Stand!

We are enjoying a 3 week sermon series entitled, "Stand". Two weeks ago the point was Stand: Together (based on Philippians 1:27ff---perhaps my favorite passage in the Bible). Last Sunday found us digging into Romans 14-15 on the topic of Stand: Down (when believers should step back). I wrestled hard with the text throughout the week, finally felt some clarity in the text and then really enjoyed teaching it. This week we'll finish up with Stand: Up. Matthew 5:38-41 is Jesus' famous teaching on turning the other cheek. Is this a passage designed to teach Christians to roll over or is there a message of strength included?

Looking Up

I've had a growing interest lately in knowing more about the night sky. I checked out some books from the Library--but didn't really pick any that helped me. But then my brother in law happened to have this great book, The Stars by H.A. Rey (Curious George author), and wasn't using it. It's been great reading it and learning about when/where to look for constellations and stars.

Wouldn't you know, Saturday was our clearest and most beautiful night. It was also our most frigid night so far this winter. I'd been wanting to go outside and gaze for a few nights leading up to Saturday but the sky was totally cloudy.

I bundled up a bit and spent just 5-10 minutes craning my next so as to spot some of the goodies I'd been learning about.

From eighth grade I remember Orion and I've always know about the Little & Big Dipper. What I didn't know is that the Little Dipper contains a star called the "Pole Star". It rarely moves in the night sky and gives you the indication that you are facing north. I also enjoyed learning that the Big Dipper is part of a larger constellation called the "Great Bear".

It's just something fun to do.
Oh and by the way, I spotted "Cassiopeia" for the first time on Saturday. After finding it, the dog and I were both cold so we called it a good night. Next chance I get, I'll be looking to find the "Herdsman".

p.s.
Thanks to Mrs. Ray (my eighth grade teacher) , Bruce Bain (a great friend from England), and Joe Dongell (a professor from Asbury Seminary) for all enjoying the stars and encouraging me to look up.

Oh the Questions!

It's time again for a little input from Sarah. Hope you enjoy. . .

The other day Peter went to Holly to do a short Graveside Service. This man had been in the Military, so he was buried at the National Cemetery there. The kids have been crazy lately (I foolishly thought this would end after Christmas) and I decided this would be a great opportunity to get out of the house for a bit. We often take advantage of extra miles that Peter has to drive for work to spend time with him. I took my Bible study with me, hoping that the kids would fall asleep and I could sit in the car while he did the service. Perfect! They both woke up the minute we drove into the Cemetery. Why is it that so many of my great ideas so rarely get carried out!?

From where our car was, we could see the Veterans standing straight with their guns in the air. I should’ve been prepared for the barrage of questions that come from any three year old:

“Mommy, why do those men have guns? Are they going to shoot my Daddy?”
“No, Son. They are soldiers. They protect us from the Bad Guys”

Bad guys are a hot commodity in our house. William loves to talk about them, play games with ‘bad guys’, pretend he is the bad guy . . . (When I tried to teach him to call out the name “Jesus!” if he was ever scared of a bad guy, he replied that he’d just get out his sword and kill them himself.). So I thought this would be a good analogy for his little mind. Until a man walked out of the pavilion with his long black coat: “There’s the Bad Guy, Mommy! They’re going to shoot him!”

Next, I got this question: “Mommy, why do some people die? Am I going to die?” Now, this is very tricky. Do I give him a sense of false hope?-- “You won’t die for a very long time”. Or do I give him the harsh truth?—“Yes. You’ll die”. Or do I give him the huge theological discourse?—“William, we never know when our last breath will come. Then again, Jesus may come at the blink of the eye to separate the sheep from the goats. . .” Instead I simply told him, “You probably won’t die until you’re a grandpa.” I’m pretty sure this is going to backfire on me.

I quickly tried to change the subject. It wasn’t that hard to do as the Veterans commenced their 21-gun salute at this point. Again, the questions about shooting came and I realized it was getting very hot in the car. At this point I was wondering why in the world I thought this was going to be a nice, relaxing afternoon.

