Randy Wray’s Blog

Can we talk? Is it even possible to hear those words and not think of Joan Rivers?

When someone begins a conversation with the words “can we talk” you know it will not be good. ‚ÄúCan we talk‚Äù is usually the prelude for gossip or bad news. No one who starts a conversation by saying ‚Äúcan we talk‚Äù finishes by saying ‚Äúso that‚Äôs why I‚Äôve decided to give you the lake house.‚Äù

Larry Crabb contends that the shallow relationships we experience with God and with others – even the key people in our lives – relates to our shallow talk. Here is an excerpt from his book Soul Talk: The Language God Longs For Us To Speak.

Every day — in the bedroom and the boardroom, on golf carts and jumbo jets, in coffee shops and small group meetings — people are talking. People chat, argue, gossip, flatter, maneuver, preach, strategize, and tell wonderful stories. But too often it’s only talk — and seldom the kind of meaningful conversations for which we were created. Hollow talk isolates us from our children, our spouses, our coworkers, and fellow believers. We are largely unknown, undiscovered, unmoved, and untouched, because our talk rarely reaches the soul.

I included this book in my pile of reading for this year based on the recommendation of a former interim youth minister. In addition to her recommendation, what peaked my curiosity was the premise of this book which states: When our talk does reach the soul we will know God more intimately and relate to others more deeply. Learning this new language will ignite spiritual passion, allow us to experience lasting joy, restore broken relationships and enable emotional healing.

Sounds like a language worth learning and something worth talking about.

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The hardest question I faced yesterday came not from a church member, visitor or church leader but from my son.

Driving to have lunch with some church members and visitors to our assembly Reese asked me “Dad, if you weren’t the preacher would you skip church on some Sundays?” My first thought? “Son, I am the preacher and I dream of skipping church on most Sundays!” My second thought, one that quickly followed my first thought? “How on earth am I going to answer this question?”

I knew that my standard answer to difficult questions (“When the daddy and the mommy love each other very much . . .) would not suffice. So I took a page from Jesus’ Guide To Answering Tough Questions: Rule #1 Answer a question with a question of your own.

I said, “That’s an interesting question Reese, why are you thinking about that?” He said, “well it’s just that (and he began to name names) skip church every once in a while and that got me to thinking.”

By the way, those of you from Arlington who grace my blog with your readership and are fearful that you were named can send a contribution to my TAYLOR T5 fund and I will keep your name out of subsequent blogs!

His conclusion, which he shared with me while using a friend of his as an example, was this: you can still be a Christian and skip church every once in a while.

I never answered the question. I used the diversion tactic and changed the subject. I’m still not quite sure how to answer the question.

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Beth warned me about hanging around with Greg. She said there was something about him, something in his past that made her uneasy. Now we know. Read his blog today and you will learn that he cheated on a Bible test.

Speaking of cheating . . .

When I was in junior high I cheated on a health test. I didn’t see the need to memorize the menstrual cycle of women so I wrote it all on my forearm. I got away with it too. I was so proud of this accomplishment that I went home and told my mom all about it. You can probably take it from here and finish the story.

Any other brave souls care to bare their souls?

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Today’s post will confirm, of all things, my age.

My first computer was made by Texas Instruments and lovingly known as the TI-99/4A. Even the name had that futuristic appeal.
My parents bought a couple of these (or were given a couple of these) while I was in high school and thus we entered the computer age. I spent hours and hours on my beloved TI-99/4A programing songs. I wrote page after page of script to get the machine to play (in four part harmony I might add) songs such as “The Lord Bless and You and Keep You” and “Fairest Lord Jesus.” Nothing like that seven-fold amen coming from the TI-99/4A!

It wouldn’t be until I was out of college that I purchased my first computer. And yes I paid way too much for the IBM clone - but it had dual 5 and 1/4 floppy drives!

Growing up I never imagined a life with computers. Now I can’t imagine my life without computers. I work on a computer at work and at home. I have a laptop computer for the road and a PDA.

My Palm T3 (I seem to like having the letter T in my computer name) has 64MB of installed ram compared to the 16K of that old TI-99/4A!

I look forward, with great anticipation, to see what’s down the road on the silicone super-highway!

Come on, sing with me, if you dare . . . “Yes I love technology - But not as much as you, you see - But I still love technology - Always and forever”

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Yesterday the sun was shining and we reached a high of around 50 degrees. If this were Florida there would have been hundreds of cases of hypothermia. I was looking forward to a warming trend but it seems I will have to continue looking forward.

