We're Starving To Death!

In recent weeks there have been several families, all a part of our church family, quit coming to church! As the spiritual leader of the church family that bothers me! Others in the church, come to me and say, "What happened to such and such family? We haven't seen them for many weeks!" My response far too often is, "I don't know. They seem to have dropped off the face of the earth!"

Now that is probably a little extreme! I really doubt that anyone has dropped off the face of the earth. With the size of our congregation, I realize after a couple of weeks that someone has been missing. After a month or more, I began to make some attempt to get in touch with people. Believe me, in this super day of technology and electronics, if someone doesn't want to be gotten in touch with, there is just about nothing anyone can do to make them respond when you reach out to them.
E-mails, Facebook messages and telephone calls all go pretty much unanswered. Stopping by the house unannounced is just about worthless, too, because you simply can't find people home anymore.

Seeing them in a restaurant or the super-market goes something like this. "Hey, how are you doing?" "Oh, we're just fine." "I've been trying to get ahold of you." "Oh, I know. We've just been so busy!" "I've missed you at church!" "I know. We've all been so sick lately." I'm sorry to hear that! Is everyone okay now?" "Ya! I think we have all finally beat the bug!" "Well, can I count on you being in church on Sunday?" "No! We're going to my brother's house in Dubuque this weekend!" "I'm sorry to hear that! I do hope you realize the importance of having your family in church on Sundays." "Oh, Pastor, you know we love it there. We'll be back soon!" But, "soon" never comes and after a while, the habit of going to church is broken and the damage is never repaired.

In my nearly 25 years of pastoral ministry, I have had conversations like the above paragraph, hundreds if not thousands of times. In almost every case, the parents who needed to have their weekends free, have paid a great price with the destructive consequences to their marriage or to the raising of their children. Why do you suppose that is?

I looked on the Internet and found some information on hunger strikes. They started out as a way to make things happen in the political realm. But they were soon overcome by the people they were trying to motivate, simply by them not making a big deal of it. The striking person eventually starved to death. Moms and Dads who are taking their kids out of the spiritual realm of the church are simply assuring that they, and their kids, will starve to death spiritually after a matter of time.

The Bible tells us that in the last days before the return of Jesus Christ to the earth, there will be a huge falling away from the church. My prayer is that if you are missing church Sunday after Sunday, you will quit messing around with something that is very important to your living, both now and for eternity! Think about it!

Grandkids Are Awesome

Last night we had a little get together for the family. We have seveal birthdays in February and March and so we celebrated those special days. Our family has changed since the days when we went to grandma and grandpa's and there were usually our four kids, and maybe my sister's three. But we seldom all got together in one spot.

Last night we had 11 or our 12 grandkids in one small space. It was chaotic but joyfull! Our getting together has changed, and will change more, it the next year. Ashley is at Taylor University and doesn't get home for everything that happens. Tera and her two kids moved to Green Bay, WI last summer and now they aren't around as much. Lindsey is graduating from High School in a few weeks and she will be going off to college.

I don't like it to be that way but that is the way life goes sometimes. We have to flow with the punches as they come. For the most part, Glenda and I have been blessed in so many ways that it is hard to count. It is inevitable that those little chubby cheeked cherubs will grow up and go off to make a life for themselves someday. My prayer is that in it all, I have been faithful to God to show my grandkids that He loves them and He wants them to love him too. Ashley is studying neuroscience and may discover some cure for Autism or concussions or who knows what in her research over the years to come. Little Isaiah, now 6'4" tall, could play for the NFL or NBA in the years to come. Justin has a heart of gold and is so concerned about lost people who don't know Jesus! I suspect he will will follow in Daddy and Grandpa's footsteps. And Lindsey...? I don't know about her and the direction that she will go. But I do know that whatever she sets her heart to do, she will be great at it.

The rest of the kids have a way to go before they start making life decisions about what they will do. Jaelyn and Jared stayed with grandma and grandpa last night. Levi and Samual went home to Beloit. Those four are all very close together in age. They will be the next group going off to college and starting life on their own. But that is a ways away and I am going to enjoy them while they are still at home.

Thank you, God, for all these blessing, big and little! They are a joy to my heart and I truly love them all!

Creativity

I just finished a little, very little, landscape project. It is so neat to see it completed. As a matter of fact, I hadn't finished it until just a few minutes ago, but this morning at the first signs of light, I was out on the deck looking at it. It looked "very good," and I was pleased with it.

