Every Day - devotional for June 1

There are a lot of people who can work hard for a while, care for a while, love for a while, give of themselves for a while. They leave behind them a legacy of inconsistency and frayed or broken relationships with people and with God. 

In their jobs, they can’t be counted on. 

As parents, they raise kids who never know what the boundaries are. 

As husbands or wives, they tend to make everything about them – the “me” trumps the “we” that makes marriage work.

What’s the answer?

24 Then Jesus went to work on his disciples. "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. 

25 Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to finding yourself, your true self.  Matt 16 (MSG)

The secret to a life that leaves a lasting legacy is in those verses. 

Let Jesus lead.

Embrace life’s hardships. 

Follow Jesus every day. 

EVERY DAY. 

Do it and find peace.

A New Operating System

You're reading the very first devotional I have ever written using the Windows 10 operating system. For the less geeky among us, the operating system (Windows, OSX, Linux) is what makes the computer more than a collection of interesting electronic parts. Valuable those parts may be, but unless some program tells them how to live and how to live together - they're just parts.

I'm kind of liking it. Sure there are some things that I am having to learn, and some things that were in Windows 7 that I'll have to do without, but life is lived forward and I want to be sure that this guy stays up to date and ready for the next challenge.

Well, I'm sitting here thinking that there are some real parallels to what happens when a person begins their journey with Jesus. When they allow God to work within their lives, they receive a new "operating system." Then God uses them to bless other people and to tell everyone who will listen that what He's offering can't be bought for any price, He's already paid that through Jesus. But that in order to use the new operating system, you have to choose to change.

So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life— your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life— and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. Romans 12:1-2 (MSG)

Changed from the inside out. That's how God works within us to change the way we think and make us what we were created to be.

Think about it. Maybe it's time to change your operating system.

Grace and peace to you,

David

Wearing Him Well

“Putting on Christ'...is not one among many jobs a Christian has to do; and it is not a sort of special exercise for the top class. It is the whole of Christianity. Christianity offers nothing else at all.” 
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

So we know how to act.

To do the right thing, to say the right words, or not say them.

Well, most of us do.

We know that we need to "put on Christ."

Most of the time we do okay. But if we're honest, that "clothing" wears thin when the wind of criticism, the tiny cuts of aggravating people, and just the stress of living snatches us away from the place we want to live.

But some people... it just FITS them.

One of the folks God's graced Bunny and me with makes me want to be more like Christ every time I watch him bless people with his genuine goodness, his heart for others and his devotion to his Lord. While others walk around the most menial tasks thinking someone will get that, he quietly heads that way. When a most demanding person causes others to cringe, he quiets that storm with his grace expressed - placing himself in service to him in such a humble way it's shocking to watch.

Shocking in a most convicting way.

He'll never preach a sermon.

But he lives one every day.

Thanks, Ray.

You wear Him well.

29,999 hits +1

There was a time, back in the days I was writing more, I used to check my blog's statistics often. I'd write a post and then check to see how many people read it and even where they came from. No, I can't tell exactly WHO reads it, just the general geographic area. Remember, I'm SBC, not NSA. My goal was to try to help people see the love of God reaching out to them in the everyday. So I'd check to see if it was reaching anyone at all.

Last week's sermon, though I suspect everyone else has forgotten it, is still pinging around in my brain. I guess you could say it reached - me. I've having trouble getting past the idea that we have no idea, really, of just how much God loves us. The trigger for that was pretty simple, really. Thinking about all the ways God has shown His love to me, I focused on the beauty of nature around me. My Mother invested in me a love of flowers in general and I've always loved wildflowers for their simple beauty. So as I thought - prayed, really - prayers of thanks to God for His gifts, it came to me.

God created gazillions of wildflowers, most of which few humans will never see. And yet, there they are and as the Bible says "Solomon in all his glory

I'm writing this on Black Friday, where this year's reports rolling in indicate that people are many times willing to suspend the love for neighbor in favor of fighting to get that just right gift for themselves or someone they love. They'll punch, craw, snatch, and grab just so they can prove their love.

In sharp contrast, God IS love.

Everything He does comes directly from His deep, deep love for humanity. 

I wish I could help everyone to see that. This week has been full of moments when His love was so real. Like this one. 

So dear reader, thank you. I'll try to do better at this writing thing which sits in the middle of a crazy busy life.

