Introducing Jesus - Son of God

New Hope Unplugged



Had hoped to have a recording of this message from Sunday. But the electrical power failed us. Ah, but the real power didn't and never will. This is not a transcription, nor is it the notes I used Sunday, since I don't preach from notes. I won't remember everything I said that day, and I will add some things today I couldn't remember then. So be it. But here's what I want you to know - You can know God. You can know God personally through His Son Jesus Christ. He is actively seeking to form a relationship with you. You have questions, doubts. You cannot understand or deal well with what you see as inconsistencies in the Bible or what seem to be incredibly cruel acts by God. Friends, after 37 years as a Christian and more hours than I could ever count in prayer and Bible study, I still have questions, still wonder about certain things, and still get frustrated at times. But one thing I know beyond all doubt, all fears, all questions.

Jesus loves me. He will never leave me or forsake me. He has made me right with God through His sacrificial death. He has assured me of life eternal with Him through His resurrection. He will walk with me through the fiercest trials and darkest nights. He is my Savior, He is my God, and He is my friend. 

So as we begin this study of John during this Lenten season, understand this please. Everything I am doing is to convince you that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and is offering you LIFE TO THE MAX!

And so I am beginning by introducing Jesus.

Put yourself for a minute in John the apostle's shoes - okay, sandals.

You are an old man who has lived 2/3 of your life or more since the three years that you walked over Galilee and Judea with Jesus. Those three years changed EVERYTHING. They reset your compass. Your priorities changed. Your value system changed. Your understanding of who you are and why you were alive changed. And your simple life became a world-changing one. All because of Jesus.

As you pick up the stylus, all the other "gospels" (Matthew, Mark, and Luke) have been "put to bed." They've each told their stories to everyone who would give them an ear. But you are driven to write a different narrative - one in which the scenes you choose to include are not selected because they are chronologically correct - but like a great director - God is guiding you to tell a Story of who Jesus is.

Every time I think about the magnitude of John's task, I am amazed at how he even got started. I used a slide of great opening lines in books to sort of plant the idea that those first few seconds of entry into a story matters. Some of the books that make up the classics though, don't have first lines that are memorable. Many begin quietly and it's in the introduction and fleshing out of the characters that the story takes on life for the reader.

Not John. He begins with a theological statement that changes everything. I likened it to someone raised in a cave who on one clear winter's night is taken outside and asked to look into the sky and sees the slide from the Hubble telescope. Breathtaking in scope. Awe-inspiring in depth. Incomprehensible at first glance. But so "Other" that it tugs at the mind and the soul for if that is reality, then it changes everything.

In the beginning the Word already existed.

The Word was with God,

and the Word was God.

2  He existed in the beginning with God.

"The Word that John speaks of is uncreated. There has never been a time when it was not. Here is existence beyond time, that which was when time and finite being began its course." All of us are mortal. We have a beginning and an end. This week begins the season of Lent and millions of our fellow believers will kneel before a priest or pastor who will take the ashes of palm fronds used last year during the Palm Sunday celebration and dipping his thumb in them, will make the sign of a cross on each person's forehead while saying "From dust you came, to dust you will return." A very solemn act of worship that reminds us that our time on earth is very short. Contrast that to John's description of Jesus - the "Word" made flesh - and you begin to understand that knowing Jesus is more... much more than the flippant cultural Christianity or virtuous veneer many practice. 

John uses the Greek word "logos" in his opening statement and it is translated "Word" for us. We'll have to unpack the meaning of that into our language and context or we'll walk out of here glazed. He's hitting a theme that will play on both sides of the cultural divide in the early church and society - Jews and Gentiles. Certain themes can serve as a bridge for us. We know that. Music and TV does that around the world. Bunny and I are trying to listen to some of the newer music because it carries cultural messages and darn it because we don't want to miss out on the joy that music has always been for us. So we're turning over to channel 20 on our XM radio and trying. But you know we keep coming back to the "language" we know - that we grew up with. There are songs that we all know - like the opening refrain of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, or Bach's Toccata and Fugue. Oh, you would know them if you heard them. OK, here's one "Come sit right back and you'll hear a tale, a tale of a fateful trip..." (motions to congregation to continue) See - we just know because even though there are three or four generations in here, we've been exposed to that.

