Does God ever get tired of hearing us ask for the same things over and over again? Sometimes we wonder about that when we've asked God for something so many times.
I got a pretty good answer the other night on a visit to a friends house.
She has struggled with eye problems for some time now and it seems to get worse all the time. She told me that the other night after she finished praying with her husband before bed that she asked him if he thought God ever got tired of hearing her ask that he would heal her eyes. Her husband (who is 89 years wise) kindly but firmly told her that there was no way God would ever get tired of hearing about her eyes.
She told me how she had quit praying that God would heal her eyes and had begun to thank him that she still can see as good as she does.
That floored me. What humility and gratitude towards God!
It's so easy for us to see God as some sort of genie in a lamp that gives us the things we want just because that's what he's made for.
I was so convicted by the fact that I constantly am asking God to do "this" or do "that" for me but I too often forget to spend some time thanking him for the kindness he has shown me.
I hope the lesson I learned on that visit sticks with me.
And by the way, she found out a couple of weeks ago that she is going to be able to get some new glasses that will really help her to see more like she used to.
I guess God likes it when we bring him our troubles and admit our utter dependence on him.
James 1:17 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

One great piece of mischief has been done by the modern restriction of the word temperance to the question of drink. It helps people to forget that you can be just as intemperate about lots of other things. A man who makes his golf or his motor bicycle the center of his life, or a woman who devotes all her thoughts to clothes or bridge or her dog, is being just as intemperate as someone who gets drunk every evening. Of course, it does not show on the outside so easily: bridge-mania or golf-mania do not make you fall down in the middle of the road. But God is not deceived by externals.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963)

I came across this quote last week as I prepared for a sermon and I made a mental note of it for a possible blog post later. As it turns out it really snapped in with my day today.

I spent the day today at the motocross track with the J and some pals from work. We had a great time.

But at one point I was watching a little kid walk by fully decked out in racing garb.

As he walked by I found myself getting misty as I tallied up the investment that was sauntering by on the person of a seven-year-old child.

$150.00 in boots

$200.00 give or take in jersey and pants

$150.00 in helmet

$100.00 chest protector

And we’ll throw in another $75.00 for some gloves, boot socks and maybe a Fox racing ball cap (with flat bill, turned backwards and a little to the side).

Not to mention the fact that he was racing probably $10k worth of dirt bike.

There was a lot riding around in the dirt today. It didn’t excuse it but it made me sort of understand why some of the parents seemed so disappointed if little Tommy didn’t take the checkered flag.

Some of the people in attendance today have poured so much of their time, money and energy into something that is just a hobby. Don’t get me wrong, I can see the enjoyment that it brings and the way that friends and family can get together but, wouldn’t it be better to let something a little more meaningful be the thing that consumes us?

I had a GREAT time with the J and my boys from work but I guess I just didn’t feel full when it was all said and done. I mean “full” like the way I feel after a day with my family or after hearing a good sermon or after I have spent 4 hours studying and finally figuring out something that I couldn’t understand in the Bible.

The quote from my old buddy Clive just seemed to click with some of the stuff I saw today; a bunch of people who were “sober as a judge” but completely “plowed” over a little motor-bike.

I don’t want to give the impression that I’m a dirty fun hater or that I spent the day pondering the futility of it all like some sort of stoic philosopher. This didn’t come to me until after I got sat down this evening and began to mentally digest my day. I actually spent the day thinking about how much fun it would be to be dressed up like a power ranger and getting big air on all the jumps.

All I’m trying to say is that there is a great big God out there and knowing him is a real and lasting high. And to say “out there” doesn’t even do him justice because he is really near us all and he wants to have a relationship with every one of us if we will just look up from whatever it is that is occupying our time and seek him. And at the end of a day with him, you do indeed feel full.

Psalm 84:10

A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else!

I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the

homes of the wicked.

Of Fires and Attack Beagles

The above picture is of the fire that burned in Yellowstone National Park in 1988. I’ve been to Yellowstone a couple of times and with every visit I was struck by the destruction that took place.
That fire burned 793,000 acres (36% of the park) and the firefighting effort alone cost 120million dollars.
To me this serves as a great and terrible reminder of the destructive potential of our words. I draw this parallel because of what is written in the 3rd chapter of the book of James.

