Clay in the Hands

Having spent the past several years in west Texas, I forget about annoying things like traffic.  But it only takes a few minutes in Dallas to remember.  I got to the Big D about 4:30 yesterday afternoon and began the trek to the north side of town.  It took 30 minutes to go 9 miles (and that is good for most days).

What I realized through this experience is that one needs a renewed sense of patience and a different take on life to survive.  I am the kind of guy who wears the heels out on my shoes from always being in a hurry when I walk – and unfortunately for those who share the road with me, that passion for time does not stop when I turn on the ignition.

So when I hit the stop and go yesterday and the speed of my progress went down my blood pressure went up.  As I sat at a light at Northwest Highway and Preston Road (and sat through it’s sequence for the third time) it hit me – “I will get there when I get there so why not enjoy the drive.”

For many of you, that may not be revelatory, but for me it was an inspirational moment.  I felt the stress of the situation melt away and I was able to observe my surroundings with appreciation and almost a sacredness.

God is at work all around us each and every day.  Unfortunately for us, we are often more focused on being somewhere else than we are on being right where we are!

Take time to be present today.

You just might catch a glimpse of God at work!

Be blessed today.

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This was my view when I entered my office this morning.  Then I flipped open my laptop and the verse of the day on Biblegateway.com was Psalm 46:10

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Regardless of all the things swimming around in your head today – the pressures of work or home or just life in general – remember we serve a God who is bigger.  Take time to rest into the arms of the Father today.  Allow yourself to trust in the one who put this all together.  Remember who you are in light of who God is.

We serve a God – the God – who knows us by name, who sees our needs, who recognizes our faults and in spite of it all – loves us anyway.

Be blessed today!

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This past Sunday we started a new series on Sunday mornings as a follow up to something I asked our folks to start wrestling with a few weeks ago.  In Matthew 16 we have an account of Jesus taking his disciples to an out of the way area with an other-worldly atmosphere to get them to begin to think on a bigger scale. Once there he asked them two questions – the first leading into the second.

His first question was “who do others say that I am?”  The responses of his apprentices varied as they tried to brainstorm all those things people had said about him to that point.  But then he asked a second question that cut to the very bedrock level of the movement.  His question: “Who do you say that I am?”  That question must have rung in their ears.  No one wanted to respond – or at least no one wanted to be first.  How interesting would it have been to be an observer to see the faces of the disciples as they thought through how they should respond – to see the body language as they wrestled with this question!

Of course the bold one, Peter, jumped out there and offered his thoughts.  His response?  “You are the Christ, the son of the living God.”  This statement of conviction is one of the most concise and meaningful statements of faith in scripture.  And then Jesus went on to say that on that statement – that unwavering conviction – the church will be built.  What an affirmation!

Today, 2000 years later, the question still rings in our ears as being foundational for us as well.  We can build all kinds of churches and develop all kinds of ministries.  We can spend our time and energy doing all kinds of wonderful things.  But the foundational question still remains – who is Jesus to you?

Wrestle with that today.  All else loses meaning if we don’t have this question answered for ourselves.

Don’t rest until you do.

Blessings on your today!

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I’m back!  Remember me?  I have to admit, I am embarrassed at the amount of time that has passed since my last post here.

The past three months (or 8) have been a blur of events and a roller coaster of emotions.  In my mind, I compare it to water skiing.  I learned to ski when I was young and still love it to this day.  However, when I was ten and weighed 75 pounds, getting up on a slalom ski was not that difficult.  Now that I am older and a tad heavier, the experience is totally different.  Now it takes what seems like 15 to 20 minutes to get my head above water.  The boat takes off and I begin to look like the Loch Ness Monster – gliding through the water just below the surface.

But I do finally get up far enough to grab a breath and then continue to hang on until the boat has reached a speed that will pull me up onto the surface of the water.  I have just described my life for the past several months.  I feel I am far enough out of the water to take a breath but not up on top of the water yet.

My ministry and life have taken a new turn – an exciting turn – a new adventure.  As I drove to the church this morning – up Ocean Drive (yeah – there is really water – crazy right?  West Texas boy ministering on the coast), a Toby Mac song – Beyond Me – came on the radio and a line in the chorus caught my ear: you “call me to waters a little too deep.”  That is what I have been feeling as of late.  Not that I doubt God’s hand in any of it or even that I just shouldn’t be here – but just feeling the overwhelming nature of taking on a new challenge and a sense of not being worthy of what God has called me to.

But then I hear the words of this song and I am reminded that a life lived for God is a life of adventure – a life that stretches us and pushes the boundaries of what we thought we would ever do.  For the past few years, I have preached that God expects us to get out of our comfort zones and trust in him and his plan for us.  I preached it – now I am living it.

And let me just say – it is quite a ride.  While I miss my church family in Littlefield and the eternal relationships that have been formed there and will continue forever (and do I ever miss you!!), I am so blessed by the opportunity of developing new relationships and taking on new challenges.  God is amazing!

This past Sunday, I quoted Aristotle in saying, the unexamined life is not worth living.  While I agree with that statement to an extent, I would add, the life not lived for God is not really life at all.  God calls us to the most fulfilling and meaningful existence we could ever experience.  When we live our lives for him we find ourselves in the midst of a great adventure.

And there is no better place to be!

Be blessed today!

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I think God may be trying to tell me something.  I posted yesterday about the importance of realizing how easy it is to drift away from God and the things we hold true.  You can read that post here.