Well the Hebrews would have understood the idea of "the Word" because in their culture of less than 10,000 words - words meant things. They were tied to actions, and once a word was spoken the event was unstoppable. When God spoke, creation happened. When Issac mistakenly blessed Jacob instead of Esau, he couldn't take it back. The people of Israel during the Exodus went out to Sinai to meet with the "Word."

The Greeks on the other hand saw the "logos" almost like George Lucas's "force". It was the causative agent in all of nature - the First Cause, the Prime Mover, the world-soul. But neither party would have imagined that the "logos" was a person. They'd have been glad to talk philosophy with John  - both the scribes and the Greek philosophers would have relished that. But believing in a God who became a man?

John starts out by expanding reality for them.

You know that the Bible talks many times about the world which is seen and the unseen world. And I've always wondered about that unseen world. This past week I was reading about a teacher who took her class to visit the home of a botanist. As you can imagine, his yard was filled with all sorts of interesting plants. The kids just drank it all in, turning this way and that and "ooh-ing and ah-ing" at what they saw. And yet, they didn't see everything that was there. When the botanist looked at the same plants he saw not only the exterior, but he knew and "saw" the processes going on inside each of them. He could gauge their maturity and their health. Both the kids and the botanist saw pretty flowers, but only the botanist saw the things unseen.

Physicists studying the atom know that there are forces yet unexplained that hold each atom together. One is called the (for lack of a better term) the "strong force" and without it, all what you and I see and think of as solid, as real, as matter would instantly cease to exist and become simply energy.

John is making a case here, along with other New Testament writers, that everything was created by Jesus and that everything has its origin in Him and nothing exists that He hasn't caused to be. Other writers will elaborate, but John starts the expansion of what we know of as "real" by introducing Jesus as Source.

In this world, with our natural eyes we are limited too. And the unseen is all around us. John is speaking of a Person in Jesus who is more than we can see with our eyes. He is the "First Cause" but beyond that since He exists outside of time. And yet, He is the "Word made flesh" who came as a baby, grew up through childhood and teen years, and became a man - tested and tempted in every way - but without a fault or sin went to the cross and made everyone who believes in Him right with God.

15  Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.

He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,*

16  for through him God created everything

in the heavenly realms and on earth.

He made the things we can see

and the things we can’t see—

such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.

Everything was created through him and for him.

17  He existed before anything else,

and he holds all creation together.

18  Christ is also the head of the church,

which is his body.

He is the beginning,

supreme over all who rise from the dead.*

So he is first in everything.

19  For God in all his fullness

was pleased to live in Christ,

20  and through him God reconciled

everything to himself.

He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth

by means of Christ’s blood on the cross. Colossians 1

Continuing on....

4  The Word gave life to everything that was created,*

and his life brought light to everyone.

5  The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness can never extinguish it.

So John is presenting Jesus as Creator, as Sustainer, and now as Redeemer. As the power beyond anything we can even imagine. Limitless.

So let me stop for a moment and ask you this - Why do you think that Jesus isn't able to supply everything you need? Why do you NOT let Jesus handle your doubts, your questions, your fears, your worries and anxieties? Isn't He BIG enough? Isn't he POWERFUL enough? Or is it that you can't see? Listen, Jesus brought "light" into our darkness and you know in your gut and by your experience that darkness cannot win if you have a light. Light comes, darkness ends. True then. True now.

See friends you may look on these few verses as just words, but right here and right now I am here to tell you that THIS IS THE THEOLOGY OF HOPE. THIS IS GOD'S LOVE FOR YOU, FOR ME, IN THE PERSON OF JESUS.

John, who never names himself in this book, simply refers to himself as "the disciple that Jesus loved." Now you can choose to think that he was a self-promoter by doing that. That he was lifting John up at the expense of the other disciples, but I don't think you'd be right.

I think that John could never get past the fact that God, in the person of Jesus - LOVED HIM. As I said, it changed everything for him. John would tell you this morning that you need to put smaller things aside and plant your life in Jesus Christ. Give Him the allegiance of your heart, mind, and soul. Jesus is so much more than we can even see. John wants you to believe in Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior, Sustainer, and Redeemer.

Look. I know this has stretched you some if you've tried at all to follow it. Imagine John again, writing it with God giving him the words. Really it boils down to this. Who do you believe Jesus is?

Just as the creator intended

“Come, follow me..."

