One New Thing

2015 is here. A new year, full of new possibilities and fresh starts. It’s our annual mulligan; a do-over to begin anew. We all want to start a new year off on the right track, but what’s more important is staying on the right track for the long haul, not just for the first week or the first month. It’s a time to think about who we are and where we are and what we are going to do.

               Check out these words from Isaiah 43:18-19:

               “Forget the former things, do not dwell on the past. I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”

               I wonder if God speaking to any of us today saying, “I am going to do something new in your life right now”. Maybe you have made a New Year’s Resolution, and if so that’s awesome. But here are some New Year’s statistics: 40% of New Year Resolutions are broken by the end of January, and 75% of Resolutions are a thing of the past by Dec 14^th. I don’t mean to be the bearer of bad news or say that nothing can change, and I’m not completely sure why New Years Resolutions don’t stick, but it might have something to do with the perspective, with the good intentions behind the wanting to change something in a New Year. Good intentions just won’t get you there. Good intentions are ‘me-focused’. What we need to see changes have to be ‘God-focused’. It is God leading the initiative of change, God calling something new and something to change. So I believe that if God is speaking something new into our lives this year, that maybe God is the One that will show us what One Thing to focus on.

               We all have areas of our lives we would like to change in 2015. For some of us these areas could compile a notebook filled page to page. But instead of focusing on all of them at once, what One Thing is God speaking to you about today?

               Here are some questions to help you determine your One Thing in 2015:

1.      What One Thing do you desire from God?

In Psalm 27:4, David writes, “One Thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple”.

2.      What One Thing do you lack?

When Jesus was answering a question from a man about what is needed to inherit eternal life, Jesus summed it up by saying, “One Thing you lack. Go and sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then, come, follow me.”

3.      What One Thing do you need to let go?

In his letter to the Philippians, Paul wrote, “forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

4.      What One Promise do you need to claim?

In Psalm 56:9 David again wrote, “This One Thing I know, God is for me!”

 

Take this week and answer these four questions for yourself. Prayerfully let God show you His One New Thing for 2015 that He wants to do in your life. Tell God your desires, acknowledge what you lack spiritually and a change that needs to be made in your life, let go of your past, your regrets, your bitterness, and claim the promises that God has laid out before you in a New Year, and be ready to experience the One New Thing that God has planned for you.

Christmas day is here...so now what?

 

Christmas day is here! The decorations, tinsel, lights, presents, and carols that have been leading up to this day have done their job. The celebration of the Advent season has led us to the celebration of the birth of Jesus.

               OK. Now what? Please do not take my question irreverently, in no way do I mean it that way. But really, what do we do now?

               If the anticipation leading up to Thursday morning had been all about unwrapping a present, then it’s over. There is nothing more to look forward to for another 365 days. But if the focus has been about celebrating Emmanuel, God with us, then it’s just the beginning. If the focus has been on looking back to the first Advent of Jesus and looking forward to the second Advent of Jesus, then we are in the middle of the mission right smack dab in between two Advents.

               The gospel of Luke recounts the life of Jesus from His birth to His death, and culminates in His resurrection. In the fourth chapter of Luke, we are told of the time when Jesus came into His public ministry. He attended a synagogue meeting, sat down, and read from the prophet Isaiah (chapter 61):

               “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then Jesus added, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:21)

               In other words, all these prophesies about the Messiah coming just took on flesh and blood and became real. And the realness of it all is named Jesus.

               And from here Jesus began His short public ministry of teaching and healing. I view these verses as Jesus’ mission statement. This was why He had been born in Bethlehem 30 years earlier. This is the “why” as to why He had come. So let’s check it out a little closer.

-        Proclaim good news to the poor

The poor here does not just mean poor as in having no money (aka “broke”), but that could be part of it. But part of it has to do with humility, and loving others as yourself and not putting an emphasis on only the me-things of life. The poor here is more like when Jesus said “Blessed are the poor in spirit”. Do you remember that verse? (Hint- look in Matthew 5) Jesus said that they will receive “the kingdom of heaven”.  these ‘poor’ are the ones that have been broke down by society, by family, by religion. They are ignored and living on the fringes. These people may have even gotten to a point where they have given up on God, but Jesus came to say, “God hasn’t given up on you!”

-        Bind up the broken hearted

There is a saying that time heals a broken heart. I don’t believe that. I have had my heart broken, and time didn’t heal it. Time added some resentment and bitterness, but time did not heal. But Jesus did. Jesus offers to bind up the broken pieces of broken hearts and broken lives and put them back together with His love.

