I was just sitting there...

…watching a volleyball game at Glynn Academy in Brunswick GA, what a match by the way. The two teams were tied most of the game. It was to say the least very exciting. I have not watched volleyball in a very long time, in person not on TV. I don’t know the rules and how the game is scored. I also could not see the scoring table because of the judge at the net blocking my view. In fact it was four games later that I caught a glimpse of the score board. Then I moved a foot or two along the bleachers so I could see the score during the game.

I was just sitting there when suddenly I was overwhelmed with the answer. Let me go back further in the progression of the story. Each week my delight and dread is to prepare something to preach Sunday morning. I dread it because I want it to be interesting, smart, well presented and well…all the good things we look for in a speaker especially in the “preacher.” The delight is I get to research and learn and then do that. This week I have been circling stories that reveal Jesus from the Gospels. I had settled on the story of the healing of the demon possessed man from Mark 5:1-20, the one with the crazy guy living in the tombs cutting, hurting and screaming at himself and anyone who dared to get close.  In a book I am reading as of late the author suggests some stories that the town folk probably told of him. Stories that grow into legends about who and why he was like he was.  You can probably fill in the blanks to the story from your childhood of a building, house or person close to your neighborhood. So, I had read the story and been thinking through it sifting what was there.

 Each week as I prepare to preach I ask myself two questions. One “So what?” meaning why should we know this? What difference will it make on Monday? Secondly and more importantly, “God what do you want to say?” I had asked these questions and up until that moment had no answer except that was the story. I cannot say I was consciously thinking about the situation. I was watching the game and unexpectedly was overwhelmed by the answer like a flood of emotion and relief enveloped me from head to foot right there in the bleacher. I instantly knew and understood what God had to say from this story. Now, I just have to say it and that can be difficult as well. My experience with God is like that. The answers come while something completely unrelated is happening. Is that true of you?

I have come to trust God to answer my requests. I trust him to answer when he wants to on his time schedule. At times, regarding preaching, that has been just an hour before I was to deliver my part, other times it is days ahead (which of course is a relief) but always on time and very clearly. In this area (not others yet) I can ask with complete faith. It helps that God has never failed to answer. My prayer is without unbelief because I have believed my prayer.

Yep, I was just sitting there watching a volleyball game. That is where God spoke answering my prayer and clearly giving his word. The Word from God is what’s important not the time or place or activity. That must always be clear. It is too easy to get sidetracked by the event and place.

That’s the way God does stuff!  

His time!

His place!

His purpose!

    

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

P.S. the word is he continued to ask his name! You will have to listen to the message to hear the rest of the story (thank you Paul Harvey). You can do that at www.crosroadschurcheff.org click on sermons. 

Another birthday this makes 8!

Sunday Crossroads Church we will celebrate another birthday. It has been 8 years since our first weekly worship service September 11, 2004! This Sunday a church is restarting in Knoxville, KY and others will do the same all around the country. In light of this celebration I have been thinking about birthdays and what we are celebrating!

Birthdays are so important when you are young. Cake, ice cream, presents what’s not to look forward to really. But as we get older birthdays are not so important. I surmise it is because we recognize there are fewer ahead than behind us. When you’re young you look forward to your next birthday because you can do more as you get older. Ask a child how old they are and even if their 7^th birthday was yesterday they will say they are almost 8! Try it. Don’t try that with a 49 year old. They are 49 until the exact moment they were born on their birthday. As we age we realize how much less we can do as we get older.  The other evening Barbara and I were talking about out next wedding anniversary in January. It will be 30 years she has put up with me. I told her it would be my “not 30 year anniversary” because I am not that old! She rolled her eyes and laughed, probably just like you did. When we get older we don’t look forward as much. There is just too much behind us (yes and too much behind with that middle aged spread). So what do we celebrate in a birthday?

Life is what we celebrate. Consider birthdays after our death, no parties no cake, no presents (of course not for us we are dead) but our friends and family don’t celebrate either. Birthdays celebrate life lived and the promise of tomorrow. We celebrate the events that have shaped us and in spite of the hardship and heartache we have survived and thrived. That’s life and living. Birthdays celebrate the providence of God to care for us in another year and into the future of eternity as we claim Christ as our Savior. Birthdays celebrate the honor of getting older. Birthdays celebrate the experience gained. 

Experience is the difference between the young and the old. I read several months ago of a speech given to a group of college graduates by an alum in his 50’s. The heart of the idea was that the young man like the old already knows all of the basic information of life. The difference between the mature and the young is experience. Experience is the time living through it, the time living in it and the time overcoming it. Birthdays celebrate that experience. Each year there is more. More experiences of God being our Savior, more of God being sustainer, redeemer, forgiver, equipper, friend, partner, lover, judge, jury and life giver. Birthdays celebrate all of the above. Birthdays have a dark side. If we are not careful we can focus on the aspects of life where failure has reigned.




Your failures and faults do not define you unless you define yourself by them. To do that is then to make a lie of your life because in God's plan for his children you are defined by God and God is love. That is the ultimate act of redemption love in the face of unlovable, hope for the hopeless and life for the dead.
In the end birthdays are worthwhile. It’s good to celebrate life as often as possible. It is fleeting. In the same moment 8 years can seem like forever and just yesterday. “It was just yesterday that we…” is on my lips and yet it was x years ago. On Kingdom time 8 years is nothing, I am glad for that. I look forward to the time when time is of no consequence and Birthdays are no more.

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev

Why does he have to trow curve balls?

As base ball hits the home stretch towards the playoffs the pitching gets better and better. 

Steve Ellis former Chicago Cubs Pitching pro said this of the curve - Most often a strikeout pitch. Dives down as it gets to home plate. Many times the velocity is as effective as the movement, because it's usually much slower than a fastball.

“Most often a strikeout pitch” are the first words to describe the pitch. Of course the pitcher is trying to get the batter out. It is not supposed to be easy to hit.

Last week I started to work on an article at home and my daughter calls from down the hall "daddy come kill this giant cockroach on my ceiling." Great that seems real ministerial, real earth changing for the cockroach for sure. That is part of being a Dad and husband. Well the husband thing would have been punctuated by a scream. I am around to be the killer of all bugs and the fixer of all things. I have a mind you know.

  

Life routinely throws curve balls just life a major league pitcher. The thrill is not knowing what you will get. So, why am I surprised by life's curve balls? The same reason you are, we like easy. For us easy means predictable and practical. But how do we know that easy and predictable is the path of a Jesus follower?

To look at the Gospels we see a predictable life of Jesus. He went to synagogue on the Sabbath and went where the people were, the down and out, the hungry, the hopeless, the despised and rejected that was where he was, like I said predictable. But those settings were never predictable, a man up in a tree, a Pharisee coming in the dark of the night, a lawyer challenging his motives out in public. No the scene was never predictable. So why do I think my time at bat will be curve ball free?

Because...you see...I can't hit...a curve ball.

I usually swing and miss if I swing at all. But for Jesus curve balls are what he hits the best. When I am weak he is strong. He hits and I get to run!

I took the broom down the hall into her bedroom. Yes, it was a palmetto bug and then it was not. As I left I heard "daddy you are the best." I am the “killer of all bugs” you know! I am just glad it wasn't a curve ball.

The hall led me back to the computer and writing my article to impact lives for the Kingdom in a meaningful way or did I just do that?

    

In HIS Service and Yours,

The Rev