15 Sep 05 What He Said

You should go read my friend Greg’s blog today:

http://stoogeman.blogspot.com/

Or just click on the link “Rev’s Ramblings”

14 Sep 05 Our Church Stinks

No, it really does. We have a clogged drain in the kitchen.

The cleaning crew dumped a bottle of commercial drain cleaning liquid into the sink. You know the kind where the warnings take up most of the space on the bottle? The major ingredient in said liquid is sulphuric acid. Hence, our church stinks. It’s like I’m back in high school and once again something strange is happening inthe chemistry lab.

Speaking of high-school, Madison (who is in 6th grade) received her locker assignment this week at school. I had to stop by the school yesterday for some administrative issues and she wanted to show me her locker. She was so proud to show me her locker and her skill at the combination lock. I did have a flashback to high school and the trusty locker.

Speaking of flashbacks, Reese and I were running on the track at Yorktown high school last night. We ran around the track and were entertained by the youngsters engaged in football practice. Want to guess what happened? Yes, I thought about high school. Specifically playing high school football. I never was very good at football, in high school, but I threw up a lot after workouts. To this day the smell of coconut scented suncscreen makes me queasy.

Maybe I’ll get a bottle of the coconut concoction and dump it into the sink. Might as well have nausea with the burning eyes!

13 Sep 05 Leadership

I’m working on a series of lessons on leadership. I’ve got two weeks to share everything there is to know about leadership. That should not be a problem!

I’d like to hear from you. Your thoughts on leadership. Describe the effective leader and give and example of effective leadership.

This may appear like you are writing my sermon for me. Relax, I’ve already copied something out of a Chuck Swindoll book.

12 Sep 05 4 Years Removed

I was asked an interesting question yesterday.

Like many churches, we provide a visual guide (outline) of our Sunday AM service via a projector. We create a PowerPoint file each week for songs, scripture readings, message points, and title slides for each segment of our assembly.

In the bottom left corner we have a small red and blue ribbon with the date of 9-11 underneath. Here’s an example:
I was asked if there was an appropriate time to remove this insignia from our slides and if so when would it be appropriate to remove this insiginia?

I talked about this yesterday with a few people and to my surprise there was some incredible consistency of thought.

What do you think? Is 9-11 now just one of those dates in history (like December 7th or June 6th) where something traumatic happened and we should move on?

09 Sep 05 Shooting The Messenger

Not to be outdone, Joseph was a major league dreamer. He had some good ones didn’t he? He dreamt about bundles of wheat - how the bundles of wheat belonging to his brothers bowed down to his bundle of wheat. He dreamt about space - about how the sun, moon and eleven stars bowed down to him.

These are amazing dreams. God was revealing to Joseph all that was in store for him. Knowing “the rest of the story” we see God preparing Joseph for difficult times. Situations and circumstances soon would be contrary to this young man. In the midst of the difficulty he could always dream.

It seems the only mistake Joseph made was sharing his dream with others.

One time Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him even more. (Genesis 37:5 NCV)

The negative reaction extended even to his father.

Joseph also told his father about this dream, but his father scolded him, saying, “What kind of dream is this? Do you really believe that your mother, your brothers, and I will bow down to you?” (Genesis 37:10 NCV)

I read all of this and think, some things we just need to keep to ourselves!

I know there is a time and place for testimony. There is a time and place to share what God has done in our life. It gets a bit tricky when people share what God is going to do. We can see what God has done. It makes us nervous hearing from someone else about what God will do.

Here’s the perplexing question: “Had Joseph not shared his dreams would his brothers still have sold him?” I’ve got some ideas but I’d like to hear yours.

08 Sep 05 All I Have To Do Is Dream

Jacob is a man on a mission. He has been sent away by his father Isaac to Paddan-aram that he might find a wife. At this point in his life Jacob has been reaping the benefits of his father’s faith and his father’s God largely at the expense of his brother. It’s a compelling story. Whereas Jacob left to find a wife, his journey led him to discover God.

At some point in his journey to find a wife, Jacob becomes tired and decides to rest for the night. He picks a spot, finds a rock for a pillow and goes to sleep. Perhaps he laid down too quickly as the impact of his head on that rock caused him to have this dream:

Then Jacob saw the LORD standing above the ladder, and he said, “I am the LORD, the God of Abraham your grandfather, and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are now sleeping. Your descendants will be as many as the dust of the earth. They will spread west and east, north and south, and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your descendants. I am with you and will protect you everywhere you go and will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” (Genesis 28:12-15 NCV)

It would be easy to read this story and see a God who rewards deception. I think we see a God who keeps his promises. To this point the familiar relationship has been between God and Isaac. Situations and circumstances aside, Isaac blessed Jacob and thus confirmed Jacob to carry on “the family business.” I don’t see God rewarding Jacob’s deceit so much as I see God honoring his promise to Isaac. However, I could be wrong. I’ll let Brady flesh out the further dynamics and implications of these events. My purpose, for today, is to focus on Jacob’s reaction to his dream.

