In Allen's Own Words . . .

__________________________________________________________________________________

5-09-12 Listening

If you read the book of Hebrews anytime soon you should look for all the places it talks about listening to the voice of God. This is the theme of the book. As the book opens it is talking about how God spoke in the past and how he has spoken in these last days by his Son. The point the writer is making is that if we needed to listen to the prophets how much more must we listen to the Son. He asks the question, "How shall we escape if we ignore such a great salvation?" In the next two chapters he says four times, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts." When a writer writes the same thing over and over it is because they are trying to make a point. Towards the end of the book he writes, "See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks." Sounds a lot like what he said in chapter two.

How well are you doing at listening to the voice of God? I feel like a big part of my job is listening to the voice of God. That is not unique to me since you also need to listen to his voice. I have several ways that I intentionally listen. The thing I do the best probably is reading my Bible. I do this a lot. Every year that I have been here I have read the entire Bible. I do this in the morning separate from any studying I do for sermons and classes. This is simply an exercise in listening to the voice of God. Another thing I do is pray. I pray to God asking him for guidance and understanding of his will. I have developed the habit of being very frank and open in my prayers since he knows everything anyway. I also listen to people that I know pay attention to God's voice. When I am especially in need of guidance I will ask them to intercede with God on my behalf so that I might know his will. I think I am adding sets of ears to my own when I do this. I also read books written by people that I think have a good understanding of God. Truthfully I am very picky about the books I read. I judge a book by how well I think the author understands God. One of the things I look for is who gets the glory for what they know or what they have accomplished. Finally I listen to the voice of God by being silent. I purposefully turn off the radio in my truck sometimes just for the purpose of listening. I find that when I get rid of distractions God will sometimes speak. Early this morning, as I was running, God placed an idea on my heart for Sunday. It came out of the blue and I was not even thinking about Sunday. I was running quietly (except for the panting).

I suggest that you judge everything in your life in relation to the voice of God. For instance, if you are trying to decide if you want to participate in something at this Church make your decision based on the voice of God. It is much easier to make our choices based on what we want or what we think is best but I think it is much better to decide based on what God says. I know this concept can be abused but if you truly work at hearing the voice of God I think you can trust your findings.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

5-02-12 Classes

Last night we had our education meeting at Watershed. Nine of us gathered for almost two hours to plan out the Sunday morning classes. We needed to at least get the last six months of this year done and we hoped that we would be able to go ahead and begin planning into next year. By the time we quit we had this year planned with a person assigned to lead each month and all of next year planned out as well. I was thrilled. Especially since we all felt like we had planned out a very good program that would help us all in our journey to become disciples. Here are some of the classes we have planned. In August we will study elders. This will include things like their role, what it takes to be one, what God wants from them etc. Dawn is putting together a class on servanthood. That class will work together with Wednesday nights very well. Jeff Guill and I are planning a class on heroes of the faith. We will use Bible examples as well as more modern examples. Rick is planning a class on the one another passages from the Bible. He is very excited about it. Next year we have a class on the mighty acts of God followed by a class on walking with God. These are just a few of the classes we have planned. Please know that we have put a lot of thought into this and have done our best to have classes that will benefit the entire family. It is our desire that you and your kids will take advantage of these classes.

We had our staff meeting at Kinard Retreat Center last Thursday so we could see the facilities where we plan to have our retreat next November. Dick Webber, one of the caretakers, took us on a tour of the entire property. We were all thrilled. The facilities are great and very conducive to what we want to plan. There are trails and at the end of one of the trails is an amphitheater where we could gather for worship looking over a pond. I can't wait. We will start signups soon and you will want to sign up early to get one of the rooms with double beds. We are asking people to plan to stay two nights so that we all get a better rate. Saturday night will be a night of just hanging out together.

We are heading to Harding University this weekend for Luke's graduation. What a thrill, especially since he has a job at Lubbock Christian University as the assistant soccer coach waiting for him.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

4-25-12 Glory

One week is not enough to talk about the glory of God so I will use another week. I talked about God's glory mostly from the perspective of Moses last week. This week I will talk more about God and his glory. I enjoy talking about things like this. I hope you enjoy hearing about it. Over the last 26 years I have preached a lot of sermons. I remember preaching a series on Luke here for almost two years. I followed that up with a series on the book of Acts that didn't take as long but was one of my favorites. I remember preaching through the Gospel of Mark a few years ago and that was one that I remember well. I learned to love the way Mark understates things. I think one of the most impactful verses in the Bible is Mark 14:65 where Mark writes, "And the guards took him and beat him." That is what I mean by the way Mark understates things. For me it increases the impact to keep it simple.