-        Proclaim freedom for the captives

Now this doesn’t mean that we make a jail break for anyone currently incarcerated. But this does mean that there is freedom in Jesus for anything that is holding you captive. You are free in Jesus. This doesn’t mean that you are free to do anything you ever want to do, but it does mean that you are free to do anything that God is calling you to do, and that nothing will hold you back from who you are in Christ. Nothing will hold you captive to what Jesus has set you free from—no thoughts, no desires, no addictions are more powerful than the freedom that you have been given in Jesus.

-        Release from darkness for the prisoners

Advent and Christmastime are seasons of light. And then on Christmas day we celebrate the light of the world that has come in this long awaited Messiah. There is a light in your dark tunnel, and if you don’t see it today then keep moving until you do.

So back to our question, once Christmas is over, now what?

If you’ve ever been poor, if you’ve ever felt poor in spirit, if you’ve ever been brokenhearted, if you’ve ever been held captive, if you’ve ever felt like you’re living in darkness, then the Good News is that Jesus came for you. Go look in the mirror. That’s the reason Jesus came. You are the reason Jesus came. You are His mission.

So what now? Live, that’s what. Live your life for the One who came here for you, and let Him shine through you.

 

A Light on the Longest Night

It’s official. Christmas is here. Downtown Jonesborough, TN has been transformed into a Hallmark greeting card picture with wreaths, greenery, bows, sleds, and the courthouse tree is adorned with lights and has been officially lit. Yards are decorated with colored lights, and the greens have been hung in churches and houses. Even some radio stations have been playing only Christmas music for the last week, and will continue to do so through the end of the month.

               Yep, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere you go. Lights are twinkling, stores are bustling, and music is playing. All reminding us of the hope, peace, love, and joy of this special time of the year. A time where we look back to Bethlehem and remember the first Advent (coming) of Jesus, and also look forward to His second Advent. There is excitement in the air every December.

               But for some people, this joyous time of the year is also clouded with sorrow and pain. How do you revel in the celebration when your heart is still hurting from recent loss of a loved one, or the financial burden your family is weighed down under, or the doctor’s diagnosis? While the Hope of Christ is still paramount in these situations, for some people the Christmas season brings a series of divergent feelings and emotions.

               How, as Christians, and the church, can we offer the Hope and Joy while also acknowledging the pain and suffering? Many churches have begun holding a “Longest Night Service” to address the needs of their people during this time. This service is held on or around the Winter Solstice, which is the shortest day of the year, and consequently the longest night of the year.

               And in the midst of making our lists, checking them twice, decking the halls, and dashing through the snow, we can all feel a little worn down during the holiday season. We know the Reason for the Season, and yet we go and do until we are sometimes relieved when “it’s over”.

               If you have ever felt that way, I want to offer a few verses that can serve as your Christmas Psalm this year. Let’s read Psalm 80 together. Now, let’s look at verses 3, 7, and 19 again. Here they are from the NIV:

               3- Restore us, O God; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

               7- Restore us, O God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

               19- Restore us, O LORD God Almighty; make your face shine upon us, that we may be saved.

               The common theme in the psalm, which was written as a song set to music, is the chorus; in particular the words “restore us…that we may be saved”.

               To restore something means to put it back to its original condition. Maybe you have restored an old car, or an old piece of furniture, but there the restoring is talking about us, in particular our soul. Often times we seek God’s restoration when things have gone bad, when we need to be put back to the ideal of how He created us. Other times we seek God’s restoration when we are so physically and mentally worn down that there is nothing left inside of us, we’re empty. But what if we didn’t wait until then to seek God’s restoration? What if this was our daily prayer this season, asking God to daily restore and fill and re-create us? I think this could change how we live this season of Advent. And perhaps we could all spiritually benefit from embracing the Longest Night of 2014, knowing that there is a Light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome this Light (John 1:5).

               For those in our community that are interested in a “Longest Night Service” of reflective, prayerful, and meditative worship, Telford United Methodist Church (1775 Old State Rt 34) will hold a “Longest Night Service” on Monday December 22 beginning at 5:30PM. There will not be any of the traditional Christmas hymns during this service, but rather a time to turn to the Lord in honest and open conversation through prayer, Scripture, and a congregational response of lighting candles, as we remember these words of Jesus:

               “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

              

A Thanksgiving Psalm

Thanksgiving is this Thursday. A national holiday set aside where we, as Americans, are reminded to pause and give thanks for what we have. We often picture in our minds Native Americans and English Pilgrims sitting down to eat a huge meal together. Abraham Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national holiday, a day that Lincoln declared the day to be a day of “thanksgiving and praise to our beneficient Father who dwelleth in the Heavens”.

               And so today some of us get a day off from work, schools are closed, and we feast on turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and pumpkin pie. Of course we can’t rest too long, Black Friday shopping begins the day after this day of thanks, and some stores are even enticing us by opening up Thanksgiving day for their celebrated and long-awaited Black Friday Deals. And so we buy, cook, hurry, stress, eat, buy some more, and eat some more.

