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Monday, January 18, 2010

Newman, the weiner Dog

Last Wednesday, just around sunset, a dog, a young dachshund, came running into our fenced yard because I had left the gate open. I don't particularly like wiener dogs, maybe because when I was a paperboy, I had several obnoxious ones on my route that liked to chase and bite my bike wheels and me if I let them. And maybe it's because they are so short and long and have little ugly legs. Anyway, this wiener dog comes into our yard a-yapping and barking and he riled up our dog Fuzzy in the house. Fuzzy went to the back door and begged to go out and go after the intruder.

I let him out and the wiener dog went a-flying out the gate but stood there still barking. I told Fuzzy sternly come back in the house and then I stood on the back porch and told the wiener to "Go Home!" in no uncertain terms and tone. He stood there and barked a couple more times and left into the darkness. Good riddance I thought.

Thursday night, after a church council meeting and everybody had just left... I heard some barking and it was the same little wiener dog running up and down the alley behind the church. He was a wild dog. Back and forth, he ran barking and yapping. He would only go half way into the parking lot and then run back into the alley. (By the way, we live right next door to the church.

I couldn't take it anymore so I called the dog over. Somehow I got a pleasant voice on and said "Come here, little guy." Surprise, surprise, surprise...he came over and wanted to be petted. So I did. He began to relax and quit barking. I noticed he had a tag on his collar. On the tag was his owner's phone number and the dog's name "Newman" How interesting I thought who names their dog "Newman" all I could think of was "Seinfeld"'s Newman...He he he...

Well, I called his owner and she said she would be right over... she said "He's a little escape artist." So I actually picked Newman up and held him until she got there and she was very thankful for the call.

Saturday night, just before some pastor friends were coming over for prayer time... I heard some very familiar barking outside my office and it was Newman running up and down the alley barking like a wild thing. I couldn't tell if was glad to escape or if he was nervous that he had escaped and didn't know how to get home. I was nervous that one of my friends might not see him because of his size and might run over him. So I went outside and called Newman over and he came and wagged his tail and was glad to see me. I grabbed his collar and called his owner again but she wasn't there. Newman stayed with me a little while and then ran back down the alley and my friends came and we went into my office. About 5 minutes later I heard a car pull up and it was Newman's owner.

Great story, huh!?! Well Sunday morning, just as I was praying and getting last minute details on my sermon done...the Lord stopped me and said "Do you remember Newman?" I assured Him I did. He asked if I thought it was an accident that the wienie dog Newman showed up 3 times... I told the Lord that I hadn't really thought about it. He said I should.

Now you may think I am crazy or a little bit nuts but I do believe the Lord really talks to us and sometimes we miss what He is saying because we are not really tuned in to how He speaks...not with Thees and Thous or always with a bible verse but sometimes He speaks through everyday happenings and then the Holy Spirit turns it into something good or sometimes even a powerful word of encouragement.

This is what I think I heard the Lord say...Newman came to your house first because I want you to know that I am making you personally and your family members into new men...that the things that you are struggling with like depression, I am taking those things and transforming you into a new man, where you think you are weak and ineffective I am really building good things into your life...learn to relax and enjoy the process I am taking you through...#2) Newman came to the church twice and I feel like the Lord was saying that He was going to bring pre-christian people to the church to make them into New men and women through Jesus....And #3) I believe the Lord said that He was going to make our church family into New men and women...take us through our individual areas of struggle and build us into something significant and powerful for His kingdom. It is amazing how the Lord can take wiener dog and turn him into a New Man.

Well I shared this with the church on Sunday and it drew some smiles but it also touched them and encouraged them. After the service, one of the ladies of the church called me on my cell phone...she said she called her husband who was at home taking care of a 98 year old lady that lives with their family... Her husband said that she had been going wild and saying I am hurting, I am dying... I am going to die... Her husband tried to cal her down and started to talk with her...He asked "Well if you are going to die where will you go Heaven or hell? She said what do you mean? He said "When you die you either go to Heaven to be with Jesus or you got to hell..so where are you going?" She said I don't know.then he begins to explain to her that if she would ask Jesus into her heart and ask him to forgive her sins that she would be assured to live in heaven when she dies. She said well I can't see him so how do I do it ...he explained that you can't see him but you ask him by faith to come in and he will...she thought for a moment and folded her hands and without his help she asked Jesus to come into her heart and life and forgive her sins. She calmed down completely and according to the husband changed into a new person. The lady talking to me was so excited because she had just heard the Lord say in our service that he was going to bring people in to make them new men and women....she said she had been praying for this elderly lady for a long time and God answered her prayer not only to make this lady to become a new person but her husband was a new man also because he got to lead her to the Lord and he had never done that before and it was not even in his nature to do that. She was and is excited that the Lord spoke that word to her just minutes before it happened. You've got to love a God like that. How exciting the future is going to be this year.There are going to be Newmans every where we look because God so loved the world.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Armload of God

Luke 2:28 -then he took Him into his arms, and blessed God and said 29)Now, Lord you are releasing Your bond-servant to depart in peace, according to Your word...34) And Simeon blessed them...