What I love about preaching is getting to talk about the nature of God. This week I will get to do that in a big way. I think what I love most about this subject is the way I can be completely honest. I don't feel the need to cast God in a positive light. He is light and he is truth so if I just present him the way he is that will be good enough. I never worry about showing the harsh side of God. His harshness is part of his nature. This would also include his demanding side. These are not faults to hide but rather traits to embrace. I feel this way about everything I have ever learned about God.

I want to remind you about the education meeting coming up next Tuesday, May 1 at Watershed in the Old Mill. The meeting will begin at 7:00 and should run about an hour or a little more. We need people with ideas of classes we should have in the next year and also with the willingness to take the lead in preparing the class. So far we have planned out nine different classes and for each of these we wrote the curriculum. I am extremely proud of the job everyone has done and the freshness of the ideas. I look forward to our time together next Tuesday, drinking coffee and coming up with a new list of classes. If you have never participated in this process I think you should give it a try. It is actually fun.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

4-11-12 Two Days of Easter

I love Easter weekend. Two years ago I had never even heard of Tenebrae and now I want to have a Tenebrae service every Easter Saturday for the rest of my life. I really enjoyed this year's service. There is really something special about allowing yourself to experience the death of Christ separate from the resurrection. I guess this is true because we know that we will get to experience the resurrection the next morning. One of the things we do is share the Lord's Supper during the service. This year I talked about the comfort we get from taking communion and I believe the people of God would have come together as they were reeling from the tragedy of Friday and shared the Lord's Supper. Last Saturday, as I partook of the emblems I could hardly get them down. They had added significance to me as I thought about Friday before Sunday morning. The video Rick put together I thought helped capture the emotion of the service. I had heard the song by Mindy Smith almost a year ago and had been wanting to use it for Easter ever since. I couldn't believe how perfectly it went with the images from the Passion.

I think the service Saturday night really set up our time on Sunday morning. The singing was great, the video of the elders and their wives was great, everything just seemed to have an extra bounce to it. I left feeling very encouraged and upbeat. I hope you did as well.

I believe God is doing great things amongst us. I think he is calling us to be real followers of Jesus Christ. By that he means he wants us to be like Jesus. The example of his life is meant to be a pattern for us to follow. When he tells us about his devotion to his Father he says that so we will know that is what he wants from us. When he tells stories about forgiveness it is because he wants us to be forgiving just like he is. The entire sermon on the mount in Matthew is for us to see what life in the kingdom of God is like and to teach us to strive to be perfect as our Father is perfect. Or to be perfect as our example, Jesus Christ, is perfect.

If you've tried to get a hold of me this week you probably had no luck. We are on a cruise. It is the first cruise we have ever had. As I write this I assume we are now having fun. Did you follow that logic?

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

4-04-12 Easter

It is Easter week. I wonder what you do special in your family on this week. Surely everyone has chocolate as part of the celebration. It has been a while since we hid Easter eggs. I kind of doubt that we could get Brianna to look for them even if we did hide them. It's a lot easier just to go get one out of the pantry. This is a Sunday where a lot of the ladies and girls get new dresses or at least wear spring colors and look so bright and cheery. It is also a day when almost everyone that ever goes to Church goes on this day so there is a lot of people in Church. There are a lot of reasons to like Easter.

Certainly we don't want to overlook the reason we celebrate Easter in the first place – the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Last year we did something different for us, a tenebrae service. Many Christian traditions do tenebrae services every year but it is something new for us. We will do it again this year and I can't wait. It has become one of my very favorite things to do during Easter. I know it is somber but it helps us feel the emotions connected to the tragedy of his death before the people of God realized that God was going to raise Jesus from the dead. I think it is good to consider the sad side of Easter. On Monday night we talked about Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane and talked about the pain that he was feeling and discussed what it was that was hurting him so badly. In my mind considering the sadness opens you up even more to the excitement of Sunday morning.

