Merry Christmas

Here we are the last week before Christmas. All the busy, getting ready for the holiday is in full swing. I hope all of you have a wonderful week and a Merry Christmas.

As I thought on this last week my mind went to what the last week before the birth of Jesus must have been like. It was no doubt very busy, full of stress and all the feeling that go with a lady about to give birth. Yet, no doubt this last week for Mary held a lot of added struggles. There were probably the cold shoulders of the in-laws and the embarrassment of her family all because she was found with child before her and Joseph came together or were married. (Matthew 1:18) In the Jewish customs of that day she was very much looked down on. Joseph too had to carry the load of people thoughts and feeling. Yes, the week was probably a heavy stressful week.

To top all that a law had gone out that everyone had to return to their home town to be taxed and counted. So Joseph takes Mary and they make the several days journey from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Now Mary doesn’t get to ride a car, a train or even take the bus. She either walked or rode and animal of some sorts just days from starting labor. Yes, the last week before the birth of Jesus was very stressful and heavy for Mary and Joseph. I’m not sure our imaginations can get close to what that week must have been like. Yet the week was ordained of God and Mary and Joseph fulfilled their part in the will of the Almighty.

Yes, Christmas morning or the birthday of Jesus dawned bright and clear that wonder day and hope for the whole world came into being. That night the angels filled the heavens with joy and miracles happened that had never been before. Yes, it was a wonderful night. The wonder of that night still shines to this very day. All because of Jesus this world and the lives of those who live for Him will never be the same.

So no matter how stressful you week may seem to be remember Mary and Joseph walked a very troubling week just before the Christ was born. So remember Christmas is coming in a few days and it’s not about the gifts so much or the food being perfect. No it’s the hope of living a changed life. So, if there are not gifts or good food in your Christmas I promise you Jesus is still there. If the gifts are not right and the decorations not so great Jesus was still born for your day, your life. If you’re lonely and at the end of your rope, Jesus still came, was born and you have a chance for a new day a fresh start, a changed life. Jesus is really the whole reason for Christmas. I dare you to bow your life to Him and worship the King of Kings. It will change everything about this week. Merry Christmas!

I want to say a special thank you to all of you at FPB for the wonderful Sunday afternoon yesterday. I loved hearing of each of the five services we had across our city in the different retirement centers and nursing homes. There were over two hundred in attendance best I can tell. I so much enjoyed the smiles and joy I personally saw on the faces of those you ministered to. Then wrapping the evening up on the Court House lawn with a service was wonderful. Thanks to everyone who made it possible. It was a wonderful day.

I hope all have a wonderful Christmas. From me and my family let me say, Merry Christmas!

Jesus! You Can Have My Room

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, everywhere we go. It’s that special time of the year when people smile more, give more, and eat more. It’s that time of the year to celebrate the birth of Christ. We have special services, sing special songs and lament about how society is forgetting the real meaning of Christmas. We will read the story of Jesus’ birth in Luke 2 and we will pause at verses 6 and 7 as we read about that unconcerned Innkeeper.

While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.  NIV

What an insensitive innkeeper, we proclaim! Preachers will preach about it, they will pound the pulpit in the coming days and exclaim how could anyone turn away God and cause Him to be born in an animal’s feed trough. Sermons will be preached about making room in your heart for God. We are warned to be careful lest this world and its cares crowd out Jesus in our hearts.

We are told to be on guard lest we lose the real reason for the season.

All this is true; yes we must be on guard lest we forget. We have to make sure in all the celebrating that we don’t lose sight of what Christmas is really all about. Yes, we have to make sure that we have room in our life for Jesus. Yet before we allow some warm glow of self-righteousness to grab our heart and cause us to proclaim that the innkeeper was some egocentric and selfish man whom we are not like, before we thank God we are not like him, we need to really understand what he did. We might find that we are more like Mr. Innkeeper than we think.

Of course we say, “I have room for Jesus in my heart!” He is everything to me we proclaim.

I sacrifice and give, I am trying to touch the lives of those in need, and I have given my gift of service. When Jesus knocks I have opened the door of my heart wide to His will. Really? 

Why then am I so convicted about the fact that there are people I can hardly tolerate because of our differences? Why am I so resistant to Jesus moving through someone who does not fit my comfortable idea of Christianity? Why am I more concerned about the wants of people around me than I am about spending a day in His presences or having some valued time getting alone with God to get closer to His will? Why don’t I have time to follow His next step in my life rather than what everyone else wants out of me? Why do I have tons of room for my life and even my Christian service that bring me pats on the back and simple At-A Boy responses but little or no room for a small still voice that might make me look a little foolish to the crowd? Why do I have room for religious responses but no room for Christ-like actions?

Could it be that we are more like Mr. Innkeeper than we think we are?

I wonder if we have lost the real lesson of the innkeeper in all our ribbons and wrappings of our Christian lives. You see the lesson is not that we’re making room for God in our lives among all the other elements and desire we are trying to pull off. It’s not about making room or carving out some amount of time in all our wants and action of our religious lives. It’s not about giving God his marked off day or His gift among all our other gifts. You may ask, “What is it then?”

It’s about recognizing the fact that we have to disappear – our agenda has to be discarded – we have to be the ones who vacate the area in order for Him to be glorified.

The fill-to-capacity inn was not the reason Mary had to retreat to the stable.

The “no vacancy” sign was not the reason why Jesus had to be born in a food trough in a barn that housed animals. The reason that Mary birthed the Christ child in such an inhuman place was because the innkeeper would not give up his room.

It wasn’t because the inn was filled. It was because not one person would give-up so Jesus could step into life. It was because no one was willing to step away from their desire so the Messiah could come where they were. It was because no one was willing to give up so they could have Emmanuel God with us.

What would you give up to have Jesus come to your life?

What are you willing to step out of to let God take over in your life?

What are you willing to change so that you can have God with you, your hope of glory?

You see, that night when Jesus was born, the angels sang, creation moved, life happened while everyone else slept in their own cozy world. But there were people at the inn that needed the angels singing in their life, but it didn’t happen. There were people in the inn that needed God with us; in their family, but it never happened. But while they slept the night away and woke the next morning unchanged or helped, the stable was not the same. The Innkeeper no doubt had needs in his life that only God could touch, but he decided not to give up his room and allowed a miracle to happen somewhere else.

There once was a young boy named David who was a bit mentally challenged and slow to construe the social nuances that swirled about him. David’s parents were financially secure and attended church at a prestigious place of worship and were firmly ensconced in the successful aura that surrounded those who worshiped there.

The Christmas season was approaching and the church decided to re-enact the Christmas story through the eyes of children and advertised the event as their gift to the community. Tryouts were held and parts were assigned. Mary and Joseph were the big deal, of course, but the angel hovering over the stable came in at a close second. Anyone assigned to a speaking part was considered quite the thing. Unspoken hierarchy was quickly put in place.

The big dilemma, of course was David. What to do with Him? He was easily distracted and could barely follow instructions. A speaking part was out of the question. But even playing the part of an angel would be stretching his abilities to the limit. Finally it was decided that he could be a sheep, and an older sheep was assigned the task of nudging him to the proper place in case he forgot what he was supposed to do. Practices went as practices usually go. Frustration, tears, brief moments of assurance that everything would be okay in the end, and resignation that hopefully the audience would realize that these were children.

