Easter Testimony

My friend Jerry is a pastor. His church has been doing an Easter drama for 20 years! This year they lost their actor who plays Jesus because God called him to become a pastor and he will be at his new church. So, they had to find another person to play Jesus. After some prayer and consideration they all decided that Jerry's son, who is 15, would play the part of Jesus.

In one of the early showings of the drama, Jerry was struck by the frustration of watching his son play the part of Jesus being beaten. His mind wandered from his stage hand job, "What if this really happened to my son?" Then, the Lord reminded him, "That is what happened to my Son."

I think that the most amazing part of the Bible story is that God determined the plan of salvation from the creation of the world. He sent a savior that would relate to us perfectly as friend, brother, and son. Because of the way God made us, he also knew what would draw us back to him in love, the story of a father and his only son, who he loves.

Perspective on Age #2

Perspective on Age #1 posted on February 7th. Scroll back if you like and read it.

Joshua 14:10-12 says, "10 “Now then, just as the LORD promised, he has kept me alive for forty-five years since the time he said this to Moses, while Israel moved about in the desert. So here I am today, eighty-five years old! 11 I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I’m just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then. 12 Now give me this hill country that the LORD promised me that day. You yourself heard then that the Anakites were there and their cities were large and fortified, but, the LORD helping me, I will drive them out just as he said.”

I am always impressed with Caleb in this passage. Think of the elements of his passion for God and personality that are worth striving for. He was sent as a spy at the age of 40. Now at 85, he is still ready to take the land.

Still Strong - I am praying that when I am 85, I will say what Caleb said. "I am still as strong today as when..." Not only was he spiritually and emotionally strong, he was physically strong and was not afraid to say it.
Vigorous - I hope that I will keep my vigor. I want to stay passionate for God and his purpose for my life. I want to be working and active for him.
Staking his Claim - For 45 years, Caleb has been waiting and preparing for the promise of God for his life. This man never gave up!
Fearless - Caleb new the report about the Anakites who were living in the portion of the land God promised him. They were big. They were heavily armed. They had strong defenses. But, the old Caleb was just as fearless as the young Caleb who brought back the good report as a spy.
Entrepreneurial - It is interesting that Caleb is ready to do the work of driving out the Anakites and start out on the risky campaign to take the land God had promised to him. Could I be that ready for a new risk and a new venture when I am in my 80's? I am praying that I will be!

Frustration

Some days Blogger just will not allow me to break my paragraphs up or allow me to insert an extra return between paragraphs. Sorry about that last post that is all one block of text. I just can't figure out why Blogger text editor works one day and not the next. Sorry.

God's Good Word

“Do not my words do good to him whose ways are upright?" Micah 2:7

Some people hate the Bible. Some people search the Bible looking for the tings they want to negate. Some people search the Bible for the promises and avoid the commands. Some people avoid the Scriptures about judgement, and try to ignore a part of the God they confess to love. No matter how you treat the Scriptures, this law is always at work. God's Word does good to those who do right.

So where do we start? We start with one step forward in doing what is right. What is right? Right is defined by the perfect nature of God. How do we learn the perfect nature of God, by reading his Word.

If you read the Word, it will show you what to do that is right. When you do what is right, God's Word blesses you more and more. Jesus said something like this, He who has will be given more, but he who does not have, even what little he has will be taken away. It is the rule of spiritual momentum. Start moving in God's direction today by reading his word, and he will give you his momentum.

Worshipers in Spirit and in Truth

My heart is still full from the message on Sunday from John 4. When people meet Jesus, their life is transformed radically. We are moved from a life of sinfulness and religious knowledge or religiosity, to become worshipers who worship in spirit and in truth. It may not happen often, but at the end of the service, it was as if the Lord hit me with his presence and I can't stop thinking about worshiping Jesus. Toward the end of the message I fell in love with Jesus all over again.