I hope that you will let your heart go so that it can really celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. I know we have a lot for which to be thankful but nothing compares to the cross and everything associated with it. There is a deep peace in us that comes from the finality of what Jesus did. We can rest assured that Jesus did it all and we have nothing at all about which to worry. I love that. I thank God for that. It is this peace that opens the door for us to celebrate this Sunday morning. It also allows us to fellowship with each other in a spirit of joy. Can you imagine bringing children into a world that did not have this kind of hope? I wouldn't want to.

I hope you are able to experience all of the emotions that go with Easter. I also hope you get to eat some candy. If you don't have any I might could spare an M & M or two.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

3-28-12 Where is Uzbekistan?

If you were away last Sunday you missed a real treat. Mukadam, a CIU student from Uzbekistan, shared her story to the class and then also during the sermon. Jeff Guill and my Mom had arranged for her to share her testimony about becoming a Christian in a Muslim country for class. When I was coming into the auditorium after class I was hit by several people asking me if we could hear Mukadam again because her testimony is so compelling. Allan Whitacre said it was like hearing someone talk right out of the book of Acts. You can go to our website to hear her. I will try to find another excuse to have her speak again. I plan to use her on a Monday night for College group. Dawn is planning to use her on a Thursday night for girl's group. You might consider asking her to come speak to your life group. Not only is her story very good but she is also a very good speaker. I think you will come away with a newfound love for all peoples of this earth and a renewed belief in the awesome power of God.

We will begin a new class this Sunday. I have planned the month of April using the topic of the life of Moses. We will look at his life in five weeks. I have all my teachers in place and the lessons are all written. Thank you to everyone that is teaching for your willingness to take on this task. If you haven't taught under our new system I think you are missing out. Keke is planning the month of May using the topic of the beatitudes. He will be looking for teachers soon.

This Sunday at 2:00 we will have the first of our new regular leadership meetings on the first Sunday of the month. This meeting is for all ministry leaders, the elders, and the staff. It will typically be one hour long. You can look at our calendar to keep track of when they are coming. You can pick up a copy of the calendar as you leave the auditorium or on the table in the foyer. You can also look at it on our website. On our website it is updated every time something new is added. Thank you to Mary for getting this calendar out and for keeping it updated.

We will be having a tenebrae service again the Saturday night before Easter Sunday. It will be at 8:00 and will be a somber time of reflection upon the death of Jesus. Ask anyone that attended last year and you will hear that it was very worthwhile. We will give you more instructions but when you come you will need to enter quietly without talking and make your way back to the youth room. We will have a service together of some singing, Bible reading, the Lord's Supper, and a short video. When the service ends you will be asked to leave without talking and to go home. As you can tell it really is different. I look forward to being together that night.

Have a great week!

Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

3-21-12 M & Ms

On April the fourth we are going to restart doing something that we used to do once a month. We are going to meet at the building so that the youth group and the adults can do something together and at the same time the College group and our Children will do something together. Here is what the adults and youth will do. We will gather in the auditorium and introduce our Bible study for that night. We will read the passage together and then mention the highlights that jump out at us from the verses with limited discussion. Then we will break into groups of three and go for a walk. We will walk into Cherokee Lakes neighborhood and while we walk we will discuss our thoughts about the passage. We tried it out this Monday night with the College group and it worked great. For those that are unable to walk like this we will have a couple of groups that stay at the building to have the same discussion just without the walking. It is plenty light until eight so there is no problem with darkness. This activity is not for the children. They will be doing a separate activity that will not involve walking in the street. I am very excited to get this activity started again and I can't wait to see what it is like for our children to do an activity with the College group.

I am going to need to have more activities where we go for a walk because of all the M & Ms I am eating. Thank you for the outpouring of candy in sympathy of me turning fifty. At first I just thought a few people were just being thoughtful but eventually I realized that this had to be some kind of an organized event. Finally someone tattled that it was Brianna. That's a good girl!