The big night finally arrived. The children, clothed in their costumes and their innocence, were breath taking. The pre-performance chaos dissolved into brilliance of timeless story - told as only the purity and simplicity of children can tell it. The audience was spelled bound, and the directors were thankful that all was going according to plan. Excellence and smooth execution were uppermost in the minds of all those who had participated in the production, and they were pleased with how the children were responding to the weeks of practice and instructions.

Throughout the performance, David was restless and fidgety. The other sheep were content with lying quietly and watching the play unfold, but David was distracted by everything – the lights, the star, the other sheep. That is until Mary and Joseph reached the inn. The angelic-looking Mary walked slowly, leaning on the arm of the freckle-faced Joseph. She sat on a rock looking dejected as Joseph knocked at the door of the Inn.

The performances were being played in an incredibly convincing way and the emotions of everyone were totally caught up in the moment. David stepped forward as if to go to Mary and stopped when his guardian sheep touched his arm and pulled him back.

The innkeeper opened the door and Joseph asked the question in the best desperate voice a child can have: “Please, Sir. My wife is about to have a baby. She is very tired. Do you have a room for the night?” According to script the innkeeper gruffly replied, “No. We’re all full! The only place you can sleep in my stable.” He slammed the door in Joseph’s face. Dejection was thick in the air as the sad Mary and Joseph turned towards stage right where the stable was located. But not even the quick reflexes of the guardian sheep could stop David when without warning off came his black sheep nose, and he came bounding down the steps on two hind legs, crying brokenly, No, no. Wait. You don’t have to go there. We have room. You can spend the night at my house. You can have my room!

After the performance, some said that the directors should have known better than to let David be in the production in the first place. Yet, others were of the opinion that it was the best Christmas message that had ever been delivered in that church.

There were people that woke up that grand morning in Bethlehem unchanged and life went on just like it had always been because their miracle happened in another place. Can you imagine what the Inn would have been like if Jesus had been born there, in the Innkeepers room?

There will be miracles happen in the coming hours, days and weeks, where will your miracle happen? Can you give Jesus your room?

Burl Crabtree

Don't Forget What God Has Done

This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;   Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.  
2 Timothy 3:1-5

Here the Apostle Paul tells his son in the gospel, Timothy, that in the last days people would have horrible actions and perform with gross sins. He describes a list of immoral behavior and seems to scream at Timothy to stay away from such people. But listed there in the middle of such low living in a simple word called unthankful. There listed with the horrible sins of an end-time generation is a word describing people who can’t see good things in their life. When you look at this writing Paul seems to reiterate again what he wrote to the Church at Rome. There in Romans chapter 1, Paul tells of a people that are immoral, stooping lower than animals with their actions. But when one looks at the start of these people’s downward plunge away from God you find these words at the beginning of their failure, “…because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Romans 1:20-22 NKJV

Again there in the mist of such terrible actions and horrible sinful lives is the attitude of being unthankful. They didn’t glorify God nor were thankful.

I heard this morning a list read on the local radio of the top things people hate about this time of year. To my amazement one of the top things people hate was being nice. I couldn’t believe it yet it describes the thinking of an unthankful generation. This day is truly turned in on their selves and how bad their day is. Sadly this spirit has found its way into the church and we often find unthankful people sitting on pews declaring they are Christ-like. This is totally impossible, to be unthankful and Christ-like at the same time.

When Israel was about to go into the Promise Land that God had saved for them, a land full of blessings. The Almighty was concerned that they might forget what He had done in their life. In the sixth chapter of Deuteronomy God begins to tell them not to forget. God was so concerned about them forgetting that He told them to tell these things diligently to your children. You talk about your blessing when you get up when you go through the day and when you go to bed.

You talk about the blessing of God when you walk down the street and put them on the post of your door. And bind them as a sign on your hand. Israel whatever you do don’t forget to be thankful. God was so concerned that they would forget that He had them put a pile of rocks at the Jordan crossing and a pile of rocks in the mist of the river. He had a sacrifice of thanksgiving set up in their laws so that Israel would have a chance to remember. God didn’t want them to become unthankful and forget.

But then as you read in the book of Judges there arose a generation that didn’t know about the Lord or any of the mighty works that was done in Israel. Why? People become unthankful and forgot to tell it to their children what God had done. When the children hear a constant flow of how bad it was and what one doesn’t have. How others are better off or how miserable your life is. This complaining caused a spirit of un-thankfulness to arise in the next generation. They did  not know of the wonderful power of God. If you want your children to know about Jesus and live for Him you will have to make sure they know about the blessings in your life. A spirit of being unthankful will make them forget the Lord.

The writer of Psalms tells why we keep an attitude of gratitude in Psalm 78:6-7

That the generation to come might know them, the children who would be born, that they may arise and declare them to their children, that they may set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;

Tell about the wonders of God again.

Tell about being healed and delivered from sin.

Tell about answered prayers and miracles.

Tell about the night you repented and were baptized.

Tell about holy encounters with the Lord and fresh directions.

Tell about songs sung and stories told.

Remind the generations to come how God has touched your life and made a difference.

Keep the stories alive lest we forget and become unthankful.

Be thankful for family blessings and healings.

Be thankful for blessed opportunities and a fresh chance.

Be thankful for financial blessings and help in time of need.

Be thankful for every touch and every hug.

Whatever you do don’t forget to be thankful.

Remember what God has done lest we forget the Lord. If it wasn’t for the Lord where would you be? There has been a change and I want those following me to know God has been real good to me! I can’t forget! I refuse to complain with a spirit of being unthankful.

It for this reason I so enjoy how we had church in our Sunday evening’s service. Jessica’s personal testimony left me with a lifted spirit and being thankful for the wonderful things of God. My wife and I talked about it all the way home. As I looked at that line of people across the front of the church, people that have walked through our doors in the last year and made it home, may heart was over joyed. It is so easy to get caught up in the day to day and forget God is doing great things. God is making a difference in lives even if we are not paying attention.

So when was the last time you looked at how God is blessing you?

If you can’t see the blessings of God maybe you have your definition of blessings wrong. Maybe you have been sowing some wrong decisions in your life that have started to come up and now you have some struggles. That in its self is a blessing because it’s a promise from the Word of God. There to remind us we need to change. God, whispering into our life that we need some different life actions.  

How long has it been since you looked back down the road of your yesterdays and saw again where you came from? You haven’t always been what you are today. God has had His hand on you through the ups and the downs of life. God has blessed you and kelp you when everything around you seemed to fail. Sin didn’t destroy you though it tried. Life didn’t rob you though it irritated you. Look again at how God has touched you.

The next generation around you are making future plans in their life according to the thankfulness of your heart. Your children are setting a direction for tomorrow according to what you are talking about. What do you want them to remember? The wonderful hand of God or the unthankful complaint of your lips? They are heeding one or the other and we all will know soon enough. I challenge you to make the spirit of your life a thankful one, because the unthankful lives end up in the wrong place.

