Technical difficulties

Technology is a great blessing, but it can also become a burden when it doesn’t work as it should.  My new car features voice commands (similar to the Siri for iPhone that is currently popular).  The computer within the car responds to the sound of your voice and calls people, plays music, gives the weather and has other useful features.  When things are going well, what you say is what you get.  When you mumble or have background noise, the result is less than accurate.  

I think sometimes our spiritual lives are very similar.  We are blessed to have many versions of the Bible, many Christian friends, a loving church family and to live in a place where being a Christian is not dangerous.  We have many advantages and when we use them correctly, we are blessed and are able to grow.  The problem comes in the fact that although we have all these blessings at our fingertips, we often do not take advantage of them.  We muddle through our days without enlisting the comfort of the Scripture and the counsel of Christian friends.  We fail to speak up and ask for prayer and we fail to use all the opportunities for fellowship we are presented with.  The advantages we have around us do not help us unless we resolve to use them to their full potential.  Let us resolve to get the most out of the blessings and opportunities we have available.  When we gain strength from these blessings, we can then turn and help others as well.

When you wonder if you are following Him...

"By this all men will know that you are My disciples - in that you love one another."

~Jesus

Remember when things are going well...

"Talent is God-given, be humble.

Fame is man-given, be thankful.

Conceit is self-given, be careful."

Twitter Thanks

For some time I have been writing down my prayers in notebooks and journals.  It has been a great way to look back over time and see how my life has been blessed, changed and redirected from one season to the next.  Many of these prayers are quite private and who make sense only the one who wrote them.

In order to be able to make some of my prayers of thanksgiving easier to access and search, I decided to set up a Twitter account for the sole purpose of thanking God for the various blessings I encounter on a daily basis.  You can follow this account if you have Twitter (@AllMyThanks) or check out my most recent thanks in the top right hand corner of the home page of this blog.  I pray that by sharing my thankfulness you will be reminded of all the blessings you also have in your lives.  Take some time and thoughtfully list your blessings, big and small.  I think it will change our attitudes and definitely our perspectives.

May God help us to be more thankful each day as we try to live for Him.

Remember...

“To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.”

-C.S. Lewis

Birthday blessing

As of early this morning, I am now 28-years-old.  My life is a mixture of family, education, church activities, sickness, blessings and regrets.  Over the years, I have done many things I take pleasure in remembering.  At other times, however, I have done much to regret.  What I must always try to remember is that now is the only time I can come close to controlling.  I cannot go back and undo my mistakes anymore than I can continue to live in my past successes.  Each day, each hour, each moment of the present must be spent in growing and maturing as a person.  I want to be the type of person that other people can follow to a more Christian way of life.  I want people to be able to imitate me and, in doing so, become more like Christ.  I pray that we all will continue to grow up into the image of Christ regardless of what age we are.  May God continue to bless us as we continue to grow in Him.

Witness and Warfare

In 2^nd Timothy 2, Paul notes that we must be faithful to He who has called us as a soldier.  Paul often uses the imagery of warfare describing the Christian as being at war with the spiritual hosts of wickedness.  Paul goes on to say in 2^nd Timothy 2 that just as a solider should not become entangled with the affairs of civilian life, a Christian should not become entangled in the affairs of the world.  This is a lesson that Christians (including myself) often have learned in a hard way.  A Christian may become very involved in politics, sports, a hobby or even a family situation and in the process lose his or her Christian witness.  Even if the activity is not wrong in and of itself, we can become distracted from giving our full service to God.  We are in this world of course and must give some attention to these things, but often we become of the world by giving priority to temporal things that really should belong to God.  Let us make every effort to keep God foremost in our lives.  If anything we are involved in hinders our walk or our witness, we must be willing to step back and refocus on Christ and His kingdom.  We should never let it be said of us that we cared more for the things of this world than for the things of God.

I firmly believe that once we are in eternity no one will say, "I wish I had only watched one more game."  No one will remark, "I wish I had knocked more doors campaigning for that office."  No one will even say, "I wish I had had one more fishing trip" or "I wish I had bought one more new car."

However I daresay most people will say, "I wish I had prayed more,"  "I wish I had given more to the Lord's work," "I wish I had talked to my friends about the Gospel," and "I wish I had loved my family more."

