Peace, Ice Cream and Chicken

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It seems like whenever someone is coaxing me to try some exotic food it always ends up with some version of, tastes like chicken.  It never does but chicken is a good common taste for all kinds of stuff. On the other hand Ice cream is one of those things that definitely does not taste like chicken!  

How would you explain ice cream to an alien from outer space?  Umm..  cold... smooth... um really really good.  Look you just have to try it.  There is no way to explain it until you taste it. 

There are some things in life that have no other adequate common denominator from which we can make an analogy or draw a comparison.  Ice cream is one of those things.  Words just can't cover the cold, smooth sweetness of high-quality ice cream on a hot day. You just have to taste, then the light of will shine and you will wonder how anyone could live without it. 

Real Peace is like that.  I never know how to explain to people what God's peace is like. The Apostle Paul called it the “peace that passes all understanding” and in the Old Testament, the word is Shalom.  Both of these speak about something much bigger more important and substantive than our normal understanding of peace.  

Usually, when we use the word peace, we think of things like peace and quiet. By this we mean the kids aren't screaming, the neighbor's music isn't too loud and we aren't fighting with our spouse.  This is not at all what God means when he offers us His Peace. 

God's Peace is not an emotional state of tranquility. God's Peace is a deep down in your soul confidence that God will have His way in the end.  That's why it's beyond understanding.  It comes from God not our circumstances and it cannot be taken away by the storms of life.  This was such a big deal for ancient Hebrews that greeted and departed from one another with the word Shalom (God's Peace) and still do today.  Early Christians said the same thing with the words, The Peace of Christ be with you and the other person would reply and also with you.  

Real Peace, God's Peace is a gift straight from our heavenly father.  It is the "secret sauce" of being a follower of Jesus.  It starts by having peace with God. Jesus Is our Peace.  He has, by his sacrifice, mended our relationship with God.  He offers us a right and good relationship with God who loves us so much that He would give His life for us in Jesus.  

That alone would be enough but God, being the overachiever that He is, did more.  God also restores our relationships (Peace) with creation.  He is the source of true healing in the broken relationships of this life. He wants to heal that broken relationship with your spouse, child, parent, friend, co-worker, neighbor, and on and on and on.  Truly this is Peace that passes all human understanding.  

Best news of all... although He paid a high price to make Peace, He offers it to you freely. All you have to do is ask. 

Here's how

Ask him to forgive your past. We all have a past

Ask him to clean you up and make you new

Ask him to help you follow him the rest of your life. 

Do that sincerely in your heart and His peace will be yours.  Not only that but in the "bundle" you get forgiveness, new life , and heaven.  Way better than the phone companies bundle. 

My greatest wish for you is that this Advent, The Peace of Christ be with you. 

For more information about who to have God's Peace feel free to e-mail me at PastorCraig@MarysvilleNaz.org

You can also watch or listen to the sermon about this at 

Catch the audio here.

http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermons/sermon/87-peace

  

Hope in the Darkness

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Last Sunday we started a new Advent teaching series called Hope in the Darkness. Hope is one of those things that people are either really interested in or not at all.  The problem with hope is that until you need it, you don't need it, but when you need it, you really need it.  Is that clear?  Probably not. 

The reason we chose Hope in the Darkness is people most need hope in dark times. Have you ever heard someone say, he's in a dark place?  This isn't a comment on cave diving.  It means that life is closing in and they can't see the way out.  It is dark because the path forward has been lost. 

Hope is light that shows the way when nothing else does. Hope is the thing you hold onto when there is nothing else to grasp.  Hope is often represented by light because in darkness light shows the way and provides warmth in the cold. 

The four Sundays before Christmas or what we call Advent, is a joyous time for most, but not all.  For some it is dark time. All around us are folks for whom this time of year is oppressive.  As others rejoice they retreat.  Suicides and psycho-emotional crises go up.  The walls are closing in and life is dark.  It is to these people that Jesus offers a light in the darkness called Hope. 

Jesus came as a baby in a manger not because it makes a cute bedtime story for small children.  He came because the world had, by our sin, plunged itself into dark, dank, oppressive, cold blackness. We were without hope, lost with no way forward.  Into the darkness came a light, just a speck really, one baby to one peasant couple, a tiny, fragile fire giving off light and warmth.  Must say, if you don't know the end of the story, He sure doesn't look like the hope of the world. But then that is the nature of hope. 

