Smoking ministry

I know before I write this that what I’m about to share is controversial. I know some will read it through their own filters and see things differently than what I’m interpreting this from this event. But I am willing to take that risk. My eyes have been opening up in the past year or more to the workings of the Holy Spirit and I’m more willing to see His work in ways that I wasn’t prepared to see in the past.
We had a walk in visitor to our church last Sabbath. He just walked in during our Bible study time (Sabbath school class) and asked us if this was church. We invited him in and tried to integrate him into the lesson study. He seemed somewhat disoriented and it may have been because of drugs or a mental condition it was hard to tell. He seemed to have a hard time following the discussion.
Suddenly, without warning, he burst out in a diatribe of accusations against God’s character that would make a committed Christian cringe! He said God only loved special people, not everyone. He inferred that he, himself was not one of the special people that God loved and he based this on the fact that God hadn’t chosen to make his life easy. He inferred that if God loved him He would have taken away his alcoholic tendencies. He also referred to natural calamities as evidence that God doesn’t love everyone.
Listening to his complaints was hard and the first reaction was to defend God’s character. But as some tried to defend God, this young man’s agitation grew. He couldn’t see beyond his own pain to hear anyone’s rebuttal. Several people tried to explain their own journey with this young man to describe how God had loved them into His kingdom. He responded that no one could possibly know his life and his trials and therefore had no right to justify God’s actions. One person, a recent convert not yet baptized, was in tears as he shared how God had removed his addiction to weed that he had for 20 years as justification of God’s love for him.
It was interesting to watch as this new convert was literally in this young man’s shoes not six months before this time. Now he was defending God! There were three people who adamantly defended God verbally through rational, Biblical and testimonial evidence to no avail. I watched as all this unfolded and I saw in action something I have been preaching on for months. I saw something that has taken me years for fully comprehend. All the talk in the world has little effect until people see a difference in our actions and our lives.
The reason this young man came to church that particular Sabbath morning was he was hungry. He was out of work, out of money and out of food and he came with the hope that we had donuts and coffee. We found that out through his conversation and immediately we worked to get him some food from out food bank and we promised him lunch if he could stay till after the service.
He did stay and I was pleased at how the church treated him. Not with contempt or scorn but with genuine concern and love. I don’t know if he heard anything from the lesson or sermon, but he did see Jesus in the way people treated him.
No problems so far right? Now is when you will have to put on your sanctified vision of God’s love in operation. Very little of what transpired in worship and study affected him. But after church he stepped out on the front steps of the church. There stood another new attendee not baptized. This person I will call Jim was recently released from prison. His wife is a member and the church supported her while he was gone. The church also supported him while he was in prison with cards and visitation. He was trying to turn over a new leaf in his life and was attending church with his wife and kids. He was standing on the front steps having a cigarette.
The new visitor bummed a cigarette off of Jim and then Jim began to tell the visitor his story of drug use, prison time and the history of his failed life. He then told the young man, this church accepted me and cares for me, and they will do the same for you if you let them. Jim was witnessing for Jesus while smoking a cigarette with this man. Now you may not think much of his actions and look down on him for smoking, but that day, on the steps of an Adventist congregation, God reached out to connect with a young man where he was in order to show him how much God cares.
God loves humanity too much to not reach out to us at our level. But He also loves us so much that He won’t leave us in the pig sty either.

Too Dirty to be Cleaned?

What I’m about to share with you is a true story. You can’t make this stuff up sometimes. Last fall I went out to a friends place in the country to target shoot some guns. Now I know that some of you may not approve of this activity and I understand. The point of the story is not the shooting, but where this took place.
We drove to the back of his forty acre farm on a wet fall day. Halfway up the small hill, my truck was throwing major amounts of mud all over the place. My truck was only 3 months old at the time with less than 5000 miles so you can probably understand that I wanted it to look nice. Coming back down the hill after our little afternoon excursion added even more mud to the already caked on stuff from a few hours before. I am sure that there was eight inches or more of mud in the wheel wells when we finished.
Driving down the road threw off some of the mud especially from the tires but the wheel wells were not really cleaning up. As we drove home my kids asked if we were going to wash the truck. “Of course” I said, as we drove along; “I go to this drive through car wash all the time, in fact I have a special card.” When we drove up to the entry of the car wash we all jokingly noted a car in front of us that didn’t look like it even needed to be washed. An old lady was driving this car that looked as if it hardly ever left the garage. We laughed about the irony of her car and my truck in line at the car wash.
We didn’t realize that we wouldn’t be laughing long. The manager took one look at my truck and came over and said: “I’m sorry sir, but we can’t wash your truck, it’s too dirty.” He said we needed to go and pre-wash it somewhere and bring it back and then he could wash it.
I responded, “Why would I come back if I had to wash it somewhere else?” He became defensive and told me I didn’t need to take such an attitude. My daughter then said, “Dad, there’s a sermon in this story.”
There sure is! I wondered how many people have left a church, any church in any town of any denomination, and were told in various ways they were too dirty to attend and that if they got cleaned up, they could come back and worship with them. Maybe someone commented to them about their dress and adornment? Maybe someone mentioned something about their children’s behavior? Maybe something was said about food brought to potluck? Maybe nothing was mentioned at all and that sent a message?
Body language is louder than anything we say. In fact studies show that body language is 80% of our communication. This can happen with our eyes, our posture or facial expressions. If we think it, it shows somewhere in our body language.
Have you ever done a check on your dirt limitations of your church? Ever done one on your self?