               I wonder if this is what President Lincoln had envisioned for this day when he proclaimed a national holiday back in 1863. Of course as Christians we recognize that every day is a thanksgiving day. Every day we celebrate that what we have are gifts from God, and should be used to bring Him glory and to help others.

               Psalm 100 is often one of the most quoted Psalms this time of year. Today I encourage you to read it slowly. And on Thanksgiving Day, read it with the family you are gathered with. And if you are alone, read it aloud anyway. Because the focus of the Psalm isn’t on how many people you’re eating turkey with, or how many Christmas presents you can get a deal on this weekend. In fact, the focus of the Psalm isn’t on you (or me) at all. The focus is on God. But there are some verbs I want us to recognize. Here, let’s read this together:

               “Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing. Know that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him and bless his name. For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations” (Psalm 100- KJV)

               I normally don’t read or preach from the King James Version very often, but there are some passages that the beauty of these words seems more pronounced in this text. Maybe it’s because this is the way that I memorized them when I was a child. And those beautiful words have stuck with me. If you don’t usually read from the KJV, then read this is in the translation you prefer. After all, the best Bible translation is the one that you actually read daily.

               Now, back to those action verbs (they are underlined in the passage above). All of these verbs are things that we are told to do:

-        “Make” – sometimes we all seem to be making a lot of noise about something. Is your noise (your words and actions) joyfully proclaiming Jesus?

-        “Serve” – It’s not about whether you are serving the lunch or being served as a guest. It’s about serving the Lord. And when we do that, we will always be aware of ways that we can serve others in His name

-        “Come” – the word used here in the Psalm is an image of kneeling before the King. Bow down as you slow down. There is no greater place to be than in the presence of the Lord (which will make you want to sing praises to Him—and those noises all sound joyful regardless of your pitch!)

-        “Know” – We ‘know’ lots of things; some are important (like your spouse’s birthday), some don’t benefit us daily (like some algebraic equations we had to know for tests in school), and some we know because we are interested in something (like the Pittsburgh Steelers have played in 8 Super Bowls and won 6 of them). What matters most is knowing that God is God; Creator, Savior, Redeemer. Everything that we are not, and everything that He is.

-        “Enter” – Almost everyday you can see a sign that reads “Do Not Enter”. God’s desire is that we all enter into Him through the Jesus (John 14:6)

-        “Be Thankful” – the focus of our Thankfulness is grounded in God (note there is no mention of being thankful for turkey, family, friends, or Black Friday shopping deals here---being thankful is about knowing God)

-        “Bless” – we tend to ask God’s blessing on people and events, buildings and budgets. We ask God to bless us, our family, and our country. But here we are called upon the bless the source of the blessings! We bless His name (or praise His name) through our worship, which includes the serving Him (and others in His name), coming to Him, Knowing Him, and Entering into His presence with a thankful heart

Maybe you love Thanksgiving Day with all the family, football, food and hustle and bustle. Maybe you dread Thanksgiving Day because it reminds you of a loved one who has passed away. Maybe you ignore Thanksgiving Day because you seem to have so little compared to so many others.

This Thursday let’s try to live those verbs in Psalm 100. It will change how we view this day, and every other day that follows. Because God is good…all the time!

 

 

The Big Reveal

My children are not good at waiting. Waiting in line, waiting to be seated, waiting for their turn in the bathroom. And of course waiting on Christmas. It would be nice to think we outgrow our impatience, but I don’t think we really do. Some things change, like waiting on my birthday is not quite as much a big deal as it was forty years ago, but in many ways I am still not good at waiting…waiting in line, waiting to be seated, waiting on my turn in the bathroom, and of course waiting on Christmas.

We all probably (hopefully) still have some leftover Halloween candy, and turkeys are already on sale for Thanksgiving. But department stores have been preparing for Christmas for weeks now. Decorations are ready for display, and shopping lists are ready to be made, events await to be scheduled. There are many preparations being already made for Christmas. And with good reason, there’s only 42 shopping days until Christmas! And sometimes that’s where our focus is this season.

Advent (which means coming or arrival) is the Christian season of four weeks that lead up to Christmas day, the day that we celebrate the advent of God with us through the physical birth of Jesus, the Messiah and anticipated Savior. This is also a reminder of looking forward to Jesus’ second Advent, the time when our Lord will return.

1 Corinthians 1:3-9 is a great place to plant ourselves to prepare for Thanksgiving and Christmas. This beginning part of the letter both gives thanks and praise, and looks toward (and back to) Advent.

Advent is a season of preparing, but it is also a season of waiting. Like the Christians that Paul wrote to in Corinth, we are waiting for the ultimate revealing of Jesus. “..as you eagerly await for our Lord Jesus Christ to be revealed” (1 Corinthians 1:7b). Waiting for the bridegroom to return for his bride, which the early Christians thought would happen soon. So they waited. And so we also wait.

