ClydeStyle

Category: God

  • A Love Letter to Meadowlawn Church of Christ

    On June 6, 2004 I officially became the ministering evangelist at Meadowlawn Church of Christ in Sandusky, Ohio.

    I never wanted to preach or even be seen as a preacher. Many accept this calling and the criticism that goes with it. Living a life under a microscope for people to judge you and hold you to a different standard than the rest.

    For me, Meadowlawn always seemed to fit. I remember in 2004 having the opportunity to leave Ohio and take the ministerial work in Rockledge, FL at the Fisk boulevard Church of Christ. The church was 10 times the size of Meadowlawn and had more than 400 members. Again for me, Meadowlawn always seemed to fit.

    At Meadowlawn, God took me through a transformation by the things which I endured. There were many struggles. We struggled with tradition, evangelism, money, discipleship and support. As a result, we grew into a family. We fellowshipped together, we cried together and we fought together. Every problem we faced seemed to bring us closer.

    I grew up spiritually at Meadowlawn and was able to make full proof of my ministry. I would not change the experience for anything.

    Now it is time for me to move on and I have mixed emotions about that.

    I love what we have been building and I love the fact that our congregation is not your typical congregation. Most have been able to take off traditional glasses and view the Bible, God’s people and the service we give in a purer fashion. We began to truly allow Jesus to be the author and finisher of our faith.

    We grew in a way that increased our knowledge of God’s Word and allowed some of us to build a closer relationship with Christ. I cannot thank the church enough for the opportunity to serve and the patience to forbear me in areas where I needed to grow.

    I want to encourage you all to continue in the fight of faith. Love one another. Laugh together often and never return to the traditional shackles that have enslaved you for so long. Support the leadership and encourage them to do what’s right. Invest in the children and take care of the seniors. Don’t allow Satan back into the church. Challenge everything you are taught to make sure it is of God and never quit reaching out to the community.

    I hope that you all know how much I love and care for you and may God be with you all the way.

    Now unto Him who is able to keep us from falling; and deliver us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy; to the only wise God our Father be glory, majesty, dominion and power both now and forever, amen!

  • Rembering John Wooden

    This week the sports world will moan the death of a legend. “The Wizard of Westwood,” as he was called, is being heralded as the greatest coach – in any sport – of all time.

    This is a great honor for John Robert Wooden, who would also drop pearls of wisdom to those who played for him and admired him. Such sayings as: “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” “Flexibility is the key to stability, ” and “Be quick, but don’t hurry.”

    Early in my journalism career, I had the esteemed pleasure of hearing one of Coach Wooden’s lectures on leadership. I was also honored to have the chance to interview him. We spent 35 minutes alone and I was able to instantly see what everyone who came in contact with him saw: Greatness.

    This is not an adjective that I use lightly. When you meet someone so humble, so genuine, so gracious and so blessed, you recognize very quickly that he’s just not like the rest of us.

    John Wooden sat and talked to me in three ways. I know that sounds strange, but in part of the conversation he was a coach to me – not basketball coach, but life coach. In another moment he was a father to me, sharing the lessons he learned in life very intimately. And in still another moment he was a true man of God, giving God all the credit for the man he had become.

    It was weird in a way because his actions were nothing like I expected.

    I wanted to talk to him about his coaching career and his 10 NCAA championships. I wanted to talk about all the great players he had coached. And I wanted to talk sports period with him and get his take on who he thought would win the championship that year.

    I even remember being given the assignment because everyone else was out covering games and I was on the sports desk that night. The sports editor at the time said that if I wanted to, I could cover the talk or just write something up from talking with the event planners.

    For us, this wasn’t big news.

    After all, the guy had been retired from coaching for at least 15 years. He had written a book and was talking to the Boy Scouts or Boys and Girls Clubs – I actually can’t remember which one now.

    But what I recall most from that interview was the fact that he didn’t think his accomplishments were as big as the people he had come into contact with throughout his career. He didn’t want to discuss basketball as a part of life, but life itself and what really matters in life.

    Coach Wooden retired in 1975. He could have coached anywhere and clearly he was healthy enough to continue coaching. Obviously, Wooden was not coaching just for the love of basketball. It was his vehicle. Basketball was his means of telling God’s secret to everyone he came in contact with during his career. I call it God’s secret because it seems as though the rest of the world has forgotten it – and continues to forget it.

