Looking Back to Look Forward

I found some pictures of my wife when she was 16. They reminded me of how I practically fell in love with her at first sight. The sweetness of her spirit that captured my heart that afternoon in September 1973 was clearly seen in her expressions in those photos a year earlier.
I also found a paper she had written about seven questions young girls should answer if they are to have lives of charm and grace. These questions are forgotten in teaching teen age girls of the 21st century. Perhaps that is why we are not raising young women of charm and grace any more. We are raising women to be aggressive, assertive and narcissistic.

Here are the "seven questions of vital importance" she had to answer in her course on charm and grace:

1. Am I committing any known sin?
2. Am I living in obedience to God's Word?
3. Am I spending time each day in prayer?
4. Am I a diligent student of God's word?
5. Am I confessing God publicly?
6. Am I giving liberally as God prospers me?
7. Am I doing something definite for the Lord Jesus Christ?

Something beautiful in that young girl's spirit captured my heart that afternoon. It was obviously the result of the grace of God working in her life. God brought us together and now we include Him in our family gatherings. Our six children, plus their four spouses and now seven grand children are all given to the grace of God. It is He that has and will continue to capture their hearts for Jesus Christ.

I will continue to praise God for His work of grace in my life and my family!

A God Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is the one holiday that really isn't spoiled by commercialism, unless you count parades and football games. So far the stores are still closed and the sales don't start till Friday morning at 4:00 am (Kohl's). I suspect that will change in the years ahead. I expect the sales to start at 10 pm Thanksgiving night at some point in the near future. Midnight specials will be the feature soon.

The one thing that most families find hard to do is to make God the central aspect of Thanksgiving.

For the most part He is relegated to a little prayer at the beginning and a "Johnny, what are you thankful for this year?" Maybe someone will thank God, but usually He is forgotten. How do we make Thanksgiving a God Event? I think the key is to follow Nehemiah 8:10.

Then he said to them, "Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet, and send portions to those for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. Do not sorrow, for the joy of the Lord is your strength (stronghold)."

First: Make the day Holy by giving it to Him. Pray with your family at breakfast or when everyone arrives and dedicate the day to God. Address Him as Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides.

Second: Give some food to someone who is less fortunate. Check with the community welfare office to see if there are some families needing assistance. Perhaps there is a local food bank that needs provisions. Check with friends. There are many who need and would appreciate help.

Third: Instead of thanking God for the past, look to Him for the future. Let the JOY of the Lord be your stronghold! Have each of your family commit themselves to bringing pleasure to the Lord this next year. Commit to doing what brings God Joy!

When we bring Joy to God we are in His Stronghold!

Is this how your family has a God Thanksgiving? Watch This Video:

http://www.powerpointbiblelessons.com/ThanksGiving/Thankful_controller.swf

Learning the Power of Blessing

Last February I was studying and preaching on the power of Blessings. Aaron was given the formula for how to Bless by God himself in Numbers 6:22-27. We often hear it called the Aaronic Blessing, or even Rabbinic Blessing. But what I discovered was that hidden in this simple blessing is the Power of the Trinity! God the Father Blesses and Keeps, God the Son shines His face upon us and gives us grace, God the Spirit lifts up His countenance upon us and gives us peace.

All Blessing comes from God, because of the grace of Jesus and results in the power of the Holy Spirit in our life, whose fruit is peace.

What resulted as an outcome of the study and sermons was learning to bless loved ones using the elements of Aaron's Blessing. Everyone in our church was given help in how to write the blessings, and then given an opportunity to bless their loved ones in the service. It was very powerful!

I found the blessings I provided for my wife, my children and my grandchildren. I wanted to preserve them here:

Blessing for my wife Lydia:

• Holy God, bless my wife and keep her ad the apple of your eye. May she dwell in safety all her days.
• Righteous God, shine your face upon her and may your grace upon grace abound in her life, and may she abound in every good work for Your glory.
• Compassionate Father, lift Your countenance upon her life and may your peace overwhelm her heart and bring forth fruit unto righteousness.
  
• May she be a blessed olive tree that brings forth sweet smelling fragrance unto the Lord. May her children and grandchildren rise up and call her blessed. Cause my heart to praise her.

