“My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you.” Job 42:5

There comes a time and place where what has been planned, comes together in reality. This past weekend was one of those rare times that old pictures are made of. Since it was my wife’s dad’s 90 birthday, a family reunion was planned. Katie’s sister and husband planned the surprise event, all WE had to do was get 17 family members (grandkids, spouses and great-grandkids) the almost 700 miles to BE there!

It’ been a long time since we have seen the old goat! I tease him that way because 43 years ago when he met ME for the first time, he wasn’t much impressed that I’d be around this long! Decades, and many kids later, I still like to tease him about that. Some of his great grandkids have NEVER seen him, or can remember when they did. So this special reunion came with lots of anticipation.

Some folks wondered if the surprise might be to much for him! remembering his constitution I said, “Nah.. he’ll be fine!” Preparations were made as we all started talking about it among ourselves. The great-grandkids were pumped up and primed for the main event. As he walked through the door and saw his legacy in kid form, I was surprised that it WAS almost too much for him! Darn if those kids didn’t find a soft spot in the ol goat! As tears ran down his cheeks, little children laid theirs on the one they had heard about… for the first time.

It has been said that the day we are born we begin to die. Now I know that sounds morbid. But at the party, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for people who have decided to deny God. The feeling and joy of family was something that no money on earth could buy. And it helped me, once again, to look at the reason I am alive.

If you love Jesus as I do, I can’t think of ANYTHING this side of heaven that is more wonderful than the anticipation of GOING there and SEEING HIM… face to face! Those loved ones who passed on before you…the ones you have heard about for so long, will BE THERE… alive. And do I have to mention the excitement of meeting Peter, Paul and Mary…and the REST of the ancient gang!

700 miles, 17 people and 3 days is a lot of time and distance to move to be at one in 1 place. But it was worth EVERY effort. As I sit here remembering, and smiling, I can’t help but look forward to a time and place where we will ALL be together with the one we have loved and heard about from afar. And where ‘goodbye’ will be a thing of the past! Are YOU looking forward?

“So we make it our goal to please Him.” 2 Cor 5:9

It was a day just like every other. I received 3 phone calls from numbers that neither I nor my phone ID recognized. I didn’t answer them. Having heard the mail truck, I went to my mail box and found it stuffed FULL! After sorting it all, there was not even 1 envelope of any importance. I threw is all in the trash! Then the thought hit me…‘all that came because of a meeting!’

Having been in sales most of my working career, I understand the importance of what companies call ‘getting leads.’ This ‘marketing’ area has grown more and more sophisticated over time as companies glean and analyze information to find the most cost effective ways to get me interested, and then buy, their product. Whether I like it or not!

I am turning 65 this year and I didn’t know there were so many insurance and retirement companies. But my mailbox does! Hundreds of people I don’t even know…know who I am, where I live and when my birthday is! Christian organizations know I am a pastor and send me correspondence in order to get an order… or simply a ‘gift.’ May I be honest? The more sophisticated the marketing, the more cynical I become. AND apathetic! Now throw Jesus into the mix!

God our creator speaks loud and clear. His desire and COMMAND is that I put ALL of me into His hands and put ALL of HIM…FIRST! It’s #1 on His Big 10 list! Throw in 2020 marketing, the expenses of living, family, work, regulations and sinful desires, and it is easy to allow Him to slide right out of sight. But after consideration, I realize I have NEVER ONCE gotten mail, or an email, from Jesus!

Jesus Christ is not not pushy. I can guess that if He were a commissioned only salesman, He’d starve to death! He created us and then gave us the choice to reach out to Him. When we sinned, He came, paid sin’s price Himself, backed away and simply said, “Come to me!” Which means for EVERYTHING! Then He waits.

I know God’s marketing strategy is completely by ‘word of mouth.’ MY mouth! He thrills, excites, helps, gives, and blesses me more than ANYTHING on the face of this earth. HE knows what I need, but is perfectly fine with letting me lose, fail, fall and reject my own best interests, which is Him. I’m making my own Lenten strategy. The company of ‘me, myself and I’ needs to call a daily meeting and ask the marketing question…”What can I do to please HIM?”

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” John 13:34-35

Yesterday was a great day. Wanting to borrow some of that feeling for today, I began going through its experiences to see what made it so special. From the time my feet hit the floor in the morning I hadn’t stopped running until late. When I retired… I was tired. Reliving it, I was laughed at, criticized, badgered, yelled at, misunderstood and made fun of. Oh…did I say that yesterday was a great day?

