Inspiration

How does God speak to us? Where do we hear his voice? Maybe the better question is do we hear his voice?

I write a lot. I write this page each week. I write sermons even when I don’t take the notes in the pulpit. I write articles that have, from time-to-time been published in periodicals. I write. I write because God lays something on my heart. The problem is, what do you write when God seems to fail to deliver a theme which would inspire? Well, you do a lot of sitting. You get up and walk around your office. You pull random books off the shelves thinking a word, a picture, or a phrase will energize you to complete the task at hand. You doodle. Sometimes, you throw something on the page just to be done. Usually your readers know when you follow that method of inspiration. It comes across much more like a method of surrender.

Every so often you wear out and everything goes blank from exhaustion. When that occurs, it is usually time to sit up straight and listen because God is about to tell you something. God uses those times to show that a little less of your efforts and a lot more time spent before him will yield something worth more than the paper on which it is printed. This is the Holy Spirit telling you your tank is just about empty. It is the dinging sound your car makes when you get under two gallons left in your tank. You can only ignore that sound so long before the vehicle coasts to a stop due to lack of fuel. Our spiritual lives are the same way.

We lack story and testimony because we have neglected growing our relationship with the one who is the author of all inspiration. If someone were to ask you, “What is the Holy Spirit accomplishing in your life right now?” and you have nothing to reply, maybe you need a time of quiet reflection waiting for the good shepherd to come find the little lost lamb.

Even in the midst of the urgency of Jesus’ mission on earth, he told the disciples “Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get yourselves some rest.” Quiet time, alone with Christ is never lost or wasted. It is a time of refueling where we get the answers to the questions the world seeks.

Pastor Craig















[1] Mark 6:31 (NIV)

Do One Thing Brave!

Do one thing brave today! If that is your goal, what would you do? What would you even consider? Some people might sit down and being to make a list. Their list may include things like sky diving, running with the bulls, whitewater rafting, or trying some disgusting sounding, yet elegantly labeled, foreign cuisine.

All of the above? Mere child’s play. Increased risk of death, or severe gastrointestinal distress at worst. Instead try picking something really risky from the list below and see what God will do.

1) Tell someone who does not know that you love them. I’m not talking about some romantic interest, but someone who you respect and highly value. Be un-Presbyterian. Don’t think. . .FEEL!

2) Share your faith journey with someone, anyone! Most of us have kept this special part of our personal history far too personal. Share it. Tell someone what Jesus Christ means to you. Tell them how your life is different because you are a child of the king.

3) Get involved! We see so many things as we pass through this life. Much of what we see we let pass us by, telling ourselves, “That really isn’t my business.” Obviously, don’t be foolish, but remind yourself that a wrong or injustice committed in your presence automatically becomes your business.

4) Be Quiet! Turn off everything and sit boldly before God asking him to give you insight into his presence and will for your life. Then take him at his word and put into action whatever he tells you to do!

Remember one thing. It may all boil down to perspective. Are you the penguin or the bear? Either way, be bold.


Pastor Craig

Thoughts On a Drive From the Airport

On New Year’s Eve, as I drove from the Atlanta airport I heard Bryan Adams’ song, Back in the Summer of ’69. Those of you who know the song probably also remember the line Those were the best days of my life. Granted, not all of the items of a “best day” for a teenager would normally be included among the wisest day(s) of our lives. However, the song got me thinking. What are the best days of my life?

Don’t worry. I’m not going to bore you with a highlight reel, but I am going to challenge you to think about your own best days. I would like to challenge you to dig deeper than those obvious moments many of us would pick. I don’t want to dismiss them. I do want to challenge you to think about what events molded you into the person who was ready for those moments. . .your wedding, the birth of your children, the defining career moment, etc.

Those moments didn’t just happen. They were the series of interconnected events that brought you to a natural conclusion. Maybe it was friends, way back in the summer of 69, or before. Maybe it was a Sunday school teacher or pastor, or someone else who helped develop the character that allowed you to approach one of those moments with faith and confidence. Maybe the moment required strength, maybe it required faith, maybe it deserved celebration, maybe reverence.

