Look Before You Leap

In honor of Leap Day, today's humorous anecdote will have to do with leaping.

Have you ever jumped with joy? Luke 6:23(NIV) concludes the Beatitudes exhorting us to "Rejoice in that day and leap for joy". Have you ever? We've all seen the football players leap and hi-five after a touchdown, a hitter leap onto the plate after a post-homer trot around the bases, or seen the image of MJ leaping up with a pumped up fist after hitting the jumper to win the game. Have you had those joyous moments that filled you with so much joy that it welled up in you and then released itself like a coiled spring as you found yourself jumping high (or at least it seemed like you got some decent elevation) in the joyous expression of the leap?

I've had a few of those moments. One that I remember though took place in doors. I actually don't remember what had got me so excited, I think I won a board game or something but whatever it was, it was enough to make me jump for joy and my 6-foot 1-inch frame, positioned in a doorway quickly elevated and just as quickly...CRACK!

I woke shortly afterward, sprawled out on the floor like an over-sized rag doll and my head throbbing. Joy is good. Rejoicing in that God has rescued us from our sin by grace through faith in our savior, the Lord Jesus the Messiah is great. But before it wells up in you like a spring, make sure you are not in a doorway or some other area lacking headroom. Look Before You Leap!

Man-Fuel

Ever notice that soup isn't enough for guys. We've gotta have Chunky soup. Or Extra Chunky. Or Super Chunky. We can't just have meal, we've gotta Super Size or Biggie Size it. We can't have a "regular," we've gotta have a large, or extra large, or the entire left side of the menu! Man-Fuel! Lots of calories for the big body boiler that is the male metabolism. Real men don't eat quiche, unless it's called a Lumberjack Meat PIe with extra cheese!

Men can't settle for a "car," it's gotta be a truck, a big truck, a monster truck, a truck so big you can only drive it from gas station to gas station as you need to constantly fill it. A truck that has an appetite bigger than our own!

Radio or MP3 player? No, a Super huge stereo system that can rattle the windows of distant neighbors homes.

TVs? Nope, HOME THEATER SYSTEM with MEGA-BASS SUPER SURROUND SOUND with SMELL-o-VISION PACKAGE!

Grill? Nope, triple-racked combination outdoor kitchen/grill and smoker with side burners and a built in tv/radio so I don't miss the game while I'm grilling those giant porterhouse steaks!

Our physical appetite is huge. Our wants appetite equals if not surpasses our physical needs appetite and yet, it seems when it comes to the spiritual, suddenly we go from gas guzzler to moped.

A hungry Jesus in the desert is tempted by Satan to create some Man-Fuel by making bread out of stones. Jesus responds "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" (Matthew 4:4 NIV). When was the last time you heard a man tell his pastor, "your sermons are getting too short. Next week SUPER SIZE me!" We've got a man-sized appetite so when as Christian men are we going to let it extend to the spiritual? When will HUNGER for every word of God?

Isaiah 40:30-31 (NIV): "Even youths grow tired and weary and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint."

I thank God that He has helped me curb some of my voracious physical appetites that lead to my physical destruction through poor health. I pray that God will likewise increase my spiritual appetite, making me voracious for his most precious Word each and every day so that I can walk in His way and do His will each day. Man-Fuel! indeed! Super-Size me God!

Two-Person Carry Warning

Have you ever gone to the store to buy assembly required furniture, like a bookshelf, entertainment center, or similar-type furniture? I've gotten both of those, plus a dresser for my kids, a crib, changing table, etc. etc.

In recent years, presumably because someone sued some store over their bad back hauling an oversided box to their car, the heavy, awkwardly long boxes filled with wood come with warning labels printed right on the box or pasted on to them in bright yellow or orange. They warn you, the unsuspecting consumer, or teenaged store clerk tasked with getting the purchase to the customer's car that the item cannot be carried by just one person and requires two to carry it. OF COURSE, doing my best Tim Allen grunt imitation, I have on more than one occassion risked hernia and back injury by hauling said box to the front of the store and then on out into the parking lot...without assistance. Yes, it is partially a test of manhood, a challenge to my strength and fortitude (although the label "some assembly required" is perhaps a stronger test of manhood, and certainly a greater test of fortitude) that I must rise up to meet, like when your wife tells you we need to exit now for gas instead of attempting to make it to the next state! But it is more than just a challenge, sometimes it is simply my impatience. I know what I want, the dresser, and it is right here in front of me, and I simply need to get it to the register to purchase it so I can go home and spend the rest of my day attempting to assemble it from instructions written only in ancient Egyptian heiroglyphics. There I stand with debit card in pocket, two free hands and the exact item I need, and yet, the label says two people must carry it and I failed to stop at manpower on my way to the store today to get some temporary labor to assist me in my quest. Store employee? It is usually the third time the cashier repeats the page for "Customer Assistance needed in furniture," that I start attempting to figure out how best to balance the 8 foot x 3 foot x 12" box to the register without taking out the entire glassware department enroute.

