Switched at Birth

Sixty years ago in Tokyo a hospital made a terrible mistake.  They sent babies home with the wrong families.  One baby born to a poor family went home with a wealthy family.  Another baby born to a wealthy family went home to a life of poverty.  The mistake was only discovered because of some health problems in the wealthy family that lead to some DNA testing among the siblings.  When one brother showed no genetic kinship to the family they began searching for the reason.

The two men spent their lives in very different ways, the poor man was a truck driver and the rich man runs his own real estate business.  Last week the a court ordered the hospital to pay the poor man - who wishes to remain anonymous - a settlement worth over $370,000, substantially less than the $2.5 million he sought.  "I feel...regret and also anger," the impoverished man said after his settlement, "I want them to turn back the clock."

Contrast this to the birth of our Lord that we celebrate today.  He, as Paul put it in Philippians2:7-8, "... made himself nothing, taking on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.  And being found in appearance as a man he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!"

He chose the poverty after knowing the wealth of heaven.  C. S. Lewis likened the incarnational drop of going from heaven to earth as being like that of a human choosing to become "a crab or a slug."  He chose to come live in this world of poverty with us.  He chose to die for us to make us rich in ways we never could have dreamed.  It was God's plan that he chose for himself and for us.

Today celebrate where and to whom you were born but also celebrate that you can be born again because he was born among us.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Glitter

I see traces of it more this time of year than any other - except perhaps Valentine's day.  I saw it on someone's sleeve.  I saw it the other day on the carpet at the church.  I was talking with someone and noticed a single flake of it in their hair.  Another person I spoke with briefly had a speck on their face.  I looked in the mirror this week and found a flake on my face. 

Glitter.  It is everywhere at this time of year and when we brush up against it or touch something that has glitter on it, chances are it is going to stay with us, even if it is just a speck.  It is not a bad thing when you think of it.  It is rather nice to begin to look around for it and see traces of it.  Glitter is a happy thing.  It brings sparkle to plain old paper or bland plastic ornaments.  So seeing it around is not a problem.  Start looking around and you will see what I mean.

I wonder if our glitter "infections" can't tell us something about the love of God we should be carrying around too.  Most of the people that I have seen glitter on are unaware of it yet it was obvious to the observant. It brings a brightness to us even if it is unintentional.

God's love in us usually works that way too.  When we really truly have it, it is something that becomes a part of us and yet we are unaware of it, though others see it clearly.  The way we share God's love is the same way that glitter is transferred to us - we touch it and it stays with us.

So this Christmas season, take some time to allow God's Word and God's story of his love to touch you.  If it really is something we touch, it will linger on us in a way others can see.  We will work on that love this Sunday.  I hope to see you there.

Merry Christmas,

Tim

Three Questions on Twelve Days

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”  Acts 20:35

What is the greatest gift that you have every received? 

Of course we would all need to start answering that question with our salvation from Jesus Christ but what about material things?  Was there a doll or toy that was just what you had waited for all year?Was there a BB gun received at Christmas like Ralphie in the movie, "A Christmas Story?"  Was there a car given at a graduation?  Was there an extravagant unexpected gift given at your wedding?
Large or small, we can all think of things that we were given that touched and impacted our lives.  Chances are though, if it wasn't recent, those actual material things may be gone, but perhaps a sense of the blessing remains.

What is the greatest gift you have ever given?

That is a little harder to answer, isn't it?  We don't always know the impact of what we have done, even with our most extravagant gestures.  We hope we have done something to change someone's life but how can we be sure?   Did we really "bless" someone or just leave them with a sense of obligation to reciprocate?

What is the greatest blessing you have ever received by giving?

The blessing of truly giving from an obedient heart never has an expiration date.  It can go on for eternity.  The blessing can boomerang back long after the warm, fuzzy feeling goes away.  In these past twelve days we have experimented as a church what it means to give of our selves to those in need in twelve different ways.  I hope you have received a blessing.  I pray you have had your life touched by what you received in giving, enough so, that you do not want to stop.

Now here is a final (bonus you might say) question.  Of the three things I just mentioned in the questions above, which one do you honestly seek the most?  Receiving? Giving? or Blessing?  That is a hard one too, I know.  Jesus, not within the Gospels but in the book of Acts, is quoted as saying, "It is more blessed to give than to..."  All of us can finish that statement, but do we live that statement?  Seeking to share so much, so often that we would call our lives, "Blessed."  Maybe that is the best goal we can carry out of these Twelve Days of Christmas.

for the journey...

Tim

Revelation

I recently shared a meal with a very experienced retired minister with a long history of preaching.  We were talking about how at Northside we were reading through Revelation as we neared the end of the SOAP experience of reading and journaling through the New Testament.  He said something that both shocked and comforted me,  "I don't understand Revelation.  Some of it sounds like it runs counter to the rest of the New Testament."

Now he was in no way questioning Revelation's place in the Bible, he was just making an honest confession of his struggle with the book.  I found it shocking that with his experience  he would say he did not understand it.  He is someone who has always seemed sure of himself, his opinions and his insights but here was an admission of where he truly was inside.  I have felt and still feel the same way.

There are places in Revelation that don't sound like the rest of the New Testament.  I will agree to that, but as I am reading it again I am finding that even in all the earth shaking judgments and the cataclysm of the apocalypse there are moments of incredible intimacy - far beyond the rest of the New Testament.

I mentioned in last week's message how it moved me to read in Revelation 1:17 (as if I had read it for the first time) these words as John described his seeing the overpowering, brilliant glory of Jesus in heaven, "When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.  Then he placed his right hand on me and said: 'Do not be afraid.'" 

The all glorious, all powerful Lord Jesus reached down with his almighty right hand and touched this old friend in his fear and faltering understanding.  Then he spoke words that John had heard before from those lips, "Do not be afraid."  In all the near unimaginable images in Revelation, I am glad that intimate encounter is there at the beginning.  It brings to light the unchanging love of Jesus. Even though his appearance is so drastically different, he has the same heart that John knew on earth.

Jesus is the one who was and is and is to come.  That gives us all something to look forward to even if we do not understand it all.

for the journey...

Tim

Growing Older

I read C. S. Lewis' book, The Screwtape Letters, when I was in my early twenties.  I had never read, before or since, anything like it.  In it Lewis imaginatively writes a series of letters from a senior demon to his junior demon nephew on how to tempt, try and torment the human that has been assigned to him.  It is really an interesting way to think of the truth of God as if we are reading how the demons might view it.

One passage has stayed with me since my twenties and now in my mid-fifties, I see the truth of it much more clearly now.  So on this week where I turn another year older, let me invite you to read this excerpt that I now, by experience, can testify is true.  Remember this is a senior demon to a junior demon on the work of  temptation.  The Enemy he speaks of is God.

The Enemy has guarded him from you through the first great wave of temptations. But, if only he can be kept alive, you have time itself for your ally. The long, dull, monotonous years of middle-aged prosperity or middle-aged adversity are excellent campaigning weather. You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it—all this provides admirable opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition. If, on the other hand, the middle years prove prosperous, our position is even stronger. Prosperity knits a man to the World. He feels that he is ‘finding his place in it’, while really it is finding its place in him. His increasing reputation, his widening circle of acquaintances, his sense of importance, the growing pressure of absorbing and agreeable work, build up in him a sense of being really at home in earth, which is just what we want. You will notice that the young are generally less unwilling to die than the middle- aged and the old.

May God grant us wisdom to face the temptations that come upon us -whatever our age or our stage of life.

for the journey...

Tim

Thankful for What You Had

"Who will be my role model, now that my role model is gone, gone..."

I heard those words from a song by Paul Simon while I was sitting in a sandwich shop waiting on my order.  To be honest, I had not been really listening to the music but the moment I heard those words playing I had a connection with them and a connection with a sense of grief.

Not long ago the man who had been my mentor for the past few years, Charles Price, past away.  When those words played I immediately thought of him.  The question did come to my mind, "Who will be my role model?"  Charles challenged me, encouraged me, taught me, mentored me but mainly Charles loved me in his own unique way.  I will miss him.  I am not sure what I will do now, but I am really grateful for the time I had.  I look back and see how precious it was now.

Recently, a mom I know, lost her second grown child; both were daughters and both died at age 42.  She shared how blessed she had been to have had them both for 42 years.  There are a lot of other ways to look at those losses.  Her ways is obviously the best and probably the most blessed.

We will grieve, there is no way around that.  The choice we have is how will we choose to think about what we have lost - grateful for what we had or grieving for what we no longer have.  I want to be in the first group.

To be able to do that, I need to be grateful now, even in the losses, thankful for what I had.

for the journey...

Tim

The Philippines

The largest crowds I have ever spoken to were in the Philippines.  The largest church I have ever preached in was in the Philippines.  Both of those places were in the path of Typhoon Haiyan. 

In 2001, I was part of a team that did a campus wide revival event at Central Philippines University, a Baptist college in Iloilo City.  My father-in-law and I then crossed over to another island and preached in a large Baptist church in the city of Bacolod.  As I watch the news and see the devastation, I wonder what has become of those people and of those places?

The teenagers and "twenty somethings" that I encountered and that I spoke to would be in their thirties now with families and children of their own.  What has happened to them?  What about their children?  It is troubling to see what has been shown in the news. I wonder what has happened to these places I know but that are not in the forefront of our media's coverage?

In a recent press release, I saw that the Texas Baptist Men will be sending a team to Iloilo City soon.  That brings me some sense of comfort but still there is a deep sense of curiosity of what happened to the people I knew and the places I saw.  The plaque from Central Philippines University still hangs on the wall in my office.  The people there were incredibly nice and amazingly hospitable.  I saw hundreds come to Christ while I was there - some pretty amazing things, a great harvest in fact.

The thought hit me that while I was there, God knew what would be coming to them in the future and part of what I saw were His preparations of souls for a future storm.  What I was unknowingly a part of was His plan to help people be ready to stand a test like this and even to be ready to face eternity.  I am humbled and awed when I realize the magnitude of His plans.  Even though He does not keep the storms from coming, He was preparing people spiritually for this storm and all the other storms that will come our way in this world. 

I wonder what He will be preparing us for this Sunday?

for the journey...

Tim

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."  Jeremiah 29:11

Planting Seeds

This week was all about the good news.  I got to share a gospel presentation at each Upward Flag Football practice and several of us from Northside got to share the gospel by inviting groups or individuals to join us in watching "The Cross," a video with Billy Graham.

Of all that sharing the gospel, one little third grader stands out in my mind.  We had several kids respond and say they prayed with me to accept Christ and follow Him, but one who did not respond is the one I keep thinking about.

I used the Evangecube to talk with the kids.  It is a cube of connected boxes that each have an image on them that presents the basics of the gospel as you fold and unfold them.  After I was done, this little boy came up to me and said he would like to see one of those pictures again.  I folded and refolded the boxes until we came to the one he wanted to see - it was Jesus hanging on the cross.

He prefaced his questions by saying, "We don't go to church much."  Then he said, "That is Jesus pinned up there like that?"  It was sort of a question and sort of a statement as if he just wanted to make sure.  I said, "Yes, that is Jesus nailed to the cross for our sins."  He looked for a moment then asked, "What are those?" and he pointed to red marks painted on Jesus' picture on the cube to show he had been beaten.  I explained that Jesus had been beaten with a whip before they nailed him to the cross.  Again, he looked at the picture for awhile.  I could tell there were wheels turning in his little mind and the thought occurred to me that he might be hearing this for the very first time.

After a brief pause, he said "Ok" and turned and ran back to practice with his teammates.  It struck me that often we do not get to see a seed of the gospel planted but here, with this boy, I feel I did.  The struggle with planting seeds is that after they are planted, you don't see anything for a while - both in physical seeds and in spiritual seeds.  But because we don't see things, it does not mean they are not worth planting.  There will never be a harvest if we don't plant seeds.  We will never plant seeds without it being an act of faith that somehow, some way, that seed will grow.

This week it seems we did more planting than harvesting, but that is how it should be and that is what we should always be doing.  Thank you to all of you who planted seeds.  Know that whether you see it or not, those seeds are growing.

for the journey...

Tim

Zombies

Zombies are a part of our media culture these days.  They will be around long after Halloween.  One of the most popular TV shows is "The Walking Dead."  One of the most popular movies recently is Brad Pitt's "World War Z."  Both are about heroes fighting the zombie apocalypse.  I have begun to question "Why?'  Why are zombies such a popular topic of entertainment - and I use that word loosely.  I am by no means endorsing it just wondering about it.

Two thoughts come to mind, the first about their popularity.  Could it be that the un-dead represent how we view death?  Always present, always consuming but if we are smart and quick and at times ruthless, we can beat death.  That seems to be the message I see, though again, I am not a fan of this genre.  Perhaps we are trying to tell ourselves that we can move faster than death, outsmart death (I have never seen a smart zombie portrayed) and in the end, overcome death on our own.  That may be a popular thought, but the Bible tells us we cannot escape death, no matter how many heroes do it in the movies or on TV.

My other thought about zombies is really more of an observation.  They way zombies appear in our media really could be an visual representation of what we are in our lost, "dead" spiritual state apart from Christ.  Before God's work of salvation, we are spiritually dead yet we are still walking around this world until we become fully physically dead.  In our lost state, we think about ourselves and our needs and our desires - like a zombie.  Zombies are hopeless; in our sinful, lost state we are hopeless.  If we could see our lost spiritual state in a visual way, I think we would probably look and act like a zombie.

But unlike zombies, we can have hope.  The only thing that can be done with a zombie in the movies is that they be destroyed.  But God looked upon our zombie like, dead state and found a way to bring us back to life again.  Jesus came to bring the un-dead, the sin dead to life - through a resurrection.  He died the death all of us deserve to bring a hope we could never achieve or earn.  In God's plan, spiritually dead zombies can come back to life.  That is cause for hope. 

Thanks for reading to the end of this post, even if you don't like zombies.  This Sunday we will not talk about zombies but we will talk about hope.  See you then.

for the journey...

Tim

10/23/83

Why do I remember that date?  It happens to be the day 30 years ago when 241 U. S. Marines died when a truck bomb struck their barracks at the airport in Beirut, Lebanon.  A tragic event, but there is also another connection with that day.  On October 23, 1983 I was with a group of Middle Eastern - mainly Lebanese - international students on a Christian retreat in New Mexico.

I was working at the Baptist Student Ministry at Texas Tech at the time and one of my responsibilities was to work with International students.  The event was big enough that the camp director came and told us. 

The news devastating to them.  They were more upset than we Americans were.  I was baffled.  When I asked one of the students to explain their reaction, he said, "After this day, there will be no more Lebanon.  Not like I know it."  It turns out he was right.  The United States and other peace keeping nations pulled out of Lebanon and the bloody civil war they were supposed to try and stop, surged out of control.  The Lebanon that has emerged is said to be nothing like the Lebanon these young men called home.

These students, Christian and Muslim, knew that everything had changed for them.  I wonder how many of them had to return home?  If they did, how many were sucked into the conflict?  How many of them died in it?

I look back on that day and see how huge a day that was for them, how little I really understood it and how poorly I was prepared to handle a crisis like that.  As I reflected on that day, I was reminded that though I can do nothing about the past, I can still pray.  Pray for those students, now grown and thirty years older - if they are still alive.  I can also pray for myself, that I will be ready to minister to people, even when I cannot fully grasp their pain or understand their plight.

We too often think of prayer as a last resort.  On that day it was - and on this day it is - the most powerful thing we can do.

for the journey...

Tim

Making Peace

In my first church, there was an incident that really put the whole church in a bad light.  It involved a funeral and a statement that someone who worked at a funeral home made about our church to the family that was grieving.  Some similar statements like this had been made before.

It was very upsetting to me and to the church so I did the right thing and confronted the person.  Though this was the right thing, I did not go about it the right way.  I spoke in anger and I was not respectful.  It caused a real rift.  Soon people were coming to me and saying things like, "I just want you to know that I am on your side."  Other comments that came my way were things said about me and the church and the problem with this person at the local Dairy Queen during morning coffee gatherings.  It kept getting bigger.

Finally, with reluctance and very little hope that this would get settled, I decided to do the right thing the right way.  I took a trusted deacon, we went to the person and I asked for his forgiveness for speaking in anger and in disrespect.  To my surprise, that settled it.  There were no more reports from the Dairy Queen and no one else telling me that they were on my side.

I have gone back to that little town several times for funerals, always working with the person that I had the problem with and there seems to be no remnant of the past still hanging around.  I have no other explanation than God does like to work when we work at reconciliation.

Several years later, I came across these steps to reconciliation from Ken Sande author of the book, The Peacemaker.  I can recommend them:

• Address everyone involved.
• Avoid "if" "but" and "maybe."
• Admit specifically what you did.
• Acknowledge the hurt.
• Accept the consequences.
• Alter your behavior.
• Ask for forgiveness.
• Allow time.

"If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone."  Romans 12:18

for the journey...

Tim

Aspens

Fresh from some time in the autumn glory of Colorado, here are seven things I have learned about Aspen trees:
-They grow up in groves sharing a common root system.
-Aspens only grow at high altitudes.
-Because they grow up from roots, they are the first trees back after a forest fire.
-Even though they grow back quicker they allow other trees to grow up among them.
-Aspen root systems keep on regenerating new shoots even if the the older trees die.
-Aspen bark on the south side of the tree will leave a white residue on you if you rub up agains it.
-Aspen trees are a thing of beauty, especially in the fall.

Now why would I tell you all this?  Well I like aspen trees, obviously, but there are some things that we as a church should seek to immulate.
-Christians grow best in "groves" where we share a common "root system" - the church.
-The church can only grow in a place of right "altitude" - a climate of righteousness.
-The church is equipped to survive the disasters that come and grow back stronger after them.
-The church should enable others to grow back after the "fires" of life.
-When you rub up against Christians, it should rub off on you.
-The church should be a thing of beauty in the world - in any season.

I'm glad to be a part of a church that is a lot like an aspen grove.  Let's keep growing into what we were created to be and into what God is making us.

for the journey...

Tim

Reunion

I got to speak last Saturday at a Baptist Student Ministry Reunion back at my Alma mater in College Station.  The crowd was a mixture of older and younger Aggies.  It brought back a lot of memories, very good memories, of things God did while I was there and encouragement at what God is doing now.

I mentioned to that group I would be baptizing a young woman from China the next day back at Northside.  It brought back to my mind the first encounter I had ever had from a person from another country - another Asian student at A&M when I was a student there.  He had questions about Jesus and I tried to answer them.  I felt ill equipped - concepts and truths I knew suddenly became fuzzy as I tried to explain them in non-church terms that an international student could understand.

When I was talking to Effie, the Chinese student I baptized, my mind went back to that first Asian student.  I felt much better equipped to talk to Effie last week than I did years ago to that first Asian student.  It is amazing how God prepares us for things yet to come.  Why would God give me numerous encounters with international students during my BSM days, both as a student and as a staff member?  He knew what was ahead.  He had a plan.  I was clueless.

I mentioned to the reunion at the A&M BSM how that ministry is an equipping place.  I had no idea when I was a student there that I would some day be a pastor - a pastor in Victoria with a Chinese congregation within our church.  I would never have dreamed that I would be here and someday baptize students from China.  (I think the total is now eight).

God does have a plan. God does prepare us for the future, often in ways we are unaware of because we don't know the future he is planning.  Perhaps today, he prepared you or he prepared me for his plan through some new, awkward moment where we felt ill equipped. 

As the Lord told Jeremiah, "I know the plans I have for you..."  Plans for you and for me and for people we have yet to meet.

I will be out this Sunday but when I return in a week I will be preaching on God's plan for everyone, a single event that will touch everyone in history.  Like I said, he has a plan.

For the journey...

Tim

All Things New

I spent a good part of last week with my wife and the ladies she works with at Perpetual Help Home at the Christian Community Development Association Conference in New Orleans.  Christian Community Development Association (CCDA) is an organization of ministries that seek to help the disadvantaged by giving a hand up not a hand out. 

Most of the over one thousand attendants were young Millennial generation Christians who are passionate about Jesus and ready to change the world.  They don't always look or dress like your average Christian conference attendees.  I saw more dreadlocks and piercings than at any other gathering of believers of which I have been a part.  They were from all over the country and some from other countries. They are incredibly ethnically diverse.

I heard a business man from China tell how he was using his new found wealth from a successful business venture to support mission work around the world.  Imagine that - the Chinese are now sending out money for missions.  I heard former Perpetual resident Sara Waters tell her story of restoration from addiction.  I think everyone there for that session cried.  I heard some amazing stories of what God is doing in some pretty hopeless situations.

It was an incredibly renewing experience.  It gives an old Baby Boomer like me a deep hope for the future to see all these young, creative, energetic Christians so eager and earnest to bring the hope of Jesus to people in ways and through ministries I would never have dreamed up.

On top of all that, I found New Orleans cleaner and more restored than I imagined it would be.  I will be honest, the only other time I was in New Orleans in 1990, I was not impressed.  This time despite my hesitancy, I found myself appreciating all the things I could tell had been done since Katrina.  The city has been renewed.

