Crazy Sundays

So in your church have you ever had a Sunday that seemed to go well, but behind the scene it was quite hectic? Maybe that is your experience every Sunday in which case I would encourage you to get a little more organized, but for the rest of us, it happens from time to time. This last week, our pastors hunting buddy died, so he flew back home to do the funeral. His son in law did an incredible job of preaching the sermon! The son in law usually works with the children's ministry. As you can see, there was a trickle down affect. I filled in a bit with the children's side and the controlled chaos on that side of the church was wonderful! The kids were learning and it was great to be back over there even if for only one day. You may not think about how much one person affects the church even when that one person is the pastor. What we learn is that the church will go on even if not as smoothly as before, but it also teaches us that each person is important! Have an awesome day! Craziness can be good.

Reaching Out

We need to reach out to our community. Jan Johnson in her Moody Monthly article "Escaping the Christian Ghetto" refers to people she calls "Rabbit-Hole Christians." According to Johnson, "In the morning they pop out of their safe Christian homes, hold their breath at work, scurry home to their families and then off to their Bible Studies, and finally end the day praying for the unbelievers they safely avoided all day." That is exactly the kind of Christian that we want to avoid being. Our goal as a church is to reach the un-churched for the Lord and then to teach them to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. The best way that this happens is when people in the church are excited about what is happening and they tell their friends outside the church. God is Awesome! He is doing incredible things in the lives of people here! That is the message that hurting people living without the Lord will hear and be curious about. They will not be interested in hearing that they read the wrong version of the Bible or that their eschatological views are not scripturally accurate. Something my pastor said recently is that we need to see people as opportunities instead of burdens. I pray that across Christendom we can ignite the fire in each other to reach out to people for the Lord and lead them to Him!

Upside Down Chaotic Orderliness

This week is finals week. Which means that all normal scheduling is out the window. My normal arrival at the church wasn't at 8:00am but at about 3:00pm. Two finals in the morning. Each day this week is thrown into turmoil. It is times like these that doing daily devotions is the toughest. We as humans love our routine!Chaos is not usually our friend.
God however isn't ever caught off guard by anything! Isn't that awesome! When we wonder at the chaos of the world around us, we can remember that God didn't wake up this morning shouting "Oh no! What did America just do now? I didn't see that coming! What am I going to do?" No, God knew from the laying of the foundations of the earth what each day was going to hold for us and for each person on earth. He has a plan even when all seems lost! When we put our faith in God, even the upside down chaos begins to have order. Have an awesome day!

Final Exams

This week at the university, I am giving final exams to my students. I can't help but think that God is happy when His students (us) pass the exam. Unlike my Spanish students, God's exam is Pass/Fail. He either tells us "Well done!" and shows us into heaven, or He says "I never knew you" and failure has an eternal price. It was fun to grade the exams when the student had grasped the material and I could see that learning had definitely taken place during the semester. It was disheartening when the pages bled showing that the opposite was true. Does God ever shake His head at us wondering when we will finally get it?

Thoughts on God...

This morning, I was reading in Acts and some verses in Chapter 14 just leaped off the page at me. In verses 8-10 we see a crippled man listening to Paul preach. "Paul looked directly at him, saw that he had faith to be healed and called out 'Stand up on your feet!' At that the man jumped up and began to walk". I have seen God move in mighty ways in healing and I am always thrilled to see God move in miraculous ways! The part that did the "leaping" was that Paul looked at him and SAW that he had faith to be healed. I realized that I have no clue what that is like! If I look out at the congregation at my own church, would I know that someone has the faith to be healed? Do we relegate that kind of activity to the hyper-pentecostal fringe? I believe that God is still doing marvelous works in the world! I pray that He will not let me put Him in a little box! Please pray with me that God will move on this generation in a miraculous powerful way that goes so far beyond sciences ability to understand that only God can be given the credit!

