Thank you Lord for today

Posted on March 11, 2024 by He stirs up the people...

In January I was forced and blessed to take a sort of sabbatical from pastoring Wesley Chapel. For the record, I was not in trouble, haha. I was gone for six weeks, really unsure when I left if the Lord would lead Diane and me in another direction or back to Short Gap, so in a way it was also a time of discernment. In preparing to head south for that season I left instructions for getting on the computer in the pastor’s office, cleaned up the office, and discarded much that needed to go. After 10 plus years, some “nesting” naturally occurs. It was nice coming back to a slightly more organized office.

This morning I walked in to the office and there were two commentaries and a Bible on the desk. They were still there from yesterday when I had been reading some for next Sunday’s sermon. Yes, yesterday was Sunday and I had just preached a sermon, but preachers have this saying, “Sunday’s always coming”. That implies you had always better be getting ready for the next Sunday’s sermon because Sunday will be here before you know it.

Anyway, when I walked in and saw the way I left the office it reminded me of so many times on the ambulance I have gone in to a home where someone has unexpectedly died. A strange thought, I know. There was one time when someone who lived alone still had groceries by the door that had never been put away. Things can happen fast.

All of this to remind me and you I (we) rarely appreciate “today” like I (we) should. Is today going to be perfect? It rarely is. There aren’t many nights I lay my head down and think to myself, “Today was a perfect day.” But, the truth is I am grateful for today. Today offers hope. Today offers opportunity. Today, His mercies are new. Thank you Lord for Your presence with Your children this day. Thank you Jesus for the strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

Posted in Obstacles, Opportunity, peace, thanks, trust | 2 Comments

It has been a while.

Posted on March 9, 2024 by He stirs up the people...

I am sitting at the desk in the pastor’s office at Wesley Chapel Methodist Church in Short Gap looking out the window at the rainy, dreary, parking lot. It has been over four months since I have published a blog post. There have been several days I began to write and walked away without finishing. If you are reading this, I guess I am back at it as I have finally posted today.

I have published several dozen sermons here on my blog that, through searches, continue to attract visitors from around the world even when I write nothing new. I have written 1,811 blog posts and since I last posted, the page views to my writings have surpassed the half a million mark. That is nothing but a testament to persevering through many years of faithful writing. I guess I am posting again because, since I was called to begin this venture in 2011, I have never felt like God has released me from it, nor do I yet. And while there have been seasons I have been unfaithful to writing here, God is never unfaithful. He is patient and full of mercy.

I thank you for all your faithful reading over the years. I thank you for your encouraging cards, texts, and comments that have kept me at it. I thank you for the opportunity you have given me to share with you the things the Lord has given me. To God be the Glory.

a

Posted in thanks, Walking the Walk | 2 Comments

An unexpected Children’s Church message

Posted on October 27, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

I was in the children’s church this morning and noticed that the chalk board said, “Have it your way”. That was a surprising phrase to see on the chalk board at children’s church. While the modern American church would never be so bold as to put it in those exact words, that is the current theology of much of the modern American church. While some find the 1980’s Burger King mentality appealing, the Bible says this kind of thinking is dangerous. Romans chapters 1 and 2 warn us that we can be so persistently rebellious and insistent to hold onto our sin, that God will allow us to have it our way. However, that permission to have our own way is not a blessing from God. Any time a church tells you that you can have God and have it your way, they are deceiving you. God calls us to turn from our ways… to be forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus, and to receive the Holy Spirit who will help us forsake our past ways and become a new creation. In doing so, we are saved. To insist on having our own way is the broad way that leads to destruction.

I do not even need to ask. I am certain the chalkboard was a warning to the kids about what happens when we insist on having our own way. If only more pastors were less concerned about being accepted by a lost society, and more concerned about the lost accepting Jesus and His ways. I am sure our kids received the truth that we must not seek to hear God say, “Have it your way” but that we must say to God, “Have it Your way.”

Posted in salvation, Walking the Walk | 1 Comment

The same offer for all

Posted on October 2, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

Diane and I are both signed up to get email offers from Ruby Tuesday. Over this past weekend I had a coupon code in my email for “Buy one meal, get one for $3.” I told Diane about my offer and she said the offer was in the email this time was get the second one for 50% off. I double checked and so did she and it turned out that we each had different offers. Then last night I told her I got another email for this week and it was the same, buy one meal, get the second for $3. Diane checked her email and to our surprise, this time hers was “buy one, get the second for $2”! We have received these emails for several years and have only recently noticed them to be different.

I understand why businesses would send out different offers to different people. If one person never redeems their offer, a business would be wise to send that person a more tempting offer. If another person always redeems their offer, the business could try to make more money by sending a less attractive offer assuming the person would still redeem it. Instead of loyalty gaining a person something, the loyalty could actually work against a person.