 And while Christ has not been revealed fully yet, there is a daily unveiling of His presence among us even now. Perhaps when we are waiting with hands busy serving others and eyes fixed on Jesus we are seeing glimpses of His revealing. And we wait with a knowledge that He is always with us. We wait for Him who was here all along. But we wait to see Him as we truly is, so that we may ourselves as we truly are, revealed through Him. And so we wait. Here are a few questions to help us here:

“How am I waiting today for Jesus?”

“In what ways am I seeing Christ revealed today?”

“How am I revealing Christ to others today?”

How we answer these questions might reveal something about how we are waiting. May we be blessed in our preparing and in our waiting this season.

 

The Revealing God of Psalm 19

I love reading through the Psalms. They are honest, real, and heartfelt. There is no sugar coating what the writer is feeling, either about the world around him, his emotions toward other people, or even how he feels about God at that moment. Music is often like that. It is a place to let our real selves burst out amid the rhythmic beats and consoling tempos. Music can be a place to relax, recharge, refocus, or just let go.

               And since the Psalms were originally songs, many set to music, I feel them.

               CS Lewis said that Psalm 19 is “the greatest poem in the Psalter, and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.” Let’s check out this song and see why one of the literary greats would give it such accolades. Go ahead and grab your Bible to read Psalm 19, I’ll wait right here…….

               Pretty awesome song, right?

               Here’s kind of how I see this song, it’s about some ways that God reveals Himself to us, some ways that He speaks to us. At Telford United Methodist Church where I serve as pastor, this has been our focus for all of 2014: that God does speak to us and we are attuning ourselves to listen to His voice.

               Read verses 1-6 again. This is God revealing Himself to us in His creation. To say the universe happened by chance is, well, in my opinion, absurd. As I look into the sky and see the sunsets, the rainbows, the stars in the clear sky at night, planets and clouds I see an artistic God who creates “good” things (Genesis 1).

               The Apostle Paul, in Romans 1:20, says that throughout history people have been able to see God through His creation. As you look at trees and oceans, sunsets and rainbows, children and the aged, you can see a glimpse into the love of God. If you’re looking and listening.

               Psalm 19 also show how God reveals Himself to us through Scripture (Verses 7-11).

               Rules are usually something that we don’t like. We often think that rules and regulations are holding us down, diminishing our creativity, or at least keeping us from doing what we want, something fun. But I guess the best thought no this I have heard came a few years ago while coaching rec league soccer in Jonesborough. I think it was an 8-9 year old team, and before every game we would take turns allowing players that wanted to pray to lead the team in a prayer before the game. We had one girl on the team who was just thankful for about everything. One day as she prayed she had thanked God for her parents, grandparents, siblings, school, house, car, soccer team, uniforms, soccer ball and cleats, shin guards (I knew the refs were getting anxious to start the game, but how do you stop an 8-year-old when she’s on a roll like this?), sunshine, grass to play soccer in, dirt to play other games in, and lines on the soccer field. Yep, lines on the soccer field. The end of her prayer, as best as I can remember, went something like this:

              
               “And Jesus, thank you for the white lines on our soccer field so we know where to play. If we didn’t have lines we might kick the ball in the road and get run over by a truck and get hurt. So thank you for lines to keep us safe”.

               Wow, that has always stuck with me. Perhaps if we viewed parts of Scripture as “lines to keep us safe” we would really appreciate the love behind them.

               The last three verses (12-14) show how God reveals Himself to us through forgiveness. Those things that we do that we fell we shouldn’t do (aka- sin), those things we do that we don’t even realize at the time are wrong or hurtful (aka-sin)—these are what the writer of Psalm asks God to forgive him of. It’s through asking for forgiveness of sins where we can begin again (or for the first time) to experience the love and grace and presence of God in our lives continually.

               The Lord is revealing Himself to us daily, speaking to us through creation, Scripture, and forgiveness as Psalm 19 shows, and through a myriad of other ways if we are just open and listening. So today just listen for God (warning-you might have to turn off the TV or log off from your social media preference), and you may be surprised in the ways He chooses to speak to you. Because God is good…all the time!

Overflowing

"Help, it's overflowing!"

If you have ever rented, bought, or lived in a house or apartment you have probably heard or said these words. And it's usually not a good thing. Everything from toilets to washing machines, from sinks to chocolate fondue makers, when something overflows, it's messy. And where there is a mess there is something that has to be cleaned up.

When one of my daughters was just old enough to get the refrigerator door open she made herself a bowl of cereal one morning. The bowl was definitely overflowing with cereal, and also overflowing with milk. But she kept on pouring, and the milk kept on overflowing, overflowing out of the bowl, overflowing onto the table, overflowing onto the floor.