The Shack

I am about halfway through reading the book The Shack by William Paul Young. It is a wonderful work of fiction that I am thoroughly enjoying while simultaneously challenging my view of who God is and what our relationship with Him could be. First let me say that I would recommend this book as a great read! My blog today is more on the reactions of people who find out I am reading the book. There are two camps- the first camp is the "Oh yeah! I loved that book!" the second camp is the "I have heard that book is full of theological errors and thus shouldn't be read." In defense of the second camp, I don't know that I would want to base all of my theology on The Shack and put it on the same level as the Holy Bible, but Mr. Young was not, as I understand him, trying to write a 5th gospel. He was writing a delightful work of fiction for his children that did contain some wonderful biblical truths. One could compare it to Pilgrims Progress or the Chronicles of Narnia. So you can decide to read it or not. I doubt that when you stand before God that He will be asking if you read it while here on earth. I would say however that it is worth taking the time to read if you enjoy a good book that just might challenge your walk with God a little too.
PS. If you decide to read it, have tissues handy.

In Sickness and In Health

The last couple days have been wonderful, yet trying. I have been more sick than I have been in quite a few years. In the midst of that, I find God's creation amazing! God created our bodies to be able to fight off sickness and come back to a fully functioning form! While I am not personally back to that fully functioning point, I am up enough to be seated at a computer having just checked my neglected e-mail. God is awesome! I sit amazed at the complexity of the human body to be able to fix itself with such simple remedies as sleep, rest and lots of liquids! I wish the computer would be so easily fixed. Just turn it off for a day, pour some water into it, and poof! All fixed! See, man's best technology can't keep up with something God designed thousands of years ago! Praise the Lord!

Thanking God!

I talked to my brother this morning to wish him Happy Thanksgiving, after family stuff, we began talking about all the great things God is doing in our churches! It was wonderful to hear how God is working not only here in Easley, SC but halfway across the country in Neosho, MO. He shared how the church has been growing to the point where the pews are all full and they have chairs out in the isles. He has lost track of how many men have gotten saved in the last month! God has healed the sick and even a sick dog. I had to laugh at the dog story, but it just goes to show how God cares about our needs even when they might not seem all that important to the rest of the world. There were many stories of healings, but the cool one for me was a lady who hasn't been able to tie her own shoes due to a hip problem. Her teenage daughter has helped her get dressed every morning tying her shoes, putting on her socks etc. because she couldn't bend down. After God's healing, she is able to dress herself completely! I am sure that for a mom, that must be a great thing! Hearing about kids who have come to the Lord through the children's ministry and now their Dads are getting saved! It was a wonderful uplifting conversation! Thank you Lord for all that you are and all that you do in our lives! Today is truly an awesome day of Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving week!

Like most people, heading into Thanksgiving week makes me extra aware of all the things I am thankful for. I am most thankful that our Almighty God chose to save a sorry sinner like myself and give me a chance to work for Him! He blessed me with a wonderful wife who loves me in spite of my faults. He has seen fit to give me not just one, but two absolutly wonderful jobs that I absolutly love! For those of you who dread getting up in the morning to go to work, you can surely see why I am so thankful for that part of my life! I have my dream car. Before you get visions of a Lambourguini, my dream car is a 1995 Mustang. It has over 200,000 miles on it, but I still love driving it. God lets me take people on Mission trips to places like Mexico and Honduras! My life is so blessed that just one day of thanksgiving isn't enough time for me to tell of all the ways God has blessed me!
Recently, my wife and I were discussing the idea of children. We have been married for about 19 months now, so I guess this is a natural topic of conversation for people at our stage in the marital life. She gave as a reason for wanting kids that she wanted to leave a legacy like my parents had left. Not her own parents, she was talking about mine! That would be her mother and father in law...the people that american society is sure she is supposed to not get along with. Anyway, she talked about how my parents had raised two boys, my brother and I, in a Christian home where we both grew up to love and serve our Lord Jesus. That is the legacy she wants to leave on this planet. I couldn't be happier! God is awesome!

Christmas before Thanksgiving...

Today at the church, I and a bunch of volunteers were putting up the massive Christmas tree that goes on the stage. I almost felt like a hypocrite putting up Christmas decorations on the Monday before Thanksgiving. The great news is that the guys who showed up to help worked hard and that leaves very little for my wife and I to do before Sunday's service in the decorating arena. (She loves to decorate, but hates carrying all the heavy boxes from the attic to the sanctuary.) Have an awesome day!