I am looking for two more teachers for the month of April. The topic is Moses and I have the lessons already written. I need a teacher for K-3 and 4-5 grades. I think almost everyone should take a turn because it really isn't that hard to do it for a month. I am just finishing up doing K-3 with Andrew and Wendy and I have enjoyed it a lot. Not only is it fun but you also get to know some kids you might not otherwise know. It really is a joy to see them soak in a Bible lesson like a bunch of sponges. This month I have been the activity director which means I come up with games and things to do when they get restless during the lesson. I can always come up with some kind of activity to use up some of that boundless energy they seem to have. I will go back to the adult class but will be eagerly waiting for the next time I can be in one of the younger classes.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

3-14-12 On The Mountain

I was recently doing lectio divina with an old friend of mine, Mark, and a new friend, Steve. We sat on a bench overlooking the mountains where Steve lived. The setting was beautiful and seemed perfect for Bible reading, meditation, and prayer. Mark suggested we do Psalm 46 so that is what we did. I suggest you open your Bible and look at Psalm 46 right now. It is one of my very favorite Psalms. What a joy to sit there between these two men of God and read a Psalm over and over for five minutes. I choose verse five for my meditation. For five minutes I thought about "God will help her at break of day." That is all I thought about during that time. Over and over I said the words that the Sons of Korah wrote. Finally it came time to pray about that phrase and I enjoyed it heartily. I found myself anxious to get through the meditation time because I wanted to talk to God about it. When the total time was over the three of us just sat there in silence – taking in the beautiful setting together with the beautiful words of God.

Lectio divina is a Latin word that means divine reading. I actually hate it when I run into Latin words in books but I have come to love these two words. Don't let the Latin put you off of a way of reading the word of God that is so good. I find this exercise helpful to me as a balance to my morning reading where I read through the entire Bible each year. When I do this it has nothing to do with how much I read and everything to do with letting the words indwell my inner being. It has nothing to do with processing information and everything to do with letting God's thoughts process me. I don't think you can do this without being changed.

Finally we began to break the silence and share with each other our meditations and prayers. I feasted on the thoughts Mark and Steve shared with me from their time in God's Psalm. I shared that this verse teaches us to be faithful to God no matter what is going on because we know that he is coming to our rescue. We may go through a dark night full of things we don't like but rest assured that God's help will arrive as the new day sun begins to rise. I pray that God will fill me with the resolve of knowing his help is coming and therefore I don't need to worry. I ask God to help me have a faith that always lets me sleep soundly because I know what the morning will bring – his help.

Wow! How refreshing.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

3-07-12 Wednesdays

Last Wednesday night we met at the building to talk about what we think God would have us do on Wednesday nights. I will try to write out what we talked about that night. We began by talking about how I believe we understand our overall vision of discipleship. The thing that we need to work on is the details of some of our ministries. The staff takes care of a lot of the details of our ministries but not all of them. In the areas where the details are arranged it is amazing how different people can come in and use their gifts in a beautiful way. An example of this is how I can join the College group on Monday nights and lead a Bible study. I don't worry about getting the kids there or any other details. Keke takes care of all that. I just show up and do my thing and I think it works well. I would like to see more areas of our Church be like this so that we could all use our different gifts for the glory of God.

The area that we are concentrating on lately is our education ministry. This includes both our Bible classes on Sunday morning and what we do on Wednesdays. Dawn shared with us her belief that young people have some very specific needs that we can try to meet. She said that they need mentoring and time with us. The good news she shared is that they actually want to be with us. She also said that they learn from doing, not just hearing. Doing some hands-on things is very beneficial for their development as disciples. This is the reason we have decided to use Wednesday nights as a time to practice what we learn. We believe it is useful for the development of all of us as disciples of Jesus.

Here is what we propose for us to do on Wednesday nights:

1. A monthly activity where the youth and adults do something together and the College and children do something together. This can be a variety of things and we will always be searching for ideas.

2. Work at LICS and sing at SouthLake. On this night you will have to choose which you will do.

3. Worship together.

4. A service project in the community.

Here is what we need:

1. Ideas for things to do on the first Wednesday each month. We already have several pages of ideas from the ladies.

2. Someone to organize LICS – Mike Spane has taken this role. Someone to organize SouthLake – Wayne Burress has taken this role.

3. Ideas and people to participate in leading different aspects of worship.

4. A crew of people to help me arrange our monthly community project. I already have Eduardo Diaz and Jenna Polk. I probably need two more men.

I was very encouraged by our meeting last Wednesday.  I think it was a tremendous show of unity and a desire to work together.  Praise God!

