The Holiness of God is Sure

The holiness of God never changes. This allows us to understand that in a morally changing world, the church does not have to adjust to the wavering, spiritual temperature of the world around it to survive. It can always thrive as long as it builds upon “His Spirit and His Truth.” Compromise only need come when we loose focus of the reality of a holy, righteous God.

Just To Say “Thank You” and “God is Good”

I am so grateful to the Lord today. God is good…… and all the time. He has been with Julie and me through a difficult year. I am so thankful for my precious wife that has been my earthly source of strength. Emily has lifted us up and made us smile just when we have needed it the most. My parents and my sister and her family have encouraged and cared for us both. Friends have prayed from all over the world. Our church family has been such a haven for us to regain strength, emotionally, physically, and spiritually.

These five surgeries have certainly helped with some of the areas of pain, but the recovery of my strength has been a long process. As someone who has always loved to play sports and considered myself to be a fairly strong person, having to walk with a cane for a great portion of this year has been has not been my cup of tea. Having to ask my wife to pick up my shoes for me has been humbling at times, but it has made me more thankful for good health.

We are so excited about getting back to ministering  to our military families again in the next few weeks. We love being able to be used of the Lord. This past year has been difficult in many ways, but our limitations to be involved in God’s work has probably been the most difficult thing for us to accept. We are hoping that all the new body parts in my spine (screws ,bolts, rods, and plates) will keep us going for a while. Thanks to all that have continued to encourage and pray for us. We sincerely appreciate it.

We all have much to be thankful to God for!

Where there is no Vision

It has been said that, “people only see what they are prepared to see.”  Many times we fail to adequately portray the vision that God has placed on our hearts. Others cannot catch the vision until the vision has been properly communicated,

A vision takes Pondering, Preparation, Passion, Perseverance, and Power.

Vision without action is a dream. Action without vision is simply passing the time. Action with vision is making a positive difference.

Vision looks inward and becomes duty. Vision looks outward and becomes aspiration. Vision looks upward and becomes faith.

“Momentum by itself is useless to truly bless the church, but, when it is caught up on the wings of the Spirit of God, it can lift the church to greater heights.”

What Is Your Game Plan?

Tragically, many of the lessons in life that we learn, we often have to learn them the hard way. We gain the knowledge, but, we also gain the bruises along with it. It would be a lot easier to inquire how to shoot a rifle than it would be to shoot that 300 mag with the scope too close to your eye and wear a beautiful black halo on that eye for the next few weeks. How many times have us men started out to put that piece of furniture together, proclaiming with great pride, that we do not need the instructions, and then come to the end and find out that the piece that is supposed to be on the top is neatly screwed in to the bottom of the shelves? Often we do things without much thought or preparation that many times can lead to disastrous circumstances.

I have several live traps that I have collected over the years. Two are larger traps and one is a smaller size trap. I have caught so many different animals in these traps. We have seen signs of all kind of wildlife around the house, so I decided that I was going to set one of the traps and see if I could catch something. We had already caught a large cat under the house that had been terrorizing the duct work. I placed the trap on the side of the house, right beside the small door that led underneath the house. I felt like if I was going to catch something, this would be the area that they would travel through. I went inside the house, and opened up the refrigerator and took two pieces of bologna and put them in the trap and set the trap door. With anticipation I came out the next morning, but nothing was in the trap. I thought for sure I would have a big raccoon waiting on me. The next day was the coldest day of the winter so far. It was too cold to mozy out there early and check the trap, so, I waited until a little later in the morning. I put my warm clothes on and walked around the side of the house and, to my surprise, I had something in my trap. I started to approach the trap. From a distance I could see that the animal was black, so I thought I might have another cat. As I drew closer, I felt a lump building up in my throat, because I could now see that the black animal had two white stripes down it’s back. I had caught a beautiful, LARGE, skunk. For just a moment, I stared at him and he stared at me. I’m sure both of us were probably asking the same question, “Did this really happen to me”. For a brief moment I considered what I was going to do and then I got cold and ran inside the house.

Julie was sitting on the couch and I nonchalantly came in and sat in my recliner. Julie, soon asked, “Did you have anything in the trap?” With that same lump still in my throat and a little nervous grin I said,”yes, I caught something”. Then she asked the question that set a lot of bad things in motion, “Honey, what did you catch?” I wanted so bad to tell her that it was a cat, a raccoon, a rabbit, a fox, a deer, a mountain lion…….but,I soon squeaked out,” I caught a skunk.” I immediately saw her complexion drop. She aksed, “Honey, how are you going to get rid of it?” With a tone like I had everything under control, I said, “Oh don’t worry, I’ll take care of it.” I immediately thought about the pest control people. I called a man and he said,”Sure, I will remove it for you for only $250.” Well, there went that idea. I had read that if you take a sheet and hold it in front of you and slowly ease up to the cage, then you can throw the sheet over the cage and he probably won’t spray you. This idea sounded way to “iffy” for me. There was not much conversing going on between Julie and me. I could feel that the vibes from my loving spouse were turning somewhat sour. I knew something had to be done and done quickly.