When I asked her what she was doing, she simply replied “I’m making a big bowl of cereal”, and she kept pouring. What I thought she was making was a really big mess. That wasn’t a good overflow.

But maybe not everything that overflows is bad, maybe there can be some goodness in messy overflowing. The 23rd Psalm is one of the most beloved and often quoted Psalms in Scripture. And while it is many times quoted at a funeral, the themes in this Psalm are really for our day to day living right now.

"You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows" (Verse 5).

Think about this image of an overflowing cup for a moment, and imagine your life to be the cup. Sometimes it seems your life might be overflowing with all sorts of messy, nasty stuff. And sometimes that may be the case. Life is not always clean and neat.

But I think that the overflowing mentioned here is something else, something that is always there in abundance, and maybe something that we occasionally take for granted. I think this is referring to God’s provisions. Read Psalm 23 and see the divine provisions of God with us (verse 4), God caring for us (verse 1) God leading and guiding us (verse 3), God restoring and refreshing us (verse 3), God comforting us (verse 4), God feeding us (verse 5), God anointing us as His children with His Spirit (verse 5) God providing for us (verse 2-5), God’s love pursuing us (verse 6), and God’s promise of everlasting life for us (verse 6). Wow, to be transformed by Psalm 23 would be to understand and rely on God as our main source and security. To be transformed by Psalm 23 would be living this life knowing that first and forever we belong to God’s family (God’s household).

That’s a lot to fill your cup with!

Thinking about the goodness and the mercy of God creates an overflowing of these attributes in your life. That's why the Apostle Paul said to think about these beautiful and wonderful things in his letter to the Philippian church:

“Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

 All of our cups are overflowing with something. Live your life in the overflow of God’s love today. So, what is your cup overflowing with?

 

Unfair Grace

 

“It’s not fair!!”

Having had five children, this is something that I have heard many times when they were younger. If anything does not go the way a two-year old wants it, then it’s NOT fair! You would think at some point we would outgrow this childish mentality. But, I am not sure that we do.

Have you ever known someone that just never seemed to pull their own weight?

Have you ever been asked to work together with co-workers at your job on some assignment, and there’s that one co-worker who never really contributes? Then you have to do more work so you don’t get chewed out by your boss. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been on a sports team and there’s that one player who never gives it 100%? You know, when every player is walking off the field dripping with sweat with every muscle aching and that one player looks like he hasn’t even broken a sweat. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been part of a project at your church and it seems like hardly anyone else showed up to help? That’s not fair!

Have you ever known that one person who is always late for everything? When everybody else has been working and working…and then waiting and waiting on that one person to show, the one person that’s always late. That’s not fair!

Have you ever been lied to? Mistreated? Been misunderstood? Been stood up? Taken advantage of? None of those things are fair!

Jesus told a parable that talked, in a roundabout way, about fairness (Matthew 20:1-16).

A landowner needed some work done on his property, so he went to town about 6:00AM and picked some workers. Probably the bigger and stronger looking guys that could put in a good 12-hour day in the fields under the hot sun. Then he went back at 9:00AM, then he went back at noon, then he went back at 3:00. Each time he hired more workers. Then, just about an hour before quitting time, he went back and hired some more workers.

At the end of the workday, when it was time to settle up, the landowner paid all the workers the same pay, a “denarius” according to most translations. This simply means a days wage for an average worker. To get it in perspective in our culture, minimum wage is $7.25 per hour, so a 12-hour day for an average worker is about $

So the guys who worked 12 hours made $   , but the guys who only worked an hour also made $

Crazy, huh? That’s not fair. And the punchline of the story is that the workers who had worked all day felt like they should get more. Surely the one who does more should receive more, right? That would be fair. The 12 hour workers were not happy. They were grumbling. They were even a little ticked off at the landowner (yep, they are mad at the one guy who gave them a job and payed them a fair wage for an honest days work).

I guess it’s not fair..unless you’re the guy who was chosen at 5:00. If you’re the 5:00 worker you’re probably not too concerned about what’s “fair”, you just appreciate this gesture and gift of “grace”.

Maybe you’ve been standing all day waiting to be chosen, only to be passed up time and time again. Maybe you were feeling unworthy, unwanted, unloved. Rejected time and time again. Watching all those other people get chosen, while you continued to wait. Maybe you were about to just give up and go home, alone and broke, again.

Don’t miss this point: we are the 5:00 workers! We’ve been chosen, picked, and called to work. And by none other than the Lord, Himself. The creator of heaven and earth has called you. And He has called me! Not because we are the biggest or strongest, or the smartest or most determined, or the best looking or the most educated. It’s because He loves us and He created us. We were His anyway, so He called us.

