ALRIGHT!*

 Moody Center...

When my oldest daughter was a preschooler, she was curious about her dad painting a wall in the den with a paint roller. Anita was taking care of one of the other 3 preschoolers in another part of the house at the moment and I had just loaded my roller with paint from the roller pan on the floor. I climbed the step-ladder to make the “W” motion, just like the paint store expert told me. I was using a roller on a pole to reach the high part of the vaulted ceiling.  I could see out of the corner of my eye that MA had come through the door and I could hear her stepping on the plastic drop cloth. Just as I looked down, I yelled, “NO!”, but it was too late she had just stepped right in the middle of the roller pan. My shout startled her so much she turned and ran across the room in a frightened toddler scamper, making a footprint of paint with every other step across the carpet (did I mention this was a rental house). I quickly climbed down the ladder, shouting “STOP, STOP!” Which startled her even more and she continued to run, extending the paint trail of tiny footprints across the room.  I finally was able to put the roller down in the pan, catch her, and remove the paint covered shoe and start trying to get the paint off the carpet. In my parenting ignorance, I had resorted to probably the least effective method of trying to solve this issue… raising my voice. I had momentarily forgotten that toddling, inquisitive, baby humans are much more important than carpet or paint or anything else. I didn’t have a lot of calming, peace bringing tools in my parenting crisis toolbox at the time, only the one I had grown up with… effusiveness. This ability may have been something good for collegiate cheerleader to have, but it was not always the best parenting technique.  If all you have in your toolbox is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. If all you have is effusiveness, every problem should be solved by yelling louder, RIGHT?  Though this tactic seldom worked, I had trouble seeing that I needed some more effective tools in my tool box for when the train was about to run off the rails or when it was already a full blown train wreck. I also didn’t realize how many of my decisions were made from fear: fear of messing up, fear of being inadequate, fear of lack, fear of being a bad dad or husband, fear of so many things… In my anxiety, my tool box could not expand or add more tools. The positive tools that I needed could only come if I operated in joy and love, rather than fear.

We operate in fear when we don’t trust that God loves us, cares for us, is glad to be with us and works all things together for our good.  These fears come from a religion based on anger and retribution, rather than a relationship of love, joy, and care. Not that God is not capable of anger and retribution (because His righteousness and honor sometimes require it) but the fact that He loves us enough to send His Son to save us, shows His great love for us. Though He always requires our reverence and respect, He is first about rescue, rather than condemnation. John, the beloved disciple, quotes Jesus saying, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”(John 3:17) God is about making everything new and alright. One of Texas’ favorite sons, Matthew McConaughey says it three times, “Alright, Alright, Alright!”  Our assumptions about life need to come first from the fact that God loves us tremendously and He is making everything “Alright” between us and Him. 

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

Look Mom, NO BRAKES!*

photo credit someone on Ebay 

My uncle once showed up at our house with an old motorized go kart he found at a flea market and had been working on. What fun for us in early elementary school… at least for a moment.  We cousins took turns driving the go cart in small slow circles in the driveway while my uncle and father stopped us every once in a while to adjust something. We kept it slow because, oh yeah, there were NO BRAKES yet! Everything was fine and fun as we pretended to be racing on the big track. This, of course, was back when helmets were optional and maybe even frowned on for go karts, bikes, motorcycles, etc… I guess they thought we were hard headed enough or maybe it just wasn’t a part of the go kart package at the flea market.  When my cousin began his slow circle around the driveway for what would be his last one on that kart, my uncle, for some strange reason, jumped on the side of the kart, Thunderdome style, and pressed the accelerator to the floor, saying "Go faster son!” The accelerator spring that is supposed to “unrev” the engine when the accelerator is released, snapped and the kart began accelerating out of control. My uncle began falling and jumped off, my cousin, however, was seated and un-able to escape. He was wide-eyed and headed for the very steep hill with lots of big trees.  He lined up the driveway’s turnaround pad which launched the cart into the air. It hit a tree about 4 feet high and slammed to the ground. Fortunately the impact slowed the engine as my father and uncle ran to pull my cousin, crying and shaking from the kart. My uncle, embarrassed by it all, said to him, “oh, quit crying, you're not hurt.” And that about did it for the go kart thing.  Everytime I hear the words, “go kart,” I can see my cousin flying through the air, impacting the tree and slamming to the ground. Interestingly, as teens, my cousin and I would go to the go kart slick track extravaganza in Pigeon Forge to race against each other, accelerator to the floor, drifting through the turns, but this time with actual brakes (but still no helmets). 

