coming to church

Let me say for the record that there are legitimate reasons for not attending church every now and then. Let me be straight on the subject and please do not take offense at what I am about to say. We Americans should be ashamed of ourselves. I was pleased to be in a new church plant last night in Birmingham, Alabama. We were participaiting in the establishment of a Vietamese church. The testimonies of people riding bicycles for hours to hear the gospel being preached put me to shame. We have churches on every corner in America...
If you want to show the world that you love Christ, I beg of you to live for him. It is easy to say you hate the enemy but when you fail to acknowledge Christ allows the enemy to know you are not real. The testimony of a real Child of God is someone who doesn't have to say a word. They just live it and their family, friends, co-workers, etc. all know it. Just because someone wears a christian type shirt...Well you get the picture. Live for Christ in person and not just on the computer.

The judgment of the world

I am sitting in my local restaurant watching the crowd. This seems to be a favorite pastime for me. There are three young ladies at the register and one of them has pink hair. Naturally it is died. She is wearing all black and her two friends are wearing orange and blue respectively. Now, to the pink. She is ordering her food this very moment while I am typing this and her voice is just as normal as the other two girls. So, it begs the question, why the pink hair?

Does it really matter why she has pink hair? The world will quickly be the judge and say she is "goth" or she is on drugs or she is...

I am going to share one video that I trust you will watch. You have to watch it in its entirety to understand how the world judges on first looks.

Johnathan Antoine story on the same program. Simon Cowell made a harsh, negative comment when Johnathan and Charlotte walked on the stage. Once they heard them sing, their(judges) minds were all changed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt3Utn4mjeg

When we realize that people are different, then we can accept them for who they are. Remember when Christ died on the Cross, He said "Father forgive them" He didn't say Father forgive the whites. Father forgive the blacks. Father forgive the large people or skinny people or the ...

Stop the judgment.

No paper in the machine

I called a company to get some records faxed over and they said they faxed it. I had "my person" check their fax machine and they said they have not received my papers. I therefore called the company and politely asked them if they had faxed it. They said, "Mr. Nichols, we received confirmation that it went through." I asked could they re-fax it. They agreed. I told my person to check again. My person came out and apologized and said, "I was just looking into the room at the machine and I never walked in to see the machine was out of paper.

Here are some thoughts.

The fax came through but with no paper in the machine, it went through, but nothing printed. It makes me think that even though the company received confirmation that it came through, where was it?

Here is my thinking. When we are sharing our story of what Christ did for us, is our life coming through the machine to the individual we are speaking with?

I drove by a hunting camp the other day and I recalled hearing a church leader use language that was out of this world wrong. I approached him and said that he should focus more on cleaning up his mouth. His reply was that it wasn't Sunday. My view was that all the work I tried to do to help reach those hunters for Christ was thrown down the toilet with his language.

Let's make sure our "paper" is in our machines when we talk about Christ.

The grass, tree, shrub, and rest of it

We were waiting for our daughter to call us from Africa yesterday and we decided to find a shade tree and sit in the truck and wait. We rolled the windows down and the telephone ranged and my wife and daughter started conversing. I looked out my window and let me share what I beheld. There was a small patch of grass beside our truck and in this grass was an oak tree that was about 7 inches in diameter. There was some type of "sticker" vine alongside some tall brown straw type grass. Then there was the usual small stuff growing. There was some weeds growing beside some kind of fruit tree.

All of this was in an area of about 6 feet by 6 feet patch. It is ironic that all of these different types of "plants, shrubs, trees" were growing beside each other. It is ironic because they all seem to be healthy and growing in good spirits.

Why can't we as Christians grow together? There are just way too many denominations in this world and we just can't seem to get it right. A Hindu man came up to my wife just yesterday and asked her what denomination we were in. He then said, "why are their so many denominations?" My wife just shrugged and said basically that man can't get along with each other.

So, here is my question for you my friends. Why can't we get along with each other?

