The battle lines have been drawn. Sunday afternoon my friend from across the street texted me. He was already beginning the trash-talk about the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament. We’re both Tiger fans. The problem is that he is routing for the Missouri Tigers and I for the Memphis Tigers. Being in the same regional bracket, the two teams may very well face one another sooner than later. I only hope that we don’t have a full-scale war in our neighborhood.
Actually, routing for your basketball team is good-natured fun compared to some of the other fracases we experience being partisans of our particular teams. We’ve seen the irate parents at little league ballparks. The mob-mentality fights at soccer and rugby games in Europe are legendary. Professional hockey is known for its brawling. Who among us Missourians will ever forget the “pine tar incident” with Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett in 1983.
But while Jesus wants us to have a team mentality – to work together to accomplish his goals, sometimes we don’t see the whole picture. We forget that God’s team is bigger than the group that meets with us in our building in our little corner of Marshfield, Missouri. We forget that, on Sunday morning, members of God’s team are meeting all over Marshfield – and yes, all over the world!
I’m glad to be a part of a group of preachers in our town who are trying to remember to see the big picture and are encouraging our churches to see it too. Our community New Year’s service was wonderful. People from different congregations came together as God’s church – God’s team – to worship and celebrate His work in their lives together.
It was such a blessing that we are going to do it again. Good Friday evening, April 10, at 7 p.m., at the Marshfield Church of the Nazarene, God’s team here in Marshfield will meet for worship and prayer – remembering the sacrifice of our team leader, the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
I’m glad to be a part of the Son-Rise congregation, but I’m even more happy to be a part of God’s team in Marshfield and around the world. Let’s work together to accomplish Jesus’ mission.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Best Valentine's Ever
This is a week the world actually focuses on love – or at least that’s the general idea. It seems that St. Valentine’s Day has also met its doom in the commercial marketplace. It has become yet another day to spend, spend, and spend on anything from flowers, to candy, to romantic dinners. But couldn’t we really use a holiday to stop and think about real love?
One tradition says that Saint Valentine was a priest who helped to secretly marry Christians during the reign of Claudius, Emperor of Rome. At the time, it is said, it was forbidden to help Christians. And so, these benevolent acts of love became the reason for his arrest and subsequent martyrdom.
Many people point to fourteenth century author Geoffrey Chaucer, and a circle of his associates, for bringing us many of the traditions surrounding Valentine’s Day. It is said that Chaucer wrote a “fictional history” of acts of love throughout the ages to be celebrated and reenacted on February fourteenth. He evidently saw what I do. We need to have something to memorialize love. According to ancestry.com, I am a direct descendant of Chaucer. Maybe that accounts for my romantic streak.
But unfortunately, though Valentine’s Day is big business, like many holidays, it may be missing its intended mark. I asked my friends last week for some great Valentine’s Day memories in preparation for this article. No one really remembered a great Valentine’s Day – or any particular Valentine’s Day – except me. That particular Valentine’s Day I remember was only last year, but I know I’ll not forget it.
After enormous amounts of stressful things going on in my workplace, on February 13th of 2008, I was asked to leave. I met with the powers-that-be and tried to work out a way to keep my job. The next twenty-four hours were a blur of phone calls, meetings, and wrangling designed to keep my job. However, in the end, on February 14th, my wife and I decided to quit trying to fix something that would probably never be right again, walk away, and resign from the job.
What a Valentine’s Day that was. I can’t say that it was a happy day, but it was the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had. Even without a job and with no prospect of having a job – with all the uncertainty I’d ever faced in my life – at a time when I felt terrible about myself and my abilities – my wife stood beside me and continues to do so to this day. No amount of candy, cards, words, food, or gifts could have said “I love you” so much or demonstrated it so greatly.
A friend of mine did write and remind me of something that was said at his wedding – and mine. It was a quote attributed to Bible scholar Matthew Henry, who said,
“Woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
This is what real love is all about. This is what is missing from most of the hubbub and mushy cards and sentiments that we rush out the day of the holiday to find in a piece of heavy, folded paper printed in Kansas City by someone neither we nor our loved one knows. It is a partnership created by God to help us through the uncertain world. This Saturday, take the time to truly appreciate someone who is or who has been a person like that to you.
One tradition says that Saint Valentine was a priest who helped to secretly marry Christians during the reign of Claudius, Emperor of Rome. At the time, it is said, it was forbidden to help Christians. And so, these benevolent acts of love became the reason for his arrest and subsequent martyrdom.
Many people point to fourteenth century author Geoffrey Chaucer, and a circle of his associates, for bringing us many of the traditions surrounding Valentine’s Day. It is said that Chaucer wrote a “fictional history” of acts of love throughout the ages to be celebrated and reenacted on February fourteenth. He evidently saw what I do. We need to have something to memorialize love. According to ancestry.com, I am a direct descendant of Chaucer. Maybe that accounts for my romantic streak.