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

2-29-12 Pain

Today I am going out to CIU to teach part of a seminary class for my Mom. She has asked me to talk about the place of pain in a Christian's life. I am covering material that Larry Crabb puts in a chapter of his book called "Why so much pain?" What am I supposed to tell these kids? If they watch religious TV or read some of the most popular Christian books of today they hear about how pain shouldn't really have a very big place in the life of a Christian. We should wake up in the morning with a smile on our face and lay down at night having smiled all day long. I hear preachers preach these messages and it makes me so mad so I have had to stop watching. I have done it enough that now my kids just role their eyes when I get on this soapbox.

If you read Genesis as far as chapter three you will see where pain came from. It came from us not listening to God and instead listening to Satan. It came from us not trusting God and believing that God does not have our best interests at heart. We still listen to Satan sometimes instead of God and we still have times where we don't trust God. Pain is a human fact of life and to pretend otherwise is to live in a world of delusion.

I think on this subject you have to look at the book of Philippians. In that book you have a verse that is often used to say we can have whatever we want if we will just believe. The verse is, "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." Many have used this verse to teach that if we will have faith in Jesus we can do anything. Do you want to be a professional athlete? Use this verse and you can do it. Do you want to be rich? Use this verse. I wouldn't mind being either one of those things but the verse is in the middle about sacrifice. Philippians is about putting aside what we want for the good of others. Paul uses himself as an example, Timothy, and most of all Jesus Christ. When he talks about Jesus Christ doing everything through him who strengthens him he is talking about the cross. It is also true that when he talks about himself or Timothy he is talking about pain.

Every Sunday I preach to people that are hurting. Someone this Sunday will be preaching to the Longstreet family who are definitely hurting. A chaplain will do a Bible study with Patrick Hutto who is hurting. I have friends that tell me about some things in their lives that cause them a lot of pain. Pain is just reality. It has been since Genesis three.

For me the hope in all of this is that our pain has meaning. God uses it to do his will in this world and also to bring himself glory. It makes God look good when a Christian bears up under pain and is still faithful, trusting, and loving. I believe that God can use that for all kinds of things he wants to do. Praise God!

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

2-22-12 Things

This Saturday we are meeting at the building at 11 to discuss a long-term plan for our Bible classes on Sunday mornings. We are going to put together a two or three year cycle meant to ensure that we are covering everything and that we have the right balance of types of classes. If this is something that interests you and you feel like you have something positive to add you should join us. It is not a closed group at all. This will be the third time we have met as a group to discuss our Bible classes and each time the group has been different so believe me when I say we would love to have you.

I hope you are praying about our upcoming meeting on February 29. That is the Wednesday night where we will gather to discuss our future plans for Wednesday nights. I also hope you are making sure that you will be there that night. We need lots of ideas and input. Our plan for that night will be to spend some time in prayer before we take a look at our congregational goals. After that we will discuss this question: With these goals in mind what do we think God would want us to do on Wednesday nights? The challenge is to consider our needs, the needs of our children and young people, the needs of this community, and the commands of God. This is why we need to spend time praying because that last sentence is very challenging.

Last night six of us went to an information meeting at Birthright of Columbia. It is a pro-life emergency pregnancy center. We heard about the beliefs and policies that are the foundation of this ministry. They are not shy about what they are and what they are not and they insist that if you are going to work with them that you agree with their basic beliefs. I was fine with everything I heard and read. We are still looking into what and where we think we need to invest our efforts but I hope we will help this group some even if we end up helping somewhere else more. One person that went with me was my daughter Brianna. I am so proud of her love for troubled people and her desire to help in anyway she can. That kind of heart is from God.

I thank God for the progress we have made as a Church. I think God has led to many different ministries and each one has had an effect on us. I know we have helped some people but maybe more than that we have helped ourselves. By walking with God we have helped ourselves become more like our example and model Jesus Christ. Praise God!

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

2-15-12 Crisis Pregnancies

On Sunday I went to an open house at a place called Birthright of Columbia. It is in the downtown area and they had sent me an email invitation. For some reason the email caught my attention and I decided to go. I was really glad I did. Birthright of Columbia is a pro-life organization that helps troubled women get the care they need during pregnancy and beyond. When I walked into the house it seemed like a pleasant place to me with nice people there to greet me. One of the rooms in the house is filled with baby clothes and things like that neatly stocked on shelves. Right away I thought how much our women and girls would like that. They have many needs with which I think we could help. They will be holding three training sessions beginning on Tuesday, February 21 at 6:30 pm. I was wondering if anyone would like to join me for the first one to see if this is something with which we want to get involved. See me if you need more information.

