Yes, that's Brad Pitt.
I'll let you draw the appropriate moral on your own.
We have friends from CA who moved to Georgia years ago. Their daughter graduated from the Univ. of Alabama and they are HUGE 'Bama fans. They are also bummed 'Bama fans.
I heard something interesting on the CBS News tonight. If we go over the fiscal cliff the military will take 50% of the mandated cuts and, as Sect. of Defense Pannetta says, that will decimate our armed forces.
In one of the recent presidential debates President Obama said that the U.S. spends more on its military than the next ten largest national budgets combined. China, Russia, Great Britain, Germany.... add 'em all up and they don't spend on their militaries what we do on ours.
But that would STILL be true after those huge fiscal cliff-induced cuts.
Yikes!
Some sermons are more fun to preach than others, and this morning was one of those.
We just finished our series in Romans so this morning was what I call a one-off, not part of a series.
We looked at the Greek word charis, (pronounced KAR-is), which in the NT is normally translated "grace," but has what are called cognates - related words built upon that root. Charis and its cognates appear all through the NT and that's one indication of how central the concept of grace is to the Christian faith. Being a Christian is not about being good enough or doing anything; it's about God's gracious (cognate) gift (cognate) of life, given to us freely despite how obviously undeserving we are. We have been persistently and willfully sinful, but God in his grace gives us the gift of life, made possible through the sacrificial death of his Son.
But wait! There's more!
As believers have been the recipients of God's grace, so we are called upon to model that grace in our conduct toward others. The word "gracious" should fit us as individuals. No sharp edges, no harshness; instead, an easy-going spirit ready to forgive any slight and assist with any need.
Still more!
What's true of individual believers should also be true of his corporate body, the church.
So I told them about a new line item in Pathway's budget for the fiscal year that begins on January 2st. The "Charis Fund" will be administered by a committee of three Pathway people who are already making contact with school principals and nurses, police agencies, pediatric clinics and the like. If/when those people in the community become aware of a short-term emergency need they contact the Charis committee to let them know. Priority will be given to single moms and kids (cf "widows and orphans" in the NT) and the goal is to help with things like car repairs, school clothing, medical equipment not covered by insurance, etc., not regular monthly expenses. Similar to the concept behind micro-loans our hope is to make a significant difference at a critical time with a relatively modest financial outlay.
We don't know how this will work. Will we be swamped with needs and use up the the budgeted amount very quickly, or the opposite? Are there huge flaws in this plan the will make it unworkable as we've set it up? Maybe, but we have to start somewhere and we can always make adjustments as we see how it's going. The important thing is that we're doing it. This isn't outreach; the goal isn't to advance Pathway Bible Church, just to be gracious by meeting a need when and where we can. The amount in the fund is relatively modest, but it's a start, a shot in the dark this first year.
I enjoyed preaching this sermon because it was an opportunity to talk about what I think will be a good thing, a living out of our faith and mandate. We also talked about how we can do this on an individual level, about setting up our own personal Charis Fund. But I'm particularly pleased that the elders at Pathway easily agreed that this was a very good thing for our church.
I had fun this morning.
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