That's how I am in life at times too. God's word is full of two-person carry warnings, and yet there I go, trying to do it on my own, ignoring the body of Christ that God has blessed us all with, cause it is a test of my manhood or I'm too impatient, or I lack trust or confidence that God has given you the gifts he has me. Yep, when I ignore God's warnings, I'm selfish, I'm self-centered, and I end up falling far short of the goal. We need each other, God designed it that way! So if you see me walking around with a reverse silhouette of the two-person carry label painted on my eyeglass lenses, it's just so that I can remind myself to see the world as a two-person carry, cause we all know how the poem goes, and when there is only one set of footprints, it is not cause I was carrying him.

Thank God for the Body of Christ and I pray for the patience and courage to work within it as God wills me to each day.

And Now a Word from my Child

Saturday morning we all got up, got dressed and put on the boots, snow pants, hats, gloves, etc. and headed outside for some fun in the snow. We'd gotten about 4 or 5 inches between Thursday and Friday so it was a perfect day to do some sledding and what have you. After a long time in the back yard sledding, we moved to the front yard and started cleaning up some patches of tire packed snow in the driveway. Soon, both boys had joined me with shovels. Our street hadn't been plowed yet so the "best" place to shovel was actually the road since the driveway was pretty clear by then and my older son went right out into the middle of the road with his shovel (keeping in mind we live on a court at the end of a seldom travelled road so there wasn't a worry about cars coming). He looked up at me as stayed with him in the street (just cause there isn't any traffic, doesn't mean I let him go out there alone) and he said "Dad, WE SHOULD CLEAN UP THE WHOLE CITY!"

Where does ambition like that come from I thought? I got my answer today as he brought home a worksheet from school. The 4 year old was asked some questions about favorite things like food (his answer was pizza) and the teacher wrote the answers on the sheet. The bottom question was a complete the sentence question. It said "At School I Like To..." My son's answer was, AT SCHOOL I LIKE TO JESUS.

I learned today that raising one up in the true faith is raising one up that can clean up the whole city, with the strength and gifts God gives him. Go get 'em tiger! God loves you and surely I do also!

Recovered

Our God is an awesome God and He has restored my sister--my bride to health after over a week of illness that really knocked her down. That meant the snowfall of Friday night didn't get wasted and we were able to spend over an hour outside in the snow with the boys sledding, making snow angels and romping around in the snow. The hilight of my older son's day was racing his mommy on sleds down the little hill in our backyard. He won and was just thrilled that mommy would race him. I'm just thrilled that she was healthy enough to be back out there with our boys and me. And yes, we've had enough winter now so if we don't have to the don the boots again until December, we'll be quite happy, despite the fun we had on Saturday.

This is also the first year in a while that I was able to "guess" more of the Oscar winners than she did. Unlike my son though, I don't relish beating her in competition, I prefer to lose or tie...my son will learn that someday as well I hope

Shining Like Stars

One of the great things about getting away from it all and camping out in the “middle of nowhere” is the brilliance of the night sky. Have you ever been somewhere far removed from the polluting lights of the city and civilization where night is really night? A place where it gets so dark at night that the sky on a clear night is a spectacular show of stars & planets, brilliantly shining and twinkling? I miss those opportunities as I’ve spent so much of my time in urban and suburban sprawl where the cityscape is so lit up that even on a clear night with no moon, seeing all but the brightest of stars is a tremendous challenge. I can’t wait till I can take my sons camping somewhere far removed from city lights and let them discover just how awesome God’s created sky is.


Philippians 2:14-16a (NIV) Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life.


It is easy for the night sky to be brilliant in the wilderness where it has no other light to compete with. Similarly, it is easy for us to live blameless and pure on a retreat or in the comfort of our churches, but God isn’t calling us to that easy brilliance though. In the verses Paul is exhorting the Philippians to be brilliant in the midst of the corrupt world and God is calling us to be the same today. Like a night sky in an urban area full of light pollution, God wants us to live out our faith IN THE WORLD, so we can out shine the corrupt and sinful world. Just as a dim star is hardly visible in a city sky, a dim life inspires no one to follow suit. Therefore, we need to rise each day and challenge ourselves as those confident that we are saved by grace through faith to SHINE LIKE STARS, becoming a beacon that outshines the worldly light and beckons others to follow Jesus. And unlike increasing the wattage of your home lights, we can increase the wattage of our lives with the full knowledge that the electric bill has already been paid in advance and in full, by Jesus the Messiah with his death upon the Cross.

