Short Accounts - Keeping It Open

Today, in the wake of yet another winter storm, I dug through the snow on my way to our shed. Once there, I got out the snow-blower that my father had given me last year. As I worked my way down the drive, blowing the snow off of a sheet of soft ice, I watched the snow continue to fall.

"Why am I doing this while it is still snowing?" The thought lingered in my mind for a few seconds before the answer hit me. You see, if I keep up with the task, I will not get buried in it. There is a lesson in that moment that can apply to many aspects of our lives.

For me, it was a reminder that if I keep up with my schoolwork, I will not get behind. If I spend the time with my wife and kids, they will never grow distant from me. The ultimate lesson, I believe, came from the Holy Spirit. If I keep my accounts - my heart, mind and soul, clean before God, I will never get buried so far in sin that I will loose out on all he has for me.

Daily prayer. Daily confession. Daily GRACE. That is keeping it open!

Thought of the Day

Without Christ, the only love that we can offer someone is counterfeit. 1 John 4:7-8

And Then It Happens

Have you ever been seeking God, perhaps in prayer and fasting - really wanting to connect at a deeper level with him? I've been doing that as of late and I've been reminded that one can never be quite sure of what God's going to do or how he's going to do it.

This past 3 weeks has been fraught with difficulties, yet while I was seeking God for what he wanted to do through me, he did something in me.

I can't go into details as of yet, but God has given me something that is far greater than what I was asking for. That's really cool! But, again, that's our God!

An Act of Kindness or I'm Really Dense

OK. So today I'm in the supermarket, at the check-out line and this guy starts bagging my groceries. I'm thinking, "Cool, I didn't know they did that here." As I finish loading the bags into the van I notice the same guy pushing a shopping cart with the lady, who was standing in line behind me at the check-out, following him to a car. Then I see him reach in his pocket, pull out his keys and open the trunk. This guy didn't have a uniform or vest, yet I still figured him to be a store employee. He wasn't.

He either wanted to do something kind for a stranger or was in a hurry and wanted me and my stuff out of his way.

Either way, it was a blessing!

Bless Him Lord!

Good Enough

Today, Justin and Brandon and I went to see my Dad in the hospital. On our way we stopped at his house and used the snow blower and shovels to clean out his drive and sidewalks. As we were finishing I asked one of the boys to blow a path through the yard from Dad's driveway to the neighbor' driveway while I walked to the nearby parking lot to get the van. When I returned, I noticed that the requested path was only half finished.

"Dad! Why do we have to shovel a path through the yard?", the boys asked.

"See these tracks," I asked pointing to the boot prints in the 10-inch deep snow. "They're made by the mailman, it saves him time by cutting across the yard rather than returning to the road or sidewalk", I continued.

I finished the path and looked at the porch steps. One shovel width of snow was taken from each one. I'm sure the shoveler had declared that the job was done "good enough". By this time the boys were playing with some large icicles they had pulled from the porch roof. As I finished shoveling the steps, a thought came to my mind. "What if everyone on the entire street, did just a "good enough" job? That mailman would have to exert additional energy and his day would be considerably longer."

How about in our Christian service? Are we ever tempted to minister or do tasks just "good enough"? How much harder will that unsaved visitor or struggling new believer have to labor in the darkness because we ministered or served just "good enough?"

"Let us not become weary in doing good , for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers." Galatians 6:9-10 NIV

Shovel well!

Spiritual Amnesia - "Wait A Second, That Tree Looks Familiar"

It has been said that life goes in cycles. I guess some cycles are good - Winter, Spring, Summer, Fall. However, some cycles are not so good. Our family seems to be stuck in a particular cycle. The New Year has brought lay-offs to our household again. Both my wife and I have been laid off from our secular jobs -temporarily for me and more indefinitely for Robin. (I am a bi/tri- vocational associate pastor) It is easy to get frustrated and discouraged. The hardest thing for me is when my wife gets discouraged and depressed. Somehow, when these things happen, we tend to get a type of spiritual amnesia. We forget what God has done for us in the past and we wander through the same forrest of doubt, fear and uncertainty.

In my devos this morning I was reading in Mark about Jesus feeding the 4,000. The disciples asked how they were supposed to feed all of the people. See? This was a familiar cycle - one that they had been through before. The disciples apparently forgot about the feeding of the 5,000. Interestingly, in both of these instances, the disciples were looking to and questioning the human resources for these things. For the 5,000, they questioned the amount of money it would take to feed such a crowd. For the 4,000, the disciples questioned the availability of food in such a remote place. They forgot that their true source was right beside them - Jesus.

It is the same for us. We forget our source and we forget what God has brought us through in times past. When we forget, our faith waivers. When we remember, we can boldly proclaim that,
OUR GOD IS ABLE!

So, when you are in a familiar place of trial and test, remember your source and what He has done for you and what He will do again!

