The Empty Manger

Where did Jesus Go – It is an easy thing to find Christ in Christmas. It has gotten a little more difficult to find him in the public square with political correctness taking hold and Santa Claus, or modern society’s version of the original saint, taking center stage. It’s easy because that baby is just so loveable. Certainly, Jesus would have avoided much of the trouble he encountered later in life if he just would have stayed in that manger.

It is when Jesus leaves the manger that trouble starts. He grows up and starts to say things that make people uncomfortable. Herod was the only one who wanted Jesus dead in the days that followed his birth, but by the time of his crucifixion it seems that there was only a handful that wanted him alive.

We don’t think of babies as challenging the established order of things. They are little bundles of joy to be cuddled and tickled and have much fuss made over them. It is always the adults that cause the trouble.

Jesus grew up and began to expect things of people. He began to proclaim and call for the world to change, but the world is made up of people – We are the ones who make the world the way it is with all its hurts and wrongs and injustices. That means we must change in order for the world to change. That means things must be different first and foremost in our own lives before we can expect anything or anyone else to be different.

Those who showed up in the days after the birth looking for the child in the manger would have to go find him somewhere else. In the years that followed, especially Jesus’ adult years, we hear nothing about his miraculous birth. All of that has been overshadowed by his eating with sinners and fellowship with tax collectors and condemnation of religious hypocrites.

There is a big difference between that cuddly babe in the manger and the adult Jesus who, from some people’s point of view, went a little overboard when he cleansed the temple. But, Jesus must leave the manger behind if he is to save us from our sins, and we must leave it behind as well if we are to grow up into his disciples.

Pastor Craig

Why Christmas Eve?

Why Christmas Eve? Unless I have been sadly out of touch, we think of Jesus as being born on Christmas Day. Yes, I know, the date is probably not exactly correct. But, why mess with extended tradition. So, I ask again, why Christmas Eve?

Do you have a celebration of your birthday the night before you were actually born? Most of us do not. Birthday parties, if possible, are celebrated on the day of the person’s birth. However, most Protestant churches, even most churches I know of, have no Christmas Day celebration unless Christmas does indeed fall on a Sunday. Yet, many of the churches I am aware of, maybe even a majority, have some sort of Christmas Eve service.


Is it that we simply don’t want to get out on Christmas Day? Do we keep Christmas Day to ourselves for feasting and gift opening? It is true that many Christmas Day services are among the lowest attended services of the year. So, what is the point of the Christmas Eve service, I mean other than a “that’s-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it-service?”


I think I have some insight, if not the real reason, at least a possible explanation that might make us feel a little better now that I’ve accused us all of bailing on Jesus’ birthday party. We live in a post Christmas Day age. We know that Christ has been born. The shepherds had no clue Christ was coming that night until they were told. The innkeeper didn’t know who it was that had been born in the stable that day. The majority of the town probably didn’t know and didn’t care. Oh, they may have felt sorry for the poor girl who had to have her baby there among the animals, the manure, and the dirt, but that was the end of it.
We, however, live after the birth. We observe advent. We go through those four mournful Sundays when we sing those sad and longing hymns, the ones that make us want to jump ahead to the upbeat Christmas hymns full of joy and angels and shepherds and peace on earth, good will towards men. Maybe our Christmas Eve service is, in a way, like a New Year’s Eve service, but on a MUCH grander scale and with much more eternal significance.


It is Christmas Eve that marks the dividing line. It is Christmas Eve that ushers out the old and escorts in the new. It is Christmas Eve that is the last day in darkness before the bright hope of Jesus Christ, Immanuel (God with us), enters the world. Christmas Eve is the day we remember all those Old Testament heroes and their time of longing. It is a time when we give thanks for being born on this side of the first Christmas. It is the recognition that we have, in plain view, what they longed to see.

Tonight we remember the darkness of ages past. We celebrate the coming of the new day, like the watchman standing on the wall gazing towards the east and seeing the first rays of the sunrise break the horizon and signal the new day that has dawned for us all!
Pastor Craig

God's Patience

Has God ever lost His patience? There are those who would say “No” in their attempt to keep intact the image of the ever loving, ever compassionate Deity. Granted, the times we think of first as a time when God might have lost his patience with the people of Israel were really just attempts to influence them back into his loving and compassionate arms. There is nothing like a taste of reality to remind us just how good we have it in our little, protected lives.

However, there is a time I think of when, if it is indeed possible for God to lose His patience, God may have lost patience with an individual. Yahweh wanted to demonstrate His gracious, powerful, and compassionate nature to King Ahaz. You see, King Ahaz was worried. Two nations, Aram and Israel, much stronger than the kingdom of Judah had declared war against his tiny country. Their desire was to destroy Judah and divide it between themselves. The very announcement of war sent Ahaz’s knees knocking and his spirit into a freefall of depression.

Yahweh responded by sending Isaiah to King Ahaz with words of encouragement, but it seemed to do little good. Yahweh sought to strengthen the faith of Ahaz and told him, “Ask the LORD your God for a sign, whether in the deepest depths or the highest heights” (Isaiah 7:10). Ahaz was told, “Ask for anything because nothing is too great for the LORD your God. As surely as I can perform any task you could possibly assign, I can protect you from these two kingdoms!”

Ahaz, in a moment of self-righteousness, proclaimed, “I will not ask; I will not put the LORD to the test.” God gave Ahaz an opportunity that many of us wished we had, a chance to ask God for absolutely anything! Ahaz, whose faith was teetering, could have put God to the test. In fact, God even ASKED Ahaz to test Him. Ahaz is basically telling God a HUGE lie, “I have no need to test you. I do not doubt. I am righteous and holy.”

That’s when God lost it! HEAR NOW, YOU HOUSE OF DAVID! IS IT NOT ENOUGH TO TRY THE PATIENCE OF MEN? WILL YOU TRY THE PATIENCE OF GOD AS WELL? Sometimes our self-righteousness gets in the way of the possibility to witness a tremendous event God wishes to do in our lives. Yahweh proceeds to put an impossible task upon Himself, a task which no one could do, a task beyond human comprehension, a task that has become one of my favorite advent passages. The Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin shall be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel, meaning: God with us. It must be noted that the “you” of the passage is plural in the Hebrew. The sign is not just for Ahaz! The sign is for you and me as well. Yahweh says, “Do you need proof that I care for you? Do you need to know that I watch over you? Do you need confirmation that I love you? Would you like to know that you are the most important thing in all of my creation? Do you want to realize that when you seek me with all your being, I will guarantee that you will find me?” Well, be anxious no more my friend, for God Himself has come down to assure you of your place with Himself. The Virgin has given birth. Immanuel is realized. Christ has been born.


Pastor Craig

Third Sunday of Advent

Advent has rushed past. This Sunday is the third Sunday of advent. It has gone by far too quickly. Our preparations are not complete.

When we say that, most of us mean our shopping, decorating, card writing, and cooking preparations. Most of us don’t take near the time we should with spiritual preparation. There’s always time for that once the holidays are over.