Negotiating With God

As Lutherans, most of us have heard the story of how Martin Luther went from studying to be a lawyer to studying Theology instead. You know the one about the big thunderstorm he's caught out in and if God lets him live through it, he swears he'll become a Priest. He lives and he does as promised (of course had he known what God had in mind for him in terms of the storm he brought into a corrupt and sinful church he may have thought otherwise)

I've never gone so far as to promise Preisthood, but I've visited the bargaining table that my self-centered prayers sometimes become and sat across from God and tried to make him see it my way.

I'm reminded of these times whenever I read Acts chapter 9 with the conversion of Saul. Saul is struck blind by God during his mission to seek and destroy all Christianity and he winds up in Damascus. God then turns to one of his instruments, one Ananias...and the negotiation begins:

Verse 10: In Damascus there was a disciple named Ananias. The Lord called to him in a vision, "Ananias!"
"Yes, Lord," he answered.

Do you ever get the feeling that as Ananias lips say "Yes, Lord" his heart is saying "Now What?" I always picture this as poor old Ananias drew the unlucky straw and was the disciple on duty that night and instead of it just being a routine quiet night, he's going to be busy.

Verses 11-12 The Lord told him, "Go to the house of Judas on Straight Street and ask for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying. In a vision he has seen a man named Ananias come and place his hands on him to restore his sight."

OK, the Lord lays out the assignment. Find this Saul of Tarsus, lay your hands on him and his sight will be restored. Simple. Except that Saul is out to destroy what Ananias holds dear. Saul has to come to arrest, if not put Ananias to death and now that he has been struck blind, this enemy of Ananias' and God's church is no longer a threat...how bout leaving him that way! What is God thinking? He clearly needs to see it Ananias' way. Let the negotiation begin!

Verses 13-14: "Lord," Ananias answered, "I have heard many reports about this man and all the harm he has done to your saints in Jerusalem. And he has come here with authority from the chief priests to arrest all who call on your name."

It always amazes me how I can sing hymns and study the Word and talk and talk and talk and even blog about How Great Thou Art, my creator, my redeemer, but in a flash, I can become so self-centered I think I need to clarify for you just what is going on in YOUR WORLD. Ananias is so me at this moment that I'm shocked that Acts 9: 13-14 wasn't my Confirmation verse! There I am at the table in my prayers saying "You see God, it's like this..." and after explaining it all I often leave out "...if it be your will, take this cup from me" ala Jesus in the garden. I'm so self-centered Lord, please forgive me.

Verses 15-16 But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel. I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."

I kinda like how God concludes the negotiations. "Go!" I said "Go!" Ananias "Go!" Reminds me of my Marine Corps days..."Private...Go!"

I always get locked into Ananias when I read that story cause he is so much like me. In the end though, if I really think about it, I'm also so much like Saul. Saul was blind before he ever got to the road to Damascus. He was blind to the truth of God's word. He was blind to just who this Jesus was. He was blind to God's will for his life. That's me everytime I go to God in my self-centered negotiating way. God struck Saul blind on the road to Damascus to let him know HE WAS ALREADY BLIND. He gives me those gentle nudges now and then too.

The nice part about it all...is in the end, in every negotiation where I don't get my way and I do God's will...I win!

What I FUSS Over - Conclusion: Love Stone

Over the past few Thursdays I've been going through my pouch, stone by stone to explain what I mean by the FUSS (Four Unused Smooth Stones) and how it helps me live out my life as God wills me to be a man.

The fourth and final stone is the last one in the pouch now. The first of course the was the Living Stone, the Cornerstone that is Jesus the Messiah who slew the Goliath that was my sin with his death upon the cross.

