Noises

I was in a deep and restful sleep one night when all of a sudden I was awakened by the screaming of my wife.  She was sitting up in the bed tugging on my arm and pointing towards the other room.  She was screaming, “Noise!  Noise!  There was a noise in the other room!  Dog is barking!”  I am a deep sleeper mind you, but the look of fear in my wife’s eyes caused me to quickly jump into action.  That’s right, in one motion I levitated and was standing upright in the bed out of the covers.  I ran to the end of the bed, and with cat like reflexes jumped off the bed hitting the floor running.  As I ran to the other room, I realized there was no thief and no eminent danger to us within the house.

The dog’s reason for barking was that coyotes had come by the house.  The dog was on high alert, which caused my wife to sound her alarm, which caused me to go into panic mode.  However, by the time I got to the back door, the coyotes were gone.  It’s mighty difficult to fall back to sleep after an incident like this that gets your heart rate up from 50 to 160 in 2.6 seconds.  There was so much adrenaline pumping I couldn’t fall back to sleep.

1 Thessalonians 5:2-3 (NLT) “For you know quite well that the day of the Lord’s return will come unexpectedly, like a thief in the night.  When people are saying, ‘Everything is peaceful and secure,’ then disaster will fall on them as suddenly as a pregnant woman’s labor pains begin. And there will be no escape.”

 

All too often the noise of this world distracts us from our walk with God.  If you have fallen asleep on the Lord, then pray that he will wake you out of your deep sleep by whatever means possible.  We think we can run and catch up with him later, but that is not how it works.  When he returns, there will be no running and catching up to him.  Like those coyotes, he will be gone.  How is your walk with God?  Are you asleep?  Ask God daily to keep you awake and walking with Him.  Stay on high alert and never fall asleep in your daily walk with the Lord. 

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad

Balanced Living 2014 Promo

Adoption

It doesn’t seem that adoption is as good as giving birth to your own child is what I have heard many times.  I remember talking to a couple about adoption, and they said they would not want to adopt because you never know what you are going to get with adoption.  Hmm, are we really sure what we are going to get with our own biological children either? 

The fear I have always had about adoption is my own ability to love an adopted child the same way as I love my own biological children.  This all changed when my wife and I were faced with an option for adoption that we heavily prayed over.   We felt peace when deciding to move forward with the adoption.  There are no words to fully explain the similar feeling of going to the courthouse for the finalization of the adoption as the feeling of going to the hospital for the birth of our other two children.  We still hear people say things like, “He looks like he belongs to your family.”  Our response is, “It’s because he does belong to us.  He is our child!”  The birth certificate proves it now because it has his new name on it along with our names just like our other two children.

Ephesians 1:5 (NLT) God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.

God wanted to, and it gave him great pleasure, to adopt you into his family.  It cost him a great deal to adopt you into his family too; the death of his only Son Jesus.  When you accept Jesus into your life as Savior, you are adopted into his family with great pleasure.  You are a child of God and he loves you.  Now go and face all that this life throws your way.  Know that you are a child of the Most High God, and it brings him great pleasure to call you his child! 

You are loved unconditionally by our heavenly Father.  It was, is, and always will be his great pleasure; and it is our great benefit.  Remember to tell him that you love him too, by the words that you say and the deeds that you do.  Say this from time to time to remind yourself, “I am a child of the king!  God LOVES me!”  What can be greater than God’s love for his children?

In Christ alone and continuing in prayer,
Chad

Excuses

It is amazing the excuses we come up with in order to get out of sticky situations.   A child will offer up the idea that writing on the wall was an “accident.”  We say that we are going to start eating right and

exercising, but we will start on…?  Hmm, used that excuse before?  Excuses abound for all times and for all circumstances.  What about when we are cross with someone?  We say things like, “Well, I would act better if you would stop making me get up on the wrong side of the bed” or “I said those things because you are driving me crazy.” 
 

People get angry at police officers after they are pulled over for breaking the law.  They inevitably give the excuse that other people speed and go much faster than they were going.  Many will say that “everyone” does a “rolling stop” there.  It ends up sounding much like the things parents punish their children for saying like “all my friends’ parents let them stay up late” or “my friends’ parents are letting them go to the party without adult supervision.”    

