Ozark Highlands Christian Church (DOC)

I am always tickled when someone says; “Jesus welcomed all Christians into God’s church.”  There were no Christians in Jesus’ day, we became known as Christians for following the Christ Jesus.  All were Greek or Jew, women or men, etc.  Jesus welcomed all to sit at table with him.  As Disciples of Christ, we try to do this, but we often find that we get in our own way.  Jesus commissions us to go and share the Word of God and to baptize in his name.

What is to prevent anyone from being baptized and welcomed into the church? Is it having ways different from ours? Is it questionable belief? Or is it that we ourselves defy God’s love by customs and habits of belief that contradict the welcome of Jesus, whoever we are, and wherever we are on life’s journey?

We are called to teach and to welcome all who come through our doors.  We are not called to judge others or to test them before accepting them.  At the same time, we do not have to accept what they do in their lifestyle.  We can love another without compromising our own beliefs.  But if that is the end of the story, we have learned nothing.  Even Jesus listened for God’s Word and learned that he himself was indeed sent to the non-Jew as well as the Jew; that he was sent to bring God’s Word to the world, not just God’s chosen people Israel.  Maybe we need to do more listening so that we too may find a way to sit at table together, even with our differences and disagreements.  I pray that we may all listen more, speak less and follow Jesus’ example of tolerance.  Shalom

This week’s scripture is Mark 10:35-45  What do we mean when we say that “we wish to follow Jesus”?  Jesus asks James and John a couple of challenging questions that we too should hear Jesus asking us:  “Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?”  It is so easy in the heat of the moment to say YES!  But later, when we are alone and life is difficult (throwing everything imaginable at us), are we still able to drink from that cup?  Can we still be baptized with the same baptism as Jesus?  I have been called an instigator, unfortunately for the one attempting to intimidate or denigrate me, I took it as a compliment.  Jesus was an instigator and if we wish to walk in his shoes, we should be instigating as well.  I can think of some other instigators such as Desmond Tutu, Janani Luwum, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mother Theresa.  I like the sound of that company.  O Lord, that I could drink from the cup and be baptized!  Come and worship with us on Sunday morning, all are welcome at God’s table.  Shalom

Pastor Roush

Esther is clearly a bit of a trickster; not that she is dishonest or sneaky, but rather that she is very careful as to how she crafts what she says and the timing of her speech.  We find in this story a woman who puts her people above her own well-being.  The story could have easily ended in the destruction of the Jewish people, including Esther.  This story shares a long-standing event in the lives of the people of Israel and in our lives today.  Though we may experience persecution, deliverance is certain.  Join us in worship as we hear this story, find its relevance in Esther’s context and what it can mean to us this day.  All are welcome at to worship with us at Ozark Highlands Christian Church.  Shalom

Pastor Roush

I came across this in reading and thought it worthy of sharing.  It is written by Anthony B. Robinson and is based on Mark 8:25.

Take Two Excerpt from Mark 8: 25 “Then Jesus laid his hands on his eyes again; and he looked intently and his sight was restored, and he saw everything clearly.” Reflection by Anthony B. Robinson It took two touches for Jesus to cure the blindness of the man at Bethsaida. One application of spit and hands didn’t do it. A second shot was required. What’s up with that? This little story is the front bookend for a section on what it means to follow Jesus. The back bookend is another story of blindness healed (Mark 10: 46 -52). What it meant to follow Jesus is something the disciples didn’t quite get the first time around. Initially they thought that following Jesus would mean the wide road to glory and positions of power and prestige in his new administration. Time and a cross would give them deeper insight and a different vision: following Jesus isn’t just about getting what I want or fulfilling my ambitions, it is about becoming what God wants. We sometimes think that Christian faith or being part of the church is mainly about enriching my life and meeting my needs. We may even complain that church “isn’t doing anything for me.” When we think it’s all about us, we need a second touch, too. We need things cleared up so that we learn to ask a better question: Today, how am I to follow Jesus, to serve God and to be an instrument of God’s purposes and grace?

Have you ever noticed that the more things change the more they stay the same?  I have noticed that I can get along better with folks if we don’t get into too deep a theological/philosophical discussion.  When you delve deep, you find areas of sensitivity that can make us vulnerable and conversation becomes more difficult.  It shouldn’t; I know what I mean and you know what you mean!  But knowing what each other means, hearing what each of us truly wishes to communicate can be a source of challenge in the conversation.  When this happens, I reach to the doctrin of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) which says: In essentials, unity.  In non-esentials, charity.  In all things, love.  We don’t have to agree.  In fact, agreeing to disagree is a fine ending point for any discussion.  More conversation, not less, is in order; in conversation, we build community.  It is a hard thing to melt our swords into ploughshears.  Shalom

