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October 25

Friday, October 25th, 2024

“CELEBRATE!” (cue up Rare Earth from the 60s or if you prefer Kool and the Gang)

I normally don’t post on Friday, or the weekend for that matter. But this is big! Huge in fact! I know you are waiting with baited breath to hear what is so important that Bill would break protocol to post on a Friday.

OVCF, the church I have had the honor and pleasure of pastoring for 19 years (I start #20 next month) is celebrating its 20th anniversary this Sunday. 20 YEARS!!! No matter how you look at it that is quite an accomplishment. From starting out with a meeting in a hardware-type building with just a few folks and meeting at several different places in its beginning, the church found a “home” at the Owen Valley Sports Complex, where it was meeting when Jo and I moved here in November of 2005. We temporarily moved to the middle school for a few months until someone got a wild hair to get us out so we went back to the complex. We went back to the middle school when the flood of 2008 displaced us from the complex for about 4 months. In 2010 we bought an unused Mormon church building. We had our first worship in the new facility in September and were excited about the future. In January of 2011 it came to light that over $200k had been embezzled from us. But God was good. I missed one paycheck during that time and it was made up at the next pay period. In 2012 we remodeled our building to accommodate our growth. We knew when we bought the building it was too small and would require an expansion.  In 2014 we hired Ryan East to be our youth pastor. He had been working at IU Credit Union and teaching our youth group. It was a perfect fit! In 2018 we sacrificed expanding the adult worship area for a youth wing. It was a very wise decision. Along with that we became debt free thanks to someone’s inheritance. When COVID hit the generosity of the people never quit. We didn’t miss a beat. In fact, we expanded to offer live stream during that time! We also increased our mission giving.  After finishing the youth addition, we began saving for an expansion on our adult worship area. We have been in two services since 2013 and there is a strong desire for a unified body in one service. Holidays like Christmas and Resurrection Sunday will often find us at the Abram Event Venue to hold all of us at once. But that comes with a ton of inconvenience and limited ministry to the kids (like none).  We have continued saving to be able to build debt free. Along the way we have taken our Easter offering and given it away to missions, giving all of  away unless designated otherwise. We have taken our anniversary offering and put it in the building fund or given away all or part of it to missions as well. God has been more than faithful to us.

So we celebrate Him this Sunday. We celebrate His faithfulness and goodness to us this Sunday. And yes, we celebrate the people of OVCF. They are, after all, the church. Not the building. People have come and gone-some through death, some through moving, and yes, some through discontent. But along the way, God has also brought some exciting people that I’m proud to call friends and ministry colleagues. One of them reads and comments on this blog almost daily-Ryan and his wife, Amanda. Jo and I still see them and go out to eat with them (Chili’s here we come!). People like Ryan have impacted my life in ways they do not know and words fail when I try to express them. Over my 19 years I have seen a lot happen at OVCF and in Spencer. My prayer is that the influence and legacy has been a positive one.

I’ll close this post for now and give an update on our celebration on Monday (Lord willing, of course). Until then, may I ask you to pray for us for Sunday? My deepest prayer, my most fervent prayer, is that in our celebration we will never lose sight of Who is behind it all and to Whom we give all the praise. One of the songs we will be singing, along with Good  Good Father and No Longer Slaves is  Firm Foundation (I prefer the Disciple/Honor and Glory version): “Christ is my firm foundation/The Rock on which I stand/when everything around me is shaken/I’ve never been more glad/I put my faith in Jesus/Cause He’s never let down.”

Amen!

{Note : if you so desire, we are unable to live stream from AEV due to a lack of good internet connection. My message has been prerecorded and downloaded and will be shown at 10:00 Sunday morning on our YouTube channel. It is a shortened version of the live experience but will give you a little bit of a taste of being there}.

One more thing: I did this from home on my iPhone so if you find typing mistakes, blame the phone. 😂

October 16

Wednesday, October 16th, 2024

See if any of these (or those like them) sound familiar:

  • I sure hope it doesn’t rain today.
  • I hope he isn’t mad at me.
  • I hope my car starts with it being so cold.
  • I hope my team wins.
  • I hope I pass this test.
  • I hope you like what I made.