Hope isn't a big blazing fire that turns night into day and drives you back by its heat.  Hope is small; you’ll miss it if you're not careful.  It doesn't give off nearly as much light or warmth as you want.  

Christmas Eve we will gather to celebrate the coming of the light in baby Jesus.  We will laugh and greet one another, introduce family and friends.  We will sing Christmas Carols and hear the Christmas story.  Just before we leave we will gather in family units and form a circle around the Worship Center.   We will blow out the four candles of Advent and light the singular white Christ Candle. Then we will do something seriously crazy.  

With hundreds of people present we will kill all the lights leaving that one tiny flame.  It will be completely inadequate. It doesn't put off enough light or warmth to help the person standing next to it.  The people in the back of the Worship Center won't be able to see anything at all...except the flame. The whole thing is ridiculous.  But in that moment of crazy darkness something Holy will happen.   

The leader will take a candle, press it to the Christ candle and there will be two flames.  Then he will turn and press his lit candle against his neighbor's unlit candle and utter the most important truth the world has ever know... the ultimate words of hope.  Jesus is the light of the world!   

As powerful as that moment is, it is not enough.  Even with three lights the place is utterly dark.  Then it starts.  The person who received the light passes it to the next person saying Jesus is the light of the world and then the next person, Jesus is the light of the world and then the next, Jesus is the light of the world and the next and the next and the next.   Jesus is the light of the world. 

If you listen you will hear deep male voices utter this great truth, Jesus is the light of the world.  Then you will hear the soft high voice of a child who has just received the flame from their father say to their mother.. Jesus is the light of the world.  From parent to child, to grandparent to friend to stranger the light is passed.  Faces start to brighten up, the occasional drop of hot wax hits a finger and we are reminded, sometimes humorously, that our flames are creating heat.  Then comes the ancient miracle. 

The flame began with one candle and has been traveling around the circle will meet the flame from the other direction and the circle will be complete.  The Worship Center will be light again.  I almost always wipe away tears during this time.  We have hope!  Jesus is the light of the World!  Jesus is the light of the World! Jesus is the Light of the World! 

To hear the sermons on Hope in the Darkness or catch up on past teaching go to our web page - It usually takes a couple days to get them up. 

Video - 

Audio/Podcast - http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermons

Oso, MP Shooting and Thanksgiving

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It almost seems cruel.  A few weeks after the shooting and days after the last funeral we find ourselves looking at Thanksgiving.  Normally this would mean thoughts of gratitude for all that God has done in the previous year.  Don't get me wrong, God as done a lot.  It's just that there have also been a couple of nearly incomprehensible tragedies in the Oso slide and the MP Shooting.  It just seems like we have had more than our fair share of late.  Honestly, the whole thing has left me a little emotionally flat when it comes to giving thanks.  

As I have pondered all this the Holy Spirit has been prodding me.  It's that poking God does when I've missed something significant and I need to catch on. Sometimes God and I wrestle about these things for a long time but sometimes the Lord clears things up more quickly.  The important revelation came last week while grappling with a Thanksgiving sermon that just wouldn't come together.  

In 1 Thessalonians 5:18 the Apostle Paul writes "Give thanks in all things, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."   In light of the real disasters we have faced the verse seems cruel.  I get the giving thanks bit but in ALL things?  Really?  It took me awhile but God finally got the important truth through.  

The Verse says IN not FOR. 

In not For, is a hugely important difference.  Honestly it changes everything.  "In" is about geography.  You can be in a house, or in a cave.  "For" on the other hand is about causation.  For the crime of shoplifting I sentence you to...   "For" means because of.  In means during.  

Paul was not telling those early Christians to give thanks FOR their circumstances he was instructing them to give thanks IN the midst of their difficult circumstances.  I felt greatly revealed, and then the Holy Spirit sprung the trap.  

I'm an ungrateful person.  I don't like that about me but the truth is 99.99% of the time when I am grateful, I'm grateful "for" what I have.  House, car, job, vacation even family, friends and church are all things for which I am profoundly grateful. I should be grateful for all these things.  God has blessed those of us in the Western World with so much stuff that it's embarrassing when compared to the rest of the world.  Yes, please give thanks "for" stuff.  But really, thanksgiving for stuff is pretty shallow.  