 

There are people who even give excuses about God and church.  Things like: “I’m too tired and cannot get up that early for church to be there at 10:30 in the morning.”  “I don’t have anything to wear.”  “The pews are too hard (too soft).”  “The temperature in the sanctuary is too hot (too cold)."  “The sermon is too long (too… Well, okay!  I am not sure I have ever had anyone come up to me asking for the sermons to be longer!)."  “Those people in church are big hypocrites.”  People even try to give the excuse that they are not sure God exists.

Romans 1:19-20 (NLT) They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them.  For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

What is your excuse?  What is stopping you from falling head over heels in love with the Creator?  What is stopping you from longing more and more for him and fellowship with his children?  Try going out tonight and watching the sunset.  Look at its beauty declaring there is a God (ref. Psalm 19:1-6).  There is no language barrier for looking at all of creation and knowing that God exists.  We “have no excuse for not knowing God.”  Find the awe and wonder of God in your life today that breaks through all excuses.  Look to strengthen that awe of God through the fellowship with God’s children that meet together at church every week.  What excuse are you going to give after God’s word has declared that we have “no excuse?”

In Christ alone and continuing in prayer,
Chad

ADVENT: Sermon Series Promo

SUFFERING

I remember being at the doctor’s office one time filling out all kinds of paper work.  One section was “Do you suffer from any of the following?”  It had things like depression, fatigue, stress, carpal tunnel syndrome, motion sickness, hair loss, headaches, toothaches, earaches, and maybe even ache aches.  Hair loss is the one that made me think twice.  I have pulled out a hair before that caused a little suffering; but I have never noticed a hair abandoning my head and it causing me to suffer and hurt.  It was not until thousands of them had abandoned my head that I even noticed that I was showing more skin on top than I use to. 

Maybe the lack of hair is a cause of suffering for many.  There are many things that cause people to suffer.  You may suffer from mompetition (competition between moms trying to one up each other using their kids) or friggatriskaidekaphobia (fear of Friday the 13^th).  You may even suffer from memory loss, but you can’t remember!

There is a lot of stress on our lives today; many times it is self-imposed by the decisions we make and the priorities we set.  Either self-imposed suffering or because of outward circumstances, we often feel alone.  We question where God is and if he even cares. 

Exodus 3:7 (NLT) Then the Lord told (Moses), “I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their cries of distress because of their harsh slave drivers. Yes, I am aware of their suffering.”

They had been in bondage and oppressed for about 400 years.  Wow!  That is a long time and a lot of generations never saw freedom.  God never promises to change our circumstances, but do not mistake that for him not caring.  Know that he is with you and he cares for you.  Talk to him about your sufferings; he knows and understands!  He wants to hear from you.  Focusing on him instead of focusing on your sufferings can do you a lot more good than you may ever imagine. 

Psalm 55:22 (NLT) Give your burdens to the Lord, and he will take care of you.  He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,
Chad

Change

We live in an ever expanding world that is changing at as fast a rate as it ever has.  We seem to get news even before the news has happened; then we get the news how the news first reported was inaccurate.  We are socially connected through Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, Google Plus+, and Instagram, just to name a few.  People are able to Google just about anything they can think of and find a response in a matter of seconds.  These technologies have changed the way we interact and have proven to be helpful, but can be hurtful if used in an inappropriate manner.

Some people fight against change and refuse to succumb to the technologies of today and desire to keep things the way they were in the good old days.  I wonder how good the good old days really were though.  I remember growing up having a party line phone with my grandparents and our phone had the old rotary dialer.  The military relied on postcards and letters through the mail to stay in touch with the family when today we have Skype and Facetime to see and talk in real time.

Often times we, especially as church people, are comfortable with the way things have been and resist any change.  We quote Hebrews 13:8 (Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.) as our reason to dig in to keep things the same way.  However, we no longer offer animal sacrifices because Jesus changed it.  We no longer are left in the outer courts to worship, but are now in the holy of holies as the veil of the temple was torn at the crucifixion of Jesus.  We no longer find grace through the laws of the Old Testament, but find grace through the Good News of Jesus of the New Testament.  Consistently, we see things do change even when looking through the Bible.  Not all accept the changes though, just look at the Pharisees in the Gospels.

I look forward to leading our church through some exciting changes over the upcoming years.  Pray that God will help us to embrace the changes that will help us to better fulfill the Great Commandment (Matthew 22:34-40; Mark 12:28-34; Luke 10:25-28) and the Great Commission (Matthew 28:16-20; Mark 16:14-18; Luke 24:44-48) in our current context.  Let’s be a God-glorifying gathering of Acts 1:8 people living in the 21^st century.

In Christ Alone and continuing in prayer,

Chad