Last weeks message...

Last week's Sermon message was on using the God given gifts to serve others.

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August 18 - Don't Quit Your God Job!

Thanks for reading!

We're back in Almond!

The Lord certainly does work in mysterious ways!

After ten months in Florida taking care of my father, we are back in Almond.

My dad is now in an assisted living facility, still in Florida, and he has a guardian that is taking care of him, which allowed us to return.

We've been back for nearly a month, and still very busy getting unpacked and planning out the preaching calendar and all the other things that go with a new ministry.  I hope to have a chance to visit with you and talk and see how you've been the last ten months. 

It's an exciting time - I hope you share my enthusiasm for the church and the work God is doing in Almond!  Together we can do great things.

Message shared at Brooksville Presbyterian Church

On November 28, I was invited to the Brooksville Presbyterian Church to share a message.  This was the first Sunday of Advent (now that Christmas is over, that sounds like it was so long ago).  Here is the message from that Sunday...

When O Lord?

Isaiah 2:1-5, Romans 13:11-14, Matthew 24:36-44

Have you gone shopping for Christmas yet?   Did you fight the crowds at the stores on Friday?  We didn’t go out this year.  Last year, my wife Sandy went out on Friday, she was one of the early risers last year.  That’s one day of the year I avoid shopping for anything.  I know how hectic things can get.  It seems every year, somewhere there is some ordeal over some little thing, pushing and shoving to get the last of a super deal.  

On Thanksgiving morning, we went through the papers, looking through the store ads to see what might be really good deals.  I know that a lot of people were up extra early, and it keeps getting earlier every year.  One store was open at 3:00 am this year.  Several were open with special deals good on Thanksgiving day only.  That seems crazy to me, I remember a few years ago Computer City had a really nice laptop computer on sale for half off - it was a really great price, and my niece was planning on getting there at 4:00 am to try to get some deals.  She was after the computer and a digital camera.  But even if she got there at 4:00, she knew there would be a line, and that she probably had very little chance of getting either one.  But she figured it was worth a shot.  

I can understand why tempers get a little short, getting up hours before the sun to stand in line for hours more, waiting for the store to open, being one of the first ten or fifteen people in the store, and still not getting that item that you so badly wanted.  When stores do things like this, advertising so heavily for something they only have a couple of, it’s little wonder that people get frustrated and a little angry when they miss out on that one thing they really wanted.

Like it or not, a lot of people participate in this yearly ritual.  Pushing and shoving for the years most popular gifts, always stocked in very limited quantities.  And the saddest part is, this is what the Christmas Holiday has become to many people, isn’t it.  At least for some, consumer driven, materialistic people that see Christmas as just a retail holiday, rather than the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior.  

I hope that we, as believers, have not lost track of that true meaning of Christmas.  I hope that we don’t get sucked into that game.  I hope that our faith makes a difference in the way that we live our lives, and most of all, in the way that we approach our shopping this time of year.  

This is, as you know, the first week of Advent, and while the retail world has been preparing their store displays for Christmas for several weeks now, pretty much since Halloween, and the retail season began in earnest on Friday, we see the Christmas season as officially beginning today.  And as they see it as a chance to dramatically increase sales before the year-end, we see it as a chance to prepare ourselves again for the coming of the Messiah.  

I love Advent.  It is a holy time of year for me.  A chance to reflect on God himself becoming human, being born in the most unholy of circumstances.  Truly becoming one of us, even one of the least of us.  Yet inside, he was still God.  Living on the outside just as you or I might have, yet, pure and holy.  Our divine Lord.  

So in the season of advent, we remember His coming, and we prepare our hearts and our minds for His coming again.  Especially today, on the first Sunday of Advent, when we emphasize his promised coming again.  What does that mean for you?  Does the promise of his second coming influence your attitudes this time of year?  Does the knowledge that when the time is right, he will come back, change your outlook?  I hope that you are filled with an inner peace knowing that.  I hope that it not only affects who you are, but that it actually defines who you are.  That you are truly one that lives for the day he will come back, just as he said he would.  

Our reading in Isaiah gives us a glimpse of what it will be like when he gets here.  The mountain of the Lord’s temple, which is Mount Moriah in Jerusalem, will be established as the chief among mountains, all nations will stream to it – they will look to it as the center of power in all the world.  Revelation 21 talks about the New Jerusalem, God himself will live there and will rule the nations.  And as we heard this morning, swords will be beat into plow shares and spears into pruning hooks, because swords and spears will no longer be needed.  The world will be at peace.  My friends, I don’t believe the world will ever truly be at peace until this day comes.  But this day will come!

