Eastwood Church of Christ

October 23, 2008, that was long time ago. Too long I know. No excuse but truth, ” I forgot and lost the password.”

Things I read lately:

• If Christianity is just your hobby, it’s a pretty lame hobby.  Take up golf or scrapbooking.
• How would your life be different if you were not a Christian?
• We have equated being a Christian with just being nice.
• We think Jesus is kind but we don’t believe he is smart.  We don’t think he knows what it is like to live in USA today.  He then quotes some teachings of Jesus such as: “Do not worry” “Don’t lay up treasures on earth” etc. The early church believed he was smart and lived radical lives.  We reject his teachings.
• If you’ve grown up in the churches of Christ you’ve probably heard, “Oh, aren’t you the ones that …” and you can fill in the blank with a lot of things.  Most of the things I used to hear when people filled in the blanks were on the negative side and not always very nice.

So when the lady caught me at Wal-Mart yesterday and said, “Oh, you go to the church of Christ? I’ve heard about you guys.  Aren’t you the ones….” I cringed thinking the worst. I quickly finished her sentence in my head with about 10 things that I thought she might say. Then she finished her sentence.  “Aren’t you the ones that are doing a lot of good things in the community to help people?”

WHAT?  That was NOT what I expected.  I’m sure my face showed some excitement as I had to force myself not to dance a little jig right there in the store (because you know… we don’t dance either (smile) ). Instead of hearing something negative I got something positive.

As I floated out of Wal-Mart, I couldn’t help but think to myself, “The church of Christ … a church that helps others … I like that!” It made me think of Jesus,  “and Jesus went around doing good…” (Acts 10:38) and that’s exactly the kind of church I want to be. “copied”

Things I Have Thought lately

• Baptism is not worth a dime if your life does not change
• Church is a social club at worst and a dis-functional family at best if  it is not Christ centered
• Worship time is useless if we do not worship
• Hearing the word of God is empty if we do not listen to it
• How can we hear if we do not listen?
• How can we listen if we do not intend to?
• There must be something said to listen to in order to want to listen