Sons

Last night, I was at New Hope, trying desperately to bring some light onto what for most of us is a dark and dusty part of the Scriptures - Leviticus. I know, we're New Testament Christians, not under the law but under grace - got that. But I'm convinced that we've missed a great deal of needed background - even foundational materials when we pretend the OT doesn't exist. So I'm teaching through the OT on Wednesday nights and someone snuck Leviticus in there on me, right after Exodus - who knew?

So last night I'm in chapter 8, trying to relate to the people around me that some things have changed since that day and some have not. That the High Priest's clothing said things about how they were to relate to God and each other, just as how we live today in view of the people around us who are not yet followers of Jesus says things about whether we really do follow Christ.

Folks, I was really trying with everything I've got to make the connection that even though we aren't dressed up in easily recognizable "garments" that tell the world that we are a "kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood...", that in fact we are just that. And that in a world like ours, our humility, kindness, and servant nature - our being like Jesus - might just be more visible and more powerful than seeing the high priest walk by was then.

As I was teaching, trying to connect, I looked to my left and there sat both of my sons. A rare event now, as Adam our oldest still lives in Middle Georgia. It's been quite a while since he's heard his daddy teach. He and Sean were sitting together, listening.

They are men now themselves, at 23 and 28, and have seen me in all sorts of circumstances and among all sorts of people. I love them fiercely, always have, always will. That's not to say I've been perfect at it, but helping them grow up as men and introducing them to Jesus has been my goal from the first time my eyes saw each of them after their birth.

Frankly, at that very moment last night I prayed a brief silent prayer with everything I had to give, that nothing I have done has hindered them in their journey with God. Then I moved on, trusting in the love of the Father to fill the gaps in this daddy's attempts to love them like Jesus.

I've written all this to say - as you are putting time and energy into getting just that right gift for your sons or daughters this Christmas, please take a moment each day to pray to the Father for guidance on how to live in such a way that your life offers them the gift of Jesus' love reflected through your words and actions.

Those toys and electronics will be long gone one day, as they are with my boy's toys, but the ways you have given them Jesus' love will last forever.

Go after a life of love as if your life depended on it-because it does. Give yourselves to the gifts God gives you. Most of all, try to proclaim his truth. 1 Corinthians 14: 1

Grace!

David Wilson
Lead Pastor, New Hope Valparaiso



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Ornaments, Trees, and Memories

Our Christmas tree is up here at the Wilson house. This year there were some changes - different house, different tree. A special treat was having our oldest son Adam here on vacation when it was put up. I can still remember the first Christmas he spent with us and what joy we felt at the amazing blessing of a son. Having him here this time of year was awesome.

On our tree, if you examined it, you'd be able to find a time line of our family's history through the ornaments that hang from each branch. Over the years we've accumulated quite a few, and every one carries memories of where we were and what was happening in our family. In fact, there are some that don't usually make the cut on the tree - cheap hand painted ones done by all of us during some pretty lean years as we began our ministry career.

On two branches, there are felt ornaments with pictures of two little boys contained within them. Probably cost 25cents to make, but to us they are priceless. Sometimes the boys move them to the back. But they always seem to find their way out front again. On several are ornaments that are reminders of the years Bunny spent working as a manager of a Hallmark store in Macon Mall.

Bunny hung one last night that she said was one of her favorites when she was a little girl. There are others we got on shopping trips, or picked up because of what they said to us, like the one carved from any olive tree near Bethlehem. Then there are the dog bone ornaments for Daisy the mini schnauzer and Chloe the Great Dane, faithful friends absent now but who we still remember in love. And there are some ornaments gathered while we've been here in Valparaiso - like the Flip Flops one that makes me smile.

It's so easy for me as I look at the tree to turn it into a sentimental journey.

So each year, among the family ornaments, amidst the memories, we take care to place another ornament - a nail hung by a scarlet ribbon. It's placed near the inside of the tree, away from the lights and glitter, and you'd have a tough time spotting it unless you knew it was there. But we know it is there, at the center of it all.

It reminds us what we should be looking at every day, not just at Christmas.

Jesus.

15 We look at this Son and see the God who cannot be seen. We look at this Son and see God's original purpose in everything created. 16 For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels— everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him.

Col 1:15-16 (MSG)

I love my family, and appreciate the blessings we've been given and the memories we share. But more than anything else, I want to remember, I want everyone to remember to base our lives upon what God revealed through Jesus.

For everything, absolutely everything, not just Christmas, got started in Him and finds its purpose in Him. Whatever you do this Christmas, don't miss that.

Grace!

David


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Now and Not Yet

There are times when I dream about what it would be like if everyone could grasp the love of Jesus. And not just grasp as in a clinical or academic sort of way, I mean grasp it - well really, be held in His grasp. What would happen if people could see and respond to love in its purest form, without letting their past, pedigree or preferences get in the way?

No, I'm not under the influence of any substances. I'm just someone who follows Jesus. Oh, and someone whose life revolves around helping other people do it too.

And yes, I live firmly grounded in reality - in the now. But I place my hope in Jesus, God of both the now and the not yet.

Last night, the two came together.

New Hope opened her heart and her doors to the community to celebrate the Christmas miracle with us. In a celebration that included Eglin's bell choir and New Hope's praise team, we were treated to what Jesus pointed to as the key to the now and not yet - the sincerity of a child. (" Mark this - Unless you accept God's kingdom in the sincerity of a child, you'll never get in." Mark 10:15 MSG)

New Hope's kids sang like angels last night.

They put aside apprehension and fear, ignored a packed sanctuary with people sitting even in the lobby, and gave all they had to Jesus in praise. Bunny and I cannot believe just how well they sang. Our hearts are bursting with pride in them and praise for God's gifts.

What was also amazing was their attitude in doing it. There were no performers on the stage, just people trying to tell a story about God's love for us expressed through the birth of Jesus.

From Madeleine Huston, our wee first grader, to Robert Hughes, our elderly chairman of deacons, the love of Jesus poured out on us in song. If we are this blessed now here at New Hope, what must God have in store for us later?

I know life is hard for some now, and things around the world can make one wonder whether God is at work in this present reality. But think of it this way - it's like watching the bell choir last night - We see movement but cannot hear anything until the clapper strikes the bell. That does not mean the bell is not about to ring, just not yet.

When I see God at work like last night, I choose to look forward to the future joys - living in the now, but expecting the "not yet" of God's grace to break out any minute.

Kind of like one of those "And in the same country there were shepherds..." moments. :)

I thank God for allowing me the opportunity of seeing one last night.

Grace!

David

(BTW -This Glimpse was specially commissioned by my wife Bunny, because she 'didn't have the words' since she was overcome with joy.)
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Announcing...

And the angel said to them, "Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. 11For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
Luke 2 (ESV)

It's Christmas card time again. I was looking for a lost scrap of paper yesterday and found year upon year''s stash of Christmas cards we had received.

