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