It's all done but the Shouting!!!! Shoutin' Time!!!

Isaiah 54:1 -Shout for Joy, O Barren One, You who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; for the sons of the Desolate One will be more numerous than the sons of the married woman, says the Lord!

The Lord is speaking directly to Israel who is spiritually barren at this time and probably does not feel like shouting for any reason but maybe out of frustration or depression or despair. Shout anyway...Shout to get Joy(because of the certainty and trust in the Lord) or shout because you already have seen what the Lord could do and you have a little eyedropper full of joy...so commence to "shoutin". The Lord speaks directly to them, not in condemnation or judgement but in Hope and Anticipation and Excitement(God does get excited!), of what He is about to do for them. (Its like getting your wife a great gift and you can't wait 3 days until her birthday and you give it to her early just because you are excited for her to be excited)

Our disappointments become God's Appointments. The Lord is speaking to the unqualified, disqualified, those who haven't produced or have stopped producing...folks who are running on empty.

This is God's heart for those who have lost hope. "Watch out...I'm about to do something huge in you..."It's all done but the shouting"...so shout and think big, large, enormous, life altering,...shout before it happens...It's time to get unstuck and move into this new season." He can say this because He knows what He wants to do and besides he is Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides...He is El Shaddai, the God of Plenty, the God of more than enough...The Lord is directing, asking those who have been rendered speechless previously, to sing and shout for joy and don't be quiet about it.

You get ready for what God is about to do by shouting and speaking and singing your praise to Him.

I must get ready for this change...I must shout for joy because I have been spiritually barren and empty in this past season...and The Lord, Jehovah Jireh, the Lord, El Shaddai, is about to make me fruitful and productive..."Emptiness" is being shown the door and escorted out of my life and "Joy" is knocking and ready to move in, not for a visit, but for a life time...Fullness, Freedom and Fruitfulness...more than my eyes have seen, more than my ears have heard and more than what I have ever dreamed or imagined, all that the Lord has prepared for me because I love Him and He loves me.

So here it goes>>>"Hallelujah" I'm shouting...because the Lord says it's Shoutin' Time!

A Real Pro...

Sometimes I see myself as a real Pro...no!, not a real Professional, but a real Procrastinator...I confess I have been a real procrastinator from as early as I can remember and I am wondering if I wasn't born with this amazing gift! I would put off doing my household chores until right before my patient Mom and Dad would check to see if I had completed my tasks. I would delay in collecting money on my paper route and would have to borrow money to pay Mr. Morrison,the paperboy manager, from my parents or my brother, who always seemed to have gotten his money on time and promise to pay them back as soon as I collected the delinquent accounts.

I can remember having to practice piano and my teacher Mrs. Howard Cook and my parents would expect so many hours per week per lesson. I would try to put off the practicing until I absolutely had to have it done... trying to cram hours into a few minutes of practice... (I think it's called cheating or, Heaven help us...Lying...something a preacher's kid should never do or at least get caught doing.)The only one I cheated was myself and of course maybe the Lord.

School was never a challenge for me. I could make pretty good grades without really trying. But then teachers started to give us work projects and book reports and deadlines. It's funny how a three week deadline at the announcing of it seems like an eternity but it flies by and gains momentum as it draws closer and closer. This leads to what we "Pros" affectionately call "all nighters" which were always accompanied by countless cups of caffeine and platefuls of carbs (energy foods like pizza rolls and Butterfingers) and the following morning we were always blessed with great amounts of energy(Not!) and dark circles under our eyes (I was mistakenly identified once as a giant racoon bi-ped creature.) You would think that as I grew older I would change my ways but in college I found that I pulled these with regularity and let's not even talk about it in graduate school.

As a professional in a professional world, I find that I sometimes slide back into my former ways and try to delay the inevitable...not meeting deadlines, but for the most part Life happens and I have to use my "grownup" triage skills to discern what things could be considered optional for now and what things could be counted as mandatory and necessary.

To my horrified regret and dismay, I have discovered that not only do I suffer from being "A Pro" but I am a "carrier" of the dreaded disease like Typhoid Mary...I guess you could call me Procrastinoid Paul. I might be spreading this joy around. Some people in close proximity seem to catch this from me (although I think the Bible calls it sowing and reaping) and what is really sad is I think I gave it to one of my immediate descendents. Thankfully, the other has always been the opposite and loves to get things done way ahead of time, almost to the point of being obsessive compulsive.

