Wake Up!

I don’t know about you, but I am a people watcher. If I am at an airport or any other crowded place I can’t help but watch people. They fascinate me. When you watch people you notice all sorts of things: funny little quirks, body language, nervous habits. One thing I notice about so many people is that they seem to be searching for something. It comes out in their speech or maybe the way they dress. Sometimes just the look on their face gives it away, or the way they stare out into space as if they feel like they are the only ones in their lonely universe.

I’ve often wondered if these people know that God is near. Their search, that need to belong to something bigger, that desire to be a part of something great, is found in Him. Everyone has heard of God. His name is mentioned by millions each day (though usually not in an ideal way). But do people really know Him? Do they understand what He has done for them? Do they know that He loves them more than anyone ever could or ever will? Do they know He gave his Son to die so they could have eternal life?

No? Then maybe we should tell them. At my weakest moments I have a tendency to look at certain types of people and inwardly I shake my head and wag my finger and think, “You know better. You better get your life straightened out. Shame, Shame.” When I think that way the only thing I accomplish is being judgmental. We just can’t assume the world knows the truth. I’m so thankful that my friends and family didn’t just assume I knew the truth. Instead they gave me every opportunity to know that God is near, and that because of His Son, Jesus, I can have eternal life. This news is too great and too powerful for us to sit on. The world needs to hear it. Maybe someday I’ll learn how to move from watching people to sharing the truth with them. We have the answer. Let’s share it.

Psalm 145:18-19

Yesterday I shared with my congregation a sermon on finding or rediscovering our passion for Christ. This is a struggle I battle daily and I know many other Christians do as well, especially people who have been Christians for many years. I don’t know exactly why it is, but it seems that so often we forget that we are REDEEMED! Why do we have a hard time remembering that God saved us from eternal death by sacrificing his only Son? It seems so often we live not as the redeemed, but rather as the dying.

Maybe it’s not that we forget, but that we become numb to it. Studies show that in our society we become numb to things like violence, immorality, profanity, and sex because the media and entertainment outlets are saturated with those themes. We see it all the time, and after awhile it becomes no big deal. Is it possible we have become so used to going to church, and listening to sermons, and singing songs, and taking communion that we have forgotten the reason we do those things? Is our relationship with God no longer a big deal?

Honestly, I don’t know. It’s very possible this is more of a personal struggle that I’m facing, and this is a foreign idea to everyone else. I just can’t help but wonder if we have lost something. I really feel that way. If we truly lived as a redeemed people that are going to live forever, would our lives still look the same? Would the way we approach our worship services be any different? Would our evangelism efforts increase? Would we be more serious about telling everyone we know about Christ? Maybe. Maybe not.

It is my prayer that God’s people would embrace the gift of redemption that He has freely given to us. I pray that He will open the eyes of those who struggle and help them to see what He has done for them. May He wake us up.

Ephesians 2:8-9
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.” NIV

Angie and I attended a Jr. High/H.S. band concert last night. We have several teens from church who are in the band, and the band director and her family are members of our congregation as well. An interesting thing happened at that concert. I looked up at one point and there to my right were people from church. I looked to my left and there were people from church. I looked next to me and behind me and there were still more people from church. It slowly dawned on me just how many people from our little congregation were there supporting our kids and our school.

Throughout the concert I just watched as my church family reached out and ministered to those around them. No, there were no miraculous healings or mass conversions. But there were conversations, handshakes, hugs, and smiles. Connections were made and relationships were strengthened, and maybe doors were opened. Honestly, they didn’t even realize they were doing it. There was no plan or organized effort. They just did what they do best. My Christian brothers and sisters let their light shine in a beautiful way last night, and I am so thankful to be able to serve with them.

Matthew 5:15-16
“15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” NIV

Last night’s episode was all about Sawyer and introduced two new surprises. First of all there are 2 islands! The Others are on one (smaller island) and the rest of the survivors are on the other. I guess they have been hinting at this in subtle ways (a submarine, the boat dock where Kate, Jack, and Sawyer were taken away, mention of a ferry in one of the old Dharma tapes) but I sure didn’t see it coming. The other revelation was that maybe part of the reason they have captured Jack is so he can operate on someone. Who’s X-Ray did Jack see?

