Beginnings

Beginnings are such painful things. When we begin the new year we are reminded of our failed resolutions from last year. When we begin a new job there may be a great deal of satisfaction and excitement, but, mixed with that, there is a leaving behind of the old job, maybe even moving to an entirely different city.
The thrill of beginning to drive the car wore off soon after it also became our responsibility to fuel the car, insure the car, and maintain the car!
Beginnings are seldom simply adding something to life. They signify the completion, fulfillment, or ending of one life stage and the start of something different or new, something that represents a change over what was in it’s place before.
When it comes to marriage, I tell couples coming for their pre-marital counseling sessions that they are beginning a new and radically different relationship, even those who have lived together for an extended period of time. They are giving something up and starting something new. They will have to get acquainted all over again in this new relationship.
Matthew 4:17 says, From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” Two things are new here. The first is that Jesus began a public ministry. He put aside any hope of a private life and took up the role of Messiah and Savior.
The second is more exciting than the first, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. This whole idea of repentance is something of a new beginning for us as people of God. We are called to leave behind an old way of life and to take up a new way of life. This is an old way of life that many of us had grown quite accustomed to living. It won’t be easy to just lay it down and walk away. We may have to find new friends who will assist and encourage us on our new journey of becoming. That will be hard. We will adopt new and different priorities. We will, hopefully, purge ourselves of behaviors not in keeping with our new way of life and build in behaviors that reinforce the new life path we are travelling.

What are the results of this new thing Jesus began and continues to this day? Verse 24 of that same chapter in Matthew tells us that people talked. They told other people. Good News that is REALLY good can’t be kept a secret. It bursts forth from our own lives and begins to change the lives of this around us. May our beginning, begin something in the lives of the people we meet! Amen.
Pastor Craig

Lessons Learned in the Atlanta Airport

I am writing this from my parent’s house in Winder, GA. Those of you older than I, may possibly have heard of it before as the home town of Senator Richard Russell. That is the one thing of national recognition for which we might be known. But for me, it is a place of memories and comfort.

I ended up here on my way to Philadelphia. I was to leave DFW after church last Sunday afternoon. With the snow, it was a risky trip. However, my flights were early afternoon and, if I could just get out of Dallas, I stood an excellent chance of staying ahead of the weather as it moved east towards my connection in Atlanta.

I arrived at the airport in plenty of time, got checked in, and waited, and waited, and waited. I wasn’t quite sure what I was waiting for. The flight crew was there. The plane was there. It had actually stopped snowing and the runways were clear. However, it was going to be a bumpy flight and they had already announced that the usual beverage service would not be offered. Instead, we were waiting on bottled water. Bottled, I assume, so when the plane makes that several hundred foot drop and your head hits the cabin ceiling, at least you don’t spill your drink.

We finally left, 45 minutes late. That meant I would have a maximum of 20 minutes to make my connection if we stayed on schedule. Add in the time for people to pack their mules with all the stuff they drug on board so they wouldn’t have to pay the $20+ baggage handling fee and it meant I was going to be on the run.


What I learned in Atlanta is that I am too old and too fat to run through airports anymore. I learned that you can’t beg, buy, plead, or threaten your way past a gate agent once they have decided that you aren’t going to get on the plane. It doesn’t matter if the plane is still at the gate and the jetway is still connected to the plane. I learned to take the rental car that is offered because it just might be the last one available in the whole city. I learned that I can still drive on ice. I learned that after 30 years away, I can still find my way around Atlanta to bypass traffic when the need arises. Most of all, I learned, yet again, that God works in mysterious ways. I learned to be patient, to go with the flow, to enjoy the 4-day blessing snowed in with my parents. I was detoured, just like the wisemen of old, and I learned, as they did, that God’s plans and priorities are different than our own, but far more fun and better for us.



Pastor Craig

LAVISHED

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding.

When was the last time you had something lavished on you. For me, the thought that comes to mind is about Christmas. We are at the end of Christmastide, as it is called, so we can still talk about it without being “out of season.” Picture the Ghost of Christmas Past when old Ebenezer first encounters him in what appears to be a mighty banquet hall.
My parents were not incredibly wealthy, but they were wise with their money and every Christmas they seemed to save it up to spend on my sister and me. The gifts were piled around the tree. They circled the whole thing. As children, we didn’t realize how blessed we were. We took way too much for granted. Oh, we appreciated what we received, even the clothes. But, I think, we thought everyone had a Christmas like we had. I know quite well now that most did not. I realize now that there were those who had nothing, not even a tree, on December 25th.
Now take one of those children who had nothing on Christmas Day and put them in the house of my childhood with every single one of those packages that we spent most of the day opening with their name on it! That, my friends, is what it means to have something lavished on you! Or maybe it speaks more to the excitement we should experience when we recognize the “riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us.”
Think of it! Now I am one of those that believe every child deserves a present on Christmas Day. Yet, I am not one of those, nor are you by the way, who deserves the grace of God lavished upon him. I am a good person by human standards, and so are you, but neither you nor I deserve the grace of God. Still, for some reason, God decides, not just to gift you his grace, but to gift it to you in portions of which you and I are not even able to comprehend.
Sometimes the best thing to do is to sit in the grass, surrounded by God’s marvelous creation, and just be in wonder of his amazing gifts to his children. God’s gifts come in only one size, infinite, because that is how much he loves you!
Pastor Craig