This makes me think of humanity’s relationship with God and the offer God has made us to be restored into right relationship with Him. Sometimes people are of the opinion that only terrible people need to ask God for forgiveness. Some think their own wrongs are so minor that there is no was their own indiscretions are serious enough to require the death of Jesus on the cross… that surely a few good deeds could make up for the little bit they have done wrong. The Bible paints a different picture. The Bible tells us that a perfect life is required to be in right relationship with God. It also says that we have all fallen short of perfection. No matter how we try to minimize our wrongs, we would all agree none of us are perfect. The offer is the same for the person who has, by anyone’s definition, lived a great life or have instead lived what society would consider a terrible life. The offer is this: Jesus’ perfect life for your imperfect life. The same blood covers all. There is no other offer coming.

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Evidence of the Son

Posted on September 19, 2023 by He stirs up the people...
Cloud obscured Sunrise

Yesterday morning I went to the beach and waited for the sunrise. Thanks to the weather app I knew the sunrise was to be at 7 AM. It was dark when I got there. The closer it got to 7:00 the more I could see cloud cover, and the less confidence I had that I would see the sun. At 7:30 when I left, it was light, but the sun was not visible.

I and many others were disappointed we would not be seeing the sun reflecting off of the water on this morning. However, none of us would have dared claim the sun was not there. When the clouds cleared an hour later and the sun was visible, I walked back down to behold its beauty on the water.

I see an an analogy where the sun is Jesus and you and I are the daylight. You and I who have come to faith in Christ and follow Him know we are different than what we used to be. Ideally, others can see it as well. Some who didn’t know me before might not see the transformation that has occurred, but I know it. My wife knows it.

Yet, even if our lives aren’t that obviously different, or if it’s been so long that who we used to be is ancient history, the way we deal with life is… or should be different. While all people deal with the same problems of life, we have a refuge and comforter. While none of us know what tomorrow holds, we know who holds tomorrow. While we mourn like others, we do not mourn as those who have no hope. No, there is something different about us. And that something can only be explained by the Son.

There is a light around us, and within us that cannot be sniffed out by life‘s problems. And we will gladly proclaim it.

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Knowing a lot about a little

Posted on September 8, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

I was not in the pulpit this past Sunday, but rather in a pew worshiping with others at Calvary Chapel in Myrtle Beach. It does a preacher good to be a congregant in church once in a while. The pastor began by saying something like, “Before dawn this morning I was admiring Jupiter on the eastern horizon.” I do not know exactly what he said because I know nothing about the stars and planets in the sky. Like many of you, I am fairly confident I can pick out the moon. This pastor sounded impressive… as if he knew a lot about planets and stars. He could have been full of bull, but to someone like me whose confidence ends with spotting the moon, he sounded like as astronomical genius. People who know little about a subject are sometimes easily deceived by people who seem to know a lot.

Such is the case in the American church. There are so many Biblically illiterate church goers that a persuasive pastor can stand before a congregation or go on social media and make claims about God and the Bible that are totally contrary to 2,000 years of New Testament understanding and folks are led astray. And now computers are getting in the act. Artificial Intelligence (which in brief is a computer controlled by a computer) was asked by a transgender person to write a fake Bible verse about Jesus accepting transgender people. It goes like this:

“And a woman, whose heart was divided between spirit and body, came before him. In quiet despair, she asked, ’Lord, I come to you estranged, for my spirit and body are not one. How shall I hope to enter the kingdom of God?’

“Jesus looked upon her with kindness, replying, ‘My child, blessed are those who strive for unity within themselves, for they shall know the deepest truths of my Father’s creation.”

“Be not afraid, for in the kingdom of God, there is no man nor woman, as all are one in spirit. The gates of my Father’s kingdom will open for those who love and are loved, for God looks not upon the body, but the heart.”

ChatGPT

The worst part of the story is that even though the person knew what they were reading was fictional, they said reading it made them feel better. If a person feels better reading a fictional affirmation, it is no wonder that unsuspecting people so willingly embrace Bible teachers telling twisted tales about Bible interpretations.

My advice to you is not simply “come to my church because I tell the Biblical truth”. The answer is to do your own Bible reading. Compare what a pastor says to what the Bible says. Do not be tricked by smooth talkers who take one verse out of context, but keep in mind the overarching theme of the Bible. And what is that, you ask? it is this: Jesus did not come to affirm sin, but to help you turn from sin and to vanquish it from your record. Jesus came to save sinners from the punishment they deserve. The devil, in order to deceive, will whisper what you want to hear so that you will remain under the consequences of sin. And too many are happy to hear the lies.

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There comes a time…

Posted on August 23, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

My parking lot pick up basketball career came to an abrupt end when, in the Spring of 2022 at the age of 60, I caught a head below my left eye. I ended up with a partially detached retina. Four surgeries, thousands of dollars in medical expenses, and 18 months later, I am still facing an uncertain future with my left eye. My situation makes me empathetic to presidential candidate Doug Burgum, who sought care in the local emergency room after hurting himself playing pick up basketball in Wisconsin the day before tonight’s presidential debate.