Most of the cards seem to center on one of three main themes - Santa Claus and his gang, winter frolics, or cartoon characters. For a while there a few years back, angels were making a comeback, but lately they seem to have faded in popularity a bit. Some years the cards glitter more than others.

But overwhelmingly they are cheerful, wishing people the "best!" For some people, maybe most people (good, normal people) it's not a big deal. You just go buy some cards, perhaps they reflect the birth of Jesus, or maybe you pick some with Snoopy, Frosty, or Scooby Doo on them, write a note of good cheer inside, and mail them.

After reading and rereading the Christmas passages in the Bible this past week, one thing stood out about Christmas. It was anything but cheerful. People all over Israel were having to make their way back to their family home town (Ever been on a trip with whiny kids? Multiply.) Joseph and Mary wound up staying with the animals in a gritty, dirty stable. And the Son of God, love's purest light, found His first resting place in a spittle drizzled feeding trough.

Maybe that's why when I look at how God announces His acts in Scripture, overwhelmingly the number one way that chose to make them known was some variation on this - "Fear Not!"

Wonder why that was?

Some funny things about when God shows up:

He enters with a lot more authority than we are accustomed to.
He's especially adept at changing the status quo.
He's not particularly interested in hearing "we never did it that way before."
He frequently calls the person He visits to boldly go where they've never gone before.

Oh and there's that other thing...

-where He calls that person or persons to go in following Him might result in their poverty, sickness, terror, grief, or even death.

So "Fear Not!"...works for me.

Oh, and one other thing about God's announcements. Since they come from our Father, they always work out for our best. It's that "... good news of a great joy that will be for all the people..." part. And they called Him Jesus, for He would save His people from their sins.

Announcing -The greatest gift, from the greatest giver. Jesus! - So... fear not!

Grace!

David

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It's Like Riding A Bike

The phrase, 'Just like riding a bike,' is one that can apply to almost anything. It's generally used when someone does something well that they haven't done in a long time. You do know that not all of those old sayings are universally true, right? I have a first hand report on this one. It ain't necessarily so.

Recently, two of the great people I serve with at New Hope gave me a brand new bicycle. I had made some noises earlier in the year about getting back into shape, and suggested that I might get a bike and try that instead of running. Well, one Saturday morning, they showed up here with a brand new mountain bike - a Jeep - in desert camo! As one of them told me the other night as I recounted my experiences with it, "be careful what you wish for." I'm so blessed by the people at New Hope.

So anyway, after some adventures around the neighborhood, I decided it was time to get busy. I jumped on it and headed off to church the other day, a distance of maybe a mile or less and almost died.

First, who knew that my legs had completely forgotten that peculiar motion?
Then there's these gear things - they may be wonderful, but I seemed to have the ability to pick whatever gear was the worst at any given moment.

So while I'm positive I'll get better and enjoy it immensely, I am living proof that you cannot count on picking up anything right where you left off. Even riding a bike.Especially riding a bike.

Including celebrating Christmas.

Friends, I've been scratching and clawing in my soul the past few days, eagerly seeking to get back into the "Christmas spirit". Anyone else out there finding it hard to do?

Part of me says it's just that the externals aren't done - no tree, no lights, no outward show of what season it is. But I've celebrated without any of those.

There's another part that sees the hurts among people I love here, and around the world, and replays my own. That part says, "don't be foolish - that sort of feeling is for kids. You're past that now."

No, I'm not.

I do think and pray about the mom whose son has just left home, and the young man who's struggling to rebuild his faith and his marriage. I do remember what the families I care for have been through - heart surgeries, catherizations, sadness, and loss. And yes, I already miss my father's laugh as he shared Christmas with us.

But that's exactly why I NEED Christmas. I need to know beyond a doubt that somewhere, somebody noticed our hurts - and not just somebody - but someone who can DO something about them.

So I've been reading and re-reading the prophecies and the gospels. And I never noticed it before, but as a prelude to Christmas, the historian named Luke wrote this.

So many others have tried their hand at putting together a story of the wonderful harvest of Scripture and history that took place among us, 2 using reports handed down by the original eyewitnesses who served this Word with their very lives. 3 Since I have investigated all the reports in close detail, starting from the story's beginning, I decided to write it all out for you, most honorable Theophilus, 4 so you can know beyond the shadow of a doubt the reliability of what you were taught. Luke 1 - The Message

That word translated "reliability " here, carries deeper weight than that. At it's root it means "undoubted truth" or something "kept safe from harm".

Kind of like something you can go back to and know you'll find it just as it should be.

Christmas.

The gift of a God Who could stand by no longer outside while His children were hurting on the inside.

I may have forgotten how to ride a bike, but with God's help, I'll never forget Christmas.

Grace!

David

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The Mission: Love God, Love People, Serve All

"This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details.

When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.

And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ." Ephesians 3:7 The Message

Someone asked me the other day about when I was called into the ministry. I laughed and told them that I didn't jump into this life, I was pushed. And what I didn't know about the life a pastor leads could fill a book (and will someday).

I'm in way over my head. But this life, this crazy life, is a sheer gift.

I am thankful tonight for all those people God has graced my life with. It's awesome to see God at work in the lives of the people He's placed us with. New Hope is a special place.

But there are so many people who aren't a part of a faith-family like New Hope.

Today I went with Bunny to the dentist. While I was there, I must have talked to the receptionist for 45 minutes - or really, listened. I learned about her childhood growing up here when there were hardly any houses near the beach and sand dunes stretched all the way from Seagrove Beach to Destin. I heard about the school she attended that was 1st through 12th grade until she got to High School. She told me about her family now, of her mother's health problems and her father's wishing she would get back in church. And she told me about her daughter's struggles and the pain that caused her.

All I did to begin the flood of information was ask how her Thanksgiving went, and mention at one point that we had killed some time before we came there looking at the homes near the ocean.

Maybe today she just needed someone to care enough to listen. I told her that I would pray for her daughter and her family. Then the office got busier and she was called away.

Friends, we can do this. Yes, we are unqualified. Certainly there are people better suited. But God has given us everything we need to make a difference for Him. Are you available?

Grace!

David
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Thank God

It's Thanksgiving week here, and on a cold afternoon, I was reading Leviticus and trying to keep warm. We've been looking at this very Jewish book for the last month in our Wednesday night Bible study small group. Each week, I've tried to build the bridges between what we see in the old sacrificial system and today. Some weeks it works well, others not so much.

This week we'll look at the sin offering.

It's hard to get over how bloody their worship was. There's blood everywhere. They throw it, pour it, and in this week's twist, the priest dips his fingers in it and smears it on the "horns" of the altar. Blood... everywhere.

If you're like me, you don't think about blood much. But today I was reading a blog, and a post from a GI about his days in Iraq made me think.