We say that a lot: “I hope.” So much so that I suspect that it loses its oomph. It also loses its strength of meaning.

Look deeply at hope. At your way of expressing it. Your source for hope. Consider this: we are often so intent on finding hope that we lose sight of the truth that the source of hope is right next to us. Hope will never be found horizontally-at least not the eternal kind that God promises us. God doesn’t just promise hope. God doesn’t just give us hope. He is the SOURCE of hope. In fact, God is hope.

Paul David Tripp in his book, O Come Let Us Adore Him” (yes, I’m reading Christmas devotionals 🙂 ), writes:

“It’s true that hope isn’t a thing; it’s a person, and His name is Immanuel. Celebrate hope this Christmas.” (p.93)

Hope is found in the Christmas message. In fact, it is just one of the messages in the Christmas story. But, in reality, you can have hope all year ’round by focusing-not on people, places or things-but on Jesus. Start your Christmas early (Hallmark has already so you might as well join in) by seeking hope in Immanuel, Jesus, the Son of God.

{Note: There will no devotional tomorrow unless I get a wild hair. Braden, our grandson, celebrates his 18th birthday tomorrow as well as Senior Night on Friday as a member of the Worthington Kilbourne football team. We will be in Ohio starting today through Saturday celebrating him and getting to see our daughter and Mike, her significant other. Prayers would be appreciated for safe travel}

October 10

Thursday, October 10th, 2024

Have you ever been sitting in a chair or laying in bed and then your mind starts to wander? Not just random like a pinball, but it seems to focus in on events or circumstances of your past.  Just this morning as I was praying and trying to prepare my mind and heart for my time alone with God, off it (my mind) went to the past. It focused in on failures of my past when I behaved and spoke in a way that brought disrespect to the name of Christ.  I almost started replaying scenarios when suddenly God’s Spirit intervened and said, “No! Not now! That’s forgiven.”

Then I read about Abraham, God’s chosen man to be the father of the Jewish people. In Romans 4 Paul uses Abraham as an example of faith. In protest we might say, “Yeah. Some example of faith he was. He failed to believe God’s promise and wait, and now we have the Arab people as a result of his tryst with Hagar, Sarah’s handmaid.” Abraham even laughed in unbelief when told he would have a child in his old age (Gen. 17:17). What gives?

To borrow a phrase: “This is not a ‘spin job’ on Abraham’s life.”  It’s not a whitewash as if Abraham never sinned, never failed, or never doubted. What it is strikes us: we get to see God’s final gracious perspective of Abraham’s life. Beyond the failure. Beyond the tragic impatience. Beyond the tragic “I’m going to take this whole matter into my own hands.” Beyond the tragic “God is taking too long.”

Then it hit me. If God could take this huge act of impatience, disobedience, i.e. sin in Abraham’s life, forgive him and bring about His purpose, surely God could do that for me. That is not excusing sin-misspeaking, wrong actions, hurt feelings, totally degrading His Name, etc.- but it does show the real magnitude of His grace. The enemy’s plan is for me to wallow in shame and humiliation. God’s plan is for me to know and experience His love and grace.

I learned a good lesson today: when Satan knocks on the door, send the Holy Spirit to answer it.

October 9

Wednesday, October 9th, 2024

Famous people born on October 9th. Tony Shaloub (OCD Monk). Jackson (“Doctor my eyes” & “Mr. Bojangles”) Browne. John Lennon (Ever heard of him?). Scott Bakula (Quantum Leap and Star Trek: Enterprise…See a pattern? NCIS: New Orleans). Sharon Osbourne (oh…yay). And others. 

Famous people who died on October 9th: Oskar Schindler (a hero to many). Jacques Derrida & Che Guevara (I should be sad to them gone why?). And others.

