Building Character

Tonight's Hard Sayings of Jesus is based on Matthew 5:34:  "But I say to you, do not swear at all..."  Well damn!  Actually, Jesus is asking us, his followers, to be men and women of our word.  James, the brother of Jesus, exhorts us to let our "yes be yes" and our "no be no" (James 5:12).  We should not be known as people who must swear an oath before others will believe what we are saying.  We should seek to be the type of people who are known simply for being honest. 

Behaving in this manner allows our faith to show through and evidences not only our commitment to Jesus Christ as Lord, but the character of our faith. 

The old saying goes: "Honesty is the best policy."  Our world, however, paints truth in shades of gray.  Honesty may be the best policy, but it's not always the easy policy.  It will not always lead to promotions, raises, or making friends.  It wouldn't be too far of a stretch to say that sometimes honesty leads to suffering--our own!  Our Romans text for this Sunday is from Romans 5 (vv1-5):
         ...but we also boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us...

Our faith demands that we make decisions that will cause us to suffer--at least according to the world's point of view.  But this builds character, and refines the faith we have been given, that we may be grow into mature men and women of faith.  Suffering is only bad when it happens for no purpose.  As followers of Jesus Christ, we know that everything in life is an opportunity for our faith to grow and be seen.
 

Websites

We've been without a church website for about 3 months.  That's basically cyber-suicide in the 21st Century.  Anyone who is checking out our church for the first time is going to do so online.  Plan A hit some road bumps, so we're onto Plan B. 

I wish I had any kind of computer skills.  You know, because chicks dig guys with skills--nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills...  Web building is on my wish list of skill sets.  So is guitar playing.  And speaking Chinese. 

Unfortunately, it'll be a cold day someplace very warm before I achieve all these skills.  Until then, I'll have to rely on the gifts of others.  Which sounds vaguely biblical.  ...huh...

Strike Two

I missed last week blogging and am now posting this on Thursday evening instead of Tuesday morning.  No excuse.

Last Friday we did our innagural Journeys of Paul Wine Tasting.  It was awesome!  We traveled from Crete (where Paul left Titus) to Philippi, to Boerea, to Corinth, Athens, and Patras (where St. Andrew was killed).  We finished the tasting in Galilee with a fantastic Yarden Merlot and an incredible Golan Moscato that tasted like liquid sunshine!

One of the coolest things was the fact that we didn't drink much of the most popular American grape varieties.  We had Roditis and Savatiano grapes, St. George grapes, Kotsifali and Mantilaria grapes (indigenous to Crete), and many others.  It was fun to taste the very unusual flavors.

Wine + church + fun people = excellent time had by all!  Now I see why Jesus turned 180 gallons of water into wine and why he didn't just serve grape juice at the last supper.  :-)