However, once January 1st rolls around it is quickly back to business as usual. Then it is time to lose those pounds we gained with all the holiday food. Life chews up our spiritual time, doesn’t it?

For some reason, this season more than others in the past I have noticed the absence of Christ in Christmas. Don’t worry. This isn’t going to be a call for a boycott on whatever store is saying “Happy Holidays” as opposed to “Merry Christmas.” It doesn’t seem to be a removal of Christ from Christmas but more of an ignoring that he was ever there in the first place. We forget that St. Nicholas was just that, a saint, a person trying to live out the call of Christ to make an difference in the world through his Christian faith, a man obeying the Great Commission. Somewhere along the way following Santa became more attractive than following Jesus. No, I am not a Santa basher either. I love the Jolly Old Elf. I watch Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer almost every year. I love Miracle on 34th Street, The Santa Clause, and many of the other holiday favorites.
Face it; the Santa stories are more interesting than the original Christmas story, unless you happened to be one of the actual participants in the original. I mean, really, babies are born all the time. As far as we know there wasn’t anything spectacular about the actual birth of Jesus, I mean the actual birthing process. No Hallelujah Chorus sounded as Christ was laid in the manger. I do think it would have been a nice touch though, don’t you? Certainly, God could have arranged an angel chorus to back up the birth of Christ rather than just sing to a few shepherds.

It is hard for us to grasp the idea of God being born in a barn. It is so other worldly that it seems EXACTLY that, something from another world. Somehow Santa seems more personal, but I can’t possibly comprehend how someone breaking the bonds of time and space, bridging the gap between the divinity and humanity, taking our ugliness and transforming it into something worthy of a seat at the Christmas feast of our Creator could be anything other than personal.

Imagine, a person shows up at your door after you have done some the most horrific things possible to them and they want to tell you how much you mean to them. They want to show you in the most meaningful way possible. How could that be ordinary? Certainly, one of the details about Christmas is that Christ is in the details. Christ is wrapped around every aspect of Christmas. He isn’t the center of it. Rather, he is the whole thing. Our preparation involves giving him exactly that place, allowing him to wrap himself around every aspect of our lives and holding us in his ever-loving arms.

Pastor Craig

What if Mary had a blog?

What if Mary had a blog, or was connected through one of the social networks, or, even better, twittered? What would she be saying over the next few days? What would she link to or repost? What would her status be? Here are some of the recent status updates from some friends of mine. Any of the spelling errors are theirs!

• I can not make cookies and talk on the phone. Did I put the egg in?

• Instant karmas gonna get ya'.

• wonders how much longer this Christmas tree will remain bare???

• My whole purpose in life is to serve as a warning to others!

• To all you Auburnites, congratulations. It was an impressive victory and I believe you will be able to handle the Ducks, sorry Bruno. Just be proud that you have the best team money can buy. Go SEC.

The last one is my brother-in-law, a devout Georgia fan!

But, what would Mary’s status be? ”On the way to Bethlehem!” “Why didn’t we fly?” “This donkey ride sure keeps this kid active!” Who knows? You see, the internet didn’t exist back then, no cell phones, no Instant Messaging. If she kept a journal of any kind we have not even a whisper of it.
The one insight the Scriptures give us is contained in Luke 2:19, But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. So, she did wonder about them.

The last nine months had been a blur. There was the announcement of the angel that she would bear a child. She knew that would create a scandal. She and Joseph weren’t even married yet. People would surely talk.

Of course there was the whole idea of telling Joseph. That had been one of the hardest things she had ever done. The fact that he stayed by her endeared him to her all the more.

And just now, a group of shepherds had left, marveling at the things they had seen and heard earlier that night. They claimed a whole company of angels had come to tell them about this little child’s birth.

It was more excitement than anyone from Nazareth had ever thought of before. The whole idea of her giving birth to this person that the angel had described amazed her. Certainly he was going to do great things. But right now, this great person needed to be changed and wanted to be fed. The thoughts of greatness would have to be treasured away and pondered later.

Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

Unity

May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

(Romans 15:5-6)

Unity is a hard thing to achieve. It is hard for our great nation to come to anything approaching political unity. About the only thing we can agree on is that we are frustrated.
Unfortunately, spiritual unity is not much better. We have a multitude of protestant denominations, some of them not accepting any of the others and each of them with a tale of division and schism. After all, their very existence verifies that after one group decided they could not stomach the Orthodox or the Catholics, it quickly became apparent that they could not stomach one another either.

I understand, there are those within our own Presbyterian Church (USA) who are teetering on the brink, wondering how we might get along, or if we can get along with one another. Those who choose to leave usually go to some already established denomination instead of creating yet another one.

Read through the Scripture that begins this short article one more time. Does it strike you that we might be going about it all wrong? Certainly our list of groupings bear witness to a general lack of unity. Oh, we speak about the Church as unified and the churches as not always the best representatives of the Church. But, the truth is the world sees the Church through the churches, just as surely as the world sees Christ in Christians.

No, while all that is important, I’m talking about something else. It’s in the order. We want unity with those we follow Christ with. Unity first – following Christ afterward. Paul seems to put it quite differently. Unity only comes AS we follow Christ Jesus. We can’t expect unity with one another until we put Christ himself ahead of our petty theological wars and differences! It would be nice if we could read that today and tomorrow all conflict among Christians would melt away. However, the development of unity is as much a growing in Christ process as is your Christian life or mine. We have not arrived yet, but as we follow Christ we know we surely shall!

Pastor Craig

Christ the King!

Christ the King – We are celebrating Christ the King Sunday. It is the end of the liturgical year. This day we celebrate the culmination of the work of Christ. We think about his coming again at the end of all things to establish his throne forever and ever. We have completed another liturgical cycle.

The passage from Colossians we often read this time of year is one of my favorites.

He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.


The description is an awesome one! That which you have never seen or comprehended, Christ has come to make known clearly. We are the ones who will confuse his depiction later. The text leaves no possibility of there being anything separated from his rule and power. Everything in all creation finds it purpose of existence in him. It is Christ, who pulls all the diverse strands of the universe together and brings meaning and order to it all. Without him every sound is simply noise and every action simply chaos.

When the forerunner of Jesus, John the Baptist, is born, his father, Zechariah, proclaims the great things Yahweh God is about to do through the coming Messiah. God, himself, has decided to show mercy, to remember his holy covenant. The time has come. That day for which every Israelite hoped, was today. The distant horizon had come near. God had come, not only to rescue us and our ancestors from our enemies, especially the enemy of death, but he was going to enable us to serve him without fear. The fear of God distant and awesome, the one who had covered the face of Moses lest the wonder of the glory of the face of God strike him dead, was coming to put on a body, much like the one Moses had himself. He was coming to feel, to see, to listen, to taste, and, especially, to speak his words to us with his own mouth.

His coming would not be as a conquering sovereign, though he certainly was the sovereign of any place he would place his foot. He was coming, not to see what tribute he could take away, but to see what salvation he could give. For those whose life had been gloom and suffering and hopelessness, his coming would be like a light piercing through the gloom to give hope where none had existed before. This same light would be a light of guidance to those who had lost their way along life’s path and need to find their way back home. Ain’t God Good!

