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.

There is Hope

For the last week I have had the wonderful privilege of starting my morning looking at God wonderful creation. I spent the last seven days admiring and wading in one of God’s created rivers fly fishing and taking in its beauty. I spent quite moments and devotions just looking at everything God made. I watched an eagle look at fish as they came to the surface to sip a gnat. I watch brown trout splash full into the air trying to catch an insect. I enjoyed geese landing on the river around me and ducks sail in to feed in a back water marsh. I set on the grass and just watched the water flow by and enjoyed the wonders of creation. Yes, only God could do something so amazing.
Yet, in all that wonder and beauty there were some things I had to look over. Like mud on the bank that stunk so bad I had to hold my breath as I waded out to in to the river. There were dead fish half eaten by a bird or some prey. There were mosquitos and biting flies and the cans and even old tires left by humanity. Yes, there were several things that as I enjoyed the beautiful creations of God, I had to look over or past to see the hope and beauty of what was there. Though they were there they never one time dimmed my wonder and enjoyment of what God had created. I simply looked past them in hope to see the hand of God.

Now I’m home back in the office looking at the community I feel God has called me to and yes, it’s a pretty neat place. It has a lot of promise and everywhere I look there is the hand of God doing what only God can do. I marvel at His power and the moving and healing of His hand. But I cannot deny that there is also a lot of mud, brokenness and sin sick lives. Yes, right in the middle of my world I seem to step past and around a world that is in real need of change and help. Yes, I see the wonders of the Lord but also our world is broken. It has some very heavy needs. Yet there is hope.

Yes, Evil is alive and well. There are some very ugly things. The enemy of our soul is alive and doing his thing. Headlines often leave me speechless. Actions of people and families leave me shaking my head. Actions and decisions of people sitting on church pews sometimes cause me to wonder if they ever pray. Yes looking around our world there is a lot of stinking mud and weeds. Death and rotten lives. Yet there is hope.

There is hope, which is what keeps me going. Just as I waded through and past the mud in the river where I was fishing to get to the beautiful part of the stream, there is hope for the muddy places of life. There is hope if I push on and through that there will be a beautiful part. I can’t deny this world is fallen – it’s broken. Evil exists; some things are far from beautiful. Yet, there is hope. God has a plan and that plan includes me if I dare to believe. There is hope and help, it’s that breath that keeps me going and believing. If I have faith there is hope. Jesus said that HE came that they might have life and have it more abundantly (John 10:10). Jesus also warned us in that scripture that there is a thief that’s only purpose is to steal, kill and destroy. But He came to get lives past the mud.  Yes there is hope and there is a plan.

Yes, this world is vastly becomes worse and worse. This is also promised in the word of God. Yet Jesus never intended on us just throwing up our hands in disgust and quitting. No there is a plan because there is hope. Yet looking at all that is wrong in this world we often wonder:

·         How do I live daily in such a broken place?

·         How do I press on in looking for the beauty of God at work?

·         How do I live in a world that is not good?

·         Do I live as if there is no hope?

Let me answer the last question first. As children of the Lord we must never be found living as if there no hope. The Apostle Paul in writing to the Thessalonian Church said, “Do not sorrow as those who have no hope (anticipate with pleasure, expectation).” (1Thessalonians 4:13) There may be a lot of mud, brokenness and death but there is hope or expectation of the hand of God. The Almighty is at work. To live without hope is to have no faith which scripture tells us it is impossible to please God without faith (Hebrews 11:6). No, there is hope.

Yes, we live in a world that is no so good but there are days and even seasons when we see the clear beauty of what God is up to. Miracles, signs and wonders. Yes, there is hope. Yet, I must understand that there are seasons. I walk for God daily and live for Him daily and I see His hand on a regular basis. But there are time when God chooses to work His greatest in a season or element of time. So I wade through the mud of life to get to where God is showing is greatness. That is hope.

I read this, this week from another writer. It explains it clearly.
I see churches that take on these personas. Some behave as if it really is Disneyland. It's almost as if the church is a cruise ship dedicated to wonderful activities to keep Christians busy. There is no real challenge, no talk of sin, no clear vision and little to no sacrifice… It's a by-product of how someone sees life. There are churches that seem to go to the other extreme. It's often about what they stand against, more than who they are for…. They acknowledge the fallen world, and its brokenness, but don't seem to embrace the hope of redemption. These churches are profoundly discouraged and discouraging. Dan Reiland

Yes, it’s often easy to extreme in one way or another. You will have to pray every day that God helps you put on the whole armor so you can stand in this evil day. Make sure you gird your life with Truth so you do wonder to the right or to the left. The world is broken but it’s also hurting and Jesus said He was sending us into this world to show the Light. Because there is hope.

Yes, we tend to often be more known for standing and declaring how dark the world is. We are often more heard about on how black the darkness of this world is. Jesus though looked at it in a different way. He said we are to be a light on a stand, a city on a hill, salt that changes the taste of something. In other words Jesus wants us to bring the Light to this dark sinful muddy world. We are called to shine a light not curse the darkness. There really is hope.

Yes, this world often has glimmers of hopeful beauty and change, very miraculous moments. Then we are reminded quickly there is a lot of mud, darkness and evil. Yes, sin is very dead end. But God has called us to bring a light and not just any light but the Light. The Light that shined in darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it (John 1:5).

So, live on for Jesus. Let your Light shine. There are a lot of miracles about to happen. There are beautiful stories of redemption waiting for a lot of lives just past the mud. Wade on shining the Light, there is hope.