About 10:20 AM Sunday, I was in the sanctuary getting ready and it appeared that the lights flickered. Then they did it again. Every so often, they'd flicker for a few seconds. Then about 10:40, it got worse - much worse. I went around back to where the main power line comes in and there was a branch across the line. "Maybe that's it", I thought.

Went back inside and it got really strange. The lights up front were really bright and those in back weren't. Then the projector and PC started recycling on and off, and the piano turned off by itself and wouldn't come on for a minute. In the age of electronics we live in, that was our cue to take radical steps.

We cut all the powered devices off and went old school - no ppt, no praise band, no amplification.

In the aftermath, we discovered a light bulb that blew apart, and a fluorescent fixture's ballast gave up the ghost.

And two surge suppressors died to save our PCs and printers.

We spent some money on the suppressors, but they did just as their creator intended. They gave up their lives for the devices that plugged into them.

Was just reading a passage from the Message.

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. 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. Romans 12:1

...and wondered how many of us will be able to look back over our lives and know that we lived them just as our Creator intended.

It's not too late to start following Jesus.

One of the most interesting TED talks I've seen

Nancy Duarte's talk at TEDx East from Duarte Design on Vimeo.

She basically dissects what makes great speeches great. Really interesting when she does that to the "I Have A Dream" speech.

There's Teaching, And Then There's Preaching

So today was one of those days where you endure.

Anybody out there had one?

A day you endure is one that you know you need to go through, but in the big scheme of things is just one paving stone on the highway. Not going to get you excited, and won't slay you. But you know you have to do it. So you endure.

I spent several hours I'll never get back in classrooms over at Gulf Coast Community College today, as I continue to work on teacher certification for next fall. Three separate classes. The first was technology in the classroom and it shouldn't be too bad overall. The second two were intros to two courses that are about student teaching. Oh my goodness they were dull and repetitive. But I took the notes and gathered the information I needed.

Still, I could not help thinking about tomorrow morning, when I will be teaching/preaching John 1:1-5. It is such a tremendous passage that all week long I could not keep it from popping into my thoughts. I found myself thinking about it in class today and taking notes on what popped into my head. Had to make myself stop and concentrate on class.

Make no mistake, I am going to work hard in my classes so that when I enter the classroom I will be the best teacher I can possibly be. And I'll do everything I can to help my students succeed in mastering their lessons. But I don't expect an eternal change as a result of what I do there.

Every time I preach I go praying that lives would change forever.

Not because I'm skilled, or well prepared. (Insert humble comment here)

But because God is in it. He's gathered the people. He's called the servant. He's directed my thoughts and guides what I say. And He has promised that if the preacher faithfully speaks the Word that God will see changes happen in people - even if I can't.

There's an excitement from just reading the Word -knowing that it's more than a book - that it is "God-breathed." I look at the passage I will preach through tomorrow and realize that even after hour upon hour upon hour of study, I will only scratch the surface of the mystery of God.

Yet I will be a part of His plan to let everyone who lives know that He has provided a Savior in Jesus.

That's preaching. And I can't wait!

When Scuffed Up Is Just Right

From It's Like Herding Cats

When I first came to New Hope, as we pulled into the parking lot two things caught my eye and my imagination - just down the street sat Valparaiso Elementary, and just across the street sat the Little League field.

I love baseball. From time to time I find baseballs here at New Hope that have been fouled off across the street and have found their way into our shrubbery. Since many of the games are played at night, finding them apparently is difficult then. So I have a drawer full. :)

Holding one of those takes me back. To my Little League days as a scatter armed pitcher with more speed than control. Particularly if the umpire had given me a new baseball. They were just too perfect, too slippery to use. So you'd try to rub some mud on them, or try to keep one with a couple of scuffs in the game.

Turns out they do that in the big leagues too. A company out of New Jersey supplies river mud (just where from is a closely guarded secret) to every major and minor league time, and has since 1945. Without it, the baseballs are too perfect to use.

Think about that.

Every stitch is in place. The horsehide cover is blemish free. The classic red stitching and white cover - perfect. But it's useless until rubbed in the mud - scuffed up.

Too many of us are wishing and hoping for lives of pure perfection too. Plenty of money, perfect health, successful job, never a care or worry, no grief nor pain. We think if everything were perfect, we'd be happy. Maybe we would be, but we wouldn't be as useful to God. Our "scuffs" are something that helps us relate to other people whose lives are "scuffed up" too.