There comes a time in all of our lives when we realize we can not and/or should not do what we used to do. I will be 62 in January and once in a while I think I should be using a handrail instead of occasionally flying down steps two at a time. I wish it were not so, but it will probably take a twisted ankle before I come to the conclusion that my “taking steps two by two” days are over.

Sometimes we choose things for ourselves and other times things are chosen for us. When people live long enough, there comes a time for all older adults when driving is not prudent. Some times they choose to quit driving, but quite often someone has to tell them they are no longer permitted to drive. When that day comes for Diane, my prayer is that she will still be able to drive her golf cart at the beach 😉

As is the case with nearly every one of my 1,800 writings compiled here on my blog, this is where I make the Jesus pivot. There will come a time for each of us that we will stand before the God who created us and give an account. Sometimes people talk negatively about judgment, and particularly about how we should not judge, but to do so at the expense of leading people to believe there will not be a day of reckoning is a deception of the devil and his minions. There comes a time when it will matter if we received the gift of salvation available exclusively through the sacrifice of Jesus. Perhaps this is the time for you to receive it and receive Him?

Posted in Hard times, Obstacles, Opportunity, salvation, Walking the Walk | Leave a comment

The sun is headed south… or is it?

Posted on August 20, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

This morning I went out to watch the sunrise over the West Virginia hills and noticed the sun was much further to the right that what it was a month ago. Then I thought about the text Diane sent me the other day telling me that sunsets would be pre-8 pm until toward next summer. Both of these things share the fact that the days are growing shorter because of the earth’s angle in relation to the sun.

My first thought this morning was the sun was heading toward the south. Because of our human nature to make ourselves the center of everything, in spite of what we know, we often use terminology that makes is sound like the sun moves to cause daylight or darkness and to change the seasons. We know that is not accurate. The sun does not move around the earth. The earth does move around the sun.

This dance between the sun and the earth is not unlike the relationship between we the people and the God who created the sun, earth, and each of us. The Bible reminds us that God does not change. He has never changed and will never change. He hates sin. He loves people. People who sin have made themselves His enemy unless and until they repent and receive forgiveness through Jesus, the One whose sacrifice is the only acceptable means to be put back into right relationship with God.

Anyone who would tell you otherwise is mistaken at best or an instrument of the enemy of God at worst. God has not all of the sudden changed his mind about things just because so much of American society has. We are called to conform to Him. He does not conform to us. Our lives are to spin around Him. He is not there to fulfill our wants and desires, as much as the self centered world loves to think.

Posted in Hard times, Obstacles, Opportunity, salvation, Walking the Walk | Leave a comment

Disregarding safety

Posted on August 16, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

This morning I was sitting at the red light in Short Gap. Because many of you do not know the three way intersection, let me just say coming from the south there is a left turn lane crossing traffic and coming from the north there is a right turn lane not crossing traffic. I often see the people turning left crossing the traffic taking the right away from the people turning right and not crossing traffic. For some reason, the people crossing traffic either believe they have the right of way or they do not care that they do not.

The point of today’s post does not make it necessary that you completely understand the intersection. I wish to take this illustration of the drivers who do not obey the rules of the road and make it a picture of people who do not see the need to yield to God. The American church is confused and in disagreement over this idea of yielding to God. The majority of the church, due in part to a desire to be popular among the society, has the attitude of the unyielding drivers I see at the intersection. “We believe we have the right to do what we please.”

Like the rules of the road which are there to keep people from getting hurt, God has given us instructions about being saved and being reconciled to Him. But when we neglect to follow the plans laid out by the one who devised the safe path, we are in danger. Sooner or later, something bad is going to happen. With the intersection, someone who does not yield is going to cause damage and possibly bodily harm. With God, people who do not repent and yield to God’s offer of salvation are going to perish. Those of us who have been saved and seek to live holy lives for God can see the danger ahead, much like the intersection, for those who believe they may do whatever they desire.

“There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.”

Proverbs 14:12
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My review was removed

Posted on July 25, 2023 by He stirs up the people...

This morning I received an email from TripAdvisor. Every once in a while I leave a review. Almost all the time I leave good reviews. Once in a while it is not a good one. Somewhere, sometime, I apparently left one for Rodeway Inn. TripAdvisor said Rodeway Inn has undergone a change of ownership, and all of the former reviews have been removed.

As soon as I read that, I thought more about a “change of ownership.” And on top of that, to have all of the past reviews wiped away in one fell swoop… that’s a lot of power TripAdvisor has to be able to wipe away the past. There is a pretty easy “sermon” in today’s illustration.

When we make a decision to follow Jesus, we must undergo a “change of ownership.” Some people want to give Jesus a 49% stake in their lives, keeping a 51% majority for all decision making. Jesus will not become a minority owner, a silent partner, if you will. He is either your Lord, or He is nothing in your life. If He is your Lord, all of your negative reviews have been wiped away. As you obey Him (the new CEO of your life) there are going to be far less negative reviews… and even those are wiped away at the judgment seat of Christ. Praise God for a fresh start. Every day.

Posted in Walking the Walk | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment