Steve Sikes Blog  

I got a surprise when I looked inside my office mail slot this week.  The first thing I noticed was a little paper church building glued to a grass-green piece of cardstock that said, “The Foundation.”  The second thing I noticed was the writing all over the walls and roof of my miniature building:

• Handicapped programs for kids in the community.
• Clothes collection for the poor.
• Addiction programs, meals, talks, testimonies.
• Free yard work and house work for shut-ins.
• A night the homeless can come to the church building, eat a meal, spend the night, and we’ll wash their laundry.

As I read and re-read what was written, I felt (to some extent) I was on holy ground looking into the heart of God through our teens.  Of course, I wasn’t the only one with a church building in my mail slot; all of the elders and Dan had buildings also – each with different statements of vision, service, connection and outreach.

Last Sunday night, the teens had 28 in their “Small Group.”  Tim Davis had the group break-up into eight smaller groups to put their church buildings together and come up with foundational ideas of what Jesus’ body in action should look like.

I’ve made a decision to keep my little church building and foundation close to my computer this year.  Just looking at it from time to time will be a reminder how much God desires to have a voice through our children and teens.  May we become more and more a people under the BASILEIA/REIGN OF GOD!

“Seek ye first His BASILEIA/REIGN OF GOD and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”  Matthew 6:33

God is good!  Mr. Steve

Did you know that the United States Constitution is the shortest and oldest written constitution still in use by any nation in the world today?

Why do you do what you do?  Say what you say?  Live how you live? 
What would you state is YOUR foundation for all of the above? 

(Foundation: the basis or groundwork of anything.)

Before interviewing and eventually moving to Pitman, I had never been to Philadelphia, PA.  I had never seen the Liberty Bell, visited Independence Hall, or been so close to the Constitutional history of our United States!  And even though it was just a “copy”, I had never read the Preamble to our Constitution in such historic atmosphere:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The U.S. Constitution was written and adopted to be foundational to how our United States operates.
Now, what’s foundational to how you operate? 

I am thankful for the Constitution, and so thankful to be an American.  However, my personal foundation for why I do what I do, say what I say, and live how I live – is not based on the Constitution of the United States or even being an American citizen!

My foundation is Jesus Christ and Him alone! 

Listen to God’s preface or “preamble” through the Apostle Paul – “For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 3:11).” 

NOW THAT’S FOUNDATIONAL! 

God is good!  Mr. Steve

“Success, recognition, and conformity are the bywords of the modern world where everyone seems to crave the anesthetizing security of being identified with the majority.” 
(Martin Luther King, Jr. “Strength to Love” speech, 1963)

A few months before the 1996 Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta, I chaperoned our oldest son’s High School music group to Georgia’s capital city.  After their performance at Six Flags over Georgia, we toured pre-Olympic sites, saw a Braves baseball game and viewed the “Sweet Auburn” neighborhood and home church of Martin Luther King, Jr. 

I was reminded that although King was the youngest person to receive the Nobel Peace Prize (1964) for his efforts to end racial segregation and racial discrimination, his life was far from peaceful!  He was assassinated on April 4, 1968.  So it is when a person goes against the flow of society, even when it is best for society to listen and make changes!  Running against majority’s flow continues to be socially unacceptable and reputation threatening – if not life threatening.  Just ask Jesus!

Keeping our eyes on Jesus and going against the flow can become so wearisome.  Take heart!  Pay careful attention to the following words of togetherness and hope in an old freedom song sung during the Civil War Era: Walk Together Children. 
                                                                                   
Walk together children
Don’ you get weary
Walk together children
Don’ you get weary
Oh, talk together children
Don’ you get weary
There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land

Sing together children
Don’ you get weary
Sing together children
Don’ you get weary
Oh, shout together children
Don’ you get weary
There’s a great camp meeting in the promised land

God is good all the time and all the time God is good.  Mr. Steve

“Preparation: the work or planning involved in making something or somebody ready or in putting something together in advance.”

Like many Christian mothers, my mother started praying for me before the cradle.  At times, it must have seemed somewhat hopeless – her prayers for my spiritual growth and change – but her knees only revealed her perseverance.  Mom set the stage in my spiritual preparation by giving me Scripture to memorize at a young age (before five).  And when she would correct me, she would often use Scripture to do it.

I remember coming home one summer from college and sharing a joke (just a little “shady”) to my family around the dining room table.  I don’t know where Dad was, but he wasn’t there that day.  After the joke everyone laughed except Mom.  I still remember Mom’s eyes as she looked at me with love and not a little disappointment, and said, “Steve, you will be held accountable for every idle word you say.” 

Then she quoted Matthew 12:36-37: “But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.  For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” 

I remember feeling so ashamed.  Preparation of the heart is hard, and in some cases (like mine), takes a lot of time!  I apologized to Mom and vowed to myself never to tell a “shady” joke again, no matter how funny it is.  I’ve really tried to remain faithful to that 36 year-old vow.

I say all of this to simply state the following: Scriptures shared in love by someone who lives Scripture, is a powerful tool in preparing hearts for God’s will and use. 

As preparations are still being made for the construction of our new church building, may we voluntarily open our hearts to God’s construction on us and say, “O Lord, prepare me!”  God is good all the time.  Mr. Steve