What a fantastic story, Simeon, a righteous, devout dude, eager looking and waiting for the Messiah, and the bible says and the Holy Spirit was upon him on top of everything else...moving, walking in the Spirit before it was 'popular' or Paul wrote to the Romans about in the 8th chapter....listening to the Spirit, trusting and obeying.... one day the Holy Spirit says Simeon, head on up to the temple, I've got a surprise for you...He gets there and looks and looks and it all seems so normal and ordinary until the Holy Ghost pops him on the head and says, perhaps sings :) "Do you see what I see?" and Simeon sees what almost everybody else misses 'cause he has Holy Spirit Spectacles...he sees the Lord and Creator of the universe in the arms of this young and nervous couple and just like anybody with those kind of spectacles would do he grabs and Armload of God...and begans to shout and praise God..."He's got the whole world in His hands" and every other psalm and songs of praise that he sang back in Sunday School...every bible verse comes flying out of his mouth...'cause he's got an armload of God. He gets to embrace Jesus before He is "Jesus" So my question at this point of the story is "who is holding who?" Simeon may be holding baby Jesus but Jesus, Lord of Lords and King of Kings is holding Simeon...blesses God and blesses people...people with an armload of God have a tendency to do those very things: Loving God in front of people and Loving People in front of God! Wow! sounds very familiar! (Thanks New Hope West Coast) Simeon says"Now I can go home to be with God...I've just seen Jesus and God's plan for Jews and Gentiles and I got an armload of God besides...

The Application is if we, like Simeon, are walking right before God, Going after His kingdom with all our heart-Devout and eagerly looking for the next thing God is about to do, we will not only get to see it but we will get an armload of God in the process and someone will have to konk me on the head to get me to shut up from shouting and blessing God(loving God in front of people) and when I get me an armload of God I will bless people(Loving people in front of God) because He does.

This is my prayer: Lord I want to take You in my arms (get my arms around You) Ha! I want to bless You and bless people....Give me an armload of God!!!!!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Big feet in a Big place

Psalms 31:7,8 says :I will rejoice and be glad in Your loving kindness, because You have seen my affliction; You have known the troubles of my soul.8)And You have not given me over into the hand of the enemy; You have set my feet in a large place.

I wear size 10 shoe, which is big for my height 5'7 1/2" (the 1/2 is very important to short people). You need to know that I am somewhat claustrophobic. My family and I went to Disneyland and rode Space Mountain. I had the family backpack and had to put it down at my feet in the little car that we rode in, macking my feet tight and wedged in. I felt like I could not breathe or move especially with the restraint safety bars pushed down on me. I became violently ill and prayed earnestly for the ride to be over...but it seemed that it took an eternity to come to the end of rollercoaster of hellish darkness.. you can not see the curves in the track or the drops or the climbs... I almost lost my lunch...I was pale white with shakey knees when I got off... my kids said "Let's ride it again...that was great!" I said I'll wait for you.

I think I could have handled it better if I had room to move my feet just a little. The Psalmist says of the Lord, You have set my feet in a large place...Many times on this ride we call LIFE, we are told "Sir, you will need to put your backpack down at your feet and wedge yourself into this tight, narrow, lung squeezing, barf producing, vertigo inducing, tiny compartment." Then life happens in the dark, curves, drops, climbs that we can not see coming, and that we can not brace ourselves for.

But the Lord reminds us that we have His word on the matter that He has and will continue to set our feet in a large, wide place.. It is a military term meaning rooom enough to maneuver a large army in with ease.... The Lord says I have set you in the place you are right now...It is not a narrow place, or tight...I place , I set your big feet in a bigger place than you can imagine...I give you choices, variety, provision, vision, direction, wisdom, opportunities, maneuverability...

Don't settle for anything else. You and I are not stuck or limited with no way of escape but we are set in a large place by a great God who loves us.

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

Great is....

This morning I woke up from a dream where I was in my highschool cafeteria sitting around a table with friends . For some reason I began to sing softly the words to the hymn "Great is Thy Faithfulness" As I began to sing a little louder, my friends looked at me and were just a little embarrassed.... but one by one they began to join my song and even began to harmonize with me. By the end of my song I was singing at the top of my lungs like some great operatic baritone

The dream ended and I woke up. I am thinking back to high school that I was never very sure of myself, even with "friends" I always felt like a perenial nerd... I did well grade wise but i always felt socially awkward and never really confident of what the day or my future held for me. I tried to live for Jesus... it was in the Jesus People era...I grew my hair long...carved out a wooden cross and wore it around my neck with a leather thong...carried my bible ...trying to show my peers that I was a Christian from outward perspective. I was not a bold witness... just a shy guy trying to live for Jesus...I should have shown more of what was happening from the inside out...

So back to my dream....If I could look back at my awkward days and my non confident days and sing "Great is Thy Faithfulness" ...If I could look back at my social backwardness and feelings of being king of the nerds and see and sing loudly of God's faithfulness...maybe just maybe God is reminding me that today when I seemingly have it a little more together but still feeling unsure about the future...I can still break out in song Great is Thy Faithfullness, O God... you never change although the future might and probaly change directions a dozen times... You O Lord are my Rock of Stability on which I can stand and sing Great,Great Great is your Faithfulness unto me.