A Family That Prays (and does a whole bunch of other stuff) Together Stays Together

A family that prays together stays together.

That is true as long as the many other elements of communal life are also shared.

A family that plays, works, fights, eats, gives, receives, laughs, cries, thinks, shares, serves, suffers, and celebrates together....... stays together.

It is also important for a family to be able to stay together, even when they are apart.

As we experience years of life, we will discover more and more occasions and situations when a family needs to be apart. For example, my twin brother, Ronnie, and I shared a womb, a crib, a bottle, parents, a bedroom, a classroom, toys, clothes, and at times, even a toilet. We could do that; we are twins. But using the toilet quickly became something that we needed to do apart.

In the Jewish world of Jesus, community was always a central concept. The individual was always seen as a part of the community, and the community was always thought of as an individual. The entire community, past, present, and future were considered as being together, because God’s covenant was made with all people of all generations past, present, and future (Deut. 29:15). –Marvin Wilson, Our Father Abraham, page 187.

God is an all inclusive God. He is a family God. God did not call Jacob to be His person; He called Israel to be His people. As far as Jesus is concerned, there is no private God, but a God who is always “our” God.

Imagine, for a moment, a family of 15 where one of the children has a habit of always walking into the house after school and without saying a word to anyone, goes straight to her dad, takes him off to a private place, and shares, with him alone, what’s going on in her life. She tells him of how great her day is going, how much she appreciates what he gave her for supper, and how thankful she is for her allowance. She also shares how scared she was last night in her dark room, when it was time to go to bed, how she’s being made fun of at school by some of the other kids, or how sick she’s feeling when she has the flu. No other member of the family is ever privy to her hurts, hopes, and happiness. No other member ever has the chance to help, share, or just listen.

Too many followers of Jesus, like that sister, want a personal Savior, private devotions, private confession, private worship, and individual time with Jesus. And…that’s all they want.

Being united is Jesus’ greatest hope for His followers (John 17:20-26).

Christ’s hope is that we will find fellowship, and by fellowship, we will find the joy that comes with serving Him and serving with Him, as a family.

Forever learning,
Johnny

No matter how busy I get, I always have time for the fans.

This guy couldn't wait to meet

the great John Gainey.

You can see how proud he is. Can't you?

Always in Training

Let's talk baptism.

Some of us believe that baptism should be done by full emersion and some believe in sprinkling. There is actually some really interesting background concerning baptism. When the non-Jewish converts began to take over the Christian movement, baptism was an issue that required explanation for the purpose of continuity. So, someone wrote out the process in the second century allowing for baptism to be done in a number of ways, which is why there is so much confusion today.

For the Jews, there was only one way—a person would get in the water with no clothes and no assistance. The person would spread his or her arms, legs, toes, and fingers to make sure the water cleansed every part of the body. No one got in the water with them and, when they were done, they would walk out alone, while the priest would offer them a hand as they came near the shore to help them out of the water.

The non-Jews, not fully understanding the ancient Jewish ritual, said that a person could be fully immersed, but only in running water like a river, unless there was no river. Where there was no running water a person could be baptized in still water, unless there was no still water. Where there were no lakes, ponds, rivers, ocean, large bathtubs…large bodies of water, a person could have water poured over his or her head three times for each of the members of the Trinity. In other words, for the non-Jews, as long as you use water, it doesn’t matter how or where you are baptized.

Baptism was an ancient Jewish activity that was actually not a ritual at all, but more of an act of respect and preparation for entering the Temple, kind of like taking off your shoes before walking on the carpet in a house. Every Jew would go into the pool before entering the Temple where they would give their offerings.

John’s baptism was a bit different than the typical baptism, because it was a cleansing of sins, not just a cleansing of dust on the body. Still it was done in the ancient Jewish way, which meant “you go it alone.”

“Josephus records that John’s baptizing, was a secondary purification of the body after, and only after, purification of the soul was already achieved. It was ‘a consecration of the body implying that the soul was already thoroughly cleansed by right behavior.’ And that the latter meant ‘to practice justice toward their fellows and piety toward God.’”—John Dominic Crossan & Jonathan L. Reed, Excavating Jesus: Beneath the Stones, Behind the Texts, page 116

I am learning that we often debate and defend understandings of which we really have very little historical understanding at all. It's like we show up to a battle without prior knowledge of where or who we will be fighting. Often we suit up, grab our rifles, and start firing, only to find that the enemy is microscopic. It's really sad when the warrior refuses to believe that he can't kill germs with an M-16, so he just keeps shooting and believes he is winning. Even more sad is the one who fights when there's no battle.