The apostle John was worried about the early church. He didn’t want them going around accelerating through life with “no brakes.” He told them when we belong to Christ we can stop when it comes to sin. He reminded them (and us) that we who belong to Christ, act like Him, and He did not sin. He says, “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure. Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin. No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.” (1 John 3:1–6) So, we need to remind ourselves the next time we are operating with no brakes, feeling out of control, unable to stop ourselves from sinning, that we are children of God and He gave us brakes.  He makes us like Jesus whose brakes worked perfectly his whole life.  Sure, we’re all going to mess up, that’s why Jesus had to come save us, but when we belong to Him, we begin to mature in Him and learn how to use the brakes and turn around when we are heading for trouble.  

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

I Love My Church!**

 

Wow! I’m thanking God for a wonderful “I Love My Church” Sunday. God involved so many people in this experience. I want to say thank you to everyone who said “Yes!,” when God asked them to engage in this week’s unifying, connecting, fun, worshiping, baptizing Gospel event. I would like to follow one particular God story that changed the lives of one family and blessed many others. I am sure there are many stories like this one, but this is the one God allowed me to see firsthand. I watched and listened as the staff talked about and planned the “I Love My Church!” Sunday. First, there needed to be an outreach to invite those people that either didn’t know Jesus or were not engaged in a church. Jonathan had asked us all to be praying for folks who need Jesus during our October Missions Month. A decision was made to make invitation bags available to take to these people for whom we were praying. The bag was simple: a card and a couple of cookies that said, “You belong here.” Bags, cookies, cards, and crinkle stuffing paper were ordered. A crew of several ABC volunteers came to stuff bags, stage them and pray over them before they were to be picked up. People picked up the bags the Sunday before to deliver them to invite friends, neighbors, family and coworkers. One ABC 2nd grader who herself had been baptized just a few weeks ago wanted 15 bags to take to her friends. Her mother said, “maybe a few,” but this little girl was insistent that she wanted her friends to know Jesus. I’m not sure how many she ended up giving away, but one of the bags she delivered ended up in the hands of a classmate. This classmate showed up to ABC for “I Love My Church!” Sunday. I happened to be in the lobby when this 2nd grader and his mother arrived. I was able to take the two of them to meet Rachel so he could join the Children’s Worship, Bible study, and fun. Mom then went to the worship center. The Holy Spirit moved Mom’s heart with the worship music, compelling Gospel message, and the sweet fellowship of 1000 worshipers. At the invitation to be baptized this woman came to the front of the room full of strangers and said, “Yes!” to Jesus. When she went to the baptistry changing room she was met by Adrian, who talked with her and learned that it was her first time to ABC and that her son was in the Children’s wing. Bill, Jo and the baptism team helped her get ready to be baptized. Adrian went to get this woman’s son, so he could watch his mother’s testimony that she belongs to Jesus through the waters of baptism. He watched his mother, then came to see her afterwards and gave her a big hug. He too wants to be baptized. Conversations about that are ongoing. I love how many people were involved in this continuing God story! There were planners, preparers, goers, givers, teachers, servers, cooks, cleaners, children’s workers, table setters, runners, towel washers… all involved in God’s plan to impact the lives of this family and others with the Gospel. 