We were just getting ready to walk out the door when Reese said “Hey dad check it out, it’s snowing.” The lesson here?

Never underestimate the power of Punxsutawney Phil!

To think positively about our fresh coat of winter goodness, here are some thoughts from scripture on snow.

The Psalmist viewed God as the ultimate meteorologist, the author and perfected of weather.

The LORD is pleased with those who respect him, with those who trust his love. Jerusalem, praise the LORD; Jerusalem, praise your God. He makes your city gates strong and blesses your children inside. He brings peace to your country and fills you with the finest grain. He gives a command to the earth, and it quickly obeys him. He spreads the snow like wool and scatters the frost like ashes. He throws down hail like rocks. No one can stand the cold he sends. Then he gives a command, and it melts. He sends the breezes, and the waters flow. (Psalm 147:11-18 NCV)

The prophets viewed snow and rain through the lens of their intended purpose.

The LORD says, “My thoughts are not like your thoughts. Your ways are not like my ways. Just as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. Rain and snow fall from the sky and don’t return without watering the ground. They cause the plants to sprout and grow, making seeds for the farmer and bread for the people. (Isaiah 55:8-10 NCV)

This, of course, was until the village children started throwing snowballs at the prophets!

The angel who came to sit on the stone that was rolled away was described in terms of brilliance, lightning and clothes as white as snow.

At that time there was a strong earthquake. An angel of the Lord came down from heaven, went to the tomb, and rolled the stone away from the entrance. Then he sat on the stone. He was shining as bright as lightning, and his clothes were white as snow. The soldiers guarding the tomb shook with fear because of the angel, and they became like dead men. (Matthew 28:2-4 NCV)

The hair of what looked like the Son of Man in Revelation was also “white as snow,” (Revelation 1:13-14).

And while there are many other references to snow in the Bible, the classic imagery relates to the cleansing of sin.

The LORD says, “Come, let us talk about these things. Though your sins are like scarlet, they can be as white as snow. Though your sins are deep red, they can be white like wool. (Isaiah 1:18 NCV)

Snow isn’t so bad, until you have to shovel it of course. The first falling flakes, the accumulating blanket, fitting reminders of the deep red blood of the Savior which was shed to cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done.

But if we live in the light, as God is in the light, we can share fellowship with each other. Then the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, cleanses us from every sin. If we say we have no sin, we are fooling ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he will forgive our sins, because we can trust God to do what is right. He will cleanse us from all the wrongs we have done. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and we do not accept God’s teaching. (1 John 1:7-10).

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The nice thing about working for a church within the shadow of the federal triangle is the observance of federal holidays. The more they can invent the better.

The spirit of Steve invaded our home over this long weekend and we are not sure if we should or how we should exercise his influence. Once the first Star Wars episode started to roll, the saga continued episode after episode (with the exception of III).

It’s been cold here and we had the fireplace running non-stop over the weekend. I pictured myself as one of those engineers feeding the furnace with coal to keep the locomotive rumbling down the track. But we can talk about my running later.

So now it is Tuesday and I’ll spend the day catching up from the work I didn’t do yesterday backed up against the work to be done today.

The lazy day we had yesterday promises to pay great dividends for the rest of the week.

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All is quiet on the eastern front today. Let’s hope it stays that way.

Here’s a teaser from the intro of my message for this Sunday. If you’re in town, why not drop in and hear the whole thing?

Many are the times, when receiving information, that we are called upon to consider the source. I get emails, as you do, asking for my help to assist some former royal ruling party member leave their country with billions of dollars. I even had one person offer to give me $10 million dollars for helping her if I would promise to use the money for missions and outreach. I do nothing but roll my eyes and delete these emails because I know it is nothing but a scam.

The former ruling emperor of Giddy Up A Oom Poppa Omm Poppa Mow Mow, himself, may be legitimately offering me millions of dollars but I will delete his email because of my lack of trust in the offer. Come to think of it, the former ruling emperor of Giddy Up A Oom Poppa Omm Poppa Mow Mow could be offering me $100 and still wouldn’t believe him.

Believing to be true whatever someone may offer has everything to do with what I believe about them and little to do about the offer itself. My lack of faith in the offer is nothing but a lack of faith in the person behind the offer. I have considered the source and determined the offer to be a hoax.

