GOD'S HEART BREAKS FOR MARRIAGES

Hey everyone please forgive this aging Preacher Man and disregard my last post if you received it! Technology is great until you inadvertently hit the send key before you even get started! Here is what I meant to blog....

Man, just got in here this morning and already found out that two Christian marriages have tanked or are tanking out. The husband in one marriage is an uncaring, unfeeling workaholic and the wife has grown emotionally numb from neglect. So what does she do? She calls it quits and then calls her lawyer. The other marriage has lasted over 35 years, but a husband's consuming thoughts for a woman from the past finally broke the heart of his wife now. Regrettably, he chose a former fling, over an awesome present and an incredible future.

Whatever happened to "til death do us part"...which by the way most couples ask to have deleted from their wedding vows? Christan men need to "man up" and Christian women need to "woman up" and follow Jesus in their marriages, especially in their marriages. Jesus said "I have come to bring you life, and life in abundance" even to your marriages. I believe what was true then is still true today.

My heart broke this morning over the news, but you know what? I believe God's did too!

TIME WITH GOD

Man I had some solid time with God today! It was nothing way out there just substantive and good. As the old saying goes, "If you are ever coasting it is never uphill!" You know it is easy to coast in our spiritual lives. We get busy, life happens, and our spirituality goes from being the most important thing to us to the most forgotten. The crazy thing is that it doesn't happen all at once. No it happens one forgotten prayer, one unconfessed sin, one overlooked scripture reading at a time. And before you know it you are halfway down your hill! So my challenge to you is to wake up, quit coasting, and start trekking back up. God is counting on you! He believes in you! You can to do it!

The Preacher Man

The Tension Is Good

When you say the word tension most people hear it negatively. Tension is almost always seen as being a bad thing, sort of like cancer. You hear the word cancer and images of sickness, painful treatments, and even death come to mind. But unlike cancer, tension can be a very, very good thing.

If you are a tight rope walker, tension in the cable you are walking across is a good thing. Tension is good for your muscles. When you lift weights you have to put your muscles under tension in order to strengthen, develop, and grow them. Engineers love tension because tension in heavy duty cables is what makes structures like the San Francisco Bridge possible. And without tension in our lives we end up physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually soft.

Many years ago, as we were talking about my future in ministry my supervisory professor at Southern Seminary, Dr. Charles Bugg said to me, “Scott always make sure you are in a position that is more than you can handle.” I thought for a second and then asked “What?” He said again, “Always make sure you are in a church or position of ministry that is more than you can handle.” Then I asked “Why?” He said, “Because it will keep your edge sharp! It will cause you to get up early in the morning, develop your talents, work hard during the day, and sleep well at night.”

What Dr. Bugg was saying was that the tension caused by taking on more than I could handle would help me to fully become the man God had created me to be.

In other words, the tension is good. May it good for your as well!

FROM GRITS TO PILGRIMS

Man what a crazy Friday night out!

Family was suppose to go to Applebee's for dinner and then to see True Grit. Applebee's was great except we bought 2 tickets there for less than the going movie rate which did not want to print. In any case we were cutting it close so their ticket printing issues made us 15 minutes late to True Grit. I figured no big deal, we would move fast, tons of commercials....plenty of time. Not Happening!

I was moving so fast when we got there that I almost crushed a young girl who was on her way to get popcorn. When we did finally walk into the theater the movie had already been running for 5 whole minutes. So there the 4 of us stood in the back.

What do we do now? We had already missed the opening scene plus...did we really want to walk all the way down to the front thereby disrupting all the people and totally embarrassing ourselves OR just leave. To the front or leave, to the front or leave? As we discussed our options we kept walking in and out of the theater which only ticked off the people off in the back. About that time in walks the girl I had almost crushed with a bucket of popcorn.

That did it. We got our money back for the tickets (at the higher movie rate by the way) picked up some ice cream at DQ, and drove home to watch Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. It was a good night after all!

As the old saying goes, "When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" that is if you like lemonade! :-)

God Bless,
The Preacher Man

IT ALL BEGINS AGAIN

Man I haven't blogged since October 19th, 2009 and I wouldn't be blogging now except for two things:

-our current President who, in his State of the Union Address, said something like...."We should invest in the fuels of the future, not in the fuels of the past?"
-and the current crisis in Egypt which is partly due as one reporter put it "to the power of the social network."