    God’s secret is LOVE. Remember John 3:16?

    Wooden was a savvy preacher because he never made you feel like he was preaching to you or that he thought you were lacking in an area so he had to instruct you. Without coming across as “holier than thou” or being inappropriate in regards to mixing religion into his business, he just lived his life in a way that reflected the image of God in the face of the people he met.

    I remember reading about how Jesus did that same thing. Jesus then turned around and told His disciples to do the same thing.

    Clearly Coach Wooden was listening.

    And as he is put to rest and the media, fans and his family spend the next week laying him to rest, it is my wish that basketball never comes up and they don’t even talk about what he’s done, because he wouldn’t.

    I hope they remember him for the man he was, and not the things he did. For the latter doesn’t even compare to the character of this great man.

    And if you haven’t seen it yet, search the internet for his famous “pyramid of success,” for by reading and studying it, you will know everything you need to know about John Wooden and how you, too, can have a successful life.

    R.I.P. Coach!

  • The Man in the Mirror

    Have you ever looked in the mirror and forget what you looked like? Seems strange, doesn’t it?

    I mean we see ourselves all the time and you would think there would be something wrong with a person who can’t remember what they look like, especially after just looking in the mirror.

    Well, the Bible tells of this condition where a person beholds himself in a mirror and immediately forgets what manner of man he is (James 1:23, 24). The Bible is comparing this mirror-looker to a person who hears God’s word and forgets about it.

    It’s interesting how God would make the spoken word so powerful. Someone who you give your trust to could give you a compliment and literally change a bad day into a good one. Unfortunately, the fence swings both ways so that a negative comment would have the converse effect.

    God never wanted us to be forgetful hearers.

    The truth is that we are. His Word was designed to spiritually turn us into the image of His son – if we would remember the things we heard from His Word.

    The Bible is full of folks who were forgetful hearers. Remember Cain and Abel? It was by faith that Abel offered a better sacrifice. It was because Cain was a forgetful hearer that God wouldn’t accept his offering. Two sons who grew up in the same household, with the same parents only to respond differently to what they heard is shocking, but not uncommon.

    Remember Jacob and Esau? That birthright really didn’t mean much to Esau who clearly lived his life in the moment. Jacob, on the other hand, paid close attention to such things and well, you know what happened: Jacob got the blessing and the birthright.

    Abraham and Lot also come to mind. I’m particularly thinking about when Abraham wanted to keep peace between Lot’s men and his own so he sought out territory for them to split in order to keep peace. He let Lot pick which area he would live and he chose Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s like choosing Las Vegas, NV over St. George, Utah. Nevertheless, Lot’s choice tore up his home and eventually ruined his life. Why did Lot choose Sodom? Was he just trying to make a fast buck or did he just forget what he heard?

    How many other people do you know who must have forgotten what they heard? You think Tiger Woods forgot? How about Lawrence Taylor? Or what about Jesse James (Sandra Bullock’s Ex), Chris Brown, George Bush, Allen Iverson or Congressmen Joe Wilson, do you think they forgot?

    Let’s get even more personal. What about me and you? It’s seems as though we are running out of excuses. We need to be the change we want to see, as Gandhi said. That will not happen until we began to take a long look at the man or woman in the mirror or as the Bible says spend a long time studying God’s Word. Until then, we just have no right to point fingers and complain. We need to get busy.

  • Is there a resurrection for the dead?

    This week in my life was filled with death.

    Now it might sound strange for me to say that since I work in hospice, but my week was filled with death because two people that I personally knew died. And neither was over 60.

    I watched at one particular funeral as the people crowded around and some seemed to be really worried about the death. They seemed to be hopeless wondering how will they go on. You couldn’t help but feel sorry for them.

    As I sat there watching everything I wondered if many of these people – who considered themselves Christians – believed that there truly is a resurrection for the people of God today.

    For Christians who profess their faith it seems that you should never see us hopeless. You should never see us discouraged. We should never allow ourselves to be in the position to allow our actions to deny that Christ has risen.

    Maybe it’s that everyone has a hard time applying the idea at a funeral that Christ lives and that our loved ones will live, too –  if they believe in Him.

    Who am I fooling?

    For America to profess a faith in Christianity, we sure don’t handle death well.

    We need a healthy dose of God’s word. Then we need to understand what it means and finally learn how to apply it.