Karen D. shared this video on Facebook. It is from Cape First with Pastor Gary Brothers. He is a great pastor and has been helpful to me. Check out this great song. Kinda' sums up some of feelings this week.

A Great Celebration

Yesterday was Celebration Sunday, and it was about as perfect as it could be. It was an unbelievable team effort.

I want to say thanks to all the people who made it a great day! Many people baked pies, arrived amazingly early, stayed extra late and worked very hard to make for a great day. We had hoped for $20,000.00 in new pledges and we went over $17,000.00 past our goal! We now have $320,000.00 pledged for the campaign. We also had a great offering for the campaign. The Pie Contest raised $326.00 which was great and tasty at the same time.

HUGE THANKS to all who helped make this a great day.

Celebration Sunday

This Sunday is Celebration Sunday, and we have a great number of you who have sent in an RSVP. This is going to be a great day. We have already turned in our number to the caterer, but if you or a friend wish to attend please let us know. If we are expecting extra people we want to prepare as well as we can for each one.

The kids will start our worship time and the youth drama team will be ministering to us. I am very excited about the message for the day. Don't miss this Sunday!

Social Networking or Social Breakdown

I had a great conversation with a college student recently about social networking. We were talking about the difficulties of Facebook and Twitter. I think the points of our conversation are worth mentioning.

1. Social networking is skewed like a first date. Most people who have a cent of wisdom do not post the nasty horrible things in their lives. What you see on their page about vacation and expensive adventures and toys may not paint the whole picture of their life and success. Remember, Facebook is often a virtual reality, not reality.
2. Some posts are not worth posting. Some people I have observed have actually started posting road rage, anger at their kids, and other frustrations. I often find myself avoiding Facebook because I honestly just don't want to know about a persons most recent horrible decision or disgusting conversation. Sadly, the things that are least virtual on social networking are the most disturbing. Real wounds and hurts can come from virtual actions.
3. Facebook friends may not be real friends. As we talked an instance came up where a Facebook friend proved not to be friendly, even avoiding, in an actual opportunity to say hello in a retail store. How can we be Facebook friends and not friends in real life? That is a little weird.
4. Deleting Facebook friends creates a strange psychological component. In real life, you can't really delete people. You can avoid people who are dangerous or harmful, but the idea of deleting friends is a little morbid when you really think about it. What kind of cultural norms are we creating unintentionally when we delete people?

Now it is time to post my blog entry and link it to Facebook. What an irony! As people who love Jesus, let's redeem technology for good. Make the most of every opportunity, even on line.

Be careful little thumbs what you tweet.
Be careful little fingers what you post.
Be a blessing today.

Invite

Now is the best time of year to invite someone to church. The week before Easter, Easter, and the week following are the most attended Sundays of the year. If you have been inviting a person to church, now is the time to invite them again. Let's shoot for another service with standing room only!

Also, remember that we will have three Easter morning worship times.
6:30 a.m. Sunrise Worship
8:30 a.m. Early Worship
10:15 a.m. Late Worship

Then, be ready for April 15th when we move our service time to 9:30 and 11:15 a.m.

New Service Times

We are changing our service times. After looking at the surveys that we received this month, we learned that most people in our church don't care what time services are. But they really do have a preference of attending the first or second service.

Our new service times will be starting April 15th. Everything is simply moving one hour later.
9:30 - First Service
11:15 - Second Service

This will allow us to hopefully gain a few people in the early service. Also, if we must go to a third service before we move into a new building, we will simply add 8:00 a.m. We may not need to do that, but we have the option.

Forgiven

What is the Power of forgiveness?
A new FEELING – Guilt free
A new START – Getting to start over
A new PERSPECTIVE – Seeing my past differently
A new IDENTITY – I am a new creation in Jesus
A new DIRECTION - I have a new path for life
A new DESTINATION – On my way to Heaven.
A new GOAL – My goal is to please God not myself.

Don't miss the message this Sunday on Forgiveness.

Announcements!