The deeper, more substantive thanks-giving is the kind that is offered to God when there isn't much "for" which to be thankful.  This is the kind of thankfulness that is more important than stuff.  It bubbles up from the depths in the soul.  It is not dependent on the circumstances of the moment.  It cares not about prosperity or poverty.  It sees beyond grief and the struggles of pain.  This kind of thankfulness gives life to us because it forces us to stop looking at what we do or do not have and turn our attention toward who we have.  

Who we have is Jesus Christ who has conquered death and given us new life.  Who we have is the Holy Spirit who is the Comforter and cares for us when all else is stripped away.  Who we have is our Heavenly Father who is King of Kings and Lord of Lords and will one day put an end to all pain and suffering.  Who we have ... is God and nothing can take that away.  

This Thanksgiving is going to be different for us.  There will be a certain sadness that will hang over the day.  I will remember that there are many, many families in my community that are grieving loss, facing the first major holiday with an empty chair at the table.  We will pray for them, we will not give thanks for those circumstances for they were evil.  But then... then we will give thanks to God IN  our grief, for this is God's will for us. 

May the Peace of Christ be yours this Thanks-Giving season.

School Shooting... Marysville WA

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Almost three weeks ago the unthinkable happened in my community, we had a school shooting.  I haven't written about it in large part because I'm not sure what to say and in many ways I'm still in shock.  It all seems a bit unreal. 

How exactly does one get a handle on this?  There really aren't words... and blogging is all about words, I'm all about words... but in this moment they seem completely inadequate.  

So here is what I think.  

First, evil is real.  None of us know what was going on in the young man's mind that day but neither can we deny that the choices he made were evil.  No getting around it, massaging it or sugar coating it.  What happened at Marysville-Pilchuck was evil plain and simple. 

We live in a world that wants to run away from the idea of evil.  We like to say they aren't bad, what they did was bad.  I get what they are trying to say, the kid wasn't Hitler but still, I think the distinction is lost on the families of his victims.  Evil is real and denying it doesn't help. 

Second, evil always damages innocent victims.  It is the nature of evil.  It would be one thing if the only person hurt by evil was the person doing it, but it never works that way.  Evil always harms bystanders.  I often think this is why God hates evil so much.  

Third... and most importantly, the remedy for evil is not justice but Love.  Don't get me wrong, there is a very important place for justice.  Locking up folks that do this sort of thing is absolutely the right thing to do, but justice can never cure the problem it can only respond after the fact.  In the case of our shooting, there isn't even anyone to lock up.  The shooter took his own life.  The whole justice mantra seems hollow and very unsatisfying.

Love is God's answer to evil.  It's not as immediately or emotionally satisfying as justice but it is the only answer that actually address the problem.  It is also the only answer that can eliminate the problem before it finds expression in destructive actions.  

The real trouble with evil is that it's a heart problem and no amount of justice can change the heart, only love can do that.  The power of the gospel of Jesus Christ is not that He came to bring justice but that he came to bring a remedy for evil.  It was love not justice that motivated Jesus to surrender his life and absorb the consequences of our evil.  It is only Love that can open our hearts to what he wants to do in us.  To use His language, "cleansing us of all sin."  (1 John 1:7)  The only cure for evil is to change our hearts. 

In the days since the shooting I've been privileged to watch an outpouring of love in our community.  There have been lots of hugs, words of support, material gifts and sometime just gathering for the sake of being together.  Somehow we intuitively know that the response to evil must be Love.  Love is the cure and Love will heal. 

I think maybe this is why Jesus added only one commandment.. "Love Each Other" 

A Sacred Trust

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Sacred Trust.  These two words have become my life motto.  They capture my understanding of my most core values.  

Maybe I'm just getting old but everywhere I look I see that life is fragile and temporary.  It is a Sacred Trust given to us by God.  Sacred (God) Trust (We control it but don't own it) 

What does that mean in real life?

First I've decide that All of Life is Sacred but not all of it is religious.   I used to think life was divide into sacred and secular but more and more I see that life itself is sacred.  There is something Holy about the mundane, run of the mill stuff that happens all the time.  Something spiritual about even the ordinary stuff of life.  To be alive is to participate in the sacred life of God.  

Are some parts of life more intentionally sacred than others?  Sure, corporate worship services bring me into God's presence in a way that nothing else can.  Sacrificially serving others connects me with God in ways I can not explain.  I get that there are times when sacredness is obvious and almost tangible.  But I also find that when I am willing to open my  spiritual eyes (harder than it sounds) I see God at work in the most commonplace chores of life. 