Sawyer is one of my favorite characters and last night we were treated with some good ole’ Sawyer flashbacks. Apparently Sawyer has a daughter (or does he?). Is it possible the mother of his child was conning him into leaving money for his daughter that doesn’t exist? Hmmmmm. We follow Sawyer as a prisoner and we get to see him orchestrate yet another con, this time on a fellow inmate. But this time he is buying his freedom. What I love about Sawyer is that he is so conflicted. He is a bad guy that wants to be good, but doesn’t want to admit it. If there was ever any doubt about how he feels about Kate, it was all washed away by the look on his face when Kate said she only proclaimed her love for him to save his life. I used to believe Kate and Jack just made sense, but this Kate/Sawyer thing is growing on me.

The title, “Every Man For Himself” was an obvious reference to Sawyer’s life philosophy. We see in all of Sawyer’s flashbacks that the one thing he is not is a relationship oriented guy. He is a loner in every sense of the word. I thought it was a powerful moment when Kate refused to leave him behind. To me one of the great overall themes of this show is that these survivors may be lost, but they are truly finding personal redemption on the island.

The only number reference I remember was the “8″ painted on the rabbit. Speaking of that rabbit, what a wild scene! Watching Ben shake the rabbit cage uncontrollably was without a doubt one of the strangest Lost scenes to date. Add to that chest piercing needles and exploding pacemakers….it’s enough to make you squirm.

Meanwhile, Jack is playing with the emotions of Juliet by bringing up the obvious authority struggle between her and Ben. Do you think that will come into play later? I am fascinated with the whole Ben and Juliet storyline and I can’t wait to see what is revealed in coming episodes. At first I thought they were a former couple dealing with a big breakup, but I’ve been reading rumors elsewhere on the Internet that they could be siblings….even twins! Crazy….

Life on Survivor Beach seems to be moving along as normal, if you call clairvoyant Scottish men building lightning rods normal. Where are the writers going with this new Psychic Desmond twist? Fascinating….

The next 2 episodes promise to be big, especially since Lost will be taking a hiatus until after the new year sometime. What will happen? Next week’s promo promises that everything will change. So may possibilities…….

For those of you who haven’t had the pleasure, I’d like you to meet Hank. Hank is our Chocolate Lab and he is 2 and a half years old. I have countless stories about Hank and from time to time I figured I could share with you some Lessons From The Lab. Where do I begin?

If you know anything about Labs (especially young ones), one word that describes them is hyper. Hank is no exception and he has done a superb job of raising the hyper standard for fellow Labs worldwide. He’s the sweetest dog you’ll ever meet, that is, if you don’t mind 95 pound dogs who like to tackle you when you walk in the room. He’s not mean or nasty, he just really wants to be loved. Make no mistake, if you come to our house you have come to see Hank. He’s convinced of it. Oddly enough, not once do I remember anyone saying after meeting our wonderful dog, “Man, I really need to get one of those.” I really don’t see why. I mean come on….look at that picture….isn’t he cute?

Hank is really a pretty good dog, and he is very smart. When he is just laying around the house with us, he minds pretty well and he has learned what he can and can’t do. We went through several remote controls, cell phones, flip-flops, and pillows before he finally learned what his toys were. Now he pretty much sticks with his various toys that are scattered throughout the house, and if you ever come over he will show you each and everyone. We are still trying to convince him that the cats are not toys, and I think we are making progress. But Hank has one major weakness…..Angie’s furry Bigfoot house shoes. For some reason, when Hanks sees those obnoxious house shoes, he loses all control and he has to have them, even if they happen to be on Angie’s feet. No longer do the words, “No!” or “Leave it!” hold any power over him. As a result, we’ve had to keep the Bigfeet away from him, hidden in the closet. Whenever he gets a chance he sneaks in our room and finds them. Awhile back my Mom came over to the house to let him out since we were going to be gone all day. When we returned she called and was telling me how much Hank loved that big furry toy of his. At first, I had no idea which toy she meant and then I realized that Hank had pulled a fast one on Gram. He just couldn’t resist.