The Message IS the Messenger

The message of Christ is not Christianity. The message of Christ is Christ. --Gary Amirault

I soon will celebrate some milestone anniversaries in my life. On August 6th, I'll remember a nervous young man who was riding down a dirt road with his beloved in a 1973 Vega notchback ( no pictures of such a car still exist because it was so... Vega) and asked what to that time were the most important words I had ever spoken. "Will you marry me?"

The impact of those words and the answer I received has given my life such a richness of love I can hardly keep from crying. My love, my wife, and through her, my family - my sons and grandson - joy!

Just one month later I will remember the most important words I ever spoke. I walked down an aisle at Bethesda Baptist church, leaving my fiance standing at the pew I had just left, and grabbed the hand of the pastor and told him I wanted to become a Christian. 

I loved that church, that pastor, and those people.

But I wasn't coming to get my name on a roll, or get a vote at the business meetings. I came that day because Jesus Christ had overwhelmed me with His love, convinced me of His standing as Lord and Christ, and convicted me of my sin and need of His forgiveness.

It was His love as expressed through His words. Like these from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase - The Message. 

^28-30 “Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you’ll recover your life. I’ll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won’t lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you’ll learn to live freely and lightly.”

Jesus. I am a follower of Jesus.  Because He first loved me.

Nailing Christmas

Our Christmas tree is up here at the Wilson house. That's giving us all the warm memories from many years as a family. Bunny did a great job this year decorating and we're really enjoying the season.

On our tree, if you examined it, you'd be able to find a time line of our family's history through the ornaments that hang from each branch. Over the years we've accumulated quite a few, and every one carries memories of where we were and what was happening in our family.

On two branches, there are felt ornaments with pictures of two little boys contained within them. Probably cost 25 cents to make, but to us they are priceless. In years past, sometimes the boys would move them to the back. But they always seem to find their way out front again. On several branches hang ornaments that are reminders of the years Bunny spent working as a manager of a Hallmark store in Macon Mall. We've got Snoopy and Woodstock, Frosty the Snowman, and all manner of reindeer - even Santa in a Corvette!

Bunny hangs one  each year that was one of her favorites when she was a little girl. There are others we got on shopping trips, or picked up because of what they said to us, like the one carved from any olive tree near Bethlehem. Then there are the dog bone ornaments for Daisy and Ellie the mini schnauzers and Chloe and Henley the Great Danes, faithful friends absent now but who we still remember in love. And there are some ornaments gathered while we've been here in Valparaiso - like the Flip Flops one that makes me smile. We try to buy one or two when we go on vacation, and you can find a fleur-de-lis and one that looks like St. Louis cathedral in New Orleans that reflect our latest trip.

It's so easy for us as we look at the tree to turn it into a sentimental journey. Christmas is that, but it so so much more, and to lose that in the memories would keep us from the one memory that makes all the difference.

So each year, among the family ornaments, midst the memories, we take care to place another ornament - a nail hung by a scarlet ribbon. It's placed near the inside of the tree, away from the lights and glitter, and you'd have a tough time spotting it unless you knew it was there. But we know it is there, at the center of it all.

It reminds us what we should be looking at every day, not just at Christmas.

Jesus.

15 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. 16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels— everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.
Col 1:15-16 (MSG)

I love my family, and appreciate the blessings we've been given and the memories we share. But more than anything else, I want to remember, I want everyone to remember, to base our lives upon what God revealed through Jesus.

For everything, absolutely everything, not just Christmas, got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him.

Whatever you do this Christmas, don't miss that. Don't miss Him.

Rollercoasters

I sat down this week and tried to find a label to find a frame to put what I've experienced this year in and after racking my brain - or what's left of it - I think roller-coaster will do.

Apparently God has chosen to place me in two situations in which you can feel like a winner or feel like a failure - and do nothing differently either time. I am living solely by faith in Him. I'm not able to make the differences I want to see happen. But He is and I am trying to live every day through His power, grace, and mercy.

Take the church situation - We continue to see God doing amazing things here. We have huge holes in many places and are a shadow of what we once were - yet God provides - God... ACTS - in ways that cannot be attributed to anything we have done. We're feeding about 130 people every week. We've seen people far from God draw near. And yet there are weeks when I prepare the same way I did for the "good years" and very few show up for worship. The feeling of failure is real to me. I defeat it with the power of prayer, the knowledge of God's absolute faithfulness and ever-abiding presence, and the companionship of my brothers and sisters at New Hope who labor with me.