You probably remember a volunteer from Daybreak Crisis Pregnancy Center coming and speaking to us on a Sunday morning. I am planning to go to the center this week to find out more about them and how we could help. They are having a drop in on February 23 from 9-10 am. I would love for some of us to go to that. Let me know if you are interested.

When I was at the open house on Sunday I also met a man that leads a ministry called Home Works of America. They help poor people that have problems with their homes. Roof repair, floor issues, wheelchair ramps. Sound familiar? They would love to have our help. They do the work a few times a year but they have a warehouse where they get things ready for the days when they do a blitz. We could help in both ways – when they do the work and getting ready for the work.

Who knows what will come from any of this but I have been praying that God would send us opportunities to not only serve but also to touch the lives of people in need. I hope you are praying for the same thing and keeping your eyes open for whatever he sends us.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

2-08-12 Utah

Last week was one of the weirdest weeks of my life. I fell and hit my head on ice while skiing in Utah. Or at least that is what they tell me. There is so much that I don't understand about what happened. Why was I trying such a difficult run on my first morning back skiing after at least a two-year break? Wouldn't it have been smarter to ski more normal runs while I got my rhythm back? Why was I not wearing a helmet? I meant to buy one or at least rent one. Why did I not do that? I really don't know. Oh well. At least they refunded all of our lift tickets for that day - small consolation really. It was strange knowing that something was wrong with me and also knowing that I am asking questions over and over. They finally had me write out a list of seven questions that I was asking over and over with the answers. As I would read my list of questions I would get to the end and say I just needed to ask one question, "Is Laura ok?" They would refer me to question #1 and the whole process would start over.

As the clouds in my mind began to clear I began to remember things from the week before. I remembered that we had a special contribution and that I had preached something on giving but that was all I remembered. I went back and listened to the sermon and it was like hearing it for the first time. How strange. I did eventually hear that the contribution that day was over twenty eight thousand and I was both impressed and thankful. I am thankful that you believe in what is going on here enough to give your money to it. That makes me feel good. At every Church there are challenges and weaknesses just like there are here but I am thankful that you feel committed enough to give your money. That tells me that you will work with us to overcome our weaknesses and that your faith is in a God that moves his people forward sometimes through hard places.

I believe that God is walking with us as we navigate through changes that his will demands. I also believe that anywhere God is having his way Satan will be close around trying to mess it up if he can. I believe he tries to make us feel like we are alone even when we are in a crowd of people. I think he tries to separate us from God and from each other. I know he will use any kind of cheap shot that he can think up. I think he knows how to exploit our weak areas and our insecurities and use them against us. I also believe that we have to stay close to God and to each other when he is around.

I would invite you to join us on Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings at 9 all this month. We will be doing a variety of things aimed at renewing our connection to God. I think a byproduct will be us renewing our connection to each other.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

2-01-12 February

Last Wednesday night I said that I think we should all consider our connection to our head – Jesus Christ. I shared my belief that there are enough symptoms around right now that would lead me to believe that this is something we should consider seriously. I think this is something we should do often because I know that throughout my life I have had times where my connection got weak including times that I was working very hard for the Lord. Consider the words of Jesus in John 15 verse 5. He says, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." It is the "apart from me" that I would emphasize.

With this in mind we have decided to change what we were going to do in February and instead to focus on our connection to God. This will include both Sunday mornings and Wednesday nights. The two marriage classes that meet on Sunday mornings will meet as usual. We will print the schedule for you in several places but I wanted to talk to you about the different things we have planned. By the time you get this we will have already had the first night of worship. I think connection to God begins with worship. Not necessarily singing – worship. From that we will move to a form of meditative Bible study the first Sunday. We will divide up the age groups for that. On the second Wednesday we will practice together the spiritual discipline of openness and humility. Again we will divide up the ages for this night. We will be together with two or three other people and share what is going on in our life and prayer requests. The second Sunday (Feb. 12) we will have a prayer time where we combine older and younger people of all ages. Wednesday the fifteenth will be the spiritual discipline of celebration and thanksgiving. For this the ages will be all together. On the third Sunday we will talk about fasting and secrecy. Rick will lead the children (k-5th) and I will lead middle school and up. On Wednesday the 22nd we will have a second night of prayer. The last Sunday will be a time of celebration with everyone together. The final Wednesday of February (29th) we will have the meeting that was originally planned in January to talk about our long range plans for Wednesday night.

