Second Restoration

Careening through this gentle journey
The calming water guiding us home
Progressing forward without warning
Unaware of the coming doom

Light gives way to enclosing darkness
The waves bellow as they batter our vessel
Sudden terror encapsulates our consciousness
All will be lost if this storm prevails

Shaken and shattered we seek shelter
Shelter that can bring solace to the storm
Bruised, we reach out our trembling hands
Extended beyond the broken frame that we now reside

Will there be relief?
Will there be rescue?
Will there be recovery?
Will there be restitution?

The storm continues to ravage our lives
We wait; we listen for a voice of hope
Where will he lead us?
What is his plan?

Resting in reliance to his reward
Torn, tumultuously down in humility and grief
There seems no other answer
No other escape, but to the Lord

Distance separates us from embrace
Emptiness eludes us joining hands
The gap too vast to fill so quickly
Our turn, coming seemingly too late

Lord, guide and rescue our vessel
Keep watch and care over our journey
Give us grace and mercy, though undeserved
Return us to your secure resting place

This journey can only continue with your guidance
Our reliance can only be placed in you
Forgive our wandering, inattentive hearts
Lord, rescue us from this looming turmoil

You will be our light in this darkness
You will be our saving grace
You will be our calming water
You will be our savior

I find it overly humorous and equally frustrating that both the rooted traditionalists and the progressive brethren in the churches are fearful and seem to have a disposition towards the Restoration Movement and the very mention of such movement.  I find in humor this common thread that does bind them together though they pull the church apart with their bickering.

Maybe it is the simplicity surrounding the movement, or maybe it is the consent and complacency to be at heart a denomination, I am unsure.  After all if their goal was to be simply Christian than what would they have to fear from each other, or to work with one another?  Or maybe, the movement calls out their baseless traditions and at the same time preaches simplicity and a common base that ruffles progressives who wish to extend their musical passions.

No matter the reason, unity suffers.  No matter the reason, the church suffers.  No matter the reason, Christ suffers.  So whether you need to lay your traditions at Jesus feet, or whether you need to lay your personal preferences at Jesus feet, until they are laid down neither is fully focused on the vision of Christ.  Let’s turn our focus to Christ, not our worship styles, our traditions, our in-fighting, even if we differ there is no excuse for not being able to be civilized and truly work towards Christ’s goal to be one in Christ.

Are we really one if we acknowledge we co-exist, but really never break bread together.  Whether you have a praise team, or you whole heartedly are against praise teams, whether you have a Christmas Play or you don’t have a Christmas Play….does this really mean you can’t talk to one another, that you can’t eat a meal together, does it even me you can’t worship together.  We disagree with those that live their lives in sin everyday, yet we are able to civilize ourselves to talk to them, why then can’t we find the time or means to talk to our fellow brothers?

Thomas Campbell and the Principles He Promulgated

H. L. Willett, Chicago, Ill.

However, when one turns to ask what was the essence of his message, the answer must be given in clear and emphatic form. Mr. Campbell did not concern himself with a variety of interests. “Principles” is not a word that defines his statements. He held to one principle and to one alone–the union of God’s people. To that one theme he devoted his life; he lived for nothing else. No really first-rank interpreter of God has ever had more than one commanding truth to proclaim. It was so of all the prophets. It was so of Christ. Men of the second rank can concern themselves with various ideas; the great prophets know but one. Thomas Campbell shared the fundamental convictions of his age and ours on the essentials of the faith. But the one principle which absorbed him and claimed his life, was the truth that the church is ideally one, and ought to realize that unity in actual and visible experience. To him this was the most outstanding and impressive fact in all the range of the church’s life. Others might devote themselves to different tasks. But as for himself, and all who were minded to stand with him, this was the supreme need and duty. He was keenly sensitive of this crying necessity of the time. It haunted his soul like a prophetic burden. The waste places of Jerusalem, where the debris of sectarian strife lay scattered and obstructive, filled him with as profound a sorrow as Nehemiah felt in his night circuit of the city. With that same restorer, he might have cried, “Why should I not mourn when the city of my fathers lieth desolate, and its gates are burned with fire?” His hope and passion was the restoration of its undivided glory. The beauty of that vision allured him. The music of the reunited church already filled his soul. Though as yet a choir invisible, its anthem floated to him as if a door in heaven were left ajar and cherubim were singing. To the realization of this hope he devoted all his energies through the lengthening years of his life.