Galatians 6:9–10 So let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit. Right now, therefore, every time we get the chance, let us work for the benefit of all, starting with the people closest to us in the community of faith.

Scuffed up is just right.

Grace!

David Wilson

Busy, busy

From It's Like Herding Cats

Whew!

If you read this blog on a fairly regular basis you know that I love to write. Writing for me is one of those acts of expression like music is to a pianist. And this called life is such a window into the work of God that I can't wait to try to paint pictures for you, dear reader, of what God is doing. But life has just hit maximum overload lately and I have been unable to keep up. So forgive me if I give you the "Cliff's Notes" version of what has been happening until things slow down.

Supper On Saturdays - Was able to participate again with delivery, and Pam and Jaime Roberts participated in cooking this past Saturday. The route was split so we didn't have as many people to serve, but it was still a huge blessing to be able to do it. Oh and I got promoted to driver/scooper of soup! Since I live and work in Valparaiso, I did not get lost once while we made 17 stops and delivered 57 meals. The weather was gorgeous and the people were warm and receptive. Was able to pray with one senior saint, and talked about New Hope with two other people. I placed a flyer for that night's family movie in each bag. Met some new people while serving alongside three others from FUMC Niceville. Great time had by all as we "loved, because He first loved us."

Family Movie Night - John Anderson and minions really worked hard prepping the fellowship hall with lights, a red carpet, and plenty of comfortable sanctuary chairs. Add to that the "Grillmaster" Frank Weech cooking hot dogs and hamburgers, Sydney Hoskinson dishing up the sno cones, and the work of Amy Anderson, Diane Weech, Micheal Weech, Kristen Morton, and Bunny and Sean behind the scenes and it made for a great event. Despicable Me was a great choice since the laughs were spread evenly over all ages. Met some new friends who came out to the showing and hope to meet many more as we'll do this again.

On the last week of the first trimester of teacher certification. Carrying high "A's" but the workload in these education courses has been the most I have ever encountered in any of the colleges, universities, or seminaries I have attended. Very challenging. Thank a teacher the next time you see one. People outside have no idea of the paperwork horrors they endure. Think of the DOD paperwork on steroids and you are getting close.

Began work last week on a series that starts this Sunday and will carry us through Easter. Haven't pinned a title yet, but "Introducing... Jesus" wouldn't be too bad. We'll use John's gospel to help us to step back and realize just what God has done in and through Jesus Christ.

Oh and small group starts again Sunday evening. :)

Pray for me.

An introduction worthy of Him

1 In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 All things were created through Him,
and apart from Him not one thing was created
that has been created.
4 Life was in Him,
and that life was the light of men.
5 That light shines in the darkness,
yet the darkness did not overcome it. John 1 NLT 2.0


1 εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος
2 ουτος ην εν αρχη προς τον θεον
3 παντα δι αυτου εγενετο και χωρις αυτου εγενετο ουδε εν ο γεγονεν
4 εν αυτω ζωη ην και η ζωη ην το φως των ανθρωπων
5 και το φως εν τη σκοτια φαινει και η σκοτια αυτο ου κατελαβεν

1:1 In the beginning* was the Word, and the Word was with God,* and the Word was fully God.* 1:2 The Word* was with God in the beginning. 1:3 All things were created* by him, and apart from him not one thing was created* that has been created.* 1:4 In him was life,* and the life was the light of mankind.* 1:5 And the light shines on* in the darkness,* but* the darkness has not mastered it.* NET Bible

The rule in communication is to grab the reader, listener, or viewer by the heart quickly. The amount of time you have to draw them in varies in the studies I have read from 1 minute at the most to 15 seconds at the least. So imagine that you want to tell the world about the most important thing that has or will ever happen.

How would you start?

What would you say in your introduction?

These verses are my obsession this week as through them my prayer is the Holy Spirit makes Jesus plain to everyone who will hear or read the message I'm driven to give Sunday. Having read a lot about John and his context, I'm diving in today - word studies to ground myself in what the text says before I widen my search to commentaries and what other people say.

I'm also carrying them around in me. Meditating on the passage for Sunday all week means I can spend time listening for what the Spirit might teach me in MY context. Sometimes that turns out to be the best "study" I do all week.