Second, believing that life is a Trust means that I have some responsibility.   I'm not talking about the whole -- earn your way into heaven thing.  Turns out both life and eternal life are a love gift from God. You can't earn them.  You can only graciously accept them.  I say life is a trust I'm talking about a father giving his child a great treasure and then standing back to see what the child will do with it. 

Will they ignore it and let it decay?  Will they abuse it and destroy it?  Will they use it up selfishly on their own pleasure?  Will they be well intentioned but unwise with it?  Or maybe they will see the gift as a trust to be carefully used for the betterment of the whole family.  Maybe they will use it to make other's lives better and provide for the ones they love.

A Trust -- is simply the verb form of the noun trust.  It means someone gives someone else something of great value and then trusts them to do the right thing with it.  In some ways trust really isn't trust until it becomes a verb. 

God has put stuff in my hand and yours.  We often call those things blessings and I have been given a ton of them.  My parents left a great legacy by giving me a warm, loving, supportive home in which to grow up.  I have been blessed with a great home in my own generation with a wonderful wife and two amazing kids.  I've been given an education and lots of diverse experiences.  I've been blessed to be the leader of a really great church and a people that love me even though I'm not that cool pastor down the street.  Most of all I've been blessed with Spiritual life from God.  

So what has God Blessed into your life?  What gifts from your heavenly father do you hold in your hand?  I suspect He is watching with a smile and sense of expectation, eagerly anticipating your moves.  Like all good parents applause and praise come easily and correction is about helping you not harming you.  

So the question remains... If life is a Sacred Trust, and it is... what do you want to do with yours?   

If you want to learn more about leaving a strong Legacy I invite you to check out our teachings series.  We are calling it "Legacy, Living for something more than yourself."

You can watch online at  
http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermon-video

Listen to audio or download a podcast at http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermons/serie/13-legacy

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. 

You Must Go Home Again

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Last Sunday I was at my "home" church.  We were celebrating 90 years of faithful ministry.  A part of those 90 years were spent investing in me.  I was only 6 months old when my family joined the church.  After I graduated from High School I was so eager to break the shackles of childhood and strike out on my own that I pretty much never looked back.  I didn't appreciate the contribution those good people made to my life. 

The years slipped by quickly.  Went to college, married the love of my life, kid, career, more school, another kid, new career.  It was mostly all, up and away.  Then, everything changed. 

Dad had his first heart attack and then a stroke, my nephew passed away, then my dad passed away.  I began to feel something my younger self would not have believed possible... a tug on my heart from the past inviting me home.  In all those years I had hardly been back. 

It wasn't long before I found myself making what I can only call a pilgrimage to a community and church that so formed and informed my growing up.  I wasn't prepared for the emotional impact of that visit.  I remember sitting at the beach for hours and feeling a profound sense of loss.  I drove by all the old haunts, houses, and hang outs.  I drove past my old church building.  It had been reduced to rubble, literally.  I snatched a chunk and it sits in my office today.  It became my little piece of "home" as I returned to my busy life in the Midwest and closed the door on those strange feelings.

  

Then things changed more... My sister got cancer, my daughter went off to college, God called me away from a church I loved to move back to the Northwest, my mom got sick, my son went to college, mom stopped remembering who I was, my sister died. My family was gone.  

It is a very strange thing to consider that you are the only one who remembers your childhood.  There is no one left who remembers my childhood Christmases, or that great vacation to Disneyland or the cross country trip with the dog that got into a skunk.  

Because of the nature of my career lots of people know who I am now, but almost no one remembers how I became that person.  Turns out remembering is important.

  

Like I said, last weekend I was with the dear people of that church.  They are in a different building, new folks have come and lots have gone.  But for a few hours on Sunday some of us were together again and they did a very comforting thing... they told stories.  Telling stories is the best way to remember.   We laughed, I cried, and most of all I was with people who remembered the early chapters of my story. 

The three hour drive home was very strange.  On the one hand I was sad that dad, mom and my sister could not be there.  I am all that is left of my family.  This wasn't supposed to happen at my age.  On the other hand I found being with people who so deeply molded my early life to be very grounding.  These are the people that will forever remember the stupid things I did as a kid.  The mistakes that I wish no one remembered and yet feel comfort that someone does remember.  They have stories that cause me embarrassment and know secrets that put me in a bad light.  These people know, to quote scripture "The sins of my youth" and they loved me anyway.  They remind me of 1 Peter 4:8 "Love covers a multitude of sins." 