Blessing for my children as well as their spouses, Ben & Sara, Jimmy & Krista, Ben & Tonya, David & Lindsey, Andy, Geoffrey:

• Father God Bless my children as well as their spouses and may they keep the way of the Lord and may they instruct their children to follow after you.
• May your face shine upon their marriages and may your grace empower them to love each other and understand each other and forgive each other so that Christ would dwell in their lives and homes by faith.
• Compassionate Lord, lift up your countenance upon them and may your peace reign in their hearts and their homes.
• Creator Lord bless David and Lindsey and make her the joyous mother of children from You.
• Father may your light enable them to see that they are raising a precious heritage unto you. Bless them and may their quiver be full!

Blessing for my Grandchildren:

• Almighty God bless my grandchildren and keep them from the evil one. Cause your angels to camp round about them and keep them safe in your loving arms.
• Holy Father shine Your face upon their lives and may the grace of Your Word illumine their hearts until the light of Jesus Christ indwells them.
• Loving Father lift up Your countenance upon them and sow Your peace in their lives.
• May the vine give its fruit, the ground give its produce and the heavens give their dew all the days of their lives. May their children and their children's children follow after You.
  

We prepared some verses which are great to use in blessing. Everyone of these blessings are based upon Scripture. That is what makes them so powerful! Email a request and we'll send them to you.

Blamer or Gamer

Maxim #29 You are either a BLAMER or a GAMER.

I hate to over simplify people. But it seems to be very true that there are people who make excuses or assess blame for why something didn't get done. Or there are the people who get in the game and get the job done. Sure, they stumble, they fumble, but at least they are giving it their all. That's what I mean by your are either a blamer or a gamer.

I have learned that people are always going to look for someone to blame.

Deacon Stephen certainly was a GAMER. He pointed the finger of blame. Not to excuse his actions, but to take the GAME of Jesus to those Jews who had crucified the Christ. The Jews had blamed Jesus, they had Him crucified to escape their responsibility. But Stephen confronted them with the Truth, and they couldn't take it. Stephen was in the GAME, giving it his all, even his life.

I used to be shy and afraid of making mistakes. Now I don't care. I believe in getting in the game and getting things done. No one is going to take the blame for what I don't get done. Success of an organization, a family, a church, rises and falls on the vision of the leader.

On another note. One of my pet peeves is having to preach "seasonal" sermons. If I'm in a series or a book, I don't want to stop and preach a sermon appropriate to the season or holiday. But I realize that the people tend to expect it. It feels comfortable to them. So I will be the dutiful pastor and preach a sermon appropriate for Thanksgiving.

In all actuality, it is important to remind everyone to Thank God. I was praying up at the church tonight, and I just started thanking God. Over and over again I thanked him. I yelled it out. How liberating, how exhilarating.

You know, when you get busy THANKING GOD, you don't have time to worry about blaming somebody. When you THANK GOD, you get excited and want to GET IN THE GAME!

Jesus Hinted, but I'm Telling!

I woke up with 4 short alliterated sermon points on my mind. I don't normally try to overly organize or alliterate sermons, and I'd already printed out my sermon with the main points in my usual style. But the Holy Spirit gave me something new as I slept.

Tomorrow I'm preaching on Phil 3:1-11, which is mainly Paul talking about what he has learned to give up, or lose, in order to gain Christ. So I have titled the sermon "Losin' It". Short, sweet, simple. But I was missing something in Paul's opening statement where he says "finally, rejoice in the Lord".

To most people that is crazy if you take it too literally. Certainly you only rejoice when things are going good. God certainly understands that we have to have our down moments. But Paul wrote that from imprisonment, facing death at the hands of the Roman executioner's. They weren't humane like we have become(?). They used fire, lions, crucifixion. Even with that Paul says to rejoice IN THE LORD!

Maxim #27-True Christians Lose Control.

That is the first point of the sermon God wants me to make. The two years of imprisonment must have been a real shock to Paul. He was used to being in control. He had it all, he did it all, he was it all. Yet God took him back to those three days he was in Damascus, blind, unable to do anything, waiting for Ananias to show him the way of the Lord Jesus. Here he was again, totally dependent, unable to do anything except depend on the Lord. He gave up control and learned to REJOICE!