What is it about completing something that gives us satisfaction? Especially when it turns out well. There is a bit of creativity that God built into each one of us. When I was a kid in school, the teacher gave us an art project to do. I could picture in my head so clearly what I wanted it to turn out to be. But, when I got done with it I was so disappointed in the way it turned out. It didn't look anything like I pictured it. I found out then just how little creativity God did put in me.

But, we all have some. I had a devotional read to me the other day while on a hospital visit. It went something like this. "Find the channel of creativity within your soul. No one has been made without it. Be aware that someone you count on will choke it with indifference, despise it with rebellion, ignore it with foolishness or twist it with bitterness. But, know that Jesus stands ready to help any man or woman that who comes to him!" Don't put your hope in the men and women around you. Put your hope in Jesus! Think about it!

Where Have You Been?

Wow! Has it been that long since I wrote on my blog? I guess it has. I've kind of had my mind occupied lately with a lot of things. Since I last wrote, I have been to Haiti and back and now I am seriously considering going back to Peru in a couple of months. Hopefully, somewhere in between I can squeeze in a much needed vacation. We have already put if off once when I went to Haiti.

So what's up with you since I last wrote? Beside going to Haiti, I have fought something in my lungs since we got back. I realized today that it has been six weeks and I am tired of it. Also, since Haiti, I have lost nearly 20 pounds, and that is a good thing. I have preached five sermons, taught at least a dozen Bible studies, been in probably half dozen 6:00 AM prayer times on Friday mornings and what seems like a couple hundred meetings. I am sure there weren't that many meetings, but it sure seems like it sometimes.

I am going to Grandparents Weekend at Taylor University on April 29th-May 1st, to spend the weekend with my first college granddaughter. Grandma and Grandpa Turner and Spickler are traveling together to make this weekend special for Ashley!

I have a 45 year class reunion coming up in June. Just found out today that friends from Florida are coming home that weekend to Winnebago. I have had fun renewing some old high school friendships on Facebook in recent weeks just since the announcement of the class reunion came out. I hope many of them will be able to make it back to Macomb at the end of June for the reunion.

I'm going to call it a day for this blog! Maybe more tomorrow, or next month, which ever works best. Have a great day, and don't stay away so long from here out!

Looking ahead!

We're Off!

In horse racing, the comentator calls when the gates open, "They're off!" It means the race begins. I'm serving notice today that at New Life Bible Church, "We're off!" The writer of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 12:1, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us." The race we run in 2010 will be one that will change our lives forever, if we throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.

We just finished doing a spiritual inventory as we close out 2009 and begin 2010! In that inventory we all have found our weak points and our strong points. Let's begin to focus on the strong points (perseverance) and throw off the weak points (sin) that hinder our spiritual walk with Jesus!

Jesus is coming back soon! Maybe sooner than any of us give him credit for! Are you ready or are you dabbling around is sin you know you should have no part of? Throw if off and run the race. Think about it!

Last One For 2009!

The way my writing skills have been lately, I had better start a couple of days early to write this last post for 2009! I noticed that when I signed on I hadn't written anything since December 10th. That's okay! Blogs are supposed to be about feelings for the day and I guess I just haven't felt anything since then. What is the shame of it all, my lack of feelings have come right during the celebration of the birth of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Christmas was great for us this year. Ashley was home from Ireland and we had a great Christmas eve celebration with most of the family. Jason and Marcee were in Canada this year at Macee's mom and dad's. We had met with them and the kids the Sunday before Christmas and got to spend time with them and the kids. The boys are an interesting pair of little boys, now ages 5 & 7, and Anna is growing like a little weed. She is six months or so, not exactly sure, but really at a cute age.

Things at the church have been up and down for a couple of years, but even then mostly up! God has truly blessed us and we have many of the old faithful and many new faces at the same time. I am so blessed by the kids that are a part of our congregation and the joys of watching them grow into the Sonshine jar offering, and then beyond.

So why am I not having the feelings I need to write about? I am not sure. It could be from getting older and all the things that go along with getting older. It could be that the world is in such a mess and people don't seem to think right anymore. It could be that ....

Anyhow, in my last post for 20009, I want to wish you all a happy New Year. My prayer is that 2010 is a blessed year for us all and that Jesus comes back again soon!