The day was spent visiting and communicating with church people. People who LIVE the life statement that Jesus Christ is their Savior. People who genuinely care about each other. My first encounter was with a guy that is teaching me how to competitively shoot. He’s one of my favorites. When we get together, our roles reverse and HE becomes the teacher. He is gruff, short and to the point. When I don’t do what he says, or presume to know what he WILL say next, he yells at me. Well… it SOUNDS like yelling to ME. And I smile!

The next person I met is my 71 year old good friend who is in a wheel chair. His condition leaves him unable to do ANYTHING by himself. Even talk! There’s only 1 person who can understand what he says and she wasn’t in the room. So I talked, he tried, and I know he had to think I was nuts. I misunderstood what he was trying to say while he put up with my incessant speaking to fill space. I was blessed and so was he. He’s one of my favorites.

The next person I spent time with had a combination of serious responsibility problems, physical pain and a sense of humor like mine! I am sure that anyone listening to us would have backed out of the room as we teased, vented and verbally degraded anyone and anything that has ever caused us pain. Then we laughed about it. She’s one of my favorites!

I have the honor of meeting with a young man and mentoring him. Actually…It’s kind of funny because while I am supposed to be teaching HIM how to mature in an adult world, I find HE is teaching ME as well. We laughed, joked, badgered, learned and grew up a little more… together. He’s DEFINITELY one of my favorites.

Of course NONE of this could have happened if we didn’t all have the one thing in common that MAKES it all work! And that is LOVE for each other. Christ’s love! It isn’t a surface, fake, mean or pretend kind of love. It puts up with silly offenses and, even what some might consider, rude remarks! Why? Because we are anchored together by our mutual Savior… Jesus Christ. And HE is DEFINITELY my favorite. And THAT is LOVE-PROOF!

“But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” 2 Peter 3:8

It was not a good start for today… and now I feel small. Last night I took a decongestant and THIS time it made me restless. So before I even start the day…I am exhausted. As I lay there in the dark in a semi-conscious state, people’s faces came flooding into my head. And so did their problems. After trying to think about something else so I could get some sleep, I finally got hit by the train!

This last weekend I was asked to add 2 children to the prayer list. One little girl was to have major surgery on her teeth. A little boy is undergoing surgery on his brain. The train that hit me was the one thing I COULD do in the dark. That train is called prayer! I know it should be a given, but in my dark, groggy state, I had to figure it out! With help from the Holy Spirit, I finally got it! But it was late!

This morning I texted to find out what time our special church girl was to go in, only to discover that it was YESTERDAY! I thought our Jesus boy was tomorrow. Turns out… it’s today! And on the hinge of both events, one done and one coming, I had prayed. Now that it is today, I wondered if the effort had made any difference? Then I remembered this verse.

This verse is kind of a play on words. Like the Bible verse that says, “The last shall be first and the first shall be last.” Rolling both verses around in my head, I realize the possibilities before God are ENDLESS! He is not distracted by the tick of a clock or a position in space. He has an ETERNITY to concentrate on EACH of those children. And HE doesn’t get tired.

As I get older I become more forgetful. I now have a special app on my phone for lists of things to do or remember. Now I have to concern myself with remembering what to put ON it! But before I got to beating myself up for memory failure, God reminded me of ‘who’ and ‘whose’ I really am. And ALL the time…I AM HIS!

I am learning over time is to keep Him as my focus. He is ALWAYS there with me as I go thorough the day. Over time I have come to realize that He wants ME to be with HIM… ALL THE TIME! Just like it will be in Heaven, where there will be no clocks!!!

“He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.” Matthew 8:26

Though born in Pennsylvania, I have lived MOST of my life in Florida. I can tell you for a fact that Florida is a very special place…especially in the winter. Last weekend we had northern friends visit, which reminded me of just how blessed we really are. They had left 19 degree blizzard conditions and landed in 68 degree sunshine. The cold was far from their minds… until!

The next day we planned a trip to a local preserve on the inter-coastal waterway. The sun was bright with not a cloud in the sky. Venturing into the outdoors quickly made all of us stop, go back in the house and grab some jackets. When we got to our location and stood on the shoreline, we all shivered, as the 60 degree air was cut by a cold, blustering wind from the north. What we SAW was interrupted by what we COULDN’T” see.

It’s not something easily explained to someone who doesn’t live here. When we got back to the car, which had been parked in the sun, the inside temperature had to be over 100 degrees. Outside, the thermometer read 60. But standing in it felt like it was 30! We ALL felt the chill, even though what we experienced did not match up with what we saw.