That left me with Four Unused Smooth Stones (likening to David as he left the field, having slain Goliath with the first of the five stones he picked up, with four stones still in his pouch)

1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (NIV) is where I derived the symbolism of each of my stones as a reminder as how to live out my life as a man saved by Jesus the Messiah. It stated "Be on your guard; stand firm in the FAITH; be men of COURAGE; be STRONG." and I focused on those previous 3 words as the first 3 of the remaining stones and conclude today with the last part of the passage "Do everything in LOVE"

Hmmm...Warrior Marines like myself can handle FAITH, I mean come on, our motto is Semper Fidelis (Always Faithful). COURAGE? STRENGTH? No problem! But do everything in LOVE????? What? Well, using scripture to interpret scripture leads me right to 1 Corinthians 13. We so often read it in the context of our romantic love (have you been to a wedding where it WASN'T read?) but read it in the context of our manhood. It's quite illuminating

Verse 1: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

Verse 2: If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

Verse 3: If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Verse 4-6: Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Verse 7: It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Verse 8: Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

Verse 9-10: For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears.

Verse 11: When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me.

Verse 12: Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

Verse 13: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Pretty powerful when you put it in the context of manhood. It helps understand how a boy would have the confidence to face a giant, or the Son of Man to face death upon the Cross...AND WIN!

You Must Be Yoking

2 Cor 6:14 (NIV) "Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?"

Have you ever pondered this verse? Whenever I have, I usually am drawn to focus on the notion of separating ourselves from sin and wickedness. I've focused on the need to stay in the light and stay out of the darkness. But this last time through, I halted on the 4th word. Yoked. Now, God doesn't want us to be yoked with unbelievers...I got that. But is the implication that we SHOULD BE YOKED with believers? I think in a way, scripture supports such a notion. The Body of Christ that is the Communion of Saints, the Church, is those in the light, those believers who are YOKED together.

I remember as a child my parents had an old wooden yoke hanging from the rafter above our fireplace (it is still there). Not until the rereading of this verse from the second letter to the Corinthians did I ever catch on to its meaning and then connected it to that image of my youth. If we look around the pews this week and think about us all being yoked together...we make a pretty powerful team that can plow even the toughest field and prepare it for the planting. Hmmm...next time you see me at church and I'm looking around the crowd...feel free to tell me "You Must Be Yoking!"

Clickety-Clack, Hey! Where's the Track?

OK, looks as though health has returned to both boys simultaneously (and my wife is well on her way back too!) and with it, restored interest in breaking out the wood trains and setting up a track in the living room. Now, not so long ago, they would have begged and pleaded with dear old dad to build a track for them, but recently they've preferred to go it alone. Now this usually involves setting up track layouts with lots of long, fairly straight, lengths, a few bridges and curves and lots of forks, even bridges, that just go nowhere. In fact, without jumping track and "flying" to the next part of the track, these are not complete circuits at all.

Just a few months ago, if I set up a circuit and a foot accidentally broke it apart somewhere, there would be vocal panic, followed by desperate pleas to restore the break. But now, who needs a complete circuit at all? So as the younger one's train "Clickety-Clacks" down a straight track only to run out near the couch and who cares if the track just ends, the ride continues right onto the carpet.

Sorta like when they get that present you thought they would love and they do, in fact, they love the picture of it on the box so much that they prefer the box to the actual toy inside. Where's the track? Who NEEDS a track? OK, probably my boys will in a few weeks, but let them enjoy their flying trains while it lasts! I know I will.

In Sickness and in Health

My sister--my bride, my beloved wife has been fighting a nasty virus for almost a week now. She, along with my older son, have been down and out and miserable and their distress has occassionaly stressed me out as well. My beautiful wife often picks on me when I'm sick and whining, complaining that my own mother "babied" me too much whenever I was sick as a child so that today I am a complete wimp when it comes to being sick myself. She refuses to pamper me in such cases.

Of course, as our stress peaked this weekend I took opportunity to remind her of that, kicking her when she was down, like the cruel insensitive monster my sinful self can often be. I hate those moments. The moments as the hurtful words have just passed my lips, knowing full well I cannot catch them or prevent them from hitting their target ears but I so desperately wish I could.

Oh, the "in health" part of my vow is the easy part, its the "in sickness" that is trying me this week. God give me the patience and strength to nurture my sister, my bride back to health, and create in me a clean heart O Lord so that the words that pass my lips will be encouraging and edifying, not destructive and sinfilled.

I love you sweetie! God bless you and keep you!

Our Idea of Rescue

Have you ever felt that you were drowning in your troubles? Has it ever seemed that bad thing, after bad thing, after bad thing, keeps piling on you? Me too! There have been those occassions where I could see no way out, I had all but lost hope in my survival. Whether they were storms of financial, social, physical, or other, that threatened, I would turn to God in prayer.

Matthew 8:23-25 (NIV) "Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. The disciples went and woke him, saying, 'Lord, save us! We're going to drown!'"