Pastor Jonathan has been preaching on the Great Commission for the month of October. Matthew 28:18-20 says, “... Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18–20 ESV) There was a lot involved in the GO-ing (planning, ordering, stuffing, baking, staging, delivering…). But this little girl decided to GO to her friends with bags to invite them to ABC. This young man and his mother came because they were invited. His mother heard the Word of God, the Truth of the Gospel, and was BAPTIZED (and her son may be baptized too). Next in the MAKING DISCIPLES plan that Jesus gave us is the teaching part. This 2nd grader has already connected with the Children’s Ministry director and teachers who are TEACHING him and other kids what life is like when you belong to Jesus. Mom is being invited to an Adult Bible Fellow-ship Group to learn alongside other believers all the blessings, joys, and opportunities of belonging to Jesus. Lord, give us the boldness to GO and MAKE DISCIPLES like this 2nd grader! 

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

And The Flames Went Higher!*

 

When I was a teenager, my family owned some property on the lake, with plans to one day build a house on it. It was across the street and down a house or two from the house I grew up in, but we liked it because, “it was on the lake.” My father was trying to determine the best plan to dispose of a large amount of driftwood debris that had floated into our cove and was left stranded there as the water lowered. The idea was to just do a controlled burn. The wood pile was bordered by water on one side, was pretty far from the grass,  and with some shovels and hoes, he reasoned that we should be able to handle any sparks that got upwind on the grass. East Tennessee winters are usually very moist, but for some reason not that year.  Things were very dry on that sunny February day. We ignited the fire and things were going swimmingly until the wind changed and whipped the small fire into a very large fire, a fire larger than any of us had ever experienced.  The embers were jumping several feet into the air and then falling onto the dry grass. Initially we were doing pretty well putting out the small fires with the shovel, but then there were just too many. As the fire began to get out of control, I jumped on my motorcycle and rode quickly across and up the street to my house, while Dad continued fighting the fire. I called the volunteer fire department (with a rotary dial phone that seemed to take forever).  The dispatcher informed me that there were several out of control fires in the county that day, and they would try to get there when they could. I rode back to find that much of the field was now burning and my father was working feverishly to prevent the flames from getting to a fence row which would have involved another large adjacent field and no telling how much of the neighborhood. In the meantime, the flames were headed toward the street and whirlwinds of fire were leaping several feet at a time. Fortunately the wind was blowing away from the adjacent neighbor’s house. But unfortunately, the wind was blowing toward the historic “Harvey Farmhouse” directly across the street. “Rivermont” as it was also called, was built before 1900 and we knew it would ignite like a tender box. We were all praying a lot as we frantically tried to keep the conflagration in check. My mother, sister and neighbors had shown up trying to corral the flames.  All I could do was try to put out a few small flames as the fire devil jumped the road and lurched toward the old wooden house. My sister had brought a fire extinguisher, but wasn’t sure how to operate it. A neighbor grabbed it and quickly put out the largest flames before they reached the crispy, dry, unraked leaves around the house.  Mercifully, after a couple of hours, the wind and the flames died down enough and the old house was spared. God had answered and the fire was contained to only our property.  Needless to say, we never tried a controlled burn again.  We also, for some reason, never built on that property. 

When the prophet Isaiah was telling God’s people to remember Who they belonged to, he also warned them with fiery imagery about what would happen to those who were against God.  Isaiah 66:14-16 says, “When you see this (God’s restoration, protection, comfort, and blessing on His people), your heart will rejoice and you will flourish like grass; the hand of the LORD will be made known to his servants, but his fury will be shown to his foes. See, the LORD is coming with fire, and his chariots are like a whirlwind; he will bring down his anger with fury, and his rebuke with flames of fire. For with fire and with his sword the LORD will execute judgment upon all men, and many will be those slain by the LORD.”  I definitely don’t want to be on the wrong side of God’s angry, fiery rebuke.  My experience that day on our lake property makes this picture very vivid to me. This is a good reminder to be sure we know we belong to God, because there is no neutral ground.  Jesus tells us, ““He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters.”(Luke 11:23) Believe and belong to Him and flourish like grass! 

