Jeffrey Davis

Shiloh–A Hebrew word meaning “place of rest”. It is an ancient city in the land of Ephraim (which is one of the twelve tribes of Israel), and is the place where Joshua and the Israelites first set up the Tabernacle after God delivered the Promised Land of Canaan to them. What an incredible statement that God made–the first place His people would gather together to worship Him is in the “place of rest.”

On March 26th of 2004, I happened to be reading this story about Shiloh in Joshua 18. For whatever reason, I found myself with a ruler in one hand and map of ancient Israel in the other. Using the ruler as a scale, I measured where Shiloh was located in the tribal allotments of Israel; and then using the same scale, I plotted where the proverbial “Shiloh” would fall in the city of Mt. Juliet. It fell right across the street from Mt. Juliet High School–and for some reason, I pursued this information no further.

A little over a year since that day in March of last year (last Tuesday to be exact), I’m sitting at Cafe Express in Mt. Juliet, which is an alternative rock (and jazz) music club, talking with the lady who runs it about doing a Battle of the Bands type thing for this big party that we’re doing in June. She then informs me that she has been praying for a young man to come and build relationships with the young people who gather there on Saturday nights and to lead a Bible study & discussion there on Sunday nights. My thoughts–”WOW God! Finally…an answer to a plethora of prayers in one package. Here’s where it gets REALLY exciting: Later that evening I realized something…Cafe Express is located EXACTLY where the plot on the map showed the proverbial Shiloh would be in Mt. Juliet. Oh and there’s a music store next door to Cafe Express–guess what the name of it is…Shiloh Music.

So starting Sunday after next, our core group of people in this new church will be meeting at Cafe Express instead of Greg & Gina’s home. So not the way we thought it’d go down, but God has made a habit of giving us more than we even asked for. What a detailed God we live in relationship with. Thank you Father, Daddy, Lord, Friend, Savior, and Provider for being so detailed and faithful. How crazy is this…the God we serve is fully capable of placing our first gathering place exactly, as it were, where the first gathering place of His people was…and to GIVE IT THE SAME NAME!?!?

I’d like for you to meet Rip. I know what you’re thinking…that guy’s a little too old to be that freakin’ hip! lol. Rip and his wife are church planters in east Tennessee and an incredibly awesome couple! Living proof that my life’s aspiration of never growing up is possible. And no, this isn’t how he normally dresses (at least not 3 months ago), but even if he decided to, I think it works! All we need to do is get him all tatted up and he’s good to go! LoL!! Love ya Rip.

I must admit, I’ve never really watched Everybody Loves Raymond, but yesterday I found myself listening to it in the background as I meticulously cut some potatoes into perfect fry like shapes (if you’re a healthy eater you can make fries like this: cut potatoes, spray w/ a non-stick cooking spray, sprinkle some creole and Mrs. Dash seasoning, bake em for a while, and vio la…perfectly healthy fries that taste great). And before I get too far from the topic already, let me just say that my wife is the gourmet chef, but I can fix a mean salad and fries!! Anyway, I found myself intriguied with the theology of this man they call Raymond.

The episode opened with this family running a muck in an attempt to leave for church on time. The little girl (Allie I believe is her name) asks her mom why daddy (Ray) never has to go to church. Blah blah blah, the story goes on. Upon returning from church, Allie presents her dad with a picture–a picture of him in Hell. He obviously asks why she drew a picture of him in Hell, to which she replies, “that’s where grandpa (Ray’s dad) said people who don’t go to church go.”

Could this be true? Is all we have to do “stay out of Hell” go to church? Hmmm. We could pick that one statement apart all day long. There is no fault in the cultural perspective of “church”. They simply repeat what the Church has taught them. We (the Christians–who ARE the Church) have taught the culture that church is a place we go. It’s a place where we are are preached at about Heaven and Hell, morality, money, and where all the “bad stuff” we’re doing is thrown back in our faces. There is no fault in culture’s perspective of church, the problem lies with us…with the Church (again, the Church is the PEOPLE of God). Oh when will we truly live again as we were intended to? When will we move beyond our walls, beyond our shirts & ties, beyond our theological jargon, beyond our petty disagreements, and beyond our facades to meet the needs of the people?? To serve, to give, to love (without alterior motives), to close our mouths & listen, to build friendships with the “normal” people of the world, and to-as my friend Gary says-”do life together.”

A thought: What if we excised the phrase “go to church” from our vocabulary??

Greetings on this 8th day of the Omer!! “What?!?” you say. That’s right, the Counting of the Omer has begun! The days leading up to the Shavuot (Feast of Weeks) begin on the second day of the Ancient Hebrew Passover Festival and last 49 days. This celebration was originally a “first fruits” celebration where Israel rejoiced over their first crop of barley. This is why these 49 days are called the counting of the Omer–the omer is a unit of measure for barley. Over time, the focus became also on the giving of the Law of Moses (the Torah) at Mt. Sinai.

Let’s read between the lines for a moment shall we. This time of festival begins with the Passover (celebrating Israel’s deliverance from slavery in Egypt) and ends with Shavuot, a celebration of first fruits and the giving of the written Words of God. In the ancient Hebrew mind, the Exodus deliverance was not complete without God giving His Word…HELLO!!! It’s a perfect picture of Jesus!!! Our deliverance from sin could not be completed without the giving of the Word who is the “firstborn from among the dead”–only with Jesus, it was the Word made flesh who was given (See John 1:1-5).
Read more about Passover and Shavuot in Exodus 23:14-19, Numbers 28:16-31; & Leviticus 23:4-22.

As we began discussing the book of Acts and beginning to see what the starting of the 1st century church was like, God took us on a wild journey as we dove into this ancient festival. Here’s what’s going on in Acts 1…Jesus is risen from the dead and has just spent 40 days appearing to His followers; He has his disciples meet Him at the mount of Olives (just outside Jerusalem) where He ascends back into Heaven; but not, however, before instructs them to wait in Jerusalem for the gift He had promised (the Holy Spirit). Why would He tell them to wait??? Feel free to answer in the comments if you’d like…