When we meet on the 29th we will begin by talking about our congregational goals. From there we will discuss how we can use our time on Wednesday nights to best meet those goals. What we will be looking for is what do we think God wants us to do. I really want you to spend time in prayer seeking God's will about this. I believe in your ability to hear what God wants.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

1-25-12 Blackout

I am curious how this Sunday affected you. Everyone knew right away that this was not your average Sunday. We had prayed a lot that God would use the efforts we were making to bring about something that was pleasing to him. I think he did. There was a lot about the day that I liked but one thing in particular that I thought was good was the elders getting up and making statements about their belief and asking us to follow their lead. One from our College group told me how much that meant to him to see such godly men stand up and clearly state their faith. I pray that you allowed God to touch you and soften your heart.

What do we do now? That is a question that I cannot answer in a space like this nor can I give a complete answer since God has not yet revealed all of what is next. What I can do is give two answers from scripture. The first is Romans 12:1-2. Paul writes, "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is – his good, pleasing and perfect will." Paul is telling every single one of us to offer ourselves to God and to live our lives to please him. That is your immediate task. Our ministry leaders, staff, and elders have committed to helping you do this but it is ultimately your choice. Living like this allows us to find and understand God's will. Paul says that then you will be able to see God's will which means that you will not be able before you offer yourself as a sacrifice.

The second answer has to do with a philosophy of mine that effects how I lead a lot. In Acts 13:2-3 we see a very short account of an encounter between the Church and the Holy Spirit. Luke writes, "While they were worshipping the Lord and fasting, the Holy Spirit said, 'Set apart for me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.' So after they had fasted and prayed, they placed their hands on them and sent them off." I have shared this verse many times because it is a very impactful verse to me. It shows how God speaks to the Church when they put themselves in a place to hear what he is saying. This makes me think that it is ok for us as leaders to try to understand God's will the best we can but to also work together with you to hear what God wants. That is why we have used meetings with lots of people to make changes to our education program. It is why we want to hear from lots of people about making changes to Wednesday night. It is why we are bringing the financial issues we face right now before the congregation. What is God telling us to do? I have faith that he will tell us if we will just listen.

I urge you to recommit yourself to following the example of Jesus and see what God brings to you. I think it will be significant.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

1-18-12 Slavery

We have been talking about the Kingdom of God last month and this month in class. This would include all age groups. I am especially appreciative of Jeff Larsen for putting the material together and for teaching the adult class with a minimum of help from me.

Last week we talked some about why we need to understand Jesus' teaching on the kingdom. The reason is that when you understand what the kingdom of God is like then you will do a much better job of understanding his will. I think the parable of the yeast helps us understand that God does not have to be at the very center of society in order to change it. For me this helps me to not worry about some of the changes to our society as if God can be pushed aside. He has the ability to work like yeast that you can't see but it has powerful effect.

This week I was reading about Joseph in the book of Genesis and came across something confusing. I have always put Joseph up as a great example of faithfulness and he is but I found something that makes me think he didn't understand how God works and how his will works. When Joseph takes over the collecting of grain to prepare for the famine he does it very efficiently. He leads so well that he ends up enslaving all of Egypt. Read it for yourselves in chapter forty-seven. Verse twenty starts, "So Joseph bought all the land in Egypt for Pharaoh. The Egyptians, one and all, sold their fields, because the famine was too severe for them. The land became Pharaoh's and Joseph reduced the people to servitude, from one end of Egypt to the other." I realize that Pharaoh would have been happy with the good job Joseph did but how would everyone else feel?

Rob Bell, in his book, Jesus Wants To Save Christians, talks about how Solomon built his temple using forced labor, or slaves. He comments on how ironic it is that people who had been released from slavery would come to use slaves to build something for the same God that rescued them. Bell writes, "At the height of their power, Israel misconstrued God's blessings as favoritism and entitlement. They became indifferent to God and to their priestly calling to bring liberation to others." What they missed was the character of God that despises slavery. Not just slavery for his people but slavery for everyone.

