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Be a Berean!
The
Bereans…received the message with great eagerness and
examined the Scriptures every day.
(Acts 17:11)
[“Be a Berean” will regularly cover topics that arise during
Lockport Alliance Bible classes.
Contact Franklyn Pfeil–liftedup@lockportalliance.org–with
questions or comments.]
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"WHOOSH"
Except for the last seven or eight years at LAC, I've
been unchurched for most of my life. If you were to hear me during unguarded moments, you'd be
able to tell:
"We have a great band!" I often exclaim on Sundays as
we drive home.
"They're called the 'worship team,' Franklyn."
"Yeah, well, they're great whatever they are, aren't
they! And our
priest--just when I think he can't top last week, he nails
another one!"
"Kevin's our pastor, not a priest."
"Oh…you say 'to-ma-to' and I say 'to-mah-to'.
Whatever you call him, he brings it!"
I went to church as a kid, but I didn't understand
much. They
seemed to do their darnedest to hide the light under a
bushel basket.
Between "Ave Maria" and "Kyrie Eleison" and "Adeste Fideles,"
I didn't have a clue.
But during those summers, I went to Camp Kenan, where
I learned "Michael Rowed the Boat Ashore;" "The Church in
the Wildwood;" "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot;" "How Great Thou
Art;" "Jacob's Ladder;" and "The Wise Man Built His House
Upon the Rock"--
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
The wise man built his house upon the rock,
And the rains came tumblin' down.
Oh yes, the rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
And the house on the rock stood firm.
But…
The crazy man built his house upon the sand,
The crazy man built his house upon the sand,
The crazy man built his house upon the sand,
And the rains came tumblin' down.
Oh yes, the rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
The rains came down and the floods came up,
And the house on the sand went WHOOSH!!….
I learned that song when I was seven.
It was wacky and funny and at the end when the house
blows away, we always yelled out the "WHOOSH" with all our
might!
I loved Camp Kenan, and my brother and I continued to
go there every summer.
When I was about twelve, in the camp chapel--a small
clearing overlooking the lake, covered by boughs of vaulting
trees--I heard Goose Gray, the renowned story-teller, recite
the Sermon on the Mount.
Goose, in his prime, could take the bushel basket off
the candle. We
were spellbound.
To our surprise and delight, in the final sentences
of the Sermon on the Mount, we heard familiar phrases:
Every one then who hears these words of mine and acts on
them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the
rock;
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it
had been founded on the rock.
And every one who hears these words of mine and does not act
on them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon
the sand;
and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew
and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the
fall of it.
And when Jesus finished these words, the crowds were
astonished at his teaching,
for he taught them as one who had authority, and not as
their scribes.
We all looked to each other, mouthing out--That's
'The Crazy Man' song!
Soon thereafter, sooner than I knew, ensued 30 years
of wandering. I
do not know when I entered that wilderness.
I didn't even know I'd been in a wilderness, until
the day when…
a
seed--a story told by the King, entrusted to a story-teller
bearing His image, planted in subterranean strata during
forgotten lakeshore summers--pushed its way, in a season of
its own choosing, towards the Light whence it derived.
It was then that I decided to rebuild my life
according to the Scriptures.
I can't speak with the commanding authority of Jesus
Christ, nor can I recite with the mellifluent cadences of
Goose Gray in his younger day.
But I can craft an essay that will leave you with the
words Jesus left with the people on the mountainside--along
with a question that His Word begs:
Every one then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will
be like a wise man.
And every one who hears these words of mine and does not act on
them will be like a foolish man.
Had enough of
'WHOOSH' lately?
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Scripture cited: Matthew 7:24-29
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It is our fervent hope that you will 'be a Berean' by
attending one of these Bible-based classes this week! —
"Approaching God:
Lessons from the Inspired Prayers of Scripture"
--Sunday at 9:45
"Jesus, the One and Only"--Sunday at 9:45
"Speak God's Word"--Sunday at 9:45
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