If we are to have any hope of impacting the future for the cause of Christ we have to engage it through Blogging, Facebook, Twitter, and any other form of communication that may present itself. So this aging Preacher Man begins to blog once again and I would invite you to come with me!

God Bless,
The Preacher Man

THE CHALLENGE OF LEADERSHIP

I heard a quote recently that gets me pumped every time I think about it. It is a quote about life and about leadership. It comes from a guy named Antoine de Saint-Exupe'ry and it goes like this, "If you want to build a ship, don't drum up the men to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders. Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea." Man, isn't that great? "If you want to build a ship, (or business, or church, or anything else for that matter), don't drum up the men (and/or women) to gather wood, divide the work, and give orders (don't start building whatever it is you want to build). Instead, teach them to yearn for the vast and endless sea (create in them such a hunger, such a desire, such a passion that they can't help but want to build the ship and then get out of their way). How you do that my friends is the challege of leadership!

COMPASSION: ANSWER FOR THE HARD LIFE

Life Is Hard! A couple went to attend the wedding of a family member. Relatives had flown in from across the United States, but somewhere between the rehearsal dinner on Friday and the wedding on Saturday the groom and the bride-to-be called the whole thing off. Another man, a father, in great anguish shared how his daughter was planning on marrying a young man that he and his wife vehemently disapproved of and how there was nothing they could do to stop her. Finally, a young woman, a mother of twins and pregnant with a third, went to run some errands only to return home to find that her husband had hanged himself.

Life Is Hard! But Jesus knows that because in Matthew it says that "Jesus went through all the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the good news of the kingdom and healing every disease and sickness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd."

Dear God give me that kind of compassion!

HE STILL CHANGES LIVES

Man I just got blown away!!! One of my college buddies wanted to befriend me on Facebook. Now I am not going to give you any of the gory details about my friend, I will call him Ed (fictitious name), but just let it be said that Ed is the last person who I ever dreamed would become a radical Jesus follower. Ed was one of the smartest guys in our class, but he lived on the wild side. He was a party animal, no he was more than that. Ed was a party lizard! Ed and I were roommates for a semester and his exploits were known far and wide. But over the years as Ed journeyed through life God got a hold of Ed's life and spiritually changed him, and Ed became a radical Jesus follower. In fact Ed just finished serving a multi-year term as an Elder in his church. And as Ed puts it "To get to that point, you KNOW it wasn't my own strength!" And the coolest thing is that if God can change Ed he can change you too!

TOO BUSY DOING CHURCH TO BE THE CHURCH

My interim Office Assistant, good friend, and radical church member made a comment recently that caused me to give pause. Basically, what she said was that since she had been working at church she had not had time to connect with her "3", the three friends she had been getting involved with to help guide them on their spiritual journeys. When she said that I realized I had lost focus on my "3" as well. I realized that I was so busying being a spiritual leading Preacher Man to my church that I was failing to make time for my "3" who needed spiritual leading the most of all.

As I was working through all of this I realized churches are in many ways just like that. They are so busy doing church, hanging out with other Christians at church, having church meetings, and attending church activities, that they have forgotten how to be the church, the radical transforming power of Christ in and to an unbelieving world.

What about you? Are you being the church or are you just going through motions???

May God Bless,
The Preacher Man

NEVER EVER FORGET

My son volunteers at Restoration Urban Ministries, a local ministry to the poor here in Champaign. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving they were giving away food as they do every week. About noon my son texted me that he had never seen so many people waiting to receive food. Not only were they waiting in a long line they had been given numbers and had filled the sanctuary. I texted him back and told him to look closely at them and never, ever forget the faces of our poor.

USED AND ABUSED

At the insistence of my younger university buddies I have begun putting my blog site out there. I however, have a suspicion that their motives are not entirely pure. I sense that they see my blogging as a new and improved way to "bust my chops". To all you chop busting "wannnnnnna beeeeesssss" I say bring it!!!!

NOTHING BUT COFFEE

Not to long ago we asked a "non-believing" graphic designer to create a logo for our church. To come up with some ideas we looked in the yellow pages and came across one church whose advertisement said something like "Good Faith, Great Coffee." The advertisement obviously offended the graphic designer who responded, "If all they have to offer the world is great coffee, they really have nothing to offer it at all." I must say that I have to agree!

SO IT BEGINS!!!!!!

A 49 yr old Preacher Man enters the world of blog to call forth a radical group of young Jesus followers, effect change, and transform his small portion of the world. God Help Him!!!