For those of you who have graduated or have had a child graduate from high school since I have been pastor of Northside, you have heard this before. For those of you who have not, this is a story I usually tell the graduates at their lunch on Senior Sunday, like I will this coming Sunday.
My own experience of graduation from high school had it's highs and lows. On a blustery May evening in 1978, on the football field of Yoakum High School, I was given an award from the local Rotary Club that I had not foreseen coming. It was a shock, it was an honor, but that emotional high was short lived. As I sat on the back row of the 144 seniors of my class, a violent gust of wind came down the field, I was able to just barely grab my hat as it flew off my head. As I put it back in place, I realized the tassel was gone. I looked behind me toward the end zone, there was my tassel, headed for a touch down. I did not think I had time to get it before my name was called to go receive by diploma so I had to let it be. As I went to get my diploma with no tassel a more humbling thought came to me, my tassel just amassed more yards on this field on a Friday night than I did playing four years of football.
Highs and lows, I don't know about you, but my high school years were full of them, often very close together. It has been that way through the rest of life, but life does get better than high school. It is a good thing to know that God is there to help us handle both the ups and downs, the highs and the lows. The longer I live, the better I see Him do that. May God bless your highs and lows with his steady presence.
For the journey...
Thursday, May 26, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
When the World Ends
By now you have heard of Harold Camping's prediction that the rapture will take place this coming Saturday. According to the 89 year old engineer Camping, this is the day based on calculations he has made that include a wide variety of factors - from Biblical prophecies to the founding of Israel in 1948 to data he has gotten from tree rings.
Camping is not the first to set a date on the rapture, though he has spent the most money announcing his prediction in media and advertising. He will not be the last. The response of people has ranged for all out belief and preparation for the end to mocking ridicule. A local chapter of the American Humanist Association is hosting a two day party, Saturday and Sunday. An atheist in New England has started a business offering to take care of raptured Christian's pets after they are gone - $135 for 10 years of care, up front of course.
I remember reading of another time of dire predictions about the end times based on strange signs in the heavens including an unexplained darkness in mid-day. One legislative body was debating about ending their session during this darkness, when one wise man argued they continue. He stated, if this was the end and he was about to meet his Maker, he wanted to "be found at my post."
Jesus is coming back but I am preparing my sermon for Sunday. It is about "What Happens When You Read the Bible." I plan to see you there.
For the journey...
Camping is not the first to set a date on the rapture, though he has spent the most money announcing his prediction in media and advertising. He will not be the last. The response of people has ranged for all out belief and preparation for the end to mocking ridicule. A local chapter of the American Humanist Association is hosting a two day party, Saturday and Sunday. An atheist in New England has started a business offering to take care of raptured Christian's pets after they are gone - $135 for 10 years of care, up front of course.
I remember reading of another time of dire predictions about the end times based on strange signs in the heavens including an unexplained darkness in mid-day. One legislative body was debating about ending their session during this darkness, when one wise man argued they continue. He stated, if this was the end and he was about to meet his Maker, he wanted to "be found at my post."
Jesus is coming back but I am preparing my sermon for Sunday. It is about "What Happens When You Read the Bible." I plan to see you there.
For the journey...
Friday, May 13, 2011
A Healing Place
This week I heard a doctor make the statements, "chronic life-long problem," and "trying to avoid a total breakdown." He was referring to a painful foot problem that I have dealt with for almost a decade. A typically successful surgery I had in 2008 has turned out not to be. That surgery cannot be repeated or corrected. I have tried a host of other options. I am trying another type of custom orthotic in my shoes that this doctor had made for me. In receiving them, I heard those statements.
Before I had any of this information, I had felt led to preach this week on the power of Jesus' touch. In Matthew chapter 9 there are a series of people he healed. He was touched by a woman and a chronic life-long problem ended. He took a girl's hand and she returned to life. He touched the eyes of blind men and they could see.
Sometimes you preach to others; sometimes you preach to yourself. This week will be the latter. I am profoundly interested in what God will say. I know I am not alone. Perhaps you are reading this and you have a much more serious life threatening or life altering problem. I pray that Northside can be a healing place for all of us. It is what we will focus on this Sunday. Pray for me and I will pray for you. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
For the journey...
Tim
Before I had any of this information, I had felt led to preach this week on the power of Jesus' touch. In Matthew chapter 9 there are a series of people he healed. He was touched by a woman and a chronic life-long problem ended. He took a girl's hand and she returned to life. He touched the eyes of blind men and they could see.
Sometimes you preach to others; sometimes you preach to yourself. This week will be the latter. I am profoundly interested in what God will say. I know I am not alone. Perhaps you are reading this and you have a much more serious life threatening or life altering problem. I pray that Northside can be a healing place for all of us. It is what we will focus on this Sunday. Pray for me and I will pray for you. I look forward to seeing you Sunday.
For the journey...
Tim
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Osama's Mama
In all the discussion of Osama bin Laden this week, I have heard something about everyone around him and in his life - except his mother. I decided to do some checking. The most information I found comes from a book, Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of a Terrorist by Adam Robinson.
Bin Laden's mother was a beautiful young Syrian woman named Hamida who caught the eye of Osama's father, Mohammed, late in his life. Mohammed bin Laden was wealthy, powerful and had 10 or 11 wives and somewhere around 54 children. Hamida did not like living in Mohammed's compound among his many wives and children and she was divorced soon after Osama was born. In the time she did live there, she was ostracized by the other women. Hamida was called "the slave" and therefore Osama was called "son of the slave." Osama was raised mainly by nurses and nannies in the compound after his mother was sent away following the divorce.
When Mohammed bin Laden died in a helicopter crash when Osama was ten, Osama went to live with his mother whom he barely knew. He felt abandoned after his father's death. His mother tried to reach out to him but he kept his distance from her and according to Adam's book, within a few months there was no interaction between them for the rest of their lives.
Is there some connection between the absence of a mother figure in his life and the way Osama bin Laden's life turned out? I cannot help but think so. Bin Laden never valued other people's lives and certainly not any woman's life. Where do most people learn to value life and other people? My experience says a mother has a big role in that. How the world may have been different if Osama and Hamida had a close relationship? Our family life determines so much of our future. Who knows what might have been?
I do know that there are many women in difficult circumstances who do an amazing job and raise remarkable children. One such woman was Hannah the mother of Samuel. We will look at her life this Sunday and see the how God can bring fulfillment even in circumstances that are less than ideal. I hope to see you Sunday.
For the journey...
Bin Laden's mother was a beautiful young Syrian woman named Hamida who caught the eye of Osama's father, Mohammed, late in his life. Mohammed bin Laden was wealthy, powerful and had 10 or 11 wives and somewhere around 54 children. Hamida did not like living in Mohammed's compound among his many wives and children and she was divorced soon after Osama was born. In the time she did live there, she was ostracized by the other women. Hamida was called "the slave" and therefore Osama was called "son of the slave." Osama was raised mainly by nurses and nannies in the compound after his mother was sent away following the divorce.
When Mohammed bin Laden died in a helicopter crash when Osama was ten, Osama went to live with his mother whom he barely knew. He felt abandoned after his father's death. His mother tried to reach out to him but he kept his distance from her and according to Adam's book, within a few months there was no interaction between them for the rest of their lives.
Is there some connection between the absence of a mother figure in his life and the way Osama bin Laden's life turned out? I cannot help but think so. Bin Laden never valued other people's lives and certainly not any woman's life. Where do most people learn to value life and other people? My experience says a mother has a big role in that. How the world may have been different if Osama and Hamida had a close relationship? Our family life determines so much of our future. Who knows what might have been?
I do know that there are many women in difficult circumstances who do an amazing job and raise remarkable children. One such woman was Hannah the mother of Samuel. We will look at her life this Sunday and see the how God can bring fulfillment even in circumstances that are less than ideal. I hope to see you Sunday.
For the journey...
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Where I'll Be and Why
I will be preaching for another pastor this Sunday because he has dirt on me, literally.
It all goes back to my childhood. One summer Saturday when I was a preschooler, I was playing outside while my father was trying to get at least one of our two worn out lawn mowers to run so he could mow the yard. It was not going well so he decided to take a break, go inside for a while, get a drink of water and cool off.
The mowers were near our back porch which was also where the sand pile I was playing in was located. I had recently made a visit to an uncle who ran a filling station. It inspired me. I wanted to play "filling station." I began to pretend the mowers were cars and I was the attendant. Yes, I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as a self service gas station.
I apparently did not have much of an imagination at that stage because I could not just pretend to put gas in my imaginary mower/cars. I had to actually put something in the gas tanks. Nothing was readily available but the sand in my sand pile. Little me, of not much imagination or understanding of the workings of internal combustion engines, poured sand in the gas tanks of the two worn mowers that did not want to run to begin with. Needless to say when my father returned and discovered my filling station, he was not happy. Let's just say I was strongly rebuked and I never saw the need nor had the desire to pretend to play filling station again. It was not comfortable for me to sit down that afternoon either.
After things settled down and cooled off, it was decided by may family that this incident was kind of funny so the story got told the next day at church. T. Wayne Price was the pastor of my church then. He is now the pastor of First Baptist Church, Refugio. He called me several months ago to preach at a one day church renewal event that he was hosting. He reminded me he had dirt, or maybe better put - sand, on me. I will be preaching there Sunday. But so this story can never again be used against me, I have confessed it all to you here.
Pray for me and I will pray for you this Sunday.
For the journey....
It all goes back to my childhood. One summer Saturday when I was a preschooler, I was playing outside while my father was trying to get at least one of our two worn out lawn mowers to run so he could mow the yard. It was not going well so he decided to take a break, go inside for a while, get a drink of water and cool off.