I also have to be honest that it still has its seedy side.  A walk down a portion of Bourbon Street before noon one day still caused me to have a hard time of knowing where to look. Every direction I turned I thought, "OH, can't look there."  I think Bourbon Street is worse, not better.  It did not flood in Katrina.  What would it look like now if it had?  I don't know.

I do know I came home with an awe of God's renewing power in people through generations, of His ability to change people's lives and  of His ability to change a community in ruin.  He really can "make all things new."  Even me.  Even you.

For the journey...

Tim

Ariel Castro and Paul

This week shocking news came from an Ohio prison cell that Ariel Castro, the man who had imprisoned and abused three young women in his home for ten years, hanged himself after one month of jail.  On the day news came out, I read this quote about Roman jails written in Christian History by John McRay:

Roman imprisonment was preceded by being stripped naked and then flogged—a humiliating, painful, and bloody ordeal. The bleeding wounds went untreated as prisoners sat in painful leg or wrist chains. Mutilated, bloodstained clothing was not replaced, even in the cold of winter.

Most cells were dark, especially the inner cells of a prison, like the one Paul and Silas inhabited in Philippi. Unbearable cold, lack of water, cramped quarters, and sickening stench from few toilets made sleeping difficult and waking hours miserable. Because of the miserable conditions, many prisoners begged for a speedy death. Others simply committed suicide.

That last line made me think of Castro and my thoughts then went back to Paul.  In that awful place, Paul and Silas were singing hymns at midnight (Acts 16).  Paul went from beaten, bleeding, powerless prisoner to saving a jailer's life in just a few minutes in the aftermath of an earthquake.  The jailer was saved from suicide and began to follow Christ.  When he writes back to the church in his letter to the Philippians, there is no gloom or darkness, but joy and love.  God had redeemed that entire situation.

Now back to Ariel Castro, he and Paul, when he was called Saul, were both guilty of imprisoning people.  Both men were people who wanted to control other people.  Castro caused the death of perhaps several unborn children in the women he held prisoner.  Saul helped cause the death of Stephen.  Saul and Castro have some things in common.  But when Castro went to jail he took his own life.  When Saul, now knowing Jesus and being called Paul, went to jail he saved a man from taking his own life and helped him find eternal life.  The two men stand in contrast to a life lived in the flesh and a life lived in the Spirit.

Everyday you and I make decisions about following the flesh or following the Spirit.  Those decisions cause us to have an impact on others and they cause us to become who we are deep down inside.  We are becoming someone who takes life or someone who, even in their darkest moments, gives life.  This week, which one have you been more like?

For the journey...

Tim

Labor Days

Last week as I returned to the town of my first church to do a funeral, I was reminded of a story that a member there told me.  Vernie, the church member, was in Houston visiting a granddaughter in a hospital in the Medical Center.  She had been severely injured in an accident.  After a long, anxious day Vernie and some of the family were driving out of the parking garage to go home for a little rest. 

This was back in the day when there was an actual person in a booth that you paid as you exited the garage.  The attendant was an older African American man with a pleasant disposition.  Vernie told me these details of what this man did because they made such a deep impression on him.  After receiving Vernie's ticket and cash payment the attendant looked behind Vernie, there was not another car in sight.  The attendant held on to Vernie's change and asked, "How are your loved ones this evening?"  Vernie briefly told his story and the attendant listened and asked questions about his granddaughter, including her name and condition.  Then he asked, "Would it be OK if I said a word of prayer for her and for all of you."  Of course, Vernie agreed. 

After the prayer, which brought Vernie and his family to tears, the attendant asked if Vernie had a relationship with Jesus and Vernie said yes, they were all Christians.  Then the attendant handed him his change, shook his hand and told them he would be praying for all of them.

It made a deep impression on Vernie and on me.  I cannot imagine a job with less potential in being a witness for Christ than a parking lot attended, sitting in a booth in the middle of the night.  Yet here, this man found a way to turn it into a ministry.  Vernie also told me that his granddaughter was being treated by the some of the best doctors in the country, but no one made them feel better in that hospital than the parking lot attendant.

I am sure that man was replaced by a machine in that parking lot.  But where ever he his now, I know a man with that kind of dedication has found a way to make his job a ministry.  Our challenge this Labor Day weekend, is to "go and do likewise."

For the journey...

Tim

Back to School

That date that is most anticipated and most dreaded is upon us - the first day of school.  I don't know of a lot of inspiring first day of school stories or quotes.  There is a not a lot that I can tell people academically but I can tell you of George Danzig.  He was a senior at Stanford University during the dark days of the Depression.  Everyone knew that graduation then meant the unemployment line except there was an outside chance that George could make the head of his class and qualify for a teaching job at Stanford.  He would have to make a perfect score on his mathematics final so he studied hard, so hard in fact that he lost track of time and arrived at the final exam late.

George took his seat and began to work on the eight problems on his paper.  Then he turned to two problems written on the blackboard.  Try as he might, he could not solve them.  As he turned in his exam he asked if he might have a couple of days to keep working on those two problems on the board.  His professor looked surprised and then surprised George by giving him permission.

George went back to his room and began to pound away at those two equations.  After many hours he found a solution for one but he could not solve the other.  Dejected, he left his work at his professor's office convinced he had no hope for a job.

The next morning, his professor awakened George from sleep excitedly telling him he had made mathematics history.  Being late to the exam, George had not heard why those two problems were on the board.  His professor explained that he put them up there because those where two classic problems that even Einstein had said he could not solve.  Danzig, had not heard that explanation or that they were unsolvable and he had actually solved one of them.  The next day, that same professor gave George a teaching job at Stanford where he taught until he retired.

Sometimes it is best not to know what you cannot do. We need to be careful what we call impossible. Let me remind you of the last line of last week's message, "Everything is possible for the one who believes."  Mark 9:23

For the journey...

Tim

Keeping On

Gid Prather was a Deacon and a Sunday School teacher in my first church.  When I started there, he had already taught elementary children in Sunday School longer than I had been alive.  Gid did not start teaching until he was in his forties - after his own children had grown past the class he taught.  I knew that was rare and unusual.  It was also rare and unusual for anyone to do what he did in teaching children well into his eighties.

Gid had his share of trials.  He and his wife lost a child because of a mistake a doctor made as their infant son was being born.  He raised two daughters, then lost a grandson who died in his arms after and accidental shooting on a hunting trip.  He grieved those boys all his life but he kept on loving and teaching children.

After seeing his perseverance, I wanted to know how he did it, so I asked him what was the secret of teaching children in Sunday School for over forty years and not giving up?  He thought about it - he had seen a lot of other teachers come and go.  After a good pause he said, "I don't know.  I just love them..."  He went on to talk about how he prepared each week and prayed for the kids.  He told me the secret even if he said he did not know.  It was in that phrase, "I just love them..."

The secret to keeping on in anything in the Christian life, especially the things that can wear us out, like teaching children for forty years, is love.  Paul wrote, "Love never fails."  That phrase means it never runs out of resources.  When we learn to love, we learn to last.

I hope you will join me this Sunday as we begin a new sermon series with another phrase from Paul, "Let us not grow weary in doing good..."  Paul had a few ideas on keeping on.  Let's come to learn how to do just that.

