Archive for 'Articles'

    Darkness has lost its meaning to us.  Since the discovery of electricity and invention of the light bulb the world has been on a campaign to banish darkness.  Just look around you some night:  guard lights flood every house, street lights bathe our roads, office buildings shine through the night, spot lights sweep through the air, the rooms in our houses have lights on even if we are not in them, and our retinas burn as we stare for hours into the glare of our televisions.  If you don’t believe it, you will the first time the electricity fails and the night as you know it stops…dark, dark, dark and silent…very silent.

    Years ago during an ultimately doomed stint in the Boy Scouts of America my friends and I set our sights on earning the hiking merit badge.  The reasons are fuzzy today but we believed we had to complete a short five mile hike after sundown in a wilderness area.  Sounded fun during the day, then the sun went down.  At some time during our attempt the flashlight we brought (but forgot to put fresh batteries in) began its quick descent to death.  There we were miles from any other light source; the overcast skies blocked the small bits of natural light that would have helped – it was DARK!  Those dark moments are etched in my memory for life because in our minds every rustle in the brush became a mountain lion, every owl hoot a ghost, and every crunch an axe murderer poised to attack.  We stumbled over unseen obstacles and worked ourselves into a panic over the unknown.

    I suspect people in the first century understood darkness much better than we do…and feared it.  When the sun went down there were no buzzing guard lights to brighten the night.  Of course Jesus, a master of word pictures and parables, understood this and used their fear to perfectly describe the importance of his being:

    When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” John 8:12 (NIV)

    Then Jesus cried out, “When a man believes in me, he does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me.  When he looks at me, he sees the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. John 12:44-46 (NIV)

    I would have given anything for a light in my moments of darkness induced panic.  So it is with my spirit; only through Christ will my darkness be brought into the light so that I will not stumble.

    Then Jesus told them, “You are going to have the light just a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, before darkness overtakes you. The man who walks in the dark does not know where he is going.  Put your trust in the light while you have it, so that you may become sons of light.” John 12:35-36

    Fear darkness, put your trust in the Light.  Put your trust in Christ.

Shalom

Greg

Saint Larry. No one has ever called me by that title and I’m sure that I would be uncomfortable if they did. I don’t feel like a saint because man has given that title to those who act perfect. But God has assigned that title to all Christians (Rom. 12:13; Eph. 5:3; Col. 1:26; Rev. 8:3).

Minister. I like that title, but we have ruined it. We tend to think only of one or two men in the church as ministers. We call them to perform funerals, visit the sick perform weddings, and teach neighbors. But perhaps we should list your name on the church bulletin as “minister.” In Matthew 25, Jesus separates the ministers from the non-ministers. Which one are you?

Reverend Gill. I have been called by that title, but reject it completely! Webster defines it as “one worthy of great honor.” Psalm 111:9 (KJV) ascribes that title only to God.

Mister. It rings of respect, but it isn’t my preference. Please call my dad “Mister Gill.” I would rather be called by my given name.

Doctor Gill. I spent many years in college earning that title, but I’ll never forget these words to the graduates on that happy day, “Now forget that you have earned the title, ‘Doctor.’ Go out into the church and be a servant.”

I recall the story of several preachers standing in a circle comparing their credentials. One said, “I’m a Ph.D.” Another said, “I’m and M.A.” A third said “I’m a D.D.” One wise black preacher in the group responded, “I’m an M.O.G.” The others were thoroughly confused. “What is an M.O.G.?” they asked. He replied, “I am nothing but a man of God.”

Perhaps you also have a title. But along with that title can it be said of you that you are a Man (or Woman) of God?

Larry Gill

On Sundays, my family participates in a worship service at our community’s nursing home.  On most Sunday’s we shake hands, hug necks, sing for the residents and listen to a message from the Word.  On one particular Sunday morning, I received so much more.

As I was preparing for the service, an older lady wheeled herself towards me by carefully walking her feet in front of her chair.  As I approached her with my best Sunday morning “glad to see ya” attitude she grabbed my arm, pulled it to her face and slowly pet me.  She pulled me down close to her face and asked, “Is your name Scott?”

“No ma’am, my name is Greg.  That’s Scott over there,” I replied.

She continued, “This morning I let the cows and the dogs out into the pasture and they are trampling everything down in the field.”

Realizing her consciousness was a reality from years past, I mumbled faux words of agreement and encouragement.  I was playing along to enhance her reality but beginning to pull away when she grabbed my arm again and said, “Is your name Robert?”

“No ma’am, my name is Greg.”

“Are you my son?”

