CENTERLANE SCRIBBLES Volume 1, Number 1 March 13, 2008

THE NEWSLETTER:

We are starting a weekly news/devotional letter. It may begin in fits and starts, since the J Lowreys are headed for sunny Florida next week, but hopefully we can get this going every week by April. If you have thoughts, devotionals, announcements, favorite scriptures, or whatever, that you would like to share with everyone, send them to me and I'll get them in.

Since this is our first attempt at this, let me know if there are problems about how the newsletter shows up in your e-mail client.

~ Jer

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Ribfest 2008:

Be thinking and praying about a date for this event. Ribfest 2007 is probably the most successful outreach event we've done since we began Centerlane.

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Scripture for the Week:

Who among you is wise and understanding? Let him show by his good behavior his deeds in the gentleness of wisdom. But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and so lie against the truth. James 3:13-14.

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Teaching Schedule for the week of March 16:

Sunday Morning - Chuck Slocum / Sunday Night - Jeremy Lowrey / Monday Night - Jeremy Lowrey / Tuesday Night - Group Effort

Remember to try the Centerlane Forum.

CHAD'S LATEST NEWSPAPER ARTICLE:

     Annie Dillard wrote, “Does anyone have the foggiest idea of what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning.” We talk about this amazing, powerful God, but we act like saving the world is all up to poor us, and, truth is, we do a cruddy job of it when we try to do it alone.

     I think, as the church, we start off with the greatest of intentions, wanting to show the world Jesus. Then things get to a point where we pretty much have to make a choice between our time and our life choices and the Mission of Jesus. So many times, we decide to just sit down when confronted with the intensity of the gospel. We decide that maybe telling people about our church and our great programs and having the occasional spaghetti supper is just as good.

     But there’s hope. Jesus was talking to his disciples and said, “Let me tell you, it’s easier to gallop a camel through a needle’s eye than for the rich to enter God’s kingdom.” The disciples were staggered. “Then who has any chance at all?” Jesus looked hard at them and said, “No chance at all if you think you can pull it off yourself. Every chance in the world if you trust God to do it.”

     So, that’s the thing. We either trust God or it doesn’t get done. The same power that raised Christ from the dead is available to us and we seem to have forgotten, or are too afraid to trust God. Truth is: your community, it’s not going to change. That atheist friend of yours, he’s not going to change. People usually stay the way they are. Nothing’s going to change - that is, if you’re relying on yourself and your methods. But, with God… well all things are possible with Him.

You can find all of Chad and Chuck's newspaper articles at: http://www.welied.org

I've been thinking a lot lately about our ministry to the believers in the community around us. There is a tendency in any group that finds itself separated (in other words, every separate church assembly) from other believers in a larger community to view itself as more important than it is, or even to think of those believers in other assemblies around it as less important, or as irrelevant to its ministry. This we cannot afford. In the last prayer Jesus lifted up for us before He gave His life for us, Jesus expressed the desire of His heart for believers - that we would be unified in Him. Jesus prayed that "The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me." The Truth is that God's plan for our lives, and for those of the believers in other bodies that we currently find ourselves separated from, is unity.

This doesn't mean that we can compromise truth, faith, hope, or love, and it may seem that because of this, unity in our current world is an impossiblity. In response to that though, I would say re-read Chad's article above. With God, nothing is impossible. We need to conform our desires to those of Jesus. We need to desire unity even with those brothers and sisters who have strayed far from the mission and message of Jesus. We need to apply the same principles to our brothers and sisters who are not a part of this group that we seek to apply to each other - love, kindness, mercy, forgiveness, and a desire to be servants, not leaders. We can't make fun, or belittle, or be bitter, or become stumbling blocks for our own selfish interests. The only stumbling block that should exist in our lives, and in theirs, is Jesus. We need to pray, as Jesus did, for unity in purpose, desire and mission. We need a vision of a larger unified church community intent on one purpose - knowing nothing but Christ and Him crucified. If this were truly the desire of our hearts and prayers, we might wake up one day to find only one church around us. The Church of Jesus Christ at Sheridan - or as Paul would put it "the saints who are at Sheridan and who are faithful in Christ Jesus." We need our brothers and sisters to be our family.

"Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." Ephesians 4:1-3.

I was not planning on sending anything out tonight, but as I was going over some thoughts with someone and memories came back and conviction fell over my spirit. Here's the story:

I was a sophmore in high-school when I joined the football team. I did not know the impact it would have on my life, nor did I care at the time. I was a lost kid interested in the chicks and that was it. I had no idea what position I would play or should play so I went with the defensive group. Coach Kenny Bonds was the coach. He was a comical, young, vibrant coach dripping with a personality that made many fall in love with him. Later I would be moved to the offensive line with Jerry Ginn as the coach of the O-line. This would prove to be my home for the rest of my high-school football days and I loved every minute of it. The rival broke out that spring between the defense and offense and Kenny Bonds would come to me before practice saying things to get me pumped up. He never failed, it always worked. Coach Bonds was loved by the students.

I went to NorthEast Louisiana University after I graduated and in my spring semester something happend. I returned from school and found a note on the door intsructing me to stay home; it was from my mother. I was asked to sit down as she told me that Coach Bonds had been murdered. The phone was ringing off the hook, my mind was going nuts, I was numb, in shock, and it seemed like I was on a tilt-a-whirl. I remember going to the bathroom and breaking down not knowing what it would be like to go and see his truck not there and knowing why.

The most awesome act of love was shown at his memorial. Mrs. Bonds, Kenny's mother, stood up and in front of the entire Farmerville High School Gym said, " I forgive whoever did this". This is a testimony that will impact my life until the Father calls me home. This is a woman who loved her son deeply and had him snatched away from her. This is a woman who already lost a child before suddenly, and to forgive in front of an angry mob, the one(s) who did this was incredible. Her talk to us that day was aimed at impacting the lives of those who were there and listening. She was on a mission. A mission of grace, a mission of forgiveness, a mission of love. She spoke and God was glorified.

Forgiveness is the most Christ-Like action one can take to show love. "For in this God showed His love, while we were yet still sinners, Christ died for us"

From the Heart

Chuck.

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The contents of this newsletter are the 2008 copyright of Centerlane Church, P O Box 153, Sheridan, Arkansas 72150 - 870-329-4957. All rights are reserved. Centerlane grants a limited non-exclusive license to reprint and redistribute individual articles or the entire newsletter so long as such redistribution or reprinting is not sold and/or is not distributed in return for charitable contributions - in other words, you have to give it away for free or get our permission to sell it :) If you would like to be removed from our mailing list, please e-mail us at clcoutreach@alltel.net.