Not because we deserve it, but because we don’t. And that’s not fair, but that is Grace.

 

Frogs, frogs, everywhere

Exodus chapters 7-11 give an account of what we now refer to as the Ten Plagues. Mighty and wonderous acts of God’s power, displayed against the Pharaoh of Egypt and his people and land so that by realizing the might of the Hebrew God, Pharaoh would let the Israelite people go from captivity. The plagues recorded were: the water turned to blood, frogs, gnats, flies, death of livestock, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and ultimately the death of the firstborn of Egyptian families.

               I can only image the pain and torment that the people of Egypt endured due to the hardness of heart of Pharaoh. In a culture and society where the Pharaoh was believed to be, and even thought himself to be a god, the people and the land itself was ‘plagued’ because of his actions and disbelief.

               As many times as I have read this account of the exodus out of Egypt, which is a key element of the Old Testament and a primary event in the history and religion of the Israelite people, the plague of frogs captures my attention the most.

               Overall I have never had any real issues with frogs. Kermit is my favorite Muppet, and even Jeremiah was a bullfrog, and was a good friend of mine.

               As far as plagues go, frogs don’t seem so bad. Not so bad at least until I read the Scripture again: “The Nile will teem with frogs. They will come up into your palace and your bedroom and onto your bed, into the houses of your officials and on your people, and into your ovens and kneading troughs” (Exodus 8:2-3)

               Now that’s a lot of frogs. Not Kermit or Jeremiah frogs, but slimy-nasty-uncatchable-wart-infested amphibians. That’s not a pretty picture. Frogs in your bed, in your underwear drawer, in your cereal box. Frogs, frogs, everywhere. And no end in sight.

               And then Pharaoh wanted the frogs gone. Duh, of course he did! So he sent for Moses and asked him to pray to his God to get rid of all these frogs and then he would the Israelite people go. So Moses said “when do you want me to do this so that all these frogs are gone?”

               “Tomorrow”, Pharaoh said. (Exodus 8:10)

               Huh? What? Tomorrow? There are frogs everywhere Pharaoh! You can’t even walk without stepping on a frog…squish…squish…squish. PETA would be outraged. The Egyptian people are a little confused. But Pharaoh is apparently OK with another night of frogs in his bed instead of doing what God wants done. I would have never said “tomorrow”, I would have said “right NOW!”

               But then I think…how many times has God asked me to do something, and I have said “tomorrow”? Oh, it’s never been as drastic as having millions of frogs jumping around me, that would make the situation seem easier. But I don’t think that God has ever asked me to do anything that I considered easy.

               Forgive.

               Pay rent for that family who can’t pay theirs this month.

               Go on your church mission trip.

               Start every day in prayer and Bible reading.

               Love that person who you don’t even like.

               Tomorrow sounds like such an easier answer. But as we read the story of those plagues, God’s will prevailed, regardless of what Pharaoh said or did. And God’s will prevails today also. Regardless of what we say or do. It’s just a matter of are we going to be in line with God’s will, or against it?

               Do you feel that God is calling you to do something? Don’t be a Pharaoh. Don’t wait until tomorrow. Pray for the frogs to be taken away today, and say yes to God’s calling right now. Not tomorrow, not later today, but now.

                

Glory in a sunset

 

 

               “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands”- Psalm 19:1

 

               A couple of months ago my family moved from a Jonesborough neighborhood to a parsonage in Telford. While the move was only a few miles, there were a couple of things that I have had to get used to.

First of all, my neighbors. Not my neighbors who live in the houses around me, but my neighbors who graze in the pasture beside me. I have never thought of myself as much of a “city-slicker”, but to be honest, I have never lived beside cows. Not too bad to have as neighbors though, they don’t complain about anything and they haven’t asked to borrow anything yet. Plus, as a pastor, they have been great to listen to my sermon preparations as I stand on my back porch beside the fence. Sometimes they wander away before I get to the main point, but overall they have been a gracious and captive congregation.

The second thing I have been getting used to is the trains. I never knew so many trains ran in North America as pass through Telford. The first couple of weeks the train whistle would blow and I would jump. Several times I pulled a pillow over my head thinking there should be a law against horn blowing after 11:00PM. Sometimes they even stop and block my access to the Telford Diner. But as time has passed I am getting more accustomed to the trains.

Last night I walked out onto my back deck. There were no neighboring cows in the pasture beside me. There were no trains rumbling down the track behind me. But there was an amazing sunset. That may be one of my favorite things about my new home in Telford, the sunsets.

Psalm 19 sings of the greatness of God revealed in His creation and in His Word.