    Let’s try it.

    In the 14th chapter of the book of Job, Job was lamenting to his three friends about his life. As many of you know, Job, in a very short period of time, was hit with tragedy. He was a rich man and lost all that he had – including his family and his health.

    His friends thought he had done something to anger God and he was being punished. Job insisted that he hadn’t done anything wrong.

    By the time you get to the 14th chapter, Job, in a very helpless state, wonders about what happens when a man dies. He said that there is hope for a tree (verse 7) because with his own eyes, he has seen a tree that had been cut down still grow.

    In Verse 14 Job says this: “If a man dies, will he live again? All the days of my struggle I will wait until my change comes.”

    Now Job uttered these words with the hope that God would evoke a change in him after death.

    This, for him, was just a hope – because Job never got to hear John 3:16. In fact, Job never knew God as his father in heaven.

    That’s because the family relationship with us and God was a direct result of the finished work of Jesus on the cross. When he broke the bonds of sin and set the captive free, He established a new covenant with us which now saves us. This new covenant is sealed with the blood of Jesus and was in the mind of God before the foundation of the world.

    For Job to have never heard this and to still have a glimmer of hope is marvelous! This is why he was known for his patience.

    But to the people living on the resurrection side of Jesus, we need to tell the world about the Savior we serve and the very important fact that He has risen. The fact that he has risen brought teeth to this promise by Jesus: “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.”

    Application: Jesus set us free from sin and this freedom is available to everyone who believes. With that said, if you are a child of God and happen to die (which is something we all will do until Jesus returns) at any age, you WILL live again. If this is not true and Christ is not risen, then our religion, my preaching and our faith tradition mean nothing.

    Death does not checkmate God’s promises to us!

  • Enjoy the beauty!

    Many of us get caught up in the rat race of life and forget to literally stop and smell the roses.

    It’s seems that we are too busy paying bills, managing problems and raising a family to look at the beauties of life, what they have to offer and enjoy them. I’m reminded every year at this time because spring is approaching and if you look, you can see new beauty all around.

    When is the last time you smelled beauty? It could have been a flower garden, the morning dew, or your favorite cologne on your favorite person – the smell of beauty is all around us!

    My youngest daughter, Kimberly, turned 10 recently and we just got her school pictures back. Obviously I’m a little biased, but she looked gorgeous! I can’t take much credit for that. Her mom and namesake should get all the credit.

    Nevertheless, a decade ago I witnessed her birth – yet another form of beauty – and now I see a little girl, full of promise, growing up totally sure of who she is and what her potential can be. And that, my friends, is another beautiful thing!

    My favorite flowers – tulips – are coming along with a host of beautiful friends: daffodils, scillas, pussy willows, primrose, muscari and dogwood trees will all bring fresh smells and beauty to our lives.

    The only sad part about this whole concept of beauty is that there are some of us who have been wounded, shut out, omitted and excluded and because of that, it’s hard for them to experience beauty. Their lives have been too riddled with mistakes and disappointments to enjoy things like beauty. Even when they are surrounded by beauty, they can’t experience it.

    There’s a valuable lesson here. Depression and its symptoms leave us alienated from the very reminders that God gave us to prove He exists. I didn’t always take time to see beauty either, but then I realized the true benefits. All of the beauty that surrounds us serves as a constant reminder that our Creator is near. And that we can take great pride in the fact that the controller of the universe could take the time to make provisions for us.

    Remember what Jesus said in Matt. 6:25-30:

    25 “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

    26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? 28 And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

    29 yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (ESV)

    We need to spend less time worrying and more time enjoying the beauty around us. Try it this week. Take time in the morning and in the evening to examine beauty. Your soul will thank you!

  • God – Pro Choice?

    Remember when life was a little easier?

    I mean long before we were frightened by the turn of the century – you remember the time I like to call the duck tape/water scandal. It’s as if someone hit the fear switch and that became the new method of control.

    Suddenly, we now had to be careful about what we said, what we saw and what we did.

    Even our words have changed.

    I’m old enough to remember the theme song to The Flintstones. When the lyrics said, “you’ll have a gay ole time,” no one had homosexual thoughts about it. The word gay had a different meaning then. It just meant happy. Now I guess it means happier.

    I remember when I could say that the word “ain’t” wasn’t in the dictionary! Well, it is now.

    Word usage is very important today.

    I say all this to point out that as we continue to change – and change is good – we need to be careful of what we choose to fight against. Many Christians end up on the wrong side of politics – meaning that sometimes we have to choose whether we’re going to be political or spiritual.

    I was having a conversation with a woman who felt that God hated abortion and that the people who participate in it will surely go to hell. I asked her if she was sure about that and she said definitely! She then proceeded to tell me that I shouldn’t be questioning her since I stand in a pulpit on Sunday mornings.

    I asked her if she wanted to have this conversation as members of a political party or as members of the body of Christ.

    She said, “Both.”

    I said “That’s impossible.”

    The reason is because of the definition of words.

    Words like “pro choice” and “socialism” (I will discuss socialism in another post) take on different meanings depending on the context of the conversation.

    This intrigued her.

    She said, “Since we’re both Christians, let’s talk about it as members of the body of Christ.”

    Great idea!

    Biblically, God wants us to use our intellect. We were created differently from the other animals for this purpose. All Christians agree that we were created in the image of God – everyone doesn’t understand how – but we agree that we are definitely created in His image (Gen. 1:26, 27).

    Being created in the very image of God gives us the right to choose – to make our own choices and to suffer the consequences for our mistakes – whether they’re good consequences or bad ones.

    Some people think it would have been easier for God to just omit the trees that He told Adam and Eve not to eat from. Being in the image of God necessitates the need to use the intellect we’ve been created with. God gave Adam and Eve an opportunity to use their intellect.

    That’s what choice is all about.

    What do you think happens when someone (people, the government, the schools – or anybody) takes that right away?

    How many people in the Bible were given choices by God?

    A better question might be: how many people from the Bible must I name who God gave choices to for you to believe that God is pro-choice?

    In fact, of the 66 books in the Bible, it would be quicker to name the people He didn’t give choices to.

    Can you name anyone in either of these groups?

  • Understanding God?

    Clyde D. Mayberry

    The Bible tells us in John 4:23, 24 that “… God is Spirit and they that worship him must do it in spirit and in truth …” Many interpretations have devoured his passage and all it has done is caused confusion.

    As far as religion goes we have allowed someone else to define it for us, instruct us in it thus determining the nature of our relationship with the Almighty.

    In other arenas this is not so.

    In the medical field a doctor’s first prognosis is challenged with a second and sometimes third opinion. In the areas of finance, advisors are challenged daily with our current economy and many have lost their practices because they didn’t perform in the best interest of their clients. When you go before a judge you have the right to appeal his decision. If you don’t like your haircut, you’re free to choose another barber. Even at a fancy restaurant, if you don’t like your meal, you can send it back.

    Why do we not take the same liberty with religion?

    Religion seems to operate on a first disclosure basis – meaning the first person who teaches you gets your loyalty. So if your parents were Baptists, in most cases you will be Baptist. If your parents were Catholic you will be too. No fuss. No fight. We just accept.

    Then it gets worse. Once we get caught up in the WAY the faith tradition is done, we lose sight of building a relationship with God. So instead of knowing Him spiritually, we try to know Him physically (i.e. going to what is considered His house to worship Him); mentally (i.e., practicing forms of worship, festivals and holidays); or emotionally (i.e., trying to feel God or draw closer to Him through music, listening to preaching or chanting) Now, I must say, I am not against these things. In their proper place, they won’t do any harm. When they become a replacement for knowing God spiritually, this is where I take issue.

    The problem I have is this: When trials and tribulations come in your life, you will need God the spirit not a form of godliness. The music won’t be loud enough to stop your pain, forms of worship won’t satisfy tribulation and in most cases the lion’s share of the people that go to the same building you do on Sunday won’t or can’t help you with your trial. You will need to KNOW God for yourself – and that means spiritually. How do you do that you might ask? This is a huge subject that can not be explained or digested in one post, but for now I offer these three things:

    1) Pray to God and tell Him that you want to know Him spiritually and to put you on the path.
    2) Read a multiple translation of the Bible daily – this is a Bible that will have at least four different translations like the King James Version, New American Standard Version, New International Version and the Amplified Version.
    3) Start judging people by what they do and not what they say. A person that is spiritually sound lives the life. Surround yourself with these folks and they will guide you. Spoiler: These people will really know and have an understanding of the Bible and you will be able to tell by the way they act.