Tuesday, December 5, 2017

150,000 Miles and Going

  Last Thursday my truck passed the 150,000-mile marker (fittingly enough leaving the church to run an errand for my Amy).  Now, 150,000 miles on a vehicle may not seem like an awful lot to some of you, but it does to me.  Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had several cars with more miles on them.  My first car had almost 250,000 miles on it when I got it.  However, when I think about the 150,000+ miles that my truck has on it now, I think about what that’s looked like.  Amy and I bought that truck in January of 2006.  We had only been married a few years, and aside from our house, this was our first “major” purchase together.  Both of our cars had some mileage on them and several of the car lots near us were having sales since we were in an area affected by Hurricane Katrina and there were some good rebates as a result of that.  We wanted to get something reliable and stagger having a car note, so we bought me a truck.  We knew that we wanted to have kids, so Amy insisted on getting one with a larger cab.  At the time, I wasn’t concerned about kids and was good with a smaller cab.  That’s just another example as to why she’s much smarter than I am.  I would have hated to sell my truck only a few years later after having Ashby.

     Over the almost 12 years that I’ve driven that truck, it’s been on (and off) the roads of Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Arkansas, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Tennessee.  It’s been on family vacations, hunting trips, work trips, youth trips, and just regular everyday driving.  I’ve made a handful of moves using that truck (think Sanford and Son).  I’ve hauled trailers.  I’ve returned inflatable bounce houses.  You name it and I’ve done it.  I can tell you where every dent and scratch on that truck came from.  It still bothers me that I got too close to that mailbox when we were moving out of our house in Mississippi.  I’ve got a book in my glove box that has a record of every single service that’s been done on that truck by myself or someone else.  I’ve changed the oil, air filter, spark plugs, oxygen sensor, engine coolant, and numerous other things on that truck over the years.  I’ve busted a few knuckles, said a few choice words, and ruined quite a few shirts working on it.

     Despite all of that, Amy and I will tell you that it was one of the best investments that we made as a family.  It’s been a very reliable vehicle for almost 12 years with little maintenance costs, and we’re hopeful that there’s still another 150,000+ miles left in it.  I know that I’ve got high aspirations hoping that it’ll stay in good shape for over 300,000 miles and 25 years.  That’s why I’ve taken care of it the way that I have.  However, I know that all of the care and maintenance that I’ve done over these last 12 years won’t get any easier.  As time passes, there will be belts to replace, more oxygen sensors to go bad, fluids that have to be changed, and countless other issues.  However, I’m going to put in the work until it can’t be done anymore.  As long as it’s still in good working order, I’m going to keep laboring away to keep that truck in as good of condition as I can.

     Now, what does my truck have to do with the Christian faith?  Well, in many ways, maintaining my truck mirrors our walk with Christ.  In the beginning, it’s pretty easy to keep up.  Everything seems to be in perfect working order and we really just need to check in every so often to make sure that a few basic things are taken care of.  However, as time passes, and life rolls on, it becomes a bit more difficult to keep things working like they should.  Being faithful to Christ is hard, especially when confronted with life outside the walls of a church.  No one who has seriously studied Scripture would tell you any different.  The more we study and read, the more we’re exposed to the things of this world and come to know the darkness of humanity; the more difficult it becomes for us to keep the faith.

     However, it’s worth it.  Life gets hard.  Remaining faithful to the calling that God has placed upon each and every one of us is tough.  We want to rely on the things that we’ve already done, but that’s not enough.  It’s a good start, but we have to keep going.  I love what Paul says to the Christians in Philippi:  “But one thing I do:  forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”  Paul here is telling these Christians that it’s imperative that they keep working.  He knows that there might be some temptation to rest on what they’ve done, but he says that we can’t do that.  I can’t rest on the fact that I’ve taken good care of my truck for the last 12 years.  That won’t help me much over the next 12 years.  Sure, it makes things a little easier, but when you get down to it, it’s really just a good start.  Grow in your faith.  Don’t rest on what you’ve done, but strive forward and see what God is going to accomplish through you.  There’s always work to be done for the sake of the kingdom!

Monday, November 6, 2017

Prayers of Sutherland Springs, Prayers for the Church

                Like all of you, I find myself heartbroken over the news that made its way throughout the media on Sunday afternoon.  Anytime there is a shooting of any variety it causes us to mourn greatly, especially for the families of those lost in such a senseless tragedy.  However, it hits a bit closer to home when you consider the context of this particular shooting.  Within the walls of a church, where roughly 50 or so were gathered for worship, such evil took place.  I think that we can all relate to being in that setting, and the last thing that we expect to happen is for something like this to take place.  Can you imagine attending worship with your family and simply wanting to hear the good news of the gospel, and the morning ends with some of your family no longer on this earth?  I hope that all of you will join me in praying for the victims of this heinous crime not only in the days and weeks to come, but in the years that are ahead as they seek to make sense of the senseless.

                One particular victim that pulls at my heart in a particular way is the pastor’s daughter.  She was only 14 years old.  Her father was in Oklahoma on that particular Sunday and not in the pulpit, which is uncommon for him.  I can relate.  I have never missed more than 3 Sunday’s in any year since entering into pastoral ministry.  In fact, I would be willing to bet that since January 2012, I’ve woken up on fewer than 20 Sunday mornings that I haven’t been tasked with preaching.  I can’t imagine the guilt that I would feel if something were to happen to my family during one of those Sunday’s.  In fact, there’s probably only been a handful of those Sunday’s where my family wasn’t with me wherever I was.  However, as a pastor, I can tell you that his grieving is just as much for the rest of those who lost their life than morning as it is for his own daughter.  I know that’s hard to fathom, but that’s the way that any pastor cares for his congregation.  It may not always seem like it, but that’s the way it is.

