Thankful

Am I ever as thankful as I should be?  Sometimes I wonder.  Do I take the life that I have for granted or am I actually grateful for the many things that I have?  Does God see me as a somewhat spoiled kid always wanting more?  I wonder.

I have so many things in my life.  I have a beautiful wife who loves me very much and 3 amazing children that I am so incredibly proud of.  I have a roof over my head and a job that I actually enjoy doing.  I have good friends that care about me and my family.  I have a family (on both sides) that loves us all.  I have a ministry that is so different and satisfying (which is more than any pastor could ever ask for).  I have health, food on the table everyday, a wonderful town to live in, and something to look forward to every day of my life.  I can walk out the door in the morning knowing that this could be a day of amazing discovery if I actually delve into it far enough.  I have dreams and ways to fulfill them.  I have hope.  I have love.

On top of all of these things I have God.

We live in a society that teaches us to "never be satisfied".  We are inundated with images and messages that are telling us to throw away what we have now because the next big, better thing is coming out.  It seems to be getting worse than it has ever been.  My 3 gig processor in my computer is not fast enough now that there is a 3.4 with a dual core processor.  It doesn’t matter that mine is only 6 months old.  Now it’s not good enough.  Clothes that were in style 2 months ago are passe and uncool.  I have to have a PS3 because my PS2 just isn’t enough.  When am I going to get a better cell phone or a new palm pilot or a new car or move into a new house? 

If you look at the whole process really close you will actually see that we are doing the same thing with people now.  I get bored with my relationships so I need new friends.  I’ve outgrown my wife so now I need a new one.  Plastic surgery is all the rage because we aren’t even happy with ourselves.  Now I need to have a new ME.

When will we ever be satisfied?  Will we ever be satisfied?  I wonder.  In many places around this world I could live for the rest of my life with exactly what I have right now and still be considered one of the richest men in the country.  I would be a king.  Yet here I am, here we are, constantly wanting more.  Our lives, our jobs, our belongings, even our churches are caught in the same drastic spiral that pulls us towards the "newer, bigger, brighter is better" mentality.  If it doesn’t have enough "bling" then we don’t want it.  (The funny thing is that the word "bling" is now becoming old school.  Now I even have to get new words to look good…..)

I’m a spoiled brat.  I’m God’s little selfish child that always wants more and more without ever appreciating what’s in front of me.  It’s amazing that He hasn’t just pulled the plug already.  I’ve thrown fits because I didn’t get my way.  I’ve coveted the next big thing and pouted when I didn’t get it.  I haven’t been thankful.  I’ve been selfish.

In Colossians I read of the idea of a grateful heart:

    12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

    15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

These are attributes of a person who’s life has been changed by the experience of believing in a God that promotes love above all else.  He deserves our praise.  He deserves our thankfulness.  Not because He has forced us to do it.  Because He hasn’t.  Because He gives us the ability to decide what we are going to do.  We have free will.  We have freedom.

I should be thankful for that.  I pray that we all realize how great our lives actually are.  You are a blessing, no matter where you are.  You are amazing, no matter what you think about yourself.  You have everything and want for nothing simply because you are able to sit and read this right now. 

I pray that we will be truly thankful for what we are and what we have.  Each one of us could be much lower than we are.

Praise God that we are not.

11:30 Worship Gathering

 

Everybody remember that our worship gathering will be at 11:30am this Sunday morning @ Expresso.Com.  There is a special event going on in the cafe that morning and we have pushed our usual starting time back to accommodate their needs.

11:30.  11:30.  11:30.  11:30.  11:30.

Hopefully that will help.  Have a great Thanksgiving and we’ll see you on Sunday!!!

The Humanity Of A Pastor

Here’s a quick story to give you a little insight into the things in my life that are so much like yours.  At the place I work during the week there has been this big fund raiser going on for a few months.  They were giving away a brand new Harley Davidson motorcycle in this drawing raising money for the United Way.  The tickets were $50 apiece.  Now, $50 is alot of money to me, but they were only going to sell 500 tickets so the odds were alot better than normal.  I talked about it with my wife and some of the leaders we have and we thought we would buy 2 tickets and see what happened.  The idea was that if we won the bike we would sell it and put the money back into the church. (A pretty good idea considering the bike retailed for around $15,000)  We also considered that if we didn’t win that the money was going to a good cause and still supported the ideals of our ministry.  Pretty much a win-win all around.

