I believe all I have done for the last few days is eat!

 I haven’t seen it in the belt line yet because I have been wearing my “comfortable” pants. You know the ones with “more room” due to expandable waistlines or they are just a size larger. Take your pick or combine all three the day of reckoning is coming.

A new year with new/old resolutions to shape up, slim down, tone and be healthy, pray more, give more, be better etc. We will start out that first day all on fire, “gung ho” and then comes the second day with less energy and a bit less enthusiasm, then the third and finally the fourth where we throw our hands up in defeat and give up. It is just too hard. We did this last year and the year before and the year before that. Good intentions and a fast start just no drive or sustain to follow through. What went wrong?

Consider the year just past, how did you make it to the end? Time went the same speed it always has with 24 hours in a day, 168 hours each week and 52 weeks coming in at 8736 hours in a year. How did you make it through all of those hours? You made it through one minute at a time, when life was hard maybe one second at a time. There is an old saying adage, “How do you eat and elephant?” the answer is the obvious “one bite at a time.” When we break down and large task or amount into smaller pieces we can set mile posts to measure our progress. Everyday has 24 hours but we count down until our break, then lunch, then mid-afternoon break and then quitting time. It helps if those hours are filled with activity, something to do. I have always hated being on a clock with little to do. The time seems to go so slow! It really doesn’t but it sure seems like that.

Taking a large task and breaking it into smaller pieces makes it seem more “manage” able, more “do” able and more “complete” able. Reduced to the most basic of components, change one thing to start. Add a short walk to your day, read one chapter in scripture, pray at every meal in your own words, pass on desert at lunch, break your day into sections. Make those sections ones of time or task and when you conclude a section (if possible) move on to the next. That allows you to pace yourself and measure your progress.

That is exactly how God works in our lives. When we receive the gift of Christmas Jesus Christ as our savior and Lord God does not instantly change us into the image of Jesus. If he did we would immediately move to heaven. No, that is not the process. It is much slower than that. It is requires a lifetime to complete with many sub sections along the way, one step at a time in a slow methodical pace always moving forward even when we don’t think so. The key to completing is to keep our eye on the prize and to pace ourselves right behind the Holy Spirit.

That’s how we are to eat a meal; take your time, talk with family and friends, rest between courses, enjoy yourselves. When we do that we don’t eat as much and enjoy the food and the people so much more. That is the first step to completing one of those New Year’s resolutions. See it was a smaller piece and not so hard!

Have a safe and Happy New Year!

                                     

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

It is Christmas so it is crazy!

I have come to recognize that the season of Christmas regardless of the number of months prepares us for the moment(s) of Christmas. What I mean by a moment is a point in time/life that becomes magical although fleeting and maybe short. The magic is so special that you are left with an un-dimmable memory. When you think of it you are there back in that time and space where you can hear, taste, touch and smell the moment. The Season makes us ready for the moments.

Some of us have been preparing for months. The decorations are almost finished and the baking is done. The presents are wrapped and the stockings are finally hung (I’m a poet and yes I know it). It has been hard work. You almost fell off the roof. The sugar supply ran close as you prepared all of those calorie free (;-), ;-)) goodies. More boxes had to be found and purchased. Don’t forget the tape and wrapping paper. You had to resort to that craft idea from The Chew to make a box out of a cereal box. But now the preparations are complete and you are completely worn out and wondering if it was all worth it? You hope to have a special moment after all of this hard work. Others seem to have such a wonderful time but yours is missing.

The Christmas story has those moments. The moment the angel appeared to Mary, Joseph and the shepherds, the moment of Jesus birth and immediately following, the moment when the shepherds saw the baby just as the angels said, the moment in the temple when Simeon and Anna praised God because of this boy child, the moment the Magi entered the room and worshipped Jesus. The story is just filled with those moments. You have done the preparations of the season and yet no moment. You are all ready for your moment and yet life just keeps plugging along so you plug along too same old same old.

That’s what I was doing last Thursday, plugging along. I had gone to two hospitals to see some folks and was waiting for the elevator to go to the fourth floor at the first one. There was a crowd, unusual for the time of day. I guess 8 in the elevator. We were not packed but full. The people included a hospital volunteer; she had a vest, two employees with carry-out boxes, four others and me. The two employees were bantering about having a party when they got off. Then the party could start here in the elevator but we had no music. The volunteer said we could make our own and started to sing We Wish You A Merry Christmas AND others joined in just that fast. We got through a verse and a half and the doors opened on the second floor and the singing stopped and the moment was over just that fast. I have to tell you I have been in a lot of elevators and it is never a “comfortable” experience. It is always awkward in some way. People hardly talk and if they do others look at you…oh mean them. The elevator ride awkward yes, but such a delight. However, this has NEVER happened to me before.

It’s Christmas. While I was plugging along, along comes a moment that could never have been scripted we most likely will never be in an elevator together again and yet at that moment in time and space we were together singing a Christmas song. It’s a moment of Christmas. That’s what the Christmas story is people plugging away at life with its difficulties and God comes down to be with us and help us for a moment of eternity. Our hope is found that God is still showing up in the plodding of life making a moment Christmas that will last forever.