What could this look like in this day and age where we usually do not wear armor.  It is a metaphor for speaking about our ability to use the strength of God’s love and our faith to keep us strong and to enable us to stand boldly and proclaim the Gospel to a hurting world.  If Paul, imprisoned in chains, could find the strength in his faith to stand and boldly proclaim the Gospel to his captors, can we not find the strength in our freedom to do the same?  Come, join us in further exploration of this scripture and its meaning in our lives this day.  All are welcomed at Ozark Highlands Church (including children) and all who worship with us are invited to the table.  Peace and Blessings

Pastor Roush

What could this look like in this day and age where we usually do not wear armor.  It is a metaphor for speaking about our ability to use the strength of God’s love and our faith to keep us strong and to enable us to stand boldly and proclaim the Gospel to a hurting world.  If Paul, imprisoned in chains, could find the strength in his faith to stand and boldly proclaim the Gospel to his captors, can we not find the strength in our freedom to do the same?  Come, join us in further exploration of this scripture and its meaning in our lives this day.  All are welcomed at Ozark Highlands Church (expecially children) and all who worship with us are invited to the table.  Peace and Blessings

Pastor Roush

You may wish to print this as I am going to speak of my humanity and my ability to be wrong and/or to learn new things that change what I perceived to be the truth at one time.  We tend to catagorize the Pharisees as “Those guys that were always after Jesus for teaching other than what the Pharisees knew to be the truth!”  In fact, not all of the Pharisees or Sadducees were bad guys, what we read about are the ones that wished to protect themselves and their comfortable living by claiming Jesus was not speaking truth.  Some of the Pharisees and Sadducees interacted with, and were even complimented by, Jesus for coming to understand truth in a different way.  So for those of you who claim that you are never wrong, I am sorry that you carry such a burden.  When one is able to say “I was wrong” or “I am sorry” or even “I have read a new book, heard a different lecturer or re-read the scriptures, studied the Greek and Hebrew and have come to a new understanding”, one is able to free himself/herself from the bondage of believing that they must know the absolute/unchanging truth.  What a difficult burden this must be to carry!  Even the psalmist in Psalm101 says “I will study the way that is blameless.  When shall I attain it?”  We all wish to be right, perfect if possible, but when shall we attain perfection?  Certainly not in this life.  If this topic is a struggle for you, know that you are in my prayers for the peace of knowing that we are not perfect, that we can learn new things and that in love of one another we can say I am sorry or I was wrong and life will still be ok.  Shalom

Pastor Dave

I must give credit where it is due, it was my son’s blog that got me thinking about this topic.  He says: “Good friends are an invaluable asset to one’s psychological well-being.”  I believe he is quoting Jesus, he has just paraphrased “Love thy neighbor as thyself” in contemporary language.  If you take a few moments to just stop running, let society move on without you and contemplate the friends/relationships that you have not attended to in the last year to ten years,  I believe you will find friends that you have not communicated with for a long time.  Don’t you, just as I do, wonder why you no longer associate with them?  Of course, some you have probably outgrown them in one way or another.  But what about the others?  They used to fill a hole in your life; either as a friend, mentor, trusted confidant, etc.  Sometimes I think we pay so much attention to the demands or our society that we lost sight of what is really important in our lives.  Our personal relationships with one another fulfill that calling to love one another as we love ourselves.  How do we get back to a simpler mode of living?  We stop listening to the television, radio and newspaper ads that tell us we can’t be complete/successful/loved/liked if we do not “__________” (fill in the blank)!  How can advertisers know our inner selves and what we truly need?  Start listening more to that little voice that asks if you really need one thing, and may be whispering a longing for something else.  Sabbath is intended for a weekly tradition of self care; take time to do just that.  Sit quietly, take a walk, play with your pet, do yoga, meditate, sit by your water garden, go to the park, just do something for you and your relationship with others.  I believe you will find that more rewarding and fulfilling than anything on the Star Bucks menu or whatever it is society has convinced you that you cannot live without.  Peace and Blessings.

No motorcycle this week as I am on vacation in AZ (It may be a dry heat, but it is still HOT!).  I have had some time to reflect and I have come up with a perplexing question.  The Bible (and many other non-Christian sources) say that God blesses us greatly.  I wonder how we come from that reality to believing that we are to be blessed more greatly than anyone else?  How do we become the chosen that are blessed above others, or worse yet blessed while others who are not like us are cursed?  I believe I read that God’s blessings were to extend to all, even the Gentiles.  Gentiles are those who are not Jewish, that pretty much means everyone else!  The way I read it, we are called to value all of God’s creations, that means even the ticks, chiggers and mosquitoes.  That does’nt stop me from swatting a mosquito who is after a free dinner, but I understand that there is some greater purpose for their existence and that it is not my place to rearrange God’s creation to suit my likings.  Just something to ponder as we move through this life.  Go to the wilderness and stand away from all others, there and then humility may surprise you and a new perspective may be gained on our importance on this earth.  Shalom

Pastor Roush