Pastor Craig

When Ritual Fails

THE PURPOSE OF RITUAL IN OUR LIVES – We are about to enter one of the most ritualized times of the year, Christmas. Take a moment and rejoice and give thanks for some of your family rituals. Let me name a few. Christmas Eve services, holding your candle high during the singing of Silent Night, Christmas Eve family dinner, reading the Christmas story – or any Christmas story for that matter, waiting for Christmas morning – or opening just one present on Christmas Eve in the hopes that the one will lead to many more before bed, ham or turkey or, in one case I know of, even lasagna on Christmas morning, certain ornaments only hung by certain people, the Prange’s box! Oh the list goes on and one. Some of them would make no sense outside of your family, but inside, even the mention of the key word brings back a flood of memories.


Some traditions/rituals seem rather odd to us. It appears that before Santa, the Christmas goat delivered the presents. This goat was apparently a rather angry and grumpy creature who just threw the gifts through the door.

There was no ritual on that first Christmas other than the ritual of childbirth. No Silent Night, no candlelight service, only the light needed to deliver a baby in a less than sterile environment. Ritual is important though. It has a way of telling us what to do when the meaning of the event is so great that we are held motionless in its majesty. Ritual tells us to eat or drink, to stand or sit or even kneel, it tells us to sing and to pray, it reminds us that the perfect gift to give is a gift of ourselves.

There are many rituals which we are clueless about. Why do we raise our candles on Christmas Eve? Are we symbolizing we are the light of the world? The Scripture clearly tells us that Christ is the light of the world. Wouldn’t it make more sense to blow ours out that his may contrast our darkness? Probably not – it just doesn’t seem right, does it? Are we trying to show forth the light of Christ alive in us? That sounds like the best answer.

And all the other things we do, most of them have no basis in what happened on the first night. It probably wasn’t silent and, probably, no one slept very soundly. But, like we said earlier, the main purpose of ritual is to explain a reality which we cannot comprehend. God born in a barn is beyond the ability of our mind to grasp, so we pack in all the rituals we can think of in the hope that we can bring the event to life in our own hearts this season again. It’s what we call “Having the Christmas Spirit.”

We must be careful with our rituals. We must be careful because rituals are powerful things. They can transform themselves from symbolizing the thing we worship into actually becoming the thing we worship. But, rituals also ground us. They bring the eternal into our lives at times when we need it most. The 23rd Psalm may seem so trite until we try to get through a crisis in our life without hearing the comfort of it read for us or to us. The Christmas tree may seem an unnecessary addition to the holiday season until our parents talk about not putting one up this season any more. For all their failings, we need rituals to express who we are and where we stand on the eternal stage of this creation. It is comforting to know that some things never change. So, this season we will light our candles, we will put up our trees, we will unpack our nativity scenes, and, in doing so, we hope to touch a small piece of the eternal.

Pastor Craig

How God Works

HOW GOD WORKS – For those of you about to get all excited about getting some special insight into discovering God’s will for every aspect of your life. . .I’m sorry to disappoint you. This is more of an after the fact recognition than a prior revelation.

Many of you know that my daughter, Julia, has a passion for children. So much so that she asked everyone to send her to Romania to work with abused and abandoned children as a graduation present from MTSU after Christmas. Hopefully she will finish up her fundraising in the next week or two, but that is just the first part of a story that none of us knew the end of until Tuesday. Well, really, we don’t know the complete end yet, but it appears to be quite a masterpiece by our God.

I make an attempt to attend the luncheon sponsored by Highland Park Presbyterian Church on the fourth Tuesday of each month. There are about 25 pastors who attend, and Ken Lane from Mexia and I usually ride together. This past Tuesday there were three international pastors there, two from Africa and one from Moldova. Never, heard of it? Me either!

We go around and introduce ourselves each time and tell something that is going on in our lives or the lives of the congregations we serve. I told about Julia’s upcoming trip and asked for prayer concerning the completion of her fundraising. When the introductions got around to the opposite side of the table, the pastor from Moldova told about his work there trying to save children from child pornography rings, being harvested for human organs sold on the black market, and rescue them from the slave trade in general. Heartbreaking work! He spoke to the group but looked directly at me.


Immediately after our meeting he headed for me and said, “Tell me about your daughter.” I told him how she had spent all her Christmas money last year taking Christmas presents to the impoverished community of Orange Mound, a predominantly black neighborhood in Memphis. I told him about her trips to orphanages in Mexico and her internships on Native American reservations in the Northwest. I told him about her desire to go to Nairobi and work with HIV/AIDS children last summer and how it saddened her when it couldn’t come to pass. His response? “You are a blessed man!”

Yes, I am! The Holy Spirit watches over me far better than I deserve. Now, in addition to the stop in Romania, Julia has an invitation to visit the neighboring country of Moldova and see the work that is being done there. Who would have thought? Who could have known what God would be doing through "chance" meetings like this one.

Think about it, all the little pieces of the puzzle that came together on Tuesday. The fact that I had skipped the last several meetings at Highland Park, but Ken had called me and said, “Let’s go!” The passion Julia has to be an example to non-white, suffering children wherever she can find them. This pastor from Moldova who had also been invited as a guest to the meeting at Highland Park. The fact that Julia had a prayer need of meeting the travel needs for her support, and this was mentioned. All this leads to the possible call of God to what might be a lifelong mission. The puzzle has been more than 12 years in the making since her very first mission trip, but when that one piece is put in you realize the awesome beauty of the picture our God has painted.

His eye is certainly on the sparrow, but He doesn't take it off you or me either! AMEN.

Pastor Craig

PS - The picture is from the Moldovan national capital.

GOD’S BLESSINGS

Thanksgiving is still several weeks away, but this week’s passage from Joel 2:23ff certainly put me in the mood and reminded me of the blessings I have. The passage is all the more marvelous when we remember that Joel writes to the people of Israel as they are under God’s correction, held captive in a distant land.

The words Joel uses don’t seem to match up with the feelings the people of Israel probably experienced.

REJOICE – There just seems something out of place when we begin to talk about rejoicing during or through correction. When I think about times in my life when I received a needed correction, I fail to come up with one time that also was one of rejoicing. We can rejoice in the opportunity to set things right or the fact that the correction may not have been as severe as we had anticipated, but we fail to rejoice until the correction is over.

ABUNDANT – Abundance is something we can rejoice about. We usually think of it as a blessing when we have an abundance of money, an abundance of love, or an abundance of talent or skill in a particular field. God’s blessings are never simply sufficient. They are abundant!

FILL/OVERFLOW – Most of us settle for our cup of blessings to be filled. Joel speaks for the blessings as overflowing. God doesn’t stop when it reaches the brim of the cup. He never does anything part way. When He says He will bless you, He makes sure that you are totally blessed. He doesn’t want there to be any doubt in your mind as to the sufficiency of His grace and strength in times of need.
PLENTY – God’s blessings are not rare commodities. Some of think we go through lean times. Probably, the truth is closer to the fact that there are some times God blesses us more than other times. Those times of lesser blessing may find the bills a little more difficult to pay, the menu slightly varied, our trips or vacations closer to home, but the truth of the matter is we are still well fed, well compensated, and well rested when we realize the wonders our Savior sends our way.