Ungrateful, Stop Wasting My Days

We are now officially in the Christmas Season. With Thanksgiving behind us we are now enjoying the many events that make up the Christmas Holiday. I so much enjoy this time of year. From Thanksgiving all the way through New Year’s is an exciting time for me. This time of year can truly be a time when we shine the power of God, the true meaning of Christmas. Yet, this is hard when we lack a true feeling of gratitude.

The world around us will continually throw junk our way to cause us to lose an attitude of gratitude. If we allow it we will find ourselves caught up in the spirit of this world and missing the whole reason for the season. Last week I received an email from the Pastor’s Coach; in it the writer had some things that block a feeling of gratitude in our living. Things that get in our way and side track us from being all Jesus wants us to be. The writer also gave some gratitude builders, things to help us build that feeling and spirit of being truly thankful. I thought I would share them with you this week. Maybe they will help keep the right focus on the reason for this season. Jesus!

Gratitude Blockers

• Isolation

If you are withdrawn from healthy relationships, to any degree, your gratitude will begin to decline. You were never intended to live within any sense of isolation. Sometimes however, people hide. They pull back and self-protect. Most people do "hide", on rare occasion, but only for a short period of time. People who get stuck in that pattern of behavior begin to hide (not be their true self) more as a lifestyle. This can be due to pressure, insecurity, and sometimes because they have been hurt or betrayed by others. There are many possibilities. But the point is that without consistent mature friendships and solid family connection, the natural result within the human psyche is to become needy (genuine need of relationship) and therefore making it difficult to be grateful.

• Fatigue

On the surface this gratitude blocker appears more simplistic. In reality you are tired. Simple enough. But why are you tired? How long have you been tired? How long does it take to restore your battery? Can you restore your battery? There is a difference between two common realities. The first is working a good long day and being exhausted, but with a good night's sleep you are fresh and ready to go again. The second reality is that no amount of sleep seems to give you a rested feeling. Stress in life and ministry can do that, and when that happens, gratitude is far from your mind. You are likely to go, albeit subtly, into survival mode and there is no energy left for being grateful. Establishing normal work and rest rhythms along with healthy relationships is essential.

• Myopia (Nearsightedness)

I wear glasses and my vision condition has been described as functional myopia. Years of a very focused and close up world, (people and study), has caused my eyes to see well close up, but far away things become blurry. Some people see life that way. It's possible for them to adapt and get accustomed only to their own way of thinking. They may have trouble with wider views and bigger pictures. When this happens your perspective can become distorted and it's easy to slip into a complaining mode. (Things just won't always go your way.) This can grow to frustration, and even negativity. To the degree any of this happens, gratitude is at a minimum difficult if not impossible as a way of life. People must always work on seeing the big picture.

Gratitude Builders

• Awareness

At times I think I move so fast, that the speed of life causes me to miss the good things and the things of beauty right around me. It's easy to find compassion and gratitude within me when I travel internationally, especially to third world countries. There is an immediate and inescapable awareness of all the blessings that I have in life, and potentially take for granted. I am so grateful in those moments. But I don't live there; I live in a land of plenty, in fact, a land of excess. I can get accustomed to this as normal, and then expected. When a blessed lifestyle is taken for granted and expected, gratitude begins to decline and it's replaced with complaining. That is a sad way to live. I try to live aware of the many good and wonderful things around me every day. They are good gifts from the Father above, and I am truly grateful. That is a great way to live.

• Intentionality

Essentially gratitude is a choice. I can choose to be unhappy or grateful. (Most ungrateful people are unhappy people.) It really is that simple. It's not always that easy, but it is that simple. Each day when I get up I can choose to be thankful for what I have or focus on what I don't have. That is true for you too. I was once challenged at a retreat to make a list of everything I have that I'm grateful for, and the challenge was to list everything. So I started writing. By the time I had filled three pages, single-spaced, I got the message. I set my pen down and was quiet before the Lord. Embarrassed for ever focusing on what I don't have, I resolved to focus on all I do have!

• Worship

Psalm 100, one of my favorite Psalms, says it well. "Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth.  2. Worship the LORD with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. 3. Know that the LORD is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. 4. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. 5. For the LORD is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations."

We are wise to enthusiastically worship our great God! Scripture calls us to be intentionally happy and joyful in our praise. Yes, there are dark days, but take those to God too. He made us, knows us, and loves us! God is good and faithful! When that is the disposition of your heart and mine, we will both find gratitude a natural part of our life as Christians.

I hope you found this as helpful as I did. I challenge you not to waste the coming weeks by being ungrateful.

A Daily Dose Of Gratitude

In the coming day many across our country will celebrate Thanksgiving. Personally it is one of my favorite times of the year. Yet, even though we will have such a celebration, as a nation we have become often unthankful it seems. Few will stop long enough to allow a true spirit of gratitude to touch their heart. Many will never stop to be truly thankful for the blessing in their life. The Apostle Paul warns us in his last letter to Timothy that the last days would be filled with sinful actions of life. In the mist of the Apostle’s list of corrupt actions is unthankfulness. Yes, we truly live in such a day. (2 Timothy 3:1-5)

Being thankful is important to God. Throughout the scriptures we are encouraged and challenged to bring an offering (spirit) of thanksgiving. In Leviticus God laid out instructions as to how the people of Israel were to bring such an offering of Thanksgiving. In chapter seven details are given as how they were to prepare it and then how the offering of Thanksgiving was to be used entirely in the day it was given. They were to use up the offering before the next morning. (Leviticus 7:12-15) The spirit of thanksgiving was to start fresh in the day. Later God tells Moses that one was to offer the offering of thanksgiving of their own will. (Leviticus 22:29). Throughout the rest of the Old Testament one can find God’s people bringing such a gift.

I feel it’s important to realize that God wants us to have a thankful heart, a thankful spirit. Yet, it can never be a forced thing. A grateful heart has to be one of true and pure gratitude. Not a feeling because someone made me feel guilty. Real thanksgiving must be truly from the heart and of one’s own will. Another thing it needs to be a daily thing. A heart of gratitude needs to come fresh every morning. It is the spirit of this sinful world that causes us to be unthankful.

So I want to challenge you to lose feelings of bitterness, hate, feeling sorry for yourself, worry and fear that rob us from true gratitude. We can let life cause us to live with gritted teeth so that we become one with this world’s spirit of being unthankful. Yes, everyone has struggles and you may feel yours is worse than everyone else. Yet, you are not alone in your problems, people will get up in the morning and face things we can’t imagine facing. Yet, in the darkest hour one can find many things to be thankful over. A thankful heart seems to make the sun come up in one’s life. I found the following story that was told by Dr. Norman Vincent Peal. It shows how a thankful heart can change a dark life.

The story is of a man who was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. This man had been a vital, dynamic individual. Now he had become an empty shell of a man. Then someone suggested that the way for him to avoid further breakdown and be healed was by the practice of what is called the attitude of gratitude.

He was advised to sit down and make a list of all the people who had helped him over the years. Then he was to fill his mind with thankfulness for all that these men and women had done for him. He was asked if he had ever thanked anyone for what he or she had done for him.

“No,” he said, “I never really laid much stress on that.”