For the journey....

Tim

Changing Hearts and Minds

I receive frequent emails from Baptist Student Ministries (BSM) about the work going on at college campuses across our state.  This is a key time of year as BSM's gear up for a new year and new students.  I wanted to share this story from one of those emails with you this week.

 

Throughout this year, the Texas Southern BSM has seen God impact multiple lives.  One of the most memorable stories, Jamie Russell, BSM director says, was that of a young lady named Fatima.

"Fatima was very honest and admitted that even though her family had always attended church she was not a Christian. During one of our twenty minute check-ins, as we read through Acts 9, Fatima abruptly interrupted our reading. She excitedly proclaimed, “He did that, God did that for Paul?” I simply answered, “Yes, He did.” She began to weep profusely and exclaimed, “He can do that for me!” Her entire countenance changed as we continued the passage. At the end of our twenty minute check-in she said she was so excited because she finally understood that God truly has the power to change hearts. Fatima’s humble realization of the hope that Christ Jesus gives us through salvation was overwhelming."

As I read through 2 Corinthians, I see where God continued to change Paul's heart according to the situation he was facing in the church.  God was not done with changing Paul's heart in Acts 9.  Heart change seems to be the norm for the Christian life.  Is it the norm for your life?  For this week?  We will look at that Sunday and see how God wants to keep changing our hearts and our minds.

For the journey...

Tim

Know Peace in this World

In the past week I have seen several deeply committed people, sharing Christ's love, fulfilling His call to be on mission go through suffering.  A missionary couple on their way to speak at our church were kept from leaving their country because of a false report on an auto accident.  They had no choice but to pay fines and fees they should not have had to so they could leave their country.

Another committed couple involved in missions is having to come home because their unborn child has a major heart defect that will require several surgeries and care that can only be had here in the states.  My daughter's apartment was smoke damaged from a neighbor's apartment fire while she was completing her summer mission assignment.  Her problems are not near the magnitude of the couple and their child but it all brought home the truth - just because you are serving God, it does not mean you get a free pass on personal problems.  Serving God does not mean you earn some special protection or you are entitled to special life of convenience.  It sometimes means you face a unique set of problems on top of your service. 

In all these cases though, I have begun to see the hand of God provide peace in the problems.  With these extraordinary trials there seems to be an extraordinary presence.  Something is at work in all these people to help them deal with what is before them.

Jesus never promised that if we served him we would earn an exemption from the trials of this life.  When we face them and grumble about the unfairness of them while we serve him, we seem to have bought into a promise he never made.  In fact, Jesus promised us that there would be problems in serving him.  But he also promised us that in those places we could know his peace. 

I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.  In this world you will have trouble.  But take heart!  I have overcome the world.  John 16:33

I can tell when I am off base when I question my misfortune because I am "good" enough to serve him.  I can tell when I am on the right track when I experience his peace in my problems.  So where do you find yourself today?  Pondering the purpose of your problems or experiencing his peace?

For the journey...

Tim

Family Reunion

I recently attended a family reunion that was the first of it's kind.  Maybe it is best not to call it a RE-union if it is the first one, but that is really what it felt like.  There were over 3,000 people there -  cowboys and Koreans, Filipinos and Haitian Creoles, Hispanics and Arabic speakers,  African Americans and about "any kind" of Americans you can imagine.  There were 64 different languages spoken in all.  What kind of family am I talking about?  Well, its not the Williams family but the Texas Baptist family - at the first every "Family Gathering" of all the different Baptist families in Texas.  We met in San Antonio and worshipped and prayed together.  It was a really great time.

One high point for me was hearing Pastor Earl Grant, an African American pastor from San Antonio preach on 1 Peter 2:9-10. "But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation a people belonging to God..."  Though the whole message was good, one line of the sermon stood out to me, "You do not have value on your own, but you have great value because you are owned."  I like that.  I like belonging to that kind of family and being owned by God.  I hope you do too because that is a glimpse of the family of God - that is a taste of the greatness of His love by which He 'so loves' the whole world.

For the journey...

Tim

Paint Hate

Today the front page of our local newspaper had a picture and an article on how the local Islamic Center had been vandalized.  Someone had spray painted "H8" on the wall of the center.  Things like that are never pleasant to deal with.  I know, someone has spray painted our church building too but not with those two symbols and not during a special season.  Attention was drawn to the fact that it is Ramadan (July 9 - August 7) the most holy time of year for Muslims.  It makes the vandalism more significant.

Vandalism is never right nor is it ever productive.  Prayer, however, can be.  In light of what has happened let me give you a special challenge as a way to deal the tensions of our day.  Would you join me in praying for Muslims for the rest of Ramadan.  We have done this in other formats before but let me ask you to join me by simply going to www.30-days.net and using the prayer guide there.  If you have a problem making that connection, if you will contact me directly, by email at timwilliams@nbcvictoria.org I will be glad to get you a guide.

Let me also ask you to be in prayer for Sunday, July 21 as we will host special friends who are Christian workers in a closed Muslim country.  They will be sharing there lives and work with us.  They have been with us before so many of you know who I am talking about.  For security reasons, I will not say more.  But I will say that for Christians, Ramadan should be a time for prayer not hate.

For the journey...

Tim

Freedom's Price

This story from The Patriot's Almanac reminds us of the price that many of our founding father's paid for our nation to win it's independence.

In October of 1781, General Cornwallis marched his British troops into Yorktown. The patriots to the south had wreaked havoc on his redcoat army, and he was hoping to rendezvous with the British Navy on Chesapeake Bay.

American and French troops, however, anticipating Cornwallis's plan, pounded them with cannon fire, while the French fleet cut off escape by sea. The British found themselves trapped.

Thomas Nelson, then governor of Virginia and a signer of the Declaration of Independence, was fighting with the patriots firing the cannons in Yorktown. Gathering the men, he pointed to a beautiful brick home. "That is my home," he explained. "It is the best one in town. And, because of that, Lord Cornwallis has almost certainly set up the British headquarters inside."

And he told the American artillerymen to open fire on his own house.

They did. As the story goes, the very first cannonball shot at Mr. Nelson's house sailed right through the large dining room window and landed on the table where several British officers were eating.

On October 19, as the British troops surrendered, the Redcoat band played the song, "The World Turned Upside Down." The song was apt. The world's greatest super-power had just been defeated by an army that couldn't afford to put shoes on its soldiers' feet.

Sometimes to have a life of freedom in the future, we must let go of what we have and where we are in the present.  Jesus spoke of his kingdom being like a pearl of great price that a merchant went and sold all he had so he could possess.  That pearl was worth more than all he had and he could see it.  Sometimes the payoff to the sacrifice is not so clear.  We can learn a lesson from Thomas Nelson, to be free, we must be willing to pay the price.  We must let go of our present for the future God has for us. 

Enjoy Independence Day this week.

For the journey...

Tim

Source: Bill Bennett, The American Patriot's Almanac (Thomas Nelson, 2008), p. 408.

