Worship Service THIS Sunday 7/2

The first worship service for The Foundation ministry is going to be this Sunday 7/2 @ 1:30. The location will be in the gym at Aldersgate Church. The building is just to the left of the main sanctuary. Aldersgate is located on 74 between Ingles and Taco Bell.

This service will be a little change of pace from other worship services you have been to, so invite a friend and come check it out. I hear tell that there will be a Lattimore Cops video as well as food being served. Aaron Simmons will be leading the band and Justin Webb will bring the Word so I'm expecting great things. If you have any questions about the service or how to get there email us at thecorefoundation@gmail.com and we will get back to you.

We'll see ya on Sunday!!

Lessons Learned from Ananias

This evening while I was reading my Bible, I came upon an interesting and sometimes puzzling or even frightening passage of scripture dealing with an instance of sudden death and divine judgment in the early church on which I thought I could write a brief blog. The passage is Acts 5:1-11. Basically what happens is that when people are making offerings to the church, a married couple, Ananias and Sapphira, sell a piece of land. Ananias keeps back part of the money for himself and then brings the rest of the money to the apostles as an offering and tells them it was the full price he got for the field. Somehow knowing that Ananias is lying, Peter confronts him about it, Ananias then dies instantly, and later his wife comes in and the same happens to her.
After reading this I had several questions: Were these two members of the church since they were bringing money as an offering? Were they saved then? Do their actions reveal that they were not saved? Did they go to hell when they died instantly? Why did they die instantly for this one sin?
I assume that they were wealthy because they owned a field they could sell. Perhaps Ananias wanted to impress other members of the church by giving money, but at the same time did not really want to let go of his money and thus, kept back a portion for himself. Peter’s speech to him seems to reveal the inward disposition of Ananias’ heart. Peter says, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back part of the proceeds of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? How is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”
The lesson for us may be revealed in examining this statement. Saying that Satan has filled one’s heart is pretty powerful. Satan is the ultimate deceiver. Perhaps Ananias was deceived into thinking he could have it both ways. He could indulge his own selfish desires and appear externally as one living for God. Maybe he thought he could fool God, or had possibly talked himself into thinking that what he was doing was not wrong.
God is concerned about our little inner world that only he and we know about, our thoughts, motives, and priorities, as much, or more than external aspects of life. If nothing else, this passage certainly gives us incentive to always be honest with God in our hearts and to examine the condition of our heart and our motives to be sure we are not living selfishly or to impress others while attempting to portray the hypocritical appearance of one who serves God. What do you think?

Don't Scramble Your Yokes

I want to look briefly at the famous verse used by all of our grandmothers to warn us about dating or marrying non-christians. Well maybe your grandmother didn't tell you this verse and come to think of it, I don't think mine did either but I'm sure you've heard it said;

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"

This is a verse from Paul's second letter to the Corinthians and I think this verse has some major implications, but I do think many have misunderstood this verse and taken it out of context to meet their own personal agendas and beliefs. That's why you may have also heard a hellfire and brimestone fundamentalist Christian use this verse to support his claim that we should not hang out with non-christians, go to party, celebrate Halloween, or sit in a sport's bar and watch a football game. So does this verse mean, we shouldn't even share our scrambled eggs at breakfast with a non-christian in fear of our yokes gettting mixed together? Maybe, in a different kind of way, let me explain.

Let's talk about yokes. It might help to know what a yoke is, and no its not the kind that comes from an egg. To know about yokes we have to know about Rabbis. In Jesus' day there were rabbi's everywhere, in fact Jesus' diciples called him rabbi or "teacher." A rabbi was basically an interpreter. His role was to study, meditate and make interpretations on what it meant to live out the Torah or the first 5 books of the Old Testament. So rabbis went around teaching their interpretations of the scripture, which were basically sets of rules or lists on what was permitted and what was forbade for a faithful Jew. Different rabbis had different interpretations for what it meant to obey the Law; one example being the command to keep the Sabbath day holy. That's why we see Jesus' interpretation of the Sabbath command in Matthew 12, and various other times when Jesus says "You have heard it said...but I tell you..." Now these sets of rules and lists which were basically the rabbi's interpretation of how to live out the Torah as a faithful Jew, were called that rabbi's yoke. So if you were a disciple of a rabbi then you were following him because you believed that rabbi's interpretations were the closest to what God originally intended in the Sciptures. So whenever you followed a rabbi, it was said that you were taking up that rabbi's yoke. *

