Working It Out

Here at New Hope, I have the corner office with the big picture window every corporate "suit" dreams of. In front of me I can see a corner of the school playground across the street. That lets me watch kids playing on a daily basis. Behind me sits our sanctuary. Bunny teaches piano in the afternoons here, so you could say I also get to hear kids playing.

There's a big difference though, in the groups of kids playing.

Those on the playground are free (within the constraints of the laws of physics, their imagination, and the teacher's watchful gaze) to play any way they want. If they want to run in circles until the get dizzy, they can. If they much prefer tag, then game's on. The object is simply to have fun.

The kids taking piano on the other hand, though they may have fun doing it (and Bunny works very hard to see that they do) aren't free to play anything they choose. The music before them makes that decision, and the teacher decides what music is there. Bunny's been doing this for over a year now. I've listened to just about every way "Three Blind Mice" and the other songs can be played. I've heard flub after flub, as notes were skipped, missed, or struck in error.

Through it all, the music never changed. The notes sat in the staffs, and the time signature remained the same.

Yet by working through the process of practice and repetition, the kids have amazed me lately with just how good they are getting. Looking back, it is hard for me to believe they could have come so far, based on what I've heard here.

But what I've heard is only a fraction of the time those students that have really progressed have put into their pursuit. They've devoted hours to practice at home, when they could have been doing something else, because they wanted to improve, to change, to get better at the art.

Like we should be doing as Christ-followers.

What I'm getting at, friends, is that you should simply keep on doing what you've done from the beginning.
When I was living among you, you lived in responsive obedience.
Now that I'm separated from you, keep it up.
Better yet, redouble your efforts.
Be energetic in your life of salvation, reverent and sensitive before God.
Paul's Letter to His Friends at Philippi 2:12

Dallas Willard, author of many books on growing closer to God puts it this way.

"Grace doesn't preclude effort."

How much effort are you putting into your walk with Jesus?

Practice won't make perfect, but it'll make you more like the One who is.

Grace!

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

Sparky

When my friend Caleb was sitting beside me last night at supper, I watched as he attacked the soda crackers in his chili. I chose the word attacked, because that's what it was. An attack! I should have guessed there would be one, since Caleb showed up in camo.

When the battle broke out, He was "zoom"ing down on the crackers with his knife. It got so rough he had me buckle him into the highchair. While we were still at the table, Caleb told me that he had been eating crackers in his chili since he was a baby. I laughed out loud, since I have socks older than him. He had me grinning.

Later, we were on the stage in the sanctuary, getting ready to pray. One of the things Bunny does to help get everyone focused is have the worship team kneel before we start with prayer. Kneeling alters your perspective on things and really helps you focus. So I had knelt down when Caleb came up to show me his shoes that lit up. Then instantly, he wasn't Caleb any more. Instead, I was nose to nose with a bucking bronco.

While we were practicing, Caleb was taking some trucks he had found in the nursery and putting together a truck convoy down the center aisle. Those trucks were really getting down the road too. He had me grinning as I watched the sheer joy and imagination God gives children on display right there. Worship comes at strange times for me I guess, because as we were practicing singing "How can I keep from singing your praise", my primary reason for singing those words at that moment was born from the wonder at just how awesome God's gift of children really is.

15 People brought babies to Jesus, hoping he might touch them. When the disciples saw it, they shooed them off. 16 Jesus called them back. "Let these children alone. Don't get between them and me. These children are the kingdom's pride and joy. 17 Mark this: Unless you accept God's kingdom in the simplicity of a child, you'll never get in."

Luke 18:15-17 (The Message)

The picture always catches me between a smile or frown depending on what mood I might be in. On a good day I'm smiling thinking about Jesus' love for those children and His eagerness to put them up as an example of how the kingdom works. On a bad day, I think about the disciples and go (usually inaudibly) GRRR.

Jesus' point wasn't that we should put children on the throne - they couldn't handle that.