Prepare for your moment its coming. Keep plodding God is with us and in a moment of so you will know he is with you!

Merry Christmas from my family to you and yours!              

                                         
In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

It happened in the middle of my thing Monday!

My thing was a speaking and singing gig for the Seniors of First Baptist Springfield. They are so gracious and generous to ask me to participate. We were at the New Ebenezer Retreat Center. The room is large with a post and beam high ceiling and hard surfaces all around. That makes for a bathroom- like sound. That is fun to sing in especially a cappella (without music). So I did.

I began with O Come, O Come Emmanuel (an ancient plainsong) with its haunting melody and in “bathroom” acoustics the sound was good. My outline had developed from my message the Sunday before which included a few songs and some words to connect them and today at Christmas. The songs included O Holy Night, What Child is This and my favorite Do you Hear What I Hear. The story was the juxtaposition between Christmas as we experience it and Christmas as we dream it.

During the message from Sunday I included a clip from the Peanut’s Christmas were Linus recites the Christmas story from Luke 2. It is magical in its simplicity as recorded by Luke of the first Christmas. I think that is what each of us always dreams Christmas will be. It frustrates us when this year like every other year it is not. At the annual Christmas family gathering the tension can be cut with a chain saw. The office “holiday” party is so removed from Christmas that it is hard to tell what season it is. O holy night turns out to be a string of un-holy nights that come more from Hades than heaven. Where is our peanuts Christmas now?

So I turned my talk to the original story of Christmas where an unmarried, unwed girl is pregnant and her fiancé is ready to get rid of her only for God to intervene and tell Joseph the baby is of him. To that mess add a government that requires people to return to their ancestral home to be counted so that their tax may go up. She is pregnant and now having to travel and when they arrive there is no room, closet etc. for them to stay in only a stable/ hole in the ground to sleep and then the baby comes. Great just what they needed a baby, just what we needed, a baby. A moment in the insanity that was their situation where nothing else mattered, a baby was born. THE baby was born. Add to the mess; enter these crazy shepherds into this most private moment of Mary, Joseph and to be named Jesus. How Rude! Until they tell their story and then it’s not rude at all. It is an “ah huh.” Come up close, Joseph gestures and the night continues. That was when it hit me.

Here I was telling the story to this gathered group of senior saints. It was my task to speak to them and God speaks to me through what I was telling them. The original Christmas story is not Peanuts like at all. It more resembles the messed up, hurried up, chaotic lives we lead daily. Into THAT God shows up, God is with us in our mess. That IS the message of Christmas. Here God was showing up in the middle of my thing. Maybe, it wasn’t my thing after all.                  

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

It's My Birthday!

Well, at least Friday, December 6 was my birthday. In days gone by it has been my belief that it was not truly Christmas until after my birthday. As I was growing up we did not decorate the house until after my birthday mostly because my Aunt did not arrive until later in the month and then we decorated. She cracked the whip. This year we saw Christmas commercials in October. Now it is time to bring on Christmas.

What does that mean?

Really, an increase in activities almost to the absurd, decorations on in and around everything (the dog came back from a teeth cleaning with a Christmas bandana around her neck), 24/7 Christmas music on the radio (that started before Thanksgiving), lights, lights and more lights hanging from anything that stands (one home on Blue Jay added LED lights to their eves and now a normally dark part of the road is lit up). That is the madness we call Christmas. But there is another side that comes.

Christmas brings a keener sense that we can do simple things and change lives. It brings an awareness of others who may need help and a willingness TO DO SOMETHING about the need. It adds a smile to faces normally caught up in life and living. It encourages an excitement to the step of every child no matter what the age with a faint sound of a tune from their lips and a “Merry Christmas” to the tail end of conversations a wish for the best for any family regardless of faith or belief. Sure it brings the absurd as well but the great rises above the other to shine the brightest light to a dark world.

One small child, one giant promise, one great God on the scene to make us right changed everything in this world we live in. It was insignificant there in Bethlehem. It is not insignificant in our hearts. So, bring on Christmas regardless of my birthday or not.

The season is well worth the celebration.

It’s time for us to dance the Savior deserves it!        

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

Love Fall

Love fall is the title of a series of messages I have been preaching at Crossroads Church. As is my custom the title is not what it seems and the topics have a sideways slant in our examination. We began with Adam and Eve and their sin in the garden. You know they deserved death. Yet, God does not give us what we deserve. God gives from his love for us. After pronouncing the consequences for the fall, God makes clothes for them because they were naked. We then looked at the sin of Cain in killing his brother Abel. Once again Cain deserved death but God did not take his life in fact he placed a mark on Cain to protect him from others.

The saddest words come in God’s declaration of regret in the time of Noah. The men of the earth sinned in such a fashion to make God regret that he had made them. He would destroy the world by a flood. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah had to build a boat that would save him, his family and all of the land creatures from the destruction. Yet we have the rainbow as a promise of God that he will never do that again. He has been good to his promise. Once again not what we deserved but what God would do from his love.

