september what?

This is the last day of September?!? Are you kidding me?!? I haven't blogged in 50 days?!?

That's right. I was sitting here at my desk reading, answering a few phone calls, and doodling on my desk calendar when I realized that September had just shot past me and now I am looking at October being here in less that 13 hours. What has happened?

It seems like the last thing I remember was being at the beach with my family, and now....leaves are beginning to turn and fall. The scriptures are so right. Our life is but a vapor. We really aren't here long at all. I guess when we think about our life as a brief moment in time, we start to understand the urgency in which we do things. Everything seems to revolve around a drive-thru mentality.....and we have become accustomed to it. The quicker...the better. Even if it isn't any quicker, we tend to think that it is. I mean, does the addition of a second window at any fast-food place get you your meal any quicker?

And now, we look at a desk calendar and think that September just shifted into a hyper-month, and we feel like we missed thirty days of our life. Thirty days.....that if we would stop for a minute....and write down everything that happened in those thirty days (in the blocks on the calendar), is it not possible that in these thirty days, we would be reminded of all that God has done in our lives. I don't mean the big, noticeable things that have made an impact on us. Those are amazing in their own right. But, I am talking about remembering those little things; those quiet times when God was close and you could sense it. Maybe it was in the rain; or a sunrise; a sunset; a full moon; a song; a passage of scripture that came to mind when you needed it most; a card in the mail; a phone call from a friend. It may not always be something good that we remember, but the reality is that we need to focus on each day that we have been given and not let it slip away without being a part of it.

So, if you'll excuse me......I need to fill in some blocks on my desk calendar.

32 years of dating

My gosh! It seems as though it was just yesterday that I was washing the old Mustang and getting it all polished up for my first date. And as the hour drew closer....the nerves began to take over. This would be my first date with Karen. Everything was gonna have to be just right. I have to be polite.....open the door for her......compliment her.......pay for the meal......and take her safely home. That doesn't sound too nerve racking does it? Oh yeah, this is a blind date.

Of course it was a blind date that changed my life forever. King of Pizza in Kannapolis became like a shrine to me. I can still see the inside of that place, and the booth that Karen and I shared with my brother and his date. Can't tell you what kind of pizza we had, but I can tell you that I sat beside of Karen. I don't know what it was, but I would try and remember everything, and every time we were together. The first movie we saw together was "Rocky"; the first Christmas we exchanged gifts (I still have the chair she gave me); my birthday gift to her (an engagement ring). Our lives have been filled with lots of "firsts"..... first kiss, first home, first child, and the list goes on and on. But, more importantly.....our lives together have been filled with dates. 32 years of dating.

One of the greatest pieces of advice that Karen and I received in pre-marriage counseling, was to continue dating. Of all the things that I have learned in 30 years of marriage, taking Karen on a date still makes my heart race just like it did 32 years ago today.


Karen.........I love you........wanna go get a pizza tonight?

play-doh

One of my favorite art classes that I took in college was in ceramics. I guess the main reason was the chance to learn how to mold clay into a piece of art. There was always a fascination at a young age with being able to make a recognizable object out of a lump of clay.....mainly play-doh. But, here was a chance to learn how to mold clay......real clay. I would even get a chance to "throw" a pot on a wheel. (That's just some artist lingo to make you think I knew what I was doing) It was thrill for me to sit at the wheel with a lump of clay in the center and using a combination of force and control to begin the process of creating a pot/vase. Whether it would have any real use would be revealed after it was fired and glazed.

I always think about that ceramics class and "throwing" pots when I read in the scriptures how we are described as clay in the hands of the potter. And, I can see how we are that lump of clay until God takes us and places us on His wheel to mold us and shape us into what He wants us to be. Just like an artist, He has a plan on what He needs to do to make us useful for Him. I know it seems like it is all up to God how this all will turn out, and in the area of art, the clay is pretty much totally controlled by the potter. Once it is on the wheel, it stays there till the potter is finished. This is where the difference is.

It takes quite a bit of force for the potter to turn a lump of clay into a piece of art. Sometimes, it takes a lot of force for God to turn us into His piece of art. The difference in us and the clay is that, when we feel like it is too much force; too hard on us; too difficult for us; too painful to bear....we choose to get off of the wheel.

Oh....for the strength to stay on the wheel and allow the Creator to finish what He has started in us; to feel His hands as they shape and mold us from the inside out; to feel His force on our lives as He lifts us higher and higher...... making us His work of art.

People will be able to look at us and know that we are His because we were willing to stay on the wheel.

others

I was reading in a book by Eric Rees the other night, and he was commenting on the Good Samaritan parable in Luke 10. I've heard about this man in messages, studied about him in Sunday School lessons, and I have even taught about him to youth at a summer camp. And, you know how, even if you are familiar with a story in the Bible, and you think you have heard every angle that could be presented on the topic......there always seems to be a new view point. That was the case in my reading.

The Good Samaritan is all about being a servant; simple as that. We are called to be servants as we follow Christ. He is our example of how we are to live our lives. I guess I just didn't consider the importance of our mind when it comes to being a servant. Most of the time...we focus on our heart and we want to have a servant's heart to help us be a servant. But, our mind? Eric Rees says that he has heard it said, "The body never goes where the mind has never been." He goes on to say that if our mind is set on serving others, then that is how we will respond to others. We need to be aware of how we can serve at all times. Serving others must be in our mind at all times.