But unfortunately, though Valentine’s Day is big business, like many holidays, it may be missing its intended mark. I asked my friends last week for some great Valentine’s Day memories in preparation for this article. No one really remembered a great Valentine’s Day – or any particular Valentine’s Day – except me. That particular Valentine’s Day I remember was only last year, but I know I’ll not forget it.
After enormous amounts of stressful things going on in my workplace, on February 13th of 2008, I was asked to leave. I met with the powers-that-be and tried to work out a way to keep my job. The next twenty-four hours were a blur of phone calls, meetings, and wrangling designed to keep my job. However, in the end, on February 14th, my wife and I decided to quit trying to fix something that would probably never be right again, walk away, and resign from the job.
What a Valentine’s Day that was. I can’t say that it was a happy day, but it was the best Valentine’s Day I’ve ever had. Even without a job and with no prospect of having a job – with all the uncertainty I’d ever faced in my life – at a time when I felt terrible about myself and my abilities – my wife stood beside me and continues to do so to this day. No amount of candy, cards, words, food, or gifts could have said “I love you” so much or demonstrated it so greatly.
A friend of mine did write and remind me of something that was said at his wedding – and mine. It was a quote attributed to Bible scholar Matthew Henry, who said,
“Woman was made of a rib out of the side of Adam; not out of his feet to be trampled upon by him, but out of his side to be equal with him, under his arm to be protected, and near his heart to be loved."
This is what real love is all about. This is what is missing from most of the hubbub and mushy cards and sentiments that we rush out the day of the holiday to find in a piece of heavy, folded paper printed in Kansas City by someone neither we nor our loved one knows. It is a partnership created by God to help us through the uncertain world. This Saturday, take the time to truly appreciate someone who is or who has been a person like that to you.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Well, guess what friends? We’re going to have six more weeks of winter. It’s a guarantee! Punxsutawney Phil, that “Seer of Seers” - “Prognosticator of Prognosticators”, came out of his hole this week and saw his shadow. When you have a fuzzy rodent calling the weather, you can’t go wrong. Wouldn’t it be great if there were other rodents that could tell the future?
What if a big rat that could tell me who is going to win the World Series, or at least tell me when the Royals will next have a winning year? It would be great to have a squirrel to forecast the stock market. I’d like to have a chinchilla that could tell me how much longer record companies will let Bob Dylan attempt to sing. That’d be great. I’m just wondering if we are really utilizing the rodent population the way we should.
All kidding aside, the only accurate predictor of the future, at least for our own lives, are the choices we make today. As someone once said, “The height of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.” We make the New Year’s resolution to lose weight, eat like crazy (again – like last year) at the Super Bowl Party and wonder why we don’t lose weight. We keep spending like there is no tomorrow and wonder why we continue to have financial trouble. We treat people the same way we always have and wonder why they treat us the same.
If we change our present habits, we can almost guarantee a change in our future circumstances. We only need direction on which things to change and how to make those changes.
Right now, at Son-Rise, we are considering our personal finances, our spending habits, and what God says in the scripture about money. Judging by comments folks have left me, I think there are some people that have great financial futures ahead of them based on choices they are making today.
What are some of the things you need to change today for a different tomorrow. I know I have stuff to do differently!
What if a big rat that could tell me who is going to win the World Series, or at least tell me when the Royals will next have a winning year? It would be great to have a squirrel to forecast the stock market. I’d like to have a chinchilla that could tell me how much longer record companies will let Bob Dylan attempt to sing. That’d be great. I’m just wondering if we are really utilizing the rodent population the way we should.
All kidding aside, the only accurate predictor of the future, at least for our own lives, are the choices we make today. As someone once said, “The height of insanity is to do the same thing over and over and expect different results.” We make the New Year’s resolution to lose weight, eat like crazy (again – like last year) at the Super Bowl Party and wonder why we don’t lose weight. We keep spending like there is no tomorrow and wonder why we continue to have financial trouble. We treat people the same way we always have and wonder why they treat us the same.
If we change our present habits, we can almost guarantee a change in our future circumstances. We only need direction on which things to change and how to make those changes.
Right now, at Son-Rise, we are considering our personal finances, our spending habits, and what God says in the scripture about money. Judging by comments folks have left me, I think there are some people that have great financial futures ahead of them based on choices they are making today.
What are some of the things you need to change today for a different tomorrow. I know I have stuff to do differently!
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Not By Might...
So my brother and I were talking about our prayers the other day. He gets bogged down in "lists"; I'm not a "prayer lister" at all. Here are some of our thoughts on how prayer plays a part in following God.
