Audacious Promises

As I was doing my daily Bible reading today, I read Genesis 15. In Genesis 15 God and Abraham have the following conversation...

Abram said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?" 3 And Abram said, "You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir."

4 Then the word of the LORD came to him: "This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir." 5 He took him outside and said, "Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."

6 Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness. (GENESIS 15:2-6)

As I read that passage I was struck by the fact that God makes audacious promises. Abram was 80 plus years old when God told him he would have a son "from his own body" and that his descendants would be as numerous as the stars.

It blew my mind to stop and think about that promise. It is truly an AUDACIOUS promise... and yet Abram believed it! He believed that God was going to do this huge,amazing, unthinkable thing and - because he believed it - God considered him to be righteous.

As I contemplated this for a while I realized that I struggle to believe the audacious promises of God. As I result, I probably miss a lot of the adventure God has called me to. I'm praying this year that the Holy Spirit will help me to believe God's audacious promises.

I can't wait to see what happens when I finally start to trust him!

I'm Lovin' It

It may not be a crime, but it's certainly unhealthy. However, I have to admit that I really like McDonald's. Not the whole eating out experience. Not taking my kids there (I'd like to find and kill the marketing genius who created the "Happy Meal.") But I actually like the food.

The cheap, anemic, greasy, heart-clogging burgers - I actually enjoy them. I know I shouldn't, but then none of us should enjoy reality TV either - but we do.

So - there you have it. My confession. I like McDonald's. In fact I'm sitting in one right now while I work on my sermon for next week.

I'm lovin' it.

Thanksgiving

Last year I did a post much like this one, where I just list off (in no particular order) things I am truly thankful for. I should do this more often than just once a year, I know. And I am thankful for all of these things, all of the time. I just think that it's good to put it "on paper" so to speak and throw it out there for the world to see. So, without further ado - and IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER here are some of the things I'm truly thankful for...

1. My amazing and beautiful wife - she puts up with a lot from me.
2. My amazing and beautiful kids
3. Sunday afternoon naps
4. Baseball
5. Guitars
6. Good books
7. The internet (it makes research so much easier...)
8. Coffee
9. America
10. A Godly heritage (Granpa, Dad, Uncles, etc. who are not only Christ followers, but pastors as well)
11. Football (Dallas and OK State in particular)
12. That i get along with everyone in my family... holidays just aren't tense!
13. Scripture
14. Last summer's vacation to Florida
15. Old friends
16. New Friends
17. Music
18. The color blue
19. Grace
20. Wheat fields (you had to grow up in Western Oklahoma to love that one)


So, there are 20 things I am truly thankful for... some are quite significant others are quite insignificant but I'm thankful for them all none-the-less...

How about you? What are you thankful for?

Why I Do It

I'm doing a wedding tomorrow for a guy who was one of the students in my youth group when I was in Concordia, KS. I've always loved that group of kids and have nothing but fond memories of them.

But even among a group that great there are a few standouts, a few kids that I have watched grow up and become mature, Christ-loving, Christ-honoring adults. Their careers are varied... teachers, surveyors, pilots, soldiers, farmers, interior designer, etc. but they all have shown maturity beyond their years and I have been impressed by them over and over again.

Getting to come back here and spend some time with them, to reminisce and to just enjoy them as adults has been a real treat. This is why I do what I do. The last several years of ministry have been VERY tough... I'd describe them as "hell." And yet when I look at what Jesus has done in the lives of these kids-turned mature adults, I know that I'm doing what God has called me to do. It's worth the pain and frustration to see what grace looks like in the lives I have been privileged to touch.

Road Trip

Tomorrow morning I'm heading out to Wichita, KS to do a wedding for a long time friend. I thought it would be fun to take my boys with me. Kind of a guy's weekend road trip.

I'm not expecting any kind of super bonding to take place, but these are the memory making trips that stick for years. I'm looking forward to a great weekend with my boys.

Professional vs. Personal

I had a great conversation with my cousin, Jim, today. He pastors a church that’s about 3 times larger than mine. As we were talking we began to discuss the tension between being professional and being personal as a pastor.

It was his observation that in more rural churches, the people typically aren’t as concerned about professional, they are more interested in personal. They want to know the pastor, have dinner with him, have him visit their homes and have him be at the hospital for every little illness and out-patient surgery. They don’t care if you aren’t a great preacher or if the music is sub-par or if the building isn’t as kept up. (Although I have noticed that many rural churches do an excellent job of keeping the facilities maintained.)

In the more sub-urban churches, people tend to be interested in professionalism. They want the building to look clean, neat and professional. They expect the music to be top notch. The preacher had better be able to deliver. Video and audio presentations need to be excellent. Professional matters but they are less concerned with the personal. They still care about the personal – but professional tends to be the emphasis.

The church he now pastors is kind of in between. It’s a small town that is starting to become a suburb of Grand Rapids. The long timers who view their community as rural want the personal touch. The new folks who live there but work in the bigger city want professional.

I have discovered the same to be true in my location with the added dimension of generational preference. We have a pretty evenly split church. The older members want personal while the younger want professional.

It creates an interesting tension that I’m still trying to live within. As Jim said about both of our churches… “you better be able to get a B+ in both if you want to survive.” I’m afraid that there are days that I don’t get a C in either, but on other days I think I do OK. It’s an interesting dilemma but one worth working out because I love this church, I love this town and I love these people. So, I’ll continue to try and walk in the balance and see where I end up.

Science Project

My oldest son, Andrew, had to do a science project involving joints, muscles and tendons. He was supposed to create something that operated like a part of the human body. You pull a string and at least three joints had to move.

We found the plans for a "robot hand" online so we decided to build it. Here's a little video clip of the finished product in action.



It's not exactly sophisticated but it was fun dad/son time and it turned out pretty cool.