We moved on to David the “man after God’s own heart.” Yet David was trapped in lust, sexual sin, conspiracy and murder.  The man after God’s own heart had done all of this and tried to cover up each action. Nathan confronts him and calls him out. David is guilty, admits it and by the law should have been killed but God does not give him what he deserves. There are consequences, the baby of the infidelity dies, David’s family respects him no more, and his son Absalom takes the kingdom from his father for a time until the son’s death. David returns as King but scared. That should have been the end of him and his legacy but no, God had plans. From David came Solomon and ultimately the Savior of the world, Jesus. David got not what he deserved but what God would give.

In all of this God is the wronged party. He has every right to punish and eliminate the offenders and yet chooses to extend grace not based upon their actions but based upon himself and his faithfulness. Reliant K has a phrase “the beauty of grace is that it makes life not fair.” That is beauty and more than enough to be thankful.

Thanksgiving is a great time with family to gather for food and fellowship around a table. I have been asking folks what is their favorite food of Thanksgiving. One answer wrapped this up. The man said my Mother’s Mac and Cheese. I asked him what made it special expecting a listing of ingredients or technique he replied, “the one who made it.” “The one who made it,” that is a great answer. His Momma is proud. She should be. This series has been targeted at us so that we might see what God has really done in time and space in spite of what we really deserved. Grace makes life not fair. Thank you God and to blow your mind Christmas comes next!

The ultimate expression of the character of God to come himself fixing the problem of our sin once and for all by dying in our place should throw us to our faces before God in gratitude and worship. There is NOTHING more significant for which to be thankful. Turkey is good. Mac and Cheese is fine. Dressing is delightful (my favorite). Pecan pie is pleasure but the love of God in our Savior is…well…like…describing…what? There is nothing like it. Our thankfulness for God’s amazing grace should take our breath away.

Love Fall well you bet. Cooler temps, beautiful colors what’s not to love? But we can love our fall from God not because we are so bad but because God is So good. Thankfulness focuses on the good things, the simple things like Momma’s Mac and cheese. Grace is not simple but it is simple amazing and undeserved and only One makes it, God!

Be Thankful and enjoy the grace of God!

Happy Thanksgiving!   

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG
Eat another bit of your favorite Thanksgiving food for me and enjoy it!

 

Monday I was outside all day!

Being Veteran’s Day and my day off, I had the day off from both occupations (school bus driving and church). I am never really off from church just not in the office. To really be off, I would have to turn the phone off and I did not do that although it only rang twice or three times. I answered it. I was outside the whole day except the time I went to Lowe’s to get some cap stone and 12 more block. A year ago I made plans to build a retaining wall next to the slope from the drain field mound. I have tried some other things and never liked them. Barbara and I went and bought 100 block for the wall, had them loaded into the truck and unloaded them by hand by the slope. That was over a year ago. I’m prompt if not timely.

It just never worked out to have time and the energy to tackle the project of moving the dirt, preparing the base, tamping and then laying the block, leveling and checking every 4 blocks (the length of my level). I really hate to start something and have to leave it undone until I can come back. It bothers me. My wife may not agree as I have left some of her projects and tried (not been able) to not come back. That is another story.

So I had the time, equipment and a beautiful day. The dog enjoyed the whole day outside as well. Well, she went back inside at 5pm. I waited until 5:30. So, I got started and by 1pm had used all of the 100 original stones and needed 12 more. That is when I decided I needed cap stone to finish the wall. I had not intended to use cap stone for a more rustic look turns out it was just was too rustic. Off to Lowes with the dog (she loves to ride) we picked up 40 cap stones and 12 more block and a roll of landscape fabric, answered three phone calls, pinched the fire out of my finger twice moving the stone, paid for it (ouch) and headed back home.

I parked close to the project and started laying the 12 stones recognizing they were just a bit different in color but that was ok (I may yet intersperse them in the other 100, you will never know). The caps went on well but there were two to cut and no tile saw (it’s on loan). So, out with the chisel and with repeated gentle strikes the stone broke on the scribed line and fit in place. Success, I had laid the wall and it looked pretty good. My back, my hands, my feet and my wallet were sore but success, I now have a small retaining wall. I felt pretty good about myself.

Stone, dirt and concrete can do that for you, make you feel pretty good about yourself! It doesn’t last!

It is so easy to derive value and worth from the created rather than the creator. It is so easy to consider a ministry ours and therefore success the result of our doing. If it is, it won’t last. I enjoy creating. Not like God, but putting together items and materials to achieve an effect or create a thing. It is satisfying. The problem is I enjoy that more than the knowledge of God’s love, the experience of God’s love and the confirmation of God’s love. So, I am a human doing rather than a human being. However, I have been created in the image of God whose name is YHWY “I AM THAT I AM.” That is the first person of the infinitive to be. The verb (a word of action) is be or to be. Therefore God’s name is Be. I am made in his image “to BE.” Therein is my success, my joy, my heart, my desire not what I create but that I AM created by the GREAT I AM.

Monday night I rested and Tuesday (and Wednesday) I was sore. I am not as young as I once was but neither are you. Today maybe I will rest in “be.” One who has value and worth regardless of what I can do, say or think. God values us all!            

