Be Refreshed!

It’s been 10 days since my last post, but as usual I have (poor) excuses.  First of all I need to apologize to my Wednesday night Bible study.  We drove 900+ miles from Texas, I got to bed at 4 a.m., and needless to say Wednesday night Bible study wasn’t my best work.  Occasionally I’ll read the wrong verse or chapter but last night I had the entire wrong book.

It’s been a whirlwind of emotions these past few weeks.  The highs of Easter followed by the lows of a funeral.  To be honest I was really looking forward to a few days away.  We had been going hard and the time away sounded good.  Even long drives are relaxing for me and since we would eventually end up in Dallas, I should be very relaxed by then.  Mowing at the parents, lunch with Ethan, Sonya’s family reunion, Elizabeth riding horses, time with my brother-in-law Keith in Dallas, go-carts, Mexican Villa (Sancho enchilada style, sweet sauce, iced tea).  Overall it was a nice weekend.

We also did a college visit for Isaac at Southwestern Assemblies of God University in Waxahachie, TX.  It was here that things took another weird turn.  Great school.  Nice facilities.  Good people.  Free lunch in the cafeteria!  But then the emotions snuck up again.  Another son preparing to leave.  The estimated cost of college!  The continued mourning of my old alma mater CBC being “merged” into Evangel University.  We also received a call that Ethan’s full time job for the summer had just fallen through only days before he was to start.

Well, I’m glad I could get that off my chest.  Thankfully I serve a faithful God.  I didn’t wake up hoping He liked me today or wondering if the offering I made at an altar was good enough to make Him smile upon me.  God is good.  All the time.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 26:4  Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you will be like him yourself.

Scripture of the Day:  Psalm 57:10-11 ¹⁰ For great is your love, reaching to the heavens; your faithfulness reaches to the skies.  ¹¹ Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let your glory be over all the earth.

Quote of the Day:  It costs to be faithful. It cost Abraham the yielding up of his only son. It cost Esther to risk her own life. It cost Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego being put into a fiery furnace. It cost Stephen death by stoning. It cost Paul his life. Does it cost you anything to be faithful to your Lord and King?    Anonymous

Over the years I have been been slandered and called competitive.  A church game night or in the good old days of the Bethel men’s basketball team.  Even with my kids I like to think I’m teaching my children character but my wife thinks I just like to win.

Maybe that’s why I love the verse in 1 Corinthians 15 that reads, “When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”  “Where, O death, is your victory?   Where, O death, is your sting?”  Satan is a liar, thief, coward, and accuser who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but Jesus has won the victory.

Recently I did a funeral for a lady who had battled cancer for years and finally passed in her 50’s.  She had kinda lived life her own way but came to Jesus in the late days of her life.  I happened to use that portion of scripture in her funeral with a sense of victory.  Satan and sickness had kicked her around for a while, but eternity was hers by Jesus’ victory.  In your eye Devil!

I also thought of this verse after a man in my church passed away this past week.  His family was mourning, the church was mourning, but heaven also just got a little fuller.  In your eye Devil!

So the next time a saint of God graduates here’s a good plan.  Mourn for your loss and then stick it in the Devil’s eye.  What a loser.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:   Proverbs 16:16   How much better to get wisdom than gold, to choose understanding rather than silver!

Scripture of the Day:  1 Thessalonians 4:13  Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope.

Quote of the Day:   “Every path that leads to heaven is trodden by willing feet. No one is ever driven to paradise.” Howard Crosby

Backslidden Pentecostal.  There’s 2 words you never want to hear next to each other.  But I think I may have backslidden a little bit tonight at the community Good Friday service.  Our service was hosted by a Covenant church and was more of a traditional Tenebrae service with the reading of Scriptures, the dimming of lights, and the extinguishing of candles.  Now here’s my confession.  I enjoyed it.

I was raised a good Southern Baptist boy and have been a card carrying Assemblies of God preacher man for over 20 years, so I’ve been conditioned to scowl at anything that smacks of liturgy or tradition.  But at the same time Good Friday has always been one of those awkward days for me.  I’m not sure what to do or how to feel.  I went and mowed the yard at church this afternoon so it would look fresh and clean for Sunday, but I felt bad mowing at the same time.  Should I be mowing on Good Friday?  Jesus is on the way to the cross and I’m wielding a grass trimmer in old worn out tennis shoes.

Then came our community Good Friday service.  A crosswalk.  Communion.  Readings of Scripture.  The dimming of light as the cross nears.  Times of uncomfortable silence and reflection.  Songs of the cross.  Repentance.

We Pentecostals aren’t too good at silence.    We like our worship loud and our tempo fast.  Easter is gonna be off the charts, but what about Good Friday?  So for an hour tonight it was good to be quiet and awkward.  Fortunately no one reads my blog so I won’t have to explain myself or lose my job, but here is my pre-Easter challenge to you.  Slip away with your Bible and read one of the Gospel accounts of the Passion week.  Worship.  Meditate.  Repent.  Give thanks.