Today, I am just in awe.

For a man like John to pick up a stylus or pen and write these verses and know that God was speaking through you? To be entrusted with explaining the nature and character of God?

Wow...

Working In the Cloud With the Google CR-48

It's been a couple of weeks since the UPS driver delivered my own personal free netbook from Google. I was totally blown away by the fact that I even qualified for it. Even though I have 5 PCs in my office here at church, I'm not a computer geek - just a hoarder. :)

The CR-48 is a lightweight, low powered, minimalist netbook powered by Google's new Chrome operating system. You'd never really know that last part if someone didn't tell you, since everything you do happens within the same Chrome browser you may already have installed. Everything happens in "the cloud."

It's been a roller-coaster ride with the CR-48. Initially I loved it for its minimalism. It's like a stripped Thinkpad with even more rubberized coating. And even though the Atom CPU is not all that, it's plenty fast enough for most everything I do. Then I started to notice things like not being able to download and open common files. Or use my USB stick or SD cards. No local storage at all, just enough internally to house the operating system. It basically forces you to use Google Docs and apps that run online.

That strategy could work, if you stay in wifi territory. But I've already run into two instances where I had no wifi. The second one caused me to fire up the built in Verizon WAN card. It worked great but you have to be mindful of the data charges. Google does chip in 100MB per month in free data. So in rare circumstances you could make do.

I love the size, the battery life, and the simplicity. If Google can continue to mature the software to add SD and USB support, and open most common documents directly in Google Apps when you download them, I could see me and a few million of my friends paying $150 or so for a device like this. Thanks Google!

Trying To Follow

It's not even Sunday yet, and I feel like the last 3 days have really taught me more about the way God is working all around us. Yogi Berra, that master of the malapropism once said "You can see a lot just by looking" and I think he was right. Let me try to explain what I mean.

Wednesday - Pam Roberts called me mid morning and asked what we were having for supper at church . Since I put on the chef's hat each week except for potluck night, I told her spaghetti, but added "I haven't gotten the groceries yet." She then reminded me about the people in need she had seen in two locations within Valparaiso on her scouting trip with the "Supper on Saturdays" last weekend. "Could we fix enough to take to them too?"

"Sure." So I got busy and Bunny and I went to Publix to buy the ingredients. I had never cooked that much of anything before, so I was unsure about how much to buy, and nervous about how much it was going to cost. Then I remembered the grant the local Rotary Club had given us to help with our neighborhood meal outreach. Still, it was going to be a lot of money. So I gather all the items and head to the checkout. The cashier scans it all and the total was $35.74. That's what it normally is. But we were feeding 30 more people.

Loaves and fishes. Give what you have and let God multiply it. 

Last night I attended a men's conference in Chipley with John and Ian Anderson. Johnny Hunt, former president of the Southern Baptist Convention was the speaker and he was great, but you know what I loved seeing? All those men ready to give their allegiance and hearts to God, singing, praying, and studying God's Word. Johnny Hunt told us of a recent Sunday at their church where he stopped during a message about 15 minutes in and asked his 4500 member congregation "Who has lost a job, a home, a business? Who is in need of help?" Over 200 people stood. Johnny called the congregation into a time of prayer for them but as he did, people came forward and laid checks on the altar at the from of the church. The prayer over, Pastor Hunt saw the checks and moved by the Holy Spirit said, let's take up an offering. If you want to give money, do that. If you lawyers, CPAs, financial managers, physicians, dentists etc. want to give of your talents to help these families, give that, if you have rental property, spare cars - whatever you feel God wants you to do - you do. The result was that 241 families were helped with a total given for the fund of $400,000.

If God has blessed you, He has blessed you to be a blessing.

Then today Frank, Diane, and Michael Weech, along with me and Bunny - participated in the "Supper on Saturday" ministry. There are eleven churches involved in this ministry coordinated by FUMC Niceville. Our group delivered 157 meals to locations and individuals all over Valparaiso and a little bit of Niceville. We met a lot of new people and saw some we recognized from the past. It was hard work and I'm tired. But it's a GOOD TIRED.

If you've done it for the least of these, My people, you've done it for Me.