Things happen. On a Wednesday night when I'm absolutely exhausted from a hard day at school with kids pressing against control and "feedback" from adults that's not uplifting (that'd be sarcasm), I rush to church to help prepare the meals for delivery. A fellow New Hope pilgrim helps me plate the meals, another has already cooked the sauce and started the water and green beans, others have affixed labels to the plates and laid them out. Another comes in and we divide the meals and leave to deliver. I come back to get more. Two people jump up and fix them and I leave again.

I finally find the home of a woman whose neighbor came to New Hope and talked to Bunny about having someone to visit her. She had moved down here from Georgia and had really hard times. She needs family/community - she needs the love of Christ. I had missed worship practice already and was about to be late for prayer. I stayed 20 minutes and listened. And prayed. And left her a meal.

Coming back, we begin our prayer and Bible study which this week centers on a comparative study of Islam. Only we never get there, as a visitor (who had been drinking "but not hard liquor") was trying to justify himself and put his girlfriend in her place. I was so proud of all the New Hope folks around that table. When the visitor tried to use the "you are judging me" card - everyone to a person acknowledged that they too were sinners saved purely by God's grace. When he argued "I know I am going to heaven" everyone rejoiced hoping that was true and refusing to box with that straw-man. We continued to talk about God's grace through Jesus and a total surrender of life to Him.

It was exhilarating.

We were who God had called us to be, doing exactly what God had placed us there to do - point to His Son and the surpassing greatness of the cross. I got to see what God has done in the hearts of the people of New Hope who I love with all my heart. They were kind, compassionate, loving, and completely grounded in the grace of Jesus Christ - and the necessity of it for everyone. I wish I had videoed it so I could have played it back for them. They were instruments of God's grace. They were agents of reconciliation. They were disciples of Jesus being true to the commandment of "love your neighbor as yourself."

It wasn't a Damascus road the man was on though. He grew frustrated with his girlfriend and really our interaction. We were not there to fight. We were there to love as Jesus loved. He wasn't ready to hear it so he left. (We are all praying he returns.) But his girlfriend came back in and stayed, opening her heart to us and admitting her need for Christ. We finished praying for/with her and I left in amazement.

Rollercoasters.

Do you know these people?

Bunny asked me yesterday if I had all the devotionals I have written over the years in one file that I could send her. She was thinking about ways we could take what we are doing now - serving the needs of our community by delivering meals - and add to that a bit of a word about following Jesus and an invitation to come and follow Him with our family at New Hope. I thought it was a good idea that we'll try to get done next week. But then she asked me if I had read them lately. I said that no, I hadn't. "You ought to. You wrote differently then. More tenderly."

Ouch.

Take a look at the picture above again. It was May of 2001. We had been at New Hope less than two years. Taken as we were leaving after worship on SUNDAY NIGHT :), we're looking like we just experienced something pretty good. And even though I'm obviously being strangled by that tie and imprisoned by a suit, when I look at the picture, I have to smile.

That guy though, isn't here anymore.

And I'm not sure how I feel about that, frankly.

We've gone through a lot since that picture was taken. Some of it was so wonderful that it was as if God had reached out and tied a bow on it, saying "with love." Some of it was so gut-wrenching that looking back, I am still amazed at how we made it through. But then that too - that safe passage through the storm - could have been wrapped up and tied with a ribbon by the same hand and carry the same saying.

In some ways, things affect me more now than they did back then. I'm just not writing as often. I'm so busy with church, school, work etc. that the time I had for silent reflection has shrunk. And those walks I used to have around the bayou with my beloved friend Henley the Great Dane stopped when we lost him. So...

Do this for me.

Pray.

I'm not a great writer. But I can write and on occasion God uses it. While the guy in that photo isn't coming back, the guy here now, who is far more aware of just how amazing grace is - who treasures every day he wakes up and sees Bunny there beside him - who thinks he actually loves his boys more today than when they were born - who counts being New Hope's pastor as joy - that guy wants to do whatever God can use as long as he has breath. Pray that I would.

Thank you

Wag More. Bark Less.

Think about it.

The tendency of so many of us is to think about and dwell on what's wrong. We gripe and complain. We bark.

If we'd just look around and see how blessed we really are.

