Pick Up Now or Later?

I've been telling you about my new, shiny red Troy-built push mower.  Like I said, I mowed the grass this weekend.  But what Ididn't tell you is that I have a dog named Hoss.  Stop and ask your parents about the "Ponderosa" right now, and you will know how big my dog, Hoss is.

Allright I'll tell you.  He is a big friendly Black Labrador of about 110 pounds.  Now Hoss leaves piles in our yard; they are not small piles, since Hoss is not a small dog.  But in my wisdom I thought, "I'll pick up the piles after I finish mowing."  After all I was really excited to use my new, shiny red mower...Not a good idea.

First, I ran over a pile and mulched it with my new mower.  By the way, mulching a pile makes it way more difficult to pick it up later.  Moments later I stepped in one of Hoss's piles.  Yep, stepping in a pile makes it way more difficult to pick up later too.

So guess what?  I got to thinkin' and I realized I was wrong about piles.  I should always pick them up first.

Sin, disobeying God, is like this.  So often we try to just go on without admitting what we've done wrong.  The problem is we keep stepping into the wrong stuff we've done or avoiding the wrong.  When we don't deal with it, sin becomes more difficult to deal with later.

How do we pick it up now?  The Bible says, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness (I John 1:9),"  Sooooo, if we tell God we are wrong and we are sorry and if we apologize to those we've hurt and ask their forgiveness, we can receive the forgiveness Jesus purchased at the cross for us.  This allows us to move ahead freely!  It's like mowing in a clean yard!

Can we pray that we'll learn this lesson?  Dear Lord, sometimes it's hard to admit we're wrong, but we want our life to be clean.  Will You help us turn away from the wrong things we do by admitting we are wrong, when we are, and by accepting Your forgiveness.  Thank You for being a forgiving God and thank You for providing forgiveness through Jesus!  In Jesus name, Amen.

Proud of you
Pastor Wilson

Got "Go Bar"?

The grass was getting very long over this past weekend, because we didn’t have a lawnmower at our new house yet.  I finally broke down and went mower shopping.  At about the sixth stop I found a shiny red, Troy-Built push mower that was significantly marked down in price.  The sales lady was able to mark it down another twenty dollars, and it came home to live with me.

I wanted to try it out right away, but there was a pretty big road block in my way.  The bar that you must hold down to start the mower was missing.  Even if I could start my new shiny red Troy-Built, it would have been tough to keep it going. 

Of course, I got back in my car and drove across town to see if a sales person at the store would give me a “go bar”.  Guess what?  They called a man in the back, and he knew all about the problem.  He had given the “go bar” off my shiny red Troy-Built to someone else who needed one.  He said, “No problem; we’ll just take one off of this other mower and give it to you.

Lickety-split I was out of the store, arrived at home, installed my new “go bar”, gassed up my mower, and I was cuttin’ grass!  Of course, I got to thinkin’…

What is the “go bar” in my friendship to Jesus and how do I maintain that friendship once it gets started?  John 3:16 says, “God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  The “go bar” is God’s love.  Your friendship with Him begins with the fact that He loves you.

John 1:12 says, “But to all who believed in Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God (NLT).”  We continue our friendship to Him by believing in Him in every part of our life: family, church, school, friendships and how we spend our time.

Have you pressed the “go bar” and held it down so you know God’s friendship all the time?  You can, you know!  It all starts by understanding God’s love to you through His Son Jesus.

Can we pray about it?  Father in Heaven, thank You for loving me through your Son, Jesus.  I accept Your love for me and will continue to accept Your love in every thing I am and do and learn.  I want to press the “go bar” of Your friendship to me and hold it down by walking with You in each and every event in all of my days.

Proud of you,

Pastor Wilson

I Got It In My Eyes

I have to wear reading glasses nowadays.  The deal is that if I’m driving or trying to see things far away, I am A-OK.  But if I’m trying to read things close up, they get blurry; so they have to be magnified by my glasses.

I forgot my glasses at home today.  Guess what – I couldn’t read a thing!