The point of this brief writing is to remind you that your loving and compassionate Heavenly Father has known your future from the beginning of creation. He has masterminded creation. He has moved mountains. He has prepared dozens of people along your way, each one with something to contribute to your development.
2013 is past. Some of our choices may have been among the best days of our lives, some of them you might rather forget. Yet, all of those experiences are part of the molding and preparing compassion of the Holy Spirit for the events coming your way in 2014.

Romans 8:28 reminds us, All things work together for good for those who love Him. Yes, there it is. ALL THINGS. Not just the pleasant things, not just the obvious spiritual things, ALL THINGS. Now, I have probably reminded you of some events this past year you would rather have done without if you could. Sorry, but I hope you will take some time to spend with God and thank him for those events, thank him for caring for you and preparing you for the year ahead, thank him for trusting you to handle the difficult things from 2013, and giving you the practice for those events which will challenge you during the year that lies ahead.

Happy New Year


Pastor Craig

Transitions

It seems that 2014 is expected to be a year of transitions. I wish I had kept count of all the E-mails I have I have received in the last few weeks speaking of transitions, and this is only in church ministry! Transitions in the way we do outreach, in the way we do pastoral care, in the way we give, the motivation for our giving, and the emphases to which we give, in how we worship and how our worship services and spaces are designed, and transitions in our own denomination.

It seems we will be changing more than the year we write on our checks in the days, weeks, and months ahead. Time honored traditions we have cherished and protected for years are being modified by future generations, not will be. . . ARE. Those of us who consider ourselves traditionalists will be challenged to accept new things, new ways of being church. We may struggle to find our place and new comfort zone in the “new normal.”

Some of these changes we have already had a taste of in our own congregation. To give you a sample of what folks expect ahead. . .By the way, please read all the way to the end. . .

1. Traditional giving and pledge drives are fading, including tithing.
2. Printed material is harder to come by and more expensive to produce. Say “Hello” to more church websites, including opportunities to give on-line.
3. Affinity groups within churches will center around mission interests rather than age groupings.

Some of you may be wondering, “Do I have a place of this church of the future?” Well, this short article is not about getting you to accept changes that may be charging at us faster than we are ready to receive them.

No, these few words are here as a source of comfort.

Listen carefully. However we do church in the future here is what will stay the same as long as we call ourselves Christian.

1. The Church will be centered on relationships, now more than ever before.
2. The Gospel is still about the saving love of Jesus Christ for sinners.
3. You can follow Christ without following ANYONE on Twitter.
4. It won’t matter whether the words are on a page or on a screen, the people of Christ gathered together will still need your voice to sing God’s praises.
5. Whether we give on-line, physically write a check and put it in the mail, or swipe a card from a digital device, we will still live out our commitment to our Lord as we show it through the giving of our goods.
6. Finally, you will always know that the BEST way to access your Heavenly Father is from the privacy of your own quiet time rather than a blog, on Facebook, or by forwarding a group E-mail.

Maybe, the more things change, the more they stay the same!

Pastor Craig

Wanting What God Wants

When we want something other than what God wants us to be, we must be wanting what, in fact, will not make us happy.”[1]

C. S. Lewis

I believe I can say with confidence that there are few, if any, people on the face of the earth who do not want to be happy. A large amount of our energy is spent running after, or trying to obtain happiness. We look for satisfaction in the things we buy, in the people we choose to surround ourselves with, and how we approach our careers and vocations.

Society tells us that the only way to be happy is to be true to your inner self. The only problem with that is that the majority of us have trouble deciding what we want off the dollar menu at a fast food restaurant, much less searching through the deepest parts of our soul to find that part which is authentic, if indeed there is one.

My question in this dialogue is, “Why would we spend so much time searching for what has already been found? Why do we go on the quest that has already been accomplished? If we want to how to operate a piece of technology in the most beneficial manner, it is usually best to consult the manual or to ask someone who knows a great deal about the piece of equipment in which we are interested? God qualifies in every aspect of that issue, but often he is the very last person we want to consult.

We fear that God will make us start something we really don’t want to do or require that we cease an activity that has become a personal favorite.

The truth of the matter is that God has programmed us to find peace, happiness, and satisfaction  in any kind of ultimate sense only as we conform to his standards. Anything else is a shadow of that ultimate reality, temporal and fleeting.