The next advice was to think of someone who had especially blessed his life and send that person a letter of thanks. He thought of a schoolteacher who was now elderly. He sat down and wrote a letter telling her that he remembered all the inspiration she has given him, that he had never forgotten her over the years and how much he loved her. A few days later, he received a letter written in a trembling hand. Using his boyhood name, it said, “Dear Willy, when I think back over all the children I have taught in my life time, you are the only one who ever wrote to thank me for what I did as a teacher. You have made me so happy. I read your letter every night. I will cherish your words until the day I die.”

This did so much for the man that he thought of someone else to write to. Then someone else came to mind and before he was through he had written 500 unexpected letters of thanks and appreciation. And the therapy of thanksgiving had much to do with curing him of his nervous depression. It lifted him above himself and into the secret of real living. He was grateful from that time on for every new day, and lived life to its fullest.

I have thought back of those who have touched my life.  I have dug through some files and desks draws and looked at old letters. I have walked down memory lane a bit. I told myself I couldn’t become unthankful. I can’t allow such a spirit to grip my heart. I cannot allow this worlds thinking to grab my heart and cause me to forget all my wonderful gifts that God has made sure touched my life. I have to make sure I’m grateful every day that I know how to say Thank You from my heart.

As I looked back I thought of;

My Parents, My Grand Parents.

The first Sunday School teacher I ever remember. My first school teachers.

My first youth leader. A dean at church camp, a softball coach at church camp.

The evangelist that first preached me to an altar. A camp evangelist that shook my life with his preaching. Another camp evangelist that preached me to a life changing commitment.

Those who have taught me, trained me, lead me, and showed me how to live for God.

A young lady, who impressed me, loved me and became my wife.

My children. My father in law and mother in law. My brother and sisters, my brother-in-laws and sisters-in-laws. The first people I pastored. An elder who wrote me a letter of encouragement. A leader who sent me a note to tell me he believed in me. A friend who took time to thank me for being a friend. The list seemed to run on and on. I didn’t get here by myself. There are a lot of fingerprints on my life. To which I am grateful! I Thank God for how far I have come. I am grateful that He touched my life.

As I look at my life I realize I cannot take on the spirit of the world and become unthankful.

I need to say Thank You. I will need another dose of thanksgiving in the morning. I want to live with a grateful heart.

Let me finish this with a thought from my wife from some years back.

I sat here today with a few moments to myself and followed a story.  The message was of eternal value.  It reached into every avenue of our life, our family, friends, and any other relationships that we might have.  The premise of the story was what would you say if you knew you only had three minutes left to live?  Who would you need to leave a message for, to forgive, or just hold close one more time?  In the busy world that we live in we have every advantage to communicate with people and yet we communicate less than ever before.  We think about doing things like calling or writing a note but we so seldom take that moment of time and let someone else know how we really feel.  Why is that when most of us cherish those few handwritten letters we received while dating, or letters from fathers while they were away at war or just away.  I imagine somewhere you’ve seen such a bundle of letters tied with a ribbon, saved in a special place.  I know I seen such bundles and I have such bundles.  Those from my father who was serving his family and country and those I received from that young man who became my husband and those I’ve since received from my husband. 

So if you only had a few moments left and just a paper napkin to write on, what would you write?  Who would you need to say those last words to? You have been given this space of time, this 24 hours, this day, don’t waste the time.  Use it to tell your family you love them and how much they mean to you.  You just might find the effort comes full circle and instead of you blessing someone else, in the writing or saying of those words you find a blessing for yourself.

You’ve just been given three minutes…what are you waiting for?

~ Stephanie Crabtree

Happy Thanksgiving

Jesus Would Love The Holidays

Sadly, many people believe that privacy and solitude is the pinnacle of success.

We see ads for people who have allegedly achieved financial freedom; a couple in their mid-sixties, alone on a secluded beach front property. We assume they arrived at perfection by leaving humanity behind. Isn’t that just like the marketers today? Knowing our exhaustive lifestyles, they paint seclusion as some definitive reward.  We’ve been sold the falsehood that solace and security is the source of pleasure.

And why should it be any other way? When we’re together all we do is get on each other’s nerves. People pull out in front of us. They are rude to us in the grocery store. They say harsh words (and that’s putting it mildly!). They don’t seem to care whether anyone else lives or dies.

Yes, it’s really that way right now as the Holiday Season begins to crank it up. People’s fuses get shorter and people set up their days to become very broken. Really though if there was ever a time that true Christians could make a difference it’s this time of year.

Someone wrote the following article packed with truth...

One day I hopped in a taxi and we took off for the airport. We
were driving in the right lane when suddenly a black car jumped out
of a parking space right in front of us. My taxi driver slammed
on his brakes, skidded, and missed the other car by just inches!
The driver of the other car whipped his head around and started
yelling at us. My taxi driver just smiled and waved at the guy.
And I mean, he was really friendly. So I asked, 'Why did you just
do that? This guy almost ruined your car and sent us to the
hospital!' This is when my taxi driver taught me what I now call,
'The Law of the Garbage Truck.'

He explained that many people are like garbage trucks. They run
around full of garbage, full of frustration, full of anger, and
full of disappointment. As their garbage piles up, they need a
place to dump it and sometimes they'll dump it on you. Don't take
it personally. Just smile, wave, wish them well, and move on.

Don't take their garbage and spread it to other people at work, at
home, or on the streets.

The bottom line is that successful people do not let garbage trucks
take over their day. Life's too short to wake up in the morning
with regrets, so... Love the people who treat you right. Pray
for the ones who don't.

Life is ten percent what you make it and ninety percent how you
take it!
Now ... go have yourself a blessed, garbage-free day!

Wow, now that’s one way to look at life.

Yet, because of life, people and our own self-centeredness, we more-times-than-not live life without being connected to people.

As you run head long in to the Holiday Season you will have chance after chance to touch the lives around you as Christ did. Yet at the same time you will be tempted to shut off your world and allow very few into your life. Jesus would never do that. I believe Jesus would have relished the Holiday Season. With all of its chances for it to be Jesus and people and people and Jesus, our Lord would have enjoyed the holidays immensely. Yet, we tend to with dread walk out into this world and into one of the greatest chances to do what Jesus would do, Love People.

If we are not careful we will be dreading Holiday meals and parties. We may even tend to blame our feeling on all the sinners at those events. (Another thing Jesus would have never done.) Really our feelings are because we have been trained by our world to be selfish. So, what do we do about it?

First pray for yourself every day. Repent and continually ask God to help you get past you. Then work at it and do your part to change. Yet you will never make it through the Holidays with a Christ-like spirit if you don’t have daily prayer in your life. You are not talented and smart enough to make it on your own. No one is, just look around you at how this world is doing without Jesus. So first, Pray!

Second remember people matter to Jesus. You may not like people but Jesus loves people. I can’t see how we can be Christ-like and not love people. Have you ever wished or prayed that God would save your family, touch your relatives? Why not allow Him a place to start this Holiday Season, that being through you? Yes, people matter and we need to act like they matter. Be sincere when you visit. Stop looking over their shoulder and away from them. Look people in the eye when you talk to them. Yes, remember people matter.