I really enjoyed being outside on what I call Chamber of Commerce days. The fall is filled with them. They can fill you with the awe and wonder of God who created them. Just don’t forget that it is he who created and not we.

Oh, yeah He never takes a day off. He doesn’t need them!

                

In HIS Service and Yours,
BroG

 

It's Friday and I'm not taking it too well!

Most people come back to life on Friday. Look at those at work. Friday is when they speak. They don’t just grunt when spoken to. It’s the only day of the week that complete sentences come from their mouths. It is an amazing resurrection because they had seemed dead and now they are so alive all because of the weekend.

I’m not taking it well because at least at the moment I have little to look forward to over the weekend. The same old stuff I must do but…no highlights. I started the day poorly as I walked the dog in the cool twilight just before dawn. I continued to dwell on others, their actions, the senseless nature of their deeds and deeds undone and the incongruity of their words and deeds. Honestly, I stewed all around the yard and beyond. The dog didn’t care. She was un-phased by the hypocrisy of their actions. But I was not!

People, they sure can mess you up. It bugs me when others can see what needs to be done, make accusations against others yet never lift a finger to do anything about the “important” task to be done. That just bugs me. I get hung up in my mind over what others should be doing or could be doing or would be doing. Yep, my hang up means I’m just like them not doing anything and complaining about others who aren’t doing either.

God knows that about me. Knowing me like He does he breathed the following into me today.    

It means we’d better get on with it. Strip down, start running—and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we’re in. Study how he did it. Because he never lost sight of where he was headed—that exhilarating finish in and with God—he could put up with anything along the way: Cross, shame, whatever. And now he’s there, in the place of honor, right alongside God. When you find yourselves flagging in your faith, go over that story again, item by item, that long litany of hostility he plowed through. That will shoot adrenaline into your souls! Hebrews 12:1-3 The Message

Yep, while I am hung up on others I am not looking at Jesus. My quit just did. I'm still thinking about it. So how did Jesus handle other people who should be, would be or could be? He made a connection with them and showed them how it was done.

I am to do the same.

Yep, those folks I was raking over the coals in my mind on the walk with the dog this morning, I am one of them.

I need to quit talking, quit looking around, set my sights on Jesus and get to following him.

It's Friday and I wasn't taking it too well. Changed my sights and looked to the One.

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

 

Fruit is Success?

“Leaders: God has not called you to bear fruit. He has called you to be faithful--Jud Wilhite Catalyst 2013

It is easy to nod your heard and agree with this statement. But what about following a team loss of an important game? Did you play faithfully? Yes! You lost? Yes, and you still feel bad? Yes! We count wins and losses. Everybody does! Success, its definition makes the difference.

In “bible” terms as we define it success “bearing fruit” is more people more programs and larger budgets right? We will pay the obligatory lip service to the “biblical” concept of faithfulness but we measure by buildings, budgets and bodies. If a church is growing numerically and building buildings then they are “bearing fruit” and therefore successful.

After posting the above quote a friend challenged the idea using Jesus words found in John 15:1-5.

“I am the true vine, and My Father is the vineyard keeper. ² Every branch in Me that does not produce fruit He removes, and He prunes every branch that produces fruit so that it will produce more fruit. ³ You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. ⁴ Remain in Me, and I in you. Just as a branch is unable to produce fruit by itself unless it remains on the vine, so neither can you unless you remain in Me.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me. (HCSB)

Having read the above we from within our culture and its definition of success would say we need to bear fruit then we are successful. Verse two says that right? Agree? However, verses 4 and 5 are where Jesus defines success differently. Only as we remain in Him can we produce fruit. We cannot produce fruit by ourselves. Let me take one more step of application here, we may be the branches but it is Jesus alone who produces fruit. You may remember the “fruit of the Spirit” it is just that fruit from the Holy Spirit not the believer who bears it. Once again it is God who produces the fruit we are the display stand.

I was finishing Revelation in my daily reading and read of the tree of life (Rev 22:2). It will bear 12 different fruits one for each month. No fruit bearing plant does that, here. That tree will straddle the river of life that flows from the throne of God and of the Lamb.  God’s doing in his place of habitation. No, fruit here and now is born in its season.

I wrestle with being successful, feeling successful. The problem is I measure like this world measures while I try to do things of the Spirit. The key is “I try.” To be successful we have to try harder. I have forgotten the words of Jesus to abide in him (faithfulness) and not try.  My daily reading shifted to the Psalms. This is what God said Psalm 1:1-3 HCSB:

¹How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked or take the path of sinners or join a group of mockers!
² Instead, his delight is in the Lord’s instruction, and he meditates on it day and night.
³ He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season.        

There is a season for fruit. You and I may indeed be successful because of our faithfulness it is just not the fruit season! Maybe what we need to hear is People: God has not called us to be successful. He has called us to be faithful.

In His Service and Yours,

BroG

I can't lose for winning!

We found out the other day, we are no longer the boomer generation although we are just at the end of that by birth year. They now call us the sandwich generation because we are in between caring for aging parents (our older children) and caring for our children. In our case we are a club triple-decker sandwich as the third layer includes 3 furry children (two cats and a dog).

