July, 2015

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Peace

Thursday, July 30th, 2015

Untold millions are spent every year, especially in this country where we have so much, trying to find peace. Every year, thousands of people seeking personal or family peace, flock to professional counselors (I’m not saying that is bad…just stating a fact). Many will go see the drama lama, I mean Dalai Lama, while others will flock to the Yogi side of things. Diplomats will fly around the world pursuing peace between nations (ain’t going to happen). Our court systems are jammed with cases arising from a breakdown of peace between individuals or corporations. And you and I both know people who used to be friends but are no longer due to a rift which developed.

Peace is an oft missing commodity these days. There are actually three avenues of peace which we need. We need eternal peace. We need internal peace. And we need external peace.

All in all though, there are three essentials to pursuing peace with others:

1. Remember we are fellow members of the same body (the church). Cancer is a rogue cell rebelling against the rest. Many are fighting a cancer in their church body.

2. Realize the cause of discord often lies wholly or partly with us. Yeah, I’m guilty. So are you.

3. Take the initiative to pursue peace with another person. Wrong or Wronged. Lay aside the sword.

I hope to bring home those three thoughts this Sunday. Thanks for praying.

 

Posted in Christian living, Church, Family, Friendship, Preaching, Scripture look, Sermon Series/Topic | 17 Responses »

YOU

Wednesday, July 29th, 2015

My blogging friend, Deb, had a great “exercise” on her blog a couple of weeks ago. I thought I would borrow her idea and actually make it a two-parter. How’s that for great English grammar? 🙂

Anyway, my blogging “community of friends” has changed significantly over the past 6 months to a year. I’m getting the feeling people don’t like me. 😛  So here is my exercise.

TELL ME A LITTLE BIT ABOUT YOURSELF.  For example:

  • Where did you grow up?
  • Tell me about your family.
  • What do you do now? Church. Job. Volunteer.

SOME SPECIFIC QUESTIONS:

  • What makes you laugh?
  • What makes you sad?
  • What thrills you?
  • What breaks your heart?

That’s all for now. Part 2 will be sometime next week. Why do I want to know this stuff? Well…so I can write posts which please you, of course. 🙂 Naaah. I just want to know something about my readers. Here are my answers:

I grew up in West Mifflin, PA, a suburb of Pittsburgh (Go Pirates!!). I am a pastor and have been for over 40 years. I have two adult daughters-ages 40 and soon to be 36. Jo and I were married 42 years this past June.

Laugh? Just about anything. I love life and am really easy-going and laugh easily. I absolutely love spending time with my grandson.

Sad? People living in the chains of religion and unaware of the freedom of grace.

Thrill? (Not roller coasters anymore). Seeing people free. I also thrill at riding my Trek bike.

Breaks my heart? Unhappy children. Battered and abused women. Sex trafficking. People turning away from God.  (The first three make me angry).

Those are my answers. I’d love to hear yours. Remember Part 2 will be next week. I hope to hear from you!!

Posted in Friendship, Just Wondering, Little Bit of Fun, Miscellaneous, Pick me Up | 20 Responses »

Stone13

Tuesday, July 28th, 2015

WOULD ALL THE PEOPLE PLEASERS STEP RIGHT UP!!!

Yeah, you know who you are. You are me. Well, you are what I used to always be (and can sometimes still fall into that trap). I’m trying desperately to stay out of that trap for good.

Let’s face it: every one of us wants to be liked. No one wants to feel rejection. Not even “the Donald.” Being rejected by our peers or someone we desire acceptance from hurts deeply. So, in order to avoid that rejection, we do what we can to please others. And please understand, there is nothing wrong with that. We don’t want to be a “Biff Tannen” in our relationships with others.

But we can get to the point of craving that acceptance. We can get to the point of doing-things-over for the purpose of pleasing someone. We can even backtrack on plans just because not everyone is okay with them. There comes a point where we stop pleasing and start living our lives as we see fit. Shoot, if we lived for the okay from everyone, we will never get anything done. EVER!

You have probably heard it before but it bears repeating: you will never please all the people all the time. Someone else beat me to the punch: “The sure way to failure is trying to please everyone.”

Our ultimate “line in the sand” is we are only needing to please ONE person. It comes down to doing and being for an Audience of ONE. His acceptance is all that really matters.  So…how are you doing?

This is one of my random posts on this book:

Product Details

Posted in Book Discussion, Christian living, Family, Friendship, God, Leadership | 22 Responses »

Motives

Monday, July 27th, 2015

At the suggestion of a blogging “friend” who did a review of the book, I began reading Unoffendable by Brant Hansen. Brant is a DJ for Air1 radio and also has a video on I Am Second. By the way: take a moment and watch the video. His story is remarkable. So I’ve started reading the book. For the third time. It isn’t that its not good…it is. But life and the need to read some other material forced me to put it away. I am a one-book-at-a-time reader. Wish I wasn’t but that is the way I’m wired. 🙂

Anyway…recently I was reading and ran across this 3 line ditty:

  • God knows others’ private motives. We don’t.
  • God knows our private motives. We don’t.
  • We think we can judge others’ motives. We’re wrong.