"Everything I have on today is something I wore in Iraq, my boots scuffed and bleached from sand and dirt and hard use, my blood type written in faded black ink on the outside and inside of each heel.
Before leaving Kuwait for the trip into Iraq in February 2005 I took all my Army brown T shirts into the shower trailer next to C for Charlie Companies tents and wrote my last four and blood type on the front of all of them. I was alone, and in the humid air of the trailer, I remember the act feeling rather sad and final.
Later, later, after seeing, working on, and evacing wounded I wrote my blood type on my belt, and later my boots, O POS."

As he contemplated going into harm's way, he prepared by writing his blood type almost everywhere he could think of. Why? Because blood is life. The precious seconds lost in determining what blood type a solider has could be the difference between life and death. So that GI made sure every way he could that no time would be wasted on him.

When I thought about how that must have felt, to be coldly anticipating your being wounded or killed so vividly that you inscribe your blood type everywhere, I am again humbled and thankful to live in a nation that produces such men and women. They prepare for the worst, and then go forward hoping for the best, trusting in their equipment, their training, and their comrades.

As I was thinking about that I realized - John the Baptist looked up one day and saw the One God had chosen to take the place of sacrifice and pay the price. His blood would be poured out for our sins. He cried out:

"Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" John 1:29

And unlike that GI, who prepared but hoped he'd never need any of his notes to be read,

Jesus knew.

He knew that He would bleed and die. For us.

For that, and for the abundant life He's given us, I thank God.

Grace!

David
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How Do You Pass It On?

21 The command we have from Christ is blunt: Loving God includes loving people. You've got to love both.

1 John 4:21 (MSG)

There were a lot of songs in the 1975 Baptist hymnal that had never been there before. You see the Baptists had awakened to a brand new day - the day of the Living Bible, the praise chorus, and youth alive! So this new hymnal had some songs in it that reflected their great leap forward. Some were good. Some,not so good. On those Sunday nights when our minister of music Lowell Hopkins would turn to the congregation and ask for requests, some of those not so good hymns would always come racing out of the mouths of some.

Hymn #120 - God of Earth and Outer Space was one of them. Did you know God could "fling?" Read that hymn and you'll find that God has flung. But my least favorite was "Pass It On." Do you remember it?

It only takes a spark to get a fire going,
And soon all those around can warm up in its glowing;
That's how it is with God's Love,
Once you've experienced it,
Your spread the love to everyone
You want to pass it on.

What a wondrous time is spring,
When all the trees are budding
The birds begin to sing, the flowers start their blooming;
That's how it is with God's love,
Once you've experienced it.
You want to sing, it's fresh like spring,
You want to pass it on.

It was just so...

Well, anyway, I was looking around at all the children and youth that we have not just attending at New Hope, but now serving and I was praying that God would keep them close and involved with him all their lives. And up walked Kelsey Morton.

Kelsey is a wee lass, with a personality far bigger than her stature. But that day she was downcast. Her grandfather had to be taken to the hospital and she was distraught with worry. One look at her eyes and you knew she was in pain. Before Sunday school, Bunny had prayed with her. Before the worship service, I had and so had Sharon Wilcoxen. Then our chairman of deacons, Robert Hughes, a older man of grace and dignity that everyone loves, heard Kelsey's heart. I looked down the aisle and he had bent low with his head bowed and was praying with her.

Before the first note of music, before the first words were said, four people at New Hope had joined their hearts with a little girl and asked God to help her.

Maybe that's how you pass it on.

Love God, Love People, Serve Everyone

I call that - New Hope!

Grace!

David

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It's Always Something

My friend Randy Mathews and I used to work together almost every day of the week. We were just two of the 66,000 or so employees of Procter and Gamble, but there were times when we went at that work with a ferocity that would have made you think it all depended on us. Either of us could share stories to attest to that.

There were the times we'd leave Macon at 4:15 in the morning to be at Piggly Wiggly HQ in the sweet onion capital of the world, Vidalia GA. Or the time it was 6 degrees below zero, our company cars wouldn't start, and we made our rounds in his 1969 Skylark - vinyl roof flapping in the cold breeze. The "world's largest display of shampoo" or the "world's first color newspaper ad for Pepto Bismol" - that was us.

Randy was a born salesman. He was at his best around people. Sometimes I'd cringe at how outgoing he was. One of the things he'd do that would drive me crazy was that he would wish everyone "Merry Christmas" - ALL YEAR ROUND! But his sense of humor somehow just had to keep things stirred up - so people couldn't ignore him. He was a faithful member of his church, a good father and husband. Just a great guy.

I left Procter and Gamble after 9 years to pursue this calling, and Randy continued on. We moved down here and I lost touch with Randy. I had heard that he was on disability, but didn't know why, unless the dozens of NuWay hot dogs we ate or those "fresh french fries" he used to order had finally caught up with him.

When my father passed away, Randy wrote his condolences on the newspaper's tribute site. I saw that and replied. Randy told me he wasn't doing well, and asked me to pray for him. I wrote back and asked him to tell me more. It turns out that my friend has had two heart procedures and three spinal surgeries. He's in constant pain. And recently they've told him that unless he has another operation, he might lose his eyesight. I wrote him back expressing my disbelief and sorrow over what has happened and he replied "It's always something."

Sigh...

Do you remember the shortest verse in the Bible?

Ok, then do you remember the story it comes out of?

Jesus came back to Bethany, with a worried and puzzled group of disciples, only to be greeted by a woman wracked by grief. His friend Lazarus was dead.

Then He went out to Lazarus' grave,
and the second person of the Trinity,
He Who was and is to come,
the maker of everything that there is
- was rocked by His emotions.

The writer simply pens, "Jesus wept."

The people there that day made an assumption. That Jesus was grieving for what had happened.

What if Jesus was grieving for what was to happen - not just for Lazarus, but for Randy, for you and me, for every one of us who suffers?

Maybe the One Who gave His life for us was grieving, not because Lazarus was dead, but because the sin that entered the world with Adam's fall means we will all know heartbreak and loss - and it didn't have to be that way.

Jesus said as much, remember?

Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.

And yet it is what He said next that can give everyone who believes in Jesus hope.

But take heart, because I have overcome the world." John 16:33 (NLT)

Our hope, our comfort, our ability to find peace in the midst of trials and sorrows can only be found in Jesus.

Yes, it's always something.

But thank God there's always someone - Jesus - Who is near.

Grace!

David Wilson

Practice

"Love from the center of who you are; don't fake it.

Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good.

Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. "

Romans 12:9-10 The Message

Every Wednesday night, Ethel Jemima, Emmeline aka Emma-lemon, Kylie Coyote, Kelsey-Jane, Aaroneous, Kater-Tot, Julietta Violetta, Brittania, Amanda Hug n' Kiss, Lulu HooHoo, Kira Ball, and the rest of the New Hope worship team come together to practice the following Sunday's worship. Oh - the names? Every person has a nickname - mine is "Preacher-creature".

They all come early to be a part of this team. The ages? From first grade up. And for one hour it is controlled chaos bathed in love. I've been in a few choirs, and watched a lot of practices. But I've never experienced anything like this.

