Pastor John’s Blog

No matter where we’ve lived (Arkansas, Phoenix, South Pacific), or how long we lived there, whenever someone asked where we were from, we always answered “Kentucky.” When God called us to serve at Valley View, it was a homecoming that we’ve relished since. Over the last few months I’ve had a number of pastor friends come to visit and many are jealous to hear me talk of all the friendships and connections to this community. I can drive down just about any road between home and church and have a flood of memories from the people and places that inhabit the homes and businesses in the Southend. 

This Sunday we plan to celebrate our nation’s 250th anniversary. We will have apple crisp at 10am, so come early and wear your best red-white-and-blue outfit. I’m glad we get to celebrate this momentous anniversary together. In fact, I think the most powerful way anyone could celebrate America’s 250th is by gathering to worship. I’m so grateful that we live in a country that has freedom of worship in its founding principles. For 250 years Christians have not had to worry about gathering publicly to worship Jesus. As we gather this Sunday and look at Laodicea, the seventh and final church in our Churches of Revelation series, we will also pray that our nation and our church grow in faithfulness to Jesus Christ in all that we do.

This week our students are away at camp. I loved camp as well, but my favorite trips to take during my youth group days here at Valley View were the backpacking trips. Kerry Jones, our student pastor at the time, would take a group of boys out into the Red River Gorge, or Big South Fork, or the Smokies, and teach us how to camp and hike and carry all our gear. One of the essential skills was learning to build a fire and learning the importance of oxygen to fan the flame. In the early life of a fire, when just a little wisp of a flame has begun, if you blow gently, it nudges it along quite well.

It was hard to hear that I was the kind of person who could “dish it out but not take it.” That experience has often served as a powerful reminder that we all have blind spots. In fact, if you think you don’t have a blind spot, that is what we call a blind spot. People have blind spots, and so do churches (since a church is just a collection of people, all with their own tendencies and traits and blind spots). This is part of the reason why working through the letters to the seven churches in Revelation chapters two and three is so powerful. We see Christ confronting the tendencies of seven different churches, exposing their blind spots, and calling them to correction and a renewed commitment to following Christ. We will relate to some churches better than others, but it’s important to have ‘ears to hear’ with every message given in Scripture. The minute you think, “that’s not me… I don’t struggle with that,” that should be a red flag that maybe there is a hint of a blind spot. At least we should pray that God would protect us from pride in any area of strength, and help us to walk in repentance in areas of weakness.

It was the summer of 1938, and Lula Tyree sat on her porch and pondered the spiritual situation of her neighbors. The nearest churches were a long drive either direction, so how would they learn about Jesus? Who would reach them? She looked out across the winding country road that passed by her house, seeing the sprawling farm that sat serenely in front of her, and she commented to her neighbor there with her, “I believe God is calling us to start a Sunday School.” And so it was that Lula’s little step of faith, and her burden for children, eventually became Valley View Church. What started 88 years ago, the intentional investing in children, is still at the heart of our church today.

In the summer of 1985, Elliot Tepper moved his wife and four young sons to the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. His mission was to start a church, to reach out to the community and share the love of Christ. He knocked on every door he could, and no one responded. Within just a few weeks it was clear that God had closed the door he thought would be his mission field for life. 

But then he began to notice something. There were all kinds of people around him every day who needed the Gospel, people easily accessible to him. He hadn’t seen them before because he was busy stepping over them on his way to knock on a door, or as he meandered down the street toward his home.

I was talking with a friend yesterday who owns a mowing business. He said, “It was nice not having to mow much last week with all the rain, but boy this week is going to be crazy.” This comes after a spring of drought throughout Kentucky. We quickly go from a season of intense dryness, to flood-level rains, to rapid growth of everything green. Owning a business that is dependent on the weather demands flexibility, requires that one be attuned to the changing conditions in the atmosphere. One cannot just assume each day will be like the last, in fact, one should likely assume every day will be different.

“In November 1938, he was beaten, arrested and taken to a concentration camp. Over the next seven years, Eddie faced unimaginable horrors every day, first in Buchenwald, then in Auschwitz, then on a Nazi death march. He lost family, friends, and his country. Because he survived, Eddie made the vow to smile every day. He pays tribute to those who were lost by telling his story, sharing his wisdom, and living his best possible life.”

In the spring of 2001, in a remote part of the Ozark Mountains of northern Arkansas, six-year-old Haley Zega was on a hike with her grandparents when they became separated at a fork in the trail. The grandparents searched frantically for her but quickly realized they were going to need help. Soon dozens (and eventually hundreds) of law enforcement professionals, first responders, and volunteers descended upon the area to aid in what became the largest search and rescue effort in Arkansas history. This is a rugged and mountainous area with steep cliffs standing over the Buffalo National River wilderness area. It’s a place where people go to get away from the world when they don’t want to be found, no easy area to search for a little girl.

Reading and praying through the Psalms regularly is one way we can find instruction and the path to life. It’s no coincidence that Psalm 1 sets the tone for this when it calls us to delight in God’s law and meditate on it day and night. Tim Keller, in his book on prayer, finds the emphasis on meditation to be especially meaningful. He says meditation is more than learning, it’s like taking liquid into oneself… “like tree roots taking in water. That means not merely knowing a truth but taking it inside and making it part of yourself.” He also reflects on how Psalm 1 helps us understand what meditating on Scripture means. “The one who meditates is like a tree. Trees don’t grow overnight. Meditation is a sustained process like a tree growing its roots down toward the water source. The effects are cumulative. You must stick with it.”