This season, as we light the candle representing love, consider Christ, the one who gave himself that you might have life, and have it more abundantly.

Pastor Craig

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[1] #CSLewis at Twitter.com

God With Us!

The sky is gray. The water is black. The air is cold. My cell phone is down to 4%. I have no electricity. The house is quiet because the fans blowing heat do not operate. There is no television to provide background noise. The two noises I do hear are the snoring of a dog and the rhythm of a grandfather clock. Even the hum of the refrigerator, which I dare not open lest it lose valuable cold, is silent. In the midst of this I find humor. I am trying to banish cold from one place while doing all I can to keep it in another.     

I wait for deliverance. In no way do I want to equate Oncor with my Savior. However, it is in times like these, even when our “suffering” is so trivial, that we are reminded of Advent. We get so comfortable. We love our conveniences, and we don’t know what to do when they are gone, even if it is only for a brief period.

Deliverance is a beautiful thing. It is the anticipation that pushes our patience to the limit. It is the only thing that our modern secularized Christmas has retained from its original. Children and many adults, waiting to see what has been left under our tree. For some of us, the wait is excruciating.

All those Advent hymns begin to make sense now: Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, O Come, O Come, Emanuel, Prepare the Way. Then finally to burst forth with the praises of Joy to the World, Good Christian Men, Rejoice, Go, Tell It on the Mountain, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and It Came Upon the Midnight Clear.

In Isaiah, the Lord promised king Ahaz deliverance from foreign invaders. He wanted to show the strength of His commitment to Ahaz by binding it with a sign. Yahweh God said, “Ask the Lord you God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or in the highest heights.”

Ahaz, trapped in his own self-righteousness turned down the chance to see God’s power first-hand.

God’s response through the prophet Isaiah? “Will you try the patience of my God also? Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: A virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call Him Emmanuel!”

Ahaz did not live to see that sign, nor did Isaiah, but we have seen what they did not. We live in the rejoicing when they lived in the anticipating. We now live in the anticipating of the victorious second return – Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus!

Pastor Craig

Doing Advent Right!

If Christ is the revelation of the whole meaning of humanity, if the meaning of human life is solely and entirely to be found in the fact that I am a child of God, then everything in my life becomes relevant or irrelevant in proportion as it tends to my growth as a member of Christ, as a child of God, and the extension of Christ in the world of humankind through his Church.[1]

Advent: A time spent in reflection and preparation for the coming of the Messiah. If the quote we began this short essay with is true, then we are doing advent very, VERY wrong.

Now, without getting all negative and ruining the Christmas spirit you are trying so hard to create at this time of year. If Lent, another season of preparation that most evangelical Christians would rather overlook, is about our life in reverse and thinking about our past sins and the lengths our Creator chose to take to assure our relationship with him, then Advent must be about looking to the future and how we should be living that we might glorify our Savior when he comes again. Think about it again. Lent is about our past and motivates us to glorify God in the season of Easter for he tremendous gift of our salvation. Advent is about the present and future, where we look at where we are ask, “How is my present life showing forth my citizenship as a child of the Kingdom of God?”

Few of us wish to put ourselves through such a period of examination. Most of us would rather sing another verse of Joy to the World and light another candle. But, Christianity is a faith that seeks to move us forward. Sometimes the best way to do that is to take a good look at the road traveled thus far, thanking God for his guidance grace and mercy for putting up with us. Other times, the best way to do that is to take stock of where we are and plan for the journey that is yet in front of us, making sure our road is straight and our pace is steady.

So, how do we approach this season we begin today? How do we keep it from being a mournful time? None of us, including myself want to, entirely, give up those rousing Christmas hymns that remind us of shepherds and angel songs and kings on long journeys to humble places? I think we do that by embracing the true meaning of this season. We look at where we are, we celebrate God’s continued faithfulness in the midst of our ever so glaring failings, we set our hearts on our destination, and we gird ourselves to complete the journey ahead. All of this we do with the firm reliance on God’s continued faithfulness, on the Spirit’s continued guidance, and the Son’s ever forgiving and restoring grace; the things of which those great Christmas hymns have always been made.

Let us light the Candle of Hope – again.

Pastor Craig

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[1] Thomas Merton The Good News of the Nativity