Yep, I was just like a disciple, adrift in the boat that was my life and encountering a furious squall that had me thinking I was going to capsize and drown. I was sunk for sure, so I too would cry out.

in Matthew 8:26 (NIV) Jesus replied, "'You of little faith, why are you so afraid?' Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm."

Yes, I've been there too. I've been in the boat with Jesus right there and still, I didn't trust him to rescue me. Even beyond that, I've cried out from the waters of trouble to be rescued from drowning and Jesus has lifted my head above the water so that I would not drown...but I was disappointed. The disciples in the story above likewise were saved from their perceived threat of drowning but they were still in the boat! They were still out on the Sea! For some, often times me included, rescue isn't simply keep me from drowning, it is keep me from drowning, AND place my feet on dry land AND comfort me with succor that includes shelter, food & drink, wealth and so on and on. My idea of rescue often times is slightly different than the one God wills for me. I often think that had I been one of the disciples in the boat at that moment, I might have clumsily asked Jesus why he rebuked the storm but failed to transport us immediately to dry land where were heading! Oh what a fool I am at times.

It's not hard to see why those contemporaries of Jesus who had cried out for rescue failed to grasp that Jesus the Messiah was infact that rescuer. Rescue to them meant overthrowing the Romans or restoring Israel to its greatness or whatever else it was THEIR HEART DESIRED. Jesus came and died upon the cross, rescuing us from our sin and yet, here I sit, some 2000 years later still complaining about how that rescue isn't quite what I had in mind.

I pray that God will give me the patience, strength, courage, and faith to accept God's will for my life with a grateful heart. Thanks for rescuing me...I desperately needed it

Tears & Prayers for my Fellow Huskies

Today is Friday and that is a day I usually reserve for a bit of humor, but this week has ended in tragedy and humor isn't something I can do right now.

As an NIU alum myself, the tragedy of yesterday in DeKalb hits very close to home and I am saddened by the loss of so many young lives. I pray for all those students, faculty, and staff and their families as they progress through coming to terms with what has happened, mourning those who have been lost, and eventually trying to move forward again with their lives. I pray especially for the campus ministries there, that they will have the strength and resources to comfort all those who need it at this time with the peace that only Christ can bring them. May the Holy Spirit fill them with the right words and actions to comfort and council those that need it at this dark hour.

May God bless you and keep you all in his peace today, and in the days and weeks to ahead. You are all in our prayers and will continue to be.

What I FUSS Over - Part Four: Strength Stone

If you are just reading this for the first time today, you may want to go back to the past several Thursday's and start there and come to here as this is part four of a series of posts.

Today I'll talk about my 3rd of the Four Unused Smooth Stones (FUSS) that I carry in my pouch as I depart the battlefield after the living stone has already slain my Goliath (sin). That 3rd stone is the Strength stone. Of course it starts from the source, and that leads to Philippians 4:13 (NIV):

“I can do everything through him who gives me strength”

Yes in deed! Very STRONG words when it comes to just how strong God made me. It is that very strength which enabled a boy, David, to defeat the giant warrior Goliath. It is the strength that comes from Faith, and is exercised when one has the Courage of that faith so to do (as David did while the entire assembled Israelite army did not).
It is strength though that isn't about us. It is NOT for our gain, our benefit, our glory.
Romans 15:1 (NIV) reminds us: "We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves"
God has equipped us, made us strong, made us capable of doing EVERYTHING, so the stone reminds me each day to ask myself, am I DOING EVERYTHING I can through him who gives me strength? I have a long way to go in that regard.
Next week: The Love stone.

Teeter-Totter

One of the great things about recess when I was a wee lad of 1st or 2nd grade was the teeter-totter. You might have called it a see-saw, but we called them teeter-totters. Now you could use them alone, walk up the center and try and balance yourself and teeter-totter in the middle, but the true object was to be a team. You would pair up with someone, choose opposite sides and then while one was up, the other was down and vice-a-versa. A recess full of fun packed into a board mounted on pipe.

Now the teeter-totter was fun until your partner got the idea to send you high up to the top and then slide off the back of his/her seat, releasing all the weight on their end at once and sending you crashing to the ground on your rump with a loud thump if you didn't have your legs ready to absorb the impact. It hurts to take one in the seat the pants like that and many of us took a few and inflicted likewise on our unsuspecting classmates.