The people of New Hope, including their pastor and his family, are trying to follow the will of God as we understand it for our church. Our past successes are just that - past. We can thank God for the honor of seeing Him work through us, but we cannot sit around talking about "the good old days." God is up to something friends. He's bringing people and churches to the realization that we have to live in the constant mindset of a missionary "whatever it takes." We used to cheer those folks when they came back from the "mission field" to tell us about the miracles they had seen. It's still awesome to hear what God is doing "over there."

Well, I'm here to tell you that whatever God has ever done at any time, He can do now. Whatever He has ever done through anyone, He can do through us. And whatever He has done anywhere - HE CAN DO RIGHT HERE.

I can say that, because I have seen that in just the last three days. Can't wait to see what's next.

Pass It On

Reposting this tonight, because I'm writing a paper for class about the most influential teacher I've ever had. Dr Kathryn Futral was that teacher for me. My prayer is that I would be that for someone else. -DW
If your gift is that of serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, do a good job of teaching.8 If your gift is to encourage others, do it! Romans 12:7-8 (NLT)

How many people have you met in your lifetime? You probably can't count that high. Okay, how many can you say made a real difference? Chances are, out of a list of the top ten, there will be a teacher in there somewhere. Think back - who would you choose?

You'd probably not choose someone who laughed at you while scrawling an "F" on your essay. But that's exactly why I'd put Dr. Catherine Futral high on my list of women who've affected my life.

After a long time away, I had returned to Mercer University in Macon, GA to finish my undergraduate degree. I was majoring in business, because that's what my company would pay for, and was checking off the squares of required courses when I ran head on into Dr. Futral. A fixture for years at Tift College in Forsyth, she was teaching in the evening college after Mercer had absorbed her beloved campus. My goal was to get all my English courses out of the way as quickly and as easily as possible. Her goal seemed to be the destruction of the ecosystem by flooding the world with red ink.

To give you a mental picture of her wouldn't be hard. Think English teacher. That was harsh. Okay, think English teacher with a great smile and eyes that twinkled as she explained just how miserable she would be making our lives for the next 12 weeks.

She was a woman of grace, peppering her lectures with humor, and her comments on our work with wit. A committed Christian, and member of First Baptist Church of Forsyth, she'd often bring her faith experiences into her lectures. She'd quote Shakespeare, Faulkner, and the Psalms all in the same example of how to write a compelling paragraph. But when she evaluated your work - well, you'd better be ready to hear the truth.

I'll never forget one paper I wrote which received this comment: "Until the very last line of this paper, I felt that it was one of the best I had read. However, your thoughtless comma splice in the last phrase ruined it for me - and you." Beside that snippet she inscribed a large red "F".

Can I call that the gift of encouragement?

It was for me. My mission from that point on was to make Dr. Futral see the error of her ways. She kept trying to change my style, wanting me to use less punctuation - create shorter sentences - eliminate the passive voice. At one point, I ran a paper through a grammar checker program (new technology at the time) and handed it in. Her comment? "This isn't your work." "Oh yes it is," I replied, "and it's perfect." "It may very well be perfect as far as grammar is concerned," she shot back," but it is perfectly awful prose." You've never seen a smile leave anyone's face as fast as mine did. "You can do better," she said now smiling as she handed it back to me, "write it like David this time - from the heart."

Maybe she was from another time, when teaching was less a career and more a calling. All I know is that she gave her best and expected ours. I think of her often and thank God for her. In a sense I'm still writing partly for Dr. Futral. She believed in me. Every time I write I remember, "from the heart."

Do you remember someone who encouraged you along the way? Someone who helped you become the person you wanted to be?

Let them know it. They gave you their gift - pass it on.

Grace!

David Wilson

Way Over My Head

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. 9 My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Gal 3:8-9 (MSG)

Like Paul, I know I am in way over my head. But I also know that God loves me and has chosen me to do this work of telling His story. So I watch and listen.

I was rearranging my office thursday and picked up a wooden plaque dated 1981. On it rested a hand print of one Adam Wilson, my first born son. It was so small. The writing on the plaque was some of that sentimental stuff about looking back at kids when they grow up. Uh yeah. Wouldn't want to do that. I'd be one of those saps, huh.

When Adam came into this world, I had no clue what being his daddy would mean. I wasn't just in over my head, I was clueless. All I could do is look at him and wonder what in the world am I supposed to do now?

