Category Archives: Life

Life, Sermon Illustration

Kids and Grandkids – Prayer

My kids now have kids of their own.  My prayer is the same.  I want so much for them and I know the only answer to their modern situations, their modern pains, their modern struggles is God.

Heavenly Father, thank You for my kid’s salvation. Thank You for a plan that included them and part of that plan included You. Thank You that You have lavished Your riches and Your inheritance on them, although they could do nothing to earn it or deserve it.  They have their own wills, yet I am praying that you reach out to them and grasp them in your hands.  Provide your grace.

I pray for my kids’s legs to walk in step with your will. Always with You, not racing ahead, not lagging behind, not wandering off, but day-by-day walking with Jesus, so that He is their constant companion. God, take them where You want them to go and keep them from the places they shouldn’t go. Give them strength to continue when they feel weak. Give them courage to keep on walking with You, even when the road ahead looks uncertain and dim. Give them grace to bridge gaps, to leap walls, to span the separations between people and groups.

I pray for my kid’s feet, that You would place them where You want them to stand. Plant their feet on the immovable rock of Jesus. Talk to them when storms come or the world’s attractions try to lure them down its path. Whisper in their ears and to their spirits, “Stand firm.”

Through my kid’s arms, always do Your work. Strengthen them, hold them up, and direct them to do whatever You want them to do. Make their time valuable for eternity, not just the quick flash that is the span of their days on earth.

I pray for my kid’s hands that they will often fold them in prayer. Make them mighty in prayer. Teach them to pray after Your own heart. Enable them to live their lives so that everyone will see Your signature, “This one is the Lord’s.”

Give my kids the patience to wait on You, Lord, so that You may renew their spirits and they may soar as on eagle’s wings.

Give me the strength to continue in prayer for my kids.  I trust in your mercy and grace.  I live in faith that you will make a mighty difference in their lives.  My prayer is that they may know You.

AMEN

Life, Personal, Ramblings

Church growth and electric screwdrivers

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I often see something that needs to be fixed around the house.  I have all tools, I have the ability to look up the solutions, and I have the desire to get it done.  The results are not always the best; if you looked at my work the new braces on the fence may not be very straight, and that engine on the old truck finally gave up after working on it for six months.

But what I would like to vent on today is often in the middle of one project, I get distracted with another.  While working on the fence and putting new slats with an electric screwdriver, a distraction presents itself.  The very tool in my hand becomes a distraction.  Reminders of other screws that need tightening are brought to mind.  Matter of fact everything around me seems too need my screwdriver touch.

The church, it seems to me, is caught in the same trap.  There have been volumes of writings on Church Growth.  Seminars, educations, blogs, denominational studies on church growth abound.  They have become the electric screwdrivers of Evangelical Christianity.  “We can solve all our problems with increasing numbers.” Massive outputs of time, talent and treasure have been invested in this Church electric screwdriver.

Why is bigger always better? Why has it become the go-to answer for every church.  For that matter, has church growth become a solution looking for a problem?

I look at the Bible for answers.  What should be the pattern for today’s church?  There are amazing similarities between the first century church and the church today.  They had large churches and small churches.  There were healthy, sick and dead churches. There were churches with strong leaders, weak leaders, and even sinful leaders.  These churches worshiped God in imperfect ways.  There were arguments over beliefs and practices.  Some were in homes while others were big enough to gather in communal gatherings.

If there ever was a picture of variety, it was in the early church.  The church in Jerusalem, Corinth, Laodicea, Thessalonica and Ephesus had little in common outside of following scripture and practicing communion and water baptism.  Their goal was not building new edifices to gather in.  Church growth was never a solution.  It was a natural evidence of something else.

When a church was in trouble, when a church was not living up to the standards of Jesus the New testament writers did not exhort them to get bigger.  They were told the argumentative to get along.  The immoral church was told to repent.  The sinning church was warned of impending punishment.  Not once did Paul, Luke, John, or Peter ever tell a church in crisis to expand.

No New Testament writer ever told a sick, dying, sinful or hurting church to get bigger.  Church growth and church health are not equal.

Church growth is not the electric screwdriver that can fix a church that is not what it should be.  No early church leader ever pointed to church growth as the fix for problems.

Yes, I know that Jesus said to go out and make disciples and that would mean growth.  But a sick church is not helped or maybe even harmed by an in swell of more people.  John, when he addressed the challenges, sins and blessings of the seven churches in Revelation, never told any of them to grow.  No early church leader ever told any church – sick or healthy – to structure for growth. Not every church was growing. Many were barely hanging on, while staying faithful. But there’s not even a hint that the apostles saw their lack of numerical growth as evidence of a problem.

In fact, unless you’re looking at the New Testament through a modern, western church growth lens, it’s impossible to miss the fact that small, suffering churches were given far more praise for their faithfulness than large, growing churches were given for the numerical increase.

With my electric screwdriver in hand and everything around me needing a wood screw, it is easy to be distracted from the fence that needs fixing.  I believe that churches are supposed to grow.  But I do not think then next Church growth tool is the answer.  I believe that health not size is the emphasis of the first church and should be the emphasis of my church.

I’m merely raising a much-overlooked point about where we place our priorities.  The fence needs to be fixed before we worry about that new deck that is planned.

Have to go, the battery on my electric screwdriver is now charged.

