CYPRESSWOOD CHURCH OF CHRIST
July 11, 2010
25424 Aldine-Westfield, Spring, TX.
77373
www.blakehart.com/cypresswoodbulletin.htm
PETITIONS AND THANKSGIVINGS:
God’s world for our
congregation
Various friends, relatives and co-workers
Our nation, military and
leaders
The persecuted church
BITS AND PIECES
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his
paths beyond tracing out!”
(Romans 11:33).
Here are some things to
think about during the dog days of summer.
If you haven’t been to
Patrick Mead’s sight, you need to get there.
His hidden history and people series continues to be fascinating.
It’s at
http://patrickmead.net
Jeremy Berg, following
John R.W. Stott, gives this definition of kingdom: “The kingdom of God is God’s
dynamic rule, breaking into human history through Jesus, confronting,
combating, and overcoming evil, spreading the wholeness of personal and
communal well-being, taking possession of this people in total blessing and
total demand. The church is meant
to be the kingdom community, a model of what human community looks like when it
comes under the rule of God, and a challenging alternative to secular society.”
The American College of
Pediatricians has cautioned educators about pushing the homosexual agenda.
While students often question their sexuality, left to themselves, they
will work it out. Dr. Francis
Collins sent a letter out stating that while genes have predispositions, they
are not predetermined. Students
have free will to choose and that unwanted homosexual attraction can be
successfully treated. Educators
need to be careful about telling students to “come out.”
Obviously this will not go over well with some.
Information about this can be found at http://americancollegeofpediatricians.org
and at http://factsaboutyouth.com
Denis Prager, a Jewish
radio talk show host, asks this question.
What do you think?
“If Hamas laid down its arms, what would happen?”
“If Israel laid down its arms, what would happen?”
Those Were The Days My Friends…:
Remember back in the
1960s - those of you who are old enough - the saying, “Do not trust anyone over
thirty” ? Well those people are now
in charge and their new saying is “Shut up and do what we say.”
One writer humorously
recalled another 1960s event. The
flower children put flowers in the gun barrels of National Guard troops here in
the U.S. and said, “Give peace a chance.”
Then as now, if they had done that to our enemies, then cleaning the gun
barrel would come before, “May you rest in peace.”
The Masters Golf
Tournament occurred in April. Most
of the focus was on the return of Tiger Woods to golf after a winter of reports
of his immoral lifestyle and the almost destruction of his family.
But something more important occurred.
The winner was Phil Mickelson, a left handed player.
It was the very emotional hug after he won that got me.
His wife of fourteen years has breast cancer and has been undergoing
treatments in Houston. While she
was in Augusta, GA. for the tournament, she could only attend the last day.
That hug said more in contrast to the “other” story and showed what was
really important. Phil has traveled
with his wife and caddie back and forth from California to Houston to be with
his wife, which he says on his website, that family is more important.
Somehow the media just wasn’t interested in this great story.
Makes you think, doesn’t it?
A teenager got thousands
to sign a petition to outlaw the following chemical dehydrogenate monoxide.
He states that it can cause excessive sweating and vomiting, is a major
component of acid rain, in its gaseous state it can cause terrible burns,
accidental inhalation of it can kill you, contributes to erosion, decreases the
effectiveness of automobile brakes, and has been found in tumors of terminal
cancer patients. It certainly
should be outlawed. Of all the
people who read the petition, only one knew that the chemical he wanted to ban
was….water! (From the publication,
Does God Exist?, March/April 2010, p. 8).
The religion of peace
doesn’t like its “Prophet” characterized in any way.
Recently the writers of a television cartoon show on the Comedy
Channel wanted to present Mohammed on the program, and like other
characters it has satirized, it would be critical. They received death threats
and the channeled censored the program.
Yet the radical left sees Christianity as those who want to send people
to concentration camps, limit speech, etc., etc.
Makes one think doesn’t it.
(By the way, I do not watch that show).
Thom Rainer wrote a
little article called Hubris and Leadership on his web site.
He had read a book about the fall of two of the big car makers and why
leadership failed. Among the
lessons he drew from it: 1) Leaders with hubris see others as inferior; 2)
Leaders with hubris are slow to see deteriorating conditions in the
organizations they lead; 3) Leaders with hubris are quick-tempered; and 4)
Leaders with hubris expect to be served.
Not to be cynical, but have we not seen this in the church as well?