                As investigators try and find some motive or reason as to why this happened, they haven’t been able to uncover anything as of yet (Monday morning).  They know the history of the shooter.  They know that he had displayed violence in the past, most notably towards his wife and child.  However, why that particular church at that particular moment is still a mystery.  As one of residents of Sutherland Springs, Texas said in an interview, “This isn’t the type of thing that happens here.  You understand these things in big cities, but not here.  There’s only 1,000 people in the whole town.”  I can remember back when I was working at a church in Mississippi, having a conversation with the pastor about a particularly difficult family situation in the church that we were dealing with.  We actually had discussions on whether or not we needed to take safety precautions to prevent the husband from coming up to the church during worship and taking us out.  After all, when you walk through the double-doors of that church, there isn’t anything between you and the pulpit.  In fact, that’s the way that it is in most churches, and it’s the reason why many churches employ security personnel on Sunday mornings.

                All of this really is enough to make you ask what’s going on in the world isn’t it?  However, when we stop and think about it, it’s still not as bad as it is in other parts of the world.  As horrible as this event and those of a similar nature are, they aren’t as bad as the 100’s and 1000’s of churches that are being persecuted by the governments of other countries.  Every Sunday, we prepare ourselves for a pretty routine worship experience.  For our brothers and sisters in parts of the world that are hostile towards the gospel, they prepare for that particular Sabbath to be the day in which they lay down their lives.  I’m not trying to diminish the tragedy of what happened in that small Texas town a few days ago.  There’s no way to say that it was anything less than an evil and vile act with sin as the root cause.  However, we also can’t forget that ever since the beginning of the Christian faith, there has been persecution.  In fact, it has been the norm rather than the exception.

                Did this shooter attack this particular place because of it being a church?  Did he primarily go after one individual or family in the church?  Was it just a matter of him knowing that Sunday morning worship would be an easy target?  We don’t know, and we may never know.  However, we do know that the bride of Christ has been under attack since the beginning.  We have to prepare ourselves for being attacked, and I’m not talking about with guns.  I’m talking about us understanding that we serve a God who is offensive to this fallen world, and that might place us at odds with the area where we find ourselves at times.  May God give us the strength to truly believe that Jesus Christ is more than enough.

Monday, March 13, 2017

Scripture Reading Leads to Growth

                I’m not much of a gardener or a green thumb.  I’m good with grass.  I can keep a yard looking great most of the time.  The times that I do struggle with my yard are when there are periods of drought.  It’s the same reason that I’m not very good with plants.  I’m not a waterer.  My idea of watering is for it rain every few days.  Occasionally, I’ll remember that something needs to be watered outside and I’ll give it a quick shot with the hose.  The truth of the matter is that I still probably don’t give plants enough water even when I do water them.  Well, the reality is that plants have to have water in order to grow.  That’s a fundamental need that they have in order to not only grow, but to not die.

                When it comes to our faiths, we need God.  We have to have God in order to not only grow in our relationship with Him, but we have to have Him in order to not spiritually die.  The question becomes how we receive God.  Well, God enters our hearts through the work of the Holy Spirit.  However, this is something that we have no control over, just as we have no control over how much it rains.  This is entirely a work of God.  However, there is another way that we receive God (or at least an understanding of Him) that places the burden upon us though…reading our Bibles.  You see, the Bible is fundamental for Christians.  Scripture is how we grow in our understanding of who God is, what He has done for us, and how we are to respond to Him.  Seriously devoting ourselves to a careful reading and study of His Word is how we grow in our faith. 

                Two texts that I think about quite often when it comes to what we do with Scripture are found in two Pauline epistles.  First, Romans 10:17 says, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.”  Obviously, this verse has in view an aspect of preaching.  Well, preaching in its most fundamental and basic concept is and ought to be a study of God’s Word presented to God’s people.  The other text that often comes to mind is 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work.”  Every word, every punctuation, every “jot and tittle” as one of my seminary professors used to say (he’s from Belfast), is inspired and useful and beneficial for our growth as Christians. 


                Do you spend time in Scripture?  Let me ask that a different way; do you spend time studying Scripture?  I’m not talking about blowing through a daily reading of a chapter or two of God’s Word.  I’m talking about marinating over a text.  I’m talking about reading and re-reading and re-reading a text and wrestling with it both contextually and practically.  I’m talking about examining God’s Word and trying to discern what earth-shaking and life-saving truth exists within a passage.  I can already hear a lot of folks saying that they don’t have time for such a thorough handling of Scripture.  Ok, that’s fine; then just read less per day in order to read deeper.  We would be better served to only read a few verses a day and seriously wrestle with what God’s Word is actually saying than we would be with only a surface reading of an entire book in a day.  I want to challenge everyone to read God’s Word daily, and to read it seriously.  I want to challenge you to become so familiar with your Bible that it becomes almost an extension of yourself.  Also, feel free to bring it to church (a novel concept).  I can’t tell you all of the wonderful notes that I have written in the pages of my Bible that were penned during a good sermon or a time of profound teaching.  You wouldn’t show up for a Biology class without a text, nor would you show up to your Literature class without your copy of A Tale of Two Cities.  So, why would we show up to study God’s Word without the text?  I can promise you that as long as I’m the pastor of this church, we’re going to be studying God’s Word.  So, you might as well bring the book that we’re going to be using.