Then Jacob woke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, but I did not know it.” He was afraid and said, “This place frightens me! It is surely the house of God and the gate of heaven.” (Genesis 28:16-17 NCV)

Jacob knew things had just changed. He knew this because he had been in the presence of the Lord. He was wrong in thinking that God was in a particular place for God had come to be with him. He was justified in being afraid of being frightened. We’ve tamed God to the point that being in his presence, in our opinion, is like a visit with Fluffy the rehab dog.

There are some powerful implications from this event. Some worthwhile questions to be addressed. For example, “how many times have we been in the presence of the Lord unaware?”

Perhaps the saddest commentary on our religious experience is that for many people actually being in the presence of God is nothing but a dream. We‚Äôve got our tradition and our system down. We go through the motions, mark the list and punch the clock, we “sleep walk” right through our chance to experience the presence of God with each other.

Perhaps it is our fear, a reaction like Jacob’s, that keeps us from our journey to find the presence of the Lord. “It’s different, it’s new, it’s uncomfortable, it stretches me. It’s a nightmare of which I want no part.” These are the thoughts which keep us from God’s presence.

If we are not experiencing the power and presence of God perhaps it is because we are looking in the wrong place? Don’t forget that Jesus did his best work outside the “church building.”

Remember the advice James gives about asking and receiving? He talks about asking for the wrong things and asking with the wrong motives. We read all these asking passages and automatically assume it’s about asking for things. Maybe all along, right before us, we had the power to ask for God? The power to experience the presence of God.

Ask, and God will give to you. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And everyone who knocks will have the door opened. (Matthew 7:7-8 NCV

God has promised to draw near to those who are seeking him, (James 4:8). This is not a journey of “fill in the blank.” It is a journey of faith, (Hebrews 11:6).

“Oh God, lead me to experience the power of your presence this day.”

07 Sep 05 Dreamer of Dreams

A had a weird dream last night (cue the music for the twilight zone).

It seems we had a secret room in the attic that contained a large swimming pool, a large Jacuzzi and a cool connecting tunnel which contained live fish. It did not strike me as odd, until I woke up, that the location of these large bodies of water were in the attic. The pool was quite functional. the Jaccuzzi, however, would not hold water. I wonder what it all means? I am now open for all of your analysis and dream interpretations.

Yes, I’ve given you permission to be sarcastic - so please don’t let me down.

I’ve not googled or spent much time researching dream analysis and interpretation. Frankly, I’ve much better things to do with my time. Having said that, occasionally I will have the odd dream that makes me wonder what in the world is going on up in the ‘ol cranium.

Along that line, I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some of the dream sequences found in the Bible. Tomorrow we’ll look at Jacob’s dream. Interesting stuff. For now, I can’t wait to get home and start searching around in our attic.

06 Sep 05 The First Day

Nervous? Hesitant? Sad? Did he feel any of these emotions on the first day?

They had spent much time together but now everything would be different. He gave them new clothes. He gave them new instructions. He tried to get them to see how different the new place would be. He hoped they learned the importance and value of listening to his instructions. Dad knows a thing or two! His advice, when heeded, could prevent much needless heartache. Did he watch as his kids were ushered from the safety of the garden into the hostility of a changed world?

With a stomach full of butterflies I thought about these things as I drove in to the office. I thought about that first day and what God was thinking or feeling as Adam and Eve walked through those “doors.”

I realize the difference between leaving the garden and starting the first day of school. I think we experience, in varying degrees, certain things in this life which allow us to relate to God and his experiences with us. Things are often quite different when viewed from this change in perspective.

God had to say goodbye to a personal, intimate relationship with his children that day. All I had to do was drop my son off at school.

05 Sep 05 112592901178653451

This is it, the last day of summer freedom for the Wray children. School begins tomorrow with some obvious changes. Number 1 daughter will be in a brand new school that starts an hour earlier than her previous school. Number 1 son will be in the same school as last year but without his number 1 sister.

It’s still hard to believe we have a 6th grader and a 4th grader. It just seems that each year I get older. We had some visitors yesterday freshly graduated from ACU. I remarked about how I had received my undergraduate degree from ACU and then had to stop and think back to the exact year. From now on I’m just going to say “a while ago.” At least I’m not part of the ACC era.

Number 1 daughter will be given a mobile phone to take with her to the new school. This, for reasons of safety and precise after-school pick up times. Her new school has numerous worthy after school programs. We will have all the rules associated with this new privilege but you and I both now it will never be the same once the phone has been given.

In honor of Labor day we are going to work. Softball season begins this next Saturday so we are going to set up a batting cage in our yard. It can’t be that hard, afterall it only has 5 steps. The pool only had 3!