When I saw the sticker I had just left a Publix store where I had access to foodstuffs from across the world. Whatever I wanted was laid out for me there, from Polish Ham, to Chilean Sea Bass. There were pastries, sushi, and it all was fresh and organized. Walking to the front, I saw a little girl, maybe 9 years old, playing a game on her iPod. She was so into it, holding the iPod out front of her and turning it this way and that, and grinning all the while. Her joy was infectious.

When I checked out, I simply swiped a piece of plastic and signed my name. We left and entered the beautiful Florida sunshine, passing a man with a whippet wearing a polka dot sweater on a leash. Then we put the groceries in the trunk and drove away.

The vast, vast majority of the people inhabiting this planet right now would have seen what we did as incredible. Were they allowed to experience it, they would have seen it as the most blessed day of their life. It would have been surreal.

And you know what?

It was just an ordinary day. A ridiculously blessed ordinary day.

What if we were to step back and take a real hard look at what we have and how we take it for granted. What if we were to take moments every now and then and thank God for the blessings we have instead of complaining about what we lack.

What if we wagged more, and barked less?

No Fence To Sit On

The beast in me is caged by frail and fragile bars. Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was one of those things that you take for granted growing up, assuming that they will always be there. Now he's not. Just when the world realized what a treasure we had, he was gone. His video of "Hurt" filmed in the months before he died was the most raw video I have ever seen. Cash was someone who regardless of your taste in music - was heard. Authenticity - he embodied it.

He was a man who had horrendous flaws in his character. And he didn't excuse them away. His understanding led him to turn away from his strength - that frail and fragile strength - to search for something more than fame and success. He turned to faith in Jesus.

Funny thing was, he once had been a regular attender in church. It was easy, he said. "You went every week, put in your time, and went home. But nothing changed. You still lived the same way during the week."

It wasn't until Johnny had almost lost it all, had contemplated taking his own life - that He and God "got back together."

How well I have learned that there is no fence to sit on between heaven and hell. There is a deep, wide gulf, a chasm, and in that chasm is no place for any man. Johnny Cash

Thank God that Johnny was able to have the time he needed to come home - to get off the fence and leave that chasm behind forever. There must be millions though - still stuck there.

A man dressed in black. And yet inside him was the Light.

If you only look at us, you might well miss the brightness. We carry this precious Message around in the unadorned clay pots of our ordinary lives. That's to prevent anyone from confusing God's incomparable power with us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 - The Message

Friends, it's not too late to let God take over.

"Incomparable power" is there if you'll just let go, seek forgiveness, and turn toward God. Change may be impossible for you - but nothing is impossible with God.

Lost, Found, and Loved

It's the classic prodigal story.

Young man grows up playing a kids game, and because of what God has given him, finds success. He's lauded as having it all - what they call in baseball circles a "five tool player." He gets noticed, gets signed to a big rookie contract. Then something goes wrong. Prosperity doesn't agree with him and he finds himself addicted to drugs and out of baseball. Not the first time it's happened. Won't be the last.

But there were still people who thought, maybe. Just maybe.

So he got another chance and for a while he showed why he was the number one draft choice out of high school. But then, it happened again.

This time he realized he couldn't do it. That he was flawed. That he needed God. The young man became a Christian in the old fashioned way - he was "born again." And he began the long road of following Christ. But he knew he couldn't make it on his own. So the team he signed with provided a friend- a partner on the journey - to be there and to help the young man stay true to the path he was on.

Great story.

Last week we found out just how great.

Not only did the young man - Josh Hamilton win the MVP of the League Championship Series, and help his team the Texas Rangers go to their first World Series.
Not only did he respond "this is great, but it won't compare to being face to face with Jesus in heaven."

But when the players celebrated their win with the traditional champagne shower in the winning clubhouse...

...they used ginger ale.

Because they too loved Josh Hamilton and wanted to let him know how much.

We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 1 John 3:16 (NLT)

Well, I want you to know that you are loved. Loved by a God who will not give up on you no matter how many times you fall. He's waiting for you to admit you want the life only He can give and turn away from self-control and surrender to His control. You can be lost, found, and loved forever.

Find your story in Jesus.

As Plain As Day

No one has ever seen God,
not so much as a glimpse.
This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,
Who exists at the very heart of the Father,
has made Him plain as day. John 1:18 (Msg)

It was Jesus Who showed us what God is like. Even now, His Holy Spirit guides the believer through the maze of life's choices. The Bible says above that Jesus made God "as plain as day."

So let me ask you a question.