I have come to the realization that for "serving others" to always be on our mind, then it needs to have a place of importance in our mind. If serving is something that we just think about from time to time, maybe when prompted by a message at church, or a commercial on TV, then it is not important to us. How important is serving to us? .......to me? Are we ever saddened when we can't serve someone, or miss an opportunity to serve somebody in need? Or, do we look for a reason not to serve? Does our mind start to calculate how much time this will require, or how much it my cost us?

And when that happens, we will realize what is important in our minds......our self. We become more concerned about "our" time and "our" resources (money). Where do the "others" fit into our mind? The "others" need a place of importance, and that place can only be seen as important if we have the mind of Christ; who said that He "did not come to be served, but to serve." The "others" were always on His mind. He gave His life for the "others".


That makes us all................."others".

be God's

Several years ago I bought a black t-shirt with two simple words written in white across the front of the shirt. The two words said……”be God’s”. I purchased the shirt for different reasons, but mostly because it looked cool. And, it would make people take a second look at what it said. Over the years I haven’t thought too much about the shirt. I still will get it out and wear it from time to time. But, recently (as in yesterday) this simple phrase has resurfaced in my mind; not because it is cool, but because it tells us all something we need to remember and know.

I was reading in Ephesians the other day and I came across this passage in 2:8-10. As I read Ephesians 2:8-10, I saw a short phrase that defined the entire passage for me. That phrase is “For we are God’s”. This passage means that we have always been His. He has had a plan for us from the very beginning of time. His plan was to first, save us; and to save us by His grace …His Son …His sacrifice …His plan. This would have nothing to do with our abilities or skills, because if it had, we would brag about it. Pride would cause us to make something of ourselves, and not who God created us to be; His. This grace, this love that Christ has for us, was given freely; it is a gift. What allows us to receive this free gift is our faith; our faith that Christ has shown His grace to save us because we are God’s. We belong to Him and have always belonged to Him.

God has placed great value on us by saying that we are His workmanship, handiwork; masterpiece. He has created us to pattern the life of His Son. He has been preparing for us to do for others what His Son also did; to show grace, love, and mercy to everyone we meet and to tell them about our God who loves us so much. What better to know than the realization that God has always considered us valuable to Him; so valuable that He bought us with the sacrifice of His Son? He has prepared us by giving us the examples set by His Son to help us live for Him. And, we can do all that He has planned for us to do, “for we are God’s”.

So, as we walk out of the comforts of feeling safe and secure inside the church walls, and venture into the world that God has prepared us for; remember, that in all of our circumstances, whether good or bad, God is in control. He values us. He has plans for us. We are His own; sons and daughters. I believe that it is time we acted like His children. All we need to do is....


……be God’s.

wash her feet

Are you familiar with the account in the scriptures where Jesus begins washing the feet of the disciples? Peter is appalled that Jesus would stoop to such a lowly position and he refuses to allow Jesus to wash his feet, until Jesus explains to him that unless he lets Jesus wash his feet, then he can have no part in following Jesus.

I've heard a lot of messages over the years on this event in the life of Jesus and his disciples. But, I would have to say that the one speaker that brought this into reality for me was Rev. Larry Jackson. You may not know that name, and neither did I until he spoke at a Promise Keeper's event in Knoxville, TN several years ago. What I learned that afternoon, along with 40,000 other men was, that to wash someone's feet.....you needed a servant heart much like the heat of Jesus. And as a husband, that servant heart would cause you to out serve your wife. Rev. Jackson challenged every man in attendance to ask God for His servant heart; to return home as a new man, and to out serve his wife. The first step would be to wash her feet.

I had made the trip to TN with several men from church, and we had a good time going and coming back from there, but you could sense that each one of us was anxious about what was going to happen when we got home. We had been instructed by Rev. Jackson not to tell our wives what we were doing. But, to sit her in a nice chair...... get a bowl of water and a towel.... then return and wash her feet. Only after washing her feet could we explain what we had done, and why.

The closer I got to the house, the more anxious I became. Could I do this? Would Karen understand? Will this really make me the man I need to be in her life and in the life of my kids? I had it all planned out. I walked her toward the living room to sit her in a nice chair, but she stopped me. She told me that she had listened to the entire event on the radio while I was away. Then she told me the most humbling thing that I have ever heard.



I didn't need to wash her feet............again.

"connect the dots"

Do you remember "connect the dots"? I use to love playing that game in puzzle books. You would look at all these dots on the page and just know that if you connect them all in the right order, you have a finished picture. But, not until they are all connected.


I believe that in our churches we are challenged to connect the dots when we serve in a ministry. We look at what we feel God is leading us to do, but we can't fully make out what will be the end result. We ask ourselves over and over if what we decide to do will make any difference in any one's life. Then, we begin the journey. We usually start with some simple pictures that aren't too hard to figure out, and once we get comfortable with those, we step up to the more challenging "connect the dot" pictures. These take a little more time to finish....with a little more concentration.

We have all been called into a ministry of service for the Lord, and we are all at different levels of competence when it comes to connecting the dots. The more we try to follow the example of Jesus and His ministry of serving, the more the ministry requires of us. We are asked to turn the page to the hard picture puzzles; to step out of our comfort zones and step into a ministry that requires a servant-heart ability to connect the dots. When we do this we will see that we are being challenged to step outside the ordinary and seek to do the extra-ordinary that will require much of us.

Those dots will take us to the hurting, the lost, and the dying with a servant-heart filled with compassion and love to feed the hungry, care for the sick, and love the overlooked. We will begin to see a completed picture of what the church is suppose to be; a reflection of Christ.