As the soldiers turned to march away, another man (a member of the VFW) with gold medals in his hat marched along with them. William, with reverence in his voice said, “Mommy! The King! The Soldiers are protecting their King!” Oh to have the awe and imagination of a three year old again!

Get up...

Back in the days when I had hair, grew it long over my eyes, and doused it in "sun in" so that it would be blond, a lot was going on my teenage life. Skateboarding ruled most of it but there was other stuff too. Art, Pursuit of Identity and Music. Although at that point in my life I rejected playing an instrument (crazy!) I did listen to a bunch of it. Some good, some not so good.
-Red Hot Chili Peppers
-Skater Master Tate
-Young MC
-Public Enemy
-DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince
-and more...

Public Enemy had a song with the lyrics, "Get up a get get get down. 9-1-1's a joke in my town..." Pretty much it bashed on police and rescue services in the inner city. (I don't know how valid the picture is that they painted as I was living up in rural Wyoming.)

My thought in all this...what if the song said, "Get up a get get get down. Jesus Follower's a joke in my town..."? Am I (are we) truly living the story of redemption in my town? Does it really shake the foundations of my (our) priorities, agenda, passions?

When I was into skating, it was pretty much all I was into. Sometimes it was to the point of being completely lop-sided. I still laugh at the fact that my friend, Jim, and I used to take our skateboards with us up into the Big Horn Mountains when our families would head up for an afternoon. I mean seriously, did we think we were going to find a natural half-pipe up there or something? We did not know that we could appreciate skateboarding and other things too.

What I loved about being completely immersed in skating was the fact that it consumed me--and I loved it. I dressed the part, bought the right stuff, grew my hair accordingly, defended it (my only actual fight was over being called a poser). On and on it went. My room was plastered with torn pages out of skate magazines. I drew skaters on my church bulletins. I talked to girls about skating--over which I'm sure they swooned!

I've been evaluating; Does following Jesus consume me? Do I defend my position on Jesus? Do I get excited when I talk to others about Jesus--wanting them to also experience what He offers?

Jesus & Peter had a great dialogue in the Scriptures. At the end of John Jesus asks Peter about Peter's love for him. After some back & forth chat and Peter saying "Yes, I love you" he looks over and sees, presumably, John and asks a great question. "What about him?" Jesus' response is, "What does it matter what happens to him. You follow me."

We are part of such an amazing story. Consider the God of the Universe. Consider His divine story being written. Now, consider Him inviting you to be a principle player. Or consider Him wanting you to be even a supporting actor. Consider Him wanting you to be an extra on the set. How cool...God wants you his movie!

But somehow I (we) lose sight of the importance of God's story and how important we, as his creation, are to the story.

Here's an obscure music lyric...
"Skate, skate, skate. As fast as you can. Skate, skate, skate. All across the land..." (Skate Master Tate)

With passion and purpose and with knowledge that the same power of God who raised Christ from the dead is available to me, I will participate in the story of God. Doing so as fast as I can and all across the land.

Merry Christmas

Our Christmas Celebrating began Friday.

I had an opportunity to speak at the MOPS group hosted by our church. It's a great chance to speak into the lives of some 40+ families. I always appreciate the opportunity.

Friday night was a chance to be together with Sarah's family in Indiana. Sarah, William & Kate had traveled by Amtrak Thursday and I arrived Friday afternoon. We had a great time with Sarah's folks, brother and grandparents. It was a quick trip but good stuff.

Sunday was a fun celebration at church. Christmas is just good.

Tonight--actually in a couple hours--we'll celebrate together again with our Christmas Eve service.

We'll do some small family stuff tonight and tear into presents tomorrow morning. My parents fly in tomorrow evening for a week. We are looking forward to celebrating Christmas with them too.

Pa Rumpa Pum Pum. The beat goes on.

Merry Christmas to you and yours.

Winter Wonderland

Mmmm, Music!

Here are a couple great videos.
Music ignites me.