As ridiculous as Hank’s obsession with Bigfoot house shoes is, it reminds me of how Satan works. As we go through life we learn what we can and can’t do. We learn what things are OK and what things we need to stay away from. But so many times, there is that one thing that we can’t resist. It may seem small and harmless, but deep down we know we should avoid it. Satan is the master of finding out what that one thing is, and using it to draw us away from God and deeper into sin. He dangles it in front of us over and over again until we bite, and when we do we suddenly forget about what’s right and what’s wrong. All we care about is the moment.

Satan wants nothing more than for us to take our focus off of Christ. He doesn’t care where or focus is as long as it’s not on Jesus, and he will do anything to distract us. We need to be alert and ready at all times so we don’t fall into temptation. The only way to be ready is to be truly focused on Christ and His Word. Where’s your focus?

I Peter 5:8-9

Even as a minister, one of the things I struggle with the most is daily, individual Bible study. I do spend a lot of time in Bile Study, but mostly I am preparing for my next sermon or my next Bible Class. Those studies are beneficial to me, but I know I need more than that. If I am not spending daily, quality time with God, then do I really know Him?

We talked about this struggle with our teens from church last night. Bible Study is the only area in our lives that we are willing to let others experience for us. For example, if someone tells you they have seen a great movie and then they tell you everything that happened, do you really feel like you’ve seen the movie? No! You want to see it for yourself so you can experience it. Or take a family vacation. This past summer Angie and I went on a Disney Cruise with my sister and her husband and our niece and nephews. We planned it a year in advance and we saved up for it. When the time came to go we were so excited and couldn’t wait to go. Not once did I consider asking someone else to go in my place and experience the vacation for me so they could tell me how great it was later. Who would do that? Nobody! Angie and I are having a baby in May, and I can’t even describe how excited we are. When that day comes, do you think I will look for volunteers to witness the birth of my child for me, and then they can report back to me later? Not a chance. Why would I want to miss one of the greatest moments of my life?

So often our personal Bible Study consists of listening to the preacher or Bible Class teacher once or twice a week. Or sometimes we will read a Christian book or listen to Christian radio program and we feel satisfied that we have truly studied the Word. Many times we don’t even look in our Bibles to look at the text for ourselves. They put all the work and preparation and in and we experience the Word of God through their experience.

Is it wrong to listen to preachers and Bible Class teachers or to read Christian books and listen to radio programs? Of course not. Those things are vital components of our faith. However, they are designed to complement our own personal Bible study, not replace it.

I don’t have any easy answers for how to make personal Bible Study more of a priority in your life. I wouldn’t struggle so much if I did. One thing that helps me is to think about scheduling. We schedule everything in our lives except for our daily time with God. Why not give God a scheduled 5, 10, 20 minutes every morning or every night? Maybe we spend too much time staring at our TVs or “getting things done”. It’s different for us all, but it’s a struggle many of us need to meet head on. How can we ever truly know Him if we never spend time with Him?

Colossians 3:16
“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.” NIV

We all carry burdens. Some are large and some are small, but nevertheless they are there. When I was in youth ministry, I learned a great deal about burdens every summer when we participated in Wilderness Trek. Trek is a week-long hiking and backpacking trip in the Rockies. Each person carries everything they need for the week on their back (usually anywhere from 40-60 pounds). Every year there would always be at least one person who would struggle with getting their pack up the mountain. During those times, our guides would stop everyone and tell us that we needed to help carry the load of the person who was hurting. I would always stand in amazement as these kids would literally take the bulk of the load from that person, and they would distribute it out to each other and take the load on top of theirs. We left no one behind and we climbed that mountain as a group, even if that meant carrying each other’s burdens.