Third, get in front of a mirror and practice smiling and being pleasant. You may have to really work on this one. Our life actions can often make our words blush if the two are not properly aligned. God forgive us if our words are poetically pointed towards others, yet our actions are self-centered and us-oriented. Yes, you will have to work on this before you go out. It’s just as important as getting you appearance all prettied up. So spend some time polishing the rough edges and wrinkles out of your attitude before you leave the house.

So let’s have a happy Holiday Season, a joyful Thanksgiving and a meaningful Christmas with all the events and fun crammed in between. Let’s make sure we enjoy it as much as Jesus would. It will be full of chances to make a BIG difference in the lives of people!

Jesus would have loved this time of year. No, He loves this time of year.

How Do The Clouds Look To You?

We were on our way to church the sky was bright blue where you could see it. Large white clouds lay heavily across the sky. They seem to pile up high like big balls of cotton taking every shape imaginable. To me, the adult in the car those clouds meant something. Rain possible storms and wind even a chance of a severe hail and cloud burst.

To the children in the car they missed seeing the chance for rain. They didn’t know about the fact that some of those clouds were the tops of thunderstorms. To the children in the car they didn’t understand that wind and possible damaging hail could come from those clouds.

Instead of a storm they saw a funny face in the clouds. In place of a thunderstorm they saw little boats with sails. Instead of the wind and hail they saw a monkey with a ball.

In place of a cloud burst they saw puffy white balls of cotton and wish they could walk and climb on the top of those clouds.

We saw two totally different things.

One saw the possible chance of a storm and destruction; the other saw the possible chance for a daydream and a smile. As I listened to them describe what they saw and with excitement describe each little face and ball of puff I got caught up in their excitement and started looking for the monkey and the little boat. I even ask them to show me so I could laugh too but I couldn’t seem to see it. After a few seconds of trying I gave up and listen as on they described every detail, yet I couldn’t see a thing but a possible storm. Why didn’t they worry about the storm? They knew it was Daddy’s job and they left that worry to their father. After a few minutes I ask myself this question, How do the Clouds Look to You?

Yes, it is the adult thing to plan and see the troubled times that are coming. Yes, it’s the grown-up way to watch for the storms. Yes, it is the adult level of maturity that causes us to understand the severity of a problem and plan for its destruction. Yes, we should watch and plan for the winds of life we would be foolish to not plan on storms.

Yet, could it be that God would make our life a whole lot more peaceful if we would just learn to trust our Heavenly Father and understand yes, it may be a storm but My Heavenly Dad is with me and He will watch for the storms. Then we could enjoy all the little sail boats and puffy white cotton. How do the Clouds Look to You?

Children look at life different than adults. Children except pain and struggle and go on enjoying life. Children will look at problems and believe anyone that tells them that the problem can be put down or pushed aside. That is why children believe in Super Heroes and Fairy Tales.

A child will see a coming storm and question if we are going to get wet. If an adult tells them it’s going the other way they go back to playing as if the storm is not there. It is the adult in us that question the coming storm and when told it more-than-likely won’t come this way we say, “Oh but it could.” The report might not be bad, “But oh it could be.” It’s the adult that will go on with, “We might get wet, no, we more than likely will get wet, no, we will get caught in the storm and…” By the time we finish thinking about it we have ourselves believing that we and everyone else believing will get wet in the storm that might be coming our way.

Could it be that this is what Jesus was trying to tell us when He said “…except you become as a little child and trust me and what I’m doing in your life your not going to make it in the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 18:3-4)

How do the Clouds Look to You?

I watched one day as a cloud burst caught my two youngest children, Jessica and Bryan, when they were little tots. They were playing in our barn that is away from the house. After watching it pour down for a bit they quickly decided to make a run for the house. As they made their break for the house the rain really started to fall. About half way to the house there is a little tree and they made a race for it. They stopped and tried to find shelter under the tree but the rain was really falling now and it offered little break from the storm. So again they made a break for the house, this time half way to the house they stopped and just started spinning and enjoying the water. What had started, as a storm in their life was now nothing but a big sprinkler to get wet in. They danced and played in the rain. So as the adult in their life I told them to stop and get in out of the rain. Yes, I know I ruined it all.

Sometimes in this process called life we need to stop and just realize how blessed we are and how far we have come and realize it’s just water, it’s just life. It’s just rain. It’s just what comes with living. We can get so caught up in the process, in trying to make the whole picture come together perfect and make everything work just right that we miss the success of the moment or the blessing of the day. God when creating this world stopped at the end of every day and enjoyed what He had just created and said it was good. The Almighty took time every day of creation to finish that day by enjoy the moment.

Maybe it was for this reason that King David while bringing back the Ark of God, stopped every 6 paces and built an altar so he could thank God for the last six steps of blessings in his life and what God had just done. There were those who no doubt told David we have a long ways to go.

There were probably those who said; “I don’t know what he is all excited about.” There were no doubt people around that said that it was childlike and not very mature. There were those who questioned his worship and all but said it was childish. Yes, there were clouds and things to accomplish and things to get done and lives to live. Yes, there was a kingdom to rule and enemy to defeat. Yes, David had much that needed his attention and life was not working just like he planned. But I can hear him maybe ask, How do the Clouds Look to You?

Are you seeing only the rain and the wind or can you see the little sailboat and the monkey with a ball? How do the clouds look to you?

We will each come to the closing days of our life. We will find our self with really only four things that matters in those closing days.

1.      The Almighty God so build a great relationship with Him.

2.      Yourself so become someone you like and enjoy being.

3.      Your companion so build a love to last a life time.

4.      Your memories so take lots of picture with you in them.

How do the Clouds Look to You?

Whoa, I Missed All That

It started with a tweet from my daughter Jessica. Jessica had our almost three year old niece stay at her house the other night. Jessica tweeted that during the ride in the car she listened to the little girl giggles coming from the back seat and how they made her smile. In my mind I pictured Haden giggling and laughing in excitement as she went to spend the night with Jessie. I bet it was a blast being at Jessica’s house! The tweet made me smile.

It was then that it hit me like a ton of bricks. I have raised three children. I have years of car seats buckled in the back seat of our vehicles. Two girls and one boy, that meant one thing to me that day. I have had a lot of giggling and laughing going on in my back seat, but try as I might I couldn’t recall any of them. I started desperately running down memory lane trying to think about events and the years attached to when my children were little. It was then the slap came. Whoa, I missed all that?

I stood with my arm around a young man in our church this weekend and listen to him worry about the expense attached to raising children. He is about to be a dad for the first time. (Congratulations Trea and Holly) I told him if you wait until you can afford children you will never have children. Yes, I know one needs to prepare financially and plan well in this area. But Children are expensive, but they are worth every cent. But I am afraid that we tend to focus on the chore so much that we miss too many sweet moments. I know I did. Now I set here struggling to remember things I know happened but “Whoa I missed all that!”