What about your life? Do you make what it means to follow Jesus "plain as day"?

If people watch you live it (and they do)
can they see what a Christian marriage is like,
what Christian parents are like,
what Christian employees are like?

For the Christian, we have our example in Jesus.

For those still seeking, there is only you and me. We're the example.

Let's pray and ask God for more of His loving guidance, and encourage each other onto greater love for Him through our everyday lives.

If we do that, people observing should see Jesus at the center of everything we do, as plain as day.

Did You Notice?

Macon, GA - sometime in the mid 1960's. Vietnam is only beginning to be a household word, civil rights aren't right yet and in a few short years the fight for them won't be very civil. My mom is busy on a Saturday morning, returning Christmas presents. Since this is in the pre-mall era, we are in downtown Macon on the corner of Cherry and First streets - in other words, on the busiest corner in town.

My brother and I come to a proper halt beside our mother as we wait for the light to change. Something causes me to look to my right, and there I see an older black man, sitting, and strumming a beat up guitar. He's wearing a suit jacket, a pork-pie hat, and as he sings, he rolls his head side to side. In front of him sits a tin cup.

I turn to my mother and ask her, "Who is that man?"

She immediately grabs our hands and walks us over to "Blind Willie", fishes in her cavernous purse, and produces a five dollar bill, which she places in his cup. Then she says to the man, "Willie, these are my boys, David and Bruce. They noticed your playing and wanted to meet you." He had stopped playing, and now his hand extended outward, unsure as to where to reach, but reaching nonetheless. "Pleased to meet you boys."

We shook his hand. It was warm and smooth and rough at the same time.

Then we went on our way.

In later years, we would see him again and again, and my mother never failed to greet him, and to give something, even if coins were all she had.

I thought about Willie today for the first time in a long while. And I wondered how long he had been there before I noticed.

Reading the gospels this week, what Clarence Jordan described as "Jesus' doin's", I was stuck over and over again by how often Jesus noticed people that others did not - and not only noticed them, but gave them His respect and His time.

Have you ever noticed this passage?

Not long afterward Jesus began a tour of the nearby cities and villages to announce the Good News concerning the Kingdom of God. He took his twelve disciples with him, along with some women he had healed and from whom he had cast out evil spirits. Among them were Mary Magdalene, from whom he had cast out seven demons; Joanna, the wife of Chuza, Herod's business manager; Susanna; and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples. Luke 8:1-3 (NLT)

Luke names several women as members of Jesus' traveling group, and then he writes "and many others who were contributing from their own resources to support Jesus and his disciples."

When "credit" is given for what happens in a church, often it is the most visible who receive it. Most often it is the pastor, sometimes the teachers, or worship leaders, or perhaps a deacon. They are visible - obvious even - but what about those not named, those "many others?"

I write this today to say thank you.

Thank you for giving to the Lord to support childrens ministry, even though your children may be all grown.

Thank you for supporting the work of your pastor, for praying for him, for your encouragement to him and his family.

Thank you for digging deep, way past your tithe, time and again, to help your church continue to reach out to people for Jesus' sake.

Thank you for bringing coffee, or paper towels, or crayons, or a hundred other items to church, and never caring whether anyone knew or not.

Thank you for cleaning, and mowing, and painting, and another hundred other things you did though no one saw you do it.

Thank you for inviting your friends, coworkers and neighbors to church and your positive testimony of what God has done in you through it.

Jesus saw you, and I thank you.

You know, sometimes we have to be taught to see - to notice.

Look around you and see who has been a help or an inspiration to you and let them know how much you appreciate it.

Grace!

David

Looking Over My Shoulder

Okay, I read ahead.

I'm teaching tonight out of Hebrews 9, but I kept going all the way through the rest of the book. It's that good. And when I got to Hebrews 11, I slowed down and let it sink in.

People have been living out their faith in God and dying for it for over 2,000 years. They lived so purposefully and so passionately that the Bible sums it all up by saying this:

39 Not one of these people, even though their lives of faith were exemplary, got their hands on what was promised. 40 God had a better plan for us: that their faith and our faith would come together to make one completed whole, their lives of faith not complete apart from ours.Heb 11:39-40 (MSG)

That's why we look back at the Old Testament, it informs the believer today. But we don't live there. Some people want to go back and relive the feasts, festivals and laws like the Jews did back then.

They remind me of people still fighting the civil war. One of my favorite Christians of all time, Clarence Jordan, confronted someone like that.

