Finding God's Will

I spent this week preparing my message for the MN-WI Baptist Convention's Annual Meeting.  I actually settled in on a topic a couple of months ago; I was going to preach on the need to plant new churches in Minnesota and Wisconsin.  This is a great need and it is a topic that is very near and dear to my heart because I served as a church planter in Iowa.  Since I have read a considerable amount of literature on starting churches, and I have experience, I felt I could provide a unique look at church planting.  I was excited to be able to share my enthusiasm for church planting with the pastors and church leaders at the Annual Meeting!

I had even zeroed in on the Scripture passage and a couple of good illustrations over a month ago.  After completing my commentary studies of the selected Scriptures, I sat down Saturday to begin writing the message.  With a cup of hot tea next to the keyboard, my Bible open to the Book of Acts, a couple of commentaries opened with heavy highlighting, I was ready to go!

Scanning the Scriptures, I quickly produced a 4-point outline of the message.  So far, so good!  Then I opened up a line under the first point, positioned my hands over the keyboard, focused my eyes on the screen, and started to ... think.  Nothing was coming.  Nothing.

I know you have been there.  You had an assignment to write in school and couldn't think of anything to say.  Or you had an important document to create for work and you froze.  We have all had writer's block.  Preachers get it too.

I did all I could to break the block.  I reread the commentaries.  I checked some of the words in the Scripture against my Greek dictionary.  After a couple of hours of effort, and five cups of tea, I had about 3 lines written.  This was not good.  Sunday fared no better; I was stuck and didn't have a clue what to do.  Like the time my brother got Dad's pickup stuck in a muddy cornfield, I wasn't going anywhere.

I have been listening to some John Maxwell sermons in my car as I commute to work, and Monday I was listening to a sermon on "Finding God's Will."  Suddenly it hit me - maybe my church planting sermon was not God's will for this message at this meeting.  God has done this to me before, so I should have recognized the symptoms, but I hadn't.

Mr. Youngster had a band concert at the High School Monday night, so I grabbed my Bible and took it with me to the concert.  While we were waiting forever for the concert to start, I was scanning through the New Testament to see where God would lead me.  When I hit 1 Corintheans, it was like a light lit up on my GPS telling me I have "reached my destination."

I went back to work on my message Tuesday afternoon and within a couple of hours, the first draft was done.  It's amazing how easy it is to prepare a sermon when the Holy Spirit is in the driver's seat!  Now it is Thursday and the message has been polished, my Powerpoint is completed, and I am ready to deliver God's Word at the Annual Meeting.  I am confident that I am saying what God wants me to say.

It seems this is a lesson I am continually learning.  I must stay in God's will if I am to be effective in my life - and not just in my preaching, but in every aspect of my life.  Have you ever wanted something really bad and roadblocks seemed to continually pop up that blocked you from getting it?  Maybe that wasn't bad luck; maybe God had other plans for you.  My experiences in life have proven that I am better off in God's will than chasing my own "wants" and "wishes."  It's not always easy to find God's will, but it is worth it!

Seeing Love

Many, many years ago I was assigned a seat in the last row of my 2nd grade class.  That is the advantage of having a last name that starts with "S" - I was nearly always in the last row!  This time though, it wasn't an advantage - I couldn't read the blackboard.  I complained to Mrs. Teach and she moved me up a few rows.  That didn't seem to help much, so I let her know that I still couldn't see the blackboard.  Mrs. Teach once again moved me up - this time all the way to the 2nd row.  

Wouldn't you know it?  I still couldn't see the blackboard!  Mrs. Teach didn't think that was normal, so she sent me off to the Nurse's Office for an eye check.  After the impromptu eye exam, the school nurse wrote a letter and gave it to me to take home to my parents.  When I got home that night, I gave the note to Mom and ran out to play.  Within a couple of days I was headed to Bethany to see the local optometrist.  The news was not good - I had 20-100 vision.  I think the scientific term for that is "blinder than a bat."  Within weeks, this scrawny little boy was wearing  ugly thick-framed, black plastic glasses. 

I remember stepping outside with my new glasses on and looking up at the sky.  For the first time in my life I could see stars!  I had always assumed the sky was cloudy since I could never saw any stars.  And instead of a big yellow blob, the moon had distinct features.  I felt like I had entered a whole new world!