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

When You Can See It Coming, But Can't Stop It?*

Photo credit: spreadricenothate

When my kids were in preschool and early elementary, we moved to Nashville to serve an urban church. The parsonage was situated on a large hill between the Baptist church at the bottom, where I pastored, and the Methodist church at the top. In the Summers we loved that hill for a homemade slip and slide, we loathed it when kicking the soccer ball, which usually ended up in or near the creek at the bottom of the hill. My son, while learning to ride a bike, took an unfortunate wobble then an uncontrolled turn down the hill. Frozen in fear, he forgot how to use the coaster brakes. Fortunately, he was not injured badly.  One of my toddler daughters was in the back yard when I came home from work. She smiled and turned to run to me. I was standing on the asphalt driveway below her and I could see what was coming. She was laughing and running toward me, which in one sense made my day, however,  I knew her little legs would not be able to keep up with her quickly growing head and body as she accelerated down the hill. I started saying, “stop!, stop!” and running toward her, but she was just too excited to see her Daddy.  She was doing well keeping up with gravity until just before the asphalt and then I saw it happening in slow motion, but I still couldn’t get to her in time. She fell face first on the driveway and her little head bounced when she hit. I finally got to her an instant later (which seemed like an eternity) I scooped her up and waited for tears. Surprisingly there were just a few, but she did have a scrape and pumpknot (hematoma) on her forehead.  

Don’t you hate it when you see the life choices of someone you care about that will lead to a big crash? You do all you can to warn them: “Stop! Stop!” but they just don’t yet understand all the forces at work in this world. When Paul was encouraging the Corinthian church, he could see that they were highlighting one Spiritual Gift over all the others. Even something as good as a Spiritual Gift could be used as something bad and divisive for the church.  Speaking in tongues became the gift that if you didn’t have it, you were not one of the cool kids at church.  Those who had it considered it so important they forgot that when we belong to Jesus, love is the most important thing.  Paul tells them, “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.”(1 Corinthians 13:1)  Paul knows what is coming, that the evil forces at work in this world are going to take even this (and other) spiritual gift(s) and use it against the church. Those with the coveted gift will be filled with pride and those without it will feel belittled and devalued. Both, in their immaturity, will forget that love is greater than any gift. They will forget how it is like them to act toward those around them.  Paul tells them, “Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be adults.” (1 Corinthians 14:20) Paul loved the Corinthian church, but they were forgetting Who they belonged to. When we see an unavoidable social, emotional, Spiritual train wreck coming in someone’s life, like when an adult child chooses the wrong friend group, or significant other, or career choice, sometimes all we can do is try to tell them to stop. But then we gotta be ready to scoop them up and love them “no matter what” as they heal even if they don’t yet understand why they should stop.   

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

Good Fish, Bad Fish...**

 

During those long Summer days, My Dad would sometimes come home from a busy day at Norwood Medical Clinic and say, “let’s go fishing!” In addition to being a physician he was also an avid sportsman. It was how he unwound after a stressful day of doctoring.  We would hook up the boat and head to the lake. Sometimes we would go right down the street to the boat ramp if we were bowfishing. Sometimes it was a few miles away if we were fishing the mouth of the creeks that fed the Tennessee River and Ft. Loudon Lake. At Stock Creek one evening, I casted my lure and BAM! a fish hit it so hard, I almost dropped my rod. I began to reel and the fish just kept spooling the line…zzzzz… Dad was so excited. He kept saying, "keep his head up!” as I struggled to stay upright fighting the fish.   I would reel a little, then the fish would take off again. My dad was sure by the fight of this fish that it was the biggest bass he had seen come out of that lake. The fish and I fought for several more minutes and when I got it to the boat, we discovered it was a freshwater drum.  Though this fish is the bane of serious bass fishermen, it sure was fun to catch.  It generally is called a trash or “rough” fish rather than a game fish. Drum are not considered a good fish to eat unless you have a Cajun chef close by, because they apparently call it a “gaspergou” and can make it quite tasty. This fish is a freshwater relative of the better tasting saltwater red drum found at seafood restaurants. 