A Walk through West

Last week I got to see firsthand the damage done to the town of West, Texas by a massive explosion at the local fertilizer plant.  I was immediately struck by how tightly compacted the small town of West is and I was also struck by how far reaching the destruction was in that small of a place. 

Some homes and buildings were blown apart and burned.  Some homes, and particularly the local nursing home, looked as though a massive force had just pushed violently against the structures causing walls and roofs to buckle.  Scattered throughout other parts of the town were homes and buildings with a single hole in the wall or roof patched up with plywood or a tarp.  It also hit me that the deaths of 15 people in a town this size meant that almost every family was touched in some way.  That unseen pain in the loss of life is undoubtedly greater and deeper than any of the visual damage.

This week as I thought about what I had seen in West and what I had read in the book of Romans, some things came together.  The power of sin to wreck lives so destructively is clear in both West, Texas and the letter to the Romans.  Someone who was trying to make a living, made some bad choices about how powerful products were handled.  A fire sparked a devastating blow that buckled the lives of many.  Sin destroys our lives the same way.  It starts as small mistakes that we make in the course of everyday life. "For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God" Romans 3:23.

Those mistakes may seem harmless for a long time, even years.  Then one day, those mistakes prove to be incredibly costly to us and to those around us.  People who are simply in the wrong place at the wrong time are hurt and wounded and death comes.  Death is always the unavoidable consequence of sin, "For the wages of sin is death..." Romans 6:23.

But I also saw firsthand how everywhere in that little town where destruction was present, there were also signs of redemption.  Texas Baptist Men volunteers were clearing the rubble and setting up to start the task of rebuilding.  Volunteers were sacrificing their time to clean up destruction that they had no part in, but they were choosing to have a part in the redemption and the rebuilding.  "But where sin increased, grace increased all the more so that, just as sin reigned in death, so also grace might reign through righteousness to bring eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 5:20b-21.

So many were hurt by being at the wrong place at the wrong time.  I was blessed to be there at the time I was, to see the right thing happening in God's time.  Though the work of sin is always to bring death, the work of God is always to bring life - eternal life.  Let's take a walk through that this Sunday.

For the journey...

Tim

Vacation Bible School

I ran across this and wanted to let all of you read this so you know we are a part of a larger effort when we do VBS.  This is not the usual time for my blog post but this is very timely for us.  Please check this out and hit "Read More" when you get to that tab to see the best part of this post.

CALL TO PRAYER: Vacation Bible School

I am glad to be a part of something big.  Aren't you?

For the journey...
Tim

If only...

If only...

I have had several friends in ministry that have spoken about how those two words speak with so much regret, so much remorse.  "If only I had not spent so much time at work, maybe my marriage would have worked out."  "If only I had put my daughter in a different school, maybe she wouldn't be in the trouble she is in today."  "If only we had walked closer with the Lord, we would not have made the bad decisions that we made."  "If only we had not gotten in so much debt, may be we could have retired by now."  "If only..."

Those words do echo with sadness.  But Paul had a different direction in his "if only" statement.  It is in Acts 20:24, "I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only..."  Sounds pretty bleak doesn't it, but look at what comes next.  "...if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."  Instead of an "if only" that looked back, his looked ahead.  His "if only" was his life focus - his life mission, not his life regret.

I read these words and I decided this week, this is a great focus for me in mid-life.  I need to memorize them and make sure that my "if only" looks ahead, not back.  I need keep my focus on the truth that life has meaning and purpose if only we focus on the task that God has given each of us - "to testify to the gospel of God's grace."

This Sunday we are going to look at what does it mean to be on mission?  Each of us has a story to tell.  Each of us has a task before us.  How will you choose your "if only" for the rest of your life?  Looking back or looking ahead?  With an "if only" from regret in something you did or with an "if only" that leads to renewal in something God is doing?

For the journey...
Tim

Memorial Day

He stood there looking over the more than 6400 flags flying in the fading light of sunset.  There was a flag in that field for every soldier who had died the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  There was a flag there for his best friend; there was almost a flag there for him.

I could tell there was something going on deep inside him by the look in his eyes.  He stood there with a camera around his neck but he was not taking any pictures.  There was a big brace on his right knee.  We made eye contact a couple of times before I came over to him and I had the sense that he did not really want to go through what he was experiencing alone.  I walked over and struck up a conversation and his story began to flow out.

He and a friend, had been through multiple deployments in Iraq.  They were in the lead vehicle in a convoy on what should have been a simple mission.  It would be the last mission that he and his friend would go on before they shipped out for home.  Things were going fine, then they were hit by an IED.

What he remembers is sketchy.  But he knew his friend was dead, nearly cut in half.  He knew he was badly hurt himself.  What he didn't remember was his own journey of months in a coma in a military hospital in Germany.  His wife flying there because he wasn't expected to make it.  He did not understand but he was told that he had a traumatic brain injury.  There would be many things that happened after he awakened that he did not remember.  Many of those things - it was good he did not.

He had come to this field to remember his friend and to take a picture. "I can't take a picture of this, it doesn't feel right to do that.  It would not capture what I feel here," he said.  "There is something of my friend here.  Almost something sacred," and then he stood in silence for a moment.

He looked to the large white cross in the middle of the field and said, "It is right that the cross is there in the middle of all this.  It is the only thing that helps it all make any sense."  He told me about his faith in Christ, how he had strayed away from the faith after his first deployment, "I had killed people, some were just kids, I did not feel right. I walked away from God."  Now he confessed, he could not walk through life without Him. 

It struck me as he said that, that there is whole new meaning to the "power of the cross" that I had not thought of before.  It was a memorial marker for a sacrifice and a death, like all the flags, but that one death had the power to change all these other deaths and sacrifices.

He told me more about his friend, how his friend's father had been in the military and had been killed in the first Gulf War and now his friend was dead and had no family left behind.  He cried.  I tried to pray for him and cried too.

We both somehow got through the moment.  He got on his bus and rode back to where he was staying.  As I walked away, I knew this Memorial Day would be different.  He had given me something to remember...a lot to remember.

For the journey...

Tim

No Mistakes

Have you ever wondered if God had not somehow made a mistake?  Have you ever been in a place where you did not understand what God was doing?  It is comforting to me to see that even in the New Testament, the church and the apostles did not always understand what was going on but they faithfully followed.  We will look at a story on Sunday from Acts 12 that surely had the church baffled but in the end, they saw the power of God revealed.

In my wife's family history, there is a time that Judith's grandfather, Rev. A. M. Overton, faced a challenging place in his life and faith, he penned this poem.

   He Maketh No Mistake

My Father's way may twist and turn,
   My heart may throb and ache,
But in my soul I'm glad I know,
   He maketh no mistake.

My cherished plans may go astray,
   My hopes may fade away,
But still I'll trust my Lord to lead,
   For He doth know the way.

Tho' night be dark and it may seem
   That day will never break;
I'll pin my faith, my all in Him,
   He maketh no mistake.

There's so much now I cannot see,
   My eyesight's far too dim;
But come what may, I'll simply trust
   And leave it all to Him.

For by and by the mist will lift
   And plain it all He'll make.
Through all the way, tho' dark to me,
   He made not one mistake.

This Sunday, I will share the story behind this statement of faith and how we too can trust God beyond the place where we understand his will.

