May 12, 2024 - Tragedy is Sometimes an Opportunity that we may not fully Understand!
This past week, I learned of a friend's death in California. As we know, life is precious and not to be treated lightly, for each of us is created under the careful direction and planning of our creator God! When life & death matters come, many of us quickly jump to the "what ifs" or "if only they had done this or that" types of responses regarding the matter. Yet, such thoughts by us seldom make any difference as the circumstances can seldom be undone or reversed.
A number of years ago, one of our Hong Kong missionary families returned to the USA for furlough after 4 years of ministry. With 5 children who had all been born overseas, this family was well known for being a larger family that had integrated pretty well within the overseas community during their 22 years there. After being back in the USA for a number of months, it was time for the missionaries to return overseas even as they left 3 of their children behind in various USA universities. It was at that time that one of their sons tried to explain his struggles with cultural adjustment in the USA and his lack of confidence to remain here "alone" from family. Yet, the missionaries had their commitment and "call" for returning to overseas service and departed. Three weeks went by as their son got a gun and committed suicide. What does this say? How hard was it for the parents who had, in faith, returned to overseas ministry roles?We missionaries are just people with our own set of struggles and challenges. We are highly dependent on the "Call of God" to guide our decisions and direction. We are not guests overseas but have, hopefully, become part of the community in our adopted location. Like many Christians, the Romans 8:28 passage is sometimes painful and hard to grasp as it says, "All things work together for good to those who are called according to His purposes." Our earthly experiences and problems often push us to ask the "why" question of God? We can't see the future or the "good" that is supposed to be in our lives when all that surrounds us seems painful or disappointing.
I am not much of a "touchy-feely" kind of guy and don't usually enjoy spending great amounts of time with persons who are indecisive. Camping on past experiences or looking at how people have previously responded can't be a regular limiting factor of relevant decisions in the "here and now." There are simply all too many things that demand our Christian strength more than our indecision. Indeed, the Jesus that I see in Scripture was not afraid to stand up to challenges that arose on any given day and "own" His actions and ideas. The Jesus that I see in Scripture is not "second guessing himself" but boldly "activating" His theology with full expectation that His right actions will bring about God's desires. Certainly, the prayers of Jesus revealed His modeling of where His courage came from and showed us what we need to be doing more of! Yet, His prayers were followed with bold words and action throughout His life. My prayer is for more courageous Christians who do less gentle second-guessing with their lives, as they stand up and risk being a follower of the one who modeled bravery even to the cross. May we never fear persecution or a courageous faith but only fear becoming overly indecisive or insensitive toward others.
Donald Gardner,
Senior Pastor
May 5, 2024 - Transformation Element
How many of us have a plan and desire to live a short and exciting life? Is it not true that most of us want to have a long and smooth life without too many trials and struggles? Yet, we are "followers'' of the one who died before middle age and His death was on a cross for the very people that were crucifying Him! Jesus didn't die to set us free from death but to prepare us for death...without fear!
As we know, Jesus' prime critics were religious leaders. We must be careful not to forget that Jesus came to be a "transforming agent" in how we view our lives and our world. He didn't come to create a religious culture where the "blessed of God" are to spend their every working effort seeking out "Self-help books" whereby we may be "more blessed"! Jesus is an "untamed Lion' (Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe). Jesus never modeled the "safe and comfortable life" but he challenged us to live "meaningful and bold lives of faith and expectancy".We must choose what our life is to be and remember, "A Ship in a Harbour is Safe, but that is NOT what ships were built for".
Donald Gardner,
Senior Pastor
April 28, 2024 - Join the Stew!
Each day, people pass each other on the streets in quiet respect but without great interaction. Hmmm, why? Some have said that diversity results in the "melting pot" experience within society. Personally, it is easier to buy into the concept of the "stewing pot" identity that is found in a cross-cultural society. A stew is made up of carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, beef, and other things. When the stew is served, you can easily distinguish the various elements of the dish, and yet, each bite of the food has been enhanced by the cooking (interaction) with the other elements.
In society, we daily have a choice as to how much we value our interaction (cooking for a savory flavor) with others. We absolutely will come in contact with people who differ in morals, values, dreams, and spiritual understanding from ourselves. Yet, how we treat this daily reality reflects on us. Do we seek to appreciate what we can gain from knowing people who differ from ourselves? Do we grasp that we become more "savory" as we rub shoulders with others who may not always share our life views? If we, as Christians of CBC, desire to be the salt and light of Christ for a lost world, let us be people who dare to be the loving "ginger in the stew" that adds meaning and flavor for others.Donald Gardner,
Senior Pastor
April 21, 2024 - Even Orange Trees Don’t Live Forever
I grew up as a country boy on a small farm in Texas. We had all types of vegetables, fruit, and a few animals along the way. Yet, we had no citrus fruit but had figs, apples, pears, cherries, and we liked them. After moving to Phoenix in 2017, we found two nice orange trees in our Ahwatukee home! Over those years in Phoenix, we enjoyed eating more oranges than ever before!
Unfortunately, one day a surprise came our way when we got up in the morning to find that the high winds of the night before had blown over and broken the old large orange tree. We had pulled the oranges off the tree just 2 days earlier so we had the sweet tasting fruit again that year! As I inspected the root/trunk of the tree that was broken, it was a miracle that it had lasted even to that day!
This Orange tree is much like a human, in that it gave all it could to be; (pardon the pun) even up to the point that life was gone. Providing sweet and beautiful produce just two days before the real depth of the tree would be revealed by the powerful wind that blew over the tree, I still had no idea how serious the tree's problem was until it was too late. With humans, we often are exactly like that tree and want to be so! The idea is that we too should hunger and desire to be a blessing with our lives for every moment that we live. If we are a tree that has a short or long life, that is not as important as us producing good things with the time we have. My prayer for you is not that you worry about how long you are in this world but that you learn to make the most of the time you have to bring a positive Christian impact on those around you! May God Bless Us All!Donald Gardner,
Senior Pastor