I've always heard it said you can't go home again.  I get what they mean but I'm wondering if there is a sense in which we all must go home at some point.  We all need people who remember and I mean remember the stuff you wish they would forget.  There is something comforting and reassuring about people who love you warts and all.  

That little church doesn't look like much on the outside.  It has never been very big and it has always struggled.   Its legacy is not measured by traditional metrics.  It really only does one thing well, it loves people and especially kids.  I was once one of those kids and Hoquiam Church of the Nazarene, I am your legacy.  I want to thank you for remembering me and I want you to know, I remember you and I will never forget.

PS -- Did I mention that more than 1/4 of the people present Sunday were kids?  Legacy! 

If you want to learn more about leaving a strong Legacy I invite you to check out our teachings series.  We are calling it "Legacy, Living for something more than yourself."

You can watch online at  
http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermon-video

Listen to audio or download a podcast at http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermons/serie/13-legacy

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. 

Family Legacy

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Legacy is one of those things that modern culture confuses with a Will.  Don't get me wrong, a Will is a very good thing.  If you don't have one you need to get one but a Will is really a very small part of one's legacy.  

Legacy is about how you are remembered and what kind of influence you leave behind.  It's kind of like the wake of a boat.  The boat has moved on but there are still waves influencing other boats.  

It is not possible to pass through this life without impacting others.  The people most impacted are your children and grandchildren.  These little ones are watching you all the time, even when you think they aren't and they are little sponges.  Your words, actions and attitudes are all being absorbed and will one day come out through the vessel of their own lives.  

Have you ever noticed that families have tendencies?  I've met families that have been angry for generations... anger is their family legacy.  I've seen addictions past down as legacy.  In fact I've seen dysfunction of every kind passed to the next generation. 

Parents, there is no better reason to break the cycle of (fill in the blank) than to leave your children a better legacy than your parents left you.  I've witnessed the joy as a generation chooses to be the last to suffer from a bad legacy and I've seen the pain when they didn't care enough to change.  

I've also met lots of folks that passed down really great family legacies.  Multi-generational military service is one.  I've known families in which owning a successful  businesses happened in each generation.   I've know families whose legacy was medicine, or art, or music, or service or  ministry or... well you get the idea.  

So what do you want to pass to your children and grandchildren?  Here is what I know for sure.  What you live, they will do.  So you need to be intentional.  Great legacies don't just happen they are created on purpose.  

So get that Will done, it's important but even more important is getting series about your family's legacy.   

If you want to learn more about leaving a strong Legacy I invite you to check out our teachings series.  We are calling it "Legacy, Living for something more than yourself." 

You can watch online at  

http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermon-video

Listen to audio or download a podcast at http://www.marysvillenaz.org/index.php/resources/sermons/serie/13-legacy

You can also subscribe to the podcast on iTunes. 

Does Legacy matter to you? It does to me.

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Does Legacy matter to you?  It didn't use to matter to me or at least I didn't think about it.  These days I think about it a fair amount.  I can't help but ask myself "will it matter that I was alive?"  Will I leave anything of true value to my children?  Will my core values be passed successfully to the next generation? 

What will be my Legacy is one of those questions that sneaks up on you.  We rarely think about it but once we do, it suddenly seems like a pretty important question.  Yet most people have put more energy and planning into assuring that their wealth goes to the next generation (A Will) than their values.  

In last Sunday's sermon we looked at the story of Lazarus and the Rich Man.  The disturbing part of the story was that the sin of the Rich Man was not that he did things wrong but that he did nothing at all.  

I can't help but wonder how often the same could be said about us.  We have successfully avoided doing wrong things but have failed at doing the right things.  

So what will be your legacy?  What are you doing to ensure your legacy?  What do you think is important to pass to the next generation?  What is your plan?  

More Next Week.  

More about the series and links to sermons. 

What story do you want your children to tell?

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Here is an irrefutable Life Law.  Eventually everything is reduced to a story.  Yep, all those things we think are so important, no compromise issues... One day they will just be a story someone tells about you.  

Your greatest accomplishments will eventually become just another story you children tell about you.  Of course the good news is that your greatest failures will also be reduced to a story someone tells.  The funny things that happen in life... story.  The hard things... story.  The embarrassing things... story.  All of it will one day be a story you tell and then even less of it will be a story your children tell.  So let me ask you one of the most important questions in life.