I have spent many evening at dinner lately enjoying conversations with my oldest daughter Rachel. Each event if filled with meaningful and memory making talk. Looking back from here at her life I can recall a few moments here and there of her growing up. They make me smile. But there are a lot of weeks, months and years between the recalled events. I know she laughed and giggled through her childhood like any little girl but “Whoa I missed all that somehow”. Really, it’s easy to understand. Rachel and I were talking the other day about a vacation our family took through eight states pulling our camper. She began to tell me what she remembered most and etched in her memory was me being upset and tense because of some truck trouble. Looking back it wasn’t a big deal. We had to replace a tire on the camper that about blew out and the starter on the truck that died in South Dakota. Both were very fixable. So why didn’t I recall the laughs and giggles? I was too frustrated because something in life went a little wrong. Yes, the expense touched our vacation but why were we there any way? To blow money or to spend time together. So in all my fretting (Stop acting like you don’t do this) I missed a bunch of moments I will never get back. All I can say is “Whoa I missed all of that.”

My son came home a few weeks back on a weekend break from his internship out of state. I was able to spend a half a day just he and I doing ministry and talking. It was memory making and a wonderful blessing. I looked back from that day to try to remember some other times in my life being in his day. The first one that came to mind caused me to have to go back eighteen years. He was a little tot and we went to spend the morning in the woods. There he filled his little pockets with acre-nuts as he called them (acorns). He came home thrilled with all his finds. That was wonderful. But I am sure between then and today there were many laughs and special moments. I can recall a few here and there but again there are months, no years between the events. “Whoa I missed all that?”

What do I remember about all those years with little kids in my back seat? Things like, working hard many hours trying to be the providing Dad. Many times I only saw his children asleep because I left before they woke up and came home after they were in bed. Stressing over how to pay a bill or make enough money so we could have a better house like my friends. Working in ministry and driving all over the northern part of the state to be a good leader. Stressing over how I wasn’t getting the breaks as we called them and wondering why I wasn’t pastoring a larger church. Yes, I was consumed with things and making sure I came off as the perfect preacher. Looking back today I can remember much about those things. It took an emotional crash and later heart disease to get my focus. Today I realize I missed a lot of the really precious moments because they simply seemed too juvenile and immature of me for the moment. But they were not; they were powerful loving moments that could have lasted a life time if I would have stopped long enough to hear them.

Yes, I believe we should try hard. Reach as high as we can and accomplish great things in God. I believe one should work hard and use their God given talents to produce. There is nothing wrong with having better things as long as the Kingdom of God is first in our lives. But I feel our lives would be so much better if we could learn to stop missing the important stuff. Giggles, laughing and smiles are God produced. They come from the created being He has blessed our lives with. All too often while we are caught up in a moment of being important or working hard and being what we call spiritual we miss some glorious times God designed for us. Moments right there in our children, our grandchildren or a child that Jesus has allowed to walk through our life. We miss the giggles coming from the back seat.

As I have watched our children’s team here at FPB this week end put on our annual Kid’s Crusade and watch children respond to Jesus, it is easy to understand Mark 18:17. We adults desperately need to hear the chatter and voices of children in our lives. They help us understand how to approach God. Listen, and listen close, there might be a giggle coming from your back seat as you rush to accomplish that important life you are trying to create. Listen closes there just might be a belly laugh and child chatter in your life that God put there to brighten your day or point you in the right direction. Don’t get so caught up with grabbing all the stuff and becoming important that you miss some of the most wonderful sounds from heaven. If you don’t stop and listen you will end up where I am and saying, “Whoa I missed all of that?”

An Altar For Every Place

This is some of my notes from last Wednesday’s Bible Study. For you that were there allow me to refresh your memory. For you who were not let this give you courage to build an altar everywhere life finds you.

I remember listening as My Dad told how his mother stayed close to God in those years she couldn’t attend church. She had gone to a revival over in eastern Arkansas and there received the Holy Ghost, after enjoying the services she had to return home. Her home was a little farm in the hills of north central Arkansas. There was not a church the preached and believed in the infilling of the Holy Ghost close. The closest one was hours away by the way they had to travel. Even though she was only able to attend a church service a few times in a two year time period, she held on to God and kept her walk for God sure. Her faith didn’t seem to waver or her commitment didn’t wax cold. One of her daughters once asks her how she was able to stay close to God with no church to attend. To which my grandmother replied, the fields, the trees, the rocks the streams became my church. She had church and altars to Jesus all over the place in the back hills of that farming community.

I know there were hard times. I have heard of some of the struggles. Life threw both good days and bad times at her. There were dry times and cold days, there were problems and pain along with victory and happiness. There were loses and fires, deaths and sickness, there was family pressures and difficulty and time with no answers. There were joyful times and times of laughing and celebration. Wherever life found my grandmother she made an altar there. It was the only way she could stay close to God. She made an altar for every place life handed her. Because of her ability to build an altar and worship and pray to the Almighty she walked through this life for over 90 years and finished her course with joy and full of faith.

Life is full of all types of events, happenings and struggles. As we walk through it we have to deal with many things from day to day. Yet, we must always remember that we have a call and direction from God on our life to follow Him. I want Jesus to order my steps daily so I must plan on building an altar, finding a place to pray where ever life find me on this journey.

In Genesis chapter 12 we find the first recorded time that Abraham ever made an altar to God.

He has just been called to follow God. His calling is new and his ability to follow the hand of Lord is fresh. He has started a journey he has never walked. He has left the comforts of familiar surroundings and is following the directing hand of God.

Abram get to a place called Sichem (SIGH kem) that is located in a plane called Moreh (MOH reh). Sichem meant; The place to shoulder a burden. Moreh meant; Teaching and Early rain.

So for Abram’s first altar it was at an area where life gave a lesson and rain came sooner or things happen quicker than expected. Also there was a burden to shoulder a place of heaviness. At this place in his life Abram builds an altar. Oh yes, God gives him a promise that his children would have the land, there was promise and blessings but it is a place to shoulder a burden and a place unexpected happenings, a place where life lessons were learned.

Sometimes life hands you the expected. There are times in life when we get life lessons. There are places of life where we must shoulder a burden and carry a load. But if you are to stay close to God you will have to build an altar in that place of burden, life lessons and unexpected events.

Will it be easy? No. But our goal is to finish our course. Our goal is to follow our call so we build an altar anyway and worship the Almighty. We can’t stop so the only option is to grow so we build an altar to talk to God.

Later on Abram builds his second altar in a nameless place. There is no name given for the place of this altar. It has not a point of reference except that it is somewhere between Bethel and Hai. (Genesis 12:8) Bethel meant; The House of God. Hai meant; ruined by being overturned, a heap. Somewhere is a place with no reference or name, between the House of God and a ruined overturned heap, Abram builds an altar. The Bible says Bethel is on the west of his altar towards the setting sun. Hai is on the east of his altar the direction of the rising sun. Bethel is where his days are headed. Hai is where his days are coming from. Bethel is where the presences of God can always be found. It’s where God lives. Bethel has hope attached to it. The House of God is where promise and life everlasting is found. Yet on the other hand Hai is a place where someone messed up. A place where someone overturned life and it was left a ruined heap. It is between these two places of extreme, one of hope and promise and one of frustrating failure that Abram builds an altar to the Lord and the Bibles says he called on the Lord there.