We visited a family from El Salvador Sunday afternoon and had a great time of fellowship. They couldn't speak English and we couldn't speak Spanish. My phone did all the work(type in words and it translated it) for me. They haven't been to church in seven years and they started coming to our church. We are trying to reach them with limited vocabulary.

Let's just all get along.

The Saints are coming, the Saints are coming.

I am sitting in my local restaurant mainly because my wife is working today and we drove in together. Since it is 12:22 p.m., churches have let out and this place is filling up fast. Let me describe the room. There are a total of 34 individuals in this room.

3 are kids

17 are over 60

the rest are between the ages of 18 and 60

There are 5 people of color.

12 tables are being used by these 34 individuals

All of these people and not one group is talking to the other group. Everyone of these people are wearing "Sunday go to meeting" type clothes. (you guys know what i'm talking about, so don't ask). If we are going by clothes, then everyone of them went to church. How come if that is the case they are not talking to each other?

The reasons?

1: they don't know them

2: they are really eating their lunch and in a hurry

3: they don't have time

Oh, this is funny. Two more just walked in and walked back out. The line was way long and they chose not to wait.

Here are my thoughts.

Why can't these folks talk to each other? They go to church according to their clothes. I am watching them and as my kids would say I am staring at them. Why will they not speak to each other. Tables are so close, but yet, the people are so far from each other.

I am thinking out loud. When visitors come into our churches, who speaks to them?

Just asking...

The locked keys

In my soon to be 28 years of marriage I did something today that I have never done before. I walked out of my house and locked the door with my keys in the house. This was a first for me. I forgot to charge my cell phone last night and my battery had only 5% battery power. I called my wife at work and the first time I called the fax machine picked up. I called the second time and it was busy. I called the third time and I got the assistant manager. I asked for Debra. My phone said to "charge your phone" and then Debra answered. I explained my situation and said I really do need you to come let me in the house. Naturally she laughed.

I can give a bunch of analogies about this but I will just state the obvious facts. I messed up. It was all my fought. I should have placed my keys in my pockets the night before like I have done for the past 28 years. It was my fault. As a result of my fault, I had to get help from someone close to me.

Now the Christian part of this story. Today, some of you reading this will realize that you have messed up. My message to you today is that you call someone and ask for help. It may be hard, but you just might not make it without help.

Our faith with God is depending on God. We cannot make it without God. We need His help everyday. He really does love to hear from his kids who say, "hey Dad, I messed up. Can you help?"

The clothes of a Christian

I write this today not to stir up trouble but to point out a point. I was working today in my yard and to be more specific, on my boat. This is my 6th boat that I have owned, for I have given away my previous 5 boats. So, I was setting up the seats and replacing the wood in the back(transom) and doing the odds and ends. Well, it was in the high 70's and low 80's while I was working on this boat and I was hot. I was dirty, my hair was a fright. My arms were bloody from all the cuts and scratches. I was just a fright.

Now, here is my thing. I left the work to drive to Wal-mart to pick up something and while I was walking in, I noticed that I was filthy. So, I sat down on the bench in the Air Condition lobby and started assessing my situation. Do I continue my path to the isle to pick up my item or just walk back away and get in my truck and drive 15 miles to my house and clean up? So, while I was sitting down, I started observing the people of Wal-Mart. I was trying to figure out who were Christians by their clothes. You know something, I couldn't tell. So, it made me think about this. What if you had a church on the beach. Or rather, what if the Lord directed you on Sunday mornings to set up a tent on the beach for the vacationers to come in and have church? Would you allow them in their swimming attire? Would they be allowed to sit on the front row or the back row in their bathing suits? I recently read of a church that felt the Lord impressed them to do such a thing. Man, the response was great. Souls coming to church in bathing suits.

So, would you allow a person to come into your church with shorts and flip flops?

I wonder when Jesus was walking by the seaside talking with the brothers if he was wearing his Sunday go to meeting clothes or his regular everyday clothes?The clothes don't make us saved or not. The repentance of our heart does that.

Dresses or pants or long sleeves or dress shoes or tennis shoes or flip flops. The heart my friends, the heart.