As we approach Easter, remember...

"Christ has not only spoken to us by His life but has also spoken for us by His death."

~Soren Kierkegaard

Fellow FHU grad Madison Chandler...

"Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen."

-St. Paul to the church at Ephesus

Words of an old hymn on a rainy day...

Soft as the voice of an angel,
Breathing a lesson unheard,
Hope with a gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting word:
Wait till the darkness is over,
Wait till the tempest is done,
Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,
After the shower is gone.

Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

If, in the dusk of the twilight,
Dim be the region afar,
Will not the deepening darkness
Brighten the glimmering star?
Then when the night is upon us,
Why should the heart sink away?
When the dark midnight is over,
Watch for the breaking of day.

Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

Hope, as an anchor so steadfast,
Rends the dark veil for the soul,
Whither the Master has entered,
Robbing the grave of its goal;
Come then, oh, come, glad fruition,
Come to my sad weary heart;
Come, O Thou blest hope of glory,
Never, oh, never depart!

Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

Directions for the Way

My Garmin GPS has finally stopped working after months of poor health.  I love a GPS because it can be a guide in unknown territory and give you a sense of course, direction and position no matter where you are.

We all need direction in life.  Many of us were taught certain principles by our parents that guided us into adulthood.  Perhaps coaches, grandparents and teachers further lent direction to our formative years.  We desire and need direction in all areas of life: social, career, family and, of course, spiritual.  It is the search for direction that ultimately finds itself as its own reward.  Jesus spoke of Himself as "the Way."  Notice He did not say He was the destination. In the same passage (John 14), He notes that the Father is Who lies at the end of a journey with Him and no one gets to the destination unless he or she goes in the right Way.

My advice is that we learn to enjoy the Way in life.  As we follow along the path that is laid before us, let us not miss the journey by only looking for the reward of the destination.  God has a great desire that we should learn many things in this life; some from revelation and many through experience.  If you find the Way, finding the destination will surely follow.

Why did Jesus come to earth?

I was recently watching YouTube videos to get some ideas on how to start conversations with people about Jesus.  One of the videos suggested just straight out asking people a question about God or faith and then pursuing a conversation based on that person's answer.  One video showed kids answering the question, "Why did Jesus come to earth?"  The majority of kids parroted answers they had no doubt heard in Sunday School ("To die on the cross" and "to wash away sins" were common answers).  One young girl paused for a moment and said, "To see what it was like."

Her answer is no less true than the others and perhaps more so.  Why did God Eternal clothe Himself in human flesh?  Certainly to be our atoning sacrifice was a major reason, but I don't believe that is the only thing God desired from coming in human form.  In Bethlehem, God breathed our air for the first time.  He learned what it was like to feel the wind on His face and cool water against His lips.  He learned what it was like to be admired and also rejected.  He experienced the broadest range of human emotions: friendship, loss, grief, laughter and joy.  God learned by His experiences as a man.  I believe strongly that it is because of Jesus that we receive Divine mercy.  Not just because of His sacrifice but because He knows how it feels to not receive it.  The Hebrew writer records that "...He learned obedience by the things which He suffered..."  It is not in the nature of God to be obedient for He has no one to obey.  Christ in learning obedience shows that He gave up all-encompassing power and became truly human for to be human is to be free to choose whether or not to be obedient.

I don't know why God chose to offer Himself for us in a plan that was conceived even before it was needed.  I chose to believe He did such because He knew that we would be afraid and lonely, and so He became afraid and lonely along with us.  I do not believe man could have simply imagined the God of the Bible and Jesus as some scholars suggest.  Had we invented Him, we would have made Him even more out-of-touch than He sometimes seems.  No, God is real and the reality is that He is not far from any of us.  He is in the hand we touch, the eyes we meet, the voice we hear.

Praise be to God that He "wanted to see what it was like."

A new day...

A new day has just started in South Dakota...

I realize what a poor, pitiful sinful person I am and it is only by the grace, love and mercy of God that I am not consumed by my own arrogance, evil, passions and pride each day.  I walked a little prayer trail today behind a Lutheran church that is made to look like a 900-year-old stave church in Norway.  I caught myself critiquing the statues on a prayer trail!  I realized it was time to pray...reflect...and then of course, blog.

In the sanctuary of the church was a small (about 18 inches square).  I had assumed (always dangerous) that this was the confessional booth.  My companion assumed the same.  When we heard the audio guide, however, we were shocked and humbled.  It was the window for lepers to come and receive Holy Communion in the days just following the Christian displacement of Nordic paganism in the Scandinavian nations.

Lepers?  Yes, lepers.  Just like in the times of the Scripture.  Just like there are today in India and other parts of the world.  Just like there are other groups of people that we treat as "unclean" in the good ole United States. 

The social outcasts. 
The poor. 
The different. 
The curious. 
The boring. 
The smart. 
The dumb. 
The strange. 
The queer.
The straight. 
The colorful. 
The colorless.
The anyone who isn't exactly like me and mine.
Me.

Tomorrow, Friday, September 24, 2010...

Vickie and I (Will) are leaving to take almost 800 large clothing items donated by the Lebanon congregation and our friends to Timmy Walker and his family (phyiscal and spiritual) in Huron, South Dakota.  We could not make this journey without your kind support whether it was financial, spiritual, prayful, thoughtful or provided in a myriad of other ways to numerous to name.