As I was mesmerized by the vivid colors and streaks of clouds in the sky I felt nothing but God’s presence, His power, and His love. How awesome is our God that He would provide something so simple as a sunset, but in that simplicity of shape and color reveal so much of His power and glory? If there had been a train horn blowing at that moment I probably wouldn’t have noticed it. If there had been a dairy chorus of mooing neighbors at the fence I probably wouldn’t have heard. I was just enjoying a simple gift of a sunset.

I have missed more sunsets than I have enjoyed over the years. Sometimes because I was too busy, sometimes because clouds may have been obscuring the view, sometimes because I wasn’t even thinking about them. But the sunset was still there. God was still showing His colorful and artistic greatness in the setting sun whether I noticed or not.

One evening this week take your Bible outside. Catch a sunset. Start counting stars. Listen to the sounds of nature around you. Read Psalm 19. And rest in the promise that a loving and caring God who has the power to create the universe and to create life from chaos, is the same God who cares enough to paint you a brilliant picture in the sky every evening. God is good..all the time!

Stuck in a pit

 
     The Old Testament book of Jeremiah is one of my favorites. It is filled with some of the most comforting and encouraging verses in the Bible.  Just check these out:
"For I know the plans I have  for you", declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" (Jeremiah 29:11)
"Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things" (Jeremiah 33:3)
"I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people" (Jeremiah 31:33b)
      In the years of reading Jeremiah, I feel like I have come to know him as a friend. I can identify with some of his feelings, his excitement, and his sorrows. Jeremiah is known as the "weeping prophet" because of his heart felt appeals to the people of his time to turn back to God, but overall they wouldn't listen to Jeremiah. In fact they even made fun of him, taunting him, mocking him, and eventually throwing him into a cistern.
     Ok, this is one point where I can't completely identify with my friend Jeremiah. I have never been thrown into a cistern. In fact, I have never seen a cistern like Jeremiah was thrown into. For us modern Western readers, the idea of a cistern may seem a bit foreign. A cistern is a large hole in the ground, lined with rocks to collect rain water. Since the people of Jeremiah' s day couldn't just run down to Ingle' s and buy a case of bottled water, the cisterns were critical to their daily lives. In this region, however, when rain was not frequent, the cisterns would be empty of water, but still muddy on the bottom due to the damp and moist conditions so far down.
     That is where our story picks up. Jeremiah had aggravated some important people with his talk of God wanting them to change their ways, so they took Jeremiah by force and threw him into an empty cistern. I can't even imagine what was going through Jeremiah' s mind as he slowly sank down in the mud. Alone. Dark. Cold. Laughter from the opening above from the ones who had tossed him in.
     But knowing a little about the attitude of my friend Jeremiah helps me think what he might have done. I doubt that he was yelling and cussing  at the ones who threw him in. In fact, I doubt he put up much of a struggle at all. I do believe, however, that he prayed. Conversations with God, even when stuck in a pit, would have been natural for Jeremiah. I doubt he complained, I doubt he blamed others for his situation, I doubt he had a pity-party. I just think he prayed.      
     And God answered his prayer. Not in the way I sometimes would like to envision. It would have been so dramatic if God had allowed Jeremiah to fly up out of that cistern. Or if an angel had descended from heaven with a loud trumpet blast and lifted Jeremiah right out. Or if a mighty earthquake shook the walls of the cistern and cracked the ground around those guys who threw him in and Jeremiah was miraculously standing in front if them. Yeah, that would have showed those guys who's Boss. That would have showed them not to mess with a prophet of the Lord.
      But that's not what happened. A man named Ebed-Melek came and threw a rope down to Jeremiah and pulled him out. Not nearly as dramatic, is it? But it clearly shows me the point that I think God wants to make, at least in my life.
     Sometimes people get in pits. Sometimes it's their own fault based on their actions and decisions. Sometimes it's just one of those things that happen that they didn't mean to happen. Or sometimes they are thrown in. Either way, it's not my role to figure out why they are stuck, it's my role to help them out. And it's yours to. Be an Ebed-Melek today. And allow God to use you to help someone out of the pit they are stuck in, regardless of how they got there.