So it goes with the Body of Christ

Romans 12: 4-8 (NIV): "Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us. If a man's gift is prophesying, let him use it in proportion to his faith. If it is serving, let him serve; if it is teaching, let him teach; if it is encouraging, let him encourage; if it is contributing to the needs of others, let him give generously; if it is leadership, let him govern diligently; if it is showing mercy, let him do it cheerfully"

We are often at opposite ends of the teeter-totter that is the body of Christ and balancing on that fulcrum that is the Holy Spirit we are both being pulled down by the gravity of temptation and yet only when we are working together, from our opposite ends, can we raise the other up when they are down and keep both of our rumps off the ground. When I bail out on you, you are like to crash and likewise when you do the same to me so we both need to stay on our end. It is so much the better when we work together toward the common goal

What Goes Around...

After 8 days of illness, my younger boy is back to normal finally today and back to school to boot. He's really been fighting something for several weeks and finally the combination of medicines and rest (ok, this has really been the hard part in getting him to lay down and let his body recuperate) has him healthy.

Of course, we pick the boys up at school tonight and the teacher of the older one (you know, the one who wasn't sick at all) says he hasn't been quite himself today. His eye was looking a little puffy tonight (his brother had also gone through a bought of pink eye over the weekend) so we put in some of the drops. He's now in the triple digits in temp (wish it was just half that warm outside!) and in bed sick. Here we go again.

Multi-kid households are like pinball machines. The germs are of course the pinballs themselves and they just seem to bounce around from flipper to flipper, no matter how hard my wife and I try to get them to go down the middle and miss both flippers (the boys), invariably they are able to keep those germs in play. The machine tilts when its the wife and I that get it too! I of course had it last week. It's my wife's turn this week I guess.

What goes around comes around...and around...and around...and around...

Love as Strong as Death

t doesn't have the stuff of Hallmark card or a cheesy teddy bear greeting, but today's title is perfect for Valentine's Day in my humble opinion. Another one of those hidden gems within Song of Solomon (8:6 to be exact), it stresses dramatically just how strong love actually is. Death is the one thing that defeats us all. That is pretty strong. (Thankfully we are all saved by grace through faith so that we might have eternal life in heaven after our temporal one ends).

That is why I think it is the perfect way to describe how I feel about my wife this Valentine's Day. My love for her IS as strong as death. It conquers EVERY obstacle, EVERY disagreement, EVERY shortcoming, we come across in our marraige and I remain steadfast and confident that I will love her until I die. Happy Valentine's Day, my sister, my bride, my love! God Bless You and Keep You In His Peace this week.

Land of the Free

As Americans, we take a great deal of pride in our FREEDOM. It's a word, a meaning, a way of life, we hold to be one of the cornerstones of our society. As a Marine Corps veteran, it was one of those words we held dear, that while we (me and my brother Marines) were not enjoying as much freedom as a civilian would, we nonetheless were training for and accomplishing missions that were helping those citizens maintain that freedom we all hold so dear.

So as Christians Americans, it may seem that God is calling on us to live in a way that isn't very American. That Christian ideals and standards are somehow un-American, anti-freedom, even hateful! When Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness are your nation's mission statement, it seems to some that God requires us to reject the very truths they hold to be self-evident (and interestingly enough, endowed to them by the creator Himself!)

Is Christian American an oxymoron? Are we really just hate-filled right-wing nuts bent on the destruction of freedom?

Galatians 5:13-15 (NIV) states: "You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other."

As a Christian, I am called to be free. As an American, doubly so! I hold it to be self-evident truth that my Creator endowed me with not only the right to life, but he created me and gave that life to me. He further endowed me with liberty so that I might pursue the hapiness that comes from loving my neighbor. I thank God each day that I was born an American. I thank God each day that I was born into His family through baptism. I thank God each day for the freedom to live free and happy in a world He created, in a body He created and owns, and in a way He has taught me. God Bless America, and God Bless the men and women serving today that keep us free. (Can you tell I watched Extreme Makeover: Home Edition tonight? - Ooo-Rah SSgt Gilyeat, Welcome Home and God Bless you and your family)

Increasing Male Church Attendance

It's Friday Wit & Poetry day I know, so this is not going to be an extension of Thursday's male ministry theme, you will hopefully find it humorous.

Idea #1: Work with Lazyboy on a new reclining pew

So as we complete the sermon hymn and sit back down, the organist would push a button and all the pews would gradually recline so the congregation could sit back and enjoy the sermon. Yes, it would require more space or fewer pews to work but that would just make the church look "fuller"! The problem really isn't the space or the expense but the obvious problem that the usual 5% that nod off during the sermon would likely increase to 50%. Maybe if they put the coffee out BEFORE the service and we added cupholders to the pews--no, we'd have to insert a potty break into the service. OK, reject idea #1

Idea #2: The new Bass Pro Sanctuary!