Last night, we were working on one particular song, an old Appalachian one with beautiful harmony parts. E.J. aka (Ethel Jemima) Huston, a middle-schooler with a wonderfully strong and true voice, apparently had committed a mortal sin in a previous life, so she was exiled to working with me on the tenor part. At one point, Bunny told her to sing directly at my ear, hoping that by the sheer force of her voice, I might be coaxed into singing the harmony part correctly. She tried. I turned to her and said, "you know I can't hear in that ear, don't you?" We laughed and sang and laughed some more. She worked hard at helping me do better.

I looked around and everyone there was smiling. Each time one group went over their part, the other groups were rooting for them, hoping that they would improve. When they got it, cheers broke out.

As a pastor, what you want from the music is help in telling the story of our amazing God and His love for us. Music can do that well, but music can also turn into performance. People can become so proficient that they lose sight of why they sing.

Not with these guys. They sing out of love.

New Hope is such an amazing place. How many other churches would put children and young people in worship leadership? But we're growing a generation of worshipers and leaders here. I looked around tonight and realized that not only were these kids learning how to sing, but they were practicing something far more important. How to love one another.

Friends, living with people, loving them, and being willing to play second fiddle is part of God's plan for each of us.

We learn how to love by... (get ready... serious insight ahead....) loving.

So go practice. Practice loving people. You are on the worship team too.

So Close But Yet... So Near

He was near God's house everyday. He led thousands in worship of the most High God. People looked up to him as an example of how to live a life that pleased God. He had it all together.

Read what he wrote:

1 I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens.

2-6 I found myself in trouble and went looking for my Lord;
my life was an open wound that wouldn't heal.
When friends said, "Everything will turn out all right,"
I didn't believe a word they said.
I remember God—and shake my head.
I bow my head—then wring my hands.
I'm awake all night—not a wink of sleep;
I can't even say what's bothering me.
I go over the days one by one,
I ponder the years gone by.
I strum my lute all through the night,
wondering how to get my life together. Psalm 77

Have you been there? Are you there now?

You are not alone.

Many of the people we all look up to as shining examples of faith go through periods where they doubt, where they wonder where their certainty went. The writer of this Psalm was the leader of music of the temple in Jerusalem - the place where the presence of God lived. He literally worked in God's House. And yet he wondered...

7-10 Will the Lord walk off and leave us for good?
Will he never smile again?
Is his love worn threadbare?
Has his salvation promise burned out?
Has God forgotten his manners?
Has he angrily stalked off and left us?
"Just my luck," I said. "The High God goes out of business
just the moment I need him."

"Just my luck.." - how real is that? We can read the Scriptures and take them into our hearts, but we are still a mass of emotions and feelings. We still can find ourselves groping in what seems like darkness when God's light shines all around us. So what do you do?

Review God's record. Take time to remember the ways He has blessed, the ways He has rescued us before.

11-12 Once again I'll go over what God has done,
lay out on the table the ancient wonders;
I'll ponder all the things you've accomplished,
and give a long, loving look at your acts.

13-15 O God! Your way is holy!
No god is great like God!
You're the God who makes things happen;
you showed everyone what you can do—
You pulled your people out of the worst kind of trouble,
rescued the children of Jacob and Joseph.

And repeat this to yourself.

Whatever God has ever done He can still do.
Whatever He has done anywhere, He can do where I am.
Whatever He has done for anyone, He can do for me.
I will trust Him.

Do not sell God short. Read the first line Asaph wrote again.

"I yell out to my God, I yell with all my might, I yell at the top of my lungs. He listens."

Yes He does. Take some time. Yell. Speak your heart to the God who listens- who knows your name. He's the One who'll make things right. He's done it before. He'll do it again.

He loves you.

Grace!

David Wilson

Pollen and Preferences

This is how we've come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. 1 John 3:16

One of the defining parts of my childhood was not a positive experience. This time of year, I'd find myself trapped in a world filled with pollen, which caused my body to react in a storm of sneezes, and outbreak after outbreak of hives. Folks, picture yourself as a geeky looking little boy, who's trying hard to find a place in the social network. The last thing you want to do is stand out.

Well, sneezing 30+ times in a row, or showing up for school with more bumps on your than a gator's back doesn't exactly help you fit in.

My parents tried all sorts of things to help, but the best things they ever did weren't involved with medical professionals. They ruthlessly tried to eliminate any and all allergens from anywhere near me. So feather pillows - gone. Wool clothing - gone. The food we ate was changed. At one point they even talked about moving to another state.

And my father went up and down the road we lived on, ripping up every goldenrod and flowering weed.

Years later, I was talking with my mother around that time of year. She was looking down the road, and she said "I just love this time of year, the leaves changing, the goldenrod - aren't these colors beautiful?"

I realized then that for them, their love for a wheezy little boy completely overruled their preferences for what was pleasing to them. Doing whatever it took to help me grow meant completely dropping something that brought them pleasure. They never let me know there was a cost.

Friends, as followers of Jesus and and as people pledged to love our neighbors as we love ourselves, how well are we doing at setting aside our preferences and sacrificially living to reach others with Jesus' love? Do this - spend a moment in prayer for your friend who doesn't know Jesus. Invest time in conversation with that neighbor or friend you never have time for. Give all the love you have received and watch Jesus work.

I've pretty much outgrown my allergies now, but I'll never outgrow my thanks for and my responsibility to love others like my father and mother loved me. And the love Jesus showed me, when I was sick with sin - dying really - I will spend the rest of my life trying to repay with my love for others who don't know Him yet.

Join me. We won't be perfect at it, but we'll be making a difference every time we do.

Grace!


David Wilson

Grace - It Just Doesn't Add Up

1 "God's kingdom is like an estate manager who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 They agreed on a wage of a dollar a day, and went to work.
3 "Later, about nine o'clock, the manager saw some other men hanging around the town square unemployed. 4 He told them to go to work in his vineyard and he would pay them a fair wage. 5 They went.
"He did the same thing at noon, and again at three o'clock. 6 At five o'clock he went back and found still others standing around. He said, 'Why are you standing around all day doing nothing?'
7 "They said, 'Because no one hired us.'
"He told them to go to work in his vineyard.
8 "When the day's work was over, the owner of the vineyard instructed his foreman, 'Call the workers in and pay them their wages. Start with the last hired and go on to the first.'
9 "Those hired at five o'clock came up and were each given a dollar. 10 When those who were hired first saw that, they assumed they would get far more. But they got the same, each of them one dollar. 11 Taking the dollar, they groused angrily to the manager, 12 'These last workers put in only one easy hour, and you just made them equal to us, who slaved all day under a scorching sun.'
13 "He replied to the one speaking for the rest, 'Friend, I haven't been unfair. We agreed on the wage of a dollar, didn't we? 14 So take it and go. I decided to give to the one who came last the same as you. 15 Can't I do what I want with my own money? Are you going to get stingy because I am generous?'
16 "Here it is again, the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."

Matt 20:1-16 (MSG)

It's happened again.

