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