I tell you that because this morning was complicated by two of those layers. My cell made noise at 4am this morning with not one but 7 messages. That total includes a reply or two on my part. There was an eighth message that had come earlier. I slept through that one. These from the middle child of the middle layer of children. The difficulty compounded when two of the furry children, the felines, thought it was time to get up and play. This play upsets the third furry child (canine) who likes to sleep when it is dark. By the way so do I, like to sleep that is at 4am. The alarm goes off at 5:30am for the adults. Back to the middle child (human) who has a very big heart for hurting people. That was the gist of the text conversation. It just seems to happen in the wee hours of the morning.

The alarm goes off at 5:25am and I lay still for a few cycles of the snooze until all the furry children are up and ready for me to be up too. Got to go outside to smell all of the smells (canine beagle) you know. At 6 am I realize middle child (human) is not in the house so out goes a text asking the same “where are you?” We go outside on our walk as normal, come back in and perform our morning routine still asking questions about the wee hours and the middle child but on with the routine.

My routine after feeding the canine furry child is to sit down, read a devotion book and or scripture and then pray. This morning with all that had happened I decided to forgo reading a lot and just pray. So I kneel at my chair, lights off, Barbara already gone, still house and begin to pray when the dog begins to back at an as of yet undiscovered noise. Not once but several times alerting me to an unidentified strange noise (USN). In her defense it was probably the two other furry children messing around kitty parkour style that bothers the dog a lot. That is another reason we call them the furry children. Did I tell you I was trying to pray? So, the dog finally stops barking now, back to praying when another four text messages chime in. By that time there is not time or inclination to focus on God. Got to get dressed and eat a bit before going out the door.

I will guess you have had more than one day start like this? Am I right? So, how do we deal? Get angry? Fuss? Fume? Act out? A dear friend says continually, “God is in control.” How can he be in the chaos of this morning and others just like it? That can be because…well…He is! That doesn’t mean I understand it or get it. It’s not really for me to get. I have to show you what I read earlier. Psalm 8 from The Message

¹God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name.

² Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.

^3-4 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way?

^5-8 Yet we’ve so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden’s dawn light. You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps.

⁹ God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world

I can’t lose for winning, neither can You!

In His Service and Yours,

BroG

This WOWED me!

It’s not every day that something wows me. Not necessarily every week either but this past week was an exception. As I prepared a message last week, my topic was the Bible specifically what is the bible. So, I turn to passages in scripture that describe this collection of 66 books we call the Bible and its purpose. Paul writing to Timothy gives us some great words as he helps Timothy in ministry.

 ¹⁶ All Scripture is inspired by God^[a] and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness, ¹⁷ so that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 HCSB

So, I began with the first phrase there are two words to consider here. The first is “scripture.” The World English Dictionary defines scripture as “a sacred, solemn, or authoritative book or piece of writing.” Other religions have their sacred writings. Islam the Koran, Mormonism the book of Mormon, Hinduism has the Bhagavad-Gita to name a few but the Bible is the is the Christian Faith’s sacred writing or---scripture.

The second word we must consider is inspired. You may notice a footnote

 Footnotes:

1. 2 Timothy 3:16 Lit breathed out by God; the Scripture is the product of God’s Spirit working through men;

The word in Greek is theopneustos Pronunciation the-o'-pnyü-stos it is used only once in the Greek. In all 27 of the New Testament books this word is used only once. In my way of thinking it appears only once because in the very precise language of Greek it describes only one thing “inspired by God.” Follow me down a road of thought for a minute. When a person is choking the time to perform the Heimlich is when they have insufficient air exchange. You know this when they can no longer speak. To speak there must be air-moving, breath. Breath is what we use to make sound and form words. In Genesis 1 God spoke and created life. In Genesis 2:7 God breathed the breath of life into Adam. Then in John 1 we read, “the Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood.” (The Message) The breathed out spoken word of God became the incarnate living word. This book we call the Bible is special and not just because it was the first book printed or the all time best seller but because it is literally the sacred, God breathed out Word that gives life.

When we open and read this most special book we don’t simply take in knowledge but we can breathe in the very breath of God. The breath that spoke nothing into something, stars and planets, plants and animals, water and dry land and ultimately man and woman. Now that is something yet a July 2013 State of the Bible survey commissioned by the American Bible Society revealed 57% of the people surveyed read it less than 5 times a year and more than half (57%) of those ages 18-28 report reading the Bible less than three times a year or never. Is this true of you?

Why would you not read it when you are tired, discouraged, depressed, distraught, beat down, overtaxed, had the life sucked out of you tired? It alone is the breathed out word of God who gives love and life meaning and purpose simply because he wants to! I suggest you change that! So, here is what I ask of you today. I challenge you to commit for the next 7 days to read the sacred, God breathed out Word that gives life every day. At a minimum one chapter or 10 minutes more if that ups your ante. God is always asking us to come to him for rest for life for hope for joy. The Bible is his rest and joy, hope and life.

One word of caution, if you like how things are now don’t open the Bible, don’t you breathe in the breath of God in his word that brings life. It will transform you and the way you live. If you don’t want that then DON’T DO THIS.