The story is told that after one sermon before a southern congregation, an elderly woman approached Clarence and said, “I want you to know that my granddaddy fought in the Civil War, and I’ll never believe a word you say.” Returning her steely glare with a gracious smile, Jordan replied, “Ma’am, your choice seems quite clear. It is whether you will follow your granddaddy or Jesus Christ.”

I love Clarence Jordan. He cuts to the chase. Well, let me try too.

We are NOT under law, but under grace. The stories of the Old Testament saints can inspire us because of their devotion, but they lived without understanding everything that God had coming in Jesus.

Any system that substitutes a new set of rules (or requires submission to the old rules) isn't biblical Christianity. God put the old covenant on the shelf when Christ came, and the tablets He wrote on then weren't stone. He wrote them on the hearts of everyone who believes in Jesus and His finished work on the cross.

Every time I read Hebrews it feels as if those saints are looking over my shoulder and urging me to preach the fullness of God's grace in Jesus. They couldn't get there then, but they want you to get there now. Here's my favorite verse about how to do it.

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. 29 Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. 30 Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly."

Matt 11:28-30 (MSG)

Close the distance between you and Jesus. Then just follow Him with everything you've got - heart, mind, body, and soul. You're going to find peace where guilt was, and freedom exchanged for shame. For maybe the first time ever, you're going to feel like you are who you were meant to be.

Grace and peace,

David

He's Listening

Our friend Mary is one of the most giving people I've ever known. She and her husband Jim are a great team that have gone the extra mile for people so many times it's just become who they are. They're followers of Jesus. That doesn't mean they haven't been visited with heartbreak and loss, just that they know they're not alone in it and that their God is doing what He promised to do - work it all together for good.

Mary's had a gaping hole in her heart for over 50 years. When still a little girl, her mom went away, never to return. It could have turned Mary into a bitter person, but it did just the opposite. Mary's a great mom and Grandmom. She's there for her kids even when it's beyond tough.

Still, it hurt. How could a Mom do that? Mary's been wondering that all these years.

Well, God was at work, and last week Mary had a tidal wave of grace break over her.

She found out that her Mom was alive and living in a small town in France. Then she was able to speak with her by phone. Mary found out she has a baby brother she's never met, and that her Mom was looking for her and her brothers too. Soon, Mary and her brothers will journey to France to reunite as a family.

Friends, maybe you've given up on something, but that doesn't mean God has. Maybe you've even stopped praying about it. Doesn't mean God's forgotten it. From your heart to God's ears. Keep believing. Keep praying. Keep living the life of someone who is wholly and dearly loved.

God just might have something for you that you never could have imagined.

He has never let you down,

never looked the other way

when you were being kicked around.

He has never wandered off to do his own thing;

He has been right there, listening.

Psalms 22:24 (MSG)

Grace and peace,

David

God Knows

Went to bed last night and thanked God for the day and all His blessings and laid my head on the pillow. That's all I remembered until awakened by the Airedale gang at 6:15 in that insistent, not to be ignored, raise your blood pressure way they have. An Airedale standing over you, the other one pulling the covers off the bed - that's an incentive to get up.

So I let them out, and they did their thing and came back in and we all went back to bed for a little while. This is Tuesday, and it's a day of preparation - reading and studying, touching base with people, band practice later in the evening. Pretty laid back unless something happens, but that's just the way this job works. I laid back down and could not sleep. My mind would not calm down, and it took me to places I'd just as soon not go. Anxieties, fears and doubts flooded my mind and I began to pray that God would remind me that I'm His - that I operate in His strength - through His wisdom - that nothing could separate me from His love - that He was ever present and ever aware and had not changed. I prayed hard and peace came and by that time almost an hour had past. Never did get back to sleep. But I did resume thanking God.

Just a few minutes later Bunny received a text from Amy Anderson - friend, coworker for Christ, amazing teacher, great wife and mom. She wanted Bunny to pass along that her son (and our heart friend) Ian Anderson had prayed for "Brother David and people like him" this morning. 

God knows, friends. God knows. And in His Spirit, He spreads out this load we bear, and the opportunity for every single one of us to be a part of His loving response and help. When Bunny relayed that, I smiled on the outside but on the inside my soul reverberated with praise and thanksgiving. For Ian. For his parents who have brought him up to be sensitive to God and to follow Jesus.