When we rejoice, we bring God into our situation, because we rejoice IN THE LORD! We lose control!

Just this week I heard someone say they had given up. But they were giving up to their situation. They were afraid they had cancer and would soon be dying. That's what the doctor had told them he suspected. They had already faced one bout, and were tired of all the testing, the worry and the stress. They weren't up to another fight. Their energy was gone, they were sick with worry. But then the dreaded results came back, and there was no cancer. All of a sudden their outlook and spirits were changed.
We like to be in control. When faced with an uncontrollable situation we often give up, or we try to fight. But Jesus wants us to LOSE CONTROL. Let Him handle it, let Him give us strength, let Him renew our spirit, LET CHRIST BE IN CHARGE! No matter whay happens, we rejoice, because we are letting Him control the outcome.

Isn't that what he meant when he said "Come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest?

Mammaw Did It!

I love this little interchange between my grandchild and I. The link below will take you to the video. It happened at Christmas 2005, but it blesses me everytime I watch it. I love to see her innocence and expressions.

I am also fascinated at her noticing a flaw and even at the age of 15 months already assessing blame.

We tend to notice things that are wrong, flawed, out of place. We quickly try to assess blame, as if to justify its' existence and somehow bring order into our little world. Sometimes things get so flawed that it must be God's fault, so we blame Him. And the more we blame Him, the farther away from Him we get. Only when we see a God of Power, controlling and even using the chaos and flaws around and within us, do we have peace in our life.

Growing Up Too Fast?

Luke has just learned to walk. He waited until he was sure he could do it. I think he is 13 months old. Some would call that slow, but he was just making sure he wanted to. Once he figured it out, he is anxious to keep on going. He was already trying on bigger shoes to see what walking in them would be like. He did pretty good. Sometimes we adults do that. We take a while making up our minds, but once we do, its full speed ahead. As a Pastor, I find myself being impatient with people who take too long to make a decision to join the church, or get involved, or whatever. But I would much rather have someone who chews it over well before leaping in. Too often we get excited about something, and then weeks or months later they have disappeared because they have lost interest.

I want people who are there day in day out. No excitement needed.They are fully committed to the work. I don't have time to babysit.

I don't think God does either. He's not up in heaven thinking what show does He have to put on next to get people excited about Him. He wants people to be there for Him day in and day out.

Would we have been speaking Spanish?

I have been dwelling on this question of "Does God Work?" Could everything going on in and around my life really be God at work? I keep remembering Hebrews 11:6 where it says those that come to God must believe 2 things:

1. God IS!
2. God rewards those who DILIGENTLY seek Him.

So a lot of my wondering about God working could really be a questioning of whether God really is.
I watched the movie "Elizabeth" this week. It reminded me that if it were not for the intervention of the weather, the Spanish Armada would probably have conquered England and we would all be speaking Spanish today. Was God working that day to control the weather? Some would disagree, but I happen to believe God was very much at work.

The fact is that God is always at work, but for some strange reason He limits Himself to our will.

That is why a young person can seemingly make a profession of faith in Christ, and yet later on in life come to the conclusion that there is no God. Was God at work in His life? Most definitely. God is still at work. However, it is up to our will to acknowledge Him.
I made the statement to that young man who no longer believes there is a God, "Do you think you are putting your head in the sand"? He didn't seem to think he was. But to have a system of moral behavior, a standard of behavior you insist your children and wife follow, one that is very similar to God's standard of behavior and then say there is no God?

I believe he has his head in the sand. He does believe in a god, a god he finds more convenient that the one in the Bible.

To say the God is not at work in our lives is to say that our spouse does nothing for us unless they are in our sight. One binding force of marriage is never taking each other for granted. As soon as you do, the marriage is in danger. We take God's working for granted. It is much easier to place ourselves at the center of our own universe. It is more frightening to realize that Jehovah God, Elohim is the center of all life, and that our thoughts, wants and desires are to revolve around Him.

In order to see that God does indeed work; that He even works daily in our lives, we must believe that HE IS, and then have our eyes opened to seeing that which is normally invisible, the very fact of His presence in our lives.