We ought not wait till then to regret, but we should rather be working to move our lives closer to the example set by Jesus Christ.

When we suffer we should remember...

"The greatest Christians in history seem to say that their suffering ended up bringing them the closest to 

God - so this (suffering) is the best thing that could happen, not the worst."

~Peter Kreeft

No time but the present...

All of us have fond memories of what might be called the victory moments of our lives.  A wedding, a birthday, a graduation or a special vacation may stand out in our memories.  We may often recall that occasion and may perhaps wish longingly to go back and experience that happiness all over again.  Each of us also have negative memories.  We may spend time wishing to go back in time to accept a job offer, work on a marriage, make a better choice or do something different.  Whether good memories or bad ones, it is sometimes easy to want to go back to the past.

One area of our life that is uncertain is our future.  We may plan and plot, but there is actually no way to predict what may come in our lives.  Some people live expectantly looking forward to what they are sure are better days ahead.  Others live in dread of the fact that the future may be bleak and dark.  Either looking ahead to joys yet to come or fearing the unknowable future is the everyday existence of many people.

In all honesty, the only moment in life that is real for us is the present one.  We cannot change anything in our pasts and we have limited control over our futures.  So many people are caught up in regret that they miss the gift that the present truly is.  So many others are looking ahead and robbing today of its joy.  Despite what we sometimes think, we cannot add one length to our lives by fretfulness.

When Moses asked God for His name, God responded that he should tell the children of Israel that His name is "I AM THAT I AM."  God exists apart from time.  He is always in the present tense.  In God's eternal mind, all concept of past, present and future is suspended for Him.  He only uses time to relate to we who are mortal.

I would suggest that we need a view of time that is more like God's view.  Realizing that all our experiences have shaped us, we can cease from regret and wishful reminiscence.  Every choice, for good or bad, has brought you to this moment.  You cannot change those choices, but now, here in time, you can choose not to be dominated by them.  You cannot choose the future, but you can choose to live in your present without fear.

As the character John Keating so famously said in the film Dead Poets' Society, "Carpe Diem!  Seize the day, boys.  Make your lives extraordinary."  We all have the ability, by living for today, to make something beautiful out of our lives.  No matter where we start from, if we embrace the present, we can truly be the people that God wants us to be.

When you feel like bashing the church, remember...

"The Bible knows nothing of solitary religion."

~John Wesley

We May Not Have...

We may not have a towering building in a booming part of town.
We may not have ushers with name tags at our doors.
We may not have fancy brochures in our foyer.
We may not have small groups for every age.
We may not have people who can sing all the parts.
We may not have a wonderful sound system and PowerPoint.
We may not have a well-organized youth program.
We may not have a wide variety of ministries.
We may not have a huge missions budget.
We may not have a talented music minister.
We may not have a preacher with a Ph. D.

But what we do have...

We have a faith that people can change for the better.
We have a belief that everyone needs a place to belong.
We have a hope that not even death can steal our joy.
We have a trust that Jesus paid it all and that's enough.
We have an honesty when we speak to one another.
We have a sincerity when we say we've been forgiven.
We have a outlook that our future will be better than our past.
We have a peace that only God can give.
We have an assurance that today is not the end of our story.
We have a desire to see God glorified and people changed.
We have a love that binds us together in good times and bad.

Never think that just because where you are is small that it is unimportant.

The gifts we bring to the family of God matter and are of eternal significance.  

Have a great week.

“Anyone who thinks sitting in church can make you a Christian must also think that sitting in a garage can make you a car.”

~ Garrison Keillor 
(Attributed to G.K. Chesterton as well)

Sometimes...

Often times we can be guilty of having a smug sense of spiritual superiority.  This is common on all points along the theological spectrum.  The conservative often finds his superiority in observing all the rules and right procedures and readily condemning those who are less perfect than he.  Quite often the more liberal thinker takes great comfort in the fact that he is not so old-fashioned and uptight as his more conservative counterpart.  The liberal thanks the LORD that he is liberated and has gotten past being such a legalist and found the "real" message of the Gospel.  Many people in the theological middle are just thankful they are not caught up in the agendas of either extreme and pride themselves on "balance."