One more: Me. 🙂 It is funny how perspectives change…but then again, they really don’t. Life is just looked at from different angles. When I was a young boy and my parents were in their 30s and my grandparents were in their 50s, I thought they were ancient.  🙂  As I aged, so did they. My mom had medical issues in her 40s that required surgery; my dad had a heart attack at 48; my grandfather had a knee replaced in his 70s. His job with USS and his bowed-legs did him in. I’ll soon be joining his club due to my own bowed legs and playing sports (especially basketball) way past my prime. My age and his are eerily close. My mom went to be with Jesus one month shy of her 72nd birthday from a rare form of lung cancer which struck woman who were non-smokers. My grandmother died of lymph node cancer. My grandfather lived to be close to 90. My dad died at 90 with Alzheimer’s.

All of that seems surreal when one is young and looking through the window. But, in time, that window becomes a mirror. At 72, I’m not ready to cash it in. I’m not ready to retire. I absolutely love what I do and don’t see myself doing anything else (especially being a Walmart greeter). 🙂 But I also realize my time is not in my hands. My favorite verses of the Bible are found in my favorite chapter: Psalm 37. They have sustained me and are my go-to verses. “Trust in the Lord and do good…Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires. Commit everything you do to the Lord. Trust him, and he will help you….Be still in the presence of the Lord, and wait patiently for him to act…Stop being angry! Turn from your rage! Do not lose your temper-it only leads to harm.” (verses 3-8). Verses 23-25 says, “The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives. Though they stumble, they will never fall, for the Lord holds them by the hand. Once I was young, and now I am old. Yet I have never seen the godly abandoned.”  (NLT)

I, you, have no control over our future. My DeLorean can be packed and ready to travel but no time machine can change God’s plans and timing. Yes, I am 72. I have less years left than I have lived. But I know, while I have no control over how many, I do know I want to live them full tilt. While Jo wants me to retire, or at least slow down (to a crawl), that is not my plan…unless God says otherwise.

Have a full and blessed day my friends. I certainly plan to do so. As an old song once said, “The longer I serve Him the sweeter He grows.”

October 7

Monday, October 7th, 2024

Have  you ever tried to understand something and after awhile you thought your mind was going to explode? I had one of those experiences last night, although my mind fell short of exploding.  In our small group last night we are beginning a short study on Essential Doctrines that are the core beliefs to our faith. You might be thinking, “What are you studying those topics for?” We spent the previous months discussing topics the young people had asked Ryan, our youth pastor.  He shared those questions with the elders just to show what our young people had on their minds and Wayne, one of the elders and our small group leader, decided to use them in our small group.  Some of the questions were related to our core beliefs as a church body so it was a good study to stimulate our thinking and our faith. To counter some of the questions, Wayne decided to tackle some core doctrines that “make Christianity Christianity.”

First up: THE T.R.I.N.I.T.Y.

Yes, you read that right. What a subject to start with!  I must confess that I am a self-professed “I don’t want to talk about it” junkie when it comes to this particular topic. Understand: it is not because I don’t believe it. I most certainly do believe in the Trinity: that God is Father, Son and the Holy Spirit. But ask me to understand and explain it? My eyes cross, my head spins (like an owl’s) and my mind goes into convulsions. My finite mind cannot understand the infinite.

And that is the problem. Finite trying to understand the infinite. In my words: it ain’t going to happen. I proved it again last night. It’s not that I’m totally in the dark. I mean, I do understand some of it. Greater theological minds out there (the vast majority much, much greater than I ever dreamed of being) wrestle with it. Some of those who wrestle with it have forgotten more than I can remember. Maybe I’m naive, but while I understand some of it, I prefer to take some things on faith.  Knowing God is essential to our faith. Knowing all there is to know about God is impossible.  Isaiah writes, “To whom can you compare God?…’To whom will you compare me? Who is my equal?’ asks the Holy One.” (40:18,25 NLT) I have come to the (awkward but humbling) conclusion that there are some things I am not to understand or simply cannot grasp.

I accept the hard teaching of the Trinity. Understand it all? Nope. But I have decided to let God be God. Understand what I can. Accept in faith what I can’t or don’t.