What story do you want your children to tell?

As a pastor I've been to way more funerals than most people.  I've listened to the stories people tell at funerals.  I've sat with families in private as they told the stories of their loved one.  You know what I've discovered?  Death as a way of shining a rather glaring light on a persons life.  It sifts our life for the things that really mattered.  It asks the rather awkward question... what did you do that really mattered?  

Once a sat with a family who could only say... he was a good provider.   I figured there had to be more (It didn't leave me much to work with) so I probed further.  Nope, that was it.  He was a good provider. 

Even worse is the family that begins to pour out bitterness and anger when I ask for stories.  He was selfish, she didn't give time to anyone, they had an anger problem they... well you get the idea.  This usually leads to a pretty generic funeral.  

I've also sat with families devastated by the sudden loss of one they deeply loved.  Their grief so strong that it seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the room.  Into this grief I simply say... tell me about your loved one, what are their stories?  

Sometimes they start slow but in just a few minutes they get rolling and the stories begin to pour out.  Stories of the difference this person made in their life.  Stories of their impact on others.  Funny stories that have them belly laughing right smack dab in the middle of their sorrow.  Stories that make me cry.  Often there are stories of things they did that very few knew about but which profoundly impacted the lives of others.  This story time becomes  sacred time.  We laugh, we cry, we remember.  The more the family tells the stories the more they heal and the prouder they become of their loved one.  But in the end... it is all reduced to stories.  

t

So here's the deal.  Stories shape people.  The make us who we are and the stories that your children and grandchildren tell about you will profoundly impact who they become.  Your stories will pass to the next generation your values.  

So... what story do you want your children to tell?   Your story is your greatest Legacy.  What do you want your legacy to be?   Would you like to change the trajectory of your legacy?  Would you like to influence those stories?   

For the next six weeks I'm going to be in a teaching series we're calling Legacy, living for something more than yourself.  I invite you to join us and bring along any friends that care about their story.  This will be helpful even if you are not a follower of Jesus and for those of you that are, this is super important.   

If you can't join us in person I invite you to join us online at www.MarysvilleNaz.org and go to the sermon section for Video or Audio of the teaching.  

Loneliness and Home Made Bread

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I read recently that 2 out of 3 men experience chronic loneliness.  That is a startling number when you consider they are talking about a chronic condition.  I can understand experiencing occasional loneliness but chronic?  That really says something about the lives men lead.  

Before I go further I probably need to be clear that loneliness and being alone is not the same thing.  One can be around a lot of people and be lonely. (Especially men)  One can also be by them-self and not feel lonely at all.  The key difference is the presence of meaningful friendships.  I honestly think that a huge part of the problem is that we have a hard time making strong friendships.  We do the surface thing pretty well but really getting to know someone so that you feel connected to them is much harder.  

For Jodi and me one of our greatest blessings has been the abundance of true friends over the years.  It's kind of amazing really when you consider how often we have moved.  Frankly we are prime candidates for loneliness but just the opposite is true.  We have more close friends than we can keep up with.  We really do have an embarrassment of riches.

Wanna know our secret?  One word, church.  Even before we went into the ministry we were deeply involved in church and in Connection Groups.  The gospel has always pushed us to connect in meaningful ways with other believers.  When we were young it was a connection group of young couples just starting out.  We laughed with and at each other.  We we got a little older we again bonded with people at the same stage of life.  At this stage in life we again find ourselves connected to folks that are doing what we are doing... launching kids into the real world, otherwise known as the empty nest.  

It is the friendships we made living life together that have sustained us over all these years.  In fact it seems to be coming full circle.  I look at the children of all our friends and I realize that our kids are now at the same stage of life that we were when we started our first Connection Group in our church.  Life goes by way to fast but we have been extraordinarily blessed with friends that are like family and you can too.

So let me encourage you to find the time in your crazy schedule to get into a connection group.  We have groups based on learning, Bible Study and sermons.  In addition to you can just spend time with good friends.  But I do have one caution.  Friends take time. 

Truth is you can't microwave friendship.  It is old fashion and can only be made from scratch.  Yes scratch is a lot of work but do you remember what homemade from scratch bread tastes like?  Hot out of the oven, overwhelming smell, soft inside.. then you add homemade jam... Yeah, worth it.  