So this morning during my time of silence and reading, I was reading through the story of Cornelius in Acts chapter 10.  One of the practices I try to use often is Lectio Divina or Prayerful Reading.  With this practice, you work through just a few verses and read them through looking for a word or phrase that stands out to you and then spend some time meditating on whatever that might be.

As I read the story, Luke tells us that Cornelius was not a Jew but was a God-fearer and prayed continuously (a habit we could all adopt).  During a time of prayer, an angel appeared to him and at his appearance, Cornelius “fixed his gaze” on the angel.  That is the concept that has continued to stick in my mind.  He fixed his gaze – his eyes were glued, his mouth was open and he was completely captivated.  The house could have collapsed around him and he would not have noticed because his full attention was locked on the visitor.

If we want to stop the drift – we have to learn to have that kind of focus.  We have to give God our complete and undivided attention.  When we do, we will experience God in a way never before possible.

Fix your gaze today!

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What does real commitment look like – unwavering – never ceasing – completely sold out – commitment?  Have you ever seen it?

Have you ever looked commitment in the eye and recognized the prize that you were witnessing?

I had such an opportunity on Monday.  I sat with a pastor and his wife at a restaurant in Juarez, Mexico for dinner.  We talked about an upcoming retreat that we will offer to pastors and their wives this June – a time of refreshment, training and renewal.  I listened as he described some needs he would like to see addressed.  I also listened to his words as he shared about a struggle or two.  But what captured my heart was the look in his eye when he told us that he has been serving in Juarez for 17 years.

When Juarez plummeted from a rough city to the most dangerous city on the planet – he and his family stayed.  When death tolls rose – he kept on ministering to his congregation.  When the killing moved from cartel wars to indiscriminate murder – he and his family persevered in reaching out to their area.

That, my friend, is commitment.  As I sat on the bridge to re-enter Texas and the good ole’ USA, I reflected on our conversation.  I remembered the look in his eyes when he shared.  And I had to ask myself: “Am I that committed?  Would I be willing to stick it out and continue to serve in the midst of threats to my family and myself?  Am I willing to be uncomfortable for the cause of Christ?”

I look at my new friend and I am inspired.  I am motivated to risk a little more.  My passion is renewed just a bit to see Jesus proclaimed with conviction.

I look at my new friend and my resolve is strengthened.

Commitment can come in many forms but it is defined by the willingness to deny ourselves and live for Christ.

Are you committed?

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Growing up, we had a solid wood front door. About four and a half feet from the bottom of that door was a little round hole with a funny little round window in it. That hole was no more than a half inch in diameter. The purpose of putting a little half inch hole complete with a half inch window in it? So that we could see who was at the door without having to open it. In fact, if we were quiet, we could actually see who was on the other side of the door and they would not even know we were home.

OK, yes – most doors have a peep-hole, so nothing new. But there are a couple of things I would point out about this technology. The first is that the designers figured out that because of the small opening, the view is very limited – you might be able to see a fraction of the front porch. So they put a wide-angle lens on the thing to expand the view. But even then, you can only see what is right in front of the door and that image is very distorted.

Why all the talk about the development of peep-hole technology? As I have been thinking about our lives and how we have good days and bad days – we have days when we feel God’s presence and days we don’t – I got to thinking about the peep-hole.

You see, Paul said that we see now in a mirror dimly but one day we will see clearly. When it comes to all that God is doing around us, our vision is very limited and what little vision we have is distorted. God has promised that we will never be left alone – God’s spirit is always with us. But sometimes we wonder, “where is God in all this?”

I am here to tell you that regardless of what you are facing today, God is with you. If you could get outside your door and not have to look through that peep-hole, you would see an entirely different picture. God is with you. The spirit is moving all around you.

So remember today, we all have a peep-hole perspective. But with a little faith, we know that even though we only get a glimpse of God at work from time to time, just outside our view, God is always there.

Be blessed today!

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Do you ever feel like its you against the world?  You, all alone, no one else?  Maybe even abandoned?  “No one could possibly understand how I feel.  No one knows what I am going through.”

These are the thoughts of a lonely person.  We all go through periods on this journey when we feel we are the only ones making the trip.  That is normal and dare I say . . . healthy.

You see, it is in our lonely times that we really meet God.  Our tendency is to stay busy – to stay occupied.  We try to fill ourselves with media, friends, work, stuff – but none of that satisfies.  It is when we are truly alone and there is no one or no thing to turn to that we can fully connect with God.  And that is the essence of our existence in the first place.

Aren’t we simple creatures!

Our lives are meant to be simple – keep our focus off of ourselves and on God – everything else falls into place.

So remember – when you feel lonely – you are never truly alone.  God is there and it is in those lonely times you can really connect – really find the savior who loves you.

Take heart – you are not alone!

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This past Sunday, we started a month long emphasis on living generously.  As part of the introduction, I spent some time talking about a disease that is killing us.  This disease is particularly debilitating because it works behind the scenes mostly undetected.  

The disease is entitlement.  

In our culture, we have been tricked into believing that we are due a good life.  Regardless of how hard we work or how little we work, our attitude is that we deserve status or wealth or happiness.

The reason this disease is so debilitating is that it is birthed out of our selfishness and grows to feed that very selfishness.  Unchecked, it will kill any sense of gratitude we might otherwise feel.

Here is the truth from scripture:

1.  All of us are unworthy – all have fallen short of God’s ideal for us

2.  All good things come from God, by God’s grace and not because of anything we do

3.  We can’t earn God’s favor – God gives it freely

We need to stop this holiday season and think about these truths.  We are truly blessed but not because we deserve any of it.  We are blessed because God blesses us.

That should move us to gratitude.

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