September 24

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024

“Becoming a Christian doesn’t make one sinless, but it ought to make one sin less. (Conway-p.35)

I’ve been reading a book the past few days entitled Does Christianity Still Make Sense? by Bobby Conway. Conway was a pastor, a host of the YouTube podcast One Minute Apologist (now called Christianity Still Makes Sense) who went through a crisis of faith-a dark night of the soul-where he questioned his Christian faith. He came out on the other side and has written a book looking at objections to Christianity. One of those is answering the question “Why are there so many scandals in the Church?” The follow-up question is the next chapter, the oft-used “Aren’t Christians just a bunch of hypocrites?”

No doubt those are two questions that crop up again and again. I’ve been asked them and I’m sure if you are a pastor or a Christ-follower, you have also. Maybe you have even asked them yourself.

I’ve often been tongue-tied trying to answer those questions because I know I struggle with that. I know I’m a sinner and sometimes exhibit that truth way too much and find myself a very poor representative of Jesus. But I’ve also come to the conclusion that the saying I started out with depicts me. While “I’m not perfect, just forgiven” can be flippantly tossed out to justify sin, I’m not trying to do that here. Exact opposite actually. Just because I have been forgiven doesn’t mean I won’t sin. I’m not sinless, but I should sin less.

Does my sin discredit Christianity? No. Just because a batter strikes out, he doesn’t represent the whole team. Just because I fail (sin) does not mean Christianity is a failure. The ultimate example-Jesus-never sinned. My trying to be like Him won’t make me sinless, but as I have said, it should make me sin less. My ultimate goal-any Christ-followers goal-should be to represent Jesus as close as we can. I will never do that perfectly.

Christianity doesn’t rise and fall on me. My sin brings a stain, but doesn’t undermine the rock solid truth of Jesus as the perfect and firm foundation. Is sin a problem? Yes. Is hypocrisy a problem? It can be. But Jesus offers the solution to the problem. If you or someone you know keeps using these excuses, stop making excuses by pointing fingers at fallible people and start looking at an infallible Christ.

September 19

Thursday, September 19th, 2024

A switch of gears today. No commentary. No “human” thoughts. Just allowing Scripture to explain and illustrate Scripture.

Luke 19. Jesus is entering Jerusalem riding on a borrowed donkey. It was a prophecy fulfilled from Zechariah 9:9- “Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem!  Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet He is humble, riding on a donkey-riding on a donkey’s colt.”  The people were shouting, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!” Meanwhile, the religious leaders were telling Jesus to silence His followers. Jesus replied, “If they keep quiet, the stones along the road would burst out into cheers!” (19:40)

Psalm 98:7-9a. “Let the sea and everything in it shout his praise! Let the earth and all living things join in. Let the rivers clap their hands in glee! Let the hills sing out their songs of joy before the Lord.” Jesus knew what He was talking about. If we don’t praise Him, creation will. This is only one example of Scripture, especially in the Psalms, where we are told creation will break out in praise.

Let’s not allow creation to do the praising. The sunrise. The sunset. The vivid colors. The display of God’s handiwork in the sky. The display of God’s creative ability in the changing leaves and the hues of colors. May we be like those on that first Palm Sunday shouting out our praise to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

{Note: All Scripture from New Living Translation}

September 17

Tuesday, September 17th, 2024

As one can expect there are many different views of God. Some are heretical, but those are not the kind I’m speaking about. Views like God is a God of wrath. Of Love. Of Vengeance. Of Patience. On and on it goes.

There is one which is gaining traction, I think, these days: God is a God who hates. On one end we have disgusting, narrow-minded, bigoted people who say, “God hates fags.” Or “God hates people of a different color, race, or different lifestyle than us.” On the other hand, we find a reaction from the side that says, “God is a God of love and hates bigoted, homophobic, racist people.” You know…ad infinitum, ad nauseum (on both sides).

How about this? God hates no one. While it is true God hates sin-and we all sin and will have to pay someday for our sin-God loves His image-bearers (that would be all of us). Proof you say?