There is no doubt that the disciples were MORE than grumbling when they sat in their little boat in the midst of a blustering storm. As Jesus slept, they rebuked Him for taking a lackadaisical approach to their surroundings. Jesus responded by rebuking the wind! And it OBEYED! When what the disciples SAW didn’t measure up to anything they had previously experienced, they they were frightened!

I live a lot of my life while shaking my head! Being comprised of a fleshy body, soul and new spirit, I don’t understand how many people can’t, or refuse, to see Jesus! But then I amaze myself when I respond like a demonically possessed curmudgeon when I hit standing traffic on the interstate! My own moods can EASILY flap about like a flag in a rushing wind, when what I SEE doesn’t match up with what I KNOW.

Jesus chided His disciples for not having faith in the middle of that storm. They were SUPPOSED to KNOW that HE was God. AND… that as long as they could SEE God right there WITH them, they had NO need or cause to fear! Today He is reminding me that He is ALWAYS in my boat (or am I in His?)! Come hell or high water!

“Do not quench the Spirit. Do not treat prophecies with contempt but test them all; hold on to what is good, reject every kind of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:19-22

We have been anticipating and preparing for a special event…and today is the day for which we have prepared. We have some very dear friends coming from ‘up north’ to visit for a few days. We have known them for decades and eagerly await their arrival. Proof of our affection has been evident for weeks. But has it been enough?

When we go to our ‘cabin’ in the mountains, one of the FIRST things I do is to run next door and greet my friends. Our place up there is nice… but it is old and strictly used for vacations. They know it, so do we. But they are now coming to our HOME. And apparently to my wife, that makes a big difference.

We have built a Murphy bed, arranged the house, cleaned and primped the inside and out. Yesterday I found out my OWN level of commitment when, after cleaning the pool, I saw a gum-wrapper sized piece of paper at the bottom. Having just put away the pole, I found myself asking myself, “does that REALLY matter?” Before I could really THINK about it, I was already fetching the tool to retrieve the offending debris! I guess at gut level, it matters to me too!

There has been an argument about verse 22 forever. Common thought translates it, “avoid even the APPEARANCE of evil.” Which goes like this…’don’t even go NEAR a bar or a strip club because you will be guilty of sin.’ I have read commentaries that ‘bad’ that ‘minton’ back and forth to determine just how close… is NEAR? I guess in my own sinfully honest mind, I have to admit that ANY argument is simply a search for permission!

I will never forget the time, as a kid, that I saw a church deacon smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer! It was not a church function, but made a HUGE negative impression upon me anyway. And even though neither of those actions are grounds for hell, my inner heart and opinion of that person was changed. EVEN though ‘I’ have done worse!

I guess the question becomes, “how far can I go before I go too far?” And “do appearances REALLY matter?” I know my friends couldn’t care less about that piece of paper in the pool. But something deep inside makes ME care. So out of love and respect, I fetched!

My number 1 in life is Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit resides within me at all times. What I think and do reflects EXACTLY how much I really love and appreciate our relationship. And while HIS love for ME has FORGIVEN me of ALL uncleanliness, I just can’t avoid the deep down conviction that, when it comes to The King, appearances really DO matter.

How do YOU see it?

“You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, ‘No one sees me.’ Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, ‘I am, and there is none besides me.'” Isaiah 47:10

Driving down the highway, I found myself sitting at a red-light right behind a pest control truck. I was thinking of something else in my head when that process got interrupted by the slogan on the truck. As the light turned green, my head was spinning with questions.

The slogan was 100% conceivably true. It said, “Mosquitoes bite – we can stop them!” But as my mind wandered, I couldn’t stop the mental images running through my mind. A mosquito tied to a little chair as a bug guy cuts off its stinger! A bug guy following a customer with a swatter and smashing a mosquito as it lands, was another! As more crazy ideas came to mind, I couldn’t see how a company could make any profit from such a claim… unless!

When it comes to sales, fear can be used as a big motivator. A mother seeing her little baby with mosquito bites might be motivated to hire a company to prevent a repeat of that scenario. But the ‘can’ claim alone is no guarantee! Every time I swat a mosquito, I stop the bite! Placing a bug on a red block and smashing it with a blue one can make the same claim. But while true, it is far from a practical guarantee.

God used the Babylonian empire to punish the Israelites as they turned from faith in Him to other gods. They had been warned! But arrogance provided a false sense of security, as Babylon demolished Israel, SHE started to feel high and mighty and began to do the ‘look at me’ strut! Then God’s warning shifted to HER evil hearts and history repeated itself. Babylon fell!

The dangers of thinking,”nothing bad has happened yet,” “I haven’t gotten caught before,“ or “it really doesn’t matter,” can lure my mind into a false sense of security. The Bible warns, “While people are saying, “Peace and safety,” destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape (1 Thessalonians 5:3). History and God’s Word give many examples over thousands of years of the dangers of believing the an unbelievable lie.

I am and do what I believe to be true! I need to be careful! Because sometimes I can even con myself into believing the unbelievable. How about you?

“And let our people learn to devote themselves to good works, so as to help cases of urgent need, and not be unfruitful.” Titus 3:14 ESV

With grandkids and visitors, my bride brought up a discussion about having something better for them to sleep on than a blow up mattress. When our kids grew up and left, she got one bedroom for a sewing room, I got the other. A regular bed was ruled out because it would take up too much room. A Murphy Bed was thrown out as an idea… and POOF!!! We now have one!

I say “POOF” in to be funny because is WASN’T like magic. But her desire DID became my agenda. Researching ‘Murphy Bed’ online gave me quite a shock because… they are not cheap! Being frugal, I found a way to get a new one for a fraction of the cost. But “I” had to BUILD the bed myself! Soon, I came home to a 7’ tall 80 pound box at my front door. And that was just the hardware…a 20 page ‘how to’ manual included!

After computing the needs, purchasing the wood at the lumber yard, then researching and ordering a mattress, it was time to get started. With 5 sheets of plywood at $50 a sheet, I couldn’t afford even 1 mistake. So I stuck to the basics, as my wife gave me the only piece of carpentry advice she knows…“measure twice, cut once.”

My daughter also likes to build stuff. She came over and we turned it into a fun project. Any difficulties were easily overcome as I remembered another old saying… “2 heads are better than 1… even if 1 is a cabbage head!” Having been a carpenter, owning all the necessary tools AND my having daughter’s learned experience as well made it an enjoyable project.

There are tools, materials and basics to building an effective Christian life. Starting with the need for Jesus Christ, reading and applying His Word, and looking to serve Him produces a life that becomes both good and fruitful. He supplies us with ‘everything we need for life and Godliness’ ( 2 Peter 1:3). Which is the point!

The point of the Murphy bed is for sleep. The point of Jesus Christ is to live and display fruitful lives by doing good works with Him. And it is no secret! We either are DOING Titus 3:14…or we are not. When I walk into the room, I can immediately SEE that Murphy bed. I must remind myself that as I walk through life, my Master always expects others to see HIM working… in and through ME!   

“He went out to meet Asa and said to him, “Listen to me, Asa and all Judah and Benjamin. The LORD is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.” 2 Chronicles 15:2

It was Friday… or ‘date night’ as I like to call it. Every Friday night I take my wife out for dinner and a movie, or something just the 2 of us can enjoy together. It is a sacred time because it is important to keep the main thing the main thing. Next to Jesus, my wife is the main person in my life. Sitting at dinner, there came ‘a disturbance in the force!’

It was a simple request. Every 2 weeks the men in our church get together on a Saturday morning for breakfast. The text was from a returning winter resident who wanted to know ‘is there breakfast tomorrow?’ My normal procedure is to send out a group text as a reminder. I find attendance is better that way. I hadn’t sent this gentlemen a text because he wasn’t on my general list. So the question hung… ‘do I answer him now, or wait?’

The Bible verse today does NOT set isolated and alone. It is repeated through the Bible MANY times and in various ways. It is a basic principle of God that centers around the one little word ‘IF!’ The old cartoon chipmunks ‘Chip and Dale’ would begin to argue after one would say, ‘after you.’ The other would reply, “no no, I insist,” as the banter continued. It has been my hard-learned experience that God NEVER banters! And He DOES insist!

We all know God has a ‘Top 10’ list of demands. Requiring my love and having NO other Gods before Him is His #1! Christians should know that we CAN’T keep the commands of God on our own. They are there to show us our failure as humans…that we NEED God to save and live through us id we are even to attempt the basics. It is a RELATIONSHIP. Even today, that relationship requires that HE be placed at the top of MY personal list… in everything!

I can attest to the fact that God is patient. It took me years of hard learning and pain to finally get it. NOT because God was punishing me for putting Him second. But because there is a guarantee that if He is NOT first, MY life will CERTAINLY not go well. Not because He sets out to punish me, but because sin and death are already at my doorstep busting at the door. I NEED Him to be my First Responder!

I quickly and gladly answered the text because that was what MY number 1 expected of me. And because God is my number 2’s number 1, she completely understood. So what is YOUR Number One?