I have to admit I wasn’t real fond of this. Why? Because I am a “judge.” Oh, I don’t want to be…but I am. I tend to think my motives are pure while I question those of others. You know….the old self-righteous hypocrite attitude. In reality, I fool myself a lot. I tell myself I look good (not physically) to myself and by default to others. How wrong can I be? To quote Brant:

“The heart is deceptive. And that calls for humility above all else, because my heart isn’t deceptive because it fools other people. It’s deceptive because it fools me.” (p.16) 

I need to take care of Bill’s heart and let God take care of the other person’s heart. Let’s start a revolution of not judging another’s motives. Let’s start with ourselves. Any thoughts?

Posted in Book Discussion, Christian living, Family, Friendship, Grace, Just Wondering, Leadership, Story | 15 Responses »

JOY2

Sunday, July 26th, 2015

I did something different this past Sunday. I spoke about JOY (I am going through the fruit of the Spirit) and talked about the hindrances to joy and also the enhancements of joy. I chose to do it differently: the enhancements were actually the “answers” to the hindrances. Here is what I mean:

HINDRANCES

  1. Not understanding the difference between happiness and joy.
  2. Sin in our lives
  3. Misplaced confidence
  4. Experiencing trials of faith
  5. Grumbling and Complaining

ENHANCEMENTS

  1. Understanding the source of joy
  2. Confess and forsake sin
  3. Trust in God
  4. Proper perspective
  5. Give thanks

Sometimes things come a bit more easily when preaching than at other times. This was one of those time it came fairly easily. Don’t you wish having joy was that easy? There are times it is easy…when everything seems to be going our way. But that is not joy. That is happiness. Joy is apparent when not everything is going our way-when “C” comes to haunt us, we face financial reverses, nagging health issues, criticism and rejection, or even outright persecution. That is when we find out about joy and where it comes from.

One more simple word: pass the joy around. What about you? Do you have joy or happiness?

Posted in Christian living, Friendship, Health, Pick me Up, Scripture look, Sermon Series/Topic, Sunday Meanderings | 20 Responses »

JOY

Thursday, July 23rd, 2015

The name of my brother’s wife? Yes.

But you can surely imagine this is not about her.

Chuck Swindoll once wrote:

The habit of always putting off an experience until you can afford it, or until the time is right, or until you know how to do it is one of the greatest burglars of joy. Be deliberate, but once you’ve made up your mind-jump in.  Living on the Ragged Edge

Chuck nails my philosophy on the head. I live by the moniker: Live Your Adventure.

I have a friend who was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had radical surgery. God has granted him healing and me the further gift of his friendship. He has always wanted a Harley but his wife kept saying, “Later. Later when we get this done.” Or “Later when we get that paid off.” During the surgery she looked at me and said, “Bill, (_____) has always wanted a Harley, but I keep putting him off. No more. We can afford it so if he still wants it, I’m going to give him my full support.” It wasn’t very long until he had one. 🙂

My friend’s wife hit on the simple truth Chuck was talking about. Don’t waste your life. Finding joy in ugly circumstances is not easy, but it is essential.

The second fruit of the Spirit is JOY. My topic for Sunday. I’ll share more next week on the some of what hinders joy and also what enhances it. All I ask is for your prayers. Thanks.

Posted in Christian living, Preaching, Scripture look, Sermon Series/Topic | 10 Responses »

Stone12

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2015

A short reprieve is in order…but will have to wait. At least for another week or two. The funeral is finished. (Thanks to all who said they would pray. It was much appreciated). Later this morning (Wednesday) I am heading off to our church camp to visit the 14 campers we have. I’ll be taking one of our high school youth with me. He likes the idea of going to lunch. I like the idea of mentoring. 🙂

Okay…moving on…

Have you ever tried to run from God?

Have you ever been disillusioned with Him? Frustrated? Peeved? Confused?

Well…join the club. Not just me. Job. Jonah. Moses. Others in and out of the Bible.

You see, to my way of thinking, most of us get frustrated with God because He doesn’t seem to be doing things as we think they should be done or at the speed  we think they should be done. It also seems to me that we do the exact opposite of what we should do: run away from God rather than run to Him. Take Jonah for example. He tried to physically run away from Him. He was not about to go to Ninevah! So he hopped the first boat in the opposite direction.

Sounds like me. Maybe you? What is ironic is God is NOT AFRAID of our feelings or words. He’s got really big shoulders. What some may take as irreverence toward God, He says “Bring it on!” Trust in all relationships is built-not by hiding, but by revealing feelings and thoughts. I like the way Randy put it: “The safest place in the world to be real and honest is in the presence of grace.”

I’ll buy that. If I can’t trust grace; if I can’t trust Him to show me grace; what is the sense of doing what I do? Of believing what I believe? Of teaching about and believing in grace?

What do you think?

