The DTR Talk

I'm home sick today, a cold I picked up from Lynda which she picked up sometime late last week, perhaps in Oklahoma City. I first felt the effects on Wednesday, was pleased to see it hadn't developed enough on Thursday to prevent my trip to Little Rock, worked most of the day Friday as it worsened, and then it hit hard yesterday. I rested all day, felt better by the evening, and figured I was getting over it. However, this morning as I rose and prepared to go to church and teach adult Life Group, I could tell I was actually worse than on Saturday. So I texted my co-teacher and told him I wasn't coming, and rested all day, alternately sleeping and reading.

Consequently, I have no day at church to report on today, and no sermon to relay. So I'll talk about last week, at the ROC Church of the Nazarene in Oklahoma City. After a good Sunday School class from the regular quarterly, the service and sermon were under the direction of Pastor Richard L. Schneberger. He is a fine leader and preacher. I'd say that even if he weren't my son-in-law. I've heard him preach perhaps twenty times over the years, and I'm always impressed.

Last week, using Luke 9:23 & 9:57-62 as his basis, he talked about our relationship with Jesus. He began by saying that sometimes we have to have the "DTR" talk. It meant nothing to me, but he quickly asked the teens in the congregation what it meant, and several said "define the relationship." I may know enough of texting to communicate with my Life Group co-teacher, but that was a new one on me.

Richard dug into the passage, which is the story of Jesus saying the one who would be His disciple should take up his cross daily and follow Him. Then, in the second part, several were confronted with decisions they would have to make if they intended to follow Jesus: to give up comforts, to not put family first, to worry more about the living than the dead.

He had a good illustration, which, before he gave it, said, "This is fiction. Please don't go repeating this as if it were true." He said what would the members of the church think if they went to a fancy restaurant on a Tuesday night and saw him having a candlelight dinner with a woman who wasn't his wife? His wife, of course, being our daughter. And what if someone from the church confronted him and asked why he was out with the other woman. He said "How would you take it if I answered, 'Well, my date night with Sara is Friday, so on a Tuesday I'm free to date someone else.'"

That was easy to tie back into the sermon. A decision to follow Jesus is not an on/off relationship. You make that decision and stick with it. You don't turn it on and off as you would a microwave oven.

Richard said he had several comments afterward on his illustration, including such as "I"m going to tell your wife!" Sara didn't hear it, as she was in the nursery. But he had told her beforehand what it was, so she knew it was coming.

It was, all in all, a very satisfying day in God's house.