James 3:5,6:
5So also the tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do. A great forest can be set on fire by one tiny spark. 6And the tongue is a flame of fire. It is full of wickedness, and poisons every part of the body. And the tongue is set on fire by hell itself and can turn our whole lives into a blazing flame of destruction and disaster.
(The Living Bible)

I remember when I was about ten years old and my faithful beagle and I ventured into the woods across the road, armed with a budding killer instinct and a Red Ryder BB gun. We were on a seek-and-destroy mission for some renegade squirrels that had been seen cavorting around the neighborhood.
As we made our way through the woods we were surprised to find that the woods quickly turned into someone’s back yard. Even more surprising was the arrival of the owner of said yard.
She angrily asked what I was doing, obviously intimidated by my weapon and attack dog. I had trouble answering her because my beagle was doing what beagles do best – barking incessantly. Somehow I cracked under her Gestapo-like interrogation skills and divulged the purpose of my mission.
This sent her into a rage because she had been aiding and abetting the vermin by providing food for them. She took this opportunity to explain, in detail, the moral and social evil of my mission.
Now, I really wanted to listen to her sermon on squirrel etiquette but my attack beagle continued to dominate the conversation with her barking.
Maybe it was the stress of being discovered behind enemy lines or maybe just the psychological weight of my mission, but in a moment of exasperation I shouted out – “SHUT UP, LADY!”
A look of horror washed over the squirrel-lady’s face and I suddenly realized that she had no idea that my beagle was named “Lady”.
I had to do some fast talking to explain, hoping she would find the humor in the situation. She didn’t find any humor in the situation but she did release Lady and me on our solemn promise that we would never carry out squirrel missions within her demilitarized zone again.
And we never did.
The moral of the story is that you can never know the full weight of your words until they get out, but then it’s too late. So speak wisely and sparingly.
I’d say it’s best to mince words…
They’re a lot easier to swallow that way, if you have to eat them later.

JESUS WANTS YOU

Well, I've got a couple things floating around in my head tonight.
First of all, we were discussing in Bible study tonight about Paul's pep-talk to the leaders of the church at Ephesus. One of the things he said in his discourse really stuck with me:
22“And now I am going to Jerusalem, drawn there irresistibly by the Holy Spirit, not knowing what awaits me, 23except that the Holy Spirit has told me in city after city that jail and suffering lie ahead. 24But my life is worth nothing unless I use it for doing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about God’s wonderful kindness and love.
(Acts 20:22-24 - NLT)

It is interesting to me that the Holy Spirit drew him to go to Jerusalem but that same Spirit revealed to him that he would most definitely experience "jail and suffering". I wondered what made him able to go, knowing the trouble ahead. Then I read verse 24 and it all made sense.
Paul could obey the Spirits leading because he had abandoned his love of self. I don't mean that he hated himself, but he loved God more. It was that love for God that brought him to the understanding that his Christ-given mission (sharing the Good News) was more important than anything else.
This is a compelling passage to me because as a Christian I have the same mission- to share the Good News. JESUS WANTS ME!!!
I, Like Paul, will also become more and more driven to fulfill this mission the more I abandon my love for myself.
So I guess the implication from this passage is that I've got to make sure my priorities are straight. God first, others second and myself - dead last.

The other thing floating in my head was a song I heard tonight about God making us new and helping us to lay our burdens down. I am so glad he has made me new and he continues, by his grace, to mold me to his image.

2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (NASB)

6 months...

So i decided to hop behind the wheel of my blog and see if the old lemon would even turn over and wouldn't you know it; it fired right up!
I guess I thought I was too busy to keep this thing up but I forgot how therapeutic it could be.
Since Friday, January 23 at 5:50pm I have, among other things, flew to LA California fixed an evaporator leak and was back 30 hours later, attended the Moody Pastors Conference in Chicago and met Michael Easly and John MacArthur, preached a few sermons, got a dose of Mississippi River valley history at Cahokia mounds (uproariously exciting and informative), purchased a deluxe 3-wheeled-bicycle, baptized 2 kids from church and as of yesterday became a twenty-eight-year-old.
So hopefully I will be posting more often. if start slacking again feel free to shoot me an email and tell me to stop being a sissy and post something!

One Smart Kid

What Christmas is all about.

I love Christmas. It's my favorite time of the year. The guys that I work with give me all kinds of grief because I start singing and whistling carols just before Halloween (who would guess that a metal shop would'nt be rife with yuletide cheer?). All the songs and the lights and even a few presents are nice, but by themselves it's all kind of empty.
My mind has been filled over the last few days with the the true trappings of Christmas: Jesus and his coming to earth, not just to be a good example or to teach us but the fact that GOD HIMSELF put on flesh and came to earth in the most humble way so that we could have a relationship with him.
Jesus came from Galilee which was a reigion of Judea that was thought to be low-class, he came to poor people who couldn't even afford a lamb for the purification rituals of the first-born child, he was born in a stable because there was nowhere for his parents to lodge for the night and his first bed was a feeding trough.
But he came to save the world. His birth was the beginning of a 33 year journey that was headed for the cross. That was the only reason he was born- to die, for you and for me. The penalty for sin is death and Jesus paid it.
Have you ever got a gift that was just, exaclty what you needed? You did on that first Christmas, so why not unwrap it.