Work Ethic

Memorizing scripture opens doors you never could have anticipated.  I recently memorized Colossians 3:23 which is "Whatever you do, do your work heartily as to The Lord Jesus rather than for men."  In a matter of days I noticed a girl at McDonald's who was just swiping the table leaving a worse mess.  I had already established a rapport so I shared with this teen the verse.  She received my imploring to imagine the next guest to sit at those tables as The Lord Jesus Himself.  I think she heard the lesson. It landed for me too. The real lesson is to think how many opportunities we miss a day without God's Word hidden in our hearts. For whom do you work?
Coach/PJ

Rudder Stuff

I took my son fishing yesterday.  As we paddled along, I would often use the paddle from the back of the boat to guide our direction with just a quick angle of the paddle behind the boat.  As he paddled hard from the front, I could easily change our course with just a touch of the oar in the water.  We laughingly commented that the pastor probably had an illustration.  I just couldn't help myself.  If we try to guide our lives with our own oar out in front, we may find ourselves going in circles or tired from the struggle.  Working with God, as the master of our vessel, steering from the optimal position, we can paddle along with Him in harmony trusting His guiding hand as a rudder steers a mighty ship.  You have probably heard that before, but we need to be reminded often.
Coach/PJ

Just a Little Help

Last night, a hummingbird flew around and around in our garage, bumping its head on the ceiling but not quite sure how to navigate under the garage door that was in the up position but just made escape awkward but so obvious from our human perspective.  I thought, is that not just like our predicament? We bump along in this world when all along, right before us, is the cross--God's solution from escaping the mundane, the circle of our spinning.  Humility is bowing lower, becoming less. I stood there trying to alter the endless spinning. Once the little hummingbird took to a lower flight, he was able to soar on the heights escaping the ceiling.  Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."  Truth often means becoming less that Jesus becomes more.
Coach/PJ

TYPO

God is good at editing our proposals of His Mission for us to redirect our perspectives.  Yesterday, I shared with our church a mission statement for Crosspoint.  It reads "Crosspoint exists to lead people into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ by engaging those unfamiliar with the church and empowering those who are."  The typo, which many ran to me to correct between services was simply "Crosspoint exits to...."  Did you catch that?  Well, the more we considered it, the more we realized that the typo also taught us a lesson.  We exist to exit!  In engaging the lost/un-churched, we must encounter the lost away from the campus and bring them near!
"But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ." Ephesians 2:13
Coach/PJ

Miley Cyrus

“The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord and against his Anointed, saying, ‘Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us.’ He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord holds them in derision.”  Psalm 2: 2-4

I take great pause in even addressing the gross misconduct the world saw on display when Miley Cyrus stuck her tongue out at someone and screamed, “It’s our party, we can do what we want…say what we want…love who we want…kiss who we want…this is our house…this is our rules…It’s my mouth I can say what I want.”

We do not witness the laughter of God often, but when we boast of our power, our own strength, our will to break the cords from us and claim with great arrogance, “This is our life…our house…our mouth…our rules” then all fear of God is cast aside.  His chuckle is not without judgment, but I still maintain the love-thread throughout scripture “as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us.” Ephesians 5:2

“¹⁸ Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. ¹⁹ Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; ²⁰ you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.” I Cor. 6:18-20

Coach/PJ

Mercy

“Mercy!” So many ways have I heard that word used.  I recall movies of the Emperors either raising their thumb or to the contrary at the screams of the innocents or the defeated who begged for mercy.  I have heard my mother many times exhale, “Mercy” or “My mercy” or “Lord have mercy.”  There is a Christian band called Mercy Me.  Do we give it much thought?

I think when we say a phrase like the aforementioned, we are gasping at something grand, awesome, or shocking.  I wonder if attached to the emotion exclaimed in “Oh my mercy” or “Goodness Mercy!” may also be a plea of desperation.  Have you ever said, “Mercy sakes”? 

Consider the wonder of God’s mercy and grace in our salvation.  This mercy of God that by His grace He saves us is a wonder isn’t it?  How undeserving we are that He would give us the thumbs up—extending mercy.  Out of God’s great love for us, He moves His will to favor us by sheer grace—a determination of His will.  I loved what Lacy Sturm said last week. It was something like this.  “Oh Mercy! God is holy.  And I am so not that. He would have every right to push me away.  In fact that would have been just…but He didn’t.”  That small word makes a lot of difference in our eternity doesn’t it?  “But God…”

“But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, ⁵ even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), ⁶ and raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus” Ephesians 2:4-6.

Sunday reflections

Just a few reflections from a wonderful Lord's Day:

• From Jamie H. Williams' "Faith Matters" in the Sumter Daily Item--Having seen a truck with Grace written on the tailgate she thought..."I am glad in comes by the truck load!"
• Comparing grace/mercy to the greatness of the Ocean, I recall my sister first seeing the ocean as a child..."Well, it's big." 
• Lacy Sturm on the holiness of God and His mercy..."I realized the holiness and righteousness of God, and that I was not that!  He had every right to push me away...BUT, He didn't."
• Mercy Tests could have been the title to the message.  How many mercy tests have you had since yesterday?  What is a Mercy Test?
• A mercy test is when the mercy of God towards me is put to the test in me for others.
• That neighbor that is just full of meanness despite the heaps of love and service I offer up
• Lord, allow me just one more time to show mercy and not revenge!

Coach/PJ