The key verse here says, Then you will know that I am in Israel, that I am the Lord, your God, and that there is no other; Our Heavenly Father chooses to bless us in such a way that we will never doubt the source of our blessings or the existence of the one who sends them our way.

Regardless of your situation, regardless of how far down you feel right now, regardless how far you are held captive from the place you call home, your Heavenly Father promises a time of blessing – blessing greater than sufficient, greater than full. Blessing abundantly overflowing and bringing a time of great rejoicing. You will know your Heavenly Father has brought this for you, to you, and through you. God will pour out his Spirit upon you.
Pastor Craig

Are You Afraid?

C. S. Lewis wrote a classic sci-fi trilogy during his lifetime. In the first chapter of the second book, Perelandra, the narrator comes face-to-face with an eldil, but not just any eldil, the Oyarsa of Malacandra (what we call Mars). The eldils are spirit beings, and the Oyarsa is something approaching divinity.



The narrator comments, My fear was now of another kind. I felt sure that the creature was what we call “good,” but I wasn’t sure whether I liked “goodness” so much as I had supposed. This is a very terrible experience. As long as what you are afraid of is something evil, you may still hope that the good may come to your rescue. But suppose you struggle through to the good and find that it also is dreadful? How if food itself turns out to be the very thing you can’t eat, and home the very place you can’t live, and your very comforter the person who makes you uncomfortable? Then, indeed, there is no rescue possible: the last card has been played. For a second or two I was nearly in that condition. Here at last was a bit of that world from beyond the world, which I had always supposed that I loved and desired, breaking through and appearing to my senses: and I didn’t like it, I wanted it to go away. I wanted every possible distance between it and me.


How like that are we? We long to know more of God, to experience His presence in a more real way, to know Him even as He knows us, if that is possible. However, when the Triune God shows up with even a small peak of His glory, we find ourselves reduced to a sniveling lump of flesh. I assume that is the way it is based on what we know from the encounters we read in the Scriptures.


We simply can’t handle the direct interaction with God. We need it through a Burning Bush (which is scary enough, by the way) or a storm and earthquake or anything but the Holy Other, infinitely personal Creator of the universe. Elijah did not back away from the storm and the earthquake. It was the still small voice that made him want to hide within his own mantle. It was the voice of God from Mt. Sinai that prompted the people of Israel to beg Moses to serve as a mediator between them and God, so they would not have to hear it themselves.


Jacob, had the benefit of darkness when he wrestled with “the man” beside the river Jordan. Would he have been so bold if he had known just who it was he was wrestling with?

The fearful thing, at least I would think this would be it, is the extreme vulnerability. All our sins are exposed; Our deepest and darkest secrets are known completely, not just as a possibility, but in all their ugliness. Every aspect of our being is laid bare before the one who made us. It is then that we realize just how far short we have fallen. The enormity of the gap is overwhelming. We recognize that we have no right or place before this one. It is at that very point that our Savior steps to our side and welcomes us home. Glad to have you home. Dad and I have been waiting up for you!

Pastor Craig

Saved!

  Saved! On Tuesday and Wednesday of this past week many of us were watching eagerly to see if the band of highly skilled personnel in Chile could actually pull off one of the greatest rescues of all time. We were shocked a couple of months ago to find out that 33 trapped Chilean miners were even alive. We had presumed they were dead after 17 days. We waited, not really expecting total success as the holes were drilled. We wondered how long those men could stay alive down there. When would hope run out, even if the food didn’t? But, one by one they rode that tiny capsule back into light and life.

What will the future hold for these guys? According to the news reports, some of them already have book and movie deals waiting, one of them has a television offer, one will have to deal with the wife AND the girlfriend that were waiting for him, and all of them will be on David Lettermen this coming week.

Hope is an amazing thing. It can keep people alive when there is nothing else that can. As Scarlett said at the end of Gone With the Wind, “After all . . . Tomorrow is another day!” The whole idea of there being a tomorrow gives us a sense of starting over, of leaving the bad behind and reaching for that which is better. Those miners began tomorrow last week.

Some of you have been waiting for tomorrow. You may have been waiting for it for quite some time. You have struggled through tomorrow looking a whole lot like the yesterday you were hoping to leave behind. You struggle through the life events that show you your checking account is still in the red, your loved one’s health continues to decline, your marriage is still going to end, you continue to be anxious about your children and the direction they seem to be headed.

May I offer you a few words of hope? Jesus Christ made tomorrow. Only because of Christ can something be different. No, unfortunately, I can’t promise you that it WILL be different. You already know the prayers you have offered and the times you have pleaded with God to change your stars. In all of this, most of us are running from something – pain, humiliation, loneliness, fear. It hasn’t worked, has it? Maybe you’re running in the wrong direction, or maybe for the wrong reasons.

Try, instead of running from something, to run to something. When times go bad on you, as they do for most of us sometime during our lives, we let our fear and frustration get the best of us. What Christ asks of us is to, in these times, rely totally on him. Only as the arms of the Holy Spirit wrap around you will you fully realize that your running days can be over, that tomorrow has arrived bringing hope with it.

Peace,

Craig Krueger

Letter From Home

Letters From Home - Recently, I was contacted by a high school classmate of mine. We have not really kept up with one another over the years. We weren’t best friends in high school, but I do consider her one of my friends and was glad to hear from her.



We reconnected, as so many people do these days, through FaceBook. She contacted me because she knew I had sons in the Marine Corps. Her son had VERY recently enlisted and was headed off to Parris Island. Obviously she was interested in the point of view from a parent who had already been through this process. Whenever I have the opportunity to talk to parents of anyone going through basic training in any of our armed service branches I tell them two things. First, do whatever you have to do to get to their graduation. I never had the opportunity to go through basic training, and I am probably worse off for it. However, I do have some idea of the effort and commitment these young men and women put forth to make it to graduation. It is a wonderful accomplishment to share with them if you can. Secondly, I tell them to write to their family member. There is nothing like a letter from home to keep up their spirits and encourage them through the trials of training.



In Jeremiah 29, Jeremiah is writing to the Israelites who have been taken captive and hauled off to Babylon. They are far from home. They are in a strange land, among people who have different customs, worship different gods, and don’t have the strict dietary laws to which the Israelites are accustomed.



This is what Jeremiah says - Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your son and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I (Yahweh, God) have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper . . . When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place.



What comforting news! What a gracious letter from home! I wish you well. I hope you prosper. Have a great time. I’ll see you soon! Isn’t that just what we want to hear when we are far away?



Jeremiah knows the people are homesick. He knows they want to come back. He knows they are remorseful about the events that led up to their being carried into exile. He tells them, “Don’t punish yourselves anymore! Get comfortable. Buy a house. Get married. Have children and grandchildren. Live life!



It is amazing how much our God loves us! Even in the act of correction He takes time to remind us that we are loved and care for, that He is eager to have us back, and that He will be the very one that will make sure we get home safely! Live life! Love your Heavenly Father, because he certainly loves you!