We often get many of these places in our life. Places just outside the House of God where we know there is promise. Just before the day brings a blessed place where God is, life hangs up there. Behind us is a failing place or a ruined overturned heap. There are the piled remains of something that didn’t turn out right or something that should not have been. Maybe an event that was not our doing but it’s there a ruined pile of yesterday’s treasures. You still need to build and altar there. It’s still important that you worship and cry out to the Almighty. It may seem like you are caught in no man’s land but pray anyway. It feels empty and you just don’t feel like it but pray.

Yet, there is something else about this place.  When you call on God there is no direction and no promises given. Abram didn’t get any blessings or assurance at this no named place. Heaven seemed to be quite. But be careful how you walk away from this altar. Don’t become frustrated by the lack of the voice of direction and the dryness of the time. God is still in control even though from this place in your life it may seem otherwise. You need to heed a warning about this eventless place of your life. Stay faithful here. Abram walked away from this altar and into sin.

Not only is this area of Abram’s life eventless and silent but there is also a famine, a severe time of need around him. He makes a decision and turns towards Egypt or away from the call of God.

Be warned during a time of silence from God, a time when there is not direction and you are just trying to catch your breath over a messy yesterday. A time when everything just seems like nothing and there is dryness and need, be sure you don’t turn away from your call and towards this world. A what’s-the-use feel will take hold of you in these places of your life and if you turn away from your call you will only find sin with it many repercussions attached to it. Just ask Abram.  There was a lie, a wrong action that almost turned to a moral issue that could have ended Abram’s call. Oh it all looked good at the start but it ends with disgrace and bitterness.

Then the next chapter of his life says that he is very blessed and he goes back to his last altar that place between Bethel and Hai and calls on the Lord. He has to put his wasted time behind him and started to where God had him last. Again there is no answer that we know of, no promise or special direction yet Abram builds and altar. We just know the blessings of God are now greatly on his life. Life now is good, better than it has ever been. Yet there still in no special word but this time Abram leaves this altar right. No matter how blessed we are we must always be willing to build an altar.

The next time we see Abram building an altar his life is torn he is having family problems.

Lot, part of his family, has quarreled with Abram and now they have separated. Lot has gone toward the well-watered planes and Abram is left with the other direction. He is no doubt troubled and shaken. It is at this time that God shows back up and adds to the promise He gave to Abram. God expands the blessings and touches Abram with fresh direction. It is at this time of shaking and trouble that Abram builds an altar in a place called Mamre (MAM rih), it meant vigor and robust, it comes from a word that means to lash one’s self with wings like an ostrich running. At a time of confusion and shaking God gives a promise and fresh direction and an altar that put a new vigor and cause one to spur themselves on.

No matter how troubling it looks, hold on to the direction God has given you and wait on Him. He will come through with fresh direction and a greater promise to touch you. Build you an altar to put firmness and stability in your life. Build your altar with vigor and strength. You will have to build an altar here if you plan to stay close to God. Yes, there may be trouble. There may be family problems that leaves you staggered. There may be issues that try to take your faith. But God has His hand on you. The blessings of the Almighty are still yea and so-be-it. Build you an altar and get a firm vigorous hold on your call. Spur your life into action towards God. Build you an altar at this place of your life. Don’t mope around that altar and feel sorry for yourself, no push back with God’s strength and lift up your life.

The next time we see him build an altar his name has changed. He is now Abraham and there is a promise child at his side. What makes this altar different though is the fact that in most of the times past God blessed or speaks to him and then he build the altar. This time God tells him where to build the altar and who to put on it but there is no blessing or word until after the altar is built. At a place called Moriah that meant Jehovah provides. God tells Abraham to offer his promise to Him. Everything that God seemed to have planned, the entire direction that seems to be set, God seems about to destroy it all at one altar. But unknown to Abraham while he struggles up Moriah with his heavy heart and questioning mind, God is preparing a substitute.

God stops Abraham from destroying the promise and says now I know that you will hold nothing back from me. God again renews the promise and again expands the blessing.

God tells Abraham when I bless I will bless you. When I multiply I will multiply you and the whole world will be blessed because of you.

Life will bring all types of places. Good days and bad, times of Joy and times of sadness. There will be times of strength and times of weakness. But one thing we must do is build an altar at every place in our life.

Tomorrow Matters Today

The potential of the plant is often not seen in the smallness of the seed. Yet, there tucked away in the DNA fabric of the seed is a plant that can produce hundreds of times over its self. Though not seen or noticed the potential is there if it is handled right.

All around our lives every day are decisions we make with the seeds of promise. Some in our lives personally and some in the lives of others we will touch with our words, decisions and our actions. Though today, they often don’t look so important, the potential of those seeds are there. The Word of God promises they will come up in our lives. Both the good ones and the not-so-good ones. Galatians 6:7 Yes, the potential of the plant is often not seen in the seeds of today.

A few weeks ago I reminded the church I pastor that Tomorrow matters Today. The seed of our future are sown in the furrows of today. Yes, yesterday’s actions, decisions, matter much in tomorrow or our future. And again we often miss the potential of the plant just looking at the seed. It is for this reason that we follow the will and calling of God in our lives. Life changes. Dreams fail to happen. Plans get altered by events, health and finances. Yes, this life will fool you and throw you an unexpected day. But the person who does the will of God will abide forever. Oh you think that statement sound like a fairy tale. Look at who said it and when he wrote it.

His family was fisherman. They were business people. He was no doubt an ambitious young man. He was no doubt a man that not only wanted to get ahead but knew how to get there. His family’s fishing business was pretty large because the writer of the Gospel of Mark tells us that they had people working with them in the family business. He was more-than-likely not the eldest son because when Matthew, Mark and Luke tell of his family he is always mentioned last. His name is John and though the other three gospel writers tell of his calling John for some reason seems to leave it out. But when we get to his letter that bears his name in first John he is an old man. He is in the dwindling years of his life. John seems to look back over the road he has traveled. He no doubt sees things that at the time he really didn’t think they were a big deal. Yet from where he is now looking back he sees how important every day is. John no doubt looks at all that he reached for and maybe felt at a time he just couldn’t live without but looking back from an elder age he now knows they are but dust in the wind. It is probably from this stand point he writes;

And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. 1John 2:17  NKJV

A man that was once a strong, robust business man full of ambition, time has now drew lines all through his body. Time has taken his strength and robbed him of his ability. Time has left him weak and very creased. When John writes his book, Pilate is dead; Herod the Great has been eaten by worms. All the other disciples are now gone the way of a martyrs death and wait for him on the other side of eternity. Jerusalem now lies in waste. What is now left of the nation of Israel was no doubt somewhat scattered. Everything has changed. Everything that John had been tempted to run after is now gone. Everything he had been tempted to seek after in a younger day is now just dust left over from a crumbled dream. Those things that seemed so important to him now seem so frivolous and just a passing thought.  The family business without a doubt is now gone. Life in his home town is an economic struggle since Rome’s take-over throughout the land. Yes, life is nothing like he thought it would be in his younger days. Yet John is not caught in all that.  John is finishing his course is such fashion as to make Heaven his home.