I bought 2 of the first tickets sold.  Then I waited…………

The raffle was not until this past Friday.  We went through the whole day with the build up until the motorcycle was given away.  They did a great job getting a patient at the hospital to draw the name.  It was really a cool thing going on.  They draw the name and………………………………………………………………..

We didn’t win.  As a matter of fact a woman that I know down the hall from me won the bike.  She was so excited.  She was crying.  It was a pretty cool thing because she seemed so thrilled over the whole thing.  Of course, she doesn’t ride a bike and had no idea how to even sit on it .(her admission, not my observation)

You know, I was happy for her, but in the back of my mind I was thinking "Why couldn’t we win that bike.  We really could have put that money to good use."  It was a real downer, actually.  Don’t start thinking I ever put my eggs in the lottery-type basket.  It just would have been a really awesome thing that we could have turned into such a plus.  I kept thinking about what we could have done with that money!

Yesterday one of the guys that I work with told me that this woman was now saying that she was going to sell the bike.  Oh!!  That hurt!!!  Not only did we not win it but now it was going to be sold and someone else would have that money.  I was sure that it was going to buy the new Playstation 3 for Christmas or something along those lines.  Then he tells me that she and her husband just found out that he has been diagnosed with leukemia.  They have been wondering how they would be able to afford the bills and treatment that he needs.  They’ve really been struggling with this whole issue.  Now they were going to be able to sell the bike and put that money towards his treatment and possibly help take care of this huge situation.

Talk about being slapped in the face.  It was pretty much like I was wondering where God was in the situation at first.  I’m not saying that I truly expected God to give us the bike.  I just hoped an awful lot, I guess.  After it was all over, though, I realized that God was in this thing the whole time.  Our needs just weren’t as great as someone else’s.  Along the way I learned something that I wouldn’t have otherwise.  Hopefully you will too.  God is in everything.  We simply have to start looking for His movement instead of our own.  When we stop concentrating on what WE see as important and try to visualize where GOD is at the moment then we are finally walking in the right direction.  I really hope I’ve drawn something from all this. 

"God, you are here now.  How can I engage you."

Blogging The Bible

I came across a blog that really caught my attention recently and I thought I would share it with the rest of you extremely interesting, conversational people.  There’s a gentleman named David Plotz who has decided to blog his description of the bible as he reads it.  David is Jewish and openly states that he is not extremely devout.  That’s actually the idea of the blog.  He wanted to see what would come out of writing from the viewpoint of someone that doesn’t know anything.  He’s staying away from any commentaries or opinion books so that what he writes comes totally from his own, as he says "uneducated", point of view.

It’s a really interesting blog.  It gives you a good, untainted, and often extremely funny way of looking at the bible.  It might even make you want to read the book just to see if you see things the same way. 

Now, if you are the type that likes to check out what someone has to say and then pick it apart, do me a favor:  Don’t go to this blog!!!  He’s not there to be corrected.  He admits (on the front page of the blog, to be exact) that he is not a scholar.  That’s what makes it so readable.  I appreciate this writer for his honesty and willing to say things that are somewhat unconventional.  Sometimes I think we need to examine from a completely different angle.  This guy does that.

If you’re interested in a new twist and something that will start alot of conversation (exactly what NETChurch attendees are into!!!!!!) then check out Blogging The Bible at the Slate Magazine site.

Hope you get as much of a kick out of it as I have.  I’m sure it will make for some interesting discussions.

Falling

"Evangelical Pastor Fired From Church", "Fallen Pastor Faces Accusations", "Church Dealing With The Aftermath Of Fallen Pastor"……..

These were some of the many headlines this morning in the news.  This past week accusations were made about Ted Haggard, the pastor of New Life Church in Colorado, stating that he has been having sexual encounters with another man for the past 2-3 years and that he has a drug abuse problem.  On Sunday a letter was read to the congregation apologizing for his actions and stating that he has been removed as pastor of the church.  In the letter he speaks of sexual misconduct and calls himself "a liar, a deceiver".  Essentially what makes this whole situation big news is that Rev. Haggard has been one of the biggest opponents to gay marriage and has taken a very strong stance in the public regarding homosexuality and other issues like drug use.  This whole situation has sent some of the congregation into a tailspin and has muddied an already messed up political outlook.