In fact, I think that it will more than likely come in my lifetime.  If not, then at least in the lifetime of our kids.  I have a couple of reasons for believing that, maybe someday I’ll share them with you.  But we can certainly echo the idea that Paul wrote to the Romans, that that time is nearer now than when we first believed.  Surely the day is almost here, the hour has come for us to wake up from our slumber.  

If they felt that the time was that close 2000 years ago, then certainly it is much closer now.  He talked about the night being almost over, that refers to the evil times they lived in.  Those evil times are not yet gone, are they.  We live in evil times today, don’t we?  If you watch the news, you know that.  Last year, a hunter shot six people dead because one of them told him to get out of their tree-stand.  This guy was hunting on posted property without permission, climbed up into somebody else’s tree stand, and when the owner of the property told him to leave, he got into an argument and wound up killing six and injuring at least two others.  

If that’s not enough proof of the evil around us, how about this one.  A soldier from Iraq had to fly home to be with his wife, who was in intensive care in the hospital after being shot in the head while going to a shopping mall.  The fellow that did it didn’t know her, it was a drive by shooting, and the police said he was just out looking for someone to kill, it didn’t matter who.  This guy spent a year in a war zone, only to find out that the home he left was just as dangerous.  We don’t need any more proof that we live in evil days, do we?  The media wants to convince us that Iraq was a big failure.  We heard of names of every soldier that died there.  And each was a tragedy

But we don’t often hear how many thousands are killed here in our own country each day by the evil around us.  We don’t often hear how many young women are shot down trying to get into the shopping mall.  Or how many hunters shot down while trying to enjoy their own property, and maybe even bring home some dinner.  Innocent people that just happen to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and fall victim to the same evil Paul wrote about 2000 years ago.

But the Bible tells us that daylight is coming.  The day is almost here.  The time to behave decently is here.  The time to clothe yourselves with our Lord Jesus Christ has come.  Three quick ways to do this:  first, we identify with Christ by getting baptized and becoming a member of his church.  This shows that we are a part of His body, the church family.  We need to commit to him, and to his family.  Second, we live by the qualities Jesus lived by while he was here on earth; these are love, humility, truth, and service to others.  In other words, we sort of role-play what Jesus would do if he were in our situation.  We try to become imitators of Christ.  And thirdly, we watch ourselves carefully, so we don’t fall into any sin.  We need to monitor this carefully, because sin starts with such a tiny temptation.  We need to make sure we avoid any opportunity to fall victim.  When we work on these three things, we will be ready for his return.

Our final reading in Matthew reminds us that while the time is near, we won’t know the exact time of his return.  Therefore, we need to be ready all the time.  

I guess it’s probably good that we don’t know the exact time of his return.  If we did, we would probably be tempted to live for ourselves right up to the last minute, being lazy in our faith, not doing the work Christ would have us do.  But we must live our lives of faith here on earth.  We have work to do here.  Christ put us where we are for a reason, he has work for us to do.  And we must keep doing it, working on, until he determines the time is ready.  

One final thought, the way that Matthew words this, ‘the Lord will come at an hour when you don’t expect him.’  This sounds to me like there won’t be any chance for last minute confessions, no opportunities for last minute repentance or bargaining.  We must be found living a life of faith.  We must be ready before that time comes.  For there will be a day when it’s too late.  

William Coffin once said, “We have learned to soar through the air like birds, to swim through the seas like fish, to soar through space like comets.  Now it is high time we learned to walk the earth as the children of our God.”  This advent season, make sure your ready for his return.  Make sure you’re walking as one of his children.  

I'm still here...

Last September, I moved from Almond to Brooksville, FL.

We are now living with my Dad and helping him get by.  As such, my ministry at Almond Union of Churches has ended.  I am now looking for another ministry in Florida, and as such, have had a few great times providing pulpit supply for a couple of churches.

My thanks to First Baptist Church of Sumterville, FL, for having me come out two weeks.  I love the church, and enjoyed with time with all the great folks in Sumterville.

A couple of weeks before that, I was able to fill in for Pastor Andrew Berry (who also went to Northeastern Seminary).  I performed a wedding for a great couple, and then covered two services on Sunday.  Thanks to the folks at Brooksville Presbyterian Church for welcoming us so heartily.