Do you remember Y2K? Yeah! I was one of the few people who was looking forward to it. All I could think about was that we could rid of all of these "time saving" computers and maybe, just maybe, I could catch up on things I had gotten so far behind on, like reading 237 books that I kept putting off until I got some extra down time. Y2K had so much promise! Oh Well!

So, now I come to the point of this blog, which is: I have backslid into my old ways in turning this project in on time. I am late, I'm late for this very important date.:) Lord, help me not to porcrastinate and help me to get ahead.

Outserving my wife?!?

We had just made a quick trip to California see my Mom and Dad and then travel another hour to see our son and his wife, who were in the middle of transition. We were there to show our support and just hang out with them in this challenging time of their lives. We arrived on a Thursday at Seth and Sarah's apartment and spent the evening with them and then spent Friday with them shopping and seeing a movie. We came home and sat around and talked awhile and then it was time for bed. My wife was enjoying the conversation with the kids.During the conversation, Seth had inflated the mattress that we would sleep on and I was helping our daughter do some things.

When I had come back into the room, nothing had been done with the bed and in my "little man pea brain" or maybe lack of one, I had thought my wife would have made the bed. Little yellow warning lights and bells and buzzers from the Holy Spirit went off in my head but I did the "manly" thing and ignored Him and them...My face apparently showed disgust or irritation that the bed was not made and my very perceptive wife caught me on it and said "Was I supposed to make the bed?" and I said "No" and began to angrily put the sheets and blankets on it..."No, I'll do it!"

The conviction I began to feel was awful...here I was...a Christian....a follower of Jesus...pastor...dad...husband...acting like a spoiled 2 year old because no one (my wife) had made the bed. During the whole time the Holy Spirit was saying "Shut up and serve this wonderful wife I have given you...What the heck is your problem, bub?" (Only He said it in a nice, very convicting way). I grew up in the South, where I watched some women wait on their husbands hand and foot and somehow that got a foothold in my psyche and it creeps up and shows its ugly head in my expectations in my marriage.

I really don't understand it because my mom and dad loved to serve each other and my dad was always a Southern gentleman and treated my mom like a queen... always finding ways to serve her and show affection. And that's how I started out in our marriage... trying to learn (a key phrase) to serve and not so much expect anything in return...but the Specter of Expectations would show up and haunt me and I would do his bidding.(I am wondering if Expectations is related to Expectorations, just some much spit) I love my wife and would do anything for her...that's what I say but sometimes I don't always live it out.

A group of men from our church went to a Promise Keepers meeting in Boise, Idaho years ago. I remember distinctly one speaker, Wellington Boone, share what the Lord had taught him about marriage... one thing he said was that he was never going to let his wife outserve him. He would look for ways to serve her, love her, affirm her. If she did anything for him, he was going to do twice as much for her...He was never going to let her outserve, out love, out anything him. In a word, he had learned to become a servant. He and his wife always had this "Holy Contest" going on on serving one another.

Sounds vaguely familiar!!! Jesus said "I didn't come to be served but to serve", and by inference He also meant that to be our example. "The world will know you are my disciples because of the love you have and show for one another." I hate it when the Holy Spirit does that in me...I mean convict me...but I really love it when He does that and I respond to His nudgings. Gulp! gulp! Gulp!

Well back to my story, When my wife walked off, I knew what I had to do...I apologized profusely, said I was sorry a hundred times or so and promised the Lord that I would do better the next time He gave me an opportunity to serve my wife...and He is holding me to it...Everyday...if I look for it, and that is a very big IF...I can find ways to serve my wife and children, my friends, even strangers...and in serving them I am serving my Lord... for He said as you have done it unto the least of these, you have done it unto Me. Yikes!

I don't think I would have expected Jesus to make the bed and serve me...in fact I would have fallen all over myself finding ways to make the bed and do anything else for Him...so why can't I so that for my wife? I going to need some more practice until I can do it naturally, I guess.

So Lord, help me be like you and not let anyone, including my wife, outserve me. You are a servant...make me one too.

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.

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!!!!!

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.

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.