page biography of Stephen’s life and how the ministry began and developed. Stephen’s story is a wonderful story of faith that you will enjoy reading. You can access it at the ministry’s website: http://www.slavicworld.net. Click on the picture next to the “How it all got started” on the home page to access the history and a gallery of pictures.