It is things like this that make it important for us to understand the kingdom of God so we can be sure that the things we do are actually pleasing to him. Jesus statement, "Thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven" is a kingdom statement. He is wanting things here to be the way God wants them. I think that is what we should want also.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

1-11-12 Bible

Now is a very good time to decide to read the Bible this year. I would really like to encourage you to do this. It never ceases to amaze me the things I see for the first time each year. I think it also helps me to have a better overall grasp of God's word. This helps me whenever I read some other book that is quoting a verse or two to know if they are using it in line with how it was meant. If you start reading now you only need to read three or four chapters a day to get through the entire Bible in a year.

Right now I am in the book of Genesis. This morning I read chapters 32-35. Here is something I had never noticed: "Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him." That is 32:1. What angels? Was it a bunch of angels? Jacob concludes that this must be the camp of God. Leave it to a nomad to think of God as having a camp. I always think of God living in some kind of a house – a big one I'm sure. I would also want to know why the angels were visible to Jacob. They don't do anything else in the story so why are they mentioned? It is later in this chapter that Jacob wrestles with someone all night long. Obviously Jacob had been doing crossfit if he could fight that long but that is for another article. Genesis says that Jacob wrestled with a man but Jacob thought it was God. For me this seems like a strange story. It is interesting to me that there was a time when angels appeared to people openly and I can't figure out why or why they don't anymore.

Our men are about to start studying the Bible with each other. Dan Canales is going to lead Men of the Word, a part of our men's ministry led by Rom Kellis. He introduced it to us last Wednesday after Ross Kellis spoke to the men. By the way, Ross did such a good job of speaking to us about emptying ourselves so God can fill us. The Bible studies will begin the beginning of February with three or four groups of men meeting in small groups to read through the book of Matthew. We will use a style of study called lectio devina. You should google that. Lectio devina is where you read carefully a section of scripture, meditate on something from your reading, and then pray about that which you meditated. We will do lectio devina at home and then come together to share our thoughts. I can't wait.

God is clearly doing things here and around us and I look forward with anticipation to the things he will show us this year. I know we are going to need to be people that can walk with God and I think reading his word is one good way to get ready for that.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________

January 1

What is this Church called to do? Do we have a goal? How will we know if we are succeeding or at least approaching success? Is it some number? Is there a magic number that when we hit it we will have succeeded? Is it some level of contentment that we are looking for from our members? If a certain percentage of our members feel happy does that signal that we have arrived? Is it popularity in the community that matters most? If we become known throughout this town as a good Church and one that lots of people respect is that it? I mean to apply all of these questions to us alone – not to other Churches. What I mean to ask is what are we, meaning Lexington Church of Christ, supposed to be about?

This week we were hit hard by the work of Satan. I feel like he walked into our midst and took one of our young members that had been rescued out of the world. That is hurting me, and many others, unbearably. It is always frightening to see the work of Satan. It is almost like we can smell the sulfuric stench of him and his demons and it makes it hard to sleep or be at peace. Keke told me this morning that he feels like the wind has gone out of his sails. That is a very good description of how I feel.

But … This is what we are called to do. We were told almost 2000 years ago to make disciples and to teach them to obey everything Jesus commanded. Our goal is to find people that do not have it all together and help them get it together. We search for people that live in the kingdom of darkness and help them move to the kingdom of light where God saves them, forgives their sins, and begins transforming them into the image of his Son. With this as our goal and calling we realize we have a dirty job. We baptize people because they are dirty. That is the same reason you were baptized. When you search for people with problems you bring in people that still have problems. They are trying to get over them but they are a work in progress – just like me and you.

On Sunday Jose Hernandez was baptized. He has been struggling with his decision for several weeks. He knew God was calling him but he had things he wanted to change first. He believed he could not make this commitment to God until he had made some changes. I respect him for that and I thank God for his work in the life of Jose. I pray that God will build him into a great man of God.

I think we have been called to work with God in the trenches. I believe he has been training us for decades to be able to do this. He will continue to lead us to people that have needs, real needs, and we will baptize them and teach them how to follow Jesus. When we reach out to people in need there is a burden on every one of our members – so be it.

Have a great week!
Allen L. Close

__________________________________________________________________________________