Pastor Craig

What Does God Want?

What does God want you to do? Oh, you know the big stuff. Don’t murder. Don’t lie. Don’t steal. Don’t commit adultery. Those we know, the ones that are the clear right and wrong issues. Now, we don’t always do them, but we do know them. They have been drilled into most of us from Sunday School and VBS years ago.

The ones we have trouble with are the ones that are less clear cut. Sometimes it is a choice between two rights, or good things. Other times it is attempting to make the best of a bad situation. What do we do when we are presented with two excellent job offers or are choosing between two worthwhile charities? For those of us who take our faith seriously, this is still a serious decision. We want to do what is right, even when there is not a wrong decision.

I am one of those who believe that there is a perfect path that God lays out for us. I also believe that I tend to stray off that path on a regular basis and am in need of regular confession to be restored and allowed to salvage what I can from the journey I have messed up. It’s sort of like the time my Dad jackknifed our camper less than 50 miles from home at the start of a coast-to-coast summer vacation. We salvaged a good time from it, but we still had a dent in the rear fender of our station wagon for the whole trip!

I learned a similar lesson almost 20 years ago. I was exploring multiple vocational choices. I desperately wanted to make the correct one. I prayed and agonized over it for as long as I could. God was silent. Well, let me just say that he wasn’t speaking in a way that I was listening. The choices ranged from places in Hawaii to South Carolina, from South Dakota to New Jersey, from Chicago to Kansas. It was a nice, but frustrating position in which to be.

Finally, it dawned on me. What I really wanted from God was for Him to show me the easy path. What he really wanted from me was faithfulness regardless of which path I chose. I didn’t find the easy path. It was a long and uphill journey, but it wasn’t the wrong way because my Savior was with me every step of the way.

In the choice you have to make this day don’t look for the easiest path. Don’t expect God to show you the downhill, smooth, and broad road. Simply know that Christ will travel each path with you if you invite Him along.

Pastor Craig

Though It Linger

Though it linger, wait for it – Certainly you remember your birthday and the excitement that day held for most of us. Fortunately, most of us have even greater memories of nights which seemed to drag on forever as we waited to see what Christmas morning would bring. I remember one year wishing we could skip through all the days so that it would be Christmas again more quickly. My request was met with a “Be careful, or you’ll wish your whole life away” by my grandmother’s husband, Gus. However, at that point I didn’t seem to care. A few days of life would be worth wasting to get to Christmas again.


We also have times of anxiety, times we wish something was over. These might be times of grief, loneliness, financial hardship, or spiritual trial. The possibilities for “wishing portions of our life away” are enormous!

The bold words that begin this short essay are from Habakkuk. The prophet is bemoaning the prevalence of evil and how it seems to take over everything and be everywhere. In the first chapter of the book he cries out, "Why do you make me look at injustice!? Why do I have to even look at it God? Why?"

However, we know there are some things worth waiting for, like birthdays, Christmas, and REALLY good vacations. But, most of all – God’s justice. We have all experienced some form of injustice and unfairness in this life. We have suffered through trying times, events, people, and situations. In some cases, our involvement at all seemed an injustice. This fight is between these two people over here, why do I have to listen to, much less be a part of it. It just doesn’t seem to make sense. When will our suffering stop, O Lord?

Though it linger, wait for it – When God’s justice, forgiveness, mercy, and compassion seem miles and miles away – wait for it. When the Scriptural encouragement about not being tested beyond what we can bear (I Corinthians 10:13) seems like a cruel joke, and the time of deliverance is non-existent – wait for it. When you want to take the advice Job’s wife gave to him during his trials and “Curse God and die!” rather than earnestly pray for it all to make sense by some future day – wait for it. Waiting is hard. It does not come easy for us. Isaiah encourages us differently – Since ancient times no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides You, who acts on behalf of those who wait for him! Amen!



Pastor Craig

Life

Life – There are few guarantees as we move through life. My life, even today, has been disrupted in small ways. I got ready to come to church but had to stop and shut off the water to the house because one of the outside hydrants was leaking. Unplanned expense and something to add to the ToDo List!

The water is shut off, now it’s time to get to work and finish the bulletin, right? If only it could be so easy! I hear a commotion behind me as I’m going out our first gate. It’s the one you have to get out and open and close yourself, nothing automatic here!

Well, the commotion is a dog fight between two of the dogs that have never fought before, and it is an ugly one. I wait until one has the upper hand, take them both down to the ground, put my knee on the dominant one’s jaw, and free the one getting the worst whoopin’. Now, it took about five minutes to do that, and I am covered in dog slobber, dirt, and blood!

Time to separate the two dogs. This is a battle of wills, to keep them apart long enough to get each one locked away from the other. There is some minor do-it-yourself vet work to do on one. Next, back to the shower to wash the dirt, slobber, and blood off and to change clothes.

What was supposed to be an early start to the day ended up taking an extra 90 minutes before I was finally out that gate and in the car on the way to the church! Life is not dull, is it? There are times we would rather it would be, we even wish it could be, but it’s not.

My little sidebars to the day are nothing like some of the curves other people are handed on a regular basis, even some of you. Mine are just the little inconveniences, minor events that eat away at the time I thought I had to accomplish things. Some of you have found out that the stock market has managed to make a large portion of your expected retirement vanish. Others, assuming their “golden years” would be full of relaxation, travel, and taking it easy are confronted with another reality – something that steals time, dreams, and energy to name only a few.

When I first looked at the picture above I thought of three different paths and pitied the people being pulled in three different directions. However, look at the sign again. You may even have seen it the first time. In order for that sign to exist, there must be a place where all three of these things come together! There is some place where Life, Work, & Home all intersect and offer some degree of peace and harmony. The only place that intersection exists is in the presence of the Holy Spirit, in that place where we are reminded that Jesus Christ is still in control, even when we feel like our lives are so out of control! Christ doesn’t promise the path our life journey follows will always be broad and level with multiple refreshment stops along the way. He only promises that He will walk each step of the journey with us, from the very beginning – all the way through! AMEN.

Pastor Craig

Wisdom & Discernment

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this past week, I was fortunate enough to be able to go and see Walt graduate his first cycle of recruits. I learned more than I will ever need to know about the function of the Drill Instructors, their levels, different duties, and courses required. Oh, and terminology. I learned there are 4 hats that make up a DI team even though they never call the things they wear on their head anything but a “cover”. The most interesting thing I learned was a lesson on wisdom and discernment.




Walt invited me to watch graduation practice on Wednesday. The graduating battalion was made up of 8 platoons of about 70 recruits each. Now almost all DI’s have the kind of voice you would expect from someone who does what they do for a living. There was one DI, however, whose voice seemed to carry over and above everything else everywhere! Each platoon was supposed to perform a left-face on command from their specific Senior DI. Well, this one had such a powerful voice that half the battalion responded to the command and preformed the action called out. The problem was almost all of them who did it were supposed to remain at attention!