One day after school, I took my glasses off and ran outside to play.  Dad was moving some of our horses to winter pasture, and I climbed up in the pickup with him.  The horses were moving down the road in front of us, and I asked Dad where he got that little white colt.  He looked at me funny and asked, "What white colt?"  I pointed at the back of the horses at this white blob following the small herd.  Dad said, "That is your brother!"  He was wearing a white t-shirt and I couldn't tell the brat from a colt!

1 Corinthians 13:12 says, "Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."  This verse comes from the Bible's famous "love chapter."  What is Paul trying to tell us?  The mirrors of Paul's day weren't the nearly-perfect mirrors we have today.  They typically were polished metal, and didn't reflect all that well.  Just as I couldn't see my brother well enough to recognize him, we will not fully know love until we see God face-to-face.  The best love this world has to offer is nothing but a very poor reflection of the perfect love of God.  God's love was best demonstrated when He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross in our place.  What an awesome display of love!  I can't wait to meet Him face-to-face and fully experience His love forever in heaven!

A Weekend With Fozzie

The Minnesota teacher's union had meetings last Thursday and Friday.  Normally that would not be big news, but it was very inconvenient for me.  You see, the Mrs. and Mr. Youngster decided to go to Missouri for the long weekend.  I didn't get to go. :(

I hate being alone.  The Mrs. would remind me that technically I wasn't alone - Fozzie stayed here with me.  Nothing against fat, lazy dogs, but I prefer some human interactions.  That mutt can't begin to compete with the loving nature of my wife and the lively discussions I have with Mr. Youngster.

Let me take a moment to describe a typical weekend day with Fozzie.  I get up in the morning and go downstairs.  Fozzie is up and wagging his tail madly, his tongue is hanging out, and he looks like he is thrilled to death to see me.  But the reality is, he is ready for breakfast.  I let him out, put some dog food in his bowl, give him fresh water, and he ignores me while he inhales a bowl of Iam's.

I go back upstairs to get ready for the day.  By the time I have dressed and am ready for the day, Fozzie is ready to come back in.  I let him in, then go into the kitchen to prepare an exciting breakfast of cold cereal.  Sigh.  I sit down to eat and Fozzie sits down a few inches from me, drooling on my leg as he watches me eat.  How can he still be hungry?

After breakfast, I head downstairs to work on my sermon at the computer.  As soon as I sit down, Fozzie lays his head on my leg and looks up at me with sad, puppy-dog eyes.  That is how he begs us to pet him.  I scratch his neck under his collar for a couple of minutes, then turn my attention to the sermon.  Feeling ignored, Fozzie heads for his doggy pillow.  Taking his front feet, he gathers some of the material up between his paws and starts sucking on it.  Yes, he is the world's only pillow-sucking dog!  We think he reverts back to his puppy days and is pretending to suckle on his mommy!

Now Mr. Exciting Dog lays down and goes to sleep.  He is such a high-energy dog!  Sometimes he snores.  Sometimes you see a leg twitch - and... that is about it.  Whoo-hoo - what great company that dog is!  I miss the Mrs. and Mr. Youngster...

After creating Adam, God said, "It is not good for man to be alone."  He then created Eve, the first woman, using one of Adam's ribs.  Why do we think we it is a strength to be independent?  The fact is, we are strongest when we lean on each other.  Our spouse is meant to complete us, providing strengths where we have weaknesses.  In those areas of our lives where we are weakest, we need to rely upon, and trust, the strength of our spouse.  Don't let areas of differences cause conflict in our marriages - let them strengthen our marriages.  When we do that, then we are truly "one flesh."

McMeals To-Go

Three weeks ago we left the house to go to Missouri for my nephew's wedding.  The wedding was to start at 4:00, and we left the house at 10:20 with five hours of travel time ahead of us.  We were cutting it closer than I had planned.

Mr. Youngster wanted some breakfast to eat on the way, but I wanted to keep traveling.  So we pulled off after traveling only five miles to get some McGriddle meals.  Mr. Youngster loves McGriddles.  The Mrs. likes them too.  We pulled into the drive-thru, ordered, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  Finally, Mr. McLate delivered a sack of food, apologized, and gave us a couple of apple pies to make up for the long wait.  Inwardly, I seethed.  Outwardly, I smiled and took the food.  As I pulled away, the Mrs. checked the bag and announced that they had shorted us a McGriddle.  Sigh....

I ran back across the parking lot (not a pretty sight) and into McDonald's, up to the counter, and explained the problem.  Fortunately, there was a McGriddle that was ready (I wonder why...) and they gave it to me.  We were back on the road.  Fifteen minutes wasted, but we were rolling.