The problem in these situations is often not so much the doctrine as the attitude.  The focus has shifted off of Who God is and onto what I am doing or how I am feeling.  The most appropriate response, regardless of which source the pride comes from, is prayer.  Praying to guard against our own tendencies to glorify ourselves is essential.  Praying that God would work in our lives both through us and in spite of us will foster an attitude of humility.  When we look to exalt God and His will for our lives we cannot help but to realize how small and dependent we truly are.

May God help us to remember that in the upside-down Kingdom the last will be first and the first last.

May God help us to check our personalities and assume His priorities.

May God help His people to be both a reflection of His truth and His humility to the world.

From Andrew Peterson...

He came back.

And after that brutal Friday, and that long, quiet Saturday, he came back.

And that one intake of breath in the tomb changes everything. It changes the very reason I drew breath today and the way I move about in this world because I believe he’s coming back again. The world has gone on for more than two millenia since Jesus’ feet tread the earth he made. What would they have said back then if someone had told them two thousand years later we’d still be waiting? They would’ve thought back to that long Saturday and said, “Two thousand years will seem like a breath to you when you finally lay your crown at his feet. We don’t even remember what we were doing on that Saturday, but let me tell you about Sunday morning. Now that was something.”

These many years of waiting will only be a sentence in the story. This long day will come to an end, and I believe it will end in glory, when we will shine like suns and stride the green hills with those we love and the One who loves. We will look with our new eyes and speak with our new tongues and turn to each other and say, “Do you remember the waiting? The long years, the bitter pain, the gnawing doubt, the relentless ache?” And like Mary at the tomb, we will say: “I remember only the light, and the voice calling my name, and the overwhelming joy that the waiting was finally over.”

The stone will be rolled away for each of us.

May we wait with faithful hearts.

Wait in Hope...

"Weeping may endure for the night, but joy comes in the morning."

-Psalm 30:5

May we take advantage of this day of rest to put to rest those things that hinder our communion with God.  Tomorrow we shall raise up new things in their place to lead us forward into a closer, more united walk with God.  May God bless us now and always as we attempt to conform our lives to the image of His Son.

Hope to see many of you tomorrow for Easter worship.

As you start your week, remember...

"How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world."

-Anne Frank

Remember...

"People need loving the most when they deserve it the least."

~John Harrigan

Fellow FHU grad Madison Chandler...

Where are you from...

Where are you from?

I am from a place where everyone really does know your name and they are, in fact, almost always glad you came by to drink coffee and share some news.

From a place where you live long in the shadows of cotton pickers and beloved grandparents.  Where people trust people and know their banker by name.  It's a place that never seems to wake up despite the advance of technology and time.  

I'm from a place where country music and Gospel are the soundtracks of our days and King James Bibles are the script we just keep reading and living year after year.  

From a place where going out for fast food is a treat and where vacations are planned years in advance.  A place with a community library, a rural route and a full service gas station.

 I'm from a place where a revival is still news in town and when a new restaurant opens we all take guesses on how long it will stay.  

This is a place where everyone once was a Democrat and now just about everyone is a Republican and yet no one seems to have changed one thing they believe.  

It's a dinner of leftovers with your folks after a day of working in the yard or in the field or at the factory and it's knowing that some good people go to church and some good people don't.  It's believing in things like hard work, tough love and redemption.  

People still get baptized here and people still drift away.  

It's a place that most people want to leave when they are young and few actually do.  Most of those come back even if just to die.

From a town where everyone knows the undertaker personally and where people are still new even if they have lived here 30 years.  

Some people might say it's a backward place and in a lot of ways they would be right.  

Yet there is something special about knowing people truly and loving a place deeply and realizing that nowhere else would quite be home.

"I want to take the word Christianity back to Christ himself, back to that mighty heart whose pulse seems to throb through the world today, that endless fountain of charity out of which I believe has come all true progress and all civilization that deserves the name ... I go back to that great Spirit which contemplated a sacrifice for the whole of humanity. That sacrifice is not one of exclusion, but of an infinite and endless and joyous inclusion. And I thank God for it."

~ Julia Ward Howe