You can picture the First Sergeant in charge of the ceremony correcting the mistake with his soothing and compassionate voice. Yeah, RIGHT. Like that would actually happen! No, there was an immediate and equally vocal question put, not to the recruits who acted early, but to the DI’s in charge of those platoons. DRILL INSTRUCTORS! WHO IS IN CHARGE OF YOUR PLATOON!?



Yes, you would be correct in assuming the DI’s who had been embarrassed by the recruits took immediate and vocal action to correct the situation so it NEVER happened again, and it didn’t. They had obeyed a command. It just wasn’t a command from the person who had authority over them at that exact moment. They had followed another voice.



How like us as Christians!? Fortunately, our Heavenly Father is far more forgiving than those DI’s were on Wednesday. He does correct us and call us home. Even though there might be some earthly and unavoidable consequences for our missteps, we are not sent on an extended run or made to do pushups until our arms give out. Sometimes we need the same wisdom and discernment those recruits needed, the ability to know who is in charge of us, who we are and, even more importantly, WHOSE we are!



Who are you listening to? Satan, himself, wants to give you orders. He wants to tell you what you can and can’t do. The only problem with that is that his voice is not the one you need to be listening to. He has no authority over you in this situation. You answer to another command. We do get that mixed up on a regular basis though, don’t we? We end up facing the wrong direction at the wrong time and feeling like a complete fool, maybe fearing the wrath of some heavenly DI. Instead, though, we get the love and forgiveness that only Jesus Christ has to offer us. We are blanketed by assurance from the Holy Spirit who reminds us who we are and, especially, whose we are. We are called back to and by the one true voice that leads in the path of peace and salvation. AMEN.

Pastor Craig

Counting/Keeping Track

Counting, but not Keeping Track – God works in the most mysterious ways. I was searching for the Scripture for this Sunday and decided to turn to the lectionary passage of Psalm 14. Well, somehow I missed Psalm 14 and ended up one book previous, the book of Job. Not paying attention, I read the 22 verses of Job 14 thinking it didn’t sound very Psalmy (It’s my page. I can make up words if I want to.). I soon found out my mistake and went to the proper text to prepare for the rest of the week.



There was something about that 14th chapter in Job though that kept calling me back. Verse 16 reads, Surely then you will count my steps but not keep track of my sin. Wow! Read that two or three more times slowly before you move on. Take a moment to drink it in.



Counting One’s Steps – It carries all the meaning of one who is watched over and cared for. God will count my steps. He knows everything I have done, am doing, and will do! I can never be apart from His presence. There is no mountain too high, no valley too low, no sea too broad, but He will find me.



Counting steps gives the connotation of knowing one’s target’s exact location – so many steps, so many turns, so many more steps. That is absolutely awesome. What that tells you and me is that in our darkest moment, when we feel the most alone, we are not alone at all. The one who is greatest and strongest, who is able to comfort and console is by our side every step of the way, regardless of how high the count goes.



Not Keeping Track of One’s Sin – The amazing teaching of the passage is not that God does not keep track of one’s sin, or that God counts are every step. No, the amazing part of that passage is that they are both true at the same time! God does not become a forgetful grandparent when it comes to our sin. No, He consciously decides not to keep accounts.



Keeping accounts is what you and I do. It is talking about forgiveness, pretending that we have forgiven, but if the offender steps out of line again, the current sin is added to the heaping pile of all the previously “forgiven” sins the same offender has committed. You and I rarely forgive. We simply put people on probation, and we are the probation officer!



How blessed are we that God doesn’t operate that way!? I don’t know why He doesn’t. I don’t know He couldn’t. I am so thankful that He does. Your Heavenly Father doesn’t give you His not-again sigh when you come before the throne of grace! No, He welcomes you home as a child, recognizing that this is the place where children belong, with their Father! What greater comfort could there be? What greater provision could we ask for to meet our desperate need!



Pastor Craig

An Open Letter in Rhyme to President Obama

The following lines are penned by a friend of mine, the Poet Laureate for my home town. They are not my own.

Dear President Obama

The powers that be are ordained of God

Roman 13:1 says, so I give a nod

to the fact that you are indeed my president.

However, that does not mean

that my vision of you has no tarnished sheen.

I believe that God sent you as His judgment.

America has wandered far --

to the point where you say we no longer are

porperly described as a Christian nation.

Our founding fathers, if you read their words,

would say that is completely absurd.

Christian morals form our base foundation.

But, fearing some might be offended,

American has effectively ended

any trace of God in our public halls.

Public prayer and His due respect

are now politically incorrect.

No wonder He fails to answer our calls.

To compound this "Obama-nation"

you now espouse "Collective Salvation"

which has no nasis in the Holy Bible.

This year you canceled our "Day of Prayer,"

but at Ramadan, prayed with Muslims there.

For these actions, most Christians hold you liable.

You, Sir, promised hope and change --

and yes, our country is rearranged!

But where, Sir, is that often promised hope?

Unemployment nears ten percent;

our deficit has no precedent,

and most Americans feel near the end of their rope.

I believe to the depths of my soul

tht God is still in complete control

and is the only hope for our survival.

In my opinion, He put you in place

to get our attention and cause us to face

our sins and our need for a sweeping, spiritual revival.

History in My Garden

This morning, I am thinking about the end of the week, probably anxious for it to get here. Recognizing the solemn date that Saturday will be, I wondered about Friday, a day rather devoid of history. Doing a brief scan through events on September 10th the only thing I found of interest was that on September 10, 1977 the French executed a murder by Guillotine, a practice I would have thought was long out of use. That, however, was the final time the Guillotine was used as a form of execution. Granted, it’s a rather gruesome way to remember this date in history.


We would probably prefer to remember September 10, 2001. Most of us have little to remember that day, at least nothing grand or large. I was at the Tennessee State Fair in Nashville preparing to announce the livestock show for the next morning, making sure I had the correct pronunciation for any of the difficult names some of these owners tend to come up with for their cattle. None of us were prepared for what was about to happen the next morning. At the beginning of the show the next morning I was forced to make a very different kind of announcement to the people assembled there.

This year will be the ninth observance of the remembrance of 9-11. Each time it has involved solemn assemblies, tears, and a commitment to our liberties and freedoms. If we think about September 10, 2001 it is in the same mind as we think about December 6, 1941 or, maybe, July 3, 1776, days that are just ordinary days. Days we would like to have more of, especially when compared to some of the tragic days that followed them.

Unfortunately, we have little influence on the grand events of history, both the pleasant ones and the unpleasant ones. We are simply called upon to deal with the days before and after.

Imagine what we might have done if we had known. Aside from the answers about stopping the event itself, what would you do?

There is a quote that I have always heard attributed to St. Augustine of Hippo. However, at the writing of this article, I could not find it attributed to anyone. A legend has an individual asking the question of Augustine, “What would you do if you knew you were going to die this afternoon?”

The answer reflects the perfect peace of one who has lived life without regret, who has no fears or worries about tomorrow. “I would work in my garden in the morning.” Imagine that, living life in such a way that when its end was upon us there was no need to rush around to complete unfinished business, to say unsaid words, or to mend broken relationships.