Favor

Our son, Brandon, wanted to go to Youth Convention this weekend. Problem - (1)no one else in the youth group wanted to or could go. (2) Robin and I are currently laid-off from our secular jobs. (3) We didn't have the funds to send him to Convention. Yesterday, I get a call from a youth pastor at another church in our section, telling me that he has a paid registration that will go unfilled and asks if one of my boys wants to go. We talked to the boys and Justin did not want to go, so Brandon gets the desire of his heart!

God's favor through God's people. Nothing beats it and ya gotta love it!

Little Things

Yesterday evening was Grace Fellowship's Food Ministry time. There was a line around one side of our building. My pastor and I decided that we would go out and serve coffee & hot chocolate to those standing in line. What has remained with me, is the stories of lay-offs, downsizing and company closings. These are hard times, but as a minister friend shared with us yesterday morning, "There is no better time for the righteous to shine, than in hard times."

In that line, after serving the people, we fielded questions about God, the church and even about upcoming services. Serving a simple cup of coffee can help build God's church. Maybe the church you attend cannot have a food ministry, but, may I ask you, what can you do?

Whatever it is, God can and will use it.

WHY?

Yesterday, I spent the afternoon and evening with my Father in the ER of a local Hospital. The medical staff quickly discovered that my Father was in need of surgery. While we waited for a bed, our conversation touched on many things, one, of which, was my Father's tour of duty in Korea.

With tears in his eyes he told me of being positioned ahead of the front line at an outpost on "Heartbreak Ridge". There were wounded soldiers that needed brought back to the line. My Father volunteered to go after the wounded. While he was getting a stretcher from the medic shack, another man, who was known for his disbelief in God, grabbed the stretcher out of my Father's hands.

The man made it out to the forward bunker and was sitting between two other soldiers when a enemy shell took his life while the two others were un-touched.

While lying on his hospital gurney, my Father asked me, "Why? How could a shell hit him and not touch the two men beside him?" I knew what my father meant. He was asking, Why the man, who took his place on the assignment, had to die? My Father carried that man's body back to the front line.

Rather than turn this post into a debate of belief vs disbelief, let me just write about the importance of being ready to meet God. If that man had not grabbed the stretcher out of my Father's hands....

My Father's life was spared for a purpose and only God knows the full extent of that purpose. Who are the 'unbelievers" that we are in contact with? Knowing that they may be called to stand before God in the very next moment should light a fire under us to show the love of Jesus to them.

Do we?

If not. Why?

What Are Our Words Saying?

You've probably heard the saying, "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." I'm going to suggest that it is both what you say and how you say it. Lately, We've been teaching our kids about their responsibility in speech. Over the last two years I have been holding to a verbal lifestyle that says,
If it comes out of my mouth, I'm responsible for:

• What I said.
• What I meant.
• All the non verbals (body language)
• How what I said was received and interpreted.

In short, if I say something and someone interprets it differently than how I meant it, it is MY response-ability to:

1. Apologize for any miscommunication
2. Offer Clarification
3. Learn from my communicative mistake.

I've seen so many relationships destroyed because someone wouldn't take responsibility for what they said. Perhaps this is why in Collosians 4:66, Paul writes, "Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone". NIV

This is especially true for the target audience of the above verse - the believers. Just a few words that are misinterpreted by the hearer can have devastating effects.

Holier Than NO ONE!

Wow! What an experience! I celebrated the New Year like I never have before in my life. It was loud, it was sweaty, bodies were flying through the air and many heard the message that Jesus loves them. Where was I? I was hangin' with my guys at the "Happy Hardcore New Years" at The Attic in Kettering (Dayton) Ohio. I was able to see and hear (loudly) the likes of Miss May I, At the Throne of Judgement, Before Their Eyes and, the headliner band, The Devil Wears Prada. Not really my favorite style of music, but it wasn't anything like I thought it might be.

Surprisingly, I was not nearly the oldest person there. While I declined to join the boys in the mosh, and I didn't jump out into the crowd for fear that everyone would move and I would hit the floor with a thud, I had a great time. I met another dad there and we talked, well, yelled at

each other for half of the night.

In my devotions today, I was reading in Mark 2 about Jesus answering the accusation of associating with the riff-raff. Jesus said that it is the sick who need a doctor. Immediately, my mind went back to Wednesday night. Those kids would not have listened to some guy in a shirt and tie, or somebody strumming a 6 string acoustic. These bands delivered a sacred message in a relevent way. And the kids heard it! Near the end of the concert the lead guitarist for The Devil Wears Prada told the kids, how much his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ loved them and his statement was met with thunderous cheers and applause.

These bands do what they do in the way that they do it for this generation. It isn't about the band members, it's about a generation that we're losing because I (general term) tend to demand conformance to the way I like things to be. My wife and I were met with some disapproval for not only allowing our boys to go to a concert where a band with the word devil in it's name was playing, but for taking them as well. Believe me, we did the research, scrutinized the lyric sheets and were pleasantly surprised and impressed.

I left that club with a new understanding about delivering a sacred message relevantly. Just because one of God's "minister's" has gauges in his ears and tattoos for sleeves, doesn't make him less holy in God's eyes.

Props to Pastor Jim Kilby and the staff of The Attic for helping reach this generation.