Maybe I'm writing this today because you need to hear it. You are the "other people like him." Well, consider yourself  loved and cared for. Maybe no one else knows what you are going through.

God knows, and He's letting you know right now.

It's Good To Remember This

Even if you don't believe you can become more like Jesus, even if you can't see any way the old you will ever fade away, even if your family and friends don't believe this Christianity deal is anything more than a passing fad with you and that you will fail...

Even if no one else believes in you...

God does.

In fact, He can already see you changing, already picture you becoming more like Jesus.

"...those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son..."

He knows you can do it. And he's planning on your seeing it through - walking with Him, relying on His Holy Spirit to guide and direct your paths while he is working everything together for your good.

See the thing is - He's planning a BIG family reunion.

"...that he (meaning Jesus) might be the firstborn among many brothers."

That's us folks. We're part of those many brothers who God knew would be reborn in Jesus Christ. We're part of the people from every nation who will gather around the throne having been made pure through the blood of the Lamb. That's us! We win!!!!!!

So we shouldn't end this passage doing anything but praising God.

Because God will see us through to completion through the power of His Holy Spirit.

God believes in you, beloved. Even if no one else (including you) does. And He's going to see you though.

Grace and peace,

David

The Words Change - The Story Never Does

Today the phrase "cutting red tape" implies that a person is blasting through needless regulations to get things done. It's pretty amazing how the phrase has changed in a pretty short period of time.

Thomas Edison's laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey was the world's first great R&D facility. In six years, the invention factory at Menlo Park secured more than 400 patents. This was in an age where changes were few and the pace of invention was a fraction of the speed it is today. But not with Edison. The U.S. Patent Office watched and waited for packages that were wrapped in a certain kind of red tape. They knew these came from Edison's lab, and they cut these first. Packages wrapped in that tape might change everything.

So red tape was a good thing, and cutting it was something you did out of eagerness to see something new and of value. Not any more. Think of the words that have changed in our lifetime and imagine how hard it would be to explain American slang. Words that are tied to time or a particular culture can be difficult too. 

I chuckled to myself recently at the associational Bible drill when one of our New Hope kids who was using a KJV bible because no NIVs were present tripped over the archaic word "shew" (as in "Shew yourself an approved workman..." Changes happen over time.

And cultural differences? Try explaining what "lilies of the field" means to natives of Somalia, a land where no lilies grow.

But the story doesn't change.

I stood in front of some kids in VBS one year and told the story of Christ's crucifixion. Using nails and a crown of thorns from Israel, I did my best to make it understood. One child asked to touch the thorns and when he did, he looked directly at me and said, "He must have really loved us."

Yes He did.

1 John 5:11 (Msg)
This is the testimony in essence: God gave us eternal life; the life is in His Son.

That friends hasn't changed. We can haggle over translations, denominations, signs and wonders, church models and the like, but through Jesus, God's Son, born of a virgin, crucified under Pontius Pilate, laid dead in a tomb, risen on the third day - through placing our faith in Him - we have life. Life for today and eternal hope!

Words change - the story never will.

Tell somebody!

Grace!

David Wilson

There are all kinds of thieves.

When you read the gospel of Luke, you see how concerned God is with the lost and the broken - the not perfect. Luke's account of Jesus' ministry is full of His seeking and saving - whether it's the 1 sheep gone out of 99, or one prodigal son. Luke's Jesus is full of forgiveness, and easy to get to know.

Now He's one among three men  - in agony nailed to crosses, one spewing hatred, one seeking forgiveness, and the other weeping blood with the power to cancel all sins. Jesus' story began in filth and squalor, with outcasts to share the scene. No surprise then that here at the end, His companions once again are the least of society - thieves.

Jesus hadn't had kind words for thieves before -

10 The thief's purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give life in all its fullness. John 10:10 (NLT)

Those two are usually at cross-purposes. But today they met at the cross.

Jesus had already spoken words of forgiveness. Now anything He said was coming through a constant struggle just to breathe  - so each took a bit of the strength He had left. And one thief spent his reserves in a rant against Jesus. True to the very end to what he was, he asked Jesus to prove His worth by freeing Himself - and them besides. He saw no need to hold back anything he felt. If he couldn't figure a way to save himself, then why not go out cursing everyone else.

But in this awful place, within this tortured time, a faith began as one man took stock of his life. We aren't told how he got here - what went on in his youth, the wrong turns, the bitter reverses - or whether he ever did any one thing good.

