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....

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...

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...

A Story You Should Know

Michael knew his father was very ill and probably would not recover.  As he dealt with that reality, a greater reality began to dawn on Michael about his own eternity - he needed to accept Christ as his savior.  One Sunday morning, Michael and his father Kevin came down during the invitation time at the end of the service.  His father came to rededicate what time he had left to the Lord, Michael came to follow Christ for the first time.

Kevin soon took a turn for the worst.  I watched as Michael handled his father's death with a great deal of grace.  During the weeks that passed as the family dealt with a terminal illness, a death and a funeral, Michael spoke with his wife and step son, Terese and Gannon, about their relationship with the Lord.  They were all baptized as a family at Northside on January 17, 2010.

On April 1, 2011, Michael was working to put up the oil rig he worked on in its new location on a ranch in the Laredo area.  It was late in the day, there was a strange sound, a cry of warning and two men frozen by uncertainty in the path of falling piece of metal.  Michael heard the warning, knew the danger, saw his co-workers and acted.  He was able to clear them of the heavy metal "pin" that fell from the derrick but he was not able to clear himself.  It struck him on the back of the head and he died.  In a moment of unthinking selflessness he brought life at the cost of his own. 

Michael's family confirmed the story through several sources and though the grief is heavy, there is the uplifting thought that Michael's life had great purpose and though just 29 years long, it had great meaning.  This is a story I thought you should all know.

Michael N. Duckett

September 12, 1981 - April 1, 2011

"Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends."  John 15:13

For the journey...



Praying for Japan - Part 2

In may last post I mentioned hearing from our two summer missionaries to Japan and their thoughts on how to pray.  Here are Caleb Jentsch' words -

Some ways y'all can be praying for Japan are:
1) Pray for the missionaries that are over there right now that they would be safe.
2) Pray that the Japanese will realize that hey need the Lord and that their hearts will be open.
3) Pray for the believing Japaneses Christians that they will continue to grow closer to the Father and be able to share who He is with the people of Japan.  The impact they have sharing in their own country is so much more effective.

I  also mentioned the Baptist General Convention of Texas has sent funds  ($25,000).  One of the great things about being connected with an organization like this is the ability to respond quickly.  Becasue you have given to Northside and because Northside cooperates with the BGCT, you have already helped to send those funds to this disaster.

Texas Baptist Men have now sent a team to Tokyo.  Disaster relief veterans John LaNoue and Gary Smith along with Yutaka Takarada, pastor of a Japanese Baptist Church  in the Dallas area have joined videographer Rex Campbell.  You can find out more ways to pray and read daily updates from this team at

www.texasbaptists.org/disaster

For the journey....

Praying for Japan

We have had two of our students spend summers in Japan serving as missionary interns.  I have asked them to share their thoughts about Japan and how we can pray for the people there especially now.  Here are Kelley Williams' thoughts:

The Japanese people are incredibly polite and kind, but they are not always very receptive to the gospel. The vast majority worship the gods of Buddhism, Shintoism, materialism, and success. The soil is hard and the fruit is rare, but God is definitely working. He has been in Japan long before now and I fully believe a great Japanese revival is coming.

This past summer, my fellow interns and I were completely broken for the Japanese. We wanted the people that God had taught us to love to know the One True God and Savior. We prayed that God would do whatever it took.   I do not think that the earthquake, tsunami, and current nuclear crisis is in any way a punishment for the Japanese worshipping false gods and idols. I believe He will use this to make Himself famous in Japan, Asia, and the rest of the world. That is what we prayed for anyway.

My favorite verses to pray over Japan are Isaiah 64:1-65:3. It starts off, "Oh that you would rend the heavens and come down, that the mountain might quake in your presence...", and ends with God saying, "I was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me; I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me." Japan is not a nation that has been seeking God, but He is passionately pursing them with His grace and love.

Please pray that the strongholds Satan has had in Japan will come crashing down. Pray that as a tsunami brings water that damages, the Holy Spirit will flood Japan with joy and salvation. Pray for the workers in Japan, pray they would have divine appointment after divine appointment. Pray that the Japanese Christians will be shaken from their timidity and would speak boldly to their friends and family about their hope and peace in Jesus alone. Pray, pray fervently for a great Japanese revival to unfold from this tragedy. God is bigger than any force of nature and He will use this for His glory and renown.

Mission Trip Moments

There are so many things about Northside's mission trip to the Rio Grande Valley that I wish I could tell you about - sights, sounds, smells.  Well the wind blowing over the regional garbage dump right down the street from the church made the smells very ...interesting but I don't need to go into that.  But the smell of good food made by loving hands was also a constant too.

There were images that I want to carry with me - the sight of three churches from two different cultures coming together to do a work in a poor neighborhood.  There is the the sight of the smiles of teh families whose homes we touched and the sight of one of those families attending the church that week.  There is the sight of an auburn-haired, teenager named Crystal coming down during the invitation time Sunday morning to receive Christ.  Her green eyes filled with tears that fell on our hands as we prayed together for Christ to come into her life.  She attended church for the first time the week before.

There were sounds that were constant.  I will remember the sound of the praise band made of our's  and their's and singing in English and Spanish and all to the Lord.  I can still hear the sounds of voices speaking loudly and boldly in Spanish proclaiming the change that Jesus can make in anyone's life.  There were the sounds of saws and hammers and cement mixers as work took place around the church and three homes.  I heard sounds of laughter and it did not matter what language you spoke, laughter is the same in any language.  I also was reminded that you can smile, clap and move folding chairs the same in any language.

Then there was the ever present sound of a generator running outside the church providing electricity to the activities within.  That sound was a constant reminder to me that colonia church without electrical power is not a church without the power of God.  Thank you Northside, Austin Street and Fe y Poder for giving to the Lord.

Join with us Sunday evening, March 27 at 6:00 pm in the Student Center as we share our memories and reflections.

For the Journey...