At about 1:00, Mr. Youngster was making noises about starving to death, so we pulled into - McDonald's.  I guess we needed a break that day - or two.  Since we were running later than we had planned, we placed our order to-go.  They quickly (!) provided the food, two empty pop cups, and an Iced Mocha for the Mrs.  They placed the empty cups and the Iced Mocha in one of those handy-dandy drink carriers, which I carried over to the pop machine.  Grabbing the two empty pop cups, I lifted them up - and watched in slooooow moooootion as the handy-dandy drink carrier tipped and dumped a glass of Iced Mocha on my feet and all over the floor.  Growl.  I don't even like coffee and now I was wearing it.

I decided the best option was to fill the pop cups, then head back to the counter to apologize for the mess and pay for another drink.  Shortly after putting the lids FIRMLY on the pop cups and pushing them FIRMLY into the handy-dandy drink carrier, Miss McNice walked up with a smile and an Iced Mocha.  She offered me the new mocha at no cost and wished me a better day.  Her smile wiped away my bad mood and soon we were back on the interstate, munching our McMeals as we went.  Oh, and the Mrs. sipped on her Iced Mocha.  I hope she enjoyed it...

Some days are like that.  The more we are in a hurry, the more the world conspires to slow us down.  R.C. Sproul wrote that Martin Luther said he needed at least an hour of prayer to start the day.  But on a really busy day, he needed at least two hours of prayer.  I know I had my quiet time that morning, but I also know my mind was more on the trip than on God.  I wonder if God had something important to tell me and, in my hurried state, I had missed it.  Maybe He wanted to slow me down so I could hear Him more clearly.  Most fathers want to spend time with their children, why would our Heavenly Father be any different?  I think I will go and talk to my Heavenly Father for a while...

Kids Say The Darndest Things

When I was (much) younger, Art Linkletter had a TV show, "Kids Say The Darndest Things."  If you remember, Mr. Linkletter would sit down with some children and ask them questions.  Their unexpected answers provided plenty of laughs!  I felt like Art Linkletter this morning.

I set aside a time during the worship hour every week for a children's message.  The kids come to the front of the church with me, we sit on the steps leading up to the pulpit, and we chat about a topic.  I brought in my annual yearbook from my senior year in high school this morning.  I had covered the names of all the guys on the pages that opened to my picture.  I asked the kids to find my picture.

Little Miss Honesty pointed to my picture right away.  Now, I want you to understand that I have changed more than a little bit in 32 years.  I used to have hair, now I don't have so much.  I used to wear glasses, now I wear contacts.  I used to be skinny, now I am ... well, not skinny.  I was shocked to see her get it right on the first try!  I fully expected them to spend more than a second looking at the pictures.  Foolishly, I asked Little Miss Honesty how she knew it was me.  She quickly replied, "I picked the nerdiest one!"  I shouldn't have asked!

Hebrews 13:8 says, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever."  I am not the same today that I was yesterday, and I know I will continue to change throughout my life.  I look different and I have different likes and dislikes.  My opinions on various issues have changed.  I am much different than I was.  But it is comforting to know that Jesus has not changed.  When we read what Jesus said in the Bible, we know that He still believes what He said then.  The rules He set forth then are still in effect now.  The love He showed people then, He still shows us now.  We know He still loves us and His death on the cross paved the way for us to be with Him in heaven.  Praise the Lord, He is still the same Savior!

A Cat From Above

About a year after the Mrs. and I were married, we made a trip home to Missouri to visit the folks.  While there, we also dropped by to see a very good friend, who was engaged to my sister-in-law (SIL).  I will call her Nurse SIL-ly, which seems appropriate.  As our visit was wrapping up, Nurse SIL-ly showed us a litter of kittens that were ready to be weaned.  They weren't very pretty, just plain old farm cats.  But wouldn't you know it - we took one of those critters home!  On the way back to Omaha, the Mrs. asked me what we should name him.  I suggested Dufus, and thus it was so.

Dufus was our first pet.  I think he was also our dumbest pet.  I guess he lived up to his name.  I have always heard it is easy to house-train a cat, because it is natural for them to want to use the litter box.  Not Dufus.  He was OK during the day, but he was likely to leave his "feline feces" anywhere in the house at night.  After a few nights of that, we started shutting Dufus in the utility room for the night.