I was disheartened looking at the pictures of his congregation as his letter was read.  It wasn’t because I had issues of betrayal or thought that he was destroying the church/Christ.  I just couldn’t help but think how terrible it is when someone is put on this huge pedestal and then falls in everyone else’s eyes.  The tears that were being shed and the pain being felt was so overwhelming and powerful to the people listening to this letter.  You could see how distraught they were as they embraced each other for comfort.  I know that many of them felt these feelings because they feel for Rev. Haggard, but I also know that many of them feel that they have been betrayed and let down because they believed in him.  The simple hypocrisy of living one life while professing another destroys everyone in your vicinity when things fall apart.

I hate to say this but we are responsible for the fallout from things like this.  How many times have we expected our leadership to be so perfect that they become this "spiritual superhero" in everyone’s eyes.  They obviously have the hidden key to being strong, deflecting the attacks of Satan, and couldn’t have any flaws because they were "called by God" to do what they do.  You can’t be a minister and have any skeletons in the closet.  You are the example that the church is meant to follow!

Does anyone else feel a chill when that statement is made?  I get very scared when I see the culture that we have become that will replace Christ with a pastor.  Let’s be frank about this:  Alot of people become a part of a church because they love the pastor, not necessarily Christ.  Don’t take offense to this.  It’s a very true statement, if you think about it.  Compare the reality of Jesus Christ to the image that you have of today’s church.  We are trying so hard to "entice" people through the doors with different options of worship, different individual ministries, more dynamic everything, and a perfect picture of this place where life is better.  At the front of the line we place a leader who is captivating, who looks and speaks eloquently, and who presents an image of what WE want to become.  That doesn’t sound true?  Then why are so many people willing to hide their own addictions and short comings from the pastor of the church?  It’s not because they don’t believe they need help or even want it.  Most of the people I’ve ever talked to are too embarrassed to talk to the leader of the flock because "I’ve done stuff they wouldn’t believe.  I don’t want him to think differently about me."  Would we think that way about the church leader if we knew that they had problems too?

Somewhere down the line we have forgotten who to focus on.  We’ve forgotten that most all of the great heroes of our beloved bible were very flawed people.  Alot of them had major indiscretions after they had been pursuing God for some time.  What would we have done to people like David or Jacob or even Peter after he denied Christ?  Would we have ever considered Paul a person worthy of leadership after his persecution of Christians and denial of Christ?  What would we actually have said about Christ if we saw him hanging out with prostitutes and thieves?  I’m not saying that Christ was flawed, but I’m not sure that we would be any different than the people of His day that chastised him and felt he was tearing apart the very fabric of their faith with his actions.

We so desperately need leaders who are willing to admit the deep dark flaws that they have.  We have to take them off the pedestal and give them a place of respect next to us, not above us.  We make it too easy for them to fall off the stage.  The human being in each one of them is at war between the real person and who their church believes they are or who they should be.  They are expected to live perfection, but we don’t put that same cloak on anyone else. 

I hope that this situation will do one thing:  Bring healing to Ted Haggard and his family.  They need it.  There is obviously some amazing pain there and stuff that they need to really work through to survive.  It has nothing to do with New Life Church and everything to do with a man and family that need to be restored to health.  This is probably the best time for God to do unbelievable things in Ted’s life.  This might be the ministry he is meant to live.  Today.  In the middle of the conflict.  While everyone is tearing him down.  Today may be the very thing his whole life has been created for.

We have such a need for honesty.  You, me, our church family.  There is nothing too small or too big.  There is nothing disgusting and too dirty.  There is simply the life that we are all trying to walk through to the best of our abilities with the help of God. 

I am flawed.  Many of you have heard of my flaws.  Many of you see them on a regular basis.  I’ve seen yours, too.  So now we don’t have so far to fall.  We’re all on level ground together.  The only direction we can look is up. 

I truly hope that I am never blocking your view.