Is getting connected and making real friends hard work?  Yep.  Does it take time you don't have? Yep.   Is it worth it... without a doubt.  Just like made from scratch bread satisfies in a way that store bought cannot, real friendship satisfies the soul.  

Life is a Team Sport

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If you have ever played a team sport you know that winning and losing is not entirely up to you.  You may play really well but lose because others did not.  Of course the opposite is also true, you many win despite the fact that you were not at your best.  You win and lose as a team. This lesson was one of the reason we encouraged our kids to be in team sports. 

Turns out Life is a Team Sport.   Nobody makes it on their own.  Someone gave you life, someone gave you life, people have taught you along the way and unless you are a total hermit and completely off the grid you depend on other people for everything from a working environment to the food on your table and the electricity in your big screen TV! 

Truth is we all have a Life Team around us.  These are the people we partner with in order to build a meaningful and fulfilling life.  Some Life Team members don't have a lot of influence on how our life will work out.  Take the folks that deliver electricity to our houses.  So long as they keep the lights on and we pay our bills that is about all we need from them.  

22 players + The 12th Man! 

However there are other folks that have a huge impact on how our life and the lives of the ones we love will turn out.  The truth is who you connect with determines what you build in life.  If you connect with the wrong folks they can stall out your life or worse they can take you down a destructive path.  This concept is so pervasive that we even have sayings about it... "He fell in with the wrong crowd" or one of my favorites, "It's hard to sore with the eagles when you are surrounded by turkeys!"

Of course the opposite is also true.  Get connected with people who encourage you to excel, coach you and have your back in times of trouble and building a great life gets a lot easier.  These are the folks that really do help you sore with Eagles.  These folks make you a better husband or wife, a better parent, employee or boss.  They help keep you focused on what really matters and how to get there.  That's the kind of team we all want to be a part of.    

Now comes the probing question... how much thought and intentional action have you given to choosing the people who are in your life?  Put more crudely... Are there folks on your "Life Team" that are taking things the wrong way?  Is there some room in your life for some folks that will make you and the people you love better?  

This Sunday we start our September Sermon Series we are calling Lego.  It's all about connecting with people and building a meaningful life.  Some folks help us build, others not so much.  Join us this Sunday as we talk about - The importance of your Life Team.  

This sermons series will be available in both audio video formats.  You can hear the audio on iTunes or the church web page.  The video will be available on the our Facebook page, our YouTube page and the church web page 

Life Long Love

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30 years ago today I stood before God and His church with the love of my life and we vowed life long love and fidelity to each other.  Except for putting Christ first in my life this was the best decision I've ever made.  I can honestly say everything of true value and goodness in my life is  in some way connected to her.  Top of the list are my two children Jana and Kevin, the greatest gifts I've ever received.  My closest friendships are couples friends.  This extraordinary women has partnered with me in my life's work, often carrying a heavy load in silence without the public recognition that comes my way.  Yep pretty much everything that is truly valuable is connected to her.

Truth is, I have a great life because I have a great wife and I love her way more today than I did 30 years ago.  (Didn't think that was possible back then, but I didn't know nearly as much as I thought) She is my best friend, partner in all things and the love of my life but most of all she is the one that has loved me and stuck by me no matter what. (That's a bigger deal than you would think!)

The greatest gift Jodi has given me is that, faithful to her vows, she has loved me like Jesus.  That is an extraordinary thing.  There is no one in the world who knows me better than her.  She knows my faults and flaws, my weaknesses and temptations.  She has seen me at my worst and my lowest.  There is nothing hidden from her... and yet she still loves me.  She has lived out for me the Love of God and demonstrated that True Love is knowing someone's faults and loving them anyway.  This kind of love is very strong and a gift from God.   As a former parishioner used to say to me, You are blessed and highly favored of the Lord.  Yes I am.

In 1 Peter 4:8 it says "Above all, Love each other deeply because Love covers a multitude of sins."   Peter got it right.  The very nature of God's love is not so much to be blind to the faults, flaws and sins of our spouse but to love them anyway.  The great gift of marriage is to love one other person like Christ loved us.  We can't love everyone like that, we simply do not have the capacity, but we can love one other person like that.  It is for this reason that God gives us christian marriage not to be loved, but to love.   --  Thanks Jodi for being Jesus to me for more than 30 years.  Love for a lifetime or until death us due part... whichever comes first.  :)

When I am afraid...