“No ma’am,” I gulped, realizing engaging in further deception would likely lead to hurt.  She continued with a new story about setting a match to the pasture and burning all of the trash, I didn’t catch the details being distracted by the mission of extracting myself from the situation saying something like “Ok, I understand, have a good day” while patting her gently on the back.

As I was walking away she called to me, cupping her hands around her mouth and calling in a loud whisper that came out like a fained yell “Hey, I love you.”

In a moment, my heart was broken.

Throughout the service, I fixed my eyes on the precious sister and thought:

1. Even when everything else is failing, Love is still present.
2. My love had been superficial, based on my comfort and reality – not on hers.

Peter wrote about the love Christ intended for believers, “Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart” I Peter 1:22 (TNIV). The message is clear, the blood of Christ and obedient faith purifies Christians in order to love each other so deeply, and it never leaves regardless of the condition.

Later in his letter Peter continues, “… all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.” I Peter 3:8 (TNIV).  Like he was writing these words directly to me I know my love in those moments was neither empathetic (like-minded), sympathetic, compassionate, or humble.  Rather it was based on MY feelings, MY reality, and compassion for MY comfort – not humble at all.  I suspect most Christians struggle to develop the kind of love Christ commanded when he answered the teacher of the law who asked him about the most important commandment:

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:29-31 (TNIV)

Love God (check), love myself (check), and love others (well…).  Even though her mind was tricking her consciousness, the elder sister taught me two valuable lessons:

1. Love deeply to the very end
2. Love others as they are, not as I am

Greg Chaney

Well, it is true, the end of August will be the end of my time at the Merkel Church of Christ. I don’t know how long it will be until I find a job, but I am looking. So far there are 6 churches on the roster, 3 of which are in Texas. When I say “roster” I mean that we are in the interview process. I am praying and I hope that you are too. Chelsey and I want a place where we can make an impact, both in the secular world and the Christian world. Because of the financial situation within the church I find myself being open to the secular realm for work. That is kind of a foreign concept because I had decided in earlier years to do youth ministry long term. Sometimes your world can get turned upside down. The question, I would think, is whom do you follow when the storm comes. Peter went through this in Matthew 14:22ff when Jesus comes to them walking on the water. “Peter said to Him, ‘Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water.’” And the story goes, Peter walks for a little bit focused on Jesus and then becomes frightened. He forgets what his focus should be on and begins to sink. I know if I don’t focus on Christ I will sink (thus the title). Therefore, Chelsey and I will remain focused on Christ. Please pray for us as we search and for those who are searching. We love our Merkel Family so much and pray blessings upon you.

Dman

You know when you go up to someone you have never met just to say hello or maybe someone is introducing you to a new person? In these situations we are likely to have a situation that is filled with a handshake or a head nod and a smile (so that the other person will get the impression that you’re nice even if you’re having an off day). And then you go through the usual process of determining what kind of person they are while projecting an image that you would like to have on display. Some people are able to manipulate their words in such a way to make themselves sound better than they may (or may not) be. Regardless of the situation the typical question comes out, “What is it that you do?” this is usually referring to what your occupation is. What we are looking for is information so that we can learn. In recent college courses I have learned that this is a form of negotiation. In fact all communication is negotiation in some way or another. In all of this I think one must ask themselves “what are we negotiating?”

Image.

We all get our image from somewhere. It has come to my attention that we tend to get our image based on our occupation. The problem is THAT is not who we are. Who we are can be something completely different than what we do. Although our image doesn’t need to conflict with “what we do”, we are not defined by it. We must look at the image in-which we were created to determine who we are and what we are meant to be.

Genesis 1:26

Dman

Dman

Three words were my take-away from a recent weeks worth of leadership training.  Everything else presented was just more of the same thing and it just did not register with me.   I probably had even heard the three words before, but it never struck me the way they did that day.

What a simple rule for Christians.

The concept is simple; the things you think the most about are the things into which you put your energy.  When we make an honest inventory of what occupies our thoughts we will likely find a list of passions, fears, interests and distractions. These thoughts are the ones that determine what we do, and where we put our energy. 

The problem is that our mind not only determines what we do it also determines who we are. 

If we carefully consider the list of things that consume our thoughts, we will discover our idols. Idols aren’t just little statues, they are the things we worship every day, the things that control our thoughts and energies. 

Make quick count of the things we humans tend to idolize: ourselves, people, family, food, things, abilities, money…all of which are destined to fail us in a temporal world. We waste too many thoughts and energies on things that will fail us, no wonder we are a depressed society. When our idols fail our energy also fails.

