Kearney Church The Table

Biggie Size Me

table — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 21:53:45 +0000

A portion of an internal conversation I had a few days ago:

“I’ve worked hard this weekend, I should stop for a treat. Ice Cream? Good Idea Tyler. Ooooh, McDonalds has a snack size blizzard now. Wait, I could DQ something different. Aha, Wendy’s! I love her classic Chocolate Frosty. I will just get a small. It’s over a dollar and I have to pay with dollar bills, so I might as well get the medium. 25¢ More for the Large? That makes better economic sense. Got to get the better value.”

“Welcome to Wendy’s, can I take your order?” She says.

“One Large Chocolate Frosty Please” I return.

“Anything else?” She says

“…and…a small fry too, please”

Is there a Theology for this? Does God care about what we eat?

I think there is. It is apparent in the scriptures that gluttony is wrong. We also have to consider our overconsumption, in light of the fact that some don’t have enough eat. I think God even cares how we take care of this vessel in which He chooses to dwell. Consider these facts:

- almost 2 of every 3 Americans are overweight

- one out of every eight illnesses that lead to death in the U.S. is caused by obesity

We in the church are quick to talk about how bad the overconsumption of alcohol is and the effects it has on our lives. What about fast food, second helpings, midnight snacks, and trips to the buffet. It has just as devastating effects on us. I know why I don’t really want to discuss this topic. It hits too close to home. I would argue that it’s roots are spiritual too. After all, was the first sin of humanity not centered around food?

“”So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes…she took of its fruit and ate” Genesis 3:6

Obesity is spiritual issue. Gluttony is still a sin. We will bravely and boldly approach this topic during our gathering on Sunday morning, and try to discover what will make us really feel full.

The Body For Worship

table — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 15:29:31 +0000

As we were traveling home from our church gathering yesterday my 5 year old son was trying to describe a lady he saw worshipping. He said, “She was like this.” He closed his lips tight, stuck one hand straight out with palm stiffly faced forward, and clinched his eyes tight. He said, “She did it when the music got loud.” I laughed, loudly. No doubt this was a strange behavior for him to process. Why would she do this? How does this action help her to worship?

When I use the term “worship” I don’t just mean how we sing. Worship is word that describes our relationship with God all throughout daily living, not just on Sundays when the lights go down and some guy on stage wearing plaid rips out an incredible guitar rif. The Bible is full of examples of how people use their body to worship God i.e. raising hands, dancing, singing (often loudly), bowing, crying, kneeling, lying prostrate. I’m a fairly reserved guy so some of these make me quite uncomfortable.

The truth is that our body position has little to do with engaging in worship.

However, have you ever seen somebody who was depressed and you could see it their posture. Have you ever know that a friend had great news to share with you before they ever said a word? Can you tell if I person is really listening to you by their body language?

Our body naturally expresses on the outside what’s going on inside. I would argue that it even help us express what is happening on the inside. Should it not be the same in our relationship with God?

This Sunday we will continue to study how we can biblically use our physical body to express ourselves to God.

Play The Jesus Lottery

table — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:58:17 +0000

I'm gonna make it rain!

I guess the Mega Millions lottery is at a record $640 Million.

Earlier this week I sat near the entryway of a coffee shop that is attached to, and shares doors with, a convenience store. Classy, I know. As I watched people enter and leave there were two popular items people walked out with in the sweaty palms: 44OZ jugs of sugary refreshment and lottery tickets.

I could almost see their brains working to come up with ideas about how they could spend $640 Million. A Bentley, racehorses, a mansion, a lifetime supply of Haribou Gummy Bears…

Later that day I read this post by a friend on facebook:

“Is it too much to just want a juicy slice of the winning lottery pie??? I think not…LOL…wishing everyone good luck & don’t forget to get a ticket!!! Funny thing about tickets, winning lottery & concert tickets you want, speeding & parking tickets you don’t…I’m hoping on the side of winning lottery tickets! Good lucky everyone. ”

I know this woman enough to know that her greatest hope has little to do with a large bank account. However, most of us fail to live and think like our hope is in anything beyond the the things of this world that will only last for a short time. “For this world in it’s present form is passing away” 1 Cor. 7:31

So, what is your hope in? When life doesn’t make sense, where do you turn? When you suffer loss, where do you find hope? If all things of this world are really fleeting, what can you really find hope in?

The Answer: Resurrection

A “Parting” Word From Steven W. Dahl

table — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 16:28:04 +0000

Dear Table Church Family,

As some of you know last week we announced that this was my family’s last week at The Table. Jes and I have been called to begin pouring ourselves into the mission and ministry of the Salvation Army. This will occur first locally, but with the expectation to be called into full time ministry in the future.

We are thankful to our entire Church family for the love and support you have showed us over the last few years at the Table. We would never trade a moment of it for anything! Each one of you will always hold a special place in our hearts now, and eternally. We hope that we all will stay connected personally, and in partnership, restoring relationships by the power of the Gospel.