For the journey...

Tim

The Barabas Experience

As I read through the New Testament, I had the amazing experience of reading John 18 on the day that I experienced many of the places mentioned in that chapter while on my trip to Israel.  In that chapter of John's account of a day, Jesus crosses the Kidron Valley - I crossed it that day.  He climbed the Mount of Olives, I climbed it that day.  He was arrested, beaten and taken before Pilate.  I stood on first century stones near where Jesus could have stood when he went before Pilate.

In all of it, it hit me anew, that he took my place.  I also stood where Barabas stood, as the guilty one who was let go for Jesus to pay the price and take my place.  I cannot express in words the experience of that day or the new way the truth of his substitutionary death came to me.  I went from knowing about it to knowing it.

That evening, our group went into a stone church built by the crusaders - St. Ann's Church in Jerusalem.  We sang together and one of the hymn's words rang out, "Love so amazing so divine, demands my soul, my life, my heart, my all."

Amen, and amen.

For the journey...

Tim

Pat Summerall's Best Call

In all the tumult this week of the Boston Marathon Bombing and the manhunt for the suspects, in all the chaos and loss surrounding the West, Texas fertilizer plant explosion perhaps it was easy to miss that sports broadcasting lost a giant.  Pat Summerall, who called 16 Super Bowls, died this week at age 82.  His broadcast career began in 1962 and lasted until 2002.  He worked 21 years beside John Madden.

Pat Summerall made his biggest call though when he admitted that he was an alcoholic. Throwing up blood at 4:00 am while he was covering the 1994 Masters Golf Tournament coupled with the intervention of friends helped him to decide he did not want to live that way anymore.  He said that the five weeks he spent at the Betty Ford Clinic saved his life.  But he was still searching for more.  A conversation with coach Tom Landry led him to Dallas Cowboys chaplain John Weber who in turn led Pat to Jesus Christ.  At 69, Pat Summerall called on Christ to truly change him - that was his best call.  After his baptism, he said he felt like a 40 pound weight had been lifted off his back.

Can it be possible for people to really change after a life time of developing dark habits?  Summerall would say so.  This Sunday we will look at how Jesus can bring us light at dark moments.  We all have had to face some darkness this week.  Let's spend some time looking into the light.

For the journey...

Tim

A Tractor Accident

A story of a tractor accident really touched me this week.  I have included a link to it below. The accident described there (a tractor flipping over backwards) is a common one with older, smaller tractors.  I have personally known it to happen with several people - a man in my community, a cousin on my father's tractor - it can have deadly results if you are not quick to respond.  The man I just mentioned died, my cousin jumped and lived.  The same accident almost happened to me on the same tractor that my cousin flipped.  I still credit God with helping me get my foot on the clutch just in time.

God does work in our problems and pains to reveal himself in this world.  That is a hard truth for us to realize because we so often think - unthinkingly - that God is here to reward us.  Yes, he does reward us, here and in heaven, but often his greatest work is revealing himself.  The man in my community who died in the tractor accident was not being punished.  My cousin was not being rewarded.  I was not "good" enough to be spared from an accident.  God works to reveal himself.

It is the same truth that we will look at Sunday in Jesus coming to the pools of Bethesda and healing a man who had suffered for 38 years.  It was not a reward for his suffering so long.  It was a revelation for all of us who suffer.  He is still the same Jesus capable of changing our lives in an instant.

Let me encourage you to watch the news report from the link below, it will not take long.  I don't know if this family really knows God or not.  But listen for what the older sister says about what she told herself repeatedly as she attempted to lift a 3,000 pound tractor.  Watch carefully, it is just a brief mention, but may point to a more power meaning.  Look at how it seems God revealed himself in this situation.  And then ask yourself, "How is he revealing himself to me?"

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2013/04/10/dnt-or-daughter-lift-tractor-off-dad.kgw

For the journey...

Tim

Lithotripsy

This week, I had lithotripsy on a kidney stone.  Thank the Lord, it has gone very well.  For those of you not familiar with this treatment, it is a procedure where something like sound waves are targeted on your kidney stone to smash it up into small pieces that can then be passed out of the body.  That is just what happened.  It was a pretty remarkable experience - except I slept through it all.

Don't get me wrong, I would not want to be awake through it.  I have something like bruises on my back where these waves entered my body.  I don't think it would be enjoyable to go through awake, but it is still pretty remarkable that something unseen can enter your body and break apart something that is solid and jagged and painful and make it all go away.

As I thought about these sonic waves, I was reminded at how powerful sound can be - particularly the sound of the voice of the Lord in Psalm 29:

The voice of the Lord is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the Lord thunders over the mighty waters. 

The voice of the Lord is powerful; the voice of the Lord is majestic. The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars; the Lord breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon. 
 The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning. The voice of the Lord shakes the desert; the Lord shakes the Desert of Kadesh. The voice of the Lord twists the oaks and strips the forests bare.  And in his temple all cry, “Glory!”    The Lord gives strength to his people; the Lord blesses his people with peace.  Psalm 29 (selected verses).

The Psalmist imagined the power of the voice of God before anything was known about sound waves or sonic waves or lithotripsy .  Yet an even more powerful voice was yet to come.

By the power of his voice Jesus calmed a storm.  By the power of his voice he made the demon possessed whole again.  By the power of his voice he called Lazarus back from the dead to life again.  I wonder if you could somehow measure and chart the power of those sound waves of the voice of Jesus, what would they look like?  No instrument in this world can measure that, i know.  Yet, he often speaks to our souls in a "still, small voice."  His voice still has all the power that it ever has and he wants to speak to you and me.  We live in amazing times, but more importantly, we have an amazing God.

When did he last speak to you?

For the journey...

Tim

Which Jesus?

Sometimes I run across something that is too long to use in a sermon but it just fits things to a 'T."  Such is the case this week.  I ran across this pastor's blog and I want to share it with you.  I wish I had the creativity to say it this way.  It is worth the read.

"The Real Jesus Christ"

"The greatness of God is most clearly displayed in his Son. And the glory of the gospel is only made evident in his Son. That's why Jesus' question to his disciples [in Matthew 16] is so important: "Who do you say that I am?"
The question is doubly crucial in our day, because [no one is as popular in the U.S. as Jesus]—and not every Jesus is the real Jesus. …

There's the Republican Jesus—who is against tax increases and activist judges, for family values and owning firearms.

There's Democrat Jesus—who is against Wall Street and Wal-Mart, for reducing our carbon footprint and printing money.

There's Therapist Jesus—who helps us cope with life's problems, heals our past, tells us how valuable we are and not to be so hard on ourselves.

There's Starbucks Jesus—who drinks fair trade coffee, loves spiritual conversations, drives a hybrid, and goes to film festivals.

There's Open-minded Jesus—who loves everyone all the time no matter what (except for people who are not as open-minded as you).

There's Touchdown Jesus—who helps athletes fun faster and jump higher than non-Christians and determines the outcomes of Super Bowls.

There's Martyr Jesus—a good man who died a cruel death so we can feel sorry for him.

There's Gentle Jesus—who was meek and mild, with high cheek bones, flowing hair, and walks around barefoot, wearing a sash (while looking very German).