Greg: I was wondering after I talked to you if I really pray enough about my church, ministry, people, etc, etc. I'm sure really I don't pray enough at all. But that doesn't have to do with the question...I don't think...
You know Paul talks about working with "all His power" (that is GOD's & not his own - and that is paraphrased). And I sure don't want to be just "doing ministry" by MY power and getting results that I can get on my own. We preach that God should be involved in ministry. There's the old "joke" - "If the Holy Spirit left your congregation would anyone even notice.
My question is HOW do we make sure we are "ministering" "working" "striving" - however you want to say it - with HIS power.
I think that I always assumed - for some reason - that means that you have to "pray God's power into stituations/guidance, etc.". And that may well be true - or at LEAST a part of it....However... is there more to it?
Is prayer a part of it at all? If so, how much? Like 75% of it - 25% of it?
Could it be that just HAVING the Spirit "makes" us operate in it?
If not, what do we "feed" that direction if the Spirit does not operate in us "by default"?
Could it be that, as you said, just KNOWING God by relationship - spending time with him as our father - sharing concerns and ideas and thoughts with Him (and He with us thru the Word) - rather than praying down a "list" of "needs" is what is necessary to walk in the Spririt and operate by His power. Which then, of course, IS prayer... yet not what we usually believe "moves" God to "work for us" (like we are going to goad God into moving).
Chris: You bring up a good point.
If the Holy Spirit is with in us, which I believe He is, then I think we would work with him or he work in us by just some sort of default. But obviously we can work against the Holy Spirit. If we couldn't, then we would never sin or see people walk away from God. So I think that is part of it.
I think it is a "all of the above" answer. It is the Holy Spirit, it is praying, it is building the relationship with God. When we pray out of relationship instead of laundry list of things I want/need, then I begin to do things with Him in mind.
My laundry list prayer, while prayer, is all about me.
Its been said that prayer has more to do with changing me than it does God. It reminds me that I am not the most important person in the universe. It reminds me that The Church is His not mine. I can plan and try to grow it and maybe it will because, with good intentions, we are still preaching the gospel, still praising the Lord, still helping people. But when we come to it with a mindset of working with the Spirit and seeing what he is already doing in the lives of people, I think it makes our plans more effective because it builds off God's plan.
For instance, looking around, I see a lot of people in our church that have lost their job. So I might think about preaching on faith, eternal security, instead of preaching a sermon about holiness. Not that the holiness series would be bad or ineffective but maybe looking up for minute I can see needs that my church has. That is probably an over simplistic illustration.
Greg: I think...you're right!
Chris: That may be a first!
What do you think? (I mean about the subject - not Chris finally being right!)
Greg: I was wondering after I talked to you if I really pray enough about my church, ministry, people, etc, etc. I'm sure really I don't pray enough at all. But that doesn't have to do with the question...I don't think...
You know Paul talks about working with "all His power" (that is GOD's & not his own - and that is paraphrased). And I sure don't want to be just "doing ministry" by MY power and getting results that I can get on my own. We preach that God should be involved in ministry. There's the old "joke" - "If the Holy Spirit left your congregation would anyone even notice.
My question is HOW do we make sure we are "ministering" "working" "striving" - however you want to say it - with HIS power.
I think that I always assumed - for some reason - that means that you have to "pray God's power into stituations/guidance, etc.". And that may well be true - or at LEAST a part of it....However... is there more to it?
Is prayer a part of it at all? If so, how much? Like 75% of it - 25% of it?
Could it be that just HAVING the Spirit "makes" us operate in it?
If not, what do we "feed" that direction if the Spirit does not operate in us "by default"?
Could it be that, as you said, just KNOWING God by relationship - spending time with him as our father - sharing concerns and ideas and thoughts with Him (and He with us thru the Word) - rather than praying down a "list" of "needs" is what is necessary to walk in the Spririt and operate by His power. Which then, of course, IS prayer... yet not what we usually believe "moves" God to "work for us" (like we are going to goad God into moving).
Chris: You bring up a good point.
If the Holy Spirit is with in us, which I believe He is, then I think we would work with him or he work in us by just some sort of default. But obviously we can work against the Holy Spirit. If we couldn't, then we would never sin or see people walk away from God. So I think that is part of it.
I think it is a "all of the above" answer. It is the Holy Spirit, it is praying, it is building the relationship with God. When we pray out of relationship instead of laundry list of things I want/need, then I begin to do things with Him in mind.
My laundry list prayer, while prayer, is all about me.
Its been said that prayer has more to do with changing me than it does God. It reminds me that I am not the most important person in the universe. It reminds me that The Church is His not mine. I can plan and try to grow it and maybe it will because, with good intentions, we are still preaching the gospel, still praising the Lord, still helping people. But when we come to it with a mindset of working with the Spirit and seeing what he is already doing in the lives of people, I think it makes our plans more effective because it builds off God's plan.