Someone has sat down and tried to calculate how God's grace and sinful people, who will never stop sinning, add up to salvation. This has been going on for a long, long time now. Those in the "know" ever so often look over Jesus' shoulder and decide that He doesn't know a thing about accounting.

Sure could see how you'd get that idea. After all, didn't Jesus make a big fuss about that irresponsible shepherd who left 99 perfectly good and cared for sheep to go look for that one runaway? That makes no sense at all - cut your losses, write it off. New Lambs will be here come spring.

Then there was that woman who came and dumped the perfume worth a year's wages all over Jesus. What was the point in that? Just a little dab would have done the job, and then we could have waited to see if He needed it tomorrow. Got to be smart about those things.

Oh yeah, and what about that time in the temple when Jesus was watching people give their offerings. The Pharisee came forward, stated his intention to bless God and proceeded to bless him real good with a wad of cash. You could hear those coins jingle across Jerusalem, I'd bet. Then a widow-woman quietly walks up, drops two coins in - didn't even go "clink", and Jesus says she gave more?

How does that work? Jesus sounds like a guy you could swap nickles for dimes with all day long, like a little kid who doesn't know what anything is worth, and figures bigger coins are worth more.

Then I was reading that story up above from Matthew, where Jesus compares God's way of doing things - His Kingdom - to a landowner who hired people throughout the day to pick grapes. Tough work -that. 100 degree weather, backbreaking work. But he paid everyone too much - a denarius was a Roman soldier's day's wages, not some migrant's fair pay. And to compound it all, he paid them all the same. Jesus was applauding a man who had just upset the whole migrant worker market for the season. It's crazy.

It just doesn't add up.

That's the point. "Grace is not about finishing last or first. It is about not counting at all." Philip Yancey

If God was still keeping score, doling out salvation on the installment plan - seeing how well we do and rewarding us accordingly - well we would be lost. But He's not.

19 For God was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself, no longer counting people's sins against them. 2 Cor 5:19 (NLT)

So what part of "no longer counting" did I miss?

23 For all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard. 24 Yet now God in his gracious kindness declares us not guilty. He has done this through Christ Jesus, who has freed us by taking away our sins. 25 For God sent Jesus to take the punishment for our sins and to satisfy God's anger against us. We are made right with God when we believe that Jesus shed his blood, sacrificing his life for us. God was being entirely fair and just when he did not punish those who sinned in former times. 26 And he is entirely fair and just in this present time when he declares sinners to be right in his sight because they believe in Jesus.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. Romans 3:23-28 (NLT)

And as sure as I am of "all have sinned, all fall short", I am equally sure and thankful that "our acquittal is not based on our good deeds. It is based on our faith."

Does it add up? No.

That's good, because we didn't have an integer in the hunt.

We have nothing with which to pay our debt to God.

So God did it for us through Christ.

Grace - not just amazing - it's scandalous.

Praise be to God!

But he's already made it plain how to live, what to do,
what GOD is looking for in men and women.
It's quite simple: Do what is fair and just to your neighbor,
be compassionate and loyal in your love,
And don't take yourself too seriously-
take God seriously. Micah 6:8

The journey began 86 years ago on a sharecropper's farm near Sanford Florida. The midwife delivered a boy to Wiley and Belle Wilson, and Wiley Junior was welcomed into this world, as the only boy.

Growing up as the family moved with the crops to be harvested was a hard life. They frequently lived in tents, or in houses in such disrepair my father would say "you could lie there in bed and see the stars." Eventually they all migrated to Macon, GA where they got jobs in Mr. Willingham's Cotton Mill. It was hard, dirty, hot work, and Wiley hated it. So he got a job driving a produce truck back and forth from Central Florida to Macon. But then his mother got sick, and his family had troubles, so he enlisted in the Civilian Conservation Corps.

Hard work, discipline, and more hard work followed. It was the first time he had been away, and instead of the rolling hills of Macon, he was way back in the mountains of North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. They planted trees, built bridges and cut roads. He found out about snow. He grew into a man.

World War 2 began, and like millions of other young men, he left home for an uncertain future. But not before marrying a young girl named Lodie. Their families knew each other from the mill village - literally on the wrong side of the tracks. They said their goodbyes knowing that theirs might be a short-lived bond. It lasted almost 50 years.

After breaking his ankle in preparation for a parachute jump over Normandy, he was reassigned as a cook. That was fun while it lasted, but the Army needed machine gunners worse than it needed cooks, and so Wiley was shipped to the Pacific theater. The native Southern boy knew heat and humidity, but not like this.

New Guinea, Saipan, Mindanao, Okinawa. He came ashore on islands where the fighting was so fierce he said you could walk across the beach and never touch the sand, as the bodies of GIs covered it. He fought in the jungles where death came without warning from a sniper's bullet. He manned a machine gun against human wave attacks by the enemy that were so fierce bodies stacked up like cord wood in front of his machine gun, and the barrel got so hot they had to pour water and whatever other liquids they could find on them to keep them from melting. The war ended, he and Lodie came home. The scar on his forehead was a hurt that had healed. The scars inside took longer.

It wasn't easy to make the adjustment. The world seemed different somehow. The two weren't the same people who left the mill village. They (as he put it "wound up") divorced. Then after a while, they got back together and remarried. They got jobs in civil service that they wound up staying at for over 30 years. Life was getting better. He built an indoor bathroom on the shotgun house on Roff Avenue.

Then they were blessed with the news that Lodie was pregnant with twins. Through nine months their hope built to a crescendo. Then the music stopped. You'd have to have known my father to know just how much it hurt him when they died a few days after their birth. And you'd have to have known him and my mother to know how much courage they had to try again.

I was born, then came my brother three years later. We were blessed with a father who loved to watch cartoons with us on Saturday morning, who loved toys and gadgets even more than we did, who took pure delight in not just buying things for us, but being with us. Whether it was playing baseball, fishing, shooting rabbits, or teaching us how to work on lawnmowers and lose tools, he was our daddy. We were his boys. When he disciplined us, I always felt it really did hurt him more than it hurt me.

We did all the stupid things boys do as they grow into manhood, and he endured them all. Broken windows, scrapes and bruises, and later fender benders got us a blessing out after a "you OK?" I got straightened out about marriage; I got straightened out about kids. Never was delivered with anger,always given in love. He only went two weeks into the sixth grade in school, and yet wound up teaching both of us lessons that still guide us today.

He watched as our boys came along, one then the other. There weren't two people loved more on the planet. It was like I ceased to exist except as a vehicle to connect him to Adam and then Sean. Now it was their turn to sit beside him and laugh at Bugs Bunny. It was their time to explore the toys at Toys R Us (sure beat the Hobby Shop). The grandchildren that followed from my brother and his wife never took anything away from anyone - his heart just expanded to hold them all closely.