Join us as we plan to travel to the world's largest (and most tacky) drugstore, the Rosebud, the Chapel in the Hills, Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, to see outlaws and Christian family, to take and join in communion, to see the home of the Royals and Chiefs, the Cardinals and the Monarchs, to hear the songs of the Cheyenne and the Lakota and the stories of old women and older men...

We are going west, to grow up with the country.

We will be updating you peridoically throughout our "mission of mercy" and we plan to have some fun along the way as well.  So, as Timmy would say, sit back, grab a Mason jar of sweet tea (or cup of coffee if you prefer) and enjoy your mission journey with us!

-Vickie and Will (Peter & Paul)

today was...

Good music.  Good friends.  Out of Crockett for awhile. 

Less drama.  Two good meetings today.  Talked with good friends. 

Made a few new ones.  Was rebuked by a true friend I didn't know. 

Scolded by a busybody.  Had unity without Unity. 

Just for Today. 

Just for Today. 

Just for Today.

Rachel's Challenge

www.rachelschallenge.org

"The great use of life is to spend it for something that outlasts it."

-William James

"To laugh often and much, to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children, to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends, to appreciate beauty, to find the best in others, to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition, to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived, THIS is to have succeeded."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Transcendentalist essayist and Unitarian minister

"God never hurries.  There are no deadlines against which He must work.  To know this is to quiet our spirits and relax our nerves."

-A.W. Tozer

"I expect to pass through life but once. If therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow being, let me do it now, and not defer or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."

-William Penn

Thanks, Keith Green, for a little perspective...

Keith Green took the words of an Old Testament prophet (Samuel) to a king and spoke them to his generation. We need more Christian artists and ministers doing the same.  Taking a Biblical concept and applying it (correctly) to our times.  Keith has gone on, just has another old soul in Rich Mullins, but their ministry of hymns lives on.  To God be the glory in the church now and forevermore.

"To obey is better than sacrifice

I don't need your money

I want your life

And I hear you say that I'm coming back soon

But you act like I'll never return

Well you speak of grace and my love so sweet

How you thrive on milk, but reject My meat

And I can't help weeping of how it will be

If you keep on ignoring My words

Well you pray to prosper and succeed

But your flesh is something I just can't feed

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want more than Sunday and Wednesday nights

Cause if you can't come to Me every day

Then don't bother coming at all

To obey is better than sacrifice

I want hearts of fire

Not your prayers of ice

And I'm coming quickly

To give back to you

According to what you have done

According to what you have done

According to what you have done"

4000!

Hey friends!  We struck "4000" hits this morning on this blog...not bad for a site with no advertising a no links on any other pages except those of a couple of fellow bloggers.  This blog was started as an effort to provide a pointer to the Source of hope to people without it and a light in the midst of darkness.  Maybe in some small way that is being accomplished.  People all over the word on all six inhabited continents in over 20 countries have visited here in the last few months and, it is my prayer, left encouraged.

If we never meet here, in this o-so-fleeting of lives, may we by our love and obedience to Him meet up there by and by,

blessed to bless,

-Will

"God never takes away anything that He doesn’t replace with Himself."

-Jacquelyn K. Heasley

"God has not called us to see through each other, but to see each other through."

When we are sick...

I have spent a great deal of the last few years dealing with sickness in my life.  I have personally been affected by kidney stones, bipolar disorder, digestive problems and other maladies.  Perhaps more disheartening, I have seen loved ones affected by the horrors of disease.  Four years ago, I lost a dear great-grandmother to Alzheimer's Disease.  My former college roommate is currently locked in a battle with a severe central nervous system disorder that has taken away his ability to drive and walk without assistance.  I have watched another grandparent be confined to a nursing home and face close calls with death.  My dad was in the hospital for surgery just this week.  I have preached ten funerals in the last few years ranging from cancer deaths to suicides.  Sickness is everywhere around us.

Some people look around and blame God for the ills and illnesses of the world.  After all, they surmise, if God is all powerful, could He not prevent such horrible things from happening in our world?  I have no doubt that God could in fact step in and save us from sickness, disease, depression and death.  In fact, dear reader, I know that one day He will.  If we faced not trials here, what would the promises of Revelation 21:1-4 mean to us?  The promise of no sickness, no pain, no death?  If we had not been forged in this crucible of suffering for this briefest of moments in eternity, how could we ever hope to appreciate the lack of pain in the hereafter?  God is faithful and knows why each trial and trouble is brought into our lives.  I may not know, you may not know, but He does.  Ultimately, He will make all things right and good in His time and in accordance with His ultimate will.

Praising Him in the storms of life,
-Will

Good morning...update

Hey guys...what a BIG week for my family.  I needed a procedure yesterday to correct some bleeding in my stomach, my dad has gone into the hospital today, Sarah Beth moved to Memphis to start pharmacy school, I am traveling to Nashville today for another doctor's visit...it has been a full week.

Despite our setbacks this week, my family knows how blessed we truly are.  I am so blessed to have a loving, close family that helps each other in times of need.  I realize not everyone is blessed in the same way.

It gives me great comfort that even if my physical family should crumble or pass away, I am a member of an immortal family of God-fearing saints stretching back to the beginning (Hebrews 11).  God's family isn't perfect, but the Father of it is.  That gives me great hope and courage.

I know you all will pray for me as I pray for you,
God bless,
-Will