Jesus addresses this in Matthew 22:37 “Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

A mind consumed with love for God has no room left for all of the little idols.  Place our thoughts on God and our energies (actions) will follow.

Shalom,

Greg

When I moved to Texas I noticed that the land was pretty bare. If you take I-20 from Mississippi you can see the changes that are taking place with the land. The first thing to go as you travel west is the hills along with the color of the mud. Then you notice the size of trees slowly start to decrease. And eventually you see the change in grass. When I first got here I found that I would be homesick from time to time. A huge trigger for this feeling was the scenery. However, for the people who have been here for a while it was nothing to be concerned over. When the summer hits they are comfortable with the grass being dead and ground being so hard it feels like pavement. People from West Texas grew up in this sort of landscape. Truth be told, after living here for so long I find myself more and more comfortable with the lack of green. (that could be a lesson in itself) The point that I am seeing from this is that falling into whatever trap Satan has for you and your personal lives doesn’t usually happen quickly (usually)…  However, he does try to chip away slowly so that it is less noticeable. And before we know it we are calling (______) normal and not that big of a deal. We let these things slip into our lives because of all kinds of reasons and then we accept them as just part of who we are. Problem is – who we are needs to line up with Christ. How many times have you come to the realization that you are not where you need to be. It’s like you’re asleep and need to be waked up by Jesus. I know I have felt this way. Sometimes my biggest issue is admitting that I fell down. Because if I admit that – well I have to get back up.

D-man

I have to turn the bulletin article in by Thursday morning so, last week after I gave Cynthia the bulletin article I went about doing my studies. Lunch came around and I found myself doing the same as always-going to one of five restaurants around town. I usually eat at one of three just to keep cost down a little bit. So, Subway it is. I go in and I see a few people that I know, “hey how ya’ doing?”; “alright, alrigh” (the absence of the “T” was on purpose). Well you may not believe this but I start talking to this atheist…. not the same one as before, but a different one. Well I started to get excited. So I get my Bible and we start having an explanation time. The conversation was initiated by me asking another guy, who I have talked to quite often, where he went to church. I then went around the table to this guy who said, “I don’t.” After explaining the situation to me he says that he has come to that conclusion because he doesn’t care. We ended up talking for 2 1/2 hours in Subway… the conversation was coming to a conclusion and I was very confident that this talk was going to change this young man’s life. He made this statement, “Well, you have convinced me that you are a Christian.” This was not my goal. I didn’t want that. The goal in each of these conversations was not to show how great I am. I did almost 3 hours worth of draining debate and that is the end result?…

Sometimes when we preach and teach and pray – in life we must be aware that things are not just going to line up so we can knock them down. We are going to have some struggles. All the great people of the Bible had struggles and we are not any better than them. I think that we would be wise to remember a phrase I heard a long time ago, “The strength is in the struggle.”

Look up James 1:2-5

Dman

 For a long time now, since I moved to Lubbock, I have been taking special precautions to not develop ties to anything “Texas”. This would be because of my roots. Whenever there was a game going on with UT or Texas Tech I would naturally show a unbiased view or just not care. If you were to look at my wardrobe you would find no Texas articles. This was all for a specific purpose. I didn’t want to become one of those people. A sell out I guess you could say. I love where I am from and how I grew up, watching the saints lose. And then LSU started to win, a lot, if you remember CORRECTLY. Shortly after the Saints started doing the same thing. This made me ever more proud of my roots.

Last weekend we took the youth to LTC in Arlington. The weekend went very well. All the youth did amazing. Wanting to do something fun I decided that going to a Rangers game would be pretty cool. I have never been before. Chelsey and I were in Target with our gift cards that we received from our wedding. As we were looking around she said, “HEY, we should get some Ranger’s shirts for the game!!!” She could tell by the look on my face that I wasn’t too excited about such a notion. “Well, I’m getting one” she replied. After some encouragement I gave in and got one myself so we could match. I sold out. The short of the story is we went to the game and had a great time. We also got to enjoy a very up close encounter with a lightning storm while we were at the top of the stadium.

The application can come from many different angles. Are there things in our lives that keep us from selling out for God? Is there still some stuff that we are holding onto from our “roots”? If so, what will it take for you to fully embrace the Lord and live the kind of life you should?

Or you could look at it from the other angle.

Are you holding strong to your faith but there is something or someone pressuring you with a mentality that you know you should not adopt as your own. Have you held to the deep roots of your faith and yet there is someone threatening to cut down your tree?

Whichever way you choose to view this application I’m sure you can apply it to your life. In whatever way you choose: Heb 10:23.

Dman