He was 65 years old when he gave his life to Jesus. It wasn't that he wasn't a good man, because he was. But he had been too busy making a living, building a home, raising his boys to stop and really consider where he was in light of eternity. Growing up, church people hadn't treated his kind of people well. But he never let us stay home when our mother wanted to take us to church. One day a young preacher daddy liked came out to talk. When he left, daddy told us he had become a believer in Jesus and had forgiveness for his sins. He became a faithful attender, and he read his Bible everyday. I know he prayed for all of us.

For almost 53 years now, I have never had a day when I wasn't loved by my father.

Tomorrow I will.

He was a great father, an awesome grandfather and a good man.
What I know about keeping my word - he taught me.
How I know that you are to give a days work for a day's pay - credit to him.
The reason quit isn't in my vocabulary is because my father never quit at anything.
And the way I learned what humility and manhood have in common was watching one of the strongest men I have ever known tenderly admit he had been wrong.

Tom Brokaw coined my daddy's generation the greatest. They defeated the depression, fought a World War and a Cold War and won them both. He would always tell me that his grandchildren would do things he and I could only dream of.

It was never about him. Maybe the most unselfish person I have ever known.

I thank God for giving me a father to be proud of. I thank God for saving his soul. And I thank God that one day maybe I'll be standing there too in heaven, and a big hand will rub the back of my head and ask me "how are you getting along son?"

I'm doing okay, Daddy. But we'll all miss you. Tell Mother we love her for us, will you?

David

When You Sing

On your feet now-applaud GOD!
2 Bring a gift of laughter,
sing yourselves into his presence.
Psalm 100 The Message

When the church meets to worship God - to applaud His glory and celebrate His grace - we sing. Some sing as if by rote, participating in a ritual. Others lean into it, smiling, raising a hand, even closing their eyes as if to close the gap within a private moment with the Almighty.

As I've watched this happen for years now, I'm amazed at how it has nothing to do with age. Octogenarians lift their voices, singing as if God was near. Little ones add to the chorus voices sweet and pure. Surely God must smile to hear His children.

After the worship service ends, sometimes people stop to talk. They speak words of encouragement to each other, or say their goodbyes until next time.

Carmen and Lily want to sing.

They're maybe five feet tall placed end to end, inquisitive, expressive, and irrepressible. I've watched them strain to see the screen during worship and seen them sing. Their voices may not carry two rows, but they reach heaven.

And after the service, they make a bee-line for the stage and the microphones. They just want to sing. This past Sunday, when I joined them at the front, Carmen was downcast. The microphones were off. "Sing Carmen. Sing me a song," I said to her. "No one will hear me", she replied. So I went and turned the power back on, and asked Carmen (who would stay there all day if she could) to sing me one song. Then I sat on the front row and listened. She had a song to sing.

I wonder. Is there a song within you? Something that you just have to sing? Something that people have to hear?

Or something that so moves you to think of God's glory, of His grace, that words are not enough alone? "He who sings, prays twice," St. Augustine said. When you sing praises to God, you can slip into His presence whether you are in a congregation or your car.

Take time to give voice to your heart and praise to our God.

Grace!

David

Laughter In the Walls

After all, what gives us hope and joy, and what is our proud reward and crown? It is you! Yes, you will bring us much joy as we stand together before our Lord Jesus when he comes back again. For you are our pride and joy. 1 Thess. 2:19-20

One of the great joys of my life has been being a friend and pastor to the people of New Hope. Over the last seven years, we've experienced a lot of life together. We've shared times of great joy and great sadness together, and through them learned a lot about our shared love for Jesus, and built a love for one another.

A group of us were exploring Exodus last night, learning about the Tabernacle God designed as a place for him to live. It was to be of the finest materials, constructed by the most skilled craftsmen. Nothing ever before or since has rivaled this. In the midst of thousands of tents that the Jewish people lived in, the Tabernacle stood out. It was different. It was purposefully made to reflect the character of God.

In trying to help that idea stick last night, I asked everyone to think about the ways that our homes reflected our character, whether intentional or not. We all laughed thinking about how the things we accumulated told stories about us. I then explained that since we moved recently, we had to shed an awful lot of things, and Bunny has taken the opportunity to try to reduce our natural tendency to over clutter. Our home is sparsely furnished compared to before, so much so that I sometimes referred to it as a "condo". Then I told them that I was having trouble with the change because (as the chief clutter architect) I cannot find any of my character represented here in the decorations. "You know", I said, laughing, "no pictures of Robert E Lee, no model cars, not even an animatronic bass hanging over the fireplace." Everyone shared some laughter at my expense, and then we moved on.

Well, this morning, when I went out to get the paper, it was on top of the hood of my car, along with.... "Big Mouth Billy Bass", a fine representative of robot fishdom.

These people are nuts! And my neighbors now think I am, because I was laughing my head off in my yard at 6:30 this morning.

But being in the company of people who love so extravagantly, and who can fill the church with laughter as well as pray with tears, is a real honor and joy.

Oh, and Big Mouth Billy Bass can be seen at any time you come to our garage. LOL

Grace!

David

 

Labels

I was reading a website just now that reviews churches. A friend's church was just rated last week, so I was curious to read what was written about it - and him. To say that his church is different is to say that Jerry Falwell might be a wee bit strong on the fundamentals. Their mission is to reach the unchurched just as they are, and to love them through the door to faith and walk with them along the journey. So they are "out there", and seeing literally hundreds come to faith in Christ. Over 70% of those who are members were hopelessly lost before coming to faith there. Here's a quote from the review about my friend.

The (edgy) pastor spoke frankly and, on occasion, used words like "crap" and "dang", which you don't hear out of traditional pastors. Probably the main reason he's reaching people with his messages is because he isn't pretending to be someone he isn't. He doesn't look like a catalog model and he doesn't talk real proper.

"edgy"

Normally I don't like labels, but you know, that's a label that another guy might have welcomed a little earlier on. Guy's name was Paul, and he was writing to his friend in the ministry named Timothy.

Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.

Deep honor and bright glory
to the King of All Time—
One God, Immortal, Invisible,
ever and always. Oh, yes!
I'm passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we're in. 1 Timothy 1:15-19 (The Message)

If there are people out there in the cold, on the edge of trusting Jesus forever, isn't that where the church (all of us who follow Christ together), and her pastors should be? Isn't that where we all should be? Think about what Paul wrote to Timothy again.

Here's a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners.... After all, this is a fight we're in.

When you "get" that - when you take that into your heart as a mission from God, with God, and for God, then you don't shrink back from the "edge", you run there.

"Edgy pastor"... wonder if that will fit on my name tag? Dang sure hope so. :)

Grace!

David

Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Oh!

32And they came to an olive grove called Gethsemane, and Jesus said, "Sit here while I go and pray." 33He took Peter, James, and John with him, and he began to be filled with horror and deep distress. 34He told them, "My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and watch with me."

35He went on a little farther and fell face down on the ground. He prayed that, if it were possible, the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by. 36"Abba,^{[ g]} Father," he said, "everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from me. Yet I want your will, not mine."