The mowers were near our back porch which was also where the sand pile I was playing in was located. I had recently made a visit to an uncle who ran a filling station. It inspired me. I wanted to play "filling station." I began to pretend the mowers were cars and I was the attendant. Yes, I am old enough to remember when there was no such thing as a self service gas station.
I apparently did not have much of an imagination at that stage because I could not just pretend to put gas in my imaginary mower/cars. I had to actually put something in the gas tanks. Nothing was readily available but the sand in my sand pile. Little me, of not much imagination or understanding of the workings of internal combustion engines, poured sand in the gas tanks of the two worn mowers that did not want to run to begin with. Needless to say when my father returned and discovered my filling station, he was not happy. Let's just say I was strongly rebuked and I never saw the need nor had the desire to pretend to play filling station again. It was not comfortable for me to sit down that afternoon either.
After things settled down and cooled off, it was decided by may family that this incident was kind of funny so the story got told the next day at church. T. Wayne Price was the pastor of my church then. He is now the pastor of First Baptist Church, Refugio. He called me several months ago to preach at a one day church renewal event that he was hosting. He reminded me he had dirt, or maybe better put - sand, on me. I will be preaching there Sunday. But so this story can never again be used against me, I have confessed it all to you here.
Pray for me and I will pray for you this Sunday.
For the journey....
Friday, April 22, 2011
The Cross Changes Everything
We mark the day that Jesus died. There are traditions; things we do to remember. But the cross is about change, it is about transformation. It is about something old being broken and something new coming into being. An old way of trying to live shattered and a new way of receiving life coming into existence. The cross changes everything and it can change everyone.
It has dawned on me this year as we looked at what the cross changed in the series, "The Wonderful Cross." Just think about how Jesus death on the cross changed the cross itself. Max Lucado, in the booklet we are giving away this Sunday "He Did This Just for You" writes,
"The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice don't you think? Strange that a symbol of torture would come to embody a movement of hope...Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck? Suspend a gold-plated hangman's noose on the wall? Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card? Yet we do so with the cross."
The cross changes everything and it can change anyone because it is not something we do with it, but what God did with it and what he still can do today with us. The most amazing thing that I am finding out though is he can still change me.
For the journey...
It has dawned on me this year as we looked at what the cross changed in the series, "The Wonderful Cross." Just think about how Jesus death on the cross changed the cross itself. Max Lucado, in the booklet we are giving away this Sunday "He Did This Just for You" writes,
"The cross is the universal symbol of Christianity. An odd choice don't you think? Strange that a symbol of torture would come to embody a movement of hope...Would you wear a tiny electric chair around your neck? Suspend a gold-plated hangman's noose on the wall? Would you print a picture of a firing squad on a business card? Yet we do so with the cross."
The cross changes everything and it can change anyone because it is not something we do with it, but what God did with it and what he still can do today with us. The most amazing thing that I am finding out though is he can still change me.
For the journey...
Thursday, April 14, 2011
The Ongoing Power of the Cross
Japan's tsunami is still making news. The nuclear problem is ongoing. New videos of the tsunami hitting Japan are still cropping up. The destructive power of what happened still reverberates. What doesn't make the news and what doesn't come to the forefront is where protective measures worked and where lives were saved.
In the devastating tsunami of December 2004, we did not hear about Pondicherry, India. That's because its 300,000 inhabitants were saved from those killer waves by something that started 250 years before. Pondicherry was a French trading port on the Indian Ocean. The French wanted to protect this rare outpost that was surrounded by the British Empire so they began to build a massive seawall, putting together huge boulders along a 1.25 mile long stretch of ocean front. Then they kept building and reinforcing it until 1957. Worked stopped then but the protection the wall provided saved Pondicherry in 2004. Just beyond the protection of the wall, 600 people drown in the tsunami. The protection of the wall did not make the news but that does not mean it was not effective.
The cross of Christ is no longer making news but it still has the power to save. It still is changing lives; it is still saving lives. Something happened then, that saves us now and keeps on saving us in the future. This Palm Sunday we come to look at the cross, what happened there and what is still happening now because of what Jesus did there.
For the journey...
In the devastating tsunami of December 2004, we did not hear about Pondicherry, India. That's because its 300,000 inhabitants were saved from those killer waves by something that started 250 years before. Pondicherry was a French trading port on the Indian Ocean. The French wanted to protect this rare outpost that was surrounded by the British Empire so they began to build a massive seawall, putting together huge boulders along a 1.25 mile long stretch of ocean front. Then they kept building and reinforcing it until 1957. Worked stopped then but the protection the wall provided saved Pondicherry in 2004. Just beyond the protection of the wall, 600 people drown in the tsunami. The protection of the wall did not make the news but that does not mean it was not effective.
The cross of Christ is no longer making news but it still has the power to save. It still is changing lives; it is still saving lives. Something happened then, that saves us now and keeps on saving us in the future. This Palm Sunday we come to look at the cross, what happened there and what is still happening now because of what Jesus did there.
For the journey...
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