No, His point was that we had to approach God with a spirit that acknowledges - even celebrates - that we don't know it all. When Jesus chose to use a word for children that meant one who was learning and growing, he meant we had to be like that too. We can't just see what is present in the now of our lives as all there is and ever will be.

No! We have to be ready to change - to morph! As Max Lucado puts it, "God loves you just the way you are, but He loves you too much to leave you that way." Exactly.

Today I found out that Caleb's daddy calls him "Sparky".

I love that. He's sure got that spark of joy - of wonder - in him.

My prayer is that as Caleb (and you and I) grow up and grow older, that we'll always leave room in our hearts and minds to learn more about the wonder of Jesus. That Sparky won't ever lose his imagination or his joy.

And that we'll live like who we are - Jesus' pride and joy.

Grace!

David Wilson

Lead pastor - New Hope!

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

Whenever You Hold A Child

Christmas time always causes me to rummage around in my closet of memories. If you're like me, you've got stuff in there.

For me, back there past the 3rd grade report card I'm still grousing over from one December past, or the memory of the time the heat pump went out when I was 2200 miles away from a freezing Macon, GA, are memories upon memories of Christmases.

Some examples?

One Christmas when I was a child, I received a toy helicopter with a broken windshield. A note affixed read "sorry, dropped off the sleigh. - Santa". I come by my sense of humor genetically, obviously.

Another found Bunny and me walking away from a guitar store, not buying, but selling my guitar to pay for Christmas for the boys. We had smiles on our faces, thinking about how they were going to enjoy the toys. No regrets, only memories of their joy.

Or the Christmas we were working with kids at "My Friends House" in Niceville. I can still see the excited faces as those foster kids who had been abused, battered, and deprived all their lives ripped into the presents each was given. What a thrill it was to play with them that day, and to tuck them into their beds - exhausted - that night.

Really, most of my memories of Christmas revolve around children. I get excited every year to see the little ones as they begin to anticipate the day's coming. When I read the Christmas story, I remember what it's like to hold a newborn son. Joy floods your soul as you cradle this new life - full of promise, bathed in love, fresh from the arms of God. Sometimes Bunny and I will walk away from church after encounters with our New Hope kids and say "we need one of those." We love children.

So when I read Zachariah's "song" and see this

And you, my child, "Prophet of the Highest,"
will go ahead of the Master to prepare his ways,
77Present the offer of salvation to his people,
the forgiveness of their sins.
78Through the heartfelt mercies of our God,
God's Sunrise will break in upon us,
79Shining on those in the darkness,
those sitting in the shadow of death,
Then showing us the way, one foot at a time,
down the path of peace. Luke 1:77-79

When I visualize this scene, I see a man holding his son. Maybe John was sleeping - you like them to get in that routine early. Or maybe he was looking up at his daddy, fist in his mouth, or with arms outstretched. I can see those dimples on the backs of his hands, and his little bitty toes. A baby, held tight in the arms of love.

Zachariah, unlike most anyone else, had a clear understanding from God directly about what the result of his son's life would be. That passage is God's announcement of just what the life of John the Baptist would mean.

But remember, Zach and Liz couldn't just kick back and not do the work of being John's parents - just the opposite. God's plan for John's life required Zachariah and Elizabeth to do what they only could do, and that is to "train up a child in the way he should go..." Before John could show anyone else the "path of peace", he had to be taught the "way".

Friends, when you hold a child, you are holding God's investment into the future of this world. You are holding one of His masterpieces of creation. Snug within your arms lies the continuation of God's purpose and plan.

That child you hold may be someone like John, who will show many people the way.
That child you hold may be someone like Mary, whose life will be used to change the world forever.

Your part in that isn't just to hold them, but to mold them into people who grow up to live for Jesus. Whenever you do, you are touching generations yet to come with His love.

So this Christmas, why not take time each night to read the Christmas Scriptures? Talk with your kids about God's love for the world expressed through Jesus. Let them pretend they are shepherds, wise men, Joseph and Mary. Let them enter into the wonder and experiences that surround Christ's birth.

Make their memories of Christmas include Jesus.

And give them a hug for Bunny and me.

Grace!

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

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

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