37Then he returned and found the disciples asleep. "Simon!" he said to Peter. "Are you asleep? Couldn't you stay awake and watch with me even one hour? 38Keep alert and pray. Otherwise temptation will overpower you. For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak."

39Then Jesus left them again and prayed, repeating his pleadings. 40Again he returned to them and found them sleeping, for they just couldn't keep their eyes open. And they didn't know what to say.

This week I've been reading and rereading this passage. I've studied it in every context, in the original language, through the hearts of many commentators and preachers. What they've taught me, I understand.

But... oh!

I don't know what to say... either.

How do we come to grips with the fact that the only person who ever lived on this planet without offending God, was the only one who could pay the penalty for the rest of us?
How do we - or can we - understand what taking on the sin of the world meant to Jesus - how He instinctively must have been sick in His spirit?
How can we make sense of His beloved disciples actions?

There are times in this life that people you love go through hardship. You'd love to be able to make it right - to come in and fix everything. But you can't. You slide into the grips of depression, feeling powerless and weak. The tendency then for some is just to give up and do nothing, despite their love for the one in need.

Jesus knows that about us. And it doesn't change His love for us one bit. Note what he says to the disciples. "For though the spirit is willing enough, the body is weak." So what are we to do?

Keep trying to make a difference in our loved one's lives. Keep letting them know of our love. Keep praying for them.

To Peter and the disciples, it must have seemed as if being with Jesus and praying for Him was like doing nothing. But to Jesus, it would have meant a great deal. Sometimes things we think are small, when done with great love, make a huge difference.

Friend, it's okay if you don't know what to say. Jesus understands our weaknesses and the Holy Spirit is ready to use us through them if we will not give up. Remember His power is made perfect (or complete) in our weakness.

Watch and pray.

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blogs:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
http://davethepastor.vox.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

A War of Words

Every day, I get lots of emails. There are devotionals that really lift my thoughts to God. Then there are updates on websites I read frequently. Of course personal emails from friends are part of the mix. And then there's spam.

People I'll never meet share the details of their medical and financial condition. (Is everyone in Nigeria sick?) Others want to have me purchase the latest pharmaceuticals. (I rarely take aspirin, so fat chance.) Still more want me to refinance my home, take a trip, or meet new people. Thank you, but no.

But what about those spam emails you get with what seems like crazy prose or meaningless words put together out of any context? What are those about? Well, they have nothing to do with ethics - just the opposite. Those words are designed to overload your email programs spam filter with so many real words that it just gives up and lets anything through. It's a war of words.

Sometimes they use snippets from a dictionary. Other times they lift from fiction. But the idea is to so clog the spam filter with words that would be considered good - that the bad sneaks by.

Jesus was teaching His disciples one day when the Pharisees and some Sadducees walked up and asked for a sign from Him that he was real. By this point Jesus had done so many miracles which they had ignored that he told them no. Then He turned to His disciples and said:

6 "Watch out!" Jesus warned them. "Beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and Sadducees."

Matt 16:6 (NLT)

The disciples didn't understand.

It was a war of words. The yeast is the active ingredient in bread dough. Though there's a lot of other ingredients, and the quantity of those are far greater in volume than the yeast - if the yeast is bad, no matter how much other stuff you put in the mix - the result is bad bread.

At the "yeast" level, they did not believe that God's Word could change anyone. But if they threw out enough words - enough rules - then people would have to do right.

Friends, it's not about rules.

It's about relationship - about whether you are living in relationship with God through His Son. He's sinless - completely Holy. You're not. No amount of words, no amount of forced obedience, no amount of looking good - will change that. Only a heart yielded, a will surrendered, a life offered daily to Him in obedience... matters to Him.

Ask yourself how often you think about Jesus.

Are you losing the war of words?

Make your life a prayer, a running conversation with Him.

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Just Another Day?

On July 15th, 1920, on the wrong side of the tracks down on Roff Avenue near "Mr Willingham's Textile Mill", a little girl was born to Henry and Bertie Bowden. Her parents were millworkers who had moved from the farm to the city in search of a better life. Each had lost a spouse to death before they met each other, and the family was a blend of Fosters and Bowdens.

The little girl grew to adulthood in that shotgun house, becoming the first of her family to get a high school diploma. During those years, she saw a sister die in a fire, a brother killed when his car stalled on the railroad tracks that ran parallel to the road. When she was 12, her father was hit by a car and died the next day. Hurt came often to Roff Avenue. The family grew tight - they had to. Somehow the widow "Bertie" raised all their kids and another couple of girls besides. Lodie was the big sister now, and she went to school and worked in the mill too. Whatever it took to help, she did.

She met a young man who lived in the same mill village, and just as World War Two began, they married. He was sent away, and in a year or so, she enlisted herself. They saw each other once during the War, in Manila.

After the war, they had both changed. Everything had.

They divorced, and then love found them again, and they remarried.

One day they got the news she was pregnant with twins. Nine months later they got the news the babies wouldn't survive. Delivered, they lived less than a week. But a couple who had seen so much pain and held so much heartache, just wouldn't give up hope. One year later, I was born - the young woman was my Mother - Lodie Marie Bowden Wilson.

She passed away 15 years ago. But today would have been her 86th birthday, and I remember her on it. No other person had more influence on who I became than she. Not one day in the years we shared on this earth did I not awake knowing that my Mother loved me deeply.

When you are the recipient of love, like a Mother's love, most of the time you are blind to it. Days come and go, sacrifices are made for you. Some you might realize but poorly comprehend. Others you miss completely. When your children come along, understanding does too, and then when the giver passes away, the gifts are made visible in the loss of the one who gave them.

I cannot give her anything now. All I can do is give to others as I have been given to. When I was reading Philippians the other day, I came across this. Those of you who read it, do as I have done today and think about your life, and what someone years after you are gone will write about it in review. Will it be God-honoring? Will it be praiseworthy? What will be your legacy? Will you have pointed your family to Jesus? Can you write as Paul does here?

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you. Philippians 4:9 NIV

Remember, we love, because He first loved us.

It's called...

Grace!

David

--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

Slow Down!

Our friend Allan was with us Wednesday night at supper, and he brought a new friend with him - a doll that when you squeezed his hand - talked. I never did hear what the doll said, because Allan had it glued to his ear most all the time. He was laughing at whatever it said though. Yesterday when I tried to get him to tell me what the doll said, he was speaking so quickly that my ears and brain couldn't keep up. "Slow down, Allan. Speak slower", I asked, but he just kept on.

Trying to grasp what he was saying made me think about how much we miss as we rush through our lives. You're reading this on the Internet, one of the greatest blessings we've received. But the sheer volume of information and our efforts to grasp it don't always seem to coincide. With the net, TV, radio, books, newspapers, mail, and personal interaction, we are inundated with words and images, and in as much danger of drowning as a toddler on his or her first visit to the ocean. It's a rude awakening when you step back and look at the volume we try to comprehend.