From the Bible we can see that the Israelites are generally land dwellers, sheep herders and farmers from way back. But when Jesus came, He found a handful of Jewish fishermen living on the Sea of Galilee as the first ones He called to be his disciples. He was trying to describe what His Kingdom was like to them and said,  “... the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”(Matthew 13:47–50 NIV) The amazing thing to me is that Jesus loves all of us and can take the trashiest of us “rough” fish and make us good. Jesus is in the business of changing bad wicked people into good and righteous. The truth is, we are all bad (not one of us is good according to Romans. 3:23), until we belong to Him and His connection with us changes our wicked hearts to make us good. He pays the price and suffers because of our badness. Those who belong to Him He saves from an eternity of weeping and gnashing of teeth in a fiery horrible place called Hell and lets us hang out with Him and all those who belong to Him in a wonderful place called heaven. Gaspergou and Red Drum will all be considered either good or bad. We will either be considered wicked or righteous at the end of our lives on earth and the only way to be righteous is through a real loving relationship with Jesus, He is the only one who can make us right. He died to make everyone good, but we have to choose to belong to Him, He won’t force us to be one of His good fish. 

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

In Perfect Harmony**

Credit Adage.com

 One Christmas my family was to drive across Tennessee from Knoxville to Memphis, then down into Mississippi to visit some cousins. As we passed Nashville we hit a rare Tennessee snow storm. Traffic slowed to a snail’s pace. Because many southern drivers are not used to driving in the frozen white stuff, traffic crawled like sloths on a skating rink. My Dad, who was an exceptional driver, also had an “I-can-drive-through-anything” attitude and a Jeep Wagoneer. He was a very confident driver (with the exception of an infamous ice storm that froze him out of the car and sent him sliding underneath it only able to crawl back to the garage to abandon the trip he planned to rescue someone else, but that is a story for another day) As we traveled we saw some cars off in the ditch, some spinning tires, and others just sitting on the side of the road with their flashers on. As we progressed single file down I-40, the road oil and dirt flung from the tires of the cars ahead of us mixed with the snow and was smeared by the wipers to create a frozen oil slick on our (and everyone else’s) windshield. It was like looking through gray frosted glass, making travel even more hazardous. When we stopped for gas, everyone was trying to wipe and scrape their windshields but only smearing the frozen mess more. Until a northerner, who was used to driving in the stuff, gave some neighborly advice to those of us blessed to be born South of the Mason Dixson line. The fast talkin’ (expletive) Yankee told us what to do. Everyone really wanted to try this fix, but had to wait until he was gone, so we wouldn’t have to say he was right if it worked. However, behold, it worked! After pouring this stuff on, the icy road slime formed a slush and slid right off with a paper towel and we were back on the road with clear windshields. What was this magical solution? Good ol’ Coca-cola. You know the “I’d like to teach the world to sing, in perfect harmony… it’s the real thing…” stuff, developed right smack dab in the middle of the South in Atlanta, Ga. (for you youngsters here’s the famous commercial https://adage.com/videos/cocacola-hilltop/395) Who knew that the phosphoric acid that gives Coke its slightly tart taste is also good for cleaning glass. (BTW this phosphoric acid is now associated with causing low bone density for those who consume a lot of sodas - uh oh! Who knew?) We finally arrived in Mississippi several hours later than planned, but had a blast with the cousins for Christmas. Maybe our prejudices were challenged when this “Yankee” was kind, neighborly, and eager to help people be just a little safer in a challenging situation. 

Jesus told a story that confronted the prejudices of his hearers in which He made a Samaritan the hero of the story instead of the respected ones they held in highest esteem. Luke tells it like this, “And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”

But he, desiring to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?” Jesus replied, “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and he fell among robbers, who stripped him and beat him and departed, leaving him half dead. Now by chance a priest was going down that road, and when he saw him he passed by on the other side. So likewise a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he journeyed, came to where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion. He went to him and bound up his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he set him on his own animal and brought him to an inn and took care of him. And the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper, saying, ‘Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, I will repay you when I come back.’ Which of these three, do you think, proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell among the robbers?” He said, “The one who showed him mercy.” And Jesus said to him, “You go, and do likewise.”(Luke 10:25–37 ESV)  Let’s go and do likewise people! 

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