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:6,7)

Pastor Craig

In The Potter's House

In the Potter’s House – Most of you have been to period or cultural villages at some time during your life. These are the places where you can watch craftsmen make things “the way we used to do it” and then be thankful that you won’t ever have to do that.


Very few of us weave our own clothe, build our own furniture, dip our own candles, blow our own glass, harvest our own food, cure our own meat, or throw our own pottery. We admire the ability in others. We just never really sought to have the ability ourselves!

God told Jeremiah to go to the potter’s house. Jeremiah went. “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you a message."

It was there, he received the message from the Lord. Read carefully. The message did not come to Jeremiah as soon as he walked in the door. It took time. For those of you who have seen any of the skills performed by the master craftsmen. You know it can take a long time. One has to have patience when working with most of these materials. Jeremiah had to be patient as well.

He watched the potter begin to form a vessel. Things seemed to be going well. Suddenly, something happened and that which should have been beautiful was marred and ugly. Fortunately, the potter had skills beyond the skills of most. He took that which was marred and useless and made it into something else. It may or may not have been as beautiful as what was originally intended. It may not have looked as grand as the original could have looked, but it was useful. It was useful because the potter was patient.

Some of you are waiting at the potter’s house. You long to hear a message from God – a message of comfort, a message of hope, a message of encouragement, a message of guidance and direction, or a message just to confirm that He is there and that He cares.

For some of you, you feel as if your life has been marred, broken, or has become useless. Be patient. God didn’t speak to Jeremiah until the lesson had already been displayed, conveyed, if you will, through another media.

The Holy Spirit has not been sent into your life for just this day. The Spirit is there for the long haul. The Spirit is being patient with you, even when you appear to be “bad clay.” God’s skillful hands find the ways past your brokenness to mend and mold you into something beautiful, if only you have the patience to wait on His work!

Pastor Craig

Brilliance

Brilliance – Brilliance is a word that has mostly fallen out of use in everyday language. We use it to describe people. “He/she is brilliant!” However, one of the word’s most common uses in the past was to describe objects. In fact, the older versions of Webster’s Dictionary use this definition in the primary position – very bright, glittering, striking or distinctive are among the terms used to define brilliant.




Certainly, we have met people whose mental accomplishments could be called “striking” or “distinctive.” However, when we are speaking about our Lord, Jesus Christ, brilliance and brilliant take on all the meanings the word has to offer. Certainly Christ is beyond brilliant when it comes to mental abilities. Certainly, God knows many things you and I never will. Certainly, God understands the mysteries of the universe that our greatest scientists struggle to have any conception of at all!



Brilliant, however, is most often used to describe God’s glory. Exodus 24 tells us that the sight of the glory of the Lord was as a “consuming fire.” When Moses was finished speaking to Yahweh God on the mountain, his face shone brightly, so brightly the people asked him to cover himself.



In fact the sound of the voice of God was a conveyor of such power and might that the people trembled in fear. Exodus 20 says that the people asked Moses to tell God to speak only to him and not to them lest they die, so Moses listened to the voice of Yahweh and then told the people what He had said.



When Moses asked to see God’s glory, to come face-to-face with God. Yahweh had to tell Moses, “No.” He had to tell Moses no because the sight of the glory of God was beyond what the human existence could bear. Yahweh was protecting Moses, not denying him.



This same glory that brought fear into the hearts of the Israelites is the glory which the Scriptures tell us will one day cover and fill the whole earth! That is a fearsome thought. That which terrified the people of Israel will one day overpower all else. There will be no getting away from it. God’s glory will indeed be revealed.



Should we be as afraid as the people of Israel were? No, I don’t think we should. We have no need to fear if we belong to Jesus Christ, for Christ has imparted some of that glory to us. He has shared, indeed covered us, with His own righteousness, for it is the unrighteousness which that glory will consume and burn away until nothing is left of it. Exodus 29 even talks about how the glory of the LORD will sanctify the people of Israel. They will not be righteous in their own might and works. They will be granted righteousness because God is glorious. God takes your sin away and gives you His radiant glory that you may be sanctified and numbered among the saints of God as well!

Pastor Craig

Why?

BECAUSE I SAID SO – With or without the exclamation point, in a loud or soft voice, either way it does not tend to make us more cooperative. We want reasons. We want logic. We want it explained to us. We want some input in the decision making process. At least we want our wants and needs taken into consideration.



However, what do we do when the one making the decision has the right and the power to make it? We have all worked for bosses, even if we were out looking for a new job as quickly as we could, who managed with that mindset. Technically, the boss does have the right to make that call. After all, it is his/her business. They are the ones who put up the capital to get it up and going. It’s there name on the signature line of our paycheck. But, still. . .


We don’t take it much better when those words come from God, either. We want to know why it has to be that way. We want to understand the thought process God went through in the process of coming to this particular conclusion, at least that’s what Job wanted. We seldom get it though, do we?

In Yahweh’s call of the prophet Jeremiah he says, “You must go to everyone I send you to and say whatever I command you.” It doesn’t seem that God is particularly interested in Jeremiah’s input on the situation. God doesn’t seem interested in whether this fits in with the rest of Jeremiah’s schedule. When God comes to us with a task to be done it immediately moves to the top of the To-Do-List! OK, at least it should. God has already decided the destination, the audience, and the message. This is not the office of prophet by committee.

Is this to say that God does not care about our feelings? No, absolutely not. It does remind us that God’s top priority is faithfulness.

Matthew 21 has Jesus telling a story about a father coming to his two sons and asking each of them to go work in the vineyard. The first was rude and disrespectful, telling him flat out, “I WILL NOT!” Later this one went. The second said all the right words but never lifted a finger. Jesus follows the parable by asking the question, “Which one of these sons did the will of the father?” It’s all about follow through.


Later in Jeremiah Yahweh says, “I am watching to see that my word is fulfilled.” The phrase has two meanings. First, God is not like a harried parent who rattles off a long list of tasks and then forgets what was dished out and to whom. No, He remembers the who, what, when, and where of what He told you to do, and He will watch to see how you perform. Literally, Thank God for grace!


But, secondly, God’s watching is more than an overseer’s task to make sure the work is done. Yahweh’s oversight actually enables the task to be performed! So, before you get quite so anxious about God looking over your shoulder, remember that it is this watching that makes the work possible at all.

Pastor Craig

My Summer Vacation

In just a couple weeks most of our kids will be back to school. I don’t know if this is still something grade school children and youth do at the beginning of the term, but it certainly was a ritual when I was growing up so long ago. It was the writing of the What I Did on My Summer Vacation essay.

Let me preface this by saying I grew up in a small North Georgia town with one older sister. My parents had moved there from Wisconsin in time for me to start Kindergarten and my sister to start first grade. This meant all our relatives were, literally, a thousand miles away. So, guess what our summer vacation was each and every summer?

Yes, you would be correct. We travelled the long, non-interstate route to Wisconsin to visit both sets of grandparents in Merrill, Wisconsin and to help my paternal grandparents do the backbreaking work of hauling in enough hay to last through the Wisconsin winter on their dairy farm.