There's Hippie Jesus—who teaches everyone to give peace a chance, imagines a world without religion, and helps us remember that "all you need is love."

There's Yuppie Jesus—who encourages us to reach our full potential, reach for the stars, and buy a boat.

There's Spirituality Jesus—who hates religion, churches, pastors, priests, and doctrine, and would rather have people out in nature, finding "the god within" while listening to ambiguously spiritual music.

There's Platitude Jesus—good for Christmas specials, greeting cards, and bad sermons, inspiring people to believe in themselves.

There's Revolutionary Jesus—who teaches us to rebel against the status quo, stick it to the man, and blame things on "the system."

There's Guru Jesus—a wise, inspirational teacher who believes in you and helps you find your center.

There's Boyfriend Jesus—who wraps his arms around us as we sing about his intoxicating love in our secret place.

There's Good Example Jesus—who shows you how to help people, change the planet, and become a better you.

And then there's Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God. Not just another prophet. Not just another Rabbi. Not just another wonder-worker. He was the one they had been waiting for: the Son of David and Abraham's chosen seed; the one to deliver us from captivity; the goal of the Mosaic law; Yahweh in the flesh; the one to establish God's reign and rule; the one to heal the sick, give sight to the blind, freedom to the prisoners and proclaim Good News to the poor; the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world.

This Jesus was the Creator come to earth and the beginning of a New Creation. He embodied the covenant, fulfilled the commandments, and reversed the curse. This Jesus is the Christ that God spoke of to the Serpent; the Christ prefigured to Noah in the flood; the Christ promised to Abraham; the Christ prophesied through Balaam before the Moabites; the Christ guaranteed to Moses before he died; the Christ promised to David when he was king; the Christ revealed to Isaiah as a Suffering Servant; the Christ predicted through the Prophets and prepared for through John the Baptist.

This Christ is not a reflection of the current mood or the projection of our own desires. He is our Lord and God. He is the Father's Son, Savior of the world, and substitute for our sins—more loving, more holy, and more wonderfully terrifying than we ever thought possible."

Kevin DeYoung, "Who Do You Say That I Am?" from his DeYoung, Restless, and Reformed blog (posted 6-10-09)

Now my question for all of this week is, "Do I see Jesus for who I want him to be or for who he really is?  We will start with that question on Sunday.

For the journey...

Tim

Moving to Follow

At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them.  But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.”   Luke 4:42-43

I appreciate in a new way what Jesus is going through here.  He begins his public ministry with forty days of fasting, praying and temptation in the wilderness.  He then heals and teaches many but when he comes to his home town of Nazareth he is rejected to the point that people who have known him all his life want to throw him off a cliff (Luke 4:28-30).

Jesus then goes to the people who are responding and that is where we see the scripture above.  After a time of prayer, Jesus senses God's direction to move on, even though people want him to stay there, he needed to move on in the mission of the kingdom of God.

That is why a group of us are in the valley on a mission trip.  Jesus would later tell his disciples (Acts 1:8) that they would be his witnesses in the town they were in, in the state they were in but also in the neighboring region where people were of a different culture and also to the ends of the earth.  To follow Jesus is to be on the move and to know it is not about being accepted or staying just where you see a response.  Following Jesus means starting where you are but also going where he leads and he is always on the go.  It means leaving a place of acceptance to risk the unknown.

This scripture was very important to me several years ago when I moved my family 60 miles east to come to Victoria.  I was in a place I knew and in a place where I was known.  I had seen God move.  But that statement of Jesus about taking the good news to "other towns also, because that is why I was sent" weighed heavily upon me.  God spoke to me through it.  I moved.  Is he speaking to you?  How are you willing to move to follow?

For the journey...

Tim

Caleb in the News

If feel bad that my pastor nephew got this out on his blog before I got it out on mine but at least I made it on the same day.  My nephew, Jeff Berger, is a pastor in Houston and his church has been praying for Caleb Jentsch after his injury.  I did not want you to be left out so here is a special post to my blog just for us to watch and rejoice at what God has done and is doing in Caleb's life.  It also reminds us to keep on praying for him as he continues to make progress.

Click on the link below to see the video of the news story on Caleb.

http://youtu.be/SnN3AoOvPKE

For the journey...

Tim

Naked

A young man, wearing nothing but a linen garment, was following Jesus.  When they seized him, he fled naked, leaving his garment behind.  Mark 14:51-52

These are an odd couple of verses.  No other gospel has anything like this, which has led many scholars to speculate that Mark was writing about himself.  If this had happened to you, would you write it down in the most important document you wrote in your entire life?  Perhaps Mark did, it really does sound like an eye witness account, something that you would not make up.

I remember years ago hearing someone say how the incident in this garden that night is much like the incident in the first garden with Adam and Eve.  When sin gets a hold on us we often run away from the presence of God scared and naked ending up ashamed and defeated.

There is a laying bare of our human weaknesses in the first garden and in the garden of Gethsemane.
 After both those incidents, the mercy of God comes looking for us to clothe us and give us a new way to live. What Jesus did in his garden undid what we (humans) did in the first garden.  Where we failed and brought sin and death, he overcame and brought victory and eternal life. 

When I am following Jesus and fear grips me and I run, I now have a place and a person to come back to, in fact, he comes looking for me.  Is he looking for you too?

For the journey...

Tim

Stock Show Time

I have many memories of this time of year - stock show time.  For most of my growing up years, ages nine through eighteen, I was a member of the Hope 4-H Club.  Most of those years I was raising a steer to show in the annual stock show.  Well, there was that one year that I had a failed attempt to raise a hog but we won't go into that.

Not all my memories are pleasant, I still blame one particularly unruly steer for some of the back problems I experience today.  He knocked me to the ground with such a hard blow I really think it did some damage.  I have a suspicion that he felt I was responsible for him going from a bull to a steer.  In the end, I really had no regrets about selling him in the stock show auction to a man who ran a grocery with a fine meat market in it.

Most of the other animals and I got along well.  Through much of the school year, I would spend time every day feeding, walking, grooming or somehow tending to my show steer.  I learned after my first stock show that all my time and all my preparations were leading up to one moment before a judge - months would lead up to a few minutes.  Before him, every thing would be evaluated, graded, rated and judged.  What he said determined how much or how little, I would make in the auction.  One year, I won Grand Champion.  It was the biggest accomplishment of my life to that point.

God has now called me to a position where it is my job to tell people that one day they will stand before a judge.  There may have been some hardships, some knock downs, some injuries and much hard work before that day but we will come to it nonetheless. But unlike a stock show, God will not be looking for one to award as Grand Champion nor will He be determining how much we are worth in an auction, He will be looking for that which is His own. 

Too many people face that day before God like they would face a stock show judge.  They think, 'If I have worked hard enough, suffered enough, gotten my life in good enough condition maybe the judge will look favorably upon me and give me some sort of award.'  The Bible says it will not be like that at all.  It will not be about the condition of my work.  It will be about the condition of my relationship with the judge.  That moment before God is either your greatest anticipation or your greatest anxiety.  Which is it for you?  Let's talk about it Sunday.

For the journey...

Tim

You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat.  Romans 14:10