If you are interested in who the Salvation Army is as a Church what they do on mission check it out at

www.salvationarmyusa.org

We also will be starting a Facebook site in the coming days with a blog, pictures, and other experiences for those who are interested in what we are up to.

Again we love you all, and thank God for each and every one if you in our lives.

In Christ,

Steve, Jes, and Family

Jesus Christ. Restoring relationships since 33AD.

table — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 01:57:41 +0000

Relationships are precious. They hold more value than any other resource we might have, our could ever obtain. Money cannot buy quality ones, and if nurtured our relationships can outlast any valuable we could hold dear over a lifetime. They are literally woven into the very fabric of our lives. That’s why it hurts so very badly when our relationships are damaged or torn. Nothing can bring us more joy, or cause us more heartbreak than our relationships.

We see this every day in our society, in the millions of lives that have been shattered by broken relationships. Broken marriages. Broken families. Broken friendships. All can lead to entire lives of bitterness, resentment, depression, and worse. Maybe this brings to mind a relationship in your own life? Perhaps even now feelings are welling up that you fight daily to escape? What is to be done about this brokenness that is rampant in our culture today?

That’s the question everyone is trying to answer. We live in this constant tension of brokenness and at the same time longing to be made whole. To have the things that have divided us from those we once held dear to be made right. We long to be restored.

The truth is that this brokenness we see in our relationships, that we see in our world, is simply a symptom of a much deeper issue. The big picture is that we have a broken relationship that surpasses all others. A relationship that is foundational to the very core of our existence. What has happened is that our relationship with God has been broken, and from that damaged relationship everything else unravels before our eyes.

So what is to be done? Is there hope in the hopelessness. What can bring us restoration?

There is good news. What is it? The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Restoring relationships since 33AD.

Join us to hear more about Jesus, The Gospel, and how God has given us a part in the process of restoration.

See you at The Table,

Pastor Steven Dahl
stevenwdahl@me.com

Lead Us Not Into Temptation?

table — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 06:30:31 +0000

“Let no man pretend to fear sin that does not fear temptation also! These two are too closely united to be separated. He does not truly hate the fruit who delights in the root.”

- John Owen

As Christians we all are programmed from our conversion that we are supposed to hate sin. Sin was the thing that separated us from our Heavenly Father in the garden. Sin was the reason God destroyed all but Noah and his family in the flood. Sin was the reason Yahweh placed His people under the Law. And it is the sin of an entire world that caused a Heavenly Father to send His only begotten Son into human flesh, to have that same Son die on a cross to bear the wrath of God that sin deserved in our place.

Sin is death. We see the truth of this played out in lives every day don’t we?

But the truth is that sin isn’t where all the trouble starts is it? We don’t wake up one day having decided that we should murder someone. We don’t walk down the street and fall into an adulterous relationship out of nowhere. We don’t flip through the channels or surf the web and suddenly find a porn addiction in an instant. Do we?

No, sin is the result of something that modern Christianity seems to tolerate in the life of a believer far more than sin. It is something that makes sin and the risks involved with it somehow worth it in the moment. The truth is that sin is birthed out of something we like to call temptation.

Temptation is the precursor to all sin. In fact one could argue that no sin is committed without it. Sin is the child of temptation indulged and acted upon. Temptation is a serious issue in the heart of a believer, so much so that it is one of the focal points of Jesus when He teaches His disciples to pray.

“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” – Matthew 6:13

Jesus teaches us that this should be our hearts cry as a follower of Him. And maybe it is something that we throw into our prayers, kinda like telling God what He wants to hear. The question remains, deliverance from temptation something that we really want Jesus to answer for us, and does our life bear this out?

Many times it doesn’t. Why? How does Scripture want us to respond to temptation?

Join us Sunday at The Table as we explore Jesus’s teaching on temptation and our response as followers of the King.

Pastor Steven Dahl

stevenwdahl@me.com

Giving Christmas Away.

table — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 15:53:21 +0000

According to the “Advent Conspiracy” Americans will spend 450 billion dollars on
Jesus’s Birthday.
We live in a society that equates value with love. We see it all the time. When a bride gets engaged we look at how big the rock on her finger is, and that indicated how much she is loved. Kobe Bryant anybody? Our greeting cards are seven bucks a pop if we “care enough to send the very best”. And when was the last time you saw a smart car wrapped up with a big red bow on a car commercial? The truth is you cannot even begin to watch any television most times of the year where the premise isn’t held up as absolute. You love well if you spend well.

This is especially true this time of the year. Christmas.

According to the American Consumer Credit Counsel the average American will spend $935 on Christmas gifts this year. On average. A grand. Man, Woman, and Child.

So how does this culture of excess line up with the culture of the Kingdom?

Let’s look at what our King has to say on the matter.
19 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal,
20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.
21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” – Matthew 6:19-21

So with this in mind where is our treasure this holiday season? Are we making credit card payments for things that will find their way into the trash heap, or will we make memories with those we love that will last a lifetime?
Are we investing in some CEO’s children’s private education, or will we place our treasure in the hands of those like World Vision who will take it and educate the poorest of the poor, making beggars into workers, while sharing with them the knowledge of Jesus Christ?

