by Stan Mitchell

Father: "Son, when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he walked seven miles to school."

Son: "Dad, when Abraham Lincoln was your age, he was president!"

We are usually pretty quick to see how others should behave; we have high expectations ... for them! We instinctively know what someone else should do to handle their problems, and have a blind spot for our own failures. We have cliches for their solutions, but feel that our own problems are "more complicated," and therefore require our bending the rules a little.

"Peter turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved was following them...When Peter saw him, he asked, 'Lord, what about him?' Jesus answered, 'If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you? You must follow me" (John 21:20,22, NIV).

Jesus' sharp reply to Peter's query about John is almost shocking, until you think of his final exhortation:

"You must follow me."

Following Jesus is a full-time job, engaging enormous resources of will and concentration. Those who are engulfed in this consuming task will have little time for setting standards for others, or trying to control their lives.

What was Jesus when he was your age?

by Stan Mitchell

Often we hear that "prayer changes things." I have only one question. It deals not with what prayer changes, but whom.

Perhaps we are under the illusion that it is the role of prayer to change God's mind. The astounding thing is that there are indeed times when frail flesh can change the intention of eternal Deity! Moses averted God's anger against Israel (Exodus 32:11-14); Hezekiah bought extra time (Isaiah 38:1-8). These incidents remind us that "the prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective" (James 5:16, NIV). Talk about friends in high places, the child of God can go to the most powerful figure in existence and be heard!

But the marvel of prayer lies not in our ability to change God, but in his ability to change us. When we pray, we admit that we need his help; we express humility and dependence with regard to the course of our lives; we throw ourselves on his mercy; we seek his wisdom, his strength, his love. When we pray, the universe is reoriented. Our universe!

Prayer isn't about changing God's mind; it's about changing ours! "God," someone has said, "never alters the robe of righteousness to fit a man; he changes the man to fit the robe." God seeks to mold us, change us, make us something wonderfully better. And the process begins when our posture changes from standing to kneeling.

"'O house of Israel, can I not do to you as this potter does?' declares the Lord. 'Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel'" (Jeremiah 18:6).

Prayer won't change things until we allow it to change us.

by Stan Mitchell

I have just reread Alan Paton's classic, "Cry the Beloved Country." In his lovely, heartbreaking tale of South Africa, Paton tells of a young black man named Absolom who breaks into a house in white, suburban Johannesburg. He and his accomplices, however, are discovered, and in the ensuing fight the man of the house is murdered. It turns out that the fathers of both killer and victim are neighbors - living amongst the beautiful hills of Kwazulu-Natal. The bereaved father is a commercial farmer named Jarvis, and the murderer's father a Zulu minister.

Absolom is arrested for killing Jarvis' son, and sentenced to death. The elderly minister appeals for his life, and awaits word of the appeal's success. By chance, when the letter comes, he and Jarvis are caught in a terrific thunderstorm and take refuge in the little village church building. Paton writes:

"It was nearly over when Jarvis rose and stood in the aisle near Kumalo. Without looking at the old man he said, 'Is there mercy?'"

There was no mercy. Absolom would be executed, and both fathers would suffer their own unique grief. Of course in earthly courts, justice must prevail; a young man who takes another's life must suffer the consequences. But Kumalo, a man of great dignity, finds to his surprise that rather than seek revenge, Jarvis offers to rebuild the little church building and build a dam to provide water for the valley of Umzimkulu.

Rather than be overcome by vengeance, their suffering brought these two men together, the taciturn white farmer and the simple preacher. And, one wonders, could their South Africa one day also be united?

But Christians already know that suffering and loss bring people together, for the sacrifice of Christ reconciles us (or ought to) to each other. How could we, who needed Christ's mercy, look down on another mercy-given child of God? How could we who have been forgiven, refuse to forgive?

Jesus brought us together in his dying: "to reconcile both of them (Jew and Gentile) through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility" (Ephesians 2:16, NIV).

South Africa - and our sad old earth - is a pretty tough place. But yes - apparently there is mercy.

by Stan Mitchell

"A nation that forgets its past has no future." (Winston Churchill)

I recently spoke to a cleric in another state who says his denomination is being "torn apart" over the question of whether they should worship with an organ, or a band. Personally he felt the organ was more "reverent." I commiserated with him, for division is always heartbreaking, but I also pointed out (kindly, I hope) that while the Bible says nothing about bands and organs, it says a great deal about our worship in song.

For Churches of Christ it has never been about what society demands. We have never adopted a plan of action simply because "church growth studies" say the church will grow thereby. We have always looked to the past, for we are a Restoration Movement.

What we learned from the days of Campbell and Stone, and in the mid part of the twentieth century is that when a church stands fervently for the word of God, that there are people out there who are hungry to hear it, and the church will grow. In both periods, the churches of Christ were the fastest growing religious fellowship in America.

What we learn from the era of Constantine the Great, when the church began to fall away from scripture, and from the late nineteenth century when churches of Christ divided when some moved beyond what scripture said, was that when humans begin to feel they are superior to God's word, division and heartbreak is the inevitable end.

Of course we learn most when we turn to the pages of sacred history - the Scriptures - and seek its pages for warnings, commands, example and precedents. We seek to restore the New Testament church's love, her desire to obey God, her world-wide vision. Going back to the Bible is not divisive; leaving God's word for our own selfish desires - now that's always divisive.

"Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths; ask for where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls" (Jeremiah 6:16, NIV).

by Stan Mitchell

"We will not hide them from their children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, the power, and wonders he has done" (Psalm 78:4).

On the way home the little boy sat quietly in the back seat. Then mom noticed he had started to cry.

"Why Johnny, whatever can be the matter?"

"Today," the distraught boy began, "the preacher said all children should be in a Christian family."

"So why did that upset you?"

"Because," the little fellow answered, "I want to stay with you and dad!"

What makes a family "Christian"? There are, apparently, some families that assume they are Christian. To this young fellow, his parent's Christianity wasn't obvious; do you suppose he was wrong, or do our kids have a pretty good idea about what is first in our lives?

Who is first in your life? Jesus Christ, you say? Then do you move your weekly schedule around to accommodate him at worship and Bible class? When the heat of summer rolls around, does your attendance cool off? When someone in church says something you don't like, do you abandon Christ and his church? Do you read your Bible and pray to God daily? Are there habits within your home life that would contradict your fine words and actions on a Sunday, such as profanity, alcoholism, anger, or constant derision directed at the church?

Don't answer those question. Ask them to your children. They will know. The Lord does, too.