Tag Archives: community

Faith

Community — A Place to Belong

“Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common.”  Acts 4:32

The first time I read this passage I thought, “Wow, that sounds pretty idealistic, a community that could share like that.”

IN COMMON

The word common is found in many important words:  Commune, Communion, Community, Communication, Commitment, and yes, Communism . . . For your rumination this day I simply offer the idea behind all these words — BELONGING.

To whom does it belong?  What belongs to us? Where do we belong?

Across the Red Dirt State there are a fantastic number of communities. I haven’t lived in Apache, Oklahoma in over 38 years, and yet I am connected, I belong. I am most familiar with the western part of the state. These communities are beautiful; they are a tapestry of hard working, caring people.  It takes people to act and demonstrate the meaning of each word in my little word-bank above.

Do you have a community? Are you committed to it? Do you commune there? 

Why community? The first community is the Holy Trinity. God has always existed in relationship and we are created in His image. We know there something beautiful about:

Unity – Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace Ephesians 4:2

Shared labor – Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ.  Galatians 6:2

Harmony – And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  Colossians 3:14

Belonging – Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. I Corinthians 12:27

       Connectivity –  they had everything in common.”  Acts 4:32

As we approach Easter weekend, let’s pray that church communities will come to life in a revival of sorts. The best individual revival is communion with God, through Christ, convey through the Holy Spirit. When this brings us wonderfully to our knees, I pray we can look to our left and to our right and there see others in communion too.

Commuity Baptist Church needs to be careful about leaving doors open. My only comment of the communism word, just another example of any system trying to build a kingdom WITHOUT God. Just ain't gonna work. Thanks Casey Darneel (Stetzer blog) for sharing the photo.
Man Cave

Brighter Lights In A Small Town

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The cast of characters in the hit TV drama, "Friday Night Lights." (courtesy popdose.com)

by Rob Loeber

Recently, I’ve developed an addiction to Friday Night Lights.

The TV drama is set in a small town in West Texas and centers on the life of the high school football coach, his family, and his players.  FNL has its share of soap opera moments and sometimes the storylines stretch the limits of believability, but the captivating thing about the show is how it truly captures life in a small town.  The entire community shuts down on Friday nights to watch its team take the field.  The players are celebrities and the coach is scrutinized for every single decision and play call he makes.  More than anything else, passion for the game of football and pride for the town, come pouring through the screen.

If you get away from the metropolitan areas and keep driving past the suburbs, you can still find the same kind of passion for high school football here in Oklahoma.  There are still sleepy little towns that come alive when the lights come on.

Beggs is one of those towns.  The community of 1,300 people features old houses, weathered trailers, and beat-up trucks driving down poorly paved roads that eventually lead you to the high school football stadium.

“We got a Dairy Queen, we got a stoplight, we got a convenience store, and we got football,” Beggs head coach Bob Craig told me as we stood in the middle of the football field.  “You should see this place on game days.”

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