Have we lost the priniple of unity, the burden that Thomas Campbell himself felt?  We must find a way to recreate this passion, this internal burden in Christ’s church today.  There was a reason for Thomas Campbell to restore, and we are creating more reasons for a new restoration as we stray further from the principles of being simply Christian.  It is time to refocus, restore and seek Christian unity by allowing ourselves to be burdened by this plea.

As someone that has grown up in the “Church of Christ” I was taught and received an education in the Bible that by all accounts was amazing.  Lots of credit to my mom, dad and Bible Bowl.  I also have studied the Restoration Movement and understand what the goals and reasons for restoration were and how the “Church of Christ” came to be.  I believe earnestly in those goals and appeals and think there was a reason that they yielded such an important movement in Christianity.    But, do we care anymore?  Do you care how the churches around your region are doing?  Are you rooting for or against them?  Are they the joke in the room, or the dirty step child?  At least liberal and conservative churches do have something in common,  they equally isolate and criticize.

I have seen and heard, as I am sure you have, of individual quarrels that cross decades being a hindrence between neighboring congregations.  The obvious Biblical contradictions to this behaviour are infinite.  We are quick to label this church this and this church that.  Do we care about the Biblical principles we read and take seriously their action?

I write this, not simply to heap on criticism but to call on those that read this, though that stretch is not far, to shift direction.  Be more open, be more concerned, reach out, don’t focus on the differences but rather hone in on the focus of Christ.  No one wants to share in our civil wars or bickering, it brings no one to Christ and certainly does not give them an example of Christ in our lives or that of our Church.  There are reasons we no longer grow and it has nothing to do with this or that it has to do with our example of Christ.

Gathering of localities and churches started this movement and revivals allowed the simplicity of being a follower of Christ to show through.  We have mucked it up with our own traditionalism, progression, ego’s etc.  We must now turn around and restore what has always been there, Christ’s Church.

Health Insurance
We’ve forgotten two things in this country (listed in order of priority)

1) Life is precious. It is the most valuable thing we have, and we should be willing to do anything we can to protect it (don’t go all abortion on me here, although one could argue that this is one issue that has contributed to the devaluing of life). It’s expensive to maintain life, especially under circumstances when life is in jeopardy. At those times we should be thankful that there are options available, and realize that what we’re willing to pay for something is a measure of its worth to us.

2) We’ve gotten used to the idea of someone else paying for our health care. Do you see a list of services and costs at the doctor’s office? No, you don’t. Because you don’t care; someone else is paying for it.

The best way to reform the system is to make consumers responsible for their costs.

a) Expand availability and maximums for health care FSAs. Allow FSAs to be used to purchase insurance as well as pay for health care.

b) Remove employer mandates. This will inject competition into the insurance marketplace by encouraging consumers to purchase their own insurance at a cost known to them. Employers should be encouraged to add to employees’ salaries the cost of their share of whatever insurance they had provided to their employees to offset the cost of insurance.

c) Remove coverage mandates. This will allow consumers to purchase those products that they actually need. People could purchase catastrophic care insurance and pay for their own preventative care, or they could purchase a low-deductible full-service plan, or something in between.

d) Encourage cost to become part of the doctor/patient conversation. Providers should make cost information more available to their customers so they can make better-informed decisions.

e) Require a part of SS, Medicare, Disability, Welfare checks to be placed in an FSA allowing coverage to the millions that are not able to currently have coverage. If this requires an increase in the amount given it will still be cheaper than the other proposed methods.

f) Those having portions taken out of checks from point E, could be placed in a government handled or contracted FSA program allowing it to be well monitored and keeping with the requirement.

There is no need to punish those already receiving health care on their own or choosing not to carry health care simply to try and fix a much smaller sector of society. If you focus on that sector you can accomplish more than if you try and make a vague and sweeping legislation that will cost more and negatively effect others.