How many times do we come across others who are hurting and carrying burdens that they can’t handle on their own? Daily? Weekly? It’s one thing for us to feel sorry for them. That’s easy. It’s another thing all together to help them carry the burden. Jesus is our ultimate example. He didn’t come into the world saying, “I feel sorry for you.” Instead, He went to the ultimate extreme and he took our sins (our greatest burden) upon Himself. He took the punishment that we deserved.

Look around you. Are there burdens that you can help carry? Are there people around you who are struggling and hurting? Sometimes the best way to deal with our own burdens is to help others with theirs. When we take the time to carry each other’s burdens we show the world who Jesus is and what it means to truly follow Him.

Galatians 6:2
“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” NIV

I remember not too long ago I was having a conversation with someone about families, and the subject of the in-laws came up. As I thought about it, I realized how blessed Angie and I are. We both absolutely love spending time with each others’ families. Seriously. We have so much fun just being with them. And yes, we see them more than once a year. We see each other’s families all the time and we love it. Not everyone can say the same for their family situations, and we are so blessed to have the families we do.

As we prepare to raise a child I can’t help but think about how important family is. I pray that God will give Angie and I the strength and guidance we need to provide a loving, Christian home for our child. I know it takes a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice, but I also know it’s worth it. Our families have proven that to us, and now we have the opportunity to share that love with our children. Thank you God for our families.

Joshua 24:14-15
14 “Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. 15 But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.” NIV

I’ve often thought it was weird that some of the unhappiest people I’ve known are Christians. If faithful Christians have the gift of eternal life to look forward to, then why are so many so sad? Honestly, there are a lot of answers to that question, and I sure don’t have all of them. I think one answer is that sometimes we are a lot like David. God referred to David as a “man after His own heart”. Yet, David went through some truly unhappy, depressing years. Why? Because he ignored God and decided to take matters into his own hands. One bad decision led to another and before you know it, David had become an adulterer, a murderer, and a liar. Talk about reasons for depression.

So often we try to take matters into our own hands instead of listening to God. We think we know what’s best, and before we know it our decisions are guided by our selfish desires. What makes me happy right now? Why can’t I have whatever I want? I know my limit. I can stop anytime. If we let these selfish desires and thoughts consume us we are in danger of pushing ourselves farther away from God. We can proclaim Christ all we want, but if we aren’t living for Him then we are not with Him. No wonder we are so sad sometimes.

David prayed that God would restore to him “the joy of His salvation”. For us to truly enjoy our salvation we must return to Him and humbly lay our lives at His feet. Only then can we truly be happy.

Psalm 51:12
“Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.” NIV

Honestly, I don’t have much to say this week. Why? Because that episode told us nothing!!!!!!!! I usually love John Locke flashback episodes, but I really didn’t like this one. We know that John, Desmond, and Eko survived the hatch implosion. We of course don’t know how, and does anybody really think we will ever find out? We learned that John Locke went through a stage where he lived on a Hippy Farm that also fronted as a weed farm. OK…………. The drug/dream sequence with Boone was interesting, but rather pointless it seemed. And we are shown once again that John is a hunter and that there are polar bears on the island. I thought the explanation about the polar bears was interesting…..Oh wait…There wasn’t one!!!!!!!!! I guess I’m getting a little tired of the non-explanations, but oh well. To me the only interesting development (besides the fact that Hurley has apparently gained weight), was the fact that Desmond is now some sort of a psychic. Yeah, we see that the polar bear ate Dharma people, and the officers badge number in Locke’s flashback was 84023. Yeah, it was interesting that Locke woke up on the jungle floor just like Jack in the pilot episode in season 1. Yeah, it was weird that Eko’s stick fell from the sky and hit Locke in the head. A lot of interesting stuff that goes nowhere. All in all I was disappointed and bored with this episode. For the first time ever, I was ready for a Lost episode to end. Maybe I missed some earth-shattering revelation. Maybe I just don’t get it. Thoughts?