In His Service and Yours,

BroG

To be known or not, that is the question!

Andy Stanly, Lead Pastor of North Point Ministries, in a talk at Catalyst 2013 remarked that we as people have an appetite for praise. We long to be known by others and for others to know us at least at some level. Consider with me social media including facebook and twitter. There is a level of knowing that is possible by reading what people write or following them on twitter. However, it is a level that they dictate. We know them without the benefit of 80%-85% of the communication clues afforded to us in face to face, mouth to ear contact. Maybe that is good however it leads to a lot of misunderstanding but also anonymity, the un-known.

It seems strange to use a vehicle that makes us known to remain un-known. That’s just people for you. I agree we have this appetite to be known. It is satisfied for moments and then we are hungry again. Almost weekly without fail I come home from church and ask my wife, “how was the preacher today (in that third person)?” It’s my appetite to be known and affirmed. I have been riding home thinking, “I should have said that,” or I went on too long,” or “that was a mess.” Barbara to her credit will roll her eyes and say most days, “he was good.” Honestly, I’m not sure if it is true but she said it and my appetite is satisfied until next week. That’s the way appetites go. You are ravenously hungry for a moment and then satisfied the next but you will be hungry again. It is so when we seek the praise, the “known” of men. Their affirmation lasts for a while but then we are hungry again.

Many years ago I would take students out following a Sunday evening service to eat. The dilemma was always where to go because as soon as I mentioned a place someone would say, “I hate that,” but no one would say where they wanted to go for fear of making their choice known and being shot down. So, I learned to start by asking, “Where do you NOT want to go.” I ALWAYS got a response to that and in the following minutes a place would rise to the top that no one hated. No one liked either but at least no one hated.  In our appetite to be known we often seek the affirmation of people. If they don’t give it we are devastated. When Barbara responds to my question with, “Not so good,” or “I didn’t pay attention,” I immediately go down this path of solving the problem of WHY. Driven more so out of my need to be known, I make her and me crazy analyzing what was wrong and how can I fix it.

At the same Catalyst conference Jud Wilhite said, “God did not call you to bear fruit but to be faithful.” God does not love us because of what we can do but because we are his. John records the words of Jesus regarding being known.

⁵ “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me…⁷ If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you want and it will be done for you. ⁸ My Father is glorified by this: that you produce much fruit and prove to be My disciples. John 15:5, 7-8 HCSB

The only one who can satisfy the appetite for being known is the One who knew us before time and will know us after time ends. Praise of people is fickle and fleeting. One moment you are the “cat’s meow” and the next you are the “cats droppings.” Not so with God, the One who really knows you. There is no anonymity with him. The ugly is exposed and He alone loves you still. He alone died so that you might know him. It has never been what you could do to gain his approval but what will do in response to hi s request. Your faithfulness is what God counts as success not your fruit.

We have the right question. We just keep asking it of the wrong person. The One to ask is the one who made us is remaking us and freed from sin and its’ effects. It is only his answer, “I know,” that will satisfy your appetite for praise and being known.

We want to be known and the good news is you are!                 

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

Fall has fallen finally!

We are products of our environment. The weather has turned cooler and dryer and people’s spirits are lifted. I think it is just the change that energizes us but have you noticed? Monday evening I was changing the brakes on my daughter’s car and I was so thankful for no mosquitoes bothering me. In the warmer weather they are unmerciful. That alone is a change for the better. When I step out of the door early in the morning it is refreshing to feel cooler air and even a slight chill Tuesday morning.

I spoke to another bus driver today as we waited. The conversation topic was missions and evangelism through the open windows of school busses. Seems strange but it is true. The other driver was sharing about some recent and future experiences sharing the Gospel. They spoke also of some moments where they just did not get it done. The opportunity had presented itself but they failed to act. I sure have been there. The moment changes and immediately you know you missed an opportunity. Then you beat yourself up over the failure. That failed occurrence becomes our environment.

That failed environment has help existing. The evil one accuses us every time we try to open our moth for the cause of Christ. That is who he is. Truth is that is not who we are. The Gospel changes environments too as well as hearts. Paul reminds us in Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. HCSB

The evil one wants for us to be conformed to the patterns of this world but the Gospel has changed that. When we fail, confess the failure before God but do not stay there beating yourself up every time you think of it. Use that failure to strengthen your resolve to never let that happen again so as you can help it. Let that be the redeeming of the failure as God is so good to do. Resolve to never let a similar opportunity pass you by. The redeemed get back up after falling. They are not defeated because Christ is not defeated. It is our environment.

Fall has fallen and we live in a fallen world. The most beautiful aspect of the Gospel is it makes life NOT fair. It brings hope to the hopeless and help to the helpless. The lost are found and the blind now see. That’s not fair but isn’t it amazing? Yes, even after the infusion of the life changing Gospel you will fail and fall. There is forgiveness available and an opportunity to resolve to never let it happen again. That is to count on the Gospel to change everything. That is what fall is the change of seasons. That change gives us an opportunity to resolve to be and do better for our Savior.

Fall has fallen!

So What?

Get up and enjoy the change!            

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

 

It's been a crazy week!