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Fear is a funny thing.   On the one hand it is a gift from God.  If ancient people had not been afraid of lions and tigers and bears (Oh my!) non of us would be around today.  Fear can be very, very healthy for us.  It pumps all kinds of things into our blood that makes us stronger, faster, more alert and in general better able to protect ourselves and the ones we love.  Like I said, it is a gift from God.  

Unfortunately, like all gifts from God we have twisted and distorted the good fear God gave us into something that is destructive and painful.  In fact we have become very creative in twisting good fear into unhealthy fear.  Some just deny it.  To hear them talk they are never afraid.  Of course this is a lie.  The fear then morphs and comes out as anger or depression or physical pain or any number of negative behaviors and emotions.  

Others go to the opposite side and the fear switch is turned on all the time.  They are constantly afraid even when there is nothing to be afraid of. 

Still others allow fear to become their master.  Everything they do is controlled by the need to avoid situations in which they will be afraid.  Can't go here or do that because I'm afraid.  I'm pretty familiar with this kind of situational fear.  Let me just confess, I have a strong fear of heights. 

During vacation this year I was with some really great, long time friends and let my guard down.  Somehow they talked me into going to the top of one of the mountains in Colorado on... A SKI LIFT!  (I think they must have drugged me) To make matters worse they allowed me to squirm in fear for a good part of the trip without the safety bar down!   I'm pretty sure I left fingerprints permanently embedded in the steel piping of the lift chair!  

While dangling in space terrified for my life two thoughts kept going through my mind... First, I'm going to get even for this!  ... We'll leave that alone for now.  The second thought was a verse from Psalms 56.  "When I am afraid, I will trust in God"  It is downright amazing how many times you can repeat a verse in your head when you are pretty sure you're going to die.  

Now that the fear has subsided I've been thinking about that verse a lot.  Sooner or later that verse applies to all of us.  When I am afraid.   What are you afraid of?  For many it is something silly like heights.  For some it is much bigger than an irrational phobia. Maybe it really is something that is life altering for you or someone you love.  When I am afraid, I will trust in God.  
Notice that trusting God and being afraid exist together!  One does not expel the other.   Trusting God isn't what we do to get rid of the fear it is what we do while we are being scared out of our skulls!   

Turns out that God does not scream at us, DON'T BE AFRAID!  Personally I've never found that helpful.  Instead His quiet voice simply says, trust me... trust me... trust me...  That helps,  because at the end of the day, I trust God.    

When I am afraid, I will trust in God.  Psalms 56:3

Our Mission to be Jesus to the world

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Mission is a word that get's tossed around a lot.  Does your company have a mission statement?  Do you have a personal mission statement?  Is your church missional?  

Inside the church there is a whole other use of the word that talks about missionaries (As if they are the only people fulfilling the mission of Jesus), mission programs and mission trips.  It all gets bundled up into some  variation of the word mission.
  

Cutting through all the ways we talk about mission for a minute the bottom line is this, for followers of Jesus, mission comes from God.   Period, end of story.  The mission of our church and your personal mission/purpose in life is to be Jesus to a lost and broken world.  The good news is that God has uniquely and powerfully (whether you believe it or not) equipped you to make a difference for Him.   You, yes you, are an important tool in the hand of almighty God! 

So what did Jesus do? Well he call people far from God to come home.  He also put a lot of attention on helping his followers become like him. We call this discipleship or spiritual growth.  Then he went around making our broken world a better place by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, helping the poor and empowering the weak.  Pretty over whelming isn't it?  

The truth is you personally can't  do everything Jesus did.  You and I are one small sliver of a giant thing we call the Body of Christ or the church.  The church must do everything Jesus did but individually we have each been uniquely designed  to play a small role in Jesus giant mission.

The good news is we are a part of a church that takes serious the mission of Jesus.  We are partnered with churches around the world that are calling people home to God, growing people into fully functioning followers of Jesus and helping the least, last and lost.   We use The Jesus Film, Compassionate Ministries (International, USA/Canada, District and Local) and a huge network of local churches all around the world.  

This Sunday you are going to hear from our members of a recent mission trip.  I hope you will enjoy the time and be encouraged about how you are doing good work all around the world even if you are not personally in some exotic location.  

Most of all I pray that you will prayerfully consider going on a mission trip yourself.  I know, lots of money, not much vacation time.  I get that but I also know, it will change your life in ways I can't possibly explain.  

Mission... It's a God thing.