Many of the old cavernous sanctuaries would be perfect for conversion to an environment like a big Bass Pro shop store where you'd could have an indoor service in an outdoor world. Men could drop a line in the pond while they worshipped, the new baptismal waterfall behind the altar is both functional and a beautiful backdrop and the gun range underneath where hunters could sight-in their weapons after church and with a processing station so they could bring their morning's prize in and while it was being turned into sausage they could go to worship. This one has potential! Oh wait, pastor may not like having to preach on certain topics knowing the congregation is full of armed hunters--and I don't think he's too thrilled with the new orange camo pastoral robes either. Scratch the Bass Pro Sanctuary.

Idea #3: Garage Church

You've heard of the drive-in churches where the congregation never leaves their cars, but I don't like that idea so my thought would be to erect one of those inexpensive steel buildings and instead of pews, put in lift-jacks and furnish it with everything a hi-tech autoshop needs. Then, equip it with a great soundsystem and have your service. You can drive right into the sanctuary if your car needs work and then the men who have the skills and like to tinker can work on your car while you sit on a lawn chair and enjoy the worship. They are there and part of the worship while at the same time doing some service work and stewardship to the congregation. It's a win-win! Ok, some tools get to be a little noisy and liability over who did what to Mrs. Johnson's Cadillac would probably bring that to an end. Back to the drawing board

I'll share when I've developed more ideas, in the meantime GUYS, get to church this weekend!

God Bless You

What I FUSS Over - Part Three: Courage Stone

In the continuing thread of the past few Thursday postings, today I offer my understanding of the what the second of the Four Unused Smooth Stones in my pouch represents for me as one living saved by grace through faith.

The second of my four stones is the Courage stone. For this stone, I like to look to Hebrews 3:6 (NIV) "But Christ is faithful as a son over God's house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast."

Just what is that Courage stone I "hold on to"?

It is the Courage to face the truth. The truth that I am poor and miserable sinner in need of a savior.

It is the Courage to face the Creator. Having faced the truth, I must repent and face God who I have sinned against (and of course, by grace through faith I am forgiven and when I face the Creator, there is Jesus the Messiah standing in front of me redeeming me).

It is the Courage to face my brother. I pray in the Lord's prayer for the Lord to forgive my trespasses as I forgive those who trespass against me. If I face the truth and face my Creator, I must now face my neighbor, my brother with the courage to both share the good news and to serve them as Jesus the Messiah has taught us.

It is the Courage to face the enemy. I remain a sinner/saint, though saved, I still fall short, but I should not grow complacent in my sin. I should not hide myself under a bushel so that I won't have to confront the temptations of this world. No, I need to be God's instrument, and have the courage to be a light in this dark world. As the passage in Hebrews states, I am His house, I need to hold on to that courage.

Next week will be the Strength stone

In Need of a Wash

I've always found minor-league baseball games to be a fun and inexpensive alternative to the big leagues. One of the teams' games I used to attend somewhat regularly had all kinds of fun stuff going on between innings and for a couple of dollars you got lots of giveaways and entertainment, not to mention watching some great professional baseball played by many future Major league stars. One giveaway I always remembered was they would read off a license plate number of the car in the parking lot that was deemed the "dirtiest" and that car won a free car wash! I always wanted to win that but I guess someone always had a dirty car than I.

Today is Ash Wednesday and tonight I will join fellow members of my congregation and the body of Christ as a whole church in approaching the alter, kneeling (or bowing my head) in humble repentant submission and get marked with ash. It serves as a personal reminder to me that I am in need of a wash, but as I sit in my pew, I won't be able to see my ash marking, only those on the foreheads of those worshipping around me. It's always easy to see those around me as the sinner and not myself, but when I look in the mirror, I am just as dirty.

No, I never won the carwash at the baseball game, there was always someone with a dirtier car. Tonight though, I'll be reminded that we are all dirty and in need of a wash. We all must repent and humble ourselves. We also all have already won the free wash! The cleansing and washing away of our sins that came with Jesus' death upon the cross that we didn't earn but that was offered to us as a gift of saving grace. I hope to see you there tonight

Sometimes Parents Just Get in the Way

One of the great challenges God has set before me is to raise up my children (His Children that He has placed into my custody and care) to fear and love Him. Sometimes I guess, no longer be a child myself, I over think the job. For all my wisdom, sometimes I just need to get out the way and let them marvel at the wonders of creation or let them tell me about Jesus instead of the other way around.