Sunscreen Sunburns

My best friend at the beach is sunscreen. Not just any sunscreen, but the 50 SPF with Zinc. The kind that you have to rub in for hours to get it to blend in and nit make you look like a beach bum albino. Not because the sun and I don't get along, we do. I love the sun, being in the sun, and relaxing it in the sun. It's just that as much as I love the sun, God made my skin type special. Special as in the sun loves me so much it burns. This kind of sun-love does indeed hurt. So I lather and rub, and rub, and rub. The first day of vacation is always the test for me, after a long drive and months of anticipation, intend to overdue my time in the sun the first day. So this year I was going to be extra careful and super prepared. In preparation for a few family hours at the beach I began rubbing in sunscreen 30 minutes before heading out. And after I was rubbed and lathered, then rubbed some more I made sure all the kids were adequately sun-blocked.
 The afternoon was great. We played, relaxed, read, listened to music, built sand castles, and had an amazing day at the beach. Later that night my skin felt a little tight on my stomach. Nothing to be too concerned about, I was sure, after all I used protection. What can go wrong when you use protection, right? A few hours later it was obvious. My stomach was as red as the Worship Table paramount on Pentecost Sunday. I was burnt. I rethought my lathering and rubbing routine. I made sure my feet were saturated in sunscreen (just one good time of a foot sunburn at the beach and you make sure you don't do that again). I knew I covered my arms, legs, chest, even my ears in sunscreen. Then I realized, I had only forgotten one place...my stomach. The hours that I had spent in my new beach chair laid back soaking up the rays had not been as pleasant as I had thought. I thought I was protected. I thought the SPF 50 armor was deflecting the fiery flames from Helios with ease. But I was wrong. I was not fully protected. Though most of me was protected there was a small part that I had left open. And that small part was where the enemy attacked.
There is a contemporary worship song that says "be careful little eyes what you see...be careful little feet where you go..." The idea in the song is that we need to be completely covered head to toe with the love and Grace of Jesus to survive this world, and that we need to be careful what we look at at, and where go, as that may be where temptation lies in wait.
Ephesians 6 refers to this as putting on the full armor of God. That may seem a lot different than my sunscreen analogy, but I think they are quite similar. The one area that I left open (uncovered) was the one place I got burnt. The places where we leave open in our lives are the places where we will get burnt. Maybe it is the seemingly innocent  relationship with a co-worker, the practice at work that your boss doesn't know about, or the time you spend doing something that you wouldn't want your spouse, children, or church friends to know about, the thoughts we think about others. These are the places you will get burnt. These are unprotected places.
My prayer for us today is that we allow the Holy Spirit to show us this places now.
 Show us the places where we tend to be weak.
Show us the areas where we are exposed, open, and vulnerable to attack.
Show us now before we get burnt.
 And give us the strength to let the light of Jesus burn away those dark places with His Love and forgiveness.
Grace&Peace!

Broken beach chair

There is no better time to start a blog than while on vacation. The peacful serenity. The absence of meetings and deadlines. A time to relax and refresh and refocus. So that is what I am doing and that is where I am. On vacation at oak island, nc. And finally getting around to joining this blogging community. Today is the first full day of vacation, so no better day to start. This morning I set out for the beach. I planned on relaxing in my favorite beach chair with my beautiful wife by my side, watching the kids play in the sand and the ocean, and soak in the magnificence of God's creation in one of my favorite spots. The fact that my beach chair is my favorite does require further details, I suppose. You see, it's my favorite chair not only at the beach, but also back home in Tennessee. After last year's beach trip I set my favorite beach chair up on my back deck. And I left it there. I sat in that chair every day that was warm and/or sunny since last June. But I also left my favorite beach chair to the Tennessee weather. The sun, the rain, the hail, the wind, the snow. All these things filled my chair when I was not the one filling it. And so last week I dusted it off, brushed away a few cob webs and bird poop, and brought it to the beach. When I set my favorite beach chair up in the sand it looked about the same, maybe a little older and a little worse for wear, but that's expected with anything  even favorite beach chairs. When I sat in it it felt about the same, for a couple of minutes. When I shifted my weight to look at a hermit crab that my wife saw emerging from the sand it felt different, then the seat ripped. It more than ripped, it tore completely in two. As my derriere hit the sand and my legs straddled the seat support bar I realized a couple of things. First I realized maybe I needed to drop a a few pounds and that in addition to starting blogging this vacation maybe starting an exercise routine would be a good idea. I also realized how silly I looked. Feet stuck up in the air, butt in the sand, looking to see if anyone saw this happen. But more than that I think God used this to show me a lesson. If I had put my favorite beach chair in the garage with all the other beach items and toys, including the other beach chairs, it would have been fine. It would have held me securely and comfortably and allowed me to enjoy family time on the beach. But I hadn't done that. I had exposed my favorite chair to the unnatural elements that it was never designed to endure for long periods of time, and then when I needed it most it broke. We all will face the harsh elements of different seasons, but we were not designed to weather them continuously. My chair looked ok, but it wasn't. The elements had taken a toll on the seam that held the fabric to the chair frame. Such a little thing, the seam. Almost insignificant. But the seam has a very important purpose. And when it broke its purpose was evident. Sometimes life seems to work on our frame, and our fabric. But the seam that holds us together is our faith in Jesus. That seam must be cared for and nurtured. Not because it is weak, far from it! But because I am weak. I pray that the seams of our lives, our faith, discipleship, love, compassion, trust, devotion, and worship stay strong and secure during the bad weather of life, and may those seams uphold us comfortably to enjoy the beach days of life. Grace&Peace!