Posted on July 19, 2008 at 6:35am.
In a recent issue of the magazine Christianity Today, they pronounced on the cover God Is Not Dead Yet. It was a take-off on a Time magazine cover in 1966 entitled Is God Dead? I remember that cover and the God is dead movement of the sixties. I remember as a thirteen year old the anxiety I felt. What would it do to people’s faith? Could they prove something new or would folks just stop believing in God? Well 42 years later God is alive and well and men and women are still trusting him with their lives - me included. When Paul is in Athens debating with a group of philosophers he tells them that God placed people in certain times and locations for this purpose, “so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is never far from each one of us.” God was there in the 1st century, he was there in 1966, he is here today and he will be forever.
Posted on July 17, 2008 at 6:29am.
I hope you are praying for folks. I know it is a very simple thought. I hear many conversations that end with the words “I’ll pray for you.” I believe it is one of the greatest privileges we have in the Body of Christ - to pray for one another. Prayer remains a mystery to me and at times I am not even sure why I pray. So often I come back to one of my favorite sayings by CS Lewis about prayer. Lewis said “I don’t pray to change the heart of God, I pray so that God might change my heart.” By the way he didn’t say that in some sterile setting a classroom or pulpit, he said it during his wife’s battle with cancer. So pray.
Posted on July 15, 2008 at 6:57am.
If you have been following my blog it will come as no surprise to you that I have been struggling with events that have been happening to folks around us. Truthfully my struggle has been and is with God. I just don’t get what he is up to in their lives. I think my real fear is what if the difficulties take them over the edge and they give up on God? Yesterday I found myself wanting to bring God in for questioning and that led me to turn to another man who wanted the same thing - Job. I know the story well. I know how it turns out but I went there anyway. I guess I just wanted to be reminded again of a couple of truths. First, that it is alright to question and wrestle with life and second God is God and I am not. When God finally responds to Job it is bold and fearsome. Out of the storm God says: “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man, I will question you and you shall answer me.” That pretty much sums it up, words without knowledge, I think I know so much, when I don’t. I believe that God allows me to question, even doubt but in the end longs for me to let him be God and trust him. I am learning, but it is a hard journey.
Posted on July 14, 2008 at 6:32am.
Here is my profound thought for July 14th - God has given me today. Before you write it off as simplistic and excuse me since it is Monday, stop and think about it. That is all any of us are given, today. So many times I find myself living either in the past or the future. When I live in the past it is either to relish memories or “what if” my life and decisions to death. When I move to the future it is usually all about winning the lottery (odd since I don’t even play) or building an anxiety about things I have no control over. If I am not careful, before I know it, another day is gone. The striking truth is that God longs to meet me in the present, right now, today. He tells me to forget the past and leave the future to him. It is in the present moment that I can experience his love, his forgiveness and learn to trust him. So learn to thank him for the gift of today and enjoy him in this moment.
Posted on July 12, 2008 at 6:59am.
I am out of town doing a wedding today. “So what’s the big deal,” you ask? “I thought that is what pastors do, you marry and you bury and occasionally preach.” Well I am doing a wedding for a young man whose parents I married over 25 years ago. To my knowledge this is my first second generation marriage - talk about feeling old! The truth is it really is pretty neat. I have been able to be a part of this community to see folks grow-up not only physically but also spiritually. So today as I am marrying this young man and his young bride and I will look into the faces of his “not so young anymore” Mom and Dad and see evidence to the goodness and faithfulness of God.