Finally, I had a big idea that popped in my head. I will go in my closet and get my Gamo pellet gun. I knew that a .177 caliber pellet going at 1350 feet per second could take care of this old skunk in quick fashion. Proudly, and with a manly feeling inside, I went back into the closet and brought out the pellet gun. Julie looked at it and with an astonished look on her face she asked, “What are you going to do with that?” I said, “this is the answer to our problem.” She said, “Wait a minute, let’s look this up on-line.” Julie “Googles” everything…….. How to do it, when to do it. why you do it, can you do it, should you do it, where to do it, what happens if you do it……… she is of the philosophy, that all these answers can be found in “Google”. She started searching online and within seconds she said, “This man says that if you shoot a skunk, it still might spray in its dying moments.” As I was walking out the door I said, “Honey, don’t worry, I will shoot it where it will die quickly.”

I went around the side of the house, cocked the gun, aimed at its head, and took the shot. It dropped like a rock. I saw it twitch a couple of times and then it lay lifeless. Success!!!!!  I thought…… but, a moment later, the chilly air began to fill with a pungent, strong, foul, odor that began to make my eyes water. Something quickly popped in my mind that I had not thought about earlier. The trap was set right beside the air and heat unit. Sweat began to bead up on my body in that frigid weather as I thought about the possibility of that odor getting caught up in the air vents. I worked up the nerve to walk in the house and tell Julie what had taken place. When I opened the door, I was almost knocked over by the smell of skunk. My heart sunk. I looked over on the couch and there was my beautiful wife. She was not smiling. She would not even look at me. With a stone look on her face she quietly got up, turned the heat off, and began to open up all the doors and windows in the house. I did not know whether I should try to hug her or try to catch the next plane to Siberia. The temperature in the air was not near as cold as the tension in the air now was.

Several hours passed by without much being said between the two of us. She sat on the couch with her winter coat on, still not willing to look at me. The hours passed by and finally the house began to smell better. I thought it may be safe now to talk to her and I said, “I am so sorry.” She still did not want to say much. After a few more minutes she finally looked up at me and asked me a question. She said, “Did you not consider that you might catch a skunk in that trap?” After a brief acknowledgement of the question, she then asked the big, philosophical question to me. She said, “So, what was your game plan, if you did catch a skunk?” Game plan??? This was not a fair question for a wife to ask in this situation. I finally whispered the words to her, “I did not have a game plan.” She said, “That’s right and that is all I wanted to hear from you.”  From that point on, everything was better! 

There are so many things in life that we do that we never really have a proper game plan. People get married without a game plan. People try to raise children without a game plan. People get into business without a game plan. People pastor churches without a game plan. People work ministries without a game plan. A game plan is a necessity to see the proper end results.

Having no game plan causes several things to happen:

1. It Can Cause Unrealistic Results.   If we do not have a game plan in mind, what we think in our mind that could be the result, may not be the end result. Best intentions do not always bring great results. We must realistically look ahead and find the best answer to achieve the desired goal.

2. It Can Cause Unresolved Results.   Having no game plan can allow us to accomplish a portion of our goal. Many start out with good intentions, however, an unresolved task is sometimes worse than not performing the task at all.

3. It Can Cause Unreliable Results.     It is hard to rely on a plan that has not had much prayer and consideration. Just being able to say that I have seen someone else do it or I know it can be done, does not always mean that it will bring the proper results.

4. It Can Cause Unrecommended Results.  Sometimes we can save ourselves a lot of trouble by asking others what has worked and what has not worked. The lessons that others have learned can be a great help in the formation of our game plan.

I believe that there is a great deal of scripture that can help us in putting our game plan together.

I Corinthians 14:40  “Let all things be done decently and in order.”

James 1:5  “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Proverbs 3:5-6  “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.”

May we seek God and His wisdom as we put together our “game plan”  for the things in our life. We need a spirit-led game plan to raise our children in the “nurture and admonition of the Lord”. We need His leadership to nourish a healthy relationship between husbands and wives. Our ministry “game plan” must begin with the Word of God, the Wisdom of God, the Will of God, and the Power of God. What is your game plan?

Dr. Adrian Rogers used to say, “God only wants for us, what we would want for ourselves, if we were smart enough to want it.” God has a lot of wonderful things out there for us if we would just tap into His game plan and ask for His wisdom to carry it out.

 

Who Really Needs the Change

“If there is something glaring that we see needs to be changed in a child, we may first need to examine if that child has become a mirror,  portraying that the need of change is in the character of the parent and not the child. May we desire our children to become more like God and not just a model of our expectations.”