Let's take yours truly for example. Your mileage may vary, don't try this at home, slightly higher west of the Rockies, and with people capable of extreme multitasking. (Had to put that in for the lawyers)

Yesterday I (based on my laptop's history) visited 133 separate domains and on some multiple pages. Most of this was in background research on sermons in Mark, and in particular on a Jewish group in the time of Jesus called the Sadducees, on Jewish understandings of the afterlife, on rabbinical disputes of the period, and on heaven in general. Some of the sites were bible.org, walkwiththerabbi.com, scripturetext.com, Itanakh.org, biblegateway.com, ministryexchange.com. A rough estimate would be 200 pages since some I skimmed and some I read completely. I read, both for personal enjoyment, personal growth, and for research on upcoming sermons and teaching, approximately 425 pages of text in books ranging from the historical nonfiction book 1776 (highly recommended BTW), To Be A Jew, commentaries on Mark (probably 4 or 5), Zondervan's Illustrated Dictionary of the Bible, Life In Bible Times, Jesus and His Disciples, the biography of Vance Havner, one of my favorite preachers, and Mark, Philippians and Galatians in the Bible.

When I was between books and the computer yesterday, I watched about an hour of TV, ranging from ESPN Sportscenter, the reality show Rockstar Supernova (last 20 minutes), and a snippet of the news. Part of the evening saw me catching up on world events through the blogs I read each day - about 20, and checking email. Since I moderate a local yahoo group that works on keeping stuff out of landfills by giving it away, I'll sometimes have a few of those to reply to. Then there's the Great Dane emails, the emails from pastor friends, to and from church folks, and all totalled maybe a 100 go through everyday. I try to check and answer in regular intervals, but not sit and wait for the next one. I wrote about ten pages of notes, and reread 60 or so more I had made previous to yesterday.

Uh huh... like drinking from a fire hose.

Did I learn? Oh yeah - ask me anything about the Sadduccees, first century politics, Jesus' use of logic and rhetoric, Henry Knox's role in the New York campaign during 1776, or what Tommy Lee's hair looked like during last night's program.

But here's the point.

I cannot honestly say that the majority of what I read, looked at or listened to brought me more in conformity to the likeness of God's Son - Jesus. It helped me get ready to help other people, and it provided me with information, education, and some enjoyment. But it didn't give me a sense of intimacy with Christ that had the potential of changing my actions. But something did.

What would I point to? This passage of Scripture that I read solely for the purpose of meeting with Jesus yesterday. No agenda, no sermon-seeking. I read Philippians because I want to be Jesus' disciple like Paul was.

7-9The very credentials these people are waving around as something special, I'm tearing up and throwing out with the trash—along with everything else I used to take credit for. And why? Because of Christ. Yes, all the things I once thought were so important are gone from my life. Compared to the high privilege of knowing Christ Jesus as my Master, firsthand, everything I once thought I had going for me is insignificant—dog dung. I've dumped it all in the trash so that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by him. I didn't want some petty, inferior brand of righteousness that comes from keeping a list of rules when I could get the robust kind that comes from trusting Christ—God's righteousness.

10-11I gave up all that inferior stuff so I could know Christ personally, experience his resurrection power, be a partner in his suffering, and go all the way with him to death itself. If there was any way to get in on the resurrection from the dead, I wanted to do it.

12-14I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward—to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. The Message Phil. 3

"So that I could embrace Christ and be embraced by Him."

That's what thrilled me yesterday.

To think of my Lord and Savior allowing me, a sinner so easily distracted, drawn away, and so prone to failure to embrace Him in His holiness...

... and to feel His arms close tightly around me.

At that moment, just as it did again when I typed these words, everything slowed down. Just me, and Jesus.

Try it. Read His Word.

Not to make it through the Bible in a year, not to finish your Bible Study, but just to find, through His incredible Holy Spirit - A Glimpse of New Hope - in Jesus.

Grace!

David

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Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/

First Things First

For the last twelve years, our family has been involved in moving into our new home. Okay, it's only been 2 weeks, but it seems like years. One of the things you realize when you move is that you have more stuff than you ever imagined. Much of that - is useless, or has outlived its purpose. So you toss it, give it away, or sell it. After all, the object is to move only that which you want or is necessary.

All throughout the process, whether consciously or not, you are setting priorities. The very first day, you make sure the beds are up and together, because you really, really, really want to rest. Then you look to see where the food went, and that which you didn't consume because of your ravenous work-induced appetite is placed right where you'll be able to find it a little while after supper.

Then you work out where furniture goes, where clothes are hung - and so on.

If you had to describe the key to the whole event it would be "First things first."

Today marks the beginning of the July 4th weekend. People from all over are headed to our area to enjoy the beautiful beaches and help us celebrate the birth of our nation. We'll all be caught up in grilling, fireworks, and enjoyment very soon, so I wanted to place a thought in our minds and hearts today.

What made America different? Why, among all the nations that have come and gone, is she looked to as a model - a lighthouse to the world - that "City on a Hill"?

You can look over the incredible beauty of our land. You can see the works of the hands and the warmth of the hearts of our people. You can measure our strength and the valor of those who serve her. But first things first.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...

As the men who "pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor" wrote their explanation to the world in the form of a "Declaration of Independence", setting out on a course that would lead to America - before they unpacked their grievances with Britain, they found within them something pure and God-given.

Before one single battle was fought, before any laws were passed, before the first coin was struck, before a flag was flown, America wanted to be known as the nation who recognized that some things surpassed preferences, local culture, or national identity. "We hold these truths to be self-evident..."

First things first.

So how can we incorporate that in our busy and hectic lives? How can we make sure we are living purposeful lives? That we are putting our energies into what matters, and holding as convictions those things that place us into the center of God's will?

19 "Don't store up treasures here on earth, where they can be eaten by moths and get rusty, and where thieves break in and steal. 20Store your treasures in heaven, where they will never become moth-eaten or rusty and where they will be safe from thieves. 21Wherever your treasure is, there your heart and thoughts will also be. Matthew 6 (NLT)

"Wherever your treasure is..."

A friend of mine in California has five kids - all boys under 15. They play every sport known to man and some that they just make up. He lives in a nice neighborhood where people take great pride in the appearance of their homes and their yards. The wear and tear on his yard doesn't help him keep up. One night after agonizing over what to do about it, he went back inside and walked past the bedrooms of his sons as they slept. Looking at them for a minute, he left and went into his garage and went straight from there out to the lawn.

The next morning, his neighbors who passed by noticed the new sign.

"We're raising sons now. Grass later."

First things first. Make God the center of your life. Look to Him and through His Word at your life, your values, your desires. Set your priorities based on nothing other than your love and devotion to Him. If you love Him, you'll hold His truths to be "self-evident" and your life as the "evidence" of His love.


Grace! And May God Bless America.

David

--
Visit with me at my blog:
http://davethepastor.livejournal.com/
Or visit New Hope!
http://www.newhopevalp.org/