Talk about an offer that sounds too good to be true! Eternal salvation is offered to anyone who places their trust in Jesus Christ.

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Some thoughts from our mid-week tune-up last night.

Jesus and his followers went to Capernaum. When they went into a house there, he asked them, “What were you arguing about on the road?” But the followers did not answer, because their argument on the road was about which one of them was the greatest. Jesus sat down and called the twelve apostles to him. He said, “Whoever wants to be the most important must be last of all and servant of all.” Then Jesus took a small child and had him stand among them. Taking the child in his arms, he said, “Whoever accepts a child like this in my name accepts me. And whoever accepts me accepts the One who sent me.‚Äù (Mark 9:33-37 NCV)

Get any group of people together and invariably the jockeying begins for position. Much effort and energy is expended to sort out and establish a pecking order.

Richard Foster makes the following observation:

Whenever there is trouble over who is the greatest there is trouble over who is the least. Most of us know we will never be the greatest; just don’t let us be the least.

Why is it that most of us fear being the least?

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With perhaps one exception some of our best “going out” memories have involved the perils and misfortunes of others. Beth and I have witnessed many dining disturbances and have been the cause of one - what can I say we were young and in love.

We’ve been in nice restaurants, at least twice, seated next to couples breaking up. For the life of me I can’t figure out why you would break up in a nice restaurant.

Once the table to the left of us was a couple breaking up and the table to the right of us was a lively party of four vigorously insulting religion, churches and ministers.

Our favorite, and first such experience, was the couple obviously on their first date and she rambled on and on and on and on and on and on (get the picture) about buying a polo pony. She explained how she was uniquely qualified for the task because she had read a book about poly ponies. Frankly, I find it hard to believe that she could read.

We‚Äôve watched as some brave soul proposed to the love of his life. We‚Äôve seen large parties order every conceivable thing on the menu and had fun guessing at the total bill. We‚Äôve even been in dining situations and been called upon to perform life-saving medical procedures — maybe my friend Tim will weigh in on that one!

But there was that time when we were the cause of the dining disturbance.

Our dining disturbance revolves around Madison when she was 1 month and 1 day old. Valentine’s day 1994, Beth and I (and Madison) went to our favorite Italian deli for a nice meal. Madison was all dressed up in red which matched perfectly the red face she achieved from screaming the whole time.

Here we were trying to have a nice sweetheart’s supper and Madison was auditioning for American Idol. If I could capture, with words, the glares and stares of the other patrons in the pasta parlor you’d think you were reading some sailors blog by mistake.

Yesterday, during our sweetheart lunch, it seemed as if we would hit the trifecta. One couple appeared to be breaking up – though unfortunately it didn’t work out and it looked like the two stayed together.

One couple came into the restaurant with their two kids and sat down at the table two down from us. Immediately one of the children deposited the contents of breakfast on the table (from her stomach). I tell you these couples who bring their children out to eat on valentine’s day . . .

We ordered another round of iced teas and waited for news of the inevitable kitchen fire!

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Happy Valentine’s day to all you sweet baboo’s! Today, of course, is that special day where we attempt to communicate our love for the valentine in our life. Guys, if you have not yet purchased that valentine card shame on you and don‚Äôt rush out and buy this card.

You will have to work extra to make up for a card purchased on valentine’s day. Don’t think you can get away with a same day purchase. Believe me, women know the scent of same day purchases. You thought the ability of a dog to smell fear was impressive, try to present a valentine day card you just purchased at 7-11 on the way home from work.

Some time ago I started making cards. Yes, it is the Martha Stewart in me. I’m liable to start inside trading at some point but it’s the risk I will take to make that perfect card.

Since today is a day to celebrate love I close with some loving words:

Dear friends, we should love each other, because love comes from God. Everyone who loves has become God’s child and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love to us: He sent his one and only Son into the world so that we could have life through him. This is what real love is: It is not our love for God; it is God’s love for us in sending his Son to be the way to take away our sins. Dear friends, if God loved us that much we also should love each other. No one has ever seen God, but if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is made perfect in us. We know that we live in God and he lives in us, because he gave us his Spirit. We have seen and can testify that the Father sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. Whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God has God living inside, and that person lives in God. And so we know the love that God has for us, and we trust that love. God is love. Those who live in love live in God, and God lives in them. (1 John 4:7-16 NCV)

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