For instance, looking around, I see a lot of people in our church that have lost their job. So I might think about preaching on faith, eternal security, instead of preaching a sermon about holiness. Not that the holiness series would be bad or ineffective but maybe looking up for minute I can see needs that my church has. That is probably an over simplistic illustration.
Greg: I think...you're right!
Chris: That may be a first!
What do you think? (I mean about the subject - not Chris finally being right!)
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Heart of a Champion
For the sports fan, at least the one who enjoys football, this is the ultimate week. It’s the week of the big game – the Super Bowl. The name says it all. Originally a game between two rival league champions, the Super Bowl crowns the best of the best in what Americans call football. Even more than that, this week’s game is not just about a game. It’s about having the heart of a champion.
Kurt Warner, this week’s starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, was a third-string, bench-warming quarterback at the University of Northern Iowa for most of his college career. Finally, in his senior year at UNI, his coaches believed he could lead them team. Lead them he did. He was the Gateway Conference offensive player of the year.
However, that performance wasn’t enough to impress the pros. After attending pre-season camp with the Green Bay Packers, the Packers released him. Kurt went back to Iowa and worked stocking shelves for minimum wage at a Hy-Vee grocery store.
But you can’t keep a good man like Kurt Warner down. Kurt got a second chance at the pros when he started racking up the stats as a quarterback in the Arena League and NFL Europe. His performance caught the attention of the St. Louis Rams. After the Rams quarterback went down with an injury in the 1999 season, Kurt led them to the playoffs and a Super Bowl victory. He was the league MVP twice while playing for the Rams. But it still wasn’t enough.
After an injury, some less-than-impressive games, and a few trades, Kurt Warner again found himself on the bench. He was now in Phoenix, Arizona – where the win column is usually as dry as the climate. Yet, once again, after a few years of on-and-off play for the Arizona Cardinals, Warner is now performing and leading his team, and they will appear in next week’s NFL Super Bowl. Between his NFL play, his personal life, and the many charitable actions with which we as Missourians are well-acquainted, it is obvious that Kurt Warner has the heart of a champion. Whether the Cardinals win Sunday or not, Kurt Warner has already won.
When you think about Warner’s story, it is obvious that he has been the recipient of a 2nd chance (and a third, and a fourth, etc.). There are many times when we wish we were so blessed. We struggle to overcome past mistakes. People don’t let us forget the past. And if it weren’t enough, we come to believe that even God “has it in for us”. After all, we know. We know we’ve failed so many times.
Yet, God actually calls us to get up off the bench and come back into the game. Far from “writing us off”, God offers as many chances as we will take to be winners in life. The question is whether or not we have that same heart of a champion - the one that never quits - the one that has faith.
What do you think?
Kurt Warner, this week’s starting quarterback for the Arizona Cardinals, was a third-string, bench-warming quarterback at the University of Northern Iowa for most of his college career. Finally, in his senior year at UNI, his coaches believed he could lead them team. Lead them he did. He was the Gateway Conference offensive player of the year.
However, that performance wasn’t enough to impress the pros. After attending pre-season camp with the Green Bay Packers, the Packers released him. Kurt went back to Iowa and worked stocking shelves for minimum wage at a Hy-Vee grocery store.
But you can’t keep a good man like Kurt Warner down. Kurt got a second chance at the pros when he started racking up the stats as a quarterback in the Arena League and NFL Europe. His performance caught the attention of the St. Louis Rams. After the Rams quarterback went down with an injury in the 1999 season, Kurt led them to the playoffs and a Super Bowl victory. He was the league MVP twice while playing for the Rams. But it still wasn’t enough.
After an injury, some less-than-impressive games, and a few trades, Kurt Warner again found himself on the bench. He was now in Phoenix, Arizona – where the win column is usually as dry as the climate. Yet, once again, after a few years of on-and-off play for the Arizona Cardinals, Warner is now performing and leading his team, and they will appear in next week’s NFL Super Bowl. Between his NFL play, his personal life, and the many charitable actions with which we as Missourians are well-acquainted, it is obvious that Kurt Warner has the heart of a champion. Whether the Cardinals win Sunday or not, Kurt Warner has already won.
When you think about Warner’s story, it is obvious that he has been the recipient of a 2nd chance (and a third, and a fourth, etc.). There are many times when we wish we were so blessed. We struggle to overcome past mistakes. People don’t let us forget the past. And if it weren’t enough, we come to believe that even God “has it in for us”. After all, we know. We know we’ve failed so many times.
Yet, God actually calls us to get up off the bench and come back into the game. Far from “writing us off”, God offers as many chances as we will take to be winners in life. The question is whether or not we have that same heart of a champion - the one that never quits - the one that has faith.
What do you think?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