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Life, Ramblings, Sermon Illustration

Hello Weekend with an Angel..

Not long ago my family joined in a long weekend in Bodega Bay, California.  One of the participants is the sweetest angel of a grand-daughter that God has ever given to a proud Pop Pop.  On the outside porch we were all talking, and being the demonstrative family we are our voices were verging on being loud.  The family was all looking out over the ocean in the distance and my grand-daughter was staring at us with the ocean behind her.  Well my little angel realized there were voices coming from behind her.  It was an echo.

She turned and at the top of her lungs she shouted, “Hello.”  And in rapid response came that same sweet voice right back.  It was a discovery of the innocent.  There was wonder in her eyes and her joy that gave me joy.  Her smile made me smile.  The rest of the weekend, she took every opportunity to stand facing the far distant ocean and shouted over and over, “Hello.”

She is yet too young to understand that while most people call this event just an echo, but it is much more than that.  It really is about life.  It gives back everything you say or do.  Our life is simply an echo of our actions and attitudes.

If you want more love in the world, create more love in your heart. If you want more joy in your family, improve your own joy. This relationship applies to everything, in all aspects of life; life will give you back everything you have given to it.”  My sweet angel’s smile was reflected by my smile.  Her joy was reflected back by my joy.

Life is not just a number of coincidences.  Life is a reflection of you.

 

Life, Music, Ramblings

Good News

In a day of depressing headlines and uncertainty all around us, good news is always welcome. The entertainment industry would have you believe we should be watching out for zombies, phasers, tooth decay, and the dreaded two-year-old car. If there was ever a time that society and my soul needed good news it is now.

I am a product of the Hymnal and some of the greatest thoughts outside of the Bible were ingrained into my mind was from hymns. What better news could there be that came from the old hymn : “The vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives?” When Christians refer to the “Gospel” they are referring to the “good news” that Jesus Christ died to pay the penalty for our sin so that we might become the children of God through faith alone in Christ alone. In short, “the Gospel” is the sum total of the saving truth as God has communicated it to lost humanity as it is revealed in the person of His Son and in the Holy Scriptures, the Bible. Truly Good News.

Life, Sermon Illustration, Theology

Absurd

ab·surd

adjective

    wildly unreasonable, illogical, or inappropriate.

   “the allegations are patently absurd”

    synonyms:      preposterous, ridiculous, ludicrous, farcical, laughable, risible, idiotic, stupid, foolish, silly, inane, imbecilic, insane, harebrained, cockamamie;

It just does not make sense.

I am a man without parents.  They are both deceased. I am an orphan. But, you would say, “most people out live their parents.”  Sure, but it is more than that.  I am an orphan in other ways. To my knowledge man, (and I use that as a generic term for human kind), is the only creature in the universe who asks, “Why?” Other animals have instincts to guide them, but man has learned to ask questions. “Who am I?” man asks. “Why am I here? Where am I going?” Generations have come and gone. There have been repeated efforts to eliminate anything that would amount to authority. More and more are trying to throw off the metaphorical shackles of religion.  But the questions still exist.  If there is no God, “Shy am I here? And Where am I going?”  still need answers.

If we take God out of the answer, if we try to answer the questions of life without reference to God we are faced with dismal answers. The answers are not hopeful, helpful, encouraging, but dark and terrible. Without God in the answer then man is nothing more than the accidental by-product of nature, a result of matter plus time plus chance. There is no reason for your existence. All you face is death.

Modern man thought that when he had gotten rid of God, he had freed himself from all that repressed and stifled him. Instead, he discovered that in killing God, he had also killed himself. For if there is no God, then man’s life becomes absurd.

The absence of God means that both man and the universe has but one end.  And that end is death.  Man like a bug hiding under a rock, must die. Without a hope for immortality there is just bleakness and despair.  Might as well “eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow die.” Like Shakespeare said in Macbeth:

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more: it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.

Without God we are just food for the worms, a flash amid the thousand stars, lost amid the blackness. If you push out God you also push out eternity.

Call me absurd but, for me there has to be more than that.

I know not why God’s wondrous grace to me he hath made known,

nor why, unworthy, Christ in love redeemed me for his own.

But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able

to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.

I know not how this saving faith to me he did impart,

nor how believing in his word wrought peace within my heart.

But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able

to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.

I know not how the Spirit moves, convincing us of sin,

revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him.

But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able

to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.

I know not when my Lord may come, at night or noonday fair,

nor if I walk the vale with him, or meet him in the air.

But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able

to keep that which I’ve committed unto him against that day.

Words: Daniel W. Whittle

Music: James McGranahan

Life, Ramblings, Sermon Illustration

New Day New Chance

Every day is a new opportunity for a second chance.  In life, God allows and desires U turns. Every day as you wake know that it is not over.  God wants you to be more than you were yesterday.  It is never too late to change.  No matter how far you have come.  No matter what you have become.  It does not matter how big a failure you may thing you are.  No matter what others may think or say about you.

God gives us two gifts.  The first one is choice and the second is chance.  A choice of a good life and a chance to make it the best it can be.

Every morning that you wake up it is a another chance to get it right.

Dear past: Thank you for your lessons.

Dear Future: I am now ready

Dear Now: God thank you for another chance.

Oh God of the second chance and new beginnings, here I am…. again.