Return to Me and I Will Return to You - The Lord Almighty*

 I sat as a twenty-six year old in the front yard of my childhood home in Knoxville, TN having returned there from more than half a decade of rebellion. My life was in shambles. My engagement to Anita was broken, I was broken. I was full of regrets for the narcissistic ways I had been living for the last several years and running from my call to ministry. A couple of years before God had gotten my attention and I had returned home, went back to my home church, enrolled in a masters program, but there was still much rebellion in my heart… The drizzle began to fall, tears were falling and I was crying out to God in prayer for my life.

I had been weed eating around the large flower beds of my parent’s home and I had accidentally cut through the power cord with the weed trimmer. I had found some wire pliers and electrical tape and sat down on the grass to strip the wire and make the repair. Then it began to drizzle rain. I was like, "what else Lord?"

I was listening to Michael W. Smith’s recently released song Agnus Dei on a fake Walkman cassette player with earphones. I was caught up in worship and weeping over God’s Holiness and the fact that, in spite of all my transgression and sin, He was letting me, the broken man that I was, come before His throne to praise His name, singing along, off key. I was praying for something to change and the pain to stop.

Just in that moment, my pliers completed the connection between the positive and negative wires that I had forgotten to unplug from the electrical outlet. Oh my!!! I experienced a long shock. The wet pliers and 110 volts held me fast in a painful spasm. Fortunately, somehow I was able to release my grip on the pliers and drop them to bring relief.

There was an abiding of me to the electrical wire that I had trouble disconnecting from. Perhaps this was symbolic of the sin that had held me fast in my rebellion and its painful consequences. In my fear, I had trusted in worldly wisdom. In those moments it was as if God was disconnecting me from this world and its evil ruler and was reminding me of my connection to Him. He was drawing me back to the call on my life into His Kingdom ministry. In those moments of worship and prayer, He was powerfully reconnecting me to Himself, changing my life, and bringing much needed love and joy. (I wish I could say that I never struggled again, but God kept, and still keeps faithfully maturing me and reminding me of the security of His love for me.)

Even in my rebellion, I had read my Bible almost everyday. I attended church on a regular basis, but I still wasn’t living like I belonged to Jesus, like I found my identity in Him. My life was selfish and I didn't value other people. My religion was a checklist of things to do to be seen as a "good person" rather than having a personal relationship of abiding with Him and loving the people He loves (i.e. "God so loved the World...").

In those shocking moments. God was answering my cries for help and answering the prayers of my parents and family friends who had been praying years for my rescue.

Within weeks, I began to see God working in my life in some big ways. Anita and I got married, I completed my masters degree and started seminary in Texas. We found an active healthy church that where we could serve. God connected us to a group of young couples with whom we could grow in our faith together. He led me to some internships with amazing pastors who taught me much about ministry and life.

There was amazing power in the way God had answered those prayers of desperation. He is still answering those prayers all these years later.

“Therefore tell the people: This is what the LORD Almighty says: ‘Return to me,’ declares the LORD Almighty, ‘and I will return to you,’ says the LORD Almighty.” Zechariah 1:3 NIV

Parents, Are You Acting Like Sheeple?* Words Post-COVID mid Delta

 Parents, are you acting like sheeple? My mother was always involved in our church... teaching, serving, hosting, whatever was needed.  She always enjoyed helping. One year she took the Middle School Vacation Bible School class. It happened to be when my sister and I and a neighbor girl were in Middle School. Mom was creative and wanted to do something fun, hands-on and different than a flannelgraph. There were some kids in the group who had not heard the stories of Jesus and she wanted them to know who He is and how much He loves them. Though we had an old 8 MM movie camera that we used to capture family events, she decided to do the “oh so cool” at the time, 1970’s slide show thing because we had a new fancy camera she wanted to use. She loaded us up and took us all to our mini-farm, dressed us all up as disciples and Jesus followers and told the Jesus story through slides. She had Jesus, played by a neighbor girl with dark hair and a fake beard, walking on water. She had us put rocks just under the surface of the water and had the girl playing Jesus stand on them, giving the illusion of “walking on water.” She had Jesus teaching the sermon on the mount with all the kids around Him listening. And she had Jesus teaching about pursuing the one lost sheep and the great joy when the lost sheep is found. In the field next to our mini-farm was a flock of sheep from the University of Tennessee College of Agriculture. The only problem was the sheep had numbers on them for testing purposes. It looked like a mattress commercial. When the slide show was displayed, we all cracked up seeing the sheep with numbers on them.  We were all looking for sheep #100, because Jesus had “left the 99.” Did I mention that the girl Mom chose to be Jesus was one of the kids from our neighborhood who didn’t know Jesus? Did I mention that my Mother knew this young lady had begun to do some things in middle school that would lead her down some dark paths if she continued? This young lady, like all of us, wanted to belong and be accepted, so she became like sheeple who were doing all those things that kids in their own wisdom thought would make them feel included, accepted, validated, and loved somehow. In the end all those behaviors would turn up empty, void of good, and lead to aloneness.  Did I also mention that Mom picked this girl up each day to ride with our family to VBS? There was a bit of irony here that possibly sheep #100 was the girl that Mom had selected to play the One who leaves the 99 to find sheep #100. Mom had a heart for the lost sheep, because someone had pursued her at the same age and told her about Jesus. 

Jesus is all about belonging.  He loves us and is always glad to be with us. We are His and He is ours. He will hunt us down to be with us… Luke 15:3-7 says,  “So he told them this parable: “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep!’ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.” Sheeple are people who act like sheep and are led astray by the prevailing “wisdom.”  The Old Testament Prophet Isaiah reminds us that we are all sheeple whom Jesus came to seek and save.  Isaiah says, “We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”(Isaiah 53:6 NIV) Jesus followers are always looking to find and include sheeple who have been drawn away from Him by their own rebellious nature and desperate desire to belong, be loved, and be accepted.  Sometimes I am all too eager to condemn people rather than include them, because I have forgotten that Jesus pursued and included me. Is there someone in your life who needs to be included with God’s people? Maybe there is a creative way for you to make a place for them to be found by Jesus.

Hang in there People! God is glad to be with us! I’m praying for us all!