Undeserving grace abounds
Lost in understanding mercy
I struggle to find peace
Forever indebted

A gift or a curse
I cannot repay my debt
It follows me
Forever stained

Absolution defies logic
Blamelessness irrational
Forgiveness even questionable
Forever unimaginable

Will you rescue me?
There seems no reason
My actions are repulsive
Forever repeated

Where is my condemnation?
Where is my justice?
I deserve no less
Forever guilty

Your offer is hard to believe
Your offer is hard to refuse
Forever living
Forever free

Battered by draining thought
Minutes of physicality wasting away
The ever pressing loss
The ever pressing reality

I collapse, an empty shell
An outer coating of a man
Internally vacant
Internally empty

Hope escapes me
Anger rides me
Defeated I lie
Defeated I die

Lift me from my grave
Position me with your hands
Pull me from the water
Pull me from the darkness

Make your victory in me
Battle the evil within
Shelter me from the pain
Shelter me from the decomposition

I rest here broken
Embattled and fatigued
Losing my will
Losing my being

Reverse my course
Steady my hand
Revitalize my mind
Revive me

I was having a discussion the other day on the unity of the Churches of Christ and it is really ironically funny. We are a movement that grows out of the ‘essentials of salvation’, and we are all pretty much in agreement with those, ‘essentials’.  Yet we remain divided.  We are in unity in thought on the important aspects of the Bible and our salvation, yet we still are not unified.  How absurd.

When do we get over ourselves?  I am not favoring any positions, or on the sides of liberals or conservatives, but is it possible that Christians really could be just Christians.  These are the thoughts that moved the Restoration Movement and have escaped us today.  Maybe I find it hard to answer, ‘Where should I go to church?’, because I shouldn’t have to even answer that question.  I have heard the sides argue their positions, I have even been in the arguments, I once even chose a side (traditionalist).

I think relying on the ‘essentials’, embracing respect, and having an ability to have the Church not be about you really would go a long way in solving things.  Let’s be just Christians, rooted in the ‘essentials’, and learn to really love our brothers and sisters before ourselves.  Just because we have an opinion and we think we are right does not mean we NEED to always have our own way and voice it.  Unify in Christ, he demands it.

I constantly battle with this question because there are so many elements that go into the answer.  There is the spiritual element that moves me one way and then there is the human element that pushes me another.  Now I have discovered a parental element, but I am unsure to some degree what all that entails.

Should I go where I feel comfortable or should I attend where I can be of the greater use?  Should I go to the church in my community or if I feel more comfortable should I drive the extra ten minutes to go elsewhere?  Should I drive the extra if I am more needed nearby or should I stick with the church closest to me?

Let me know what you think….leave a comment below

In getting back with the point of the blog, here is the latest post.  In my daily reading, I came across this piece of writing by Robert H. Boll, from his essays titled, Truth and Grace.  In my studying, and many others I have talked to, there is always a quest to find the truth from God’s Word.  As we look around at how sectioned off Christianity has become, one must ask…How are there so many separate truths?  I also know it to be unfashionable these days to say there is a right and a wrong, but there are some that are just plain wrong.  As with most of the things I have looked at we need to learn to filter ourselves out of what we are reading.  As humans we have the ability to justify and twist things to see them how we wish, but that is certainly not the purpose of the Word being revealed to us.  We must not be afraid to hear the Word of God, but we must be careful not to make it into the Words of man….

PROGRESS IN THE TRUTH.

We must not digress, but we must progress. We must not overstep the bounds of God’s word, but we must go on in it. We must not abandon the first principles but leave them as the mason leaves the foundation and goes on to perfect the building of the house. To the man who comes to seek, it will continually reveal new truths and new light on old truths. But if one goes on the preconception that he has about the sum of the truth already, and studies the he Bible in that light, it will yield him nothing. He will be hardened and blinded and become a sectarian though he may never have a written creed. The unwritten can become just as contracted, unscriptural, tyrannical. As one of our beloved and venerable brethren sometimes says in the pulpit: “We are not right, but the Bible is right.” So it is ours to go to God’s word daily, with open eyes and ears and hearts and in poverty of spirit, not to confirm our ideas, but to get God’s. One of the first results will be the sense of unbounded riches and privileges of which we have never availed ourselves. Another effect will be to humble us and to take some of the censoriousness and self-conceit, with which we are always apt to be afflicted, out of us.

Robert H. Boll
Truth and Grace (1917)