1. Switchfoot just continues to be a great band!


2. Watch this guy, Andy McKee. Great stuff.

Church with a Mission (Trip)

The Trip...
In March a group from our church is heading to Antigua for a Mission Trip. Those who have been around here longer than me tell me that this is a 1st for our church. In our 75 year history an Adult/Family Short Term Mission Trip has not been taken. Our teens have ministered in this capacity many times but not adults/families. I'm going with a group for the first week of the trip and another group will head out during the second week.

The Mission...
Reggie McNeal asks six great questions in his book, The Present Future, contrasted by the "wrong" questions typically asked in church. They are;
Wrong: How do we do church better?
Tough: How do we deconvert from Churchianity to Christianity?

Wrong: How do we grow the church?
Tough: How do we transform our community?

Wrong: How do we turn members into ministers?
Tough: How do we turn members into missionaries?

Wrong: How do develop church members?
Tough: How do we develop followers of Jesus?

Wrong: How do we plan for the future?
Tough: How do we prepare for the future?

Wrong: How do we develop leaders for church work?
Tough: How do we develop leaders for the Christians movement?

Will a Missions Trip make our church missional? I not banking on that. I'm banking on the Word of God to transform our minds and hearts so as to see the world as God sees it.

Peacemaker video

Here's the video we showed Sunday entitled "Peacemaker". I'm excited to post it here and excited that I am now on YouTube.com with this video.

Messing with Christmas

There is a saying, "Behind every successful man is a surprised woman."
Some truth there...some stretch.

I know for certain that my wife assists me and encourages me so much. We mull things over together across a wide range of subjects: kids, current issues, church life, politics, fun... She has a keen mind and a good read on things.

So we've been talking about Christmas and I shared with her a couple weeks ago that I did not have a clear direction on what to share during this season of Advent as we point toward Christmas. She reached back into her mental archive of sermons I preached in years past and over the course of the next few days began to remind and press upon me a sermon series I shared back in the Fall '04. Drawn from Dr. David Thompson's book, Holiness for Hurting People is a series of messages pointing to the holiness available for everyone...in spite of our hurts.

Sunday's sermon will be from Ephesians 4:25. I'm going to talk about the Light of the World who has come to dispel our darkness and take us, using Dr. T's terms, from Delusion to Disclosure of our Pain.

A great song that goes along with this series is entitled "Peacemaker" by Greg Ferguson. It's on a CD entitled One Life. I think it is available from Willow Creek Community Church's on-line store.

Christmas may look/sound a little different at our church this year but it will still point to the Light of the World.

Thanksgiving Musings

A former professor from Asbury Seminary, Elsworth Kalas, preached a great message in Chapel back in 1998. Speaking on Leviticus 10 he pointed out the Intimate Peril serving in ministry has with it. Serving God is intimate work--a nearness and closeness--but there is always the peril of taking the things of God for granted. Case in point: Nadab & Abihu...see text.

I shared Sunday about the peril we each face in being close to God and one another. There is a danger of taking them for granted. I tried to give a challenge to handle with care those things and people God has placed in our lives.

Chris Tomlin sings, "How can I keep from singing your praise?" I wonder if it is possible to keep from singing praise if we presume upon God and take for grant that which he has given us. Even if we are in a "worship & praise" service, but are taking it for granted, we are treading into the wrong territory.

Father God, thank you for your goodness to me. Thank you for your continual presence with me. Thank you for Jesus Christ and the gift of your Holy Spirit. Thank you for the great days and yes, thank you for the junky days too. Thank you for my wife and kids. Thank you for our extended family. Thank you for our great church and the community around us.

Hunting...Jesus Style

It was a few weeks ago I approached a guy in our church with an idea. He owns an outdoor supply shop and we chatted about the "what if" of hosting some sort of event for deer hunters. All it took was one suggestion and my friend, Dave from Bowman's Outdoor Sports, ran with the idea.
(For those of you reading outside the state of Michigan, opening day of rifle hunting season is this Thursday.)