My pleasure. “And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in Him will have eternal life. For this is how God so loved the world: He gave His one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. God sent His Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through Him.” (John 3:14-17 NLT)  Please take special note of verse 17. Jesus did not come to condemn the world but to save us. Case closed. He has offered us salvation, forgiveness of sin, and freedom from the chains and shame of sin. To all who look to the cross (depicted in verses 14-15) salvation is offered. Not forced…offered. How can anyone read verses 16-17 and say, “God hates (you fill in the blank).” Those verses say the exact opposite! God of hate? Think again.

We might flippantly say, “God is a God of love.” The truth of the matter is that He most definitely is! His arms are open. Open the door of your heart and let Him in.

September 10

Tuesday, September 10th, 2024

“Faith Over Fear.”

If there was one saying that was prominently used during the COVID desert it was this one. The most prominent-at least among Christ-followers-was “God’s got this.” But I’m thinking this ran a close second.  Sometimes it might be seen in a symbol: big letters FAITH on top of a line over the letters FEAR.

Simple enough: I believe it. I John 4:18 says, “Perfect love casts out fear.” (ESV)

Last week I spent time with an old friend. He was a bike-riding friend of mine of about 4-5 years when suddenly he ghosted me. A conspiracy theorist, he didn’t like it when I told him to be careful of making an accusation against someone and putting it in writing because he was setting himself up for a charge of slander. That was 2014. Ghost time. About a year or so ago I felt a burden to check up on an old friend. He was basically living a life of a hermit, paralyzed by his fears. I went away burdened but decisive that I was not going to put myself through that again. Last week he called me out of the blue asking a favor of me. Even though my day was full, I said yes to his request. When he asked why later, I told him, “Because I want to be Jesus to you.” He didn’t say much to that but what I learned is a leopard doesn’t change his spots. I won’t go into details, but long story short, he asked me if I was afraid.  I told him no. “Not afraid? Of COVID? No. Evil? No. Sick people? No. Why? “Because the Bible says, ‘Greater is He who is in me than he who is in the world.'” “That’s a lie,” he said. I disagreed and respectfully tried to explain it to him. “I tried it your way Bill. It didn’t work.”

There was more-much more-but I left saddened…again. I also left resolved to keep toxic-thinking people at arm’s length. And I left even more convinced that I have nothing to fear. I refuse to live my life afraid of my own shadow. Because, you see, I believe that no matter how much evil there is in the world (and I don’t deny there is), faith conquers fear.

I do know who wins in the end. And it ain’t the enemy, Satan.

J.E.S.U.S.  W.I.N.S.

September 5

Thursday, September 5th, 2024

I couldn’t get to sleep last night so I got up and had my devotions. The following is what I wrote:

Christianity is based on fact. On truth. On the character of God. It’s not speculative. It is not based on a lie. It is not based on a God who changes like the shifting shadows. A shadow is a distortion of the real image. Watch your shadow next time you walk with the sun behind you. Skinnier and taller than the original.  (Maybe that is good?) 🙂

Jesus sacrificed His perfect life to secure our eternal life (in spite of our imperfection). Jesus’ love is eternal, unceasing, unchanging, rock-solid, and compassionate. Meanwhile, our love is temporary, limited, wishy-washy, mercurial, and selfish. Furthermore, God’s love has nothing to do with our own performance, our own good works, our own pretended holiness, or our own achievements (no matter how important we think they are). Our eternal life has EVERYTHING to do with His great love, His patient and forgiving love, a love that never quits. His love never changes, was laid down on our behalf, totally unmerited and unearned.

Does it get any better than that? I think not. Then why do I fight so hard to be accepted by Him and why do people fight so hard to push Him away?

An enigma for sure.  But there is no puzzle with these words: “Save me and rescue me, for you do what is right. Turn your ear to listen to me, and set me free. Be my rock of safety where I can always hide. Give the order to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress…Your righteousness, O God, reaches to the highest heavens. You have done such wonderful things. Who can compare with you, O God?” (Psalm 71:2-3, 19 NLT)