Why?

Why? To many times that is a question that I fear. Keith (my middle child) is the king of why. He has always asked why to everything, it led my late grandmother to christen him with the nickname Why. We would walk into her house and she would say "How's Why doing this morning?" This kid asks why for everything. I love that he as an inqusitive mind but there comes a time when Dad's knowledge runs out, and I have to say "I don't know son, why don't you look that up?"

As a minister I also fear that question. I have heard to many whys in my career. Why did my son or daughter have to die? Why does my spouse have to have cancer? Why did I have to lose my job? Why does God allow these things to happen? Questions like that are tough to answer, I still try to answer these questions as God gives me discernment and wisdom, but some times I have to give that answer that I give to my boy. "Sometimes, you just have to look up."

But there are question that we can answer when they start with why, and starting this week we are going to be answering some very basic why questions. Such as Why Worship? Why Communion? Why Give? Why Baptize? These are some of the basics of our faith but yet the more I talk to people the more I find that they don't know why. They just know that is the way it is, has been, and should be. There comes a time on our lives that we have to answer Why? I hope that you will join us this week.

Also remember the 10 week spiritual Challenge starts this week, so come ready to commit to spiritual growth.

Wisdom from a muppet!!!

Wow, it is 2008 already. It is hard to believe that another year has gone. Now as we start this new year I have been seeing on the different news channels about how to keep a new years resolution. These journalists are all looking for some way to keep those resolutions. Unfortunately it comes down to a couple of things.

1. Before a resolution is made there has to be a need. Before we can find out what our need is, we have to have a good old fashioned gut check. We need to take a good hard look at our lives, with honest eyes and see where change needs to occur. The Bible calls this self-examination. And this self examination is linked in one place to our celebration of the Lord's Supper. When we commune with God, a part of that communion is looking at our lives and allowing the Holy Spirit to change us, to make us more like Jesus. We should enter into this time with reverence and an openness before God. We might not like what we see but if we are really honest with ourselves, the we can identify where God wants us to change.

2. The second thing that we need is found in attitude. Many times when we start the new year we start with a bang. This year I am going to lose 100 pounds (and I am going to start right after new years dinner.) I am going to read through the Bible from cover to cover this year. (That goes really well until you get to the genealogy section and then you try to read the names that you can not pronounce and you lose interest.) I am going to be more patient with my children this year. (that lasts from 12:00 am January 1st, until the kids get out of bed around 8:00 A.M. ) All these resolutions are really good and most of us need these resolutions but we do not have the stick-to-it attitude that we need to have. We start off real well but after a week or two we find ourselves getting discouraged or our self discipline starts to falter, and the Chinese buffet sounds to good to resist. Folks let's face it we are not good at self control and we are not good at perseverance and if we are going to make our resolutions stick then we need to have ample portions of both. Both self control and perseverance begin in the the mind with our thoughts.

The Bible actually speaks an awful lot about out thoughts. It goes beyond the often quoted thought passages like murder and lust. But it goes into wholesome thinking, having the mind of Christ, thinking about things that are pure, lovely, admirable, praiseworthy, noble, right, and true. If we want to stick with these resolutions that we have or are going to make then we have to discipline our thoughts as well as our bodies.

Well as we start the new year I hope that you will examine your life and that you will learn to discipline your thinking.

Now maybe you are thinking Randy has not told me what his resolutions are? That is because I do not know what they are yet. I am still in the gut check phase of resolutions setting, so maybe sometime in the future I will know and have the discipline to make a few resolutions.

But until that time let me leave you with some words of wisdom from a muppet that applies to resolutions as well as many other areas of our life.

"Do or do not, there is no try"
Master Yoda

A Pentecostal and an Athiest go into a church.

Sounds like the start of funny joke, but really it is the premises of the book I just finished, Jim and Casper goes to Church. The book over all was a very quick read, and very thought provoking. The basis of the book is a preacher and an atheist goes to visit some of the nations mega churches and then they have a conversation over what they think of the services.

I always look for application in nearly every book I read (even fiction, a little weird I know.) The main thing that I have pulled out of this book is that the church should be a place of action and not just a place of talk. We need good Bible teaching but we also need whole hearted service to the community at large, that way people can see Jesus in us and not just hear about Jesus.

Now the real challenge is how does a church if 100 do that in a community of 700? Something to think on.