Last night was my opportunity to witness what happens when you tap into something bigger than yourself. The event was titled, The Blessing of the Hunt, and it was certainly that. His shop was absolutely FULL of hunters, their spouses and children.

Out of the 61,000 licensed deer hunters in our region of Michigan and of the 750,000 in the state of Michigan, we hung out with 200.

What'd we do?
6:30 PM...people began arriving for the 7:00 event
-people talked about hunting
-we ate
-people talked about hunting some more
-a taxidermist gave a brief presentation
-people kept talking about hunting
-I spoke to the group about the fact that although we look and see evidences of God in creation, the reality is that God is looking for us. He loves us and pursues us.
-Prayer of blessing and safety for the hunt
-a drawing for give-a-ways was held (including a sweet prize: a bobble-head deer)
-people talked about hunting
9:30 PM...headed home

I'm not a licensed deer hunter and don't plan to ever be one--much to the amazement of the men in my church. But I loved hunting last night.
-My field: Bowman's Outdoor Sports
-My target: Hunters who need Jesus
-My weapon: Love of Christ

Huge thanks to God for last night. Thanks to Dave & Shelly Bowman and all the people they connected with to help out last night!

How Do You Smell?

I’ve always had a thing with smells. Peter thinks I’m crazy. I’ve always associated people and places with smells and can go back to a specific memory just by smelling something. Kate and William both had Burt’s Bees lotion that I put on them when they were tiny. It’s one of my favorite smells. Another favorite is the smell of bread baking. It reminds me of home, growing up. Or the smell of a farm . . . the smell of my dad when he returned home from work each day. Weird, but true. What can I say? So when I saw this verse, I immediately took note:

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession,
and through us spreads in every place the fragrance that comes from knowing
Him.” 2 Corinthians 2:14

A wonderful friend of mine, Sally Dunlap, is such an example to me in this verse. She is every bit the southern School teacher that you can picture. She is small and petite, with white hair and sparkling blue eyes. Though she is a senior citizen herself, one of her ministries while she and her husband Whitney winter in Florida is to visit those who can’t leave their home. One of her ladies, she told me, had severe arthritis and her hands hurt her terribly. So Sally would take her best lotion to her house and while they would visit, she would rub the lotion into her hands, working them until they would begin to loosen. That is the fragrance that comes from knowing Christ. I imagine Sally, spending time with a woman that few would take time to see. I imagine the woman, and the smell of her hands long after Sally left. What a beautiful picture.

William and I started doing devotions together about a year ago. He loves them! He had a little trouble getting the word right, though. “Lotions, Mommy! Let’s do Lotions,” he’d say. When I finally figured it out, it occurred to me that he was being profound without even knowing it. How do I get the fragrance of Christ? By spending time with Him. Have you ever hugged your Grandma and find that you smell like her for the rest of the day? When I spend time with God, truly learning and loving Him, His smell is on me. I, in turn, leave that fragrance wherever I go.

May you have the fragrance that comes from knowing your Lord and Savior and may you spread it wherever you go.
Sarah

Home is Good

We returned last night from a fairly quick visit to my family in South Dakota. Aberdeen, SD has never been my "home" (my parents moved there after I graduated college) but it is home for me because my family is there. It was great visiting with my folks, my sister & brother-in-law and my grandparents. Kate turned 1 while we were with them. She's such a beauty and I am blessed to be able to be part of her life. Home is Good.

Home in Michigan is good. We were anxious to be back yesterday. There is something about familiar surroundings and your own bed. Ahhhh. Even being back in the office today is something of a welcome change. (I may feel different about it tomorrow...) But home is good.

While in South Dakota I had opportunity to hear my dad preach again. He's so good. What a great story teller! Then he pulls it all together for a great point. He keeps it clear and simple--so helpful when wanting people to understand.
-My biggest observation from being in the congregation is: There are loads of distractions when you are in the congregation. Great pastors know that the point of the message should be clear and concise so that, in spite of distractions, people will still get the main point. I want to keep it simple so people can get the point.

Home is good.
Peter.