So don't quit on me now, we are gettin to the good stuff. Lets take our knowledge of yokes now and apply it to our feature verse in 2 Corinithians 6:14. "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers." What do you think Paul meant by this verse? I think it means that we shouldn't be yoked to an unbeliever like a disciple is to a rabbi. Or in other words, our core beliefs and interpretations on how to live life shouldn't be the same as a non-christian. Now can this happen if we celebrate halloween, hangout with unbelievers at parties, and go to sports bars? Maybe, but only if we fall into the ways of this world and take up another person's yoke. This verse doesn't mean that we shouldn't eat supper with our Atheist buddy, it just means that our beliefs shouldn't be influenced and changed to be the same as our Atheist buddy. This might make it hard to marry a non-christian who has a different yoke than you, especially since marriage means you become "one" with that person and your eggs are now in the same basket. Makes sense right. Good. Your Granny was right afterall. So don't be scramblin your yokes with other homies yo! Take up the yoke of the only rabbi who had it right, Jesus!

* Credit to Rob Bell's book, Velvet Elvis. Check this book out for a detailed explanation of a rabbi's yoke.

More Alaska and Book Reviews

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The two middle pictures are from an aerial flight we did up aroud Denali and are shots out of the airplane looking down at the glaciers. This glacier in the 3rd picture is a ridiculous 2 miles wide and 3000 feet deep in places. Crazy huh. Thats like God big, only He could make something so awesome I have to say. If you ever get the chance, go to Alaska. Hey I have an idea, we could all just go on a mission trip there!

Book Reviews:

While I was in Alaska I read two books which I both recommend.

Velvet Elvis: Repainting the Christian Faith by Rob Bell. This is Rob's first book. He is pastor of Mars Hill Church in Michigan which is one of the fastest growing churches in history. I had the privilege to hear him speak at a conference and man he was great. In this book he speaks a lot on the Jewish culture and how it shaped the gospels. He gives his interpretation of what the life of a Christ follower should look like and presents some real challenging, fresh, and new ideas on living like Jesus.

Revolution by George Barna. George is the head guy for the Barna Research Group which does all kind of polls on Christianity and our culture. You've probably heard the Barna polls quoted on CNN or FoxNews anytime Christians and statistics are mentioned. In this book he analyzes what Christianity is looking like in America and how it is changing. He calls this new change a Revolution which could be unlike any other movement in the last couple centuries. He wrote a book similar to this one in 1996 and predicted the way things would be 10 year later, which would be now, and he was 90% correct. In this book he predicts what the American churches are going to look like in about 20 years. Wanna be a Revolutionary? Check it out.

Denali Wilderness

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Well being the high-tech redneck that I am, I have managed to find a way to blog from the Alaskan Wilderness of all places. The photo above is a shot I took on top of a mountain looking towards Denali or Mt. McKinley, the tallest mountain in North America. We did a bus tour of Denali Park and on my way back I got the wild hair to hop off the bus and go climb a mountain by myself. Being an Eagle Scout I knew that it was stupid to go alone because I would pretty much be dead if I made a mistake because no one was around, but I thought, "heck I'll only be here once," so I went on in spite of being alone and spotting a Grizzly Bear less than a mile away. So I took off up the mountain which I thought wasn't going to be too hard to climb, and shortly after my ascent I realized I was very wrong. I would walk 20 steps and lay down because of how steep the hill was. At several points I climbed on my hands and knees. Once I made it to the peak of this mountain the view of Denali was incredible. And as a I sat on top, all I could think about was the majesty and glory of our God who created the mountain sitting before me. There is something about being on top of a mountain that brings you closer to God and into His presence (Moses is a biblical example), or atleast I sure feel that way. I also had this thought; we often feel like we are going through life alone, that our prayers are hitting the ceiling, that God has abandoned us and is no where to be found. When those thoughts cross our mind all we need do is take a moment and look around at nature to see God's hand. Evidence of God is all around us, we just need to open our eyes and clear our minds from the daily mundane. One need not think of the future when it comes to heaven, heaven is on earth right now. God's kingdom can be found in the here and now. As a Christian, NOW is the day of salvation and eternal life. A little piece of heaven can be found when we are in the presence of God whether it be on top of a mountain in Alaska or sitting in our office chair. That's why Jesus would have us to pray for God's kingdom to "come here on earth as it is in heaven." We don't have to wait until we are dead to experience heaven, we can see it here on earth if we just take our blinders off and see the hand of God among us!