Matthew 19:13-14 (NIV) states: "Then little children were brought to Jesus for him to place his hands on them and pray for them. But the disciples rebuked those who brought them. Jesus said, 'Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.'"

I think there are times when I'm like a disciple, I know what is best and how best to bring them to Jesus but in the end I need to trust in the Holy Spirit, poured out upon my sons at their baptism, to do the work in their hearts and minds and my job often is just providing the boys with an opportunity to express whats in their heart. I know they are like sponges absorbing everything and learning each day in bulk, but I'm still amazed at how much they teach me about my faith every day. God has blessed us richly, may He give my wife and I the wisdom and strength not to hinder our children so that they may come to Him

Ingredient Substitution

As my wife and I are both trying to eat healthier this year, we've been challenged by recipes calling for ingredients we don't have or haven't traditionally had in our kitchen, like whole wheat flour, low fat or no fat items, and the like. For Super Sunday we had our traditional chili, but this time we tried a new low fat low cal recipe and the same was true of our corn bread. Both turned out nice, but we lacked one ingredient for the chili (chili powder!) which we both assumed wrongly we already had in the cupboard. My wife saved the and substituted cayenne pepper and boy did we HAVE chili last night! It is the usual case with us. If we don't have what is called for, we try something else as a substitute and it usually works.

Our marraige is the same way. If we don't seem to have what is called for, we try something else as an alternative. Alone, neither of us has what is needed in our cupboards to make the recipe work, but together, we are confident that God has provided us with the essential ingredients to make our marraige thrive, and thanks to Him, our cupboard is never bare

Reserved Seats

It is Super Sunday and many will pay huge sums to have a seat in the stadium, still others will pay huge sums to upgrade their home "theater" and reserve a seat in front of the big screen so they won't miss the big game. It reminds me of a time a few years ago when my wife and I attended our local county fair. We got there in the afternoon and that evening's attraction was to a tractor pull. We were checking out the grounds that afternoon and wandered into the grandstand area where the tractor pull would take place later that evening. It was a grassy hillside with wood benches mounted in rows ascending up the hill. Your normal county fair grandstands for the "cheap seats" area. What was different though was that many of the wood plank benchs had blankets duct-taped to them. A huge section in the middle, presumably, the "best" seats were completely "blanketed" and each blanket was taped down to its spot.

Apparently, the tractor pull was such a big deal that people needed to "reserve" seats in the general admission (admission was free by the way) area. That way, they could go out and enjoy the rest that the county fair had to offer and then return to their choice seats just in time for tractor pull. Taping the blankets down made it less likely that someone would come along and take your spot and yet it allowed you to go out and enjoy yourself without constantly worrying about getting into the stands early enough to get "your" seat.

That fact also reminds me of tenebrae or Christmas Eve, when you have to get to church "early" so as to have a seat in the sanctuary (too bad that isn't EVERY worship).

Ultimately, it reminds me of the promise Jesus the Messiah made to us in John 14:2 (NIV) "In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you."

No need to duct-tape a blanket to a seat in Heaven, no need to spend my days worrying about my place, I can just live out my faith each day in full confidence that I have been saved by grace through faith.

It's A Snow Day

With snow falling from yesterday afternoon thru this morning, we got about 10" or so and everything is closed up today so I am home with the boys, enjoying a "snow day" with them. Of course, they are still to young to understand the thrill of having their school's name be read off on the radio (or scroll across the bottom of the screen nowadays), so I had to be thrilled for them. The excitement of knowing no school today, or for me no work, can only be topped by the notion of fresh powder, a hill in the backyard and that new plastic sled the boys got for Christmas.

Snow can take a perfectly ordinary yard that you've seen, mown, walked on, and taking for granted, and transform it into a wonderland of white waiting to be explored. God the Creator created us in his image and we too can go out and form a man out the frozen white "dust" and then fall on our backs and flap our arms to surround him with angels in the snow.

Adults can take pleasure in the transforming a snowy landscape back into a cement driveway and sidewalk surrounded by mounds of freshly tossed snow and rejoice in our productive capacity! Our children in turn can turn our mounds into forts, tunnels and snowballs and rejoice in their own productive capacity, and more importantly to them, their marksmanship as they tag your backside with a sidearm curveball.

Go and enjoy yourself today if you are able, I know the boys and I will be shortly. And don't worry, we know what not eat out there and I will not be teaching them how to write their names.