I thought back to a baby lying in a yellow inflatable "tub" so we could bathe him. To a little boy who followed his daddy around. To a young man who I played basketball with. Then I thought about times when we worried over him - when he was sick, when those first days of school came, when we left to come down here and he didn't come with us. There were times of great joy - he was an awesome boy, and there have been times of sadness. Yet he has grown up and is a man anyone would be proud to call his son.

Yes, looking at that hand print made me think of God's grace - His love, and His mercy.

For through it all, even before Adam was born, God knew him, and He knew Bunny and me. We'll never know the extent of how God blessed us with His providential care. A lot of things could have gone wrong. An awful lot of things went right. In that boy, now a man, I got to watch God's work and have a part in it.

"And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ."

Well, sometimes they aren't over your head. I've got a hand print on a plaque to prove it.

Buttons and believers

One of those things you find out about after it happens and can see God's hands all over it.

The girls here at New Hope are learning to sew on Wednesday nights. Kinda cool that they'd acquire such an ancient skill, huh. :) Last week they were learning how to sew on buttons and they wound up doing that on two pieces of cloth that Bunny's going to send to the two girls our family sponsors through Compassion. Sean sponsors Ribka, a little girl in Ethiopia, and Bunny and I sponsor "Mookie", who lives in Rwanda.

So the work of little hands will soon be in... little hands. I love the idea of the hands of little girls here in Valparaiso Florida will be held by other little hands in Africa. Buttons and believers.

When Bunny and Sean were sitting in church Sunday, she told him about it and Sean sewed a button on too. Sponsoring Ribka in Ethiopia is something he did on his own. His mom and dad are very proud of the way he has found his own walk with Jesus. I pray the Holy Spirit delivers more than just fabric, thread and buttons to those two little girls. I pray He helps them find their way with Jesus too.

Everything we're doing at New Hope ought to be aimed at the same goal.

Getting What They Deserve

From It's Like Herding Cats - A pastor's life

One of the pieces of information I've picked up in my recent foray into public education is the disturbing realization that some of the same ills that plague the church are also found in the halls of education. For example, I have found that they "we never did it that way before" cult lives within education as well. And it is just as unwelcome and just as harmful to the goal of education as it is in the church.

We were discussing classroom assessments (tests, projects, quizzes, etc.) in class on Saturday. Our teacher, who works with kids in Panama City who are having difficulty learning to read, was telling us about one kid, we'll call him Charles, whose mother is a gang member. Charles doesn't come to school all the time, and has trouble staying motivated. So the teacher and Charles have worked out a system for assisting Charles. If he comes to school and stays engaged, he gets a coke. Sounds simple.

Well, the only coke machine is in the teacher's lounge and when Charles went there last Friday, a teacher shooed him out despite his insistence that his teacher told him to go there. When confronted, the teacher said "we never let children into the lounge." Didn't matter that Charles' attendance had tripled. Didn't matter that another teacher sent him. WE NEVER DID THAT BEFORE!

Later in the same class, the teacher was sharing how she handled homework with a group of kids like hers. She uses homework to see what the kids are learning - to help her help them. The district wants her to count homework in their grades. But because the kids don't come every day, and don't do their homework sometimes even when they come, the resulting zeros would doom any chance they have of passing the class. So the teacher simply uses what they do to see how to adjust her teaching, and then uses the tests to determine their grade.

A woman in my class who is a long time substitute teacher (and who I'm glad my kids never had) was irate with that idea. "But you are breaking the RULES. If the kids can't be troubled to do the homework, what are you teaching them?"

Our teacher said, "We had a test over the chapter Friday, and everyone made a "B" or better and Charles made a 92. It was cokes for everybody."

Then she said, "You have to decide whether you really want this kids to learn, or you would rather them fail as long as they did it YOUR WAY."

It got real quiet.

And I wondered... How many Christians would rather see someone go to hell rather than experience the love of God through Christ Jesus in Salvation simply because "We never did it that way before"?

How many of us secretly root for people who are far from God and caught in sin - to stay there, because by doing so they confirm what we believe about them?

I am sick of it. Sick of people who are graceless zombies. Sick of folks who take some perverse pleasure in pointing out other people's failures. Sick of it.

If you can't love your brother who you can see, how will you love the Father who you can't see?

Listen, if we all -you, me - got what we DESERVE - we'd be toast.

If you can't embrace grace - then at least get out of the way.