Then be in church this Sunday at 8 or 10.  It may be Friday night, but Sunday is on the way!

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day;  Proverbs 6:6   Go to the ant, you sluggard; consider its ways and be wise!

Scripture of the Day:  Matthew 27:50-54  ⁵⁰And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit.   ⁵¹ At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split. ⁵² The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. ⁵³ They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people.   ⁵⁴ When the centurion and those with him who were guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and all that had happened, they were terrified, and exclaimed, “Surely he was the Son of God!”

Quote of the Day:   Our old history ends with the cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. Watchman Nee

Palm Sunday starts off the Passion Week, but now with Holy Thursday here the intensity and pace quickens.  Preparations for the Passover which would become the Last Supper.  Jesus washing feet.  Judas’ betrayal.  Soon Jesus will be arrested and put on trial.  The disciples are going to be shaken badly as in their eyes things turn for the worse.

I encourage you to take a little extra time in reflection and worship today.  Read through the Gospel accounts of the Passion Week.  Join us on a Crosswalk at 6:00 pm tomorrow stepping off from Hillcrest Covenant in DeKalb.  We’ll circle back for the Community Good Friday Service at 6:30 with communion and remembrance.

And don’t miss Easter Resurrection morning at Bethel!  We’re having two services this year to accommodate people and to add space.  They will be at 8 & 10 with no Sunday school or breakfast.  There will be nursery and children’s church both hours.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 5:20  Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?  Why embrace the bosom of another man’s wife?

Scripture of the Day:  Mark 14:22-25  ²²While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take it; this is my body.”  ²³ Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, and they all drank from it.  ²⁴ “This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many,” he said to them. ²⁵ “I tell you the truth, I will not drink again of the fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it anew in the kingdom of God.”

Quote of the Day:  “No pain, no palm; no thorns, no throne; no gall, no glory; no cross, no crown.” William Penn

Ever had one of those experiences?  It looked so good on the infomercial.  It sliced, diced, never dulled, couldn’t be broken, and was dishwasher safe.  It would amaze your friends, change your life, and if you ordered now they would throw in a second one for FREE!  Then you open the box (S0me assembly required.  Batteries not included) and after a couple of days utter those words, “”That isn’t what I expected.”

The Passion Week is a roller coaster week of emotion, intrigue, despair, and victory.  Just three years before, Jesus arrived at the synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”

Then for three years He did just what the prophet Isaiah said he would do.  He reached every segment of society, touched and healed the lepers, raised the dead, set the demon possessed free, offered living water to the woman at the well, and the stories go and on.  So how do we go from that and the Palm Sunday processional to abandonment, betrayal, and the cross?  How did the hope of the world end up in a tomb?

I think part of it is expectations.  The religious leaders should have been at the front of the Palm Sunday parade, but Jesus wasn’t what they expected.  Their Messiah was going to lift them up and give them the admiration that they so loved.  If He did drive out Rome they would have the places of prominence in the new Israel.  Instead He was eating with sinners, talking to Samaritans, and rebuking them as whitewashed tombs.  He sure wasn’t what they expected.

Judas had been part of the inner circle of 12 and yet somewhere along the way he becomes disillusioned.  He had left everything, seen the miracles, been sent out on ministry teams, and lived and walked with Jesus for three years.  But at the end he’s a thief and a betrayer who takes his own life.  I wonder if towards the end in those last few months he uttered those words, “This isn’t what I expected.”

And what about the crowds?  1000’s and 1000’s people followed Jesus, tracked Him down, and were drawn to His teaching and power.  He fed 5000 (and that was just counting the men) in one sitting.  But as the ministry takes a turn from free food and miracles to greater levels of discipleship and commitment the ranks begin to thin.  In John 6:66 it says, “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”  I wonder as they drifted away if in the murmurs you hear the phrase, “This wasn’t what I expected.”

It’s easy in Passion Week today (almost 2000 years later) to scoff at those groups and say “What were you thinking!!!”  Yet how many today struggle with similar commitment issues.  We’ll serve Jesus as long as He keeps us fed and happy.  Just go easy on that sacrifice and persecution stuff.  Expectations.  We’ll serve Jesus as long as He answers all our prayers.  Or should I say, as long as He answers all our prayer with a “Yes”.  Expectations.

Jesus said in Luke 9, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.  For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?”

So as we get ready to remember when Jesus picked up His cross this week, pick up your cross too.  Even if that’s not what you expected.

Be Refreshed!

Proverb of the Day:  Proverbs 2:11  Discretion will protect you, and understanding will guard you.

Scripture of the Day:  Matthew 7:13-14  ¹³ “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. ¹⁴ But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Quote of the Day:  “If missions languish, it is because the whole life of godliness is feeble. The command to go everywhere and preach to everybody is not obeyed until the will is lost by self-surrender in the will of God. Living, praying, giving and going will always be found together.” — Arthur T. Pierson