Sometimes in the morning I forget to take off my glasses after I read my devotional book and the Bible.  I proceed to brush my teeth and shave with my glasses on.  Not a good idea on one particular morning…

I was starting out a new can of shaving cream; I use the gel kind that turns into foam after it touches my hand.  Well, this new “can of cream” must have been under a great deal of pressure.  I pointed the nozzle into my hand and pressed the button gently and WOW!  The gel came out with such force that it bounced off of my hand, filled up my eyes and part of my nose and then ricocheted all over the mirror!  And yep, it turned to foam in my eyes and up my nose.

I stood there in shock for a little while and hoped no one was watching this disaster.   Then I removed my glasses and began to clean up the mess; and of course, I had to blow my nose.

I got to thinkin’ about this yesterday when I was writing about Andrew being able to see so clearly.  I, on the other hand, couldn’t see at all.  My glasses were full and my eyes were running, because my nose was full.

Sometimes we feel such pressure from the things or people around us or from the feelings within us that we just can’t see straight.  Like yesterday, I’m talking about “the eyes of our heart” or the way we are able to understand what God is saying to us.

Today a North Chapel I was talking about being honest about idols or “dirt” in our lives.  God wants to clean that stuff off, so we can see.  Yes, so we can see Him more and more clearly.  The Bible doesn’t tell to focus on the world, in fact, it tells us that if we love the world and the things in the world that the love of the Father is not in us.  If our focus is the world, we’ll see about as good as Pastor Wilson with shaving cream in his eyes and nose.

The Bible says, …”Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.  Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith...  (see Hebrews 12:1-3).”

Let’s have a good prayer: Lord, will You help us keep our eyes off the world and help us keep them fixed on You?  Don’t let the junk of the world fill our eyes so we can’t see You, but let us look clearly into Your face, so that we may know You (Philippians 3:9-10).

Proud of you,

Pastor Wilson

Andrew's Eyes

I was talking to Andrew; he’s one of the sixth graders we look up to.  He just got new contacts.  For those of you who don’t know, contacts are like glasses; they help you see.  The difference is you can’t see them from the outside, cuz’ they lay flat against Andrew’s eyeballs.  

Sometimes it takes a person a while to get used to their contacts.  Their eyes can be red and watery, until the feeling of a small piece of plastic lying on their eye becomes normal.  Not Andrew; he’s already got the routine down.

When I got to thinkin’, I remembered a verse about seeing like God.  Paul was praying for the Ephesian church when he said, “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of His mighty strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead… (Ephesians 1:18-20)”

He used the words, “the eyes of your heart.”  These are eyes that other people cannot see on the outside, but that we use to understand what our God is saying to us.  Paul said that the eyes of our heart could be “enlightened.”     Our “heart eyes” need to be called from sleep into alertness!  Notice the things God can make us understand: His hope, our inheritance and His power at work in us!

How does this happen?  When we ask Jesus to come to live in our hearts by His Holy Spirit, He makes us awake to God’s thoughts.  We actually begin to see with His eyes!  No, we don’t see with red, scratchy eyes or with watery eyes, but we are able to understand the things God is saying with His very clear eyes.

Let’s ask Him to help us with that today:  Dear Jesus help us in this day to see the way You see.  Help us to notice the sad or lonely person.  Help us to understand chapel and Bible lessons the way You do.  And Help us to listen to Your instructions about how You  want us to act toward others all day.  In Your name, Amen.

Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson

BLAZE!

By the title of this post you'd think I would be talking about fire or even "shining like stars," our banner for this year.  Nope.

I want to tell you about a boy I met this week named Blaise.  Now that's a cool name!  There is a famous philosopher and mathematician named Blaise Paschal.  Maybe Blaise is named after him...?

Anyway Blaise was hanging out in the lobby at the North Campus of our school.  He was waiting while his mom shopped in the school clothing store.  He informed me that his little brother would be starting school.  His brother couldn't quite fit into Blaise's handed down uniforms, and Blaise, himself, had grown out of most of his own uniforms. Blaise talked to me like he was an adult in a boy's body; I liked him right away.

But of course, he got me to thinkin'  that all of you are going through the changes that growth brings.  It is fantastic, but it can be a little scary at times.