More on leadership from
Mike Cope (http://preachermike.com) following Andy Crouch: 1) Some buy into the
myth of being well-rounded. (Great achievers aren’t well-rounded.
They are men and women who play to their strengths and delegate their
weaknesses…). 2) Leaders should
leverage their authority as little as possible, making as few decisions as
possible. These transforming words
are important: “I don’t know. I’ll
let you make that decision.” 3) A
leader isn’t the smartest person in an organization; just the leader of it.
4) Some leaders feel guilty delegating their weaknesses -- but that is
someone else’s opportunity and strength.
5) Some leaders won’t take the time to develop other leaders by getting
things done through other people.
I remember a fellow
preacher telling me about a conversation between an elder and a member of the
congregation over the next year’s budget.
The elder spoke about how long it takes to develop it and get it the way
it should be. The brother he was
talking to was the budget director of a chain of grocery stores.
Talk about missing it.
More from Mike Cope from
another perspective quoting Scott Bressenecker: Jesus wasn’t nearly as obsessed
with leadership as American Christians seem to be.
In fact, looking at the Gospels, quite the opposite is true.
There are eighty-six references to the word “follow“…and most of the
uses of “follow” are positive, many of them direct commands….He contrasted that
with a discovery that the word “lead” occurs twenty-one times in the Gospels --
almost always in a negative sense.
“None of them are commands to the disciples.
Jesus never instructs his disciples to ‘become the leaders you were
meant to be.’”
Once again, political
expediency has forced its way into Biblical interpretation.
The recent illegal immigration debate had some saying or implying that
Mary and Joseph were illegal immigrants when they fled to Egypt.
One problem with this: both Israel and Egypt were a part of the Roman
Empire. People freely traveled
across the Empire. Paul is just one
example. How they identified
themselves was probably from dress, language, and/or accent.
While the Bible, especially the Old Testament, addresses how to treat
aliens, we must be careful how we use various texts.
For you history buffs,
here is one. We often make fun of
the French for their surrendering at various times.
In May of 1940, the German Blitzkrieg was famous after the
invasion of Poland in 1939. When
Germany attacked France, the French General Staff and the government did not
think they could successfully defend against the Germans.
This caused poor decisions from the rear.
On the front lines, it was a different and surprising story.
In the first tank battle of the war at what is called “the Gap of
Gembloux, 239 French tanks faced 674 German tanks and hundreds of aircraft.
The object was to slow down the German offensive.
The French had a tank called the S35 Somua that could hit a Panzer tank
at 600 to 700 meters. During the
battle, 160 German tanks were destroyed verses less than 100 French tanks.
Some of the French tanks were barely dented, having been hit fifteen to
twenty times.
It wasn’t only the tanks
that hindered the German advance.
The Moroccan Division was able to stop a German advance as well.
One German called the French “tough and brave” soldiers.
Poor tactics from the General Staff caused this victory to be turned
into defeat.
Ever wonder why the
Germans did not invade Switzerland?
A captain of the Swiss army talked to the Kaiser of Germany who asked how a
quarter of a million Swiss citizens’ militia would stop a half million Germany
regular army. The Swiss captain
answered, “Shoot twice and go home.”
Both knew what that meant.
The Nazis were equally frustrated by the Swiss.
So what does it mean? The
Germans trained their solders to shoot targets at 100 meters.
The Swiss militia is trained at 300 meters.
Both of these come from
an article from the American Vision website by Bojidar Marinov called A Tale
of Two Eschatologies.
Eschatology means the view of the end.
The French had a view of defeat, the Swiss a view of victory.
It makes a difference in war and in life.
How we see the end is important in how we live.
In scripture, the
Promised Land was known as a land of milk and honey.
The idea of honey was thought to be figurative until about three years
ago when archaeologists found clay beehives that were three thousand years old
in the Jordan Valley town of Tel Rehov.
Further research has discovered that the bees came from those found in
ancient Asia Minor or modern day Turkey.
It appears that there was a very active commercial trade business going
on throughout the Middle East contributing to the importation of bees into
Israel. There could have been one
to two hundred hives; they were
found in the town itself and if they were full at the time, could have
contained some one and half to two million bees, which would have made it
interesting for the people of the town.
Syrian bees were more hostile than the Asia Minor variety and the Asia
Minor variety also produced more honey.
George B. Mearns