My essay was the same each and every year. Oh, there were highlights – the summer I got to start driving the tractor; the summer my cousin and I unloaded the whole trailer of bales by ourselves (a feat my grandfather praised us for even though I am sure he had to restack many of those bales we just couldn’t seem to get in there tight enough); playing my Mother’s old 78’s on the record player she used to have at my other Grandmother’s and learning to appreciate the music of the 40’s and 50’s which I still dearly love; learning to ride a bike on the farm; going to summer concerts by the town band at the local band shell; getting a new boomerang that sailed out over the local lake and did not come back!

Other kids went to Disneyland or the new and closer Disneyworld. I went to Wisconsin – land of Holsteins and cheese. Each and every summer, this is what we did, that is until my Grandmother got sick and could no longer help my Grandfather. The farm was sold. They kept a small portion of it and built a house there. Now I watched someone else go and come from that farm house, but they were city folks and didn’t really know much about dairy farming.

We did finally head to new destinations. We went out West, with Grandparents in tow, to the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, and Yosemite. We went up the East coast to Cape Cod. And, finally, yes finally, I got to go to Disneyworld. It was great. I thoroughly enjoyed it, but for all the excitement, it couldn’t beat either of my Grandparent’s houses for it was there that I learned how to drive a tractor, ride a bike, appreciate music, and live in relationships even if throwing a boomerang is still not something I have mastered.

It was there I learned that I was loved and could be forgiven, something I only found out later that many people never realize. It was this love that made it so easy to understand the love and forgiveness of God for me in Jesus Christ because I had already seen unconditional love everyday of my life through my parents and grandparents. Sure, the other destinations of my classmates could entertain, but they all fell short of teaching the things that made me who I am today.

God Can When You Can't!

God Works in Wondrous Ways – Yes, he really does. Many of you know that, in the past, I’ve had two sons in the Marine Corps. One chose to make a career out of the Corps. The other gladly served his time and then got out.


It is tough on any family who has a loved one in a combat zone. In the day of instant news, when everyone has a camera on their cell phone and when pictures and video from the other side of the world, can appear on your computer screen as they happen, there is nowhere to hide from the violence that happens so suddenly unless a person chooses to disconnect from communications entirely.
Well, with two sons in the service it was bound to happen sooner or later. There came a time when they were both going to be in Iraq at the same time. Due to deployment schedules and the fact that one was stationed in Hawaii and the other in North Carolina the two had not seen each other in several years. We had hoped to get them home for Christmas and get the special Christmas photo with both of them and their dress blues, but the opportunity never presented itself. In fact, we had never seen the two of them together in any form of official military dress.

Walt, the older one, was headed out of Iraq after completing his second tour. Alex was headed into Iraq for his second one. We had hoped there would be an opportunity for them to see each other. The Marine Corps had promised they would do what they could, but we knew it would be a God thing if it happened at all.

One evening the phone rang. It was Alex. He was at the Al Asad AFB staging for deployment in the Al Anbar province. He was in the middle of a huge tent city – hundreds of them, enough to house a whole battalion. He was trying to give us an address, but the best he could do was to say that he was in tent #36. We wished him well, told him we loved him, and promised to pray for him. That’s all a parent can do. However, God can always do more.

About 30 minutes later Walt called. He was in Al Asad as well with his battalion getting ready to come home. He said he had been looking for Alex all day, but there were so many tents he had no clue where to look. Try #36.

God is good. He takes care of things when we have no resources to meet the challenge. This remains the only picture of the two of them together in uniform. I love it dearly.

Pastor Craig
 
P.S. For those of you who are wondering, Alex is on the left and Walt is on the right!

Cheated

Cheated – We don’t like to be cheated. We get mad when we find out that the used car we bought is not 100% as represented. We are frustrated when the new and improved on the product we are trying must refer to the box because it certainly DOES NOT refer to the product! We don’t like being lied to; we don’t like feeling like we have been betrayed!

We guard against being cheated. We buy products with warranties on them. We even purchase the extended warranty program. The more valuable the product, the more likely we are to secure a guarantee of its quality, the more likely we are to assure ourselves as much as possible that we are not being taken advantage of by anyone.

Why would Paul find it necessary to warn us about being cheated out of our reward in Jesus Christ. Certainly we would make sure that we do everything within our power to strengthen our faith. Certainly we would evaluate the claims of the person preaching the Word of God against what we have read ourselves in the Word! That would have to go without saying, it would seem.

Recently we bought a new television. We checked out warranties. We educated ourselves about pixels and resolution. Tracy learned the difference between plasma and LCD televisions. I, eventually, gave up. After all, when WIPEOUT! is your favorite show, are you really that concerned about picture quality, or do you just want to see a good solid face plant?

The point I am trying to make is that we educate ourselves because so often we don’t feel our sales person REALLY knows what they are talking about. We want to know for ourselves!

Yet, when it comes to spirituality, we don’t really seek to educate ourselves at all. We trust the person in front of our class or behind our pulpits. We believe that all that schooling so many of our pastors have MUST be good for something! Yet, we seldom, if ever, check out what the Scriptures have to say for ourself. We simply trust to “the professionals.”

Paul cautions the Colossian Christians, “don’t let anyone cheat you out of your reward!” How could they do that? WHY WOULD THEY DO THAT?! Paul says that unless they preach and teach the pure Gospel of Jesus Christ come down to take up our burdens, they may very well be wasting your time. If the sermon is always about empty viewpoints, and the multitude of angels, if study is always and only an academic exercise and seldom if ever a practical application of the Word of the Living God to your daily life, then you have someone who is taking you captive through worldly philosophy and not promoting nurture and growth in Jesus Christ. The only way we know these things is to spend more time reading the manual for our lives and educating ourselves on the workings of the human heart and soul than we do finding out about the latest and greatest in televisions.

Pastor Craig

Lay 'Em Down

Lay ‘em Down – The message of the Gospel is so simple. Lay down your burdens and walk away. Not your responsibilities, sorry about that. You’ve still got to take care of those. However, you don’t have to worry about them to the point of distraction. You can Lay ‘em Down like the words of the song by Need To Breathe.

It can be so difficult to do something so simple. Maybe what Jesus was saying to Martha was a call to lay down her burdens, to set aside her worries, to find peace and relaxation at the feet of the Savior. Many of us who have found salvation are still in search of the peace we thought we would get with it. The problem is not a defective form of salvation but, rather, an incomplete one – not incomplete in the sense that we will end up short of the Kingdom.

This incompleteness is more along the lines of buying a high end computer to do nothing more than play solitaire on! It could do so much more.

You know, at that exact instant, I don’t think Jesus cared if the table was set just so. I’m not sure he would have noticed if the food had was getting cold or overcooked because the conversation had gone too long. There was a teachable moment in the life of one of His children and that was all that mattered.

You’ve all seen the saying, “Don’t sweat the small stuff. Just remember, it’s all small stuff.”

Now, we know that’s not exactly true. Some of life’s decisions are of tremendous important. The problem is, most of those are usually beyond our control. The issue is not really about our decision; it’s about our battle for control. We give up control when we Lay ‘em Down.

Pastor Craig