Joshua was going through growth one time.  Moses had left him; God wanted him to be the leader of about two million people and a bunch of animals as well; and he was facing a fierce enemy.  In Joshua 1:6-9 (look it up and read  it) God finished talking to Joshua by saying, "Be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged.  For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go (NLT)."

When you experience changes like a new teacher or grade or classroom , or even if you meet new friends, remember God, Himself is going with you. You can talk to Him - it's called prayer.  You can tell Him how you feel - it's called prayer.  And you can ask Him to show you what to do and how to act - yep, it's called prayer!

So let's pray: Lord go with each of us, including me, as we experience new things together.  When we grow, help us not to throw away what you've already taught us like clothes that don't fit anymore.  But help us take all that You've taught us and all of Your presence into every growing time.  In Jesus name, amen.

Ephesians 6:18,
Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson

Pure JOY!

I ran into Natalie and Leah the other day at school.  They were helping their mom set up her classroom cuz’ she’s a teacher at CHCS.  While they were takin’ a little break, I thought I’d try to strike up a talk with them.

I wasn’t sure, but I thought they might have just been on a trip to Guatemala with Mrs. Hall and their mom and dad.  I ask them about it.

Yep, they’d been there all right, cuz’ their faces started to beam when they started talkin’ about it.  I asked them,  “What was most important thing you got out of your trip?”

Smiling from ear to ear they said, “The people we met there were so full of joy.  They have so little, but they have so much joy.”

Of course, then I got to thinkin’.  Does the addition to our lives of things like TVs, video games, toys (for little people or big people), other possessions and money take us away from joy?  Where does joy come from anyway? 

The Bible says, in John 15, that joy comes from remaining in God’s love.  It comes from living connected to Jesus in such a way that we are like a branch connected to tree.  We get all our life from Him, and without Him we can do nothing!

Soooooo, it’s not the things that are bad; it’s when we let the things separate us from our deep friendship with Jesus.  Joy comes from being so connected to Jesus that we use the things He gives us to please Him.  We should never let our things use us in a way that keeps us from being friends with Jesus.

School is about to start and I hope you are as excited as I am!  Let’s stay connected to Jesus all year long; so no matter what we have or don’t have, we will have His JOY!

John 15:11,

Proud of you,

Pastor Wilson

Still Moving!

Can you believe we're still moving?  I think we're getting really close to loading a big trailer that's parked in our yard and taking all our things to a house in Munroe Falls.  We can't wait to get settled in.

One problem: the vacuum stopped working.  That's not a good thing, cuz' you have a lot of old dirt to clean up when you're moving.  Every time we pick up something that hasn't been moved for a while we find dust, dirt and dog hair: the "three Ds".

The "three Ds" don't break the vacuum though.  When I took the vacuum apart to see what was wrong, I found other things.  Yep, there were rocks, airsoft gun pellets, Christmas tree needles, small nails, pins and of course plenty of the "three Ds".  While I'm sure the vacuum doesn't like to suck things that are other than the "three Ds", when we tried to suck up a lot of pine needles, pellets and pins, it simply said, "Nope, I quit!"

So I spent 30 minutes taking the vacuum apart and 30 minutes digging the "three Ds" and the "three Ps" out of the little hosy thing that goes from the vacuum sucker to the vacuum bag.  And guess what?  The vacuum is back in action!

Then I got to thinkin' that vacuum is a lot like my mind.  If I put things in it that work and that it can easily think through, it works fine.  When I try to put things in it that don't belong there, I just don't work right.  Do you know what I'm sayin'? 


That's why I've always liked Philippians 4:8, which I think I memorized in 5th grade at CHCS.  This is how it goes; let's see if I can still remember:  "Finally brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable - if anything is excellent or praiseworthy - think about such things."  Yep, I still remember.

Hope you are thinking good things!

Looking forward to seeing you in 16 days!

Lord, Help us to think of You and Your goodness and grace as we get ready to be back @ school.  And let us take every one of our thoughts captive and make them obedient to You!

II Corinthians 10 :3-6

Proud of you,
Pastor Wilson