I am not so sure I can even remember all of the crazy from this week. Have you had one of THOSE weeks too? I guess it is crazy because it has been unusual. Not the normal crazy I experience so it seems all that more unusual.  One of the highlights was a hoped for contact with a draftsman who is working on our building project. We set up a meeting and confirmed our goals and information required for him to begin work.

This building project has consistently been stymied by paperwork of one kind or another. Either we had no idea we needed it or it was not the correct document in the hands of the correct people. There are two phrases that have proven to be true. The first, “it’s all in the paperwork,” and the second, “it doesn’t exist until it’s on paper.” Those two phrases will be the death of me. Not really but you know what I mean. There is progress not on paper yet but progress towards getting all on paper so the physical work can begin not ministry that is already well underway.

We have had the opportunity to assist a medical missions team headed to Guatemala this fall with vitamins for children and some instruments to assist in the care of those children. Simple things really like collecting change and nail clippers will make a difference in children’s lives and the lives of their families. In another project, we are putting together blessing bags filled with personal care items for local children and their families. It is a partnership with our elementary school to make a difference in the health and welfare of children right here. It is crazy how the simplest of things makes the biggest difference.

Crazy how we complicate so many things by creating artificial boundaries to life and living when it was simple and effective within the original borders. At the heart of Jesus message was simplicity. Two commands Love God with all that you are and hope to be and love others like you love yourself. We make those artificial borders by trying to define boundaries to exclude or limit the scope of our love. Jesus made no such borders. His Father made no such borders, “For God so loved the world that he gave…” Love without borders and boundaries, now THAT is crazy living. The crazy continues as he invites us to love like that. We immediately identify a boarder to our love by recognizing our love has limits. Our love runs out like an empty pitcher. God blows that away by promising a limitless supply of strength and love as we trust him and participate in his plan, now THAT is CRAZY.

Crazy like a Fox!

I have to depend on Him to love like that.

That’s just what HE wanted!

That’s crazy don’t you think?

That’s living!

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

 

Where is it?

There are two things I must think about on Friday or at least by Friday. The first is this article and the second is how to organize the ideas and thoughts I have for the message for Sunday. Both are like are 24/7 task masters that never take a break, call in sick or change their deadline. So, I opened the door to my office, walked in, turned on the light, set my book down and looked for my computer. It was not there. Immediately I knew it was at my home, ugh. I had left it there Thursday evening (not a normal thing I do). Drat, today my Jedi mind powers are on the blink.

Solution, there is another laptop in my office I could use instead of going home and returning with my computer. So I fired that bad boy up and searched to open this file to write this task-master-article but no-can-do. The computer has network connection issues, ugh. The choice, I could spend time trying to resolve the issues on a machine not regularly used or go home and get my computer. I opted for the later just a little thing.

It is the little things that get us. Many a passionate discussion has raged over the up-ness or down-ness (I just invented those terms hey maybe they will go viral) of the toilet seat or the placement of a trash bag in the waste can following disposal or the purchase of a specific brand of pain reliever verses the generic. A few years ago a young woman in pre-marital counseling remarked how it is always the little things that blow up between a couple. I think it is always the little things that throw a wrench into the day. A simple loss-of-mind momentarily results in an article about…well you know. It is crazy or is it?

Some mornings the whole flow of the day is determined by one little thing, out of coffee. We react like the whole day depended upon our coffee. Some of you are saying, “Well yes.” Sit down and hear me, it is just NOT so. The whole day does not depend on one little thing however, it is determined by our perspective of those little things. Our perspective is most times suspect because it is so limited. What do I really know? Yes, I have lived a few years but the longer I live the more I recognize I know very little about very little, although, I got final Jeopardy the other night from a very obscure statement. Barbara looked at me and said, “How did you get that?” I also recognize I spend a lot of time on the little things and not the important things.

Monday evening a radio show challenged me to consider grace and acts of grace in my life, the kind that change everything. That is what grace does it changes everything. We throw the word around so casually and with such great familiarity acting as if we know what that means. We sing about it and say it. As I drove down the road I was stumped to think of a grace moment that changed everything, a moment so important that you recall the scene and faces and smells of the environment. You can hear each word spoken or not spoken in your mind as you remember. As I began to think about grace moments I recognized they are all around us, happening every minute of every day and I dismiss them as little things.

Grace changes everything and a moment of grace is NOT a little thing. Today the leaving of my computer was a little thing that I made big. It was small because you are reading this article and it is still Friday while I complete it, task complete. What was big? The round trip was big. Why? The day is bright with sunshine and life, my dog greeted me with excitement and a wagging tail at the house, I spoke with my wife who loves me so to care for me, my parents and my children so very well. Moments I enjoyed but did not deserve. Those are grace moments. I probably would have missed them if my little thing had run its course in my mind. Yes, I would have missed the GREAT things of grace. Had it not been for this task-master article about grace!

Grace, it’s not a little thing!

  
In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

I hate waiting

Is there anybody who likes to wait? Are you sure? I think sin might be involved in your answer if you said yes. You need to repent. I think wait is the ugliest four letter word in the English language. It should be banned because it smacks us in the face reminding us we are not God and we can’t make this happen right now. It usually reveals some of our other failings. Like not getting out of the door on time for work or not having done homework the night before or…well you know. Those are the times when the traffic stops or something happens to make us wait.