I'm going to publish a the messages that I shared in both Brooksville and Sumterville in the next couple of days.  If you're interested, please read, and I pray that the Lord may work through these messages and the Holy Spirit reveals His truth.

Don't judge too quickly...

I came across this story and thought it was an excellent reminder that we can be very quick to judge...

There was an old man in a village, very poor, but even the kings were jealous of him because he had a beautiful white horse.  Kings offered fabulous prices for the horse, but the man would say, “This horse is not a horse to me, he is a person.  And how can you sell a person, a friend?”  The man was very poor, but he never sold the horse.  One morning, he found that the horse was not in the stable.  The whole village gathered and said, “You foolish old man!  We knew that someday the horse would be stolen.  It would have been better to sell it.  What a misfortune!”

The old man said, “Don’t go so far as to say that.  Simply say that the horse is not in the stable.  This is the fact; everything else is a judgment.  Whether it is a misfortune or a blessing I do not know, because this is just a fragment.  Who knows what is going to follow it?” 

People laughed at the old man.  They had always known that he was a little crazy.  But after fifteen days, suddenly one night the horse returned.  He had not been stolen, he had escaped into the wild.  And not only that, he brought a dozen wild horses back with him.  Again the people gathered and they said, “Old man, you were right.  This was not a misfortune, it has indeed proved to be a blessing.”  The old man said, “Again you are going to far.  Just say the horse is back, who knows whether it is a blessing or not?  It is only a fragment.  You read a single word in a sentence – how can you judge the whole book?”

This time the people did not say much, but inside they knew that he was wrong.  Twelve beautiful horses had come…  Of course it was a blessing!

The old man had an only son who started to train the wild horses.  Just a week later he fell from a horse and both his legs were broken.  The people gathered again and again they judged.  They said, “Again, you proved right!  It was a misfortune.  You only son has lost the use of his legs, and in your old age he was your only support.  Now you are poorer than ever.” 

The old man said, “You are obsessed with judgment.  Don’t go that far.  Say only that my son has broken his legs.  Nobody knows whether this is a misfortune or a blessing.  Life comes in fragments and more is never given to you.”

It happened that after a few weeks the country went to war, and all the young men of the town were forcibly taken for the military.  Only the old man’s son was left, because he was crippled.  The whole town was crying and weeping, because it was a losing fight, and they knew most of the young people would never come back.  They came to the old man and they said, “You were right, old man, this has proved to be a blessing.  Maybe your son is crippled, but he is still with you.  Our sons are gone forever.”

The man said again, “You go on and on judging.  Nobody knows!  Only say this, that your sons have been forced to enter into the army, and my son has not been forced.  But only God knows whether it is a blessing or a misfortune.”

“Judge ye not” – otherwise you will never become one with God.  With fragments you will be obsessed, with small things you jump to conclusions.  Once you judge you have stopped growing. 

Judgment means a stale state of mind.  And mind always wants judgment, because to be in process is always hazardous and uncomfortable.  In fact, the journey never ends.  One path ends, another begins.  One door closes, another opens.  You reach a peak, a higher peak is always there.  God is an endless journey.  Only those who are so courageous that they don’t bother about the goal but are content with the journey, content just to live the moment and grow into it, only those are able to walk with God.

What's really important?

But whatever was my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord.”

Philippians 3:7-8

We often have trouble prioritizing the things in our life. Most people I talk to have more things to do than they have time to do them, so prioritizing is necessary so you know what to do first. The problem is, everything seems important! How do know what is most important?

For the Apostle Paul, that was easy. The things that led him to knowing Jesus better were the most important! He was convinced that Jesus was more important than anything else in his life, and that anything that drew him to Jesus was of ultimate importance.

We might object today, saying that we need to provide for our families so our work is our highest priority. Paul would tell you that God can and will provide any need you have.

We might object that we will be with our families for the rest of our lives, certainly families are the most important thing. Paul would tell you that you that your family relationships would be infinitely better if Jesus were included, if devotions were shared, if Christ were honored in your family.

We might object saying that we’re getting older, our health is certainly what we should be placing importance on. Paul would tell you that Jesus can heal you just as healed so many before you.

We might have lots of important things in our lives, but until we place Jesus in that top position of importance, we will be missing out on all that He has to offer.