This is a great place to add another John Maxwell nugget. John said that he talks with many supervisors who say their number one frustration is when they spend time and money training someone only to have them leave. Maxwell said, "There is something far worse than to train someone and have them leave--not train them and have them stay."

The same could be said of untrained soldiers of God. God's soldiers are always in training, otherwise they are AWOL.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Hello Idols

How often do we place ourselves in the role of worshiper without first being a forgiver? Why do we forgive? Why do we worship? Often the answer hovers dangerously close to being, "To meet my needs."

Jesus said “first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift” (Matthew 5:23-24).

This teaching of Jesus gets its roots from the ancient Jews. There is a 10-day period between the Jewish New year and the Day of Atonement. This 10-day stretch of time was to be used by all Jews to seek reconciliation from one another, followed by a nation-wide fast.

The great fast on the Day of Atonement was not to be observed by any person who did not first seek forgiveness from his or her neighbor.

Imagine for a moment how wonderful an observance this was as a magnificent communal experience for all God’s people when they spent 10 days reconciling all wrongs and bringing the entire nation to a place of peace with one another.

One survivor of the Holocaust is recorded to say, “If you could lick my heart, it would poison you.” This is the extreme, but a good example of the kind of dissention that was to be ridden of before the Day of Atonement and participation in the great fast.

First century Jews, including Jesus, placed such a high value on forgiving neighbors that the sages would teach, as recorded in the Mishnah,

“For transgressions that are between a person and God, the Day of Atonement effects atonement, but for the transgressions that are between a person and his or her neighbor, the Day of Atonement effects atonement only if one first has appeased ones neighbor.” –Brad Young, The Parables, page 124.

This is also the backdrop for Jesus' parable, “The Merciful Lord and His Unforgiving Servant” (Matthew 18:23-35).

The main goal of the Day of Atonement was for all of God's people to imitate Him as a forgiving and merciful being. God desires that we imitate Him by forgiving one another.

When God created human beings, He created them "in His image." The word "image" in Hebrew is the same word translated "idol." God tells us not to create idols, for we are not to go to anything or anyone other than God to have our needs met.

Yet God created many idols. He created each and every person, so that He could come to us and have us meet His needs.

One of God's greatest needs, of which He comes to His images in order to have met, is the need for his children to be reconciled with one another so that they can worship Him with clean hearts.

Forgive first and then come and worship your God.

Forever learning,
Johnny

Nuggets of Wisdom

Today was a fantastic day. I spent the entire day gleaning wisdom from two of my favorite leaders—Dr. John C. Maxwell and Major Al Smith.

Wow! This is a day that I will never forget.

John Maxwell reminded me of some wonderful and powerful truths today, such as

“The two greatest days of your life are the day you are born and the day you learn why.”

“When you practice on your weaknesses, you don’t get better, you get consistent. When you practice on your strengths, you get better at what you are already gifted to do.”

He also reminded me of Paul Harvey’s quote, “You know when you’re on the road to success because it’s uphill all the way.” Success requires hard work along with constantly working on your strengths to get better and better.

“Every day you are either preparing or repairing.”

“Most people don’t lead their lives; they accept them.”

“Experience doesn’t bring wisdom, experience evaluation does. When you fail, stay down there for a while and figure out what went wrong. Don’t run away from your failures, evaluate them and learn from them.”

“Most people like the perks of leadership, not the price of leadership. When you become a leader you give up many rights; one being the right to put yourself before your followers. On the other hand, you need to be the number one priority for developing yourself because you can’t take others where you haven’t been.”

“To be successful you don’t have to do everything right, you just have to stop doing what’s wrong.”

“Don’t swat a fly off someone’s forehead with a hammer. The number one killer of relationships happens when we overreact to a situation. Often the “reaction” is worse than the “action” that has caused us to react.” (Anyone have teenagers? This one definitely hit home with me.)

Finally, John’s four suggested ingredients for being successful:

1. Being Relational. (“People won’t go along with you, if they can’t get along with you.”)
2. Help other people get better. (People who are around successful people get better themselves.)
3. A Good Attitude (Successful people have an uncommonly good attitude during adversity.)
4. Be an effective leader (Everything rises and falls on leadership.)


Hopefully you can use some of this. If not, remember “It’s what you learn after you know it all that really counts.” Who said that? Oh yeah, John Maxwell.