More Pictures from Alaska to come!!

Leftover Grudges

With a repetitive screeching beep my alarm clock sounded letting me know that 6:00 AM had arrived this past Monday morning. Once again the joyous monotony of leaving my warm bed for a 10-hour work day was beginning. I sat up with a scowl on my face and put my feet down on the wrong side of the bed, so to speak. I had woken up mad, basically for no good reason. As I stumbled into the bathroom and inspected the haggard look on my face in the mirror, I begin to think of new things to be mad about. Moments later while in the shower, my mind drifted back to arguably the worst three years of my life, middle school. In the seventh grade, in Mrs. Cabaniss’ class, one kid used to pick on me ritually, making each new day a torturous experience. One day he came up behind me while we were waiting for the bell to ring and just punched me in the kidney’s as hard as he could. That blow prevented me from being able to sleep any that night because of the internal pain it caused. I started thinking while rinsing the scuds off, “He wasn’t that much bigger than me, I should have turned around and just broke his nose. I bet he would have peed his pants. No one ever would have expected the little skinny kid with glasses to have done something like that; I would have been suspended, but the whole middle school would have talked about it!”
Luckily such folly and futile thoughts left my mind as I grew more awake. However, something strange happened that afternoon at our softball scrimmage. The other team did not have quite enough people to play and had to pick up a couple extra players who just happened to be at the field. One of the guys they picked up to play with them was that kid who hit me in the kidneys. I probably hadn’t seen him in five years. With my eyes fixed on him as he stood next to home plate, I felt God ask me, “Do you still want to break his nose?” I answered in my thoughts, “No I would rather love him like you do.” I felt Him reply back, “Alright then.”
Unfortunately, I did not talk to that guy much the rest of that day. I should have. Before writing this blog though, it occurred to me that many of us probably have untold grudges in the backs of our minds that need to be dealt with. The debts need to be mentally canceled. While reading my bible today I realized that John the Baptist was killed because some woman held a grudge in Mark 6:17-29. Jesus himself said that what comes out of us from within such as evil thoughts, malice, and folly are what make us unclean in God’s sight in Mark 7:20-23. Check it out.

Foundation Update

For those of yall who didn't make it to the Cookout here is some new information about what is going on as of now:

HangOUT @ Steve's- New Night, New Time. The hangout has been changed to Wednesday nights at 8PM. So every Wednesday this summer we'll see you for a great time of fellowship, scripture discussion, board games and hanging out together. If you need directions, just let us know and we'll get them to ya.


First Worship Service- Our first woship service as The Foundation will be held on JULY 2nd @ 1:30 in the Aldersgate church gym. This should be an awesome service for you to bring friends to so be thinking about it now and get the word out. More information on the service later.


For those of you missing out on the Monday Munchies and Theological Tuesdays, we are sorry for the low number of posts. Things have been hectic so far this summer, but we are working on getting the posts back up more frequently, so keep checking the site for new blogs. Our apologies.

And for our readers in Australia, thanks so much for your continual visits, I hope this blog can be a blessing to you as you have also been to us.

Kickoff Party Finished

Thanks to everyone who made it out today to the kickoff party over at Aaron's. Ole Tyler threw down on some hamburgers and hotdogs and him being able to bring the grill was a big help. Also special thanks to the Simmon's family for allowing us to use their house and pool. I hope everyone enjoyed the shin-dig and we'll be doing it again soon, so keep checking the site and your email. If you want to be added to the email list, let me know.

We'll see everyone this Wednesday for the HangOUT. I'll try and post up everything that was on the information cards within the next couple days, as well as directions to the house we meet in.


If you have any questions, just leave comments and we'll get back to you. Thanks