Dufus didn't really like the utility room, but he didn't have much choice.  We put a little basket in there with a towel in it for him to sleep on and his litter box was in that room.  It was the only unfinished room in the house, so he couldn't damage it.  The utility room was in the basement of the house, which was finished like most houses of that time period.  The basement was where our family room was located.  It had carpet that had been glued to the cement floor, and had a drop-ceiling.  It used fluorescent lights hung just above those clear plastic ceiling pieces.

One night we were sound asleep when we heard a loud crash downstairs.  Being the brave and macho man of the house, I grabbed a baseball bat and headed for the basement.  I was Tarzan and GI Joe, all rolled into one - I was going to protect my bride!  When I ran into the family room, there was Dufus standing in the middle of the room with broken pieces of clear plastic all over the floor around him.  He had climbed the walls of the utility room, then walked across the drop-ceiling above the family room.  He was doing fine until he decided to walk across that flimsy, clear plastic underneath a light!  I wonder what he thought when he came crashing down into the family room!

Matthew 7:24-27 talks about the wise and foolish builders.  The wise man built his house with the foundation secured to rock.  The foolish man built his house on sand.  When the rains came and the wind blew, the house on the rock stood easily against the storm.  But the house on sand fell with a mighty crash.  Jesus gave a simple explanation for this story - those who build their life on His Word is like the man who built on the rock.  His life will be anchored to the Truth and will withstand the storms.  But those who anchor their life to anything else are headed for a mighty crash.

Dufus thought he was walking on something solid, but he was fooled and he came through the ceiling with a mighty crash.  When we put our trust in our jobs, our government, our families, education, etc., we are in trouble.  At first glance everything seems solid, but only God's Word can carry us when the storms hit our life with their fullest fury.  Don't be a Dufus - trust your life to Jesus and live it according to His Word.

A Valentine's Day Surprise

At a prior job, I worked with a couple of very good men that I became close friends with.  Big Mac and Mr. Trivia were not only my co-workers, but also my lunch buddies, fellow baseball fans, and practical jokers.  I have always held the opinion that you should be able to have fun at work - and we did!  We worked hard and we had fun - often at the expense of each other.

One winter, Mr. Trivia decided to leave the icebox of northwest Iowa for a week-long vacation in sunny Florida.  He was due to return to work on February 14, and Big Mac and I were looking forward to his return.  Anytime someone is gone from the team, everyone else on the team winds up doing more work.  So we were anxious for Mr. Trivia to return to work.  Besides that, it was boring without him around.

On the 13th, Big Mac and I decided we should welcome Mr. Trivia back in style.  We discussed a few possible "Welcome Home" possibilities and settled on a good one.  Since he was returning on Valentine's Day, we would take advantage of the holiday to let him know how much we missed him.

We went to Walmart over the lunch hour and bought some valentine cards - of the Barbie variety.  We dug through the piles of papers on his desk until we found one with his signature on it.  By the way, that was no easy feat - Mr. Trivia's filing system consisted of a process called "throw it on a pile somewhere."  We scanned the nearly indecipherable scrawl from that piece of paper into the computer.  Then, with the utmost care, we fed each Barbie valentine through the printer - placing his signature right in the middle of the back of each valentine.  Since Mr. Trivia was single, we thought we might help him meet some of the young ladies in the company.  After everyone else went home, we went around the office, strategically placing a valentine on the desks of many of the known single women in the company.  We went home that night, knowing we had a productive day!

Mr. Trivia arrived at work the next day, freshly revived from his luxurious Florida holiday, and began reading his backlog of emails.  Within a few minutes this cute young lady walks up to him and thanks him for the Valentine's Day card.  He immediately denied giving her a valentine, but she insisted he did.  She told him, "It has your signature on the back!"  He retorted, "That's can't be my signature," and he grabbed the valentine from her and looked at the back.  Then he got a funny look on his face and said, "Yes it is."  All day long, single women were wandering over to Mr. Trivia's desk to thank him for his thoughtfulness.  Later in the day he told Big Mac and I that he was never leaving his checkbook laying around when we were nearby!  I wonder how he knew it was us...

The Bible is God's love letter, or valentine, to us.  Through His Word, God opens His heart to us so we can see who He is and understand His character. His love was demonstrated for us on the cross.  Jesus died on the cross to pay the full penalty for our sins.  John 3:16 says, "For God loved the world (us) in this way: He gave His One and Only Son, so that everyone (even you!) who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life."  Mr. Trivia's valentine cards were forged and didn't reflect his feelings toward any of those women.  But God's love cannot be forged - His Son did what no one else could do, He proved God's love on the cross by rising from the dead.  His resurrection proved God's Word, and His love, is true and can be trusted.