Grace and peace,
Johnny

If You Live Today...

"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 7:21 NIV).

For Jesus and His followers the Kingdom of Heaven was
1. The power of God—that is, God doing what he wants.
2. The people of God—that is, people doing what God wants. –Brad Young, Jesus the Jewish Theologian.

"The expression malchut shamayim (kingdom of heaven) appears only in rabbinic literature and the Gospels.
The rabbis’ view was that to ensure that the observance of the mitsvot or commandments would not be mechanical; one should first commit oneself to the Kingdom of Heaven before beginning to observe God’s commandments. This committing oneself to the Kingdom of Heaven is formalized by one’s confession of the Shema, the declaration that there is but one God, but its practical expression is in the observance of the commandments. In effect, the moment a person did a good deed — that is, the will of God — at that moment he came into the Kingdom of Heaven.
There is a final redemption or completion of the Kingdom, but both Jesus and the rabbis generally viewed the Kingdom in a more practical, everyday way: doing the will of God. They would have viewed the final redemption in a fashion similar to the well-known rabbinic saying found in the Mishnah tractate Avot 2:16: 'It is not your part to finish the task, yet neither are you free to desist from it.'
There is a story in rabbinic literature that helps illustrate the first-century Jewish understanding of the Kingdom of Heaven.

A bridegroom is exempt from reciting the Shema on the first night of his marriage. . . . When Rabban Gamaliel married he recited the Shema on the first night. His disciples said to him: 'Master, didn’t you teach us that a bridegroom is exempt from reciting the Shema on the first night?' 'I will not listen to you,' he replied, 'so as to cast off from myself the Kingdom of Heaven even for a moment' (Mishnah, Berachot 2:5)." -Shmuel Safrai, The Kingdom of Heaven

It is worth mentioning, as many of you will remember from Scripture, that Gamaliel was Paul’s teacher.

With this concept of malchut shamayim (mal-koot sha ma yeem), I have pondered the thought of the common evangelical approach for the invitation to Christ:

“If you die today, will you go to heaven or hell?”

Knowing that Jesus called His followers and their movement of doing God’s will “The Kingdom of Heaven,” I would have to question whether or not the above question is the right one to ask.
In fact, I believe that the correct question is:

“If you “live” today, will you do God's will or your will?

Let's stop teaching that the invitation of Jesus is only a way to die a better death, when, according to Jesus, it is the way to live a more abundant life.

Forever learning,
Johnny

thelivingroom @ thesalvationarmy.sanfordnc

Here in Sanford, The Salvation Army has put on a different kind of face.

Staci and I have allowed our home to become a “miniature temple” on Sundays as we lead worship in our living room. In fact, we call it The Living Room at The Salvation Army.

This Sunday will be our first Sunday in five weeks that we go to The Living Room in a place other than our home. We, as a corps, have turned the chapel into a…Living Room. We have round tables with chairs, a couch with a rug beside it where small kids can play by their parents who are seated on the couch. There is a small round coffee table that we have placed 5 little chairs around for little ones to sit at and color on butcher paper with colored pencils.

We have a credenza that will be set up with coffee, tea, juice, and other goodies for people to pick up on their way into worship. And there’s a tall swivel chair for me to sit on while I teach, with a music stand and a table beside me for a laptop and my Bible. There will even be a lamp on the table.

Staci has made beautiful table cloths for all the tables and amazing curtains for the windows. It will look like an honest-to-goodness living room with a touch of coffee-shop and the theme of the room is "coffee." We have coffee pots and cups for decorations and there is a sugar and creamer dish on each round table. We even have awesome coffee cups for everyone to use.

I know that some will criticize our approach, and that’s okay. I would not be Johnny Gainey if I wasn’t doing something new, different, and controversial in order to obey God’s call and do my best to do His will despite my naysayer comrades. I have yet to live a day as an Officer of The Salvation Army when I haven't been stirring up the gossip ponds. I still love you though.

Like one Officer I know says, “They only talk about you when you’re doing something.”

So, before the rumors start, let me share my personal faith story of how worshiping in my home has impacted me and my family.

The impact of home worship has had a major impact on my family. My children now see worship as a part of our world, home, work, play…lives, rather than a part of what we do at the corps. We are also able to develop a fantastic family from those who worship with us.

Please pray for The Salvation Army in Sanford, and for all those involved. We are truly a “Family of God.”

Grace and peace,
Johnny