Will we eat, drink, and be merry beyond our real need at our 4th Christmas party of the season, or will we feed a starving world that would be thrilled with the stuff we are gonna throw out at the end of the night?

Will our own kids think of Santa, Rudolph, and Frosty before they think of a Child King in a manger, Emmanuel, God with us. The Baby that came to suffer and die, to take on a Father’s wrath, so we wouldn’t have to. Have they truly received the gift of Life in Christ?

Isn’t that more pressing that the latest whatever?
This year change the world… Give Christmas away beautifully.
Seek Jesus. Ask Him how. He promises to tell us, if we don’t really know already.

http://www.adventconspiracy.org/default.aspx?page=3684

Happy Advent! Jesus is coming again!
Pastor Steven Dahl
stevenwdahl@me.com

And The Dead Shall Rise….

table — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 23:27:55 +0000

It is fitting that it is All Hallows Eve as I write this entry. As I look around the neighborhood I am confronted with hundreds of takes on what life after death looks like. To some the afterlife is nebulous. A ghost or ghoul that lacks any real shape at all. Yet others have donned the masks of the devil and his minions. Some are quite innocuous – the classic red spandex and pointy tail. Others are actually pretty horrifying, a glimpse of how the angelic damned might perhaps appear.

But there is another group out there this Halloween night with another perspective on how one might spend their existence after their natural time is up. Many are donning various shades of human immortality in their darkened forms. I’ve seen vampires (not the sparkly versions thank goodness), werewolves, and my own personal favorite, the classic zombie. I say classic because the classic zombie wasn’t the result of bioterrorism or a bad cure for cancer. It was caused by a nasty voodoo curse, or some damnable act of evil. As it should be. But I digress.

I find the second group fascinating. It’s not just because they have niftier costumes, but to me the second group bears a bit more of humanities’ soul. It is in this group we see human beings longing for immortality differently, and unlike the first group they want it while holding on to something that defines them. Their physical bodies. Even in the nastiest of forms, they would rather hold on to the body than be without it. Even if they have to suck blood or eat brains to do it! It’s unnatural to be without it.

I think this reflects something deep in our humanity. Something placed there by The Godhead. Not the nasty stuff, but a longing for a completeness in our eternal existence. The continual unity of body and spirit. To be whole. To be uncorrupted. To be immortal To be like Jesus… Resurrected.

The Corinthians had questions about the nature of this concept of Resurrection, and how it effected their lives practically. Believe it or not people still do. Join us this Sunday for our study of First Corinthians chapter fifteen and what it means to us that we will be resurrected like Jesus.

Happy Reformation Day!

Pastor Steven

stevenwdahl@me.com

With Strings Attached

table — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 14:28:44 +0000

I have always been told to never give gifts with strings attached. I suppose it’s a protection thing. Maybe so we don’t have expectations of how the person will respond to the gift. Will they use it? Will they put it in the closet and forget about it? Will they drop it off at Goodwill? Will they tell you thanks and pretend to love it, but really hate it?

Did you know that the scripture tells us that when you became a Christian you were given gifts? Yes, the obvious one of redemption, but there are others. Spiritual ones.

God gave you gifts….but risking disappointment God gave them with strings attached. There are stipulations about how and where they can be used.

The question we will be talking through this week at Gathering are:

What gifts were you given?
What are God’s expectations of how you will use them?
Is your getting dusty setting on a shelf somewhere?
How can your gifts change the world?

Unwrapping Spiritual Gifts : Signs

table — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 05:10:23 +0000

“Signs, signs, everywhere there’s signs.”

So we have been studying Spiritual Gift and Paul’s words in First Corinthians about their source, their purpose, and their practice. Without a doubt one of the most controversial aspects to this study surrounds a set of gifts commonly known as “sign” gifts. Sign gifts are controversial because of their overtly supernatural nature. These are those gifts that kinda make an impression when you see them. People make that “what the heck” face those people on tv do hen they see David Blaine do his levitation illusion. GASP!!!

The issue is these gifts operate outside the “natural” parameters of our human experience. They are glimpses of a Sovereign, all powerful God moving through mere jars of clay, beyond any natural explanation, and at times we are anything but comfortable with that.

So what do we do?

We create doctrines, beliefs, and settings where Jesus took back some of the Spiritual Gifts, and where the Holy Spirit never does anything we can’t explain. Is that really the way God works. Always in tidy categories that we are comfortable with? Always within the outline of our Sunday Morning bulletin?

Never.

Jesus Christ is always bigger, better, and beyond what we think He is. The Holy Spirit is still in the business of giving gifts that defy all the odds. God the Father is still interested in all the Earth knowing that there is a God in Heaven.

Join us Sunday for a discussion on the Sign Gifts, why they are important, and how they play a part in the Kingdom today.

See you at The Table

Pastor Steve

stevenwdahl@me.com