It is hard to wait on test results from the Doctor. We want them right now. The reality is the results reveal what was already there or not. When I volunteered as an EMT with the fire department I would remind families to take their time getting their stuff together. They were in for a long wait in the emergency room and their loved one was in good care. The rub there is we want the medical staff to be thorough but we want it right now. Thorough takes time. That means a wait. Waiting in the ER or anywhere is hard duty. The following are some thoughts about waiting from David.

14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:14 HCSB

Chuck Swindol puts into context the thought from Hebrew for the word translated wait.

The term "wait" is from the Hebrew verb kawah, which eventually carried the idea of eagerly looking for something. It originally meant "to twist, stretch." The noun form means "line, cord, thread." The literal definition became a word picture involving tension or eager anticipation - See more at: http://www.insight.org/resources/devotionals/waiting-on-god.html?print=t#sthash.kFBfoGxx.dpuf

I rephrased wait in this way: A string or line under tension eagerly waiting to be released. Like a bow string or an instrument string ready to be played. 

Why we wait:
· We are not ready
· Others are not ready
· We need strength and courage

But those who wait upon God get fresh strength. They spread their wings and soar like eagles, They run and don’t get tired, they walk and don’t lag behind. Isaiah 40:31 The Message

That is the why of waiting. It helps me wait when I have something to do. Usually I take a book or people watch anything to do to pass the time. David has a better process from Psalm 27 instead of anything to pass the time something specific.  

While we wait:
· Remember God
The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom should I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom should I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 HCSB

Remind yourself of God’s work in your life up to this moment. Remember the promises of God for you and your future. Remember God.

· Ask God for what you need BOLDLY

Lord, hear my voice when I call; be gracious to me and answer me.8 My heart says this about You, “You are to seek My face.” Lord, I will seek Your face. Psalm 27:7-8 NCSB

Yes, it is ok to ask!

· Trust God

I am certain that I will see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.14 Wait for the Lord; be strong and courageous. Wait for the Lord. Psalm 27:13-14 HCSB

Waiting is a matter of trust. For the child of God, we wait on God to provide as he said he would.

I will wait.

I still don’t like it but I’m learning!       

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG

It's a Fight

In a devotion book I read by Max Lucado, the entry for September 4 spoke of what we do when we are in a pinch. How we respond when we find ourselves in a tight spot. You know how we chew our finger nails like corn on the cob or how we wear new paths in the carpet from the pacing or the countless hours of sleepless nights or the cases of antacids that we consume because of digestion issues. That is what we do when we find ourselves in the grind. What does God do?

From our perspective it looks like nothing. However, Lucado reminds us of the children of Israel in the wilderness facing the Egyptian army on one side and the Red Sea on the other. The people complain (go figure) saying they would have been better off staying in Egypt. Have you been there? When it gets hard you think or say out loud it would have been easier to stay where I was. Those devils I knew. We are just like those Israelites. Moses says this to the people.

¹³ But Moses said to the people, “Don’t be afraid. Stand firm and see the Lord’s salvation He will provide for you today; for the Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. ¹⁴ The Lord will fight for you; you must be quiet.” Exodus 14:13-14 HCSB

The key here is the underlined text “The LORD will fight for you” What a concept. The LORD (God of the Angel Armies) will fight for me. My battles will become his as he is my champion. He fought for my salvation on the cross. In sharing this thought an individual took issue with the idea that God would fight all our battles. It was their opinion that God picks and chooses the battles he will fight on our behalf. I can see that perspective but I think it is based on a general misconception of ours.

The misconception seems to me, if someone is going to fight our battles for us then we believe we can sit ringside and watch the fray. No personal involvement in the action. No blood, guts or bruises it will be done for us Not by us. That would be great. God the magician Abra-ca-dabra, presto change-o it’s done and better. Here just take this pill and no heart attack or instant weight loss, eat whatever you want in any quantity you want and you will lose weight. That’s what we think. Reality is different than that. Here is the reality of the Lord fighting for Israel.

¹⁵ The Lord said to Moses, “Why are you crying out to Me? Tell the Israelites to break camp. ¹⁶ As for you, lift up your staff, stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. ¹⁷ I am going to harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them, and I will receive glory by means of Pharaoh, all his army, and his chariots and horsemen. Exodus 14:15-17 HCSB

“You must be quiet” We can read that they were to be quiet because they had much to do. Sometimes we need to be quiet and wait. There I said it “wait” the ugliest four-letter-word in the English language. To wait is to be still, to trust, and to rest, to pray for God’s timing and prepare for our part in the process yet to come. What does God do? He gets busy for his children and invites us into the process for his Glory and our Good. There is a chorus of a song I used to sing a long time ago it went,

 “It’s not in trying but in trusting, it’s not in running but in resting, it’s not in wondering but in praying that we find the strength of the Lord.”

“The LORD will fight for you. You must be quiet” [and wait]

In HIS Service and Yours,

BroG