I have a few important announcements.

1. We are taking our 50+ group to the Camp Meeting at the Lake of the Ozarks in May. Check the poster in the foyer of the church for info. If you have parents over 50, consider sending them to the camp meeting as a Mother's Day or Father's Day gift.
2. The newsletter is coming out next week. Keep your eyes peeled for it.
3. We are having our water baptismal service on April 15th at 2:00 p.m. at First Baptist Church of Washington. Don't miss this celebration!
4. Celebration Sunday is April 1st at the Elk's Lodge. Service is at 10 a.m. and lunch for everyone follows. The RSVP for this event is in the bulletin.

Have a blessed day!

It Takes A While

Yesterday in our family devotions we read the story of Gideon's son, Abimelech. Abimemech was the son of Gideon's concubine. Gideon had several wives and 70 other sons. Gideon's numerous wives caused his family a great deal of trouble. Abimelech murdered all but one of his step-brothers and set himself up as a kind of king in his region.

The one brother that escaped the murder claimed that the town that he overtook would one day overtake him. Three years later the people of the area rebelled and there was a fight. In the fight Abimemech was killed when a woman in a tower dropped a stone on his head. The commentary from Judges 9 says, "Thus God repaid the wickedness of Abimelech, which he had done to his father in killing his seventy brothers. 57 Also God returned all the wickedness of the men of Shechem on their heads, and the curse of Jotham the son of Jerubbaal came upon them." NIV

What caught my attention was the three year period between the murder of the 69 brothers and the resulting death that was foretold in the curse of the escaping brother. Notice that "God repaid" the wickedness. I think that we often allow our own history to have as much memory as the 24 hour news cycle. We have lost the ability to understand the links between our own actions and consequences that follow. Because we can not make the connection, we can not see God's hand of warning of direction in our lives. We are too short sighted. Here are two thoughts.

First, what if getting the blessings of God takes a while. What if serving him for a month is not long enough for us to grow through out trouble and see the resulting blessing on the other side. What if your miracle takes three years? Will you stick it out with God, or give up just before the miracle arrives.

Second, what if God has forgiven you, but you are still struggling with the consequences of your previous life? I have seen many people pull the faith ejection seat when they face the consequences of their past. Don't pull that escape cord! Hang on and see how the Lord brings you through. Even if it takes a while, be faithful and stick with the Lord. He will see you through.

Remember, God is eternal. He does not see time like you and I see time. He has a different idea of what a long time really is.

Good Men

I am so proud of the group of men from our church who traveled to Branson, Missouri last week to help with tornado cleanup. The guys were extremely caring with people and had great manners at all times. We were able to really help a number of people.

In the future we will be a little more prepared. This was our second disaster response trip and we are learning on each trip how to do a better job. Also, on this trip it happened to be all men. We are not limited to taking men only.

I am just really proud of our people and the work they have done. Way to go!

Perspectives on Age #1

Joshua 13:1 says, "When Joshua was old and well advanced in years, the Lord said to him, "You are very old..."

Everybody wants to miraculously hear from God. Christians often seek with passion the experience of hearing from God. Often we wrongly seek his voice for the thrill of hearing him, rather than his voice to know his person and purpose. But, imagine that you are faithfully following the Lord and doing his will. You have been praying and seeking God and his word to you is, "You are very old..." God had more to say to Joshua, but those first few words that introduce the rest of the message would have stopped me in my tracks.

Why don't Christian's have testimonies more often that seem like reality checks? Is it that we only hear what we want to hear? I often think people imagine some things that they think are thoughts from God. Can we be honest and open enough in hearing from God that he can even tell us the bad news?

Finally, this little interchange between God and Joshua teaches me a lesson. I am God's little child always. However, God is practical enough to walk a man with child-like faith through the process of getting old. He helps us mature in many ways while protecting a Father to child relationship. I don't ever want to grow out of God, like kids grow out of clothes, I want to grow up in God.