What we are told is that he has measured himself and found himself lacking. Lacking by man's rule of law, and lacking in faith in God. Yet even as he saw how far short he fell of perfection, a belief began to grow that he was in the presence of One Who was. he says to the other thief -

"Don't you fear God even when you are dying? 41 We deserve to die for our evil deeds, but this man hasn't done anything wrong." Luke 23:41 (NLT)

And then he does something remarkable. 

Having heard no sermon, having received no tract, having done no act of charity, and certainly having given no offering - he asks one thing of Jesus.

"Jesus, remember me when you come into your Kingdom."

And just at that moment, all the wheels of justice come to a sudden halt. All the momentum of a life spent in crime, all the bitterness and hatred of failure, everything in his whole life pauses as Jesus replies,

"I assure you, today you will be with Me in paradise."

Today! With Jesus! In paradise! Old life ended in agony and shame. 

New life begun - Today!

Can I ask you a question?

Which kind of thief are you?

I don't mean to be harsh, just the opposite. Because that hill Jesus was on isn't very different than the land we live on. You know that at the moment Luke records, the area around the cross was populated with only two kinds of people. Same as the world is inhabited by today.

There are those who are blind to any need of a Savior, and those who have faced up to the facts of just how much they have failed and just how perfect the Man on the middle cross is. Nothing has changed. You are either blind to who you really are, or you know.

At this point maybe you think such guilt by association is weak. Maybe you have never filched a Brach's candy "sample" from your local supermarket, or "fudged" a little on that 1040A. And maybe when you compare yourself to a Hussein or a Hitler, or even a bank robber, you feel pretty good.

But just because you've never been caught in a crime doesn't mean you are exempt from the human condition. "All have sinned and fallen short" includes, well, all. You. Me. Everyone. 

Good enough, is not good enough for God. 

Have you ever stolen the smile off a child's face, who cannot help but grin at the incredible joy of life - by harsh words like, "Will you cut that out and straighten up"? Or maybe you've crushed the dreams of a teenager when you said, "You'll never amount to anything. You are just like your ____ ." Then too there's the puncture of a vision, the deflation of a hope with, "we've never done that before and it will never work."

There are all kinds of ways to steal. Steal hope. Steal joy. Steal peace. And yes, steal stuff.

We are all thieves. We all have sinned and fallen so, so, short. We aren't almost perfect, and even if we were, we'd be lost in our sins. Good enough- isn't.

On a cross next to ours though, hangs a man eager to hear from us. A man Who even here, at life's very extremity, is still seeking to save the lost.

Today! With Jesus! Today!  

You can find peace with God... today. 

Own up to who you are, ask Jesus for forgiveness and courage and power to change. Commit right now to turning away from sin and selfishness and decide to follow Jesus as Lord of your life.

Today! You can be pardoned - today!

Grace,

David

Visit with me at my blog:
http://itslikeherdingcats.blogspot.com/

Visit with Bunny at her blog:
http://henleythegreatdane.blogspot.com/

Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

I've been reading the gospel accounts of the last week in the life of Jesus this week, and the accounts of the resurrection and immediate aftermath. Nothing new in that - I read the gospels pretty often, and this time of year I focus on that time frame with Easter just ahead. On Easter, most pastors will make a case for the resurrection and try to help people see how it changes everything. So I expect lots of my brother and sister pastors are reading along with me, looking to explain on Sunday how the resurrection happened.

But here's what just jumped off the screen at me.

The Gospels do not explain the resurrection; the resurrection explains the Gospels. Belief in the resurrection is not an appendage to the Christian faith; it is the Christian faith.

J.S. Whale

Yes!

There'd be no New Testament at all without the resurrection.

No Paul and his letters in defense of it.

Peter would be a fisherman with some great stories people would tire of hearing after a while.

John would have been a kind grandfather-type always talking about this friend he loved so that loved him.

If the resurrection had not happened, you or I would most likely never have heard about Jesus. Lots of "messiahs" had come and gone and were yet to do so. Only one is known across the ages and around the world.

As a result, we cannot ignore His claims and discount His promises to those who believe. Listen friend, it may be you are going through hard times. It may look dark and seem cold. But because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, your failures are never final. Your life, if hidden in Him, will endure the darkest days and coldest nights - and you will never be alone.

Resurrection - it's "New Hope!"

Grace and peace,

David