Moments

  Today I came upon a doe deer  caught in a hog trap.  Knowing the frantic nature of a wild animal in close proximity to humans, I approached slowly, quietly, but panic still ensued.  The deer banged and ran against the walls of the cage, bloodying its mouth and tongue.  As I tried to hold the gate open to show it the way out, it continued to bang itself against the pen at the other end.  After wiring the gate open, I went around to the closed end of the cage to provoke the animal to go toward the open door.  It still banged itself unmercifully against the wires of the closed end until it passed out.  I thought it had died, but it came to and only continued to bang itself and bloody itself even more against the closed end of the trap.  Nothing seemed to dissuade this deer from self-destruction, and all the time there was an open door in the other direction, at the other end of the trap.  The deer passed out again.  In desperation, I...

  Christianity hasn't been an easy journey.  The road is strewn with the debris of this world, which is so easy to trip on.  Sometimes I just want to be a secret agent for Jesus, and not tell people who I follow and believe in.   At night on the river in the summertime, if  you turn on a light to see where you are going, you can get covered up in bugs.  It makes you think twice about turning that light on again.   But bugs of the world or not, we can't be secret agents for Jesus.  We can't keep our lights under a bushel and call ourselves committed Christians.  In this dark world where many are searching for they know not what, we may the  only flicker of light in the darkness, their only hope to see Jesus - "our only hope, God's only son.    So no secret agent stuff,  so shine your light before men that they will see our good works and glorify God, which is in heaven.  Shine out the radiance of unconquerabl...

  Hardships can strengthen our testimony.   In fact, a testimony can seem hollow if there has not been something that was overcome.  There seems to be a noncommittal tendency to just talk and praise our way through faith, often without hardship or sacrifice.  When we raise our arms in praise, we praise Jesus for what He went through for us.  But should we also raise and praise Him for what He has brought us through, also?     Hardships give our faith exercise.  It is where the rubber meets the road in our Christian walk.  And there is so much we can learn from hardship.    You can trace the contour of what it taught you.  You can see and feel the hand of Jesus upon you as He walks with you through the storm.  It is an exercise in faith, and your faith muscles get stronger.  You can be braver than before the hardship, because now you rest assured of who is with you in the storms.  You know who holds your...

  This morning, drinking good coffee in my recliner before dawn, I took a personal inventory.  Nothing hurts:  after most of last year in some kind of pain big and small,  you'd think I would notice its absence more.  There was no discomfort.  After most of last year with something uncomfortable about the body to adjust for sitting, standing, and bending, you'd think I would miss its absence.   My mood and hope levels were high.  After a year of fighting back the urge to get negative,  you'd think I would notice the lack of struggle required.  You'd think.    Well, I’m thinking, and I’m thanking now.   I am thinking that I wish I could bottle it all  up in a prayer and send it out to this hurting world.  "For God So Loved the World."   All the world.    So here I go: Lord, I pray that You take this moment You’ve given me—the comfort, the freedom from pain, this small glimpse of radiant, u...

The church was never meant to be just a place for familiar faces and comfortable gatherings. While fellowship is valuable, it cannot be the sum of our mission. If our sanctuaries become little more than “old home week” reunion centers, we risk losing sight of the very reason Christ established His church. The call of the Gospel is urgent. The world outside our doors is broken, searching, and often unaware of the hope found in Jesus Christ.  A church that only looks inward becomes stagnant. A church that looks outward becomes alive and heralds of the good news. That means equipping believers, engaging our communities, and carrying the message of salvation beyond the walls of our buildings. The church must be more than a fellowship center; it must be a mission center. Our gatherings should fuel us, not lull us. Our worship should send us, not settle us. The Gospel is too powerful, and the world too needy, for us to be content with comfort.

  Ask people how they feel. Watch the eyes. Be on the alert. When illness or depression goes unnoticed, pain and aloneness deepen. The person withdraws, becoming less sensitive to others who may also be struggling. Negativity spreads, relationships spiral into fear and isolation, and people stop going deep with one another. Life becomes a superficial setup for quiet desperation: a somewhat manageable misery. Is this the way we want to spend the life God has given us? I don’t think so. If I were the devil, I’d design a state of being to sap life from humans and distract them from their blessings. I’d disperse estrangement and self-focus across the world, lowering it to a diminished state. Keep people from loving. Keep them from gratitude. Keep them talking only of weather reports and politics.

Over this long lifetime, I have been called a rock on several occasions following some pretty sketchy situations and events.  But I know the truth.  I am just as scared and uncertain as anyone else.  And, as I told someone once who called me a rock after a really hard-to-deal-with event, "I am not a rock, but I am standing on one."  That Rock is Jesus.   And, after all these years, and all I have been through, Jesus still  shows up when the skies grow dark. He still comforts.  He still provides.  He still intercedes and empowers.   No, I'm not the rock.  Jesus is.  And when my own strength is lacking, I come again to the blessing that Jesus is enough for me to stand firm upon the Rock of Ages in the storm.  

  When I moved my front steps, an opossum scurried away from under it and escaped under the house.    But the unusual thing about this opossum was that she was carrying an arched tail load of countless young, pink babies.   As I continued to work to repair the steps, I noticed there was a baby possum lying helplessly there in the dirt.   The little creature had missed the bus on the quick exit by the mother.   However, as I stood there, leaning on my shovel, looking at the little helpless baby opossum, out from under the house came the mother possum, still fully loaded with a tail full of many small possums.   She gathered the baby onto her tail and off back under the house she went.    How did she know she had left one?   There were so many, all looking alike.   Why would she risk coming back with me standing with a shovel right there above her for just another baby when she had so many already?    Why the one? God lo...

 "Father, I rise today in your strength.   Renew my body.  Refresh my spirit and give me courage for whatever lies ahead.   Let your joy be my strength and your peace guard my heart."