This is part of my random postings about this book:

Product Details

Posted in Book Discussion, Christian living, Doctrine, God, Grace, Opinion | 16 Responses »

News

Sunday, July 19th, 2015

RELAX! This is not a rehash of the news on the media wire. It is kinda like why would I want to waste my time regurgitating that anyway. 🙂  I just wanted to share some news with you and also ask you to pray about something.

In a young church like ours, it is seldom you have two couples who reach the same milestone in the same year. In fact, it may be considered unusual given our cultural climate. This past February we had a couple (Lynn & Madi) celebrate their 50th anniversary. Yesterday, Jo & I were privileged to attend another 50th wedding anniversary celebration (Terrie & Frances). Madi, Terrie, and Frances were classmates here in Spencer and have remained friends all these years. Congratulations to both couples!

I spent 13 years as a pastor of a church in Terre Haute, IN from 1987-2000. We moved here in 11/2005. While in TH I had the privilege of being the pastor to a family. Their son, Matt, grew up in the church, and then as normally happens I lost contact. Several years ago the mom was in a horrific accident (T-boned by someone running a light) and survived. I visited the family in the Indy hospital where I saw Matt again for the first time in several years. He went on to start an innovative business venture with 2 others-starting clinics in schools for the employees. One of our ladies works for the one in Spencer. A couple of weeks ago Matt announced he had colon and liver cancer. Advanced far more than he let on. This past Friday, Matt went to be with Jesus. I’ve been asked by his mom & step-father to have his funeral so Monday and Tuesday will be busy and very emotional days for me. My prayer request is for Matt’s family (his parents, a fiance’, 4 children & siblings), his friends, his employees, and for me.

Highs and lows. Part and parcel of life. A celebration of marriage to a reflection on death. The life of a pastor. The life of each one of us. If I don’t respond to comments-other than approving them-you will understand why. It will also affect my blog reading and commenting. Thanks for understanding. More…thanks for praying for me.

One more item: a praise. Tami has been offered a teaching job in Bloomington, IN teaching Kindergarten. They say it is a mere formality from here. We are grateful to God for the open door.

 

Posted in Church, Family, Friendship, Prayer, Thanksgiving | 10 Responses »

Fruit#1

Thursday, July 16th, 2015

Ask anyone what their favorite fruit is and you will probably get that many different answers. Grapes (I prefer the seedless kind). Watermelon. Bing cherries (one of my favorites). Cantaloupe. Oranges. The list seems endless.

Ask people about the fruit of the Spirit and many, if not most, can name the first one: LOVE.

Jason Clark, in his book Prone to Love writes: “Love is the beginning and the end, and everything in between, and everything before and everything after. Love is infinite, immeasurable. Love is complete. Love is the answer, not the question. Love is always good.” (pp.29-30)

Joel Manby, in his book Love Works writes: “Leading with love is counterintuitive in today’s business environment because it turns many so-called leadership principles upside-down.” (p.12)

What is this thing called love? That is another word which will get a ton of different answers. As you might have guessed, my sermon this week is on the first fruit of the Spirit mentioned: LOVE.

A lot can be said about love. Some of it good; some of it bad. Not that love is bad, but the way “love” is displayed can cause a person to raise eyebrows. I hope to give a good perspective on love this coming Sunday. I’d appreciate your prayers as we take a breather from Paul’s talk about grace and justification by faith, and talk about qualities each of us should seek to develop and exhibit.

Thanks ahead of time for your prayers. By the way, how would you define love?

Posted in Christian living, Preaching, Scripture look, Sermon Series/Topic | 3 Responses »

Noodle

Wednesday, July 15th, 2015

I felt like a wet noodle yesterday.

After a week of dousing rain and cooler temps than normal for July, we got hit big time with a furnace blast. 88 degrees and humidity north of 100% I think. 🙂 I rode my bike Tuesday, continuing a ride I got rained out on Monday. When I was done about 20 miles and 60 minutes later I was drenched. And limp.

But the best was yet to come! It was something I had been looking forward to for over 2 weeks.

A massage.

Deep tissue on the lower half which felt painful and yet divine after riding. And a regular massage on the upper half.

When Meghan was done I felt like a wet noodle…but strangely energized also. All that garbage (acid) was out of my legs. She found a few knots in my back near my shoulder blades and hurt me rubbed them for a few minutes to break them down. For one solid hour I did nothing but relax, be “pampered,” and chat about her family and soon-to-come son.

It is easy to have the wrong idea about a masseuse. Don’t listen to the lies. Meghan is really good and gives a lot of credibility to her profession. There is nothing sordid about a reputable therapist, and I’m so glad I was able to convince Jo of that. This was my third visit to her.

It was nice and relaxing.

It was nice not having an agenda. No access to a phone. And the feeling of Aaaaahhh that follows is one to treasure. It is too bad we live lives which are often full-bore without any reprieve. We have a definite need to slow down.

I have only one complaint: why did she have to quit after an hour?

Ever had a massage by a licensed therapist? How did you feel?

Posted in Christian living, Miscellaneous | 10 Responses »

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