This is because John remembers a day as if it were yesterday when a man called Jesus walked into his life and said follow me. A tug was placed on his life and a commitment grabbed his heart. That call weathered all the changes in his life and caused him to survive modernism and changing times. That called caused him to survive being boiled in a pot of oil and an island call Patmos. A call that not only came but as Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded, that day, when Jesus said follow me, John left it all and followed Jesus. That day changed everything because the actions of today have a great bearing on how our tomorrows turn out. John started pursuing Jesus and Jesus started pursuing John.

Yes, the potential of the plant of tomorrow is often not seen in the seed of today. Yes, there are a lot of important things that will race through your today. I am not attempting to make light of any of them. But as you rush through your day beware lest you rush past some small seeds that will come up in tomorrow. Yet how those seeds are handled say much about how their hidden potential will be produced. Along that same thinking we may sow some seeds we just soon never come up as we run through our wants and desires. Yet the law of the harvest is still on. What ever gets sown hast to be dealt with after it comes up. Good and bad. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.” Galatians 6:7-8 NKJV 

In 1807 in the town of Stratford, Virginia, there was a baby boy born to the Lee family. His parents called him Robert. The next year deep within Kentucky there was a baby boy born named Jefferson, to the Davis family. That same year in Raleigh, North Carolina another baby boy was born to the Jackson family and his parents named him Andrew. The next year of 1809 a boy was born to a very poor sharecropper family in the hills of Kentucky. The child was called Abraham, his families last name was Lincoln.

No one really noticed save a few family members and friend that these little boys had been born. No one wrote about their births in the great news print of the times. No one declared the promise of these tiny lives to come. No, everyone one was more concerned about a powerful man marching across the east named Napoleon Bonaparte. Reporters empty their ink wells on stories of how he would rule the world. No one even noticed a few little boys toddling around little yards and cabins. Little boys that would one day change the direction of the United States forever. In just a few short years the world conqueror is defeated and lives his last days in prison. There he dies of sickness or poisoning. Yet in the living rooms of some families some little seeds were turning into some mighty plants full of history changing potential.

I challenge you to stop today and look around your life. Are your majoring on some minor things and stunting the growth of some major things? Pay attention to what you are rushing past. The potential of the plant is often not seen in the smallness of the seed. Tomorrow matters Today. The seeds will come up.

Burden, Passion and Mission

Listening to the missionary in last evenings service continued to feed the fire in my soul for people. The missionary spoke of his burden and passion to reach the country he was leaving for. In turn he challenged each of us to become passionate about people needing God. I wonder what would happen in our life if we suddenly made the over there, the foreign field, our neighbors yard. What if we become passionate about touching lives? This morning our Student Pastor tweeted this dare, “Challenge: Pray for the Lost Souls that are in a one block radius of your home. There are fifty people around my home. That’s opportunity.”

We need to pray and ask God to put a burden, a passion and a mission in our hearts to touch our world around us. With this in mind here are some points from last week’s Bible Study.

Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains.

Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. Colossians 4:2-6 NIV

Near the beginning of Colossians chapter 4, Paul wraps up a letter that was painstakingly written to the church at Colossae from a dark, isolated prison cell. This part of the letter is the final essential content from Paul to this church. The rest of the chapter and letter is personal greetings and personal matters. The kind of stuff that we would put in a PS part of a letter. So in essence, as far as the believers in Colossae were concerned, our text was Paul’s “famous last words.” to them.

In reading the letter Paul’s burning desire for the church people at Colossae was that they would stay rooted and grounded in Christ. That they would continue in their faith. That they would not be deceived by this world’s enticing ideas. And that they would let the peace of God rule in their lives. But then he sums up his thoughts for them with this command, “Devote yourselves to prayer be watchful and thankful!” In case you are wondering I studied this phrase and guess what it means, it means to “Devote yourselves to prayer.” KJV says “Continually Pray.” The Message says, “Pray diligently” in other words Pray every day! Pray a lot! Pray when you’re alone, pray when you’re with a lot of people. Pray in small groups, pray in large groups. Pray when you go out and pray when you come in. Pray when everything is good and pray when everything is not so good. Simply pray!

Devote yourself to prayer. If you don’t pray you will spend more time screaming at the dark and complaining about the ugliness of this world rather than having the mind of Christ. Paul tells the Thessalonians to pray without ceasing. Another translation says pray continually.

Paul in these few verses in Colossians gives the secret to effective evangelism: if you ever hope to lead people to Jesus, you have to be a person devoted to prayer. The two are bound up together. In Paul’s final words to the Colossians he essentially says, “Don’t even think about doing the work of evangelism until you pray! Next Paul say to do two other things.

Watch – pay attention to your daily life actions. The human vessel you are trying to overcome will destroy your testimony in a matter of minutes. Satan and his helpers are working daily to make you a failure in the call of God for your life. When you pray and get alone with God you get the chance to look at your life through prayer. Look at your life through the mirror of the Word of God. Make sure you pay attention to your daily life and not fall into a place you are ineffective for the Lord. You will have to pray and pay attention! Watch, so that you don’t destroy everything you have built in a matter of minutes because your life actions became a mess.

Be thankful – everyone has things to be thankful for. It is the unthankful heart that continually complains about how unlucky they are or how they don’t feel they get what others get. Complaining, people become bitter people. Yes, there are a lot of weeds, mud and junk in this thing called life in this world. Yet, past the mud, beyond the weeds just a step around the junk is the created will of God that is full of purpose and blessing. You will never be able to touch a life for God and help someone become a faithful child of God by complaining and being bitter. You need to pray every day to become thankful.

What to Pray For – an opportunity

Paul continues in Colossians 4 by expounding on his burning desire for that church – and for us. The spirit of his comments is this: “Please pray for us, because we’re striving night and day to make Christ known to those who are far from God.” I love the nugget tucked in verse 3, “Pray for us that God may open a door for our message.” Paul, no longer new to the evangelism field, understands the importance of this. He wants his spiritual brothers and sisters to pray that the Lord would give open doors. Paul has learned that you can’t simply force people to receive the message. You can’t cram Christ through closed doors! So in essence he says, “Pray for open doors of receptivity in people’s minds and hearts because without that we’re sunk.”

We must pray for God to give us a chance, an opportunity to step through a door and evangelize a life. After we have prayed we must watch for the door that God will open. Then walk through it.

"Have you noticed how much praying for revival has been going on of late – and how little revival has resulted? I believe the problem is that we have been trying to substitute praying for obeying, and it simply will not work.

To pray for revival while ignoring the plain precepts laid down in Scripture is to waste a lot of words and get nothing for our trouble. Prayer will become effective when we stop using it as a substitute for obedience." ~ A.W. Tozer 

When the door swings open then do what Paul told the church in Colossians.

Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. NIV

Be wise and caring as to how you approach outsiders. Salt is a seasoning and a little goes a long ways, but it is a necessary ingredient to be used in the right amount. Remember for salt to be effective it must get close or on something. It is useless sitting on the table if it is not applied in the correct amounts. Study and prepare your daily life to reach for any person that God opens a door for you to reach.

The reason we are called and filled with His Spirit is so that we can fulfill the purpose of Christ. He came to seek and save the lost. He is not willing that anyone not come to repentance. So, pray, watch, be thankful, ask for an open door of opportunity then plan to walk through it prepared and anointed by God.