Thumb Thoughts

What is the one thing that makes your heart ache? The thing that keeps you awake at night. It seems that when one connects with that burden it either ruins you or it pushes you away from intimacy with Christ. At the ripe old age of 51 it seems that the shortness of time makes this whole thing seem more important than ever. As Isaiah of old, when he saw the Lord it ruined him so that he could lay down his own sinfulness and find the cleansing that Christ makes available to all of us. Then we can answer the call to take this message to the world. The message that changes everything to all who believe.

One of the indictments on the church has been its hypocrisy. That is why I am shared this morning the prayer, Lord make us authentic. There is a crying need for Christians to be real in today's culture. When faith is truly lived out it becomes a reflection of Christ in this world. Rather than focusing our attention on all who are not living out the transformational life Christ offers, it is important that we look at our own life and commit to one step at a time seek to live out our faith with authenticity. There is real joy and peace when we seek to follow the call of Christ to being a Christ follower.
My desire is for the church to live out the call of Christ so that we can be the change agent in this world that brings honor to Christ. Realize it is not by working harder, but rather it is by surrendering our will to our Savior and seeking His grace so that we can live a clear testimony of the difference Christ makes when He truly is Lord of all.

Watching the news brings back memories of living along the Mississippi River. The wide massive body of water that is so important for the movement of commerce all of a sudden is looked with fear and sadness. When at flood stage it no longer looked at as something good and positive.
We have been talking with our ELT at Colwood about the habitude of rivers and flood. The need to have a clear vision and focus in our own lives as well as in the church. It is so easy to get caught in doing many good things and leave undone the great things that God has in mind for us to do. Floods are destructive and stop the real benefit of the river. The challenge is to discern what is a river and helps us accomplish our mission. We also have to determine what are the things that we do that are actually causing floods. We have to remember that floods are time consuming and potentially destructive. It is important to keep the clarity of vision in front of us so that we can accomplish God's plan for our church and our lives.

It is the prayer that we are praying this week in our one prayer series. I believe that we are so prone to be fatalistic instead of people of faith. We say that whatever happens must be what God's will was instead of praying and believing that God's will would work out in our lives. It might just sound like semantics but I believe that it is more than that. God wants us to be people of faith that trust Him completely. To do that take an active faith that engages with our God and believes that He answers prayer still in these days. I remember many times when I have prayed and then have believed with everything that was in me even when I couldn't see an answer immediately. Then God came through and answered the prayer. Not always with a yes, but always with a clear yes, no or wait. I want to live with intentionality. To passionately live out my faith and experience everything that life has to offer. To love completely, learn humbly and lead boldly. These are the most important days of my life. May I live in such a way as to effectively make a difference in the lives of those around me.

I stand in awe of our God. Day after day He continues to amaze me in both big and small ways. This past Sunday I was scheduled to speak in our evening service. I thought I was ready and yet as my wife and I came home from an open house I told my wife that things didn't feel right. I would need to go to the church early to nail down what I would be doing the evening. At 4:15 I made my way to the church and continued to struggle to come to terms with what God had in mind. At 4:45 the wind and rain came and we lost power just before 5PM. We ended up canceling service. I didn't need a message after all. God understood that long before I had any clue about it. We got part of our power back around 5AM. We still don't have all of our power on as of Tuesday evening.

I am looking forward to staff prayer meeting in the morning. We just started it last week and we had a good time of prayer together. We also have had several answers to prayer to share with each other. It is exciting to gather together and to pray believing that God is answering prayer. I am grateful to work with a group of people that also believe in the power of prayer. So I look forward to 8:30 tomorrow when we turn our attention to talking with God in faith believing that He is able for the situations of life that are happening all around us.

It seems so simple and yet we struggle with the concept of unity within the church. We tend to look over our shoulders at others and think if they would only come over to our side then we could do great things together. I think that unity always begins with me. I have to be willing to give up the idea that I am right on everything. I have to lose myself and find myself in Christ. I have to see the Christ in others. When I recognize Christ in others, instead of discounting it because of what I don't understand, I need to acknowledge and bless what I do. I need to understand that my practice in some areas of worship are impacted in a huge way because of a doctrinal bias that I have because of my upbringing. So if that is indeed true then I must give grace to someone who has faith in Jesus and yet practices some things in a manner differently than I am comfortable with. Such as those who worship in a liturgical style or some pentecostal practices. I need to let the love of Christ be seen in me towards those who have clear cut differences. Not just the kind of "love" that says your okay although it would be better if you worshipped my way. But rather practicing love in the sense of as we link arms together that we can reach many different people with the variety of styles of worship that we engage in together.

One Prayer On Sunday June 8th we are joining with 1200 churches in a series entitled One Prayer. The premise of the series is what is the one prayer that I would pray for the church at large. I have narrowed it down to 4 prayers that I will take 4 weeks and look into what they say to us. This week I will share a message entitled "Make Us One" It is the prayer that Jesus prayed for all of us. On Father's Day I will look at the prayer "Make Us Intentional" I believe that we need to live out intentional lives that make a difference. June 22 I will give a talk on "Make Us Wise" Wisdom is in short supply in this world of ours. We need to remember the truth from God's Word that tells us that He will give us wisdom if we will ask. I will close out the month of June by sharing a message " Make us Believe" My heart cries out to believe God. It is so easy to do just what we can accomplish through our own strength. I want us to be a church that believes God for that which we can not do by ourselves.

Yesterday marked our anniversary. 29 years since the day in Dallas City, Illinois when we said our vows to each other. It has been a good time together and God has blessed me with a wife who loves me and cares deeply for all of us in this family. God gave us 2 wonderful sons who both are walking with God. We are looking forward to being blessed as grandparents in December. Tomorrow we are going away to spend sometime together.

Here we go. I have considered blogging for a long time. I am not sure how often I will post but hopefully it will be a rewarding way to share some thoughts that rumble around in my head. To set a bit of a foundation for doing this. I want to tell you a little bit about myself. I have been married to my first and only wife for 29 years. I have 2 sons who are both in ministry. I have been in full time ministry for the last 28 years. I have served 5 different churches in 2 states. The last 10 years have been at the Colwood Church in Caro, MI. We are up in the Thumb of Michigan. It has been a rewarding life filled with many challenges and blessings. I am humbled with the thought that God would use someone like me to be a part of his plan to reach people with the life changing truth of Jesus Christ. I am passionate about the church being the kind of church that God intends us to be. A church that keeps the main thing always in front of